Temporarily Leaving

Cui Yuan's words ended, and the scene fell silent for quite a while.

Everyone's eyes settled on Li ChunJun.

Some people quietly exchanged information, asking around about this person named "Li ChunJun."

Once they learned of his identity and experiences, they looked at the corpses scattered across the ground with a trace of satisfaction.

But then they considered their own position...

They stared unblinkingly at Li ChunJun again.

If he could truly go to the Garrison Department and turn himself in under Minister Cui Yuan's persuasion, that would naturally be the best outcome.

Otherwise, if a fight broke out, even if he looked seriously injured, some of them would inevitably be killed or wounded.

The silence in the area lasted nearly half a minute.

Just as Cui Hao did not mind waiting longer for the Garrison Department's reinforcements to arrive, Li ChunJun spoke.

"Well said."

He looked at Cui Yuan. "And very reasonable."

Cui Yuan froze, then inwardly let out a breath of relief.

An eighteen-year-old lad who had behaved himself for eighteen years—if the Jin Family had not pushed him too far, how could he truly have slaughtered people like a vicious, bloodthirsty fiend?

Now that the killing was over and his hatred had been vented, this matter should naturally come to an end.

Cui Yuan hurriedly said, "If you're willing, I can take you there. We've all heard your story. In your situation, the Prosecutor's Office will show you leniency. You're only eighteen; you still have a bright future ahead of you..."

"I have a question."

Li ChunJun interrupted Cui Yuan's carefully prepared long speech.

He raised one finger. "Since you've heard about me, you also know about the Jin Family's evil deeds. Why didn't you urge the Jin Family to turn themselves in? Reporting them would have been fine too."

The moment those words came out, Cui Yuan's slightly relaxed heart tightened again.

"You saw the Jin Family committing evil and turned a blind eye, remaining indifferent. But when you saw me kill people, you surrounded me and urged me to surrender?"

Li ChunJun looked at him. "Why?"

Cui Yuan forced himself to remain calm.

He looked at Li ChunJun, drew a deep breath, and was about to say something.

But Li ChunJun could not be bothered to listen to more of his nonsense. He waved a hand. "Now, I'm leaving. Move aside. Whoever blocks me, I'll kill."

"I'm sorry, but you entered Hengguang Garden and killed its residents. That has already violated the law. Before the Garrison Department arrives, we cannot let you leave."

Cui Yuan stepped forward, blocking Li ChunJun's path. "This is our duty. Please forgive us."

Seeing their minister move, the others followed suit, edging forward as more than thirty people surrounded Li ChunJun.

"Duty."

Li ChunJun clapped his hands. "How righteous and awe-inspiring. How loyal to your posts. Perhaps you'll even be moved by yourselves, thinking that you bravely stepped forward without hesitation to fight evil despite the enormous risks."

His gaze swept across the several dozen people around him. "Perhaps that feeling doesn't come from loyalty to duty at all. It's simply because you know that if you can really stop me here, you'll surely receive praise from your superiors afterward—promotions and raises."

Li ChunJun had laid bare the main reason Cui Yuan and the others dared to surround him, and their expressions turned somewhat unpleasant.

Yet they still maintained resolute faces.

"Stop, Li ChunJun. The Garrison Department's people will be here soon. You've already killed enough people today. I truly don't want to see such an outstanding young man as you ruin his own future and walk into a bottomless abyss."

"No. When all is said and done, you're simply bullies who fear the strong and prey on the weak."

Li ChunJun said calmly, "Because compared to the Jin Family, you think I'm easier to bully."

He held the sword level before him, facing the more than thirty people closing in. "Has it occurred to you that offending the Jin Family means dereliction of duty and losing your jobs, but if you insist on stopping me, all of you will die here today?"

At those words, Lin Bai'an could no longer hold himself back. He stepped forward. "Minister, why waste so much breath on him? We—"

Whoosh!

The next moment, power burst from beneath Li ChunJun's feet, and he shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow.

The sword point was aimed directly at Cui Yuan and Lin Bai'an, who stood in his way.

There was nothing fancy about this strike.

Nor was there any technique to it.

Because he did not know martial arts!

He had never cultivated or studied any swordsmanship!

Yet the physique granted by Level 7 Life Enhancement made the force of this thrust ferocious and tyrannical to the extreme.

The instant the blade tore through the air, a layer of white air waves ripped apart from its very tip.

This was...

A sonic boom!

Facing such a sword strike, even if Cui Yuan could see the blade's trajectory, predict the changes in the sword move, and think of dozens of ways to counter it, it was useless.

All of it was useless.

Of all martial arts under heaven, nothing was unbreakable; only speed was unbreakable!

When a thrust became fast enough and powerful enough, techniques and moves no longer mattered.

Just like now.

Ever since Sun Yongxing's death, Cui Yuan had kept himself at twelve-tenths alert against a figure as lethally dangerous as Li ChunJun. Every second, his mind simulated more than a dozen possible responses should Li ChunJun attack. But when Li ChunJun truly struck with his sword, all he could do was retreat...

Or rather, all he could do was run, flee. There was nothing he could do against this sword.

Whoosh!

Cui Yuan jerked backward in a violent retreat!

He moved aside at top speed, withdrawing from his interception.

But even so, he seemed to have still misjudged the gap in strength between himself and Li ChunJun!

After killing dozens of people over the course of one night, Li ChunJun, despite never systematically learning swordsmanship, had already begun to feel his way into certain techniques and methods of drawing his sword.

Those methods might have seemed so simple and direct to orthodox martial artists that they would laugh their teeth out, but...

They were the sword techniques Li ChunJun found most natural to use.

They were the sword techniques that let him kill people with the greatest efficiency!

Sword techniques crudely created for no purpose but killing with the fastest possible efficiency!

At this moment, Cui Yuan, targeted by the sword, felt it with incomparable clarity.

The icy sharpness radiating from the blade pointed straight at his neck and Adam's apple with bone-piercing chill, as though in the next second it would pierce through his entire throat and kill him instantly.

The terror of standing on the line between life and death continuously stimulated his nerves and shook his emotions. Under those emotions, the hormones in his adrenal glands surged to their limits, allowing him, when the sword was less than a foot away, to suddenly tilt his body and tumble hard to the side while retreating.

The instant he fell aside, all hope died within him.

Because he knew that at that moment, his life and death were entirely in Li ChunJun's hands.

If what Li ChunJun had said was true...

If he only killed those who blocked him, then Cui Yuan could live.

But if it had merely been a jest...

With his body off balance and falling aside, he would undoubtedly die.

Scht!

In the flash of an electric spark, he seemed to hear the sound of a sharp sword entering flesh.

I've been stabbed!?

That thought instantly surfaced in his mind.

Especially when a cold liquid, like water, splashed onto his face.

It carried a pungent, fishy stench!

That was...

The smell of blood.

Wait!

Splashed?

Thud!

Cui Yuan's body crashed heavily to the ground. Only then did he finally see clearly that after he had retreated and moved aside, the deadly sword had pierced directly through Lin Bai'an's throat beside him.

Thrusting the sword, then pulling it free!

Crimson blood rained down.

Dropping onto him.

Leaving blotches of red across his expensive martial arts uniform.

And Li ChunJun, who had killed Lin Bai'an with a single sword strike, did not even spare Cui Yuan—who had moved aside and fallen to the ground—another glance.

He charged fiercely into the crowd surrounding him.

Wherever the sword light went, blood sprayed.

In less than ten seconds, as six people were slaughtered and fell like dry weeds before a gale, he had already strolled out of the encirclement of more than thirty Mount Tai Security personnel as though taking a leisurely walk.