Trouble Comes Knocking

In the back alley of Tianhai Third High School, a narrow passage filled with trash cans and the sour stench of rotting food.

Far from the hustle and bustle of the academic district, this was a natural spot for all sorts of "private dealings" and "settling of scores."

Lin Xiao leaned against the cold, damp, graffiti-covered wall. The bandage on his right arm was hidden by the wide sleeve of his school uniform. His complexion had improved slightly from a few days ago, but the deep-seated fatigue from overexertion and a sense of depletion at [-1.4] still clung to him like a persistent shadow.

He had just received intelligence from the black market, procured by Skinny Monkey, from Fatty Wang—information about a low-quality Energy Stone Shard vendor with a decent reputation and relatively "fair" prices.

The cost was his remaining few hundred yuan and Fatty Wang's lunch money for the next month. The pressure of Source Energy Points was a sword hanging over his head, forcing him to take risks.

"Brother Xiao, Skinny Monkey said that guy goes by 'Old Ghost.' He hangs around the back of the second-hand market. He's got some real stuff, but his prices are sky-high, and rumor has it he's got some murky dealings with Scarface Qiang."

Fatty Wang rubbed his hands, his round face etched with worry. "Are we really going to go for it?"

"Not go? And wait to be bled dry?"

Lin Xiao's voice carried a hoarse chill as he squeezed the thin bills in his pocket. "I can't afford the tens of thousands that stuff goes for on the black market. This scattered merchandise is my only chance. Scarface Qiang? Heh, wasn't his subordinate Zhang Kun scared shitless by Su Qingxue's words?"

Mentioning Su Qingxue, Lin Xiao's lips habitually curved into a roguish smile, but a shadow flickered in the depths of his eyes.

The questioning on the rooftop—"those pair of deep blue eyes, reflecting the star vortex"—pierced his heart like icy needles.

The secret of the Modifier had, after all, revealed a mere tip of the iceberg.

Su Qingxue's fear and apprehension had deepened. This "shield" would likely not be as convenient to use from now on.

Just as he was contemplating how to use his last bit of funds to exchange for that meager amount of Source Energy Points.

The light at the alley entrance suddenly darkened!

Three figures, like phantoms, blocked the narrow exit.

The leader, nearly 1.9 meters tall, was as sturdy as an iron tower.

His head was shaved close to the scalp, revealing a fierce, centipede-like scar that slashed diagonally from his brow bone to the corner of his mouth. It twisted with the twitching muscles of his face, adding to his ferocity.

He wore a tight, black elastic vest, his arms bulging with muscles, covered in dark blue tattoos, exuding a beast-like aura—it was Scarface Qiang, a minor leader of the Blood Wolf Gang!

Behind him followed two equally ferocious henchmen. One casually juggled a spring-loaded knife with a blood groove, while the other cracked his knuckles, producing a grating "crack" sound.

The three pairs of eyes, like hungry wolves locking onto their prey, with undisguised ferocity and amusement, were fixed squarely on Lin Xiao!

The air instantly solidified!

The pungent smell of garbage mixed with a chilling killing intent, making it suffocating!

Fatty Wang yelped, "Oh my god!" utterly terrified. His round face instantly lost all color, and he instinctively shrank behind Lin Xiao, his body trembling like a sieve.

Lin Xiao's heart sank!

His entire body tensed instantly!

A sharp, piercing pain shot through the fracture in his right arm, reminding him of his current weakness. His Source Energy Points were depleted, his physical condition was extremely poor, and facing a gang leader who was definitely a two-star martial artist or above, an experienced one at that, along with two clearly not weak thugs...

A desperate situation!

But the cynical, roguish smile on his face, which had appeared the moment Scarface Qiang showed up, reflexively reappeared, even brighter and more provocative than usual!

"Yo, isn't this Brother Scarface?"

Lin Xiao's voice was laced with exaggerated enthusiasm, as if he had met an old friend. He even raised his left hand and waved casually. "What wind blew Your Excellency to this garbage heap? Need something from me?"

Scarface Qiang's snake-like eyes narrowed slightly. He sized Lin Xiao up, his gaze lingering for a moment on his obviously unnatural right arm and pale face. The corner of his mouth split into a cruel arc, revealing smoke-stained yellow teeth.

"Lin Xiao?" His voice was hoarse and low, like sandpaper rubbing against rust. "As expected, a brat who doesn't know his place. You crippled Zhao Hu and still dare to swagger around school? Do you really think that as long as you cling to that Su family girl, no one will dare touch you?"

He took a step forward, his heavy footsteps landing on the sewage-strewn ground with a dull "splat."

An oppressive aura, several times more ferocious than Zhang Kun's, enveloped the entire alley like tangible ice water!

Fatty Wang was almost suffocated by the pressure, his legs turning to jelly.

"It's time to settle the score for Brother Hu."

Scarface Qiang stared at Lin Xiao, his eyes like those of a dead man. "I'll break both your legs and an arm as interest. Su Qingxue? Hmph, she can protect you for a while, but not for a lifetime! No matter how big the Su family is, their hands can't reach into our Blood Wolf Gang's territory!"

Blatant threats!

A death sentence with the scent of blood!

The two thugs behind him also grinned menacingly and advanced. The spring-loaded knife glinted coldly in the dim light, and the man cracking his knuckles looked even more ferocious.

Conflict was imminent!

The smile on Lin Xiao's face didn't change at all; if anything, it became even brighter.

As if he hadn't heard the bloody threat, he tilted his head and, in an extremely irritating, curious tone, asked:

"Brother Scarface, can I ask you something? That big, dumb ox Zhao Hu... he's lying in the hospital now. Is he on liquid food? Or can he gnaw on chicken legs himself? His arm... tsk tsk, the bone was sticking out. Did they reattach it? What did the doctor say? Can he still hold a bowl in the second half of his life?"

Boom!

Lin Xiao's casual, mocking, and insulting words, like pouring ice water into boiling oil, instantly ignited the powder keg!

"You're fucking asking for death!"

The scar on Scarface Qiang's face twisted into an enraged centipede!

His eyes flared with ferocity! A wild killing intent erupted like a volcano!

He hadn't expected Lin Xiao to be so arrogant, even daring to pick at Zhao Hu's wounds and slap his face in such a disadvantageous situation!

The two thugs behind him roared, like provoked hyenas, their switchblades and fists carrying a fierce wind as they lunged at Lin Xiao from left and right!

Their targets were his thighs and his one good arm!

Their strikes were vicious and merciless!

"Brother Xiao!" Fatty Wang let out a desperate scream!

Lin Xiao's pupils contracted sharply! Every nerve in his body tensed to the absolute limit!

He leaned sharply to the side wall, narrowly dodging the switchblade aimed at his thigh!

At the same time, his left hand shot out like lightning. Instead of blocking, he threw a fierce uppercut, imbued with the condensed power of the optimized "Long Fist," precisely smashing into the inner wrist of the other thug's swinging fist!

"Crack!" A faint sound of bone cracking!

"Ah!" The thug screamed, his punch instantly going limp!

But Scarface Qiang's attack was the fatal one!

The moment his subordinates lunged, Scarface Qiang's hammer-like fist, carrying a piercing shriek that tore through the air and a faint, earthy-yellow glow of True Qi, arrived first. Like a cannonball fired from its barrel, it directly blasted towards Lin Xiao's face!

Its speed was astonishing, its power immense, far surpassing Zhang Kun! This was the true killing move of a martial artist who lived by the blade!

There was no way to dodge!

Lin Xiao could even feel the stinging sensation of the fist wind brushing against his face!

The shadow of death instantly enveloped him!

At this critical moment—

Buzz!

A coldness far more profound than the one in the cafeteria, a more immense, chilling aura carrying a sharp killing intent, descended like an arctic storm without warning from the alley entrance!

It instantly swept through the entire narrow space!

The temperature plummeted!

The sewage water remaining on the ground even began to freeze into tiny frost crystals at a visible speed!

Dust in the air was frozen and fell in rustling showers!

Time seemed to freeze once again!

Scarface Qiang's deadly punch, which he was sure would land, was forcefully halted less than ten centimeters from Lin Xiao's nose!

The rage on his face was instantly replaced by extreme shock!

A bone-chilling pressure, as if capable of freezing the soul, like an invisible iceberg, slammed down on him!

It almost solidified his blood!

His True Qi circulation instantly became sluggish!

The two thugs behind him were frozen in place as if under a paralysis spell, their faces filled with boundless terror, their screams caught in their throats!

A clear, solitary figure, like a moon goddess breaking through the ice, appeared silently at the alley entrance.

Su Qingxue!

Still in her pristine white martial arts uniform, but now, the aura radiating from her was no longer just coldness, but a killing intent as sharp as ten-thousand-year-old profound ice!

Her eyes were so cold they held no warmth, like two swords poisoned with frost, locked dead onto Scarface Qiang!

The mental strength boost from her Jade Balance Meridian being unblocked made her pressure even more condensed and oppressive!

"You dog of the Blood Wolf Gang," her voice was colder than ice, each word seemingly carrying ice shards, clearly striking everyone's hearts, "Who gave you the guts to touch my Su Qingxue's person?"

Scarface Qiang's face turned ashen, like a dead man's, the moment Su Qingxue appeared and uttered those words, "my person"!

Large beads of cold sweat rolled down his forehead!

He felt as if he'd been thrown into an ice cave, his very marrow trembling!

A martial artist from the Su family!

And such a young martial artist, with such a powerful aura!

Why was she here? Did she really show up in person for this punk?

Immense fear instantly overwhelmed his rage and killing intent!

Scarface Qiang knew that he couldn't get revenge today!

At least not here, not in front of Su Qingxue!

He stiffly, with extreme difficulty, slowly retracted the fist that was inches from Lin Xiao's face.

The movement was filled with humiliation and unwillingness, yet utterly helpless.

He glared at Lin Xiao, his eyes filled with venom and the fierce look of "you just wait," then, facing Su Qingxue, he forced out a few words from between his teeth with great difficulty:

"Miss... Miss Su, it's a misunderstanding, we'll leave right now!"

After speaking, he didn't dare to look at Su Qingxue again. He grabbed his two subordinates, who were like startled birds, and like stray dogs, they scrambled and practically crawled out of the alley, disappearing into the light at the entrance.

The alley was left with only a chilling cold, solidified frost, and Lin Xiao, leaning against the wall with a smile that was more playful and roguish than relieved, along with Fatty Wang, who had been scared stiff beside him.

And at the alley entrance stood Su Qingxue, exuding a sharp killing intent, like a goddess of ice.

Her gaze, like two ice picks, slowly retracted from the direction Scarface Qiang had disappeared, finally settling on Lin Xiao's face, which wore a roguish smile, as if he had everything under control.

Her eyes remained icy, but compared to when she faced Scarface Qiang, there was a hint of extremely complex, indescribable anger and deep fatigue.

"Lin Xiao," her voice carried an extremely suppressed, icy storm, "You'd better give me an explanation! About your 'eyes'! And just how much trouble have you stirred up?"