Li Chengyue slowly turned around.
His gaze fell on Zhao Mingyuan and Li Tian once more.
He said nothing more. He did not even gather his strength. He merely raised the Hidden Dragon Spear in his hand with an almost casual motion.
The spear tip flicked. Two streaks of black light flashed past like owls skimming through the night.
"Pfft, pfft."
Two faint, almost inaudible sounds rang clear in the deathly silent courtyard.
Zhao Mingyuan and Li Tian shuddered violently and looked down at their dantians.
The blood-and-qi force they had painstakingly cultivated for years, condensed like a pearl within their dantians, was like a waterskin pricked by a fine needle. It rapidly drained away, dispersing!
Decades of painstaking cultivation had gone down the drain in a single day.
"Im... impossible..." Zhao Mingyuan rasped, his eyes wide enough to split. "My cultivation... my Dark Strength..."
He staggered a step, then collapsed to his knees, both hands pressing hard against his lower abdomen as if he could hold down the power fading within him.
The face that was always so stern was now twisted with a mixture of despair and madness.
Li Tian was in an even worse state. He flung himself to the ground, tears and snot streaming down his face as he frantically kowtowed in Li Chengyue's direction. His forehead struck the blue bricks with dull thuds.
"Master! Master, spare me! This disciple knows he was wrong! Back then, I was blinded by greed... Please... please leave me a way to live. I'm willing to go back to the martial arts hall and sweep the floor and carry water, to work like an ox or a horse..."
Li Chengyue lowered his spear, his gaze indifferent. "You betrayed your sect. Today, I cripple your cultivation and expel you from the Xingyi Sect. Whether you live or die, whether you prosper or suffer disgrace, has nothing more to do with me."
He paused, then added, "If you dare bully my disciples again—next time, I won't just cripple your cultivation."
He spoke calmly, yet his words sent a chill down everyone's spine.
"Li Chengyue—!"
A furious roar exploded from beyond the courtyard wall.
The gray-robed elder Zhao Kun struggled to rise from the broken bricks, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, his eyes bloodshot.
"Today you crippled someone our Zhao Family had recruited. That's a public slap in the face to the Zhao Family! So what if you've reached Gang Strength? Yilin County isn't a place where you can throw your weight around! My Zhao Family..."
"The Zhao Family?" Li Chengyue suddenly laughed.
He raised his head and looked toward the Inner City, his gaze seeming to pierce through layer upon layer of buildings and fall upon the great estates beyond.
"Zhao Kun, do you think that because the Zhao Family has two Huo Strength Ancestors, one of whom has half a foot in Gang Strength, you can keep me, Li, in check?"
Zhao Kun's face turned ashen. His jaw clenched, but he dared not answer.
Li Chengyue shook his head and said slowly, "It seems that after all these years, the people of Yilin County have forgotten the might Li once commanded."
With that, he drew a deep breath.
His chest swelled like a bellows, and his clothes stirred though there was no wind.
"Leaders of the Zhang, Wang, Li, Zhao, and Qian Families in the Inner City, listen up—"
"Today, my disciple Chen Jianghe settled a personal debt at the Su Family Escort Agency. Your Zhao Family's Zhao Mingyuan and Li Tian brought men to threaten him and allowed their subordinates to launch a sneak attack, intending to do him harm."
"As his master, I stepped in to punish them and crippled their cultivation."
"If anyone objects—"
He flicked his wrist and raised his long spear, pointing its tip toward the towering gatehouse of the Inner City!
"I, Li, am here, waiting for all five families' Huo Strength masters to arrive!"
"If you aren't here within the time it takes half an incense stick to burn, I'll pierce your Inner City gatehouse with a single thrust!"
His voice rolled like thunder, shaking the roof tiles along the whole street until they clattered.
Countless Outer City residents and martial artists looked up in shock toward the source of the voice.
The vendors forgot to hawk their wares, the children stopped crying, and even the wild dogs tucked their tails and cowered in the alley corners.
"Is that... Master Li of Xingyi Martial Arts Hall?"
"What did he just say... that he's going to pierce the Inner City gatehouse?"
"He's insane... completely insane..."
The Inner City fell silent at first.
Then five overwhelming auras surged into the sky!
"Li Chengyue! You're far too arrogant!"
"You think Gang Strength means you can look down on everyone? You really think none of us five families can stand against you?!"
"Today, we'll show you that in Yilin County—you don't get to run wild!"
Amid the furious shouts, five figures shot out from various parts of the Inner City and arrived above the Su Family Escort Agency in an instant!
At their head was a white-haired, white-bearded man wearing a Purple Gold Python Robe. He was none other than Zhao Wuji, the Zhao Family Ancestor who had one foot in Gang Strength!
Behind him were four Huo Strength masters at the peak of their cultivation, the pillars of the Five Great Families. Each had a powerful aura and eyes bright as lightning.
The five auras intertwined, faintly forming a battle formation that enveloped the entire escort agency!
"Li Chengyue," Zhao Wuji said coldly, "I'll give you one last chance—cripple one of your own arms and kneel to apologize. I can let today's matter end here."
Li Chengyue raised his head and looked at the five men in the air, then suddenly laughed.
There was a touch of helplessness in his laughter, a trace of reminiscence, but more than anything, it brimmed with the pride of one who looked down upon the world.
"How many years has it been... and you five families are still using the same old lines."
He slowly raised his long spear, its tip angled toward the five men.
"Since you think five Huo Strength masters working together can suppress a Gang Strength master—"
"Then today, I'll show you—"
"What Gang Strength truly is."
The moment the words left his mouth, his spear shot forth.
There were no flashy moves, no earth-shaking display of power.
It was just an ordinary thrust, straight upward.
Yet the instant the spear thrust out, heaven and earth changed color!
Centered on Li Chengyue, the air within a hundred-zhang radius suddenly seized up, as if it had turned into a solid mire.
The five men in the air turned pale. They felt an invisible, immense force lock down their auras, leaving them unable to move even a finger!
A point of icy blue light glimmered at the tip of his spear.
At first, it was no bigger than a grain of rice. Then it swelled abruptly, becoming a blue pillar of Gang Qi a zhang across, surging into the sky!
Wherever the pillar passed, the air twisted and shattered, letting out a piercing shriek.
The five Ancestors' faces changed dramatically.
They had never imagined Li Chengyue would dare face all five of them alone, much less that his Gang Strength cultivation had reached such a level!
"Together—!"
The Zhao Family Ancestor shouted, and all five attacked at once.
The Zhao Family Ancestor thrust both palms forward, his palm wind turning into crimson flames of force;
The Qian Family Ancestor drew his long sword, its blade flashing like the Milky Way pouring down;
The Sun Family Ancestor punched like thunder, his fist wind condensing into a golden giant fist;
The Li Family Ancestor's blade flashed like snow, cleaving through the void with a single slash;
The Zhou Family Ancestor pointed like a sharp sword, a single finger piercing through the air.
Five Huo Strength secret techniques struck together, their power enough to shatter mountains and cleave peaks!
But Li Chengyue merely laughed aloud.
"Can a firefly's light really rival the bright moon?!"
He flicked his wrist and raised the black spear once more.
The five spear lights suddenly fused into one, becoming a blue pillar of light as thick as a barrel. It swept forward with the unstoppable force of a rotten log beneath a flood!
"BOOM—!!!"
The earth-shaking blast thundered throughout the city.
The five Huo Strength secret techniques collapsed on contact with the blue pillar of light.
The palm wind shattered, the sword light broke, the fist shadow dispersed, the blade aura vanished, and the finger force was snuffed out.
The five Ancestors groaned in unison. They flew backward like kites with their strings cut, crashing down across the Outer City and kicking up clouds of dust.
One spear thrust had suppressed five Huo Strength masters!
The entire city fell silent.
Everyone who had witnessed the scene stood gaping, dumbstruck.
Li Chengyue stood suspended in midair, his black spear angled toward the ground as the blue Gang Qi around him slowly faded.
Li Chengyue lowered his spear and planted it on the ground. His gaze swept over the five men in the street, then turned toward the Inner City.
"Today, crippling Zhao Mingyuan and Li Tian was their punishment."
"Injuring the five of you was a warning."
"From this day on, within Yilin County—"
He paused, his voice turning cold.
"Anyone who dares lay a hand on my disciples—"
"Better weigh your own strength first and decide whether you can withstand a single thrust from me."
The entire courtyard fell silent.
Everyone who had witnessed this scene, from Outer City residents to the various martial artists watching from the shadows, held their breath, their hearts shaken.
Gang Strength.
Li Chengyue.
From this day on, this name would be branded into the heart of every martial artist in Yilin County.
Inside the Su Family Escort Agency's courtyard, Chen Jianghe slowly let out a breath and looked at his master's back.
The old man who was always drunk and sprawled in a bamboo chair now stood straight-backed with a spear in hand, towering like a mountain.
So this was what his master was really like.
Li Chengyue turned around and swayed over to Chen Jianghe, then reached out and patted his shoulder.
He grinned, revealing two rows of yellow teeth.
"Kid, did you see that? Now that's what you call—strength."
Chen Jianghe nodded firmly.
Nearby, Su Derong struggled to hold back his laughter, his shoulders shaking, though his eyes had reddened a little.
The escort guards and porters filling the courtyard all stood tall, proud to have witnessed it.
Li Chengyue let out a long yawn, lifted his wine gourd, and took a swig. Muttering under his breath, he said, "I'm off, I'm off. Back to bed. That thrust... tch, that's three good pots of wine down the drain..."
He swayed toward the courtyard gate, then suddenly looked back when he reached it.
He glanced at Chen Jianghe and Su Derong and curled his lip.
"What are you two brats staring at?"
"Clean up and get your butts back to the martial arts hall."
"Extra training tonight. Six hours of stance work."
"I had to step in against trash like this? You're an embarrassment to Xingyi Fist."
Chen Jianghe: "..."
Su Derong: "..."
Everyone: "..."
Li Chengyue paid them no more attention. With the spear in hand and his shoes dragging, he hummed a wildly off-key tune and swayed away until he disappeared at the end of the alley.
His back was scruffy, his steps unsteady.
It was as if the Gang Strength master who had just suppressed five Huo Strength masters with one thrust and shaken the whole city had been nothing but an illusion.
The dust settled.
The Zhao Family members supported their five seriously wounded Huo Strength masters and left in disgrace.
With their cultivation crippled, Zhao Mingyuan and Li Tian were dragged away by members of the Zhao Family like beaten dogs.
Chen Wanglong had long since passed out. People from Zhenlei Martial Arts Hall carried him away.
In the courtyard, Su Derong looked at the wreckage scattered across the ground, then turned to Chen Jianghe and suddenly grinned.
"Younger Martial Brother."
"From now on, I'll practice stance work with you."
Chen Jianghe looked up at the rare seriousness in his Third Senior Brother's eyes and slowly nodded.