Learning the Evil-Warding Sword, One Infection Becomes Two

Adam Smith bent down and picked up his treasure. Holding it in his hand, he instinctively weighed it. It was unexpectedly light.

Just like an octopus's tentacle, once severed from its body, it would shrink and curl up. If it kept losing moisture, it would quickly dry out and become a lump of solid organic matter.

Before it dried up, Adam Smith instinctively squeezed it again, as though reminiscing about his days as a man. His expression was quite wistful.

A moment later, he steeled himself once more.

He had already lost everything, yet he had gained the chance to become a superhuman. What was there to be dissatisfied about?

Past the halfway point of his life, he had enjoyed glory as a man and experienced rock bottom as well. Now, he would take on a different identity and see different sights.

Before setting out again, he wanted to make a clean break with his past.

Clutching his treasure, he went downstairs and came face-to-face with his furious wife.

Though traces of age had marked her once-beautiful face, her charm remained hard to conceal. But now, that face only filled Adam with annoyance and hatred.

"Fuck you! It's past nine and you're not at work. Do you really want to go bro—"

The man's fist struck the blonde woman in the stomach. The tremendous force tensed every muscle in her body; her ample breasts rippled, her eyes bulged, her small mouth flew open, and she spat out a mouthful of blood.

He stuffed the treasure in his other hand into the blonde woman's mouth, pushing it straight down her throat. Adam brutally shut her jaw, forcibly cramming the treasure into her esophagus.

"You..." The blonde woman clutched her throat, unable to breathe. Trembling, she said, "You... made me eat... what..."

The treasure blocked her throat and plugged her windpipe. Within moments, the blonde woman's face turned a deep purplish red.

"Knowing you, blocking just one hole definitely wouldn't fill you up." Adam Smith glanced around, then walked over to the baseball bat in the corner and picked it up.

He kicked his wife to the floor, grabbed one of her legs with one hand, raised the baseball bat, circulated his Inner Force, and performed a direct thrust from the sword arts.

Splat!

The thick end of the baseball bat thrust toward the opening.

For the first time, the fierce Evil-Warding Swordplay displayed its power in this world. It first pierced through her abdomen, then her chest cavity, and finally reached her throat, successfully joining up with the big treasure.

The entire long baseball bat was driven into the blonde woman's body.

Within seconds, she stopped breathing. Her body still twitched from time to time on reflex, like a fish with its head chopped off.

"For the sake of all the hard work you once put into serving me, I'll give you a quick death."

Adam Smith looked coldly at the blonde woman on the floor.

"I'll send every man you slept with down there to reunite with you, one by one. I promise you, they won't die easily..."

After sweeping up all the cash and bank cards in the apartment, Adam Smith set fire to the home that had once recorded his happy memories.

The flames soared into the sky. Dressed in casual clothes, Adam disappeared into the neighborhood against the flow of people.

He first went to Chinatown at the southern end of Manhattan, found a tailor shop, and handed the owner a hand-drawn design.

"I need an outfit like this, made with red fabric."

This was the image etched most deeply into Adam's memory. Invincible East's red robes had become the most striking mark in a black-and-white world, like a flame that lit up his new life.

"This..."

The tailor shop owner was an elderly Chinese man. He looked Adam up and down. Adam's cultivation was still shallow; not only had his Adam's apple not disappeared, even the stubble from not shaving overnight remained obvious.

"This is women's clothing!"

"That's fine. I'll pay double. Please start right away." Adam tossed out two hundred-dollar bills.

For the sake of the money, the old tailor asked no more questions. Perhaps the man was buying it for his wife or mistress.

Who would have thought that after it was finished, Adam Smith would change into the red women's outfit right in front of him?

Before leaving, Adam clasped his fists like they did in the movies. "Many thanks!"

Dressed in red, Adam Smith walked down the streets of Chinatown, drawing quite a few looks. But this was free America. People in strange outfits were common enough; even a riot of demons and monsters would not be surprising.

He searched the streets for a long time without finding a shop that sold cold weapons. In the end, as he passed a martial arts school, he spotted a sword on a weapon rack through the glass window.

"Boss, I'd like to buy a sword from you."

The martial arts master stared in astonishment at this strange man dressed as a woman. It took him quite a while to recover. "You want to buy a sword?"

"Yes." Adam nodded.

"Have you studied Chinese swordsmanship?" The owner's thoughts shifted, and he hurriedly smiled as he pitched his services. "If you're interested in Chinese swordsmanship, you can come learn at our school..."

"I'll pay the tuition. Please sell me a good sword." As a former Wall Street elite, Adam naturally understood what the owner meant.

Seeing that the man was willing to pay extra and that he would not have to spend time teaching him, the owner naturally had no reason to refuse.

He walked over to the weapon rack, selected a slender iron sword modeled after a Han sword, and brought it before Adam Smith, not forgetting to sing its praises. "Sir, you may not understand this, but Han swords inherited the swordmaking traditions of the Zhou Dynasty and hold an irreplaceable place in the entire history of Chinese blades and swords..."

The moment he saw the sword, Adam Smith could not look away, because it greatly resembled the one at Invincible East's waist.

Naturally, this was Lin Hao's personal aesthetic.

Adam stepped forward, grabbed the hilt, and drew the sword in one smooth motion. With a flick of his wrist, he spun several sword flowers. Carried away by the moment, he performed several moves of the Evil-Warding Swordplay inside the martial arts school.

The sword moves were astonishingly fast. Sword shadows drifted and flickered, cold light flashed, and sharp intent tore through the air with piercing whistles.

"Fine sword!"

Adam Smith casually sheathed it, tossed down the cash, and took the sword from the owner.

The stunned martial arts school owner still had not come back to his senses.

What had he just seen?

A foreigner with a high nose had displayed breathtakingly exquisite swordsmanship right in front of him!

What did Chinese martial arts look like in Marvel?

Some fake routines combining movements from tai chi and xingyi, deliberately pushing Chinese martial arts toward flashy but impractical forms. They learned tai chi and xingyi without even touching the surface, yet refused to depict fierce martial arts like bajiquan and baguazhang.

The movements in "Iron Fist" and "Shang-Chi" were less Chinese martial arts than karate and judo. Yet foreigners had no idea that Japanese martial arts originated from China, so naturally they developed contempt for Chinese martial arts.

It could only be said that their intentions were truly sinister.

The sudden appearance of a pure and fierce set of Chinese swordsmanship even made the martial arts school owner doubt who was actually Chinese.

Coming to his senses, the owner hurriedly chased out and shouted at the red-clad man already walking away, "Master, I want to learn martial arts from you!"

Adam Smith ignored him. Now that he had obtained a real sword, he set foot on the road of revenge.

Soon, Adam appeared on Wall Street. He strode boldly into the securities company where he worked and pushed open the door to his boss's office amid his colleagues' stunned gazes.

Without another word, he drew his sword and struck.

First, slices of fat were carved away by the whirling blade. Only after flesh and bone separated did the enormous head finally leave the obese body.

Blood shot into the air, and chunks of flesh scattered everywhere, staining the white office.

Only a bloodstained skeleton remained in the chair behind the desk.

After killing the man, Adam Smith left his boss's office and headed for the supervisor who had threatened him yesterday.

The sword light flashed fiercely, followed by another pillar of blood.

This man had never touched his wife, but his mouth was filthy.

Only after seeing Adam Smith kill two people in the blink of an eye did the office workers finally scream in terror.

"Someone's been murdered!!!"

"Who else?" Adam Smith tilted his head and thought for a moment before realizing. "Oh, there's also Porter, Billy, Thor..."

He stepped forward and asked a male colleague whose legs were trembling with a smile, "Ron, where is Mr. Porter?"

"In... in... the securities hall!"

"Thank you!"

After politely thanking him, Adam Smith went to the securities hall and found Mr. Porter pitching stocks to clients.

He drew his sword and performed the sword moves as though practicing.

Once again, bone and flesh separated, and blood and meat flew through the air.

After using the sword moves several times, Adam Smith discovered something miraculous. The swordplay he had learned actually boosted the energy within his body with every use. In other words, as long as he survived each battle, he would become stronger than before.

After the consecutive murders, the Manhattan Police Department had received the news, and police cars came screaming in.

At the same time, surveillance footage was transmitted back to S.H.I.E.L.D., drawing attention from multiple parties.

Lin Hao watched the drama unfold while enjoying the growing Essence of Grievance in the background.

"Learning the Evil-Warding Sword, one infection becomes two. Let the American men start competing..."

Thanks to Dust in the Sea of People for the 500-point donation.