Killing the Tiger

Ocean City's Concession.

Fine winter rain fell like endless strands of ox hair, shrouding the entire Western street in a bleak, bone-chilling mist.

Dressed head to toe in black, Lu Zhen was like a night owl merged with the darkness, silently lying in wait in the shadowed corner of a clock tower across the street.

He watched the two-story Western Mansion diagonally opposite, with its arched windows.

That was the secret residence Sun Gouzi had revealed, where Duan Hu kept a mistress in the Concession.

Duan Hu, second-in-command of the Black Dragon Water Stronghold, was a genuine early-stage Bright Force expert. At that level, his qi and blood surged outward like a steel-hard aura, and one swing of his arm could unleash the terrifying force of five thousand jin.

In the eyes of ordinary martial artists, such a man was an unmatched powerhouse, as formidable as a ghost or a god.

But in Lu Zhen's eyes, he was nothing special.

Though Lu Zhen had only just entered the Bright Force stage himself, his abnormal Lv. 5 Physique, "Blood-Qi Like a Furnace," had forcibly raised his limits to seven thousand jin with one arm!

An absolute crushing advantage of two thousand jin, combined with the abnormal defense of Copper Skin Iron Bone—that was the confidence that let him dare to slip into the Concession alone tonight and hunt!

But...

Lu Zhen tilted his ear slightly.

Through the patter of rain, from two blocks away, came the faint, rhythmic clanking of metal, along with the "hiss, hiss" of high-pressure valves venting steam.

That was the Concession Guard Department's "Mobile Patrol Squad."

Every one of them was an elite lackey, equipped with steam-powered exoskeletons built by the Western Arsenal!

Those steel monstrosities, driven by interlocking gears and high-pressure steam, were armed with Western rifles. If they got their hooks into him, it would be a major headache.

"This is foreign territory. I absolutely can't make enough noise to draw in the battle gear troops."

"I have to end this fast. In three breaths, one of us dies!"

Lu Zhen took a deep breath.

"Rumble—"

A stark white bolt of lightning suddenly split the night sky.

Using the thunder to cover him, Lu Zhen moved!

His entire body drew a blurred afterimage through the air as he silently cleared the mansion's towering iron fence.

His hands hooked into the gaps between the bricks of the Western-style outer wall like iron claws. Like a giant gecko, he scurried up to the second-floor balcony in just a few swift moves.

In the second-floor bedroom, a gramophone played a languid Western tune, its notes rising and falling.

Duan Hu was bare-chested, his upper body covered in tattoos. He had just climbed off the fair, soft belly of a popular dance-hall girl. He casually threw on a silk dressing gown and walked to the table, about to pick up a glass of red wine.

Suddenly, the Bright Force instincts honed by years of living by the blade made every hair on his body stand on end!

A bone-chilling killing intent, as tangible as the air itself, had pierced the thick glass window and locked onto him!

"Who?!"

Duan Hu roared. Without the slightest hesitation, he drove his early-stage Bright Force qi and blood to their limits. Five thousand jin of berserk power poured into his right arm, and he spun around with a cannon punch that struck like thunder, blasting straight at the window frame!

"Bang!"

The window shattered in an instant, exploding into hundreds of crystalline shards!

But what met Duan Hu's fist was no hidden weapon. It was another fist, just as broad as a fan, wrapped in an even more terrifying aura!

Lu Zhen smashed through the rain and glass, bringing with him the damp chill of the night wind. In the most savage, most domineering manner, he collided head-on with Duan Hu's cannon punch!

"Crack—!"

Duan Hu's five-thousand-jin Bright Force, the strength he had always been so proud of, crumbled beneath Lu Zhen's unreasonable seven-thousand-jin might and the absolute crushing force of "Blood-Qi Like a Furnace," like brittle deadwood.

From wrist to elbow, the bones in his right arm shattered inch by inch! Pale splinters of bone pierced straight through the flesh as blood sprayed everywhere!

"Ugh—!"

Duan Hu's pupils contracted. A shrill scream was just about to burst from his throat.

A cold glint flashed in Lu Zhen's eyes. His fist became a claw, like an eagle swooping on a rabbit. His left hand shot out like lightning and clamped around Duan Hu's throat, crushing his scream inside his windpipe!

Then, riding the momentum of his charge, Lu Zhen sharply raised his right knee.

Like a battering ram, it slammed hard into Duan Hu's chest!

"Boom!"

The knee strike landed with a dull, thunderous thud.

Duan Hu's breastbone caved in completely. The berserk Bright Force aura punched straight through his body, smashing his heart into a pulp!

His eyes bulged, filled with disbelief, terror, and despair.

The second-in-command of the Black Dragon Water Stronghold, whose name had shaken the great rivers, hadn't even had time to utter a final word before he was beaten into a corpse in just two breaths.

The dance-hall girl on the bed had just woken and was about to scream when Lu Zhen casually flicked out a shard of glass with his fingertip. It struck her sleeping point with pinpoint accuracy. Her eyes rolled back, and she immediately slumped onto the bed.

Lu Zhen let go, allowing Duan Hu's limp corpse to slide onto the Persian carpet.

Moving with incredible speed, without the slightest pause, he immediately bent down and swiftly searched Duan Hu's clothes and drawers.

Looting the dead was an iron rule of the martial world.

In only a moment, he found a stack of HSBC bearer bank drafts tucked inside an inner lining, worth a full two thousand silver dollars!

There were also several heavy gold bars and a Black Dragon Token, the symbol of the second-in-command of the Water Stronghold.

Lu Zhen stuffed the items into his clothes and leaped into the vast, rainy night without so much as a glance at the corpse on the floor.

He came and went like the wind, killing without a trace.

The whole thing had taken less than the time it took to finish half a cup of tea!

A few minutes later.

"Clang—!"

The mansion's doors were kicked open by a brutal burst of mechanical force.

A squad of Concession guards in dark blue uniforms, each carrying a high-pressure steam tank, charged up to the second floor with Western rifles raised.

When the squad leader kicked open the bedroom door and saw Duan Hu lying in a pool of blood, his chest caved in completely, his pupils shrank to pinpoints beneath his mask.

"Traces of qi and blood being released by a Bright Force expert..."

The squad leader's voice trembled slightly. Turning to his men, he said in a low voice, "The dead man's the second-in-command of the Black Dragon Water Stronghold. One move broke his arm; one strike shattered his heart! This was pure force crushing force!"

News that the second-in-command of the Black Dragon Water Stronghold had died a gruesome death in the mansion instantly set the entire Ocean City Concession abuzz.

The Western cafés and high-end teahouses lining both sides of the street had filled early with compradors from foreign trading houses and the city's powerful elite. Everyone whispered among themselves, their voices lowered, faces filled with poorly concealed shock and fear.

"Have you heard? The dead man was a Bright Force expert! Someone smashed his breastbone to pieces!"

"Who could be so outrageously bold? To kill a Bright Force grandmaster right in the foreigners' Concession?"

"This is a direct slap in the face to the Imperial Guard Bureau! Even the Western Battle Gear Patrol couldn't keep the killer here. Ocean City... is going to be in turmoil for a while!"

Rumors took wing and spread throughout the Ten-Mile Foreign Field. For a time, the whole city was gripped by alarm.

At the crime scene, inside the sealed-off Western Mansion.

Fujita Shoichi, head of the Concession Guard Department, entered the wrecked second-floor bedroom alongside Duan Hai, the big boss of the Black Dragon Water Stronghold, whose face was livid with rage.

Duan Hai looked at the corpse on the floor, its body caved in and twisted. His eyes were bloodshot, and his violent qi and blood stirred the damp air around him into a faint distortion.

He crouched down, his thick fingers gripping Duan Hu's broken arm bone. The corner of his eye twitched violently.

The instincts honed by years of living by the blade let him see the truth at a glance.

"Bright Force... and a top-tier fist expert at that!"

Duan Hai gritted his teeth, jerked his head up, and snarled with venom in his eyes. "It was definitely the Gu Family! That old dog Gu Wanshan's man, A-Kuan! He killed my son, and now he's come for my brother!"

"Fool. Use your head."

Fujita Shoichi spoke coldly from beside him.

"That A-Kuan had only just entered the Bright Force stage. Your brother Duan Hu was also an early-stage Bright Force expert. Even if he'd been outmatched, the fight would've been noisy enough to turn half this street upside down."

Fujita's gaze was sharp as a blade. He scanned the shattered glass and the signs that only one move had been made, then said icily:

"The Imperial Guard Bureau knows the whereabouts of every Guest Elder in the Gu Family. Not one of them left the main hall last night. Whoever crushed Duan Hu with one punch, leaving him no chance to fight back... must be a top-tier fist expert at least in the middle or late Bright Force stage!"

"The Gu Family has no one like that."

Duan Hai froze, the murderous aura around him stalling. "It wasn't the Gu Family? Then who in Ocean City would use such a vicious hand...?"

Fujita Shoichi narrowed his eyes, a deep wariness flashing in them. He murmured to himself, "Fist mastery approaching the divine, a thunderous killing blow... Could it be someone from the Xiao Family?"

"The Xiao Family?!"

At those words, Duan Hai jolted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, his face blanching with terror.

The Xiao Family!

They were the true colossus of all Ocean City, the undisputed leading force in Ocean City's martial world!

Never mind the Tongjiang Chamber of Commerce—even the Western concessions and the major families of the "Hetero-Martialist Alliance," equipped with top-tier drugs, had to weigh their options before the Xiao Family. They could only stand on equal footing with them.

Duan Hai swallowed, feeling his hands and feet go cold.

Rumor had it that within the Xiao Family's Inner Courtyard alone, there were more than a dozen martial grandmasters who had mastered Dark Force!

And the old clan head, who had been in seclusion for many years, had supposedly crossed the threshold of Dark Force long ago and reached a terrifying realm so unfathomable that no one could measure it.

Even more chilling was the Xiao Family's new generation.

The Xiao Family's heaven-blessed daughter, Xiao Yuqing.

At a tender age, she had swept aside all her peers and entered the Dark Force stage as well, ranking among Ocean City's "Four Great Geniuses" of the younger generation and commanding a fearsome reputation.

At the thought, Fujita Shoichi and Duan Hai exchanged a glance. Both were drenched in cold sweat from the terrifying possibility.

If the Xiao Family had really done it, then the nature of the matter had changed completely.

The Gu Family, the feud with the water bandits—before a giant like that, they were nothing but insignificant ants, jumping about in vain!

Fujita Shoichi's expression was grave in the extreme.

The Kwantung Army, the Western powers, the Huaxia warlords, the Martial Alliance of the World... All these top forces that lorded over the world were secretly scheming and laying their pieces on this great chessboard of heaven and earth.

If last night's assassination really was a signal that the Xiao Family or one of those top forces had entered the game...

If they dared, in their ignorance, to get drawn into a vortex of this magnitude,

they would be smashed to pieces, with not even a grave left for them!