The Nobility and Humility of Life (New book seeking reads and monthly votes~)

As the saying goes, cutting off a man's livelihood is like killing his parents.

A coffin blocked the door.

It meant a feud that could only end in death.

Bloodstains still lingered on the ground; the old man's only son and beloved disciple had both lost their lives in this alley.

Now, he stood alone, his gaunt figure radiating a sense of desolation.

His voice turned cold, seeking nothing but justice!

Zhang Zhongping no longer seemed like the master of the Good Fortune Martial Hall, but rather a pathetic old man whose entire family had been slaughtered by a gang, leaving him with nothing but a heart full of vengeance.

In such a situation, even if the yamen officials arrived, they would likely find it difficult to intervene.

Who could stop an old man like this from avenging his son?

Would they dare to stand on the side of the Blackwater Gang?

Zhang Zhongping had staked everything on this; he could not afford a single mistake. He had even factored that young Purple Flood Dragon Constable into his plans!

The gates of the Magpie Nest were left half-ajar.

Jin Gui, who had been sweeping the floor, stood frozen in place, caught red-handed by this Great Martial Master.

Her legs went weak with terror. She had intended to do as the other girls did—retreat into the house and let Master Lin handle the matter.

But after hearing that sincere, heartfelt cry of "a life for a life."

Jin Gui suddenly recalled the desperate, wailing, and wretched state she had been in when Zhang Ci arrived that day.

She swallowed hard, her throat dry, and turned back with a tremble, asking in confusion, "Since you understand that principle, why did you allow your own son to kill two of us for no reason at all?"

Jin Gui was nothing more than an ordinary prostitute.

Facing a renowned Great Martial Master, it was already no small feat that she could speak at all.

Thus, her voice was very low, and her tone was very soft.

So soft that it didn't sound like a challenge at all.

Yet, these words caused the skin on Zhang Zhongping's face to twitch violently.

A thick, intense rage quickly consumed his eyes.

The old man looked up in disbelief, as if he had suffered a grave insult, his voice sharpening significantly:

"You compare the cheap life of a whore to that of my son?!"

As he spoke, the thick, heavy aura radiating from Zhang Zhongping's body began to lash out uncontrollably.

The surging pressure turned Jin Gui's face deathly pale, and she quickly understood why lives were divided into the noble and the base.

The onlookers nearby changed expressions and hurriedly scrambled backward.

It was rumored that a Great Martial Master was formidable, but only by experiencing it firsthand did one realize that the rumors were far from doing him justice.

If they were the fox from the Magpie Nest, they would never dare to show their face and confront him alone.

This was simply too terrifying.

Clap, clap.

The sudden sound of applause answered Zhang Zhongping's question on Jin Gui's behalf.

"Well said."

A young man in a long gown paced down from the upper floor, clapping his hands with a sigh.

He brushed past the trembling Jin Gui and stepped over the threshold.

The moment Lin Shu stepped out.

Zhang Zhongping's eyes narrowed, his body tensing instantly beneath his loose robes as he stared fixedly at the young man.

He tried to catch the scent of weakness that should have been on his opponent.

Yet, when he looked up, he was met with that fair, handsome, and playful face.

"Their lives are indeed not expensive, and my own life isn't worth much either, otherwise, why would I be scraping a living in a place like this?"

Lin Shu stood at the doorway.

He examined the coffin before him with careful, earnest attention: "But I am truly curious; I want to see exactly what makes your young master's life so precious."

Upon hearing the first half of the sentence, the people in Green Willow Alley thought this fox was going to back down.

But the next moment, they saw Lin Shu look up with a grin, then suddenly raise his leg and slam a fierce kick into the coffin!

Bang—

A dull, heavy sound exploded through the air.

The two-meter-long black coffin surged forward like a giant python leaping out, or a massive ramming log striking a bell, carrying terrifying force as it smashed violently toward the other side!

The old man was like a bronze bell struck by a hammer.

His frame sank abruptly, arms crossed over his shoulders, bracing his entire upper body to withstand the impact of the coffin.

Two surging forces poured into him simultaneously.

The pitch-black coffin was shredded like thin paper by an invisible blast of energy, transforming into a sky full of wooden splinters!

Thud! Thud!

Zhang Zhongping retreated several steps, his heels catching the stone stairs to finally steady his stance.

"Hah!"

Shock flooded his face; the opponent's kick had clearly been saturated with spiritual energy.

There was not a shred of the "exhausted and dying" look he had expected!

But before he could even question Tian Jingyuan in his mind, Zhang Zhongping looked up and saw a sight that made his eyes turn bloodshot.

The coffin was shattered, and the corpse inside had fared no better.

Not only were the clothes torn to shreds, but the limbs were twisted like braided dough, lying in an unsightly heap on the alley floor.

Lin Shu walked down the stone steps, his long boots landing firmly on Zhang Ci's chest.

He lowered his gaze, using the tip of his shoe to hook the corpse's jaw, flipping the bloodless face back and forth.

"Forgive my poor eyesight."

Lin Shu's smile vanished, and he said indifferently, "I truly couldn't tell."

A beast that bullied the weak and feared the strong, picking only on the miserable—how dare such a creature prattle on about the value of life?

"Ah!!"

A hoarse roar echoed throughout Green Willow Alley.

Zhang Zhongping finally lost his usual composure, his aged face twisting in agony. What that base fox was stepping on was not just his son's corpse, but the reputation Good Fortune Martial Hall had spent decades building.

I don't care if you are exhausted or dying.

I don't care if you have heaven-defying backing.

If you want to destroy me, then...

"Die!"

Zhang Zhongping's white robes billowed violently, and something seemed to be writhing beneath his gaunt frame.

Following his meridians, an invisible force of energy finally erupted!

The old man shattered the stone steps with a single stomp and lunged forward with ferocious intent.

Powerful internal energy rolled around his body, coalescing into a blurred tiger silhouette. Amidst a sharp whistling sound, the dilapidated walls of Green Willow Alley cracked in unison, nearly collapsing!

Lin Shu stood sideways, black energy hissing from his fingertips.

In an instant, that black fire—the one that had harvested lives so crazily that night—was reflected in everyone's pupils once more.

Only, compared to that night, the evil fire today seemed several times more intense.

With Magpie Nest as the center, the surrounding ten meters felt as if they had plunged into an ice cellar, the bone-chilling cold gnawing at the marrow.

Now that the restrictions on his spiritual energy were gone, the immortal technique, Ghost Moon Bone-Splitting Hand, seemed to have quietly shed its shackles.

Lin Shu suddenly raised his arm, his palm reaching straight forward.

Wisps of black energy darted out like vipers, spreading to wrap around the blurred tiger silhouette.

They danced frantically.

The sharp internal energy was easily torn apart by the black mist, then rapidly dissolved.

The tiger's roar dissipated in the blink of an eye.

With a slight flutter of his long robes, Lin Shu remained standing where he was, unmoved.

But the gaunt old man was left kicking his legs in the air, suspended before him.

Zhang Zhongping's neck was gripped tightly by a clean hand, the fingertips slowly piercing his sagging skin.

The black energy burrowed into his body through the wounds, the biting cold freezing his flesh and blood.

Snap! Snap!

The old man's eyes bulged, his veins throbbing as he struck the youth's wrist with all his might.

But his increasingly sluggish reactions made his movements grow weak.

"Sp... spare..."

Zhang Zhongping had sparred with many cultivators before, but he had never seen such a sinister immortal technique.

What terrified him even more was that the aura emitted by this technique clearly exceeded the scope of the early Qi Refining stage.

The old man could no longer speak a complete sentence; he could only widen his eyes, hoping the other party would see his plea for mercy.

"Must be said."

"Your life ought to be worth quite a bit."

The last sound Zhang Zhongping heard was a whisper, laced with a hint of mockery.

Splurt!

A spray of blood erupted from the fingertips.

Lin Shu had ruthlessly crushed that fragile neck.

At the same time, a notification immediately leaped before his eyes.

[Murder and arson bring golden belts, building bridges and paving roads leave no remains; killed one lowly life, rewarded with twenty Evil Coins]