This Water is a Bit Deep

The words fell.

Master Scar's hand gripping the blade trembled.

A single mention of debt collection had shattered his spirit.

A liar!

This brat had been acting from start to finish.

All that talk about severed meridians and being a useless street patroller was fake.

"You..."

Master Scar managed to spit out only one word.

Li Pingsheng's two great talents were instantly activated.

The blood and qi within his body surged, emitting a dull roar.

In the curtain of rain, a figure flickered and vanished from where he stood.

Master Scar's pupils shrank to pinpoints.

Too fast.

The heightened perception granted by the Blood Burning Pill could barely capture a blurred shadow.

A crushing sense of impending death washed over him. Driven by a desperate will to survive, Master Scar poured every ounce of his strength into his arms and brought the blade down toward that shadow.

"Die for me!!"

This strike condensed all his essence, energy, and spirit; the blade tore through the rain, powerful enough to split stone.

Yet, facing this desperate blow, Li Pingsheng did not dodge. Just as the blade neared his face, he reached out his right hand.

Master Scar felt it was absurd, then felt a surge of wild joy.

What is he doing?

Catching a blade with his bare hand?

He's courting death.

But the next instant.

Li Pingsheng's fingers spread with precision, clamping onto the high-speed descending steel saber.

The expected deafening clang of metal on metal never came.

"Snap."

A crisp sound rang out, exceptionally clear in the rainy night.

The steel saber, infused with all of Master Scar's strength and capable of decapitating an ox, was crushed inch by inch by that flesh-and-blood hand, reduced to a pile of scrap metal.

Crushing steel with bare hands?

Is this something a human can do?

Li Pingsheng's fist, having crushed the blade, continued its momentum, slamming directly into Master Scar's chest with immense force.

"Bang."

Master Scar's sternum instantly collapsed inward at a terrifying angle, and the clothes on his back were blasted into a flurry of rags by the force of the punch passing through his body.

"Pfft!!"

He flew backward, and while still in mid-air, he spat out a massive mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of his internal organs.

He slammed into the muddy water, staring fixedly at Li Pingsheng.

His eyes held not only agony but, more so, a fear and confusion as if he were looking at Gods and Devils.

Li Pingsheng stepped forward slowly.

"Click."

In the alley, only the Bloodthirsty Hyena, split in two by Master Scar, still twitched slightly on the ground.

Li Pingsheng brought his fist down, smashing the hyena's head into a puddle of mush.

Amidst the splashing brains and blood, his gaze sharpened.

A strange, pitch-black insect, about an inch long, was wriggling eerily in the gore, seemingly trying to burrow into the mud beneath.

That's it.

That fleeting glimpse from earlier was no hallucination.

Li Pingsheng instantly realized that the appearance of this demonic beast tonight might not have been a coincidence triggered by the scent of blood.

The waters of the Outer City were even murkier than he had imagined.

Could someone be using these bizarre Gu Insect to control demonic beasts?

If this matter were exposed, he, as the person present at the scene, would be dragged into a massive amount of trouble.

Without hesitation, he stomped down, crushing the black Gu Insect along with the surrounding flesh deep into the mud until it was pulverized.

Having finished this, he began to swiftly clean up the scene.

He dragged the corpses of Master Scar and Master Qin over to the bodies of the gang members that had already been mangled by demonic beasts, then used a broken blade to carve deep, bone-reaching wounds into them, staging the scene to look as if they had fought the beasts until they were exhausted and killed.

If one is going to act, one must do it thoroughly; Li Pingsheng casually swiped the money pouches from Master Scar and Master Qin.

They felt heavy in his hand.

Aside from a dozen taels of loose silver, Master Scar also carried a small porcelain bottle containing three medicinal pills. Judging by their quality, they were significantly better than the Bone Strengthening Pill issued by the martial hall.

Master Qin was even more of a small treasury; he had over fifty taels in silver notes alone.

He had struck it rich.

Li Pingsheng tucked the items away close to his body, took one last look at the carnage in the alley, and with a single leap, vaulted over the wall to return to his own courtyard without a sound.

"Creak."

He pushed open the bedroom door.

Under the bed, Grandpa Li, his mother, Second Uncle, Second Aunt, and Yunmei were huddled tightly together, their faces etched with terror.

Seeing Li Pingsheng enter, Yunmei was the first to cry out and throw herself at him.

"Brother."

Li Pingsheng crouched down and patted his sister's head, radiating a sense of reassuring strength.

"It's alright now."

He offered his family a few brief words of comfort, claiming only that the Black Water Gang had suffered an internal conflict, and warned them not to speak of it.

Finally, he solemnly instructed Grandpa Li.

"From tonight on, when I am not home, no matter what happens outside—even if the house collapses—you must absolutely not open the door, do you understand?"

Grandpa Li nodded heavily.

Back in his own room, Li Pingsheng locked the doors and windows tight. By the dim light of an oil lamp, he emptied his night's haul onto the table.

Over fifty taels in silver notes, a dozen taels of loose silver, and three unknown pills.

Yet, as Li Pingsheng looked at the money, he felt not a shred of joy.

He gazed out the window; the rain was still falling, shrouding the entire West District of the Outer City in an impenetrable darkness.

Demons, Gu Insect, unknown hands in the shadows...

He had to be fast.

He had to acquire a massive amount of potential points and silver as quickly as possible to move his family into the Inner City.

An intense sense of urgency pressed down on him, making it hard to breathe.

The next morning, the rain cleared and the sun came out.

A shocking piece of news spread rapidly throughout the entire West District of the Outer City.

Master Scar, a sub-sect leader of the Black Water Gang, along with the accountant Master Qin and over a dozen gang elites, had died a miserable death the previous night just outside the alley where the Li Family resided.

The scene was a river of blood, the corpses mangled and incomplete; it was said they had encountered a rare demonic beast attack and were wiped out entirely.

The leader of the Black Water Gang was furious upon receiving the news and personally brought men to investigate, but aside from the claw marks and bite wounds of demonic beasts, no other clues could be found.

In the end, they could only chalk this blood debt up to those damned beasts.

Li Pingsheng, however, walked into the Azure Cloud Martial Hall with his usual expression, his pockets heavy with the fortune he had looted the night before.

The cafeteria still held that familiar, stale scent.

"Yo, isn't this our 'top-tier talent' Senior Brother Li? What's the matter? Didn't get snatched up by a demonic beast while patrolling the streets last night?"

Zhao Ming walked over, carrying a bowl of steaming meat porridge with a side dish of demonic beast meat, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

Instructor Wu, who was distributing breakfast, cast a cold glance at Li Pingsheng and carelessly tossed a bowl of thin gruel—so watery one could see the bottom—and a blackened, hard cake in front of him.

"Yours. Eat it and get lost."

The surrounding disciples erupted into mocking laughter.

Li Pingsheng didn't even look at the bowl of gruel, nor did he bother to acknowledge the arrogant Zhao Ming.

He turned quickly and left the cafeteria.

Endure?

Before the grand examination arrived, he still had to endure.

But from today on, he wasn't going to be a pushover anymore.

He felt the thick stack of silver notes in his tunic.

How could the scraps of the martial hall compare to the high-grade demonic beast meat found in the black market of the Inner City?