Lethal Strike

Feeling the chill coming from all sides, Luo Puxin shuddered from head to toe.

Although he wasn't a Blood Qi Martial Artist, he still knew a thing or two about the Qi and Blood Path.

Now, though, he had a question.

It was... Chen Yan had only awakened a few days ago, right?

Right?

It was just a few days ago, wasn't it?

Or had he been awakened for a month already?

"Not bad." He turned around, facing away from Chen Yan, and offered a calm appraisal.

"When did you awaken?"

Chen Yan looked at him strangely. Didn't you already know?

Luo Puxin cleared his throat.

"I understand that you're focusing on the Qi and Blood Path, but you need to understand that Limit Breaking Awakening is Zhou Ming's method of selection. Zhou Ming is the remnant consciousness of an Ancient God. In its eyes, living beings are merely numbers. It only wants the strong."

Luo Puxin turned back around.

"So you can't give up Horizontal Refinement for the sake of Qi and Blood. The Horizontal Refinement Path explores the limits of the human body. It's the foundation of your strength and your ability to stay alive."

Ancient God...

Chen Yan murmured.

"An Ancient God is a powerful being that has existed since time immemorial. There are no living Ancient Gods left in Summer Country, but there are still some outside it. You can't regard them as our friends. We should treat them as partners, or even enemies."

Luo Puxin gave a brief explanation, unwilling to say more.

Limit Breaking Awakening was of immense importance. The Ancient Gods also needed the help of Absolute Peak powerhouses, which was why Limit Breaking Awakening existed.

Summer Country didn't reject Limit Breaking Awakening. Martial artists had to fight for everything, and Summer Country needed Absolute Peak powerhouses too.

But it was ultimately too cruel.

Thinking of this, Luo Puxin spoke earnestly.

"You need to take Horizontal Refinement more seriously!"

Chen Yan's gaze tightened. He nodded.

"I will. I've run into some difficulties learning the Crimson Heart Fist these past few days."

Luo Puxin smiled. Of course it was difficult. You hadn't even learned the Crimson Gang Profound Strike Fist, yet you'd jumped straight to the Crimson Heart Fist. Of course it would be hard.

"How much has your heart's Accumulation and Forging Degree reached?" Luo Puxin asked casually.

"It should be at thirty-five." Chen Yan replied. He'd just converted his Qi and Blood, and its quality had become the extremely high-quality Yin Zhe, so his Accumulation and Forging Degree had definitely dropped.

Luo Puxin froze.

Holy shit.

At this rate, were you going to reach the Hundred Meridians in a month?

"Pretty good, but you still need to take Horizontal Refinement seriously!" Luo Puxin said.

"Mm!" Chen Yan nodded.

"I have some questions about the Crimson Heart Fist. I'd like to ask you, Bro Luo."

Luo Puxin nodded in satisfaction. Chen Yan had accepted the Military Martial Guard's Heavenly Pride training, and one of its requirements was that Luo Puxin personally guide him.

In other words, private coaching.

"Run through the Crimson Heart Fist once," Luo Puxin said. He'd come today to spring a surprise inspection on him.

He'd pick out some flaws and put a little pressure on Chen Yan.

He needed Chen Yan to take Horizontal Refinement seriously.

He wasn't wrong. He wanted Chen Yan to become strong enough. As for his talent source, if it was gone, it was gone.

Even without it, Chen Yan would still have Qi and Blood—perhaps even more than most True Origin Awakened martial artists.

He'd still be safe.

Chen Yan's gaze sharpened. He could sense the sternness in Luo Puxin's eyes. He bent his body slightly, Internal Force coursing through him as a pale-red wave of energy spun around his fist.

Luo Puxin froze, tilting his head as he watched Chen Yan.

A punch shot out. The vortex exploded in reverse, and waves surged through the entire Training Room.

Silence.

Chen Yan looked at Luo Puxin. The other man was watching him with a perfectly calm expression.

Chen Yan's heart sank. Had he done badly?

He thought he'd been working hard enough these past few days.

He threw another punch.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Chen Yan threw several punches in succession. Luo Puxin didn't say a word for a long while.

His lips pressed tightly together as he stared at Chen Yan, looking dazed.

He really was dazed.

He thought back to his own progress when he'd first started training.

He remembered how he'd been only after his Seventy-two Patterns had reached Unity that he'd started learning the Crimson Heart Fist. He remembered how far he'd gotten back then.

Holy shit!

Luo Puxin roared inwardly. Chen Yan's Crimson Heart Fist was already damn near the threshold of mastery!

He was only a hair's breadth away from mastering it!

And he hadn't even learned the basic Crimson Gang Profound Strike Fist.

The Crimson Gang Profound Strike Fist was the external martial art corresponding to the Crimson Gang Body Tempering Canon, while the Crimson Heart Fist was a signature move derived from the Crimson Gang Profound Strike Fist.

What Chen Yan was doing was like learning advanced calculus before he'd even learned elementary-school math!

Something wasn't right. Something was definitely wrong.

He'd just been telling Chen Yan that he wasn't paying enough attention to Horizontal Refinement.

Holy shit!

"Stop for a moment," Luo Puxin called out.

"I'll teach you the Crimson Gang Profound Strike Fist first. It's the foundation of the Crimson Heart Fist."

Luo Puxin stopped Chen Yan and decided to teach him the basics first.

Teaching him a few fundamentals wasn't embarrassing.

Even if you wanted to study advanced material, you still had to build a solid foundation first.

You couldn't keep relying on signature moves to beat people, could you?

Right?

Luo Puxin froze, suddenly unsure.

It was already eleven at night.

Luo Puxin had arrived with mixed feelings, and he left with mixed feelings too.

He felt even more conflicted now.

Besides feeling conflicted about Chen Yan, he was also conflicted about himself.

Why had learning the Crimson Gang Profound Strike Fist been so difficult for him back then?

He looked up at the night sky, feeling that the world was so terribly lonely.

Then he suddenly spotted two people.

"What are you doing, sneaking around like that?"

Walking along the street, Luo Puxin barked at the pair.

He was already in a bad mood.

Zhang Qingsi and another broad-shouldered young man turned pale. They hurriedly bowed to Luo Puxin, then ran back to where they were staying.

In the dead of night.

Chen Yan raced through the countryside, moving at incredible speed.

[Saint Breaking Realm: Level 3 (50/75)]

[Saint Breaking Fruit:

Strength: (44/100)

Blood: (25/100)

Skill: (4/100)

Physique: (87/100)]

That night, Chen Yan took another Strength Character Saint Breaking Fruit, and all the negative effects on his body vanished.

Luo Puxin's instruction had indeed been extremely effective. After taking a Skill Character Saint Breaking Fruit, Chen Yan understood the Crimson Heart Fist more deeply.

He'd mastered it!

Luo Puxin, however, hadn't shown any sign of praise.

As for the Crimson Gang Profound Strike Fist, since it was the foundation of the Crimson Heart Fist, Chen Yan found it relatively easy to learn.

The second Strength Stripe on his chest was nearly solid, around ninety percent complete.

He hadn't rested for several days in a row, but fortunately, the Saint Breaking Tree had taken care of that problem for him.

Because of the Yin Zhe, Chen Yan constantly felt a pressure in front of him, driving him to grow stronger as quickly as possible.

Chen Yan took a black metal badge from his pocket. He pressed his index finger against a spot on it, and several lines of text appeared.

[Available Mission: Kill Ye Yong. Base reward: fifty Martial Merit Points.

Ye Yong's address: Zhangxing Street, Yunmeng City...]

[Available Mission: Join the Tianbang Boxing Tournament and earn Bronze Rank certification. Reward: fifty Martial Merit Points.

Tianbang Boxing Tournament contact point: Wuxing Road, Yunmeng City...]

[Training Mission: Condense a second Substantial Pattern within one week. Reward: fifty Martial Merit Points. (1/7)]

[Training Mission: Raise your heart's Accumulation and Forging Degree to fifty percent within one month. Reward: fifty Martial Merit Points. (1/30)]

[Training Mission: Kill a First Order Ancient Beast. Reward: ten Martial Merit Points per beast.]

[Training Mission: ...]

This was the Martial Merit Badge. The moment Luo Puxin had handed it to Chen Yan, it had meant that Chen Yan had become a candidate for the Military Martial Guard.

The mission to kill Secretary Ye was listed on it too.

Chen Yan tapped the first mission. In an instant, the line of text turned orange.

If you can't find a book by searching its title, try searching for the author. Maybe it was just renamed!

That meant he'd accepted the mission.

Once he killed Ye Yong, he would earn Martial Merit Points.

Martial Merit Points could be exchanged for all kinds of techniques, martial skills, weapons, and Treasure Medicines held by the Town Martial Division...

This had given Chen Yan a path to becoming stronger.

If he hadn't joined the candidate program, what rewards would he have gotten even if he'd grown stronger?

Chen Yan grinned. His pace quickened, kicking up rolling waves of dirt as he raced across the ground like a gust of wind.

Pale-red mist drifted from his mouth as golden, orange, and green lights intertwined inside his Saint Breaking Realm.

Luo Puxin had been right. He really had been too lax about the Horizontal Refinement Path.

With that thought, he sped up even more.

Yunmeng City's downtown area wasn't far from Luoshan County, about a hundred kilometers away.

At Chen Yan's current speed, with the help of his Breathing Technique, he could get there in about two hours.

It was already past one in the morning.

Lights glittered across Yunmeng City.

Chen Yan tapped the first mission on the Martial Merit Badge again. In an instant, its text changed into a map route.

It marked the locations of various surveillance cameras and how to avoid them. Chen Yan entered an alley, dodged around, and finally reached a Small Courtyard. He vaulted over the wall.

The courtyard was exquisitely decorated. The whole row consisted of villas belonging to the wealthy.

Chen Yan couldn't help but marvel. In Yunmeng City, every inch of land was worth its weight in gold. That little villa must have cost a fortune.

Compared with Yunmeng City, Green Mountain Town was truly run-down.

He used his Breathing Technique, and the sounds inside the house reached his ears.

"Damn Chen Yan, damn Luo Puxin! I'm not done with them!"

"Aw, don't be mad."

"Gong Qing told me. I'll head to Lao City for a few days, then come back later. By then, Shen Yiwei should have fallen from power too."

"Exactly. He's just some kid from a backwater place. How hard could it be to deal with him later?

I was even thinking of spending a little money to have that kid killed for you."

"Forget it. Don't get involved. You're too clumsy when it comes to handling things."

Chen Yan listened carefully. Inside, Secretary Ye was talking with a woman.

Secretary Ye was standing by the window, smoking and sneering.

He was going to kill the kid who'd broken his fingers.

Chen Yan frowned. Why was there another person in there?

He'd picked this time precisely because it was the middle of the night.

After thinking it over for a while, Chen Yan left.

At the same time.

On the rooftop of a skyscraper five thousand meters from where Chen Yan was, two people stood watching him from several kilometers away.

"Looks like he gave up. Chen Yan's heart is still too soft. If you ask me, he should've killed both of them."

Of the two, a woman spoke. Her figure was curvy, and she wore black, seeming to blend into the night.

"So this is the Horizontal Refinement Heavenly Pride Deputy Chief Shen mentioned?" the other man said with a frown.

"Taking a mission in the middle of the night made us come all the way over here to rate him."

There was a hint of resentment in the man's eyes.

They were Soldiers in the Military Martial Guard, but merely support staff. Their job was to gather information, plan operations, and score the missions.

"No, wait. Chen Yan doesn't seem to have left," the woman said.

"Hm?" The man looked over and saw Chen Yan entering a shop and coming out with a bottle of chilled mineral water.

"If he can't complete the mission, he might as well go buy a bottle of water." The man laughed, finding it more and more ridiculous. He still had to go play three-card poker.

"Let's wait until he leaves, then rate him," the woman sighed. "Zero points. He won't even get the basic reward."

The two were speechless. Wasn't he going to struggle a little more?

He was just going to buy a bottle of water and leave?

But then they saw Chen Yan enter a residential building near Ye Yong.

"What's he going there for?" The woman furrowed her brow and leaped lightly, covering hundreds of meters to land on another rooftop so she could watch Chen Yan from a different angle.

At that moment, Chen Yan was standing by a window in the building's corridor, taking ice from the bottle and rubbing it between his fingers.

Soon, a tiny ice chip, about the size of a pea, was pinched between Chen Yan's fingers.

"What's he going to do?" The man had come over too. He watched, bewildered.

"He..." The woman parted her lips, looking baffled. "He can't be planning to kill Ye Yong by hitting him with a piece of ice, can he?"

The window where Chen Yan stood and the window of the villa where Ye Yong was staying lay along a slanted straight line.

"Ridiculous. Isn't he only at the Horizontal Refinement stage?" The man laughed.

Was he dreaming?

Trying to kill someone with a tiny piece of ice.

You'd need pinpoint accuracy—and just the right touch.

That was what he thought, but he said nothing more. Across the way, Chen Yan had raised his right hand and bent his body sideways, ready to throw the ice.

Faint traces of Yin Zhe seeped from his fingertips, controlling the little ice ball.

He was at least a hundred meters from Secretary Ye. If he simply threw it, he wouldn't be accurate enough.

But he had Yin Zhe. He could control the ice ball's direction over a certain distance and make it move faster.

And using ice to kill had its advantages.

Once the ice melted, no one would even find the murder weapon.

Inside the villa, Secretary Ye smoked, his gaze cold. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. Looking at the woman on the bed, he cursed, "And Gong Qing's a coward too. Damn it, if I were..."

A crisp sound rang out. Secretary Ye froze, as if something had struck him.

He was about to look around.

The sound had come from behind his head. His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed onto the floor, blood flowing from the back of his head.

"Old Ye?" The woman on the bed cried out and ran toward Ye Yong.

Crack! Bang!

The vase behind her shattered.

Fear appeared in the woman's eyes. She stared in horror.

A tiny ice ball struck her forehead. A bloody hole quickly appeared, and her body toppled backward.

They were both dead.

On the distant rooftop, the man and woman supervising Chen Yan gaped.

They looked at each other.

"Go deal with the aftermath!" the woman said. She couldn't worry about anything else now. As support staff, they had to finish all the work that came with the job.

"Y-yeah." The man nodded, his expression complicated.

He'd really killed them just like that?

No wonder he was a Heavenly Pride, while he was only support staff.

"How many points should we give him?"

"Let's ask Deputy Chief Shen when we get back."

As they spoke, the two entered the villa and began cleaning up. Before long, the man carried Ye Yong and the other victim's bodies away.

The woman continued checking the area for anything they might have missed. Thinking of Chen Yan's technique, she couldn't help feeling impressed.

She walked to the window and measured the distance to the other building. It was about a hundred meters, wasn't it?

The woman marveled at how remarkable his technique was.

The next instant, her face suddenly went deathly pale.

On the floor above the one where Chen Yan had been, a handsome young man stepped out of the darkness and quietly met her gaze.

Chen Yan!

He hadn't left!

The support worker assigned to supervise him had been spotted.

The woman froze, at a loss for what to do. In the end, she could only smile and wave.

Across the way, Chen Yan nodded, then disappeared into the darkness.

"That was terrifying." The woman let out a long breath, then hurried away.

Time passed.

A tall figure, entirely black, floated into the room.

"Strange. There really isn't anyone here. Did Tianpeng give me false information?" Chen Yu furrowed her brow, and a Golden Formation Disk appeared in her eyes.

In the Consciousness World, the Red-dressed Woman spoke.

"There's a smell of blood in the air. Someone died here recently."

Chen Yu was startled. Who?

Did Ye Yong have enemies?

"The bodies were removed very cleanly. The work was professional," the Red-dressed Woman said. "Let's go. If they double back, you'll be in danger."

Chen Yu nodded, but a question nagged at her.

"Teacher, could my brother have done it?"

She knew her elder brother's personality very well.

"Disciple, why do you bring up your brother every other sentence?"

The Red-dressed Woman sighed. Had she taken on a disciple who was obsessed with her brother?

Chen Yu's logic had gone right out the window.

Chen Yan was still in Luoshan County. How could he have killed anyone?

And done it so professionally?