Fierce

"Heh, these days, what difference does it make whether you're an official runner or not? You're nothing but that family's watchdog."

A cold laugh came from among the many thugs, followed by a chaotic clatter. In the sunlight, glittering objects could be seen flying toward him, accompanied by another cloud of white quicklime scattered down from the walls on both sides of the alley.

Chen Mu remained unruffled in the face of danger. He immediately let out a roar, swept his right hand, and tore off his robe in one motion. Then, with the Raging Wind Stance, he swung and whirled it with all his strength, sweeping up the quicklime and catching those gleaming darts and other hidden weapons in the folds as well.

Rip!

The shining darts and hidden weapons were exceedingly sharp. Even though he had used the Raging Wind Stance to whip up his robe and wrap them inside, a few still pierced through the cloth and struck Chen Mu. Yet most of their force had been bled away, and they bounced off him one after another.

Chen Mu did not hesitate in the slightest. With a flick and a sweep of the robe in his hand, his entire body vanished beneath it, transforming into a figure that burst forward and slammed fiercely into the crowd of thugs!

The alley was narrow.

If he allowed them to keep throwing quicklime and all sorts of miscellaneous projectiles at him, then even with three heads and six arms, he would not be able to block them all. A martial warrior might be strong enough to fight ten men alone, but that was under normal circumstances. If one was caught off guard by underhanded schemes, then even a seven-year-old child holding a poisoned dagger could take the life of an expert who had cultivated Saber Force!

Chen Mu charged into the crowd, sweeping his saber sideways. Wherever the blade-light passed, several people immediately fell after being struck. Though the situation seemed even more perilous, with clubs and sharp blades attacking him from every direction, close-quarters combat was the only way to avoid the threats posed by the scattered quicklime and projectiles.

At the same time.

Chen Mu secretly felt fortunate. Thankfully, he had reached Mo Pi Minor Accomplishment. Once he had swept up and wrapped away the quicklime and all those miscellaneous hidden weapons, they had basically lost their effect.

Otherwise, if he had suffered several successive rounds of ambushes and had to respond in haste, he would likely have been injured. If his eyes had been blinded or a vital spot wounded, the consequences would have been unthinkable.

"Kill!"

Chen Mu charged into the crowd with his yamen saber in hand like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, slaughtering freely. In an instant, four or five bandits were cut down on the spot.

Saber Force Perfection combined with Mo Pi Minor Accomplishment was like adding wings to a tiger. Chen Mu's physique and speed were now far greater than before, and he could bring out even more of Saber Force's power. His strength had increased by far more than just a little.

Had he not tempered his skin, then relying on Saber Force alone, after falling into an ambush and being hit with such filthy tricks as quicklime, he might indeed have been surrounded and killed on the spot. But with nothing more than these crude thugs, trying to kill him was pure fantasy!

In only a few moments.

There were already seven or eight thugs lying dead around Chen Mu, while more than a dozen others had been injured and retreated with wails of pain. The eyes of some among them revealed a trace of shock as they looked at Chen Mu.

He was not wearing a runner's uniform today, and due to his young age, his appearance carried no particularly intimidating pressure. But now, covered head to toe in blood, his gaze icy, corpses strewn beneath his feet, a powerful oppressive aura bore down on them head-on.

"Don't be afraid of him! He's only one man!"

A thug in the crowd roared.

Immediately afterward, people nearby grabbed all sorts of things and hurled them at Chen Mu—scattered quicklime powder, stones, daggers, and other weapons capable of injuring people. For a time, they did not even care about hurting their own men.

Chen Mu reacted with incredible speed. Facing the scattered quicklime, bricks, and daggers, he instantly bent low and rammed forward, crashing into a thug's chest with his saber. The lime powder all spilled across his back and over that thug's body.

"Where did these thugs come from, to be so savage..."

Having avoided the threat, Chen Mu frowned slightly.

Ordinary gang members or hardened men who had seen a few brawls should have lost heart and fled after he had killed more than a dozen of them in succession. Yet this group before him not only refused to retreat, but grew even more vicious. They would rather accidentally injure their own men than hesitate to scatter quicklime through the crowd. Their brutality was outrageous; even during Chen Mu's time as a runner, he had rarely seen such ferocious, reckless men.

At present, Chen Mu had no interest in risking his life against these people. Spotting a direction, he charged straight ahead, slashing down five or six men in succession. He was about to break out of the encirclement and rush from the alley, but just as he hacked his way through the crowd, a large amount of quicklime was scattered toward him again, filling the alley ahead with white mist.

The scene became even more chaotic. Some thugs accidentally inhaled some of it and immediately cried out in pain, but even so, their savagery did not diminish. The weapons in their hands still struck toward Chen Mu.

Chen Mu had no choice but to hold his breath. He could not even open his eyes, so he could only press his back to the wall and unleash the Gale Saber Intent. His yamen saber flew up and down like a thousand howling winds, cutting down the nearby thugs one after another.

I have to break out!

The thought flashed through Chen Mu's mind. Even if the path ahead was filled with lime powder, he had to hold his breath and charge through. Otherwise, in such chaos, blades and swords were no joke. Having the cart overturn in a gutter was not something he wished to see.

But just as Chen Mu prepared to draw a deep breath and force his way through.

A voice filled with thunderous fury drowned out the howls of the many thugs.

"Insolence!"

The moment Chen Mu heard that voice, his heart settled. He held his yamen saber and swung it up and down to guard his body, saying half-jokingly, "Brother Min, if you'd come any later, I might not have lived to see tomorrow's Grand Yang."

By his ears came cries of "Min Baoyi," "Retreat," "The wind is tight," and the like. The many thugs fled in a swarm, no longer caring about surrounding and killing him. Then, a savage gust of saber wind came slaughtering in from one end of the alley.

Though he still could not open his eyes for the moment, he could tell from the sound alone.

It was Min Baoyi's saber!

A formidable martial warrior at Lian Rou Completion, with muscles condensed and tough throughout his body, who had also cultivated Saber Force and stood at the peak of his condition—when his saber technique was unleashed at full strength, it was incomparably fierce. Wherever it went, no one could withstand even a single exchange, as though a savage beast were bulldozing its way forward.

When Chen Mu finally used bloody water to barely wipe the lime powder from his face and opened his eyes a sliver, the sight before him resembled hell. Blood, flesh, and organs coated the alley everywhere, and many thugs' corpses looked as though they had been torn apart by a wild beast!

Min Baoyi was furious.

As the Runner Office chief of the Nine Stripes Ward Guard Office, he had dared to tell Chen Mu over drinks that peace could be maintained in Nine Stripes Ward because he had the confidence to do so. It was not merely due to his own strength. Besides the two hundred men under his command at the City Guard, he even had many informants constantly reporting the movements throughout Nine Stripes Ward.

Yet they had barely finished drinking and speaking when something happened to Chen Mu. If not for his informants keeping watch and reporting the moment they noticed anything wrong, and if he had not been nearby, he did not know how he would have explained matters afterward.

"With so many men, they managed to create such a spectacle without alerting me..."

Min Baoyi understood very clearly.

This was not aimed at Chen Mu. It was aimed at him—or rather, at Xu Hongyu. They wanted to kill Chen Mu on his turf, to give him a warning and Xu Hongyu a show of force.

Min Baoyi held his bloodstained yamen saber and stopped beside Chen Mu. "How are you?"

"I'm fine. Some lime was scattered on me. I'll be fine after washing it off."

Chen Mu shook his head. "Brother Min, do you know where these people came from?"

"Not yet."

Min Baoyi said with a grim face, "But I deliberately let some of them escape. As long as we keep an eye on them, we'll find the source. Rest assured, brother. I'll give you an explanation for this."

Hearing Min Baoyi say so, Chen Mu asked no further questions. He followed Min Baoyi back to the City Guard to deal with the mess covering his body.