Missing-Tooth Kid died with his eyes wide open, unable to rest in peace.
"Did Third Master's backers come looking for me?"
Having killed a Black Membrane practitioner with a single palm strike, Li Xiuwen lifted the ghost mask and examined the face. He had never seen him before.
"I have to admit, Old Huang's exclusive secret recipe, Soul-Crushing Powder, really does work every time in a fight."
In the deserted night, Li Xiuwen hoisted the black-clad man's corpse and quickly disappeared.
When he reappeared, he was in the familiar Sewers. An eerie green ghost fire lit up in the distance. It was Crocodile.
Li Xiuwen searched the corpse. This martial artist had only a hundred in loose cash on him.
Of course, ordinary people in this world would not carry huge sums around. It was not as though they had storage pouches.
In the darkness, a glint of gold showed inside the martial artist's mouth. Li Xiuwen pried it open and discovered a gold tooth.
"Good stuff." He pulled out the gold tooth, tossed the corpse ahead, and said with a smile, "Brothers, dinner's served."
As soon as he finished speaking, a dark shape seized the corpse in its jaws and slipped away.
Li Xiuwen left the Sewers by a different route.
While preparing to kill Third Master a few days earlier, he had learned the underground drainage network around Longjin Road inside out.
"Black Membrane peak strength, a gold tooth, acting on someone's orders, and a stink of smoke on him..."
"With those clues, maybe I can find out who it was."
Back at Chen's Rice Noodle Factory, Aunt-in-law and Uncle-in-law were both safe.
"Has anyone come by these past few days?" Li Xiuwen asked.
"No..." Aunt-in-law shook her head, then asked, "Did something happen?"
"Stay home as much as you can for the next few days," Li Xiuwen said. "If anything happens, call the martial arts hall right away."
Aunt-in-law's eyes widened instantly. She looked around and lowered her voice. "A Wen, is everything all right?"
"It's fine," Li Xiuwen said. "We'll move to the Central District later. It's right under Mr. Ming's nose, so it's a little safer."
Aunt-in-law nodded. "All right. Whatever you say."
That night,
Lying in bed, Li Xiuwen lifted his shirt, revealing five red marks on his abdomen. The blood had already scabbed over.
He still felt a lingering fear. Since setting out on the Martial Way, this was the first time he had suffered such serious... superficial wounds!
Fortunately, his Binding Armor Skill was close to minor mastery, and the man had held back because he wanted to capture him alive.
Otherwise, that punch with the brass knuckles would have gone straight into his gut.
He looked at the [Incense Burner].
[Binding Armor Skill: entry (91%)]
An entry-level Membrane Gate hard qigong technique like Iron Cloth Shirt could never offer this much protection.
Binding Armor Skill truly lived up to its reputation as a method that led straight to the Tiger-Elephant Gate!
Li Xiuwen mused, "The enemy was so overconfident. They probably still think I'm at Purple Membrane."
If the enemy knew he was at Black Membrane, they would probably have sent a Second Gate expert.
That was why the Four Seas Martial Arts Hall had a rule: without a fellow disciple's permission, no one could disclose their actual cultivation or martial arts mastery.
Huang Sihai was right. In the Enclave, you really did have to keep something hidden while showing something else, and keep a low profile.
The enemy lurking in the shadows had hung another sword over Li Xiuwen's head, just when he had finally found some peace.
"My priority is getting to the Second Floor and becoming Huang Sihai's formal disciple. Then ordinary people won't dare provoke me."
Li Xiuwen stayed awake all night. He hardly dared sleep, afraid the enemy would attack Chen's Rice Noodle Factory directly.
Fortunately, he had worried for nothing. The sun rose as usual the next morning, though it could not be seen from inside the Enclave.
During the day, on his way to the Four Seas Martial Arts Hall,
Li Xiuwen avoided his usual route. He had decided not to follow a fixed route anymore.
The Enclave had few advantages, but there were gaps between buildings everywhere that he could squeeze through, and plenty of routes to choose from.
Passing an alley, he saw three skeletal street thugs beating someone.
"You old bastard! You dared steal our powder? Die!"
"With that pathetic look of yours, if you're from a martial arts family, then I'm the almighty Heavenly King!"
The victim was an old man, his hunched figure curled up.
He covered his head and endured it without a word.
Once the thugs had finished venting their anger, they noticed Li Xiuwen glance their way. One grinned. "Kid, what are you looking at?"
Li Xiuwen ignored him and walked over, looking down at the old man dying on the ground.
He seemed to have seen this man once before. He was the one who had muttered about possessing the Dragon-Chasing Duke's peerless divine art.
The old man's head had been split open, and blood covered the ground.
One of the thugs grew angry when Li Xiuwen ignored him.
He ran over and shoved Li Xiuwen hard, only to find that he did not budge.
Li Xiuwen merely glanced at him. "Try pushing me again."
Realizing at once that he was a trained fighter, the thug dropped to his knees with a thud, tears and snot streaming down his face.
"Boss, we were wrong! This is our money to buy our lives! Please spare us!"
The thugs pulled out all their loose cash and handed it to Li Xiuwen. It came to three hundred altogether.
Li Xiuwen took the money and smiled. "You know what's good for you... Do you have a boss?"
The thugs shook their heads. "Boss, we grew up on this street. We're just small-time punks, with no martial arts training. No boss would take us."
"Fine. Since you have no boss, I'll teach you a lesson and tell you how to survive in the Enclave," Li Xiuwen said with a smile and a nod.
"Thank you, boss." The thugs looked grateful, assuming he had decided to let them go.
Li Xiuwen suddenly raised his hand.
Smack! Smack! Smack!
Three slaps.
The three thugs flew into the wall, vomiting bloody foam as they fell. Their heads spun, and blood poured from their wounds.
He walked up to one of the dying thugs, grabbed him by the collar, and lifted him. "Have you learned anything?" he asked with a smile.
Sensing death closing in, the thugs wet themselves, yellow liquid seeping out. "Boss, just tell us!" they sobbed. "We're stupid! We don't understand!"
"Treat people courteously and value harmony... so you don't provoke someone you shouldn't and get beaten to death," Li Xiuwen said sternly. "Understand?"
"We understand, boss." The thugs' smiles looked uglier than their tears.
"Then get lost... and don't show your faces in front of me again."
"Yes! We're going!"
The thugs really did roll away along the ground.
Their legs had broken when they hit the wall. They were already crippled.
Judging by how quickly the three thugs had knelt and begged, this clearly was not their first time provoking a martial artist.
All
he could say was that some people never learned, no matter how often they were beaten.
After those slaps, these three walking corpses, their bodies hollowed out by opium, probably would not survive until tomorrow in this lawless Enclave.
Most likely, other street thugs or the Dragon-Chasing Duke would devour them. Whatever usable "spare parts" remained on their bodies would be sold on the Black Market for money to buy powder.
Li Xiuwen was kindhearted, too, helping them escape their suffering without pain.
Someone with a nastier temper would have twisted their heads off to use as chamber pots. They would not even have left intact corpses.
There was no helping it. These days, the Enclave had too many fools whose minds had been eaten away by opium. They had long since lost their reason and judgment.
"It's you..." The Mad Old Man opened his eyes and looked at Li Xiuwen. "You've started practicing martial arts."
"Oh, you still remember me." Li Xiuwen was mildly surprised.
"I'm from a martial arts family. I read poetry and books from childhood. I have a good memory." With death approaching, the Mad Old Man no longer sounded mad. He sounded like any normal person.
Before, Li Xiuwen would not have believed such nonsense.
The Enclave was a mixed bag, packed with refugees from all corners of the world.
If there were not a thousand people claiming to be descendants of martial arts families or nobles of the former dynasty, there were at least eight hundred.
99.9% of them were frauds who took the money and ran.
But after meeting Old Chen, his view had changed a little.
A hundred years ago, the Great Qian Dynasty's gates had been battered by the Foreign Devils' demonic Martial Fighters and foreign guns and cannons.
During that long war, who knew how many martial arts families had been reduced to the dust of history?
"Which martial arts family are you from?" Li Xiuwen asked with a smile.
The Mad Old Man fell silent for a moment, then began to cry. Tears mingled with blood as he murmured, "I don't remember anymore."
"What about that peerless technique passed down in your family in the Prosperous State? I'll buy it."
Deciding to give it a try, Li Xiuwen took out fifty and handed it to the old man.
He was a trained fighter now, so he was not afraid of the old man swindling him. At worst, he could beat him to death and take the money back.
The Mad Old Man took the money and asked, "Is this enough to buy a coffin?"
"No," Li Xiuwen said, shaking his head.
"Then forget it." The Mad Old Man shook his head and refused the money.
He coughed. "Young man, judging by your accent, you're from the Prosperous State too, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"Will you go back someday?"
"Yes."
The Prosperous State was the birthplace of every martial arts school in Fragrant Harbor, a nation of the Martial Way.
Once he had the strength, Li Xiuwen would certainly go there and see it for himself.
"If you ever set foot in the Prosperous State, please take this to Thousand-Buddha Mountain, in Qizhou Prefecture of the Lu Region... All I know is that I came from there..."
As he spoke, the Mad Old Man took off his tattered shoe, lifted the foul-smelling insole, and pulled a piece of golden silk from a hidden layer.
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