Killing Intent

In the quiet rear hall, the fragrance of tea curled through the air.

Yan Tieqiao leaned back in his grand armchair, cradling a purple clay teapot in his hands. His sharp, hawk-like old eyes studied Lu Zhen for a long while.

Only after Lu Zhen began to feel the air around him grow faintly heavy did Yan Tieqiao finally withdraw his gaze.

"Not bad. Your bones are strong, your blood vigorous, and your tendons taut as bowstrings."

Yan Tieqiao gave a slight nod. There was little emotion in his voice. "That bloody battle on the river was an excellent whetstone. To reach the threshold of the Late Force Refining Realm at thirty, your foundation is far sturdier than I'd originally judged."

"It's all thanks to Master's excellent instruction. This disciple was merely fortunate." Lu Zhen cupped his fists, neither proud nor humble.

"There's no such thing as luck in the martial path. Only true gold, tempered between life and death, that fears no fire."

Yan Tieqiao took a sip of hot tea and set down his purple clay teapot. Leaning forward slightly, his expression grew solemn.

"Now that you've reached the Late Force Refining Realm, you can no longer keep your eyes fixed on raw strength. Tell me, do you know what the threshold between the Late Force Refining Realm and Bright Force truly is?"

Lu Zhen's expression turned intent. "Please enlighten me, Master."

"Force Refining trains the skin, flesh, tendons, and bones."

Yan Tieqiao gestured toward his chest and abdomen. "But those are all external conditioning. To truly step into Bright Force, you have to achieve 'internal conditioning'! You must drive your powerful blood and qi into your internal organs, making them as strong as steel, until the sound of tigers and leopards thundering rises with every breath."

"Only when your organs are strong and your blood supply pumps like a bellows can your blood and qi flow without end. In the end, they'll condense into a single 'whole-body force' that surges out through your body. That is Bright Force!"

At this, Yan Tieqiao changed tack, fixing his gaze on Lu Zhen.

"But internally conditioning your organs is harder than climbing to the heavens. It's an attempt to defy fate and change your destiny!"

"For martial artists like us, thirty is a watershed. Before thirty, blood and qi are at their peak, making it the best time to permeate the organs."

"After thirty, peak gives way to decline. Blood and qi gradually wane, and breaking through becomes many times harder."

"By forty, the organs begin to age. After that, any hope of reaching Bright Force is lost for good."

Yan Tieqiao looked at Lu Zhen and sighed.

"You've just turned thirty. You've barely managed to seize this last thread of life. Whether you can cross that threshold depends on your fortunes over the next few years—and how fiercely you're willing to fight for it."

Lu Zhen felt a chill in his heart.

No wonder thirty was considered a watershed in the martial world. It all came down to the rise and decline of blood and qi, and the organs.

"This disciple will remember."

"Mm." Yan Tieqiao leaned back into his grand armchair. "Since you've reached the Late Force Refining Realm, the martial arts hall naturally won't shortchange you."

"Starting next month, your monthly pay from the Inner Courtyard will rise to twenty silver dollars. Your Blood Qi Soup, which you receive once every ten days, will be replaced with the higher-grade Tiger Bone Strengthening Powder. You may also borrow whatever you like from the martial arts hall's weapons storehouse and collection of internal arts manuals."

Yan Tieqiao waved a hand.

"Go. While your blood and qi have yet to decline, don't let up."

"Thank you for your generous cultivation, Master!"

Lu Zhen cupped his fists in a deep salute, then turned and left the rear hall.

With a creak, the heavy carved wooden doors slowly closed, shutting out the clamor of the front courtyard.

The quiet rear hall was left with Yan Tieqiao alone.

He lifted the well-polished purple clay teapot, but didn't bring it to his lips. He only stared in the direction Lu Zhen had gone, saying nothing for a long time.

After a while, a sigh too faint to hear echoed through the hall.

"Limping for over a decade... he's wasted all those years after all."

Yan Tieqiao shook his head, a flicker of regret passing through his cloudy old eyes.

If Lu Zhen had been in his early twenties, with such a terrifying foundation—a Late Force Refining Realm expert capable of lifting a thousand catties with one arm—he would have been an unrivaled prodigy, the kind the Iron Arm Martial Arts Hall saw only once in a century!

Even if it meant pouring every last resource the hall had into him, Yan Tieqiao would have pushed Lu Zhen into Bright Force and passed his legacy on to him.

But alas, the world had no "ifs."

At thirty, he had only just reached the threshold of the later stage. His blood and qi had already settled into their course and were about to begin their decline.

At this point, trying to "internally condition the organs" and cross the natural chasm into Bright Force was no different from a fool's dream.

What was more, although Lu Zhen's Four Resonance Iron Wire Fist was impressive, he still fell short of Zhang Lei, whose martial talent had already reached Five Resonance mastery.

On the martial path, one slow step meant falling behind at every turn.

"Enough."

Yan Tieqiao drained the cold tea in one gulp. "The future of the martial arts hall... will still have to rest on that boy Zhang Lei."

Ocean City Concession.

By the Huangpu River stood a Western Mansion deep in the French Concession. Its interior was lavish beyond measure, yet now an suffocating air of murderous tension hung over it.

The report had arrived: the ambush at Soul-Falling Gorge had failed, and the entire force had been wiped out.

"Crack—!"

A costly crystal goblet was crushed to pieces in one hand!

Red wine mixed with blood dripped from a huge paw of a hand onto the pure wool carpet.

"My son—the hell you're telling me he died on the river just like that?!"

The man who spoke was massively built, his bare upper body covered in crisscrossing knife scars. The black dragon tattoo across his chest looked almost alive, its claws bared in a menacing snarl.

He was the Black Dragon Water Bandits' chief, River-Turning Flood Dragon, Duan Hai!

A violent surge of blood and qi belonging to a mid-stage Bright Force expert roared out of him, raging through the spacious hall as if it had taken physical form. Several servants nearby buckled at the knees and collapsed to the floor.

Seated on the sofa opposite him was Shen Wanlin, current head of the Shen Family.

This business-world tyrant, a Bright Force early-stage expert, wore an equally dark expression.

"Chief Duan, calm down." Shen Wanlin clutched a string of sandalwood Buddhist beads in his hand. "That old fox Gu Wanshan used an empty boat as bait, and the death squad my Shen Family raised was wiped out as well. My family will get our revenge too!"

"Revenge? I'm going to flatten the Tongjiang Chamber of Commerce's main headquarters right now!"

Duan Hai's eyes were bloodshot, like a ferocious beast about to devour someone. "The Gu Family may be rich, but they're nothing but merchants! I'll gather the brothers from the Water Stronghold and twist that old bastard Gu Wanshan's head off to honor my son's soul in heaven!"

Clomp, clomp, clomp...

Just then, heavy, rhythmic footsteps sounded from the spiral staircase on the mansion's second floor.

Duan Hai and Shen Wanlin's pupils suddenly contracted, and they both turned to look.

The man approaching wore a crisp Eastern Islander officer's uniform and tall military boots. His face was sharp and cold, as if carved by knives and axes.

He was Fujita Shoichi, head of the Ocean City Concession Guard Bureau.

Most striking of all was his right arm, which had been completely replaced by metal: a high-grade Type B Steam Battle Gear, its surface gleaming with a dark golden sheen!

Even more terrifying was the restrained yet unfathomable blood and qi of a Bright Force late-stage expert, which firmly suppressed Duan Hai's violent aura. With that battle gear as well, his fighting strength was unfathomable!

"Flatten the Gu Family?"

Fujita Shoichi looked down at Duan Hai. "Chief Duan, what a fearsome display of power."

Duan Hai clenched his teeth, forcing down the rage in his heart. "Director Fujita! My son died a terrible death. If I don't avenge him, how can the Black Dragon Water Stronghold hold its place on the river?"

"Foolish."

Fujita Shoichi slowly descended the stairs. His battle-gear right arm clicked softly. "The Gu Family are no more than grasshoppers after autumn. They're a minor matter. But now is not the time to move against them."

His gaze swept coldly over the two men as he uttered a few words.

"The 'grand plan' handed down by Kwantung Army Headquarters is what matters most. If your personal vendetta alerts the enemy and ruins the Military Department's plans..."

Fujita Shoichi didn't finish, but those few words doused Duan Hai and Shen Wanlin from head to toe like a basin of ice water.

The Kwantung Army!

In this Ten-Mile Foreign Field, you could afford to ignore the Constabulary, but you absolutely could not defy that war machine, armed with heavy artillery and Western Battle Gear.

Duan Hai's blood and qi instantly withdrew, while Shen Wanlin broke out in a cold sweat.

They were as silent as cicadas in winter, not daring to say another word.

"The plan goes on. Hold your positions."

Fujita Shoichi walked over to the liquor cabinet, poured himself a glass of sake, and drank it in one gulp. Without turning around, he said coldly, "Once the Military Department's grand plan is complete, the whole of Ocean City will be turned upside down. You can crush one little Gu Family however you please. Understood?"

"...Understood." The two men gritted their teeth and bowed their heads in assent.

Half an hour later.

In a secluded alley outside the mansion, Duan Hai climbed into a black Ford sedan.

As soon as he shut the door, his face twisted into a demonic grimace. He punched the leather seat, bending its steel frame with a brutal blow!

"Chief, are we really going to swallow this insult?"

Duan Hu, the Black Dragon Water Bandits' second-in-command, turned around from the passenger seat. He too was a top-tier outlaw, an early-stage Bright Force expert, and his eyes now blazed with resentment and murderous intent.

"Swallow it?"

Duan Hai gave a sinister grin, venomous as a snake in the eyes. "The Eastern Islanders say the Gu Family can't be touched for now. I can hold back."

"But I want you to find out exactly who killed my son on that boat at Soul-Falling Gorge!"

"If we can't kill the Gu Family's ringleader for now, then we'll start by taking down the bastard who struck the blow! I'll collect some interest on that blood debt first, and make him learn what it means to kill someone from the Black Dragon Water Stronghold—to be hacked into a thousand pieces!"

"Yes! I'll send people to investigate right away!" Duan Hu's gaze turned ruthless, and he nodded firmly.