At nine that night,
After eating and drinking his fill and getting some rest,
Li Xiuwen had a small drink to steady his nerves, then put on loose clothes, hid the Butterfly Knife and the Soul-Crushing Powder in his sleeves, and slipped out into the darkness.
He ran into his aunt-in-law downstairs.
"A Wen, you're going out this late?"
"I'm meeting a friend to practice boxing tonight."
"Come home early. The Enclave's getting more chaotic by the day. They find bodies in the sewers every single day. Sigh..."
"Don't worry."
"If you run into Brother Ji, don't act rashly. Pay him off to avoid trouble, lie low, and endure it. Once you're strong enough, we'll fight our way back!"
"I know."
For now, Li Xiuwen didn't tell his aunt-in-law that he was meeting Brother Ji tonight.
He didn't want her to worry, nor did he want to bring trouble down on his family.
The Enclave might be outside anyone's jurisdiction, but he was going to kill someone. He couldn't be too careful.
His aunt-in-law watched Li Xiuwen disappear into the night wind.
"That boy really has changed since he started learning martial arts. He's gotten bolder. He even dares to go out at night now."
The Enclave had been anything but peaceful lately.
At night, every household locked its doors and windows tight, its lights dim.
Li Xiuwen arrived at the agreed meeting spot on the street and studied the surrounding terrain, looking for escape routes in case something went wrong.
A sewer cover opened. Brother Ji poked his head out and smiled. "You're here."
"Brother Ji, tell me what you need me to do. I'm clumsy, and I'd hate to mess up your plans." Li Xiuwen bowed slightly with a smile.
"You might be timid, but you've got some education. You'd be good at making powder," Brother Ji said with a grin.
"As long as you don't make me take it. I'm frail, and I'd like to live a few more years," Li Xiuwen said meekly.
"Come down and we'll talk. I killed someone a while back, and some asshole's been looking for me lately. I need to lie low." Brother Ji beckoned him over.
Li Xiuwen hesitated for a moment, then approached the sewer entrance with a troubled look.
The stench of excrement, sewage, rotting corpses, and blood... all kinds of foul odors hit him in the face.
That stench was the Enclave's first line of defense against outsiders.
After living here so long, Li Xiuwen had gotten used to it.
"Brother Ji, do you usually live down here?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"You're not short of money, are you? Can't you find somewhere to stay in the Enclave?"
"You don't understand. For people in our line of work, this is the most comfortable place there is."
Once he entered the sewers, Li Xiuwen discovered an entirely different world. This really is... a Dragon Palace.
In the dim light, a crisscrossing network of pipes stretched out of sight like a labyrinth.
"Quite an eye-opener, huh?" Brother Ji walked ahead, with Li Xiuwen following behind.
"Brother Ji, what are we going to do?"
"I'm taking you to meet Third Master and introducing you to the Thirteen Guardians! Remember! Take the powder-making business to your grave. Don't tell anyone, or you know what'll happen."
Brother Ji clearly had plans of his own. He was actually hiding this from Third Master and trying to go into business for himself.
Li Xiuwen wasn't interested in that.
He was afraid of Third Master.
He didn't know how strong Third Master was.
But anyone who could lead the Thirteen Guardians and keep an unruly man like Brother Ji under control was no ordinary fighter. He might already be at the purple membrane stage.
Third Master had been in the underworld for years and had plenty of combat experience. He also had other martial artists around him, possibly even guns. Li Xiuwen couldn't take him on yet.
After a moment's thought, Li Xiuwen asked casually, "Brother Ji, does Third Master know I'm coming?"
"No. Honestly, with that cowardly personality of yours, I'm not even sure he'll think you're worth anything." Brother Ji sneered.
"Got it. I'll make a good impression." Li Xiuwen breathed a sigh of relief. If Third Master didn't know, things would be much easier.
"I won't mistreat you if you work for me. Someday, there'll definitely be a place for you among the Longjin Road Thirteen Guardians." Unaware that death was approaching, Brother Ji kept making empty promises.
"Brother Ji, you're a true brother!" Li Xiuwen played along, lowering the other man's guard as much as possible.
As they passed a corner, he stumbled, slipped, and cried out as he bumped into Brother Ji.
"Fuck, what's wrong with you?" Brother Ji cursed.
"I stepped on something. Probably a rotten banana peel. Sorry, Brother Ji."
"You spineless weakling. You can't even walk properly. How are you going to follow me in this business?"
"You're right, Brother Ji. That's why... I won't be following you anymore!"
Before the last few words left his mouth, Li Xiuwen moved.
Shhk!
The Butterfly Knife sank into Brother Ji's chest up to the hilt. Warm, bloody spray spurted along the blade and splashed across half of Li Xiuwen's face.
Brother Ji shuddered and turned his head in disbelief.
A handful of pungent, irritating powder hit him full in the face, making him choke.
"...Cough, cough."
Brother Ji's eyes instantly reddened and swelled, their whites streaked with blood. Even his vision began to blur.
The cold knife had stabbed into the left side of his chest through his back. It hurt terribly.
"You..." Only that single word squeezed out of his throat.
"Eat shit!" Li Xiuwen's face twisted as he gripped the hilt with both hands and drove it forward with all his strength.
The blade went another inch deeper, piercing clean through.
The Butterfly Knife was relatively small and disappeared entirely into Brother Ji's body.
Brother Ji's pupils abruptly shrank to two black pinpoints.
His ferocity flared as he neared death, and he slammed his shoulder into Li Xiuwen, knocking him away.
His right fist, as big as a sandbag, swung in a full arc and smashed toward Li Xiuwen's face with a rush of air.
He was confident this punch would cave Li Xiuwen's face in.
With his azure membrane cultivation, how could this brat have hurt him if not for an ambush with a sharp blade?
Without his knife, Li Xiuwen raised his hands.
Beneath his loose sleeves, a rich azure sheen faintly spread over the skin of both arms.
Veins writhed beneath the membrane, like a dormant dragon waking.
He slapped the incoming fist aside. The crack of breaking bone mingled with Brother Ji's muffled grunt.
Brother Ji's fist was knocked sideways, his entire arm going numb.
Before he could pull it back, Li Xiuwen's second palm strike was already coming.
Backstab!
Scatter powder!
Palm strike!
The lightning-fast combination left Brother Ji no time to react.
The Sand-Turning Palm, tempered through countless repetitions, struck his neck squarely.
Crack.
Bones snapped like dry firewood bursting in a blaze, and Brother Ji's head tilted sideways at an unnatural angle.
Before he could fall, Li Xiuwen followed up with another palm strike.
Under that tremendous force,
Brother Ji's entire body flew sideways.
His head struck the sheet-metal wall of a pipe with a dull thud that echoed through the narrow passage.
Sand-Turning Palm, Waves Sifting Sand!
Li Xiuwen had never killed anyone before and didn't know whether Brother Ji was dead.
One palm strike, then another!
Only when red and white matter trickled down Brother Ji's cheeks and his body stopped twitching, lying utterly still, did he stop.
Li Xiuwen halted, panting hard. The smell of blood brought him back to his senses.
Brother Ji's eyes were still open, his pupils dilated, the shock of his final moment lingering within them.
"Azure membrane..."
Even as he died, there was one thing Brother Ji couldn't understand.
That weakling he had knocked unconscious with a single slap a month ago,
That useless coward who hadn't even dared to fight back,
How had he suddenly become stronger than Brother Ji, an azure membrane expert who had spent a long time honing his skills?
And why had an expert at this level gone to such painstaking lengths to ambush him and use concealed weapons?
He was still the same A Wen he knew, cowardly as ever...
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