Lu Jing'an knew Lawrence.
No less than he knew Li Jinglin.
After all, from the very beginning of his plans,
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Lu Jing'an had been set on testing this Martial Cultivator with Battle Qi who had crossed the oceans to come here.
So he had spent more time studying and scrutinizing Lawrence.
There were plenty of flaws in Lawrence's personality.
The most obvious was the deep-rooted arrogance and conceit.
Of course, this might have been a common failing among Western Martial Cultivators who came to Huaxia.
Almost all of them had it.
But it was precisely this failing that led Lu Jing'an to conclude
that Lawrence would definitely swagger right out through the main gate.
As for turning back to save Li Jinglin?
That was absolutely impossible.
This foreigner, Lawrence, had never taken Li Jinglin seriously.
If something went wrong here, he would put his own escape first.
If he really did turn back to save someone,
that would only make things easier for Lu Jing'an.
Chen Xuan would never pass up the chance to finish him off while he was at it.
About half an hour later,
heavy, hurried footsteps sounded at the end of the long street.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Each step seemed to land on people's hearts, and even the ground trembled faintly.
Lu Jing'an peered into the distance.
A tall figure came closer.
Its outline gradually sharpened in the morning mist.
Blond hair, deep-set eyes, broad shoulders and a sturdy build.
He was wrapped in a somewhat disheveled dark hunting outfit.
It was Lawrence.
In the blink of an eye, he rushed up to the city gate.
He stopped short, sending a wave of hot air surging outward.
Looking at the Security Officers standing ready with their guns,
Lawrence grinned, his contempt utterly undisguised.
"Put away those scrap-metal toys of yours."
He shouted in a foreign language, his voice coarse as gravel grinding against stone.
"Open the gates and let me out.
Otherwise, I won't mind snapping every one of your necks."
Lawrence spoke in a foreign language.
Not a single Security Officer on the other side understood him.
But they had been ordered to guard this place.
So no matter what Lawrence said,
they would not let him pass.
When Lawrence saw that the people opposite had no intention of moving,
the murderous look in his eyes surged.
"Fools."
He growled.
A mighty torrent of Battle Qi suddenly erupted around him.
Pale golden light poured from his body,
coiling and surging like solid flames.
The bluestone slabs beneath his feet shattered inch by inch.
Web-like cracks spread rapidly.
The doors and windows of the shops lining the street creaked.
Dust sifted down from the eaves.
Several Security Officers at the front abruptly found it hard to breathe.
It was as if an invisible weight were crushing their chests.
They could barely keep their rifles steady.
Hidden behind a second-floor window facing the street, Situ Yiyun witnessed the scene, and his face changed abruptly.
Lawrence's strength
was several notches greater than he had estimated!
His Battle Qi was as solid as armor.
Its dazzling light put him close to the Iron Bone realm.
Even if he and Chen Heqing joined forces, they might not withstand a single strike from him.
And the guns in the Security Officers' hands
probably couldn't even pierce his Battle Qi defenses.
We'd been too careless!
The thought weighed heavily on both of them.
Just then, Lu Jing'an calmly raised his hand and quietly instructed the men behind him, "Drop the banners."
"Yes, young master."
The subordinate waiting in the shadows immediately leaned out the window
and signaled outside.
Above the city wall, the people who had been waiting for the signal sprang into action.
Five enormous white banners dropped into view.
Each one was more than six yards wide.
They unfurled from the battlements all the way down to the base of the wall,
like five silent waterfalls.
In an instant, they covered the entire gray-brown wall.
There were five banners in total.
They listed Lawrence's five fatal weaknesses.
Didn't he need to seize the initiative to use his Battle Qi?
Then Lu Jing'an would make sure he couldn't seize it.
He would make Lawrence tremble with fear.
When Lawrence saw
five enormous banners suddenly drop down from the city wall,
he froze.
Then, instinctively, he looked at what was written on them.
The contents had very considerately been written out in a foreign language.
So they were easy for him to read.
But after reading only the first banner,
Lawrence's face had already turned ghastly.
The first banner revealed the greatest stain on his life.
It said
that when he used a secret technique to summon his Battle Qi, fear had filled his heart.
As a result, the secret technique had backfired.
It had left him with barely half his manly potency.
That was why Lawrence sought out women everywhere he went.
People always tried hardest to prove what they lacked most.
"Who... Who was it?!"
The veins in Lawrence's neck bulged.
He forced the hoarse question through clenched teeth.
These secrets—
secrets he didn't dare recall even when fully conscious—
how could anyone know about them?
And how could they be exposed so humiliatingly in public?
How had Lu Jing'an found out?
Because Lawrence had "told" him himself.
Whenever he gave himself over to pleasure,
he would mutter in a foreign language, repeating himself over and over.
He would pour out the dark secrets buried deep in his heart.
He thought no one could understand him.
He thought speaking them aloud was a kind of release.
A different kind of strength.
There was no better example of fooling oneself.
Lawrence trembled all over.
His Battle Qi flickered with him.
He whipped his gaze toward the second and third banners...
The second banner described a fatal flaw in the circulation of his Battle Qi.
Whenever his breath reached a point three inches beneath his armpit, it would falter for an instant.
The third revealed that he had once been defeated by his sworn enemy back home.
He had been forced to crawl like a dog and pass between his enemy's legs to buy his life.
But the ordeal had left a mark on his heart meridian, which throbbed with pain whenever it rained.
The fourth and fifth banners...
Every shameful detail,
every weakness, old injury, defeat, and hidden ailment—
all of it was laid bare.
Exposed in broad daylight.
Spread before the eyes of every stranger who looked up.
"AAAHHHH!!!!"
Lawrence finally broke down completely.
He threw back his head and let out a beastlike howl of rage.
The anger born of cowardice was like poisonous fire attacking his heart.
Not only did it fail to bolster his Battle Qi,
it made the brilliant golden light dim and waver, like a candle in the wind.
Situ Yiyun saw everything clearly from upstairs.
He couldn't help sighing inwardly.
Lu Jing'an's methods
were truly ruthless and precise, striking right where it hurt.
Western Martial Cultivators relied on two great strengths: Battle Qi and combat techniques.
And the strength of Battle Qi was closely tied to one's will.
Now that Lawrence's composure had crumbled, his Battle Qi naturally melted like snow.
Once he lost the reinforcement of his Battle Qi,
even the most exquisite Western combat techniques
would be nothing but flashy moves before an Eastern cultivator.
As Lawrence's composure shattered,
the gunmen lying in wait all around immediately pulled their triggers.
The bullets weren't sprayed at random.
Instead, they were aimed with extraordinary precision at several weak acupoints around Lawrence's body.
Each one was a point where his Battle Qi could be broken, just as the banners had described.
The bullets struck the remnants of his Battle Qi.
Sparks burst out one by one.
Though he hadn't managed to break through Lawrence's defenses right away, each attack was like a poisoned thorn,
piercing into Lawrence's mind as it teetered on the brink of losing control.
Psychological suggestion was more terrifying than bullets.
Lawrence felt as if a pair of eyes, cold to the bone, were watching him from the darkness,
seeing right through him, inside and out.
That unknown opponent might not make a move—but when he did, it would be a fatal strike.
Once such a thought took root, it spread like an epidemic.
The Battle Qi around him grew ever thinner, its golden light fading.
All that remained was a dim, wavering glimmer.
Meanwhile, the terrifying opponent he had imagined
was being shielded behind layer upon layer of guards.
He sat safely in a chair,
holding a cup of warm tea,
quietly watching the collapse he had orchestrated with his own hands unfold beneath the city walls.
The Peacekeeping Bureau!
It was hard for the Peacekeeping Bureau not to know about the Lu Family's massive operation.
The Lu Family hadn't notified the Peacekeeping Bureau.
That was because the Lu Family knew
the Peacekeeping Bureau wouldn't interfere in local affairs.
There was no need to notify them.
Even without being notified, the Peacekeeping Bureau still needed to keep track of how things developed.
After Wen Ling heard the intelligence brought back by the Peacekeeping Bureau's Listening Cultivator,
she couldn't help furrowing her lovely brows.
"Lawrence isn't someone to be trifled with."
Her fingertips tapped the tabletop unconsciously. A trace of concern crept into her voice.
"If Lu Jing'an goes to the city gate to stop him by force, he'll probably come off worse."
"Boss, should I go over there?
Disciplining foreign cultivators is part of the Peacekeeping Bureau's duties."
Hearing Wen Ling's words, Kui Shan immediately said in a deep voice, "This is a local matter. We shouldn't interfere."
Wen Ling opened her mouth to say more.
But Listening Cultivator said with a strange expression, "My eyes tell me Lu Jing'an has made Lawrence break through his defenses."
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