Compensation

Although Zhang Lei had injured his wrist, he was still fiercely brave. He swung his other fist and smashed it hard toward Lin Yun's chest, every blow aimed at a vital spot.

Li Chao circled to the side and focused on attacking Lin Yun's lower body, occasionally stretching out a foot to trip him. Underhanded moves came one after another.

Sun Yuan was the most timid. He did not dare face Lin Yun head-on, so he hid behind the other two and grabbed teacups and a kettle from the table, hurling them at Lin Yun.

The three worked together seamlessly. Clearly, they had done plenty of this kind of gang-beating before.

But Lin Yun was not flustered in the slightest.

Ever since he was young, he had practiced fighting techniques with his older brother, Lin Hai. This combat art, honed on the battlefield, excelled at fighting many with few and overcoming the strong with the weak.

Previously, his low vitality and blood had restrained him, and he could not even unleash one-tenth of its power.

But now, he was already a first-level Martial Apprentice. The vitality and blood within him were enough to support him in fully executing these fighting techniques.

Lin Yun moved nimbly between the three of them, dodging their attacks while searching for opportunities to strike back.

He first sidestepped Zhang Lei's heavy punch, then used the momentum to ram his shoulder into Zhang Lei's chest, knocking him back several steps.

Immediately afterward, he bent over to dodge Li Chao's sweeping kick, swung his right arm, and drove his elbow viciously into Li Chao's knee.

"Fuck!"

Li Chao let out a scream of pain and dropped to one knee, unable to get back up.

After dealing with Li Chao, Lin Yun did not pause for even a moment. He turned and lunged at Sun Yuan behind him.

Sun Yuan was scared out of his wits. He turned to run, only for Lin Yun to seize him by the back of the collar.

Lin Yun lifted him by the collar like a chick, then slammed him viciously onto the ground.

Bang!

Sun Yuan hit the floor heavily, feeling as though his internal organs had shifted out of place. His vision went black, and he nearly passed out.

At that moment, Zhang Lei lunged at him from behind, wrapping his arms tightly around Lin Yun's waist and trying to throw him to the ground.

"I'll fight you to the death!" Zhang Lei roared.

Lin Yun snorted coldly, sank into a horse stance, and drove his elbow fiercely backward, striking the vulnerable spot beneath Zhang Lei's ribs.

"Urgh!" Zhang Lei lost his breath on the spot and staggered backward again and again before finally collapsing limply to the ground.

In just a few exchanges, three top hundred honor students from Qingcheng Academy had all been knocked to the ground by Lin Yun, where they lay groaning in agony.

Lin Yun dusted himself off and looked at them coldly. "Do you still think I'm trash now?"

The three were in too much pain to speak and could only glare at Lin Yun with venomous eyes.

"Lin Yun... you win..." Zhang Lei gritted his teeth and said with difficulty. "My big brother won't let you off... Just wait... Let's go!"

He struggled to his feet, shot Li Chao and Sun Yuan a look, and started toward the door.

"Stop."

Lin Yun moved ahead of them and blocked the doorway, folding his arms over his chest as he looked at them coldly.

"What do you want?"

Zhang Lei's heart tightened, and he watched Lin Yun warily.

"You come when you want and leave when you want?" Lin Yun snorted. "Do you take my home for a public toilet?"

He pointed at the shattered cups on the floor, the overturned chairs, and the dents smashed into the wall.

"Not only did you break into my home to attack me, you smashed up so many of my things. Shouldn't you give me an explanation?"

The three immediately looked at one another.

They had come to teach Lin Yun a lesson, only to get beaten up by him—and now he actually wanted compensation?

What kind of logic was that?

"Y-you're going too far!" Li Chao said angrily, clutching his broken knee. "You beat us up like this, and you still want more?"

"Too far?" Lin Yun laughed. "When you said you were going to cripple me just now, why didn't you say you were going too far?"

"I won't ask for much." Lin Yun held up three fingers. "Compensation for emotional distress, property damage, and medical expenses. One hundred thousand each, three hundred thousand in total. Pay up, and you can leave."

"Three hundred thousand?!"

All three cried out in shock, their faces full of disbelief.

"Why don't you just rob us?" Sun Yuan shrieked. "The three of us don't even have ten thousand combined! Even a lion opening its jaws has to know its limits!"

"You don't have it?" Lin Yun's gaze turned cold. "Fine, then. I'll call the police and let the peace officers judge who's right. Breaking into a home to commit violence, intentional assault. Tell me, is that enough to get you sentenced to eight or ten years?"

"Oh, right. The martial arts exam is in four days. If you get arrested now, don't even dream of taking the martial arts exam again for the rest of your lives."

As soon as those words fell, the three turned deathly pale.

The martial arts exam!

It was the only way out for them in this lifetime!

They had cultivated painstakingly for more than ten years just to achieve good results in the martial arts exam and change their fates.

If they were arrested over this, their lives would be completely ruined!

And they knew perfectly well that Wang Dalong, in order to avoid getting dragged into the mess, would definitely cut ties with them when the time came. He would not care whether they lived or died.

"D-don't call the police!" Zhang Lei hurriedly said. "We'll pay! We'll pay, all right?"

"But we really don't have three hundred thousand!" Sun Yuan said tearfully. "Our monthly allowance is tiny, and we still have to buy cultivation resources. Where would we get that much money?"

"Can't you lower it?" Li Chao begged as well. "We'll pay thirty thousand each, ninety thousand total. How about that?"

Lin Yun shook his head. "That works too. One bone for ten thousand. You wanted to cripple my arms and legs just now, didn't you? For every ten thousand you pay less, I'll break one of your bones. Fair enough."

As he spoke, he flexed his fingers, producing a crisp series of cracks.

The three shuddered all over in fright.

They did not doubt for a second that Lin Yun would do exactly what he said.

This man was no longer the soft persimmon anyone could bully.

He was a ruthless character.

Zhang Lei gritted his teeth, took out his phone, and called Wang Dalong.

The call was answered quickly, and Wang Dalong's impatient voice came from the other end. "What is it? Have you found Second Tiger yet?"

"Brother Long... not yet..." Zhang Lei said carefully. "Can you lend us some money first?"

"Borrow money?" Wang Dalong's voice instantly rose, filled with rage. "I don't even have enough for myself! Where would I get money to lend you?"

"I'm telling you, if you still can't find Second Tiger within three days, don't come see me again!"

With that, Wang Dalong hung up directly.

Listening to the busy tone, Zhang Lei's face alternated between green and white. In the end, he cursed furiously, "Fuck! What the hell is that?"

He finally understood that Wang Dalong had never treated them as people. He had merely treated them as tools he could discard whenever he pleased.

Now that something had happened, Wang Dalong was unwilling to pay even a single cent.

"What do we do, Brother Lei?"

Sun Yuan asked tearfully.

"What else can we do?" Zhang Lei gritted his teeth, despair filling his eyes. "We can only take out online loans."

He opened an online loan app on his phone and began borrowing money like mad.

Seeing this, Li Chao and Sun Yuan had no choice but to take out their phones and start taking out online loans as well.

To scrape together three hundred thousand, they borrowed from nearly every online lending platform they could.

More than half an hour later, the three finally gathered three hundred thousand and transferred it to Lin Yun with trembling hands.

[Ding! 300,000 Dragon Nation currency has been deposited into your account.]

[Current host balance: 340,372 Dragon Nation currency.]

Looking at the deposit notification on his phone, Lin Yun nodded in satisfaction.

He brought over a sheet of paper and a pen and tossed them in front of the three. "Write an IOU stating that you voluntarily compensated me three hundred thousand and reached a settlement with me."

The three did not dare object in any way. They could only follow Lin Yun's demands, trembling as they wrote the document and signed their names.

"Get lost."

Lin Yun put away the document and opened the front door.

The three felt as though they had been granted a pardon. Supporting one another, they limped out of Lin Yun's home without even daring to leave behind a single threat.

Lin Yun closed the door and looked at the mess on the floor, a faint smile curling at the corner of his lips.

"System, exchange for thirty-four points of vitality and blood!"

Lin Yun silently recited in his mind.

[Ding! 340,000 Dragon Nation currency deducted. Exchanged for 34 points of vitality and blood!]

[Detected that the host's vitality and blood has reached 46 points. Successfully advanced to the fourth level of Martial Apprentice!]

An even more surging force than before erupted from his dantian and flowed through his meridians to every part of his body.

Around Lin Yun's body, the faint red blood aura became incomparably dense, almost condensing into something tangible.

He clenched his fists, feeling the ceaselessly surging power within him, and could not stop the corners of his mouth from lifting.

Thanks to those three money-delivering boys, how else could he have broken through to the fourth level of Martial Apprentice so easily?

After closing the door, Lin Yun began tidying up the disordered furniture. Suddenly, he spotted a notebook that had fallen out of the coffee table.

"This is..."

Lin Yun picked up the notebook and opened it, only to discover that it contained notes his older brother Lin Hai had written years ago.

The notes mainly recorded information about a basic martial skill called Vajra Fist.

Besides cultivation level, practical combat ability is also important in the martial arts exam. If I can learn this martial skill before the exam...

Lin Yun began to make plans.