Fearsome Reputation

With three Garrison Department Elites protecting him, Huang Shang slowly made his way upstairs.

The sound of footsteps on the stairs triggered the motion-sensor lights in the stairwell.

At that moment, a burly man with his guard up immediately sensed something was amiss.

He abruptly turned his gaze toward the corner of the landing. "Who's there!? Who's over there!?"

At the bend in the corridor, a shadow could clearly be seen blending into the railing.

At his shout, the other two quickly went on guard.

And that shadow...

also rose to its feet.

"So, with a Century Thug running loose outside, how can you stomach your meals?"

His voice carried over.

The accusatory tone displeased one of the middle-aged men. He snapped, "Who are you? What department are you with? Who's your supervisor..."

Before he could finish, Li ChunJun appeared around the stairwell corner.

The instant the man saw his figure, the middle-aged man—who was at least a senior official in the Garrison Department—fell silent, as if someone had clamped a hand around his throat.

An inexpressible terror quickly flooded his eyes.

"Li... Li ChunJun!?"

He wasn't the only one. The burly man's expression had also stiffened.

And Huang Shang, who had been a little tipsy moments earlier, sobered up in an instant.

His eyes flew wide as he stared at the figure at the corner of the landing, his body trembling uncontrollably.

"Y-you're still here!?"

All this time, they had known that many of the people sent out to investigate Li ChunJun were dragging their feet. They had turned a blind eye, hoping to startle their quarry into realizing he couldn't stay in Guangzhou City and would leave. They never expected...

He was still in Guangzhou City!?

Could it be...

Could he really intend to kill every last member of the Jin Family!?

Was he insane!?

Yes!

He was insane. He'd already gone mad!

And now, a madman with such terrifying strength had cornered him!?

Huang Shang jolted as he came to his senses. He spun around as fast as he could and tried to flee.

But the instant he moved, Li ChunJun's left hand flashed across his waist.

He snatched out a short blade and flung it. With a piercing hiss, it shot down the corridor, past the burly man and middle-aged man and the third figure, then pierced Huang Shang through the thigh.

The searing pain struck just as he had taken a few steps up the stairs and tried to turn and run. He lost control of his body, toppled over, and tumbled to the ground with a scream of agony.

"Director!"

"Brother Shang!"

"Second Uncle!"

Three cries rang out in quick succession.

The young man who had called him "Second Uncle" roared and surged forward with all his might, like a furious lion. He drew the short spike at his side and lunged to kill.

But as he tried to rush past the burly man, a streak of swordlight plunged down at a speed beyond anything he could fathom.

"Schk!"

His body convulsed as he lunged forward.

To the burly man's horror, a cold blade tip had already pierced through the back of the young man's head.

The strike had been so fast that even he, a top Garrison Department expert at Inner Strength Great Accomplishment and just one step away from Internal-External Unity, hadn't seen the sword's path!

The sight sent the terror already in his heart surging into sheer panic.

"How can this be!?"

He was one of Huang Shang's men. He hadn't gone with Mo Lei to Jin Guangming's funeral... Jin Guangming's wife's funeral...

All right, there was no difference.

It was all the same.

He hadn't been there when Mo Lei died and Li ChunJun went on a killing spree.

But the case had soon alarmed even the Speaker, so he had rushed over too. He had seen with his own eyes the bodies being carried out of the Jin Family Courtyard.

Dozens of experts in External Refinement.

More than twenty experts in Internal Strengthening.

All dead.

The nearly hundred bodies that had filled the courtyard had made his scalp crawl.

And then the body of Fang Lieyun, the Garrison Department's Strongest Expert—someone so powerful that he hadn't even dared challenge him—had been brought back. It had driven home just how terrifying Li ChunJun, that Century Thug, was.

But now, face-to-face with that thug, and...

When Director Huang's nephew—who had trained under a renowned master and reached Inner Strength Great Accomplishment before thirty—was killed in a single exchange, and he hadn't even seen how the man wielded his sword, only then did he truly understand how horrifying this thug was.

It was a terror no one could imagine without facing it for themselves.

Overcome by that terror, one of the ten top experts handpicked by the Garrison Department couldn't bear to stay in the corridor for even a second. He sprang backward as fast as he could.

Unfortunately, he was too close.

Always eager to show off in front of Huang Shang, he had made a habit of leading the way and charging in first.

This time, too, he had been at the front. Thanks to his sharp reflexes, he had been the first to call out Li ChunJun's presence.

And so...

As he sprang back toward the corridor exit, Li ChunJun had already pulled his sword free from the young man's head. The blade caught up with the retreating man from behind like a flash of thunder streaking across the heavens, piercing his throat.

"Schk!"

The burly man's eyes flew wide. He toppled backward as he retreated, his momentum carrying him down. A stream of crimson blood sprayed from his throat, tracing a tragically beautiful arc.

The last middle-aged man, who seemed to be second only to Huang Shang in rank, cried out in terror. "It's not..."

Before he could finish, Li ChunJun's left hand shot out like lightning and clamped around his neck before he could even react.

Then Li ChunJun, who had already strode down the stairs, suddenly sprang forward.

Still gripping the man by the throat as if he were a chick, he lifted him bodily and leaped several meters, clearing the two Elite corpses before landing on the ground.

Then...

As Li ChunJun's feet touched down, he slammed the man hard into the ground.

"Bam!"

The loss of balance, followed by the brutal impact, instantly robbed the man's back of all sensation.

The force of the blow pierced through him like needles, stabbing at his internal organs until he couldn't help opening his mouth and coughing violently. A mouthful of blood surged out with his cough.

This was...

Internal injury.

Only now did the lights come on in this building and several others nearby.

The three elite men beside him, each at least at Inner Strength Minor Accomplishment, had been defeated in an instant. A short blade had pierced Huang Shang's thigh, and he had been shrieking in agony on instinct.

When he saw the lights come on in the surrounding buildings, something seemed to occur to him. He hurriedly shouted, "Quick! Save me! That Century Thug has shown up! He's running wild in our compound! Get everyone together and capture him—kill him on the spot!"

His voice echoed through the pitch-black night, carrying far.

Yet...

The Garrison Department Family Compound did not answer his call as he had imagined.

The lights that had come on when people heard the commotion suddenly went out.

And it wasn't just the lights of those who had heard the commotion.

Even the residents who had already had their lights on hurriedly switched them off.

In less than ten seconds, the surrounding buildings had gone pitch-black.

Only the streetlamps still cast a faint glow. Not another light remained.

At once...

Huang Shang's mouth fell open. He could no longer force out a single word. His heart seemed to plunge into an abyss ten thousand fathoms deep.