Too Much Nonsense

Thud thud!

Zhang Yu was looking over his system panel when he discovered that Xu Yang could add nearly 100 master-disciple points for him every day.

"Training so diligently? Sigh, why won't this child listen? If he doesn't disperse his cultivation, the more he trains, the farther he'll stray from the right path." Zhang Yu sighed.

Urgent knocking came from outside.

"Who is it?"

"Senior Brother Zhang, it's me, Su Wan."

Creak!

Zhang Yu opened the courtyard gate and found Su Wan standing outside, her face full of anxiety.

"What is it?"

"Senior Brother Zhang, Li Feifei went out with Ye Xuan this morning and still hasn't returned. When I came back from dinner this evening, I found a letter in the room." Su Wan handed the letter in her hand to Zhang Yu.

Zhang Yu frowned slightly as he took the letter, opened it, and scanned three lines at a glance. He finished reading it quickly.

His brow furrowed even tighter.

"At midnight tonight, Rat Alley, Xiping Ward. If you fail to come in time, Li Feifei dies, and the Chu Family is wiped out."

Zhang Yu was not particularly concerned about Li Feifei's death. However, when he saw the last three words, a spark of anger rose in his heart.

The Chu Family. Chu Qingwen had already returned to Boundless City a month ago. Apart from the shares given to the Sima Family and the Cui Family, the Black Tiger Gang's medicinal herb business was all sold through the Chu Family's channels.

Chu Qingwen was now in charge of that portion of the business.

Fortunately, she had returned to Boundless City early because of the business. Otherwise, they would very likely have captured her as well.

They were targeting him, and they had investigated him.

Zhang Yu quickly came to that conclusion.

The next second, he raised his head and glanced at Su Wan, silently considering, What role is Su Wan playing in this?

"Is she an accomplice, or merely a tool for delivering the message?"

Seeing Zhang Yu's icy gaze, Su Wan felt a wave of fear rise in her heart. After thinking for a moment, she said, "Senior Brother Zhang, not a single word I said was false. My family is a merchant family. When facing genius martial artists like you, I would never do anything risky. Please believe me."

Zhang Yu neither said he believed her nor that he did not. He asked, "Li Feifei went out with Ye Xuan?"

"Yes. Ye Xuan seemed to owe Li Feifei a top-grade Blood-Nourishing Pill..." Su Wan recounted the conversation she had vaguely overheard that morning.

At the time, Ye Xuan and Li Feifei had been talking outside her room, and she had caught only the general gist.

"Ye Xuan hasn't returned either?"

"Yes!" Su Wan nodded again.

"Who else from the Ye Family is at Hidden Spirit Academy?" Zhang Yu thought for a moment before asking.

"Once, when Ye Xuan was drunk, he seemed to mention that the Ye Family's direct descendant, Young Master Ye Ditian, was an inner disciple of Star Court. He seemed to be a martial artist at the peak of the Transformative Force Realm," Su Wan replied.

"I understand."

Zhang Yu now had a clear idea of the situation. He strode toward the exit of Hidden Spirit Academy.

Inner disciples were not subject to the same strict restrictions as outer disciples when entering and leaving the academy. He merely showed his token and easily left Hidden Spirit Academy.

Xiping Ward, Rat Alley.

Ye Xuan was grabbing Li Feifei by the hair. Her face was covered in blood, yet her eyes held not the slightest trace of submission or fear.

Ptooey!

Li Feifei spat a mouthful of bloody phlegm onto Ye Xuan's face. "Trash. Ye Xuan, you're nothing but trash. If you've got the guts, kill me! Hahaha..."

Bang bang bang...

"I'll beat you to death, you bitch!" Ye Xuan punched and kicked Li Feifei like a madman.

"I must have been blind to bet everything on you before. I never expected you to be such trash. Trash! You're not even qualified to lick Zhang Yu's shoes anymore! Hahaha..." Li Feifei laughed maniacally.

"Bitch! Bitch..." Ye Xuan completely broke down, his martial heart shattered.

"Enough. Shut the hell up," Ye Ditian said as he shot Ye Xuan a cold glance.

His eyes were filled with contempt, which only provoked Ye Xuan further.

Bang!

Ye Xuan punched Li Feifei in the temple. Her eyes rolled back, and her body went limp as she collapsed to the ground, her life and death unknown.

When Zhang Yu had come to bid on the Fire Spirit Crystal last time, he had spent over half a month touring Spirit Hidden City, so he was not unfamiliar with the place. He quickly arrived at Rat Alley.

Rat Alley in Siping Ward was where the poor lived. Once night fell, the place was pitch-black and silent, without a single person in sight.

Tap, tap...

Zhang Yu walked deeper into the alley step by step. His pace was neither hurried nor slow, and he felt no tension inside.

So long as no True Qi Realm martial artist appeared, no one could do anything to him. Moreover, ever since Zhang Yu's strength had reached one hundred thousand jin, he had wanted to find a True Qi Realm martial artist to test himself against and see just how great the gap was.

Zhang Yu had spent two months reading miscellaneous martial arts books in the Scripture Library, and he had long since figured out what the True Qi Realm was about.

One opened up the dantian and nurtured inner qi from flesh and blood, thereby increasing one's strength.

Flesh and blood, sinews and bones, internal organs.

Once the strength of these three could no longer increase, the ancient sages developed methods of inner qi, allowing one to break through the limits of human strength.

Soon, Zhang Yu saw Ye Xuan and Ye Ditian, as well as Li Feifei lying on the ground, her life and death unknown.

Zhang Yu's gaze settled on Ye Ditian. "Let her go, and I'll leave you an intact corpse."

"Zhang Yu, do you know who you're talking to? You don't think that passing the Dragon Gate Assessment makes you invincible under heaven, do you? A country bumpkin is still a country bumpkin, utterly ignorant of true power." Before Ye Ditian could speak, Ye Xuan shouted over him.

"This is the Ye Family's genius, Young Master Ye Ditian. If you kneel and beg for mercy now, our young master may let you die a little faster."

Zhang Yu looked at the clamoring Ye Xuan and frowned slightly. Suddenly, his body blurred, leaving behind layer upon layer of afterimages.

Following Wind!

A faint breeze stirred through Rat Alley. The instant Ye Xuan felt it, Zhang Yu was already before him.

Mountain-Crushing!

Bang!

A lightning-fast punch struck Ye Xuan squarely in the chest. Ye Xuan had no time to react. It was too fast.

Ye Xuan's entire chest caved in. Terrifying force burst out through his back with a bang, blasting a bloody hole directly through it.

"You..." Ye Xuan stared wide-eyed at Zhang Yu, who stood inches away. He managed only that one word before his body crumpled to the ground, dead.

"You're next." Zhang Yu turned his head and glanced at Ye Ditian beside him.

In an instant, every hair on Ye Ditian's body stood on end. His expression of certain victory turned tense.

A faint breeze had just passed, and Ye Xuan had died. Forget Ye Xuan—even he, at the peak of the Transformative Force Realm, had failed to react. That was terrifying.

Ye Ditian retreated rapidly. "Zhang Yu, you aren't in the late Dark Force Realm."

"Too much nonsense!" Zhang Yu moved, instantly catching up to Ye Ditian. He swung a Great Avalanche at the man's head.

When strength reached a certain level, one could simply crush others with brute force. No matter how formidable your technique was, it became useless before absolute power.

One force broke ten thousand techniques.

Ye Ditian felt the terrifying power behind Zhang Yu's punch. He stopped retreating, planted his feet in a bow stance, and pressed his left palm against the back of his right. The Ye Family's first-rate technique, Twin-Stacked Palm, met Zhang Yu's fist head-on.

Boom!

Fist and palm collided.

The powerful force released a shockwave that surged outward from the point where fist met palm.

Ye Ditian poured all the force in his body into his hands, power rising from his feet and transmitting into his palms. Yet he discovered that the Twin-Stacked Palm, which had always carried all before it, was as fragile as a sheet of paper. The immense force coming from Zhang Yu's fist was like a mountain, and it carried a tearing power.

Crack, crack...

Bang bang bang...

The skin and blood vessels of both his hands and arms burst first, spraying blood. Then came the sounds of his bones shattering.

Thud!

The bow stance had been the most stable stance, yet the force of Zhang Yu's punch forcibly destroyed it. The stone slabs beneath Ye Ditian's feet shattered instantly. He dropped to his knees with a thud, and his kneecaps shattered as well.

"No..." Ye Ditian screamed.