The waterfall stopped flowing for only a few breaths.
Li Pingsheng climbed out of the deep pool. Steam billowed off him, and his inner force had already dried his clothes.
The power of his new move, "Thunderclap Explosion," was greater than he'd expected, but it was costly too. One punch had drained three-tenths of his blood and qi.
And he'd only just begun to fuse it.
He thought that if he completed "Thunderbolt Fist," it would be even more powerful.
Suddenly, he felt ravenous.
High-intensity training and activating his Blood Strengthening talent took a huge toll on his body.
Master Scar's silver had bought Blood Coagulation Paste and Monster Beef Jerky, leaving him with little money. He needed to get some more cultivation resources.
Instead of returning to the martial hall, Li Pingsheng turned into an alley in the Inner City and entered a black-market general store.
Li Pingsheng went straight to the stall selling monster beast meat.
"Boss, give me half a catty of Blood Coagulation Tiger jerky."
The stall owner was a One-Eyed Dragon. He glanced at Li Pingsheng, then weighed and wrapped the meat.
As Li Pingsheng paid, several burly men who looked like mercenaries chatted at the next table.
"Have you heard? The Black Water Gang issued a Black Water Order!"
"What happened? Why would they issue a Black Water Order?"
"Master Scar and Master Qin took more than a dozen men with them, and they all got wiped out in the Outer City! Wild dogs even gnawed on their bodies."
A scar-faced man lowered his voice.
"I heard the Black Water Gang's leader examined the bodies himself. It didn't look like the work of monster beasts. They're offering a five-hundred-tael reward for information about the culprit!"
Five hundred taels?
Everyone around them was stunned.
That was enough for an ordinary family to buy a small courtyard in the Inner City.
Li Pingsheng's hand didn't pause as he took the jerky.
He tucked the oil-paper packet into his shirt and turned to leave, soon disappearing into the crowd.
The Black Water Gang had reacted faster than he'd expected.
At the Black Water Gang's headquarters, in an underground stone chamber,
several corpses lay on the ground beneath white sheets, filling the room with a rancid stench.
The gang leader was a gaunt, middle-aged man, his eyes sunken into their sockets. He crouched beside a skeleton.
The stone chamber was silent.
Several branch leaders stood nearby, not daring to make a sound.
The gang leader reached out with two bony fingers and picked up a broken rib.
The bone bore dog-tooth marks and had one clean break.
"Monster beasts' teeth only tear. They leave a mess of tooth marks and ragged edges."
"But look at this."
He held the bone up for everyone to see. "The break is smooth. It was shattered in one blow by tremendous force. This wasn't the work of wild beasts."
He dropped the bone and walked over to Master Qin's corpse.
"Here, too. The bones in his neck were crushed to powder. Master Scar was struck through the chest, and all his internal organs were smashed."
"This was done by a martial artist, an expert in fist techniques. His strength far surpassed Master Scar's."
"Someone killed our men on our turf, then tried to make it look like monster beasts did it. They're treating us like fools."
One branch leader hesitated before speaking. "Boss, lately in the Outer City... we haven't heard of any experts like that."
"Then investigate!"
The Black Water Gang leader swept his sleeve. "Send out every spy we have! Investigate every martial artist in the Outer City from the past month. Keep a close eye on anyone who seems even a little suspicious!"
"Someone with the strength to kill Master Scar in one blow couldn't have appeared out of thin air! Turn the whole place upside down if you have to, but find him!"
"Yes!"
At the Zhao Family Estate,
a blue-and-white porcelain vase smashed against the ground, shattering into several pieces.
Zhao Ming's eyes were bloodshot, his chest rising and falling as he smashed everything in the room that could be broken.
The servants huddled outside the door, afraid to go near him.
He couldn't forget Li Pingsheng's punch at the examination, nor could he forget those four words: "Fist Intent, Initial Mastery."
That was the realm he aspired to, the pride of the Zhao Family's legitimate heir.
Now a "commoner" had snatched that pride away from him.
"You little bastard! What the hell are you throwing this tantrum for?"
Zhao Ming's father, a stern-faced middle-aged man, entered with several family elders.
Seeing the room strewn with broken pieces, Zhao Ming's father's face darkened.
"Father..."
"Shut up!"
Zhao Ming's father slapped him across the face.
"You can't beat him, so you throw a tantrum here? You've shamed the entire Zhao Family!"
Zhao Ming held his cheek and stared at his father.
He'd thought he would get a few words of comfort. Instead, he was met with a scolding.
An elder shook his head.
"Ming, don't take this the wrong way. Li Pingsheng came from a poor family and had hardly any resources, yet he grasped Fist Intent so quickly."
"And you? You've had an endless supply of pills since you were little, and famous teachers to guide you. Yet he still outshone you."
"How are we supposed to hold our heads up?"
"From now on, I'm afraid all the Zhao Family disciples at Azure Cloud Martial Hall will be overshadowed by him."
Those words made Zhao Ming understand: as long as Li Pingsheng was around, Zhao Ming would be a laughingstock.
An idea came to him.
The martial hall had strict rules. He couldn't make a move there.
But outside the martial hall... he could.
Zhao Ming thought of the Black Water Gang.
Night fell.
In an underground teahouse in the Inner City,
Zhao Ming had changed clothes, put on a bamboo hat, and sat in the shadows of a private room.
Before long, the door opened and a lean man entered. He was a trusted subordinate of the Black Water Gang leader.
"Master Zhao, what a rare guest."
The man sat down without expression.
Zhao Ming pushed a money pouch across the table.
"Five hundred taels upfront. Another thousand once the job's done."
The lean man weighed the pouch, his eyes gleaming, but quickly schooled his expression.
"What could possibly be worth Master Zhao paying so much?"
Zhao Ming lowered his voice. "I want someone crippled! Make sure he can never practice martial arts again before the major examination!"
"Who?"
"Li Pingsheng, from Azure Cloud Martial Hall."
Hearing the name, the lean man paused, then smiled.
"Master Zhao, that won't be easy."
"He's with Azure Cloud Martial Hall, and Pei Guang seems to value him too. Touching him could bring us a lot of trouble."
"That's why I came to you."
Zhao Ming said, "The Black Water Gang specializes in handling this kind of 'trouble.'"
Seeing the man hesitate, he added,
"Don't play dumb. Didn't Master Scar and Master Qin get killed because of him?"
"I heard Li Pingsheng's strength has been soaring lately. He can take out more than a dozen of your men by himself. Isn't your gang leader looking for the culprit?"
"I give you a target, and you do a job for me. It's a good deal."
The smile vanished from the lean man's face. He stared hard at Zhao Ming.
That lead from Zhao Ming was crucial.
Li Pingsheng.
He'd come from the Outer City, his strength had risen at a frightening pace, and he'd had a conflict with Master Scar.
All the clues lined up.
"Fine. We'll take the job."
The lean man picked up the money pouch and left. He needed to report the news to the gang leader immediately.
Half an hour later, at the Black Water Gang's headquarters,
"Li Pingsheng..."
After hearing the report, the gang leader drummed his fingers on the table.
"A new disciple who's only just begun training, yet he has this kind of strength? And he's grasped Fist Intent? Interesting."
"Whether or not he killed Master Scar, we can't let someone who's crossed us grow stronger. Better to kill the wrong man than let the right one go."
He looked toward the shadow behind him.
"Ghost One. Ghost Two."
Two shadows appeared before him and dropped to one knee.
There wasn't the slightest trace of energy coming from them.
They were the Black Water Gang's deathsworn, trained specifically to do the dirty work.
"Tonight, slip into Azure Cloud Martial Hall and pay that Li genius a visit."
"Even if it's a martial hall, we can't show them any respect this time!"
"Leave no witnesses. Keep it clean."
"Yes!"
The two shadows answered, retreated, and vanished.
The night grew deeper.
Dark clouds covered the moon, and Qingyun County lay quiet.
Two shadows climbed over the martial hall's high wall and avoided the patrolling disciples.
They moved quickly and landed without a sound. They knew their way around the martial hall well, clearly having scouted it beforehand.
The two crossed the Martial Practice Field, went around the instructors' quarters, and crept toward the secluded courtyard of a True Disciple deep in the Inner Courtyard.
Their target was Li Pingsheng.
The two stopped outside Li Pingsheng's courtyard...
Before you continue