Chen's Rice Noodle Factory.
In a flash.
Li Xiuwen struck out with another palm!
The other street thug's expression changed drastically, and he raised both arms to block.
Bang! An invisible surge of force swept up the flour in the factory, forming a visible white wave.
The street thug hung against the wall like a painting before crashing to the floor. A series of cracks erupted inside him. Several ribs had snapped, piercing his chest cavity.
Li Xiuwen stamped on the thug's neck. With a crack, the major artery ruptured, and blood gushed out.
His sole passed over the thug's dead face, frozen in terror and shock, its pupils narrowed to slits. Expressionless, he charged at Venomous Snake.
"Sending a man onto the wall like a hanging painting... you're a trained fighter. So you really were the one who killed Aji!" Venomous Snake stared at Li Xiuwen with ruthless, disbelieving eyes.
As far as he knew, Li Xiuwen had only gone to the Martial Arts Hall last month. Even counting generously, he had been training under a master for no more than a month and a half.
By all rights, reaching the azure membrane stage would already have been extraordinary.
Yet with the skill he displayed now, Venomous Snake would have believed he had reached the purple membrane stage.
Even with help from Ye Nantian's disciples and drugs to boost him, reaching the purple membrane stage in a month and a half should have been impossible.
The air cracked. Venomous Snake snapped back to his senses, only to see a palm as broad as a fan striking toward his chest.
He practiced the martial arts of the Water Snake Style. His footwork was as slippery as a loach, allowing him to evade Li Xiuwen's attack by a hair.
"Not bad." Li Xiuwen followed with a second palm, then a third.
Venomous Snake dared not meet him head-on, dodging and weaving through the cramped room.
Suddenly, he drew a dagger from his waist and stabbed at Li Xiuwen.
Li Xiuwen slapped the dagger aside with one hand and unleashed the Sand-Turning Palm with the other.
Hard force erupted over a mere inch, exploding outward. Venomous Snake was blasted away. His eyes bulged as he clutched his chest and spat out a mouthful of blood.
An ordinary person would already have been dead.
His azure membrane protected him, but he was still gravely wounded.
Venomous Snake tried to flee, but a massive palm, heavy as a thousand-pound weight, pinned him down. He stumbled and fell to the floor.
Li Xiuwen casually slapped Venomous Snake across the face, knocking the azure membrane expert unconscious.
Li Xiuwen looked at his still-shaken Aunt-in-law and Uncle-in-law and said calmly, "I'll keep him alive for now."
The two nodded instinctively.
Once he recovered, Uncle-in-law asked, "What are you going to do?"
"Find Third Master... and kill him, so he can't cause trouble later," Li Xiuwen said.
Since Venomous Snake had come knocking, and had even begun investigating and suspecting him, he might as well strike first.
His strength would be exposed during the Martial Hall Challenge before long anyway.
He had to kill Third Master before that happened, lest Third Master suspect him and create more trouble.
"Kill Third Master?" Uncle-in-law's expression changed. This was the local tyrant entrenched on Longjin Road.
"I'm confident I can kill him. I just can't find him," Li Xiuwen said.
Purple membrane plus the Binding Armor Skill.
Anyone below the black membrane stage could be killed.
The only thing he had to worry about was whether Third Master had a gun.
That was why he needed to keep Venomous Snake alive.
Knock, knock, knock!
Outside, a neighbor knocked on the door.
"A Ying, what's going on? Are you two fighting in there?" an old woman asked.
"It's nothing. We're trying for a baby," Aunt-in-law said with a smile.
The neighbors were all elderly men and women with poor hearing. They assumed the couple had been fighting.
After asking out of concern, everyone left.
Uncle-in-law looked at the two corpses and asked, "A Wen, how do we deal with these?"
"Hide them first. Find a chance to dump them in the sewers at midnight. The rats down there are as big as cats. Who knows how many people they've eaten?" Li Xiuwen said.
"A Wen, were you the one who killed Brother Ji?" By now, how could Aunt-in-law not understand? Brother Ji hadn't disappeared. He was dead.
The timid, cowardly A Wen she remembered had killed two street thugs with a terrifying calm. He didn't look like someone killing for the first time.
"Yes," Li Xiuwen said.
"You... you've mastered it?" Uncle-in-law asked in shock.
"More or less. In any case, dealing with most of the street thugs in The Enclave is easy."
"Well..." Uncle-in-law fell silent.
Aunt-in-law said nothing either.
Neither of them knew what to say.
They had watched A Wen train hard every day. He had grown stronger.
But his behavior and personality seemed unchanged. He was still so timid.
Until tonight, A Wen had remained just as they remembered him.
Now everything had changed.
"What's wrong?" Li Xiuwen asked with a smile. "Why have you both gone quiet now that I've mastered it?"
"It just feels unreal... like a dream," Aunt-in-law said, laughing and crying at once.
"It's a good thing!" Uncle-in-law said. "Now I've got even more reason to earn money! If I can support a martial arts expert, my life will have been worth it."
"Go back and get some rest. I'll handle the rest," Li Xiuwen said.
Aunt-in-law and Uncle-in-law went to bed, but how could they sleep? Their minds were filled with the bloody image of A Wen sending a street thug flying with a single palm strike.
Late that night.
Taking advantage of the empty streets, Li Xiuwen carried the two corpses far away and dumped them into the sewers.
He washed away the traces with foul water, then took a winding route home.
A basin of water splashed down. Venomous Snake woke to find himself tied to a pillar.
"Do you want a quick death or a slow one?" Li Xiuwen asked, toying with a butterfly knife.
"Don't kill me. Whatever money you want, I'll give it to you. I'll never charge your family protection money again," Venomous Snake pleaded, his earlier arrogance gone.
"Tell me where Third Master lives."
"If I tell you, you can't kill me."
"You don't have a choice." Li Xiuwen plunged the knife into Venomous Snake's thigh and dragged it back and forth as though slicing pork.
"I'll tell you!" Venomous Snake soon gave in.
Street thugs like him had neither loyalty nor a martial artist's resolve.
To Li Xiuwen's relief, Third Master had no gun.
Most street thugs and members of small gangs in The Enclave had no way to obtain guns or ammunition.
Only core members of the major gangs might have them.
Li Xiuwen gave Venomous Snake a quick death, then entered the sewers to find Third Master.
Suddenly, something seemed to be startled by his footsteps. A dark shape darted through the filthy water ahead.
It was huge, definitely no rat.
In the dim light, he got a clear look.
It was a somewhat deformed crocodile, roughly ten feet long, carrying a severed arm in its mouth.
"Fuck, this 'Dragon Palace' really does have a 'dragon'...
Who's keeping a fucking crocodile in the sewers?"
Li Xiuwen dared not linger. He turned a corner and went to find Third Master.
Fragrant Sea had no native crocodiles, so the one in these sewers could only have been raised by gang members.
Its purpose, of course, was to serve as The Enclave's "cleaner."
He had always thought it was just an urban legend. This time, he had seen it for himself.
Splash, splash, splash...
It sounded as though someone was wading toward him.
Third Master opened his eyes on his throne of scrap metal and grabbed a machete.
He stood and hid behind a wall, waiting.
His home was surrounded by water on all sides. Unless someone possessed an exceptionally advanced movement technique, they couldn't approach without making a sound.
The footsteps drew closer.
Old dragons seemed to coil around Third Master's aged arms. His qi and blood surged, and his skin membrane glowed purple in the darkness.
A foot appeared before him.
Third Master raised his machete and brought it down.
A tearing sound rang out, like the slicing of flesh and breaking of bones when a pig was slaughtered for the New Year.
A body split in two slammed into him, its halves still connected by strands of tissue.
"Fuck, Venomous Snake!" Third Master cursed under his breath as he looked down.
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