Cooperation

Manager Sha escorted Chen Xu to the entrance of the Martial Pavilion, his brow furrowing slightly. "Why is the entrance so noisy? I must apologize for this unseemly display before the deputy pavilion master." "Head Manager Sha, you're finally out." A guard at the door jogged all the way up to him. "That woman has been kneeling at the entrance of the Martial Pavilion the whole time. We couldn't very well chase her off, and she had us worried sick." "Kneeling? Why is she kneeling there?" Manager Sha wore a puzzled expression. What era was this to be pulling such a stunt? If she had a grievance, shouldn't she go to the Public Security Office? The woman kneeling before the Martial Pavilion gates wore a faded cloth tunic, her hair disheveled and her eyes devoid of spirit. Seeing someone else step out from within the Martial Pavilion, her lifeless eyes shifted slightly. When she caught sight of Manager Sha's appearance, she abruptly sprang to his feet and rushed over, clasping Manager Sha's leg and weeping bitterly. "For the sake of the time my daughter spent accompanying you, help my poor daughter who died with her eyes unclosed! I beg of you." As soon as the woman spoke, the surrounding people's mocking gazes, a mixture of amusement and contempt, focused on him. Manager Sha's face turned green. "Madam, please don't talk nonsense. I've never seen your daughter in my life. Where is this talk of 'accompanying' even coming from?" "My daughter's name is Lan Lianyu." Manager Sha's voice cut off abruptly, the image of a certain girl flashing through his mind. She was precisely the first victim among the five vicious cases. As for their relationship—one was willing to beat, the other willing to endure. Those who knew, knew. Giving the guard on the side a look, Manager Sha forced a smile. "Madam, the Martial Pavilion is a public area. It doesn't look good for an elder like you to make a scene here, does it? Let's talk over to the side." "No! I'm going to get things straightened out right here... What are you doing? Let me go!" "This lady has disturbed the public order of the Martial Pavilion." After dropping these words, Manager Sha cast an apologetic glance at Chen Xu and followed two guards as they forcibly carried the woman away. Watching Manager Sha leave, Chen Xu intended to depart from the Martial Pavilion and take the Abyss Rail directly back to Jinning Commandery from Peace Prefecture City when the phone in his pocket vibrated. Who could it be? Ling Xiangshan, Yan Feng, or perhaps that Master Cheng? Pulling it out to look, he saw it was an unfamiliar number. He pressed the answer button. "Pardon the intrusion, hello. Are you Mr. Chen? Deputy Pavilion Master Chen?" The voice on the other end sounded quite young; Chen Xu estimated him to be no more than thirty years old. "Something the matter?" Chen Xu's tone was flat, revealing no fluctuations at all. "There are some things I'd like to discuss with you. If you're interested, let's meet tonight at eight o'clock in the underground parking garage of the East District Tianfeng Building. What do you say?" Chen Xu was just about to hang up directly when the other person added, "I hear you are devoted to the martial path. I have prepared a copy of the [Steel Bone Skill] specially for you. As long as you arrive, whether our business is concluded or not, it will be gifted to you. I will wait for you there for an hour." With that, the other person took the initiative and hung up the phone. On the other end of the line, the young man who put down his phone spoke respectfully to the gold-badge man in the main seat, "Minister Nie, I've already contacted him. What if he doesn't come tonight?" "Based on his performance at the Nie family today, and Mengyin's description of him, the chance of him not coming is very small." Minister Nie's mouth curved into a hint of a smile, as if everything was completely under control. "Taking things from my Nie family and handling a few matters for my Nie family—isn't that how it should be?" Tianfeng Building, underground parking garage. Chen Xu casually "borrowed" a set of security guard uniforms, his entire figure already shrunk into the image of a lean, one-meter-seventy youth. Though he didn't think this inexplicable fellow who had sought him out for a chat could pose a threat to him, out of caution he still chose to change his appearance first and play it by ear. Not coming was out of the question; even without the martial arts manual, he had to figure out where these people had gotten his number. The pitch-black underground parking garage added a few parts of a terrifying atmosphere. Holding a flashlight, Chen Xu assumed the identity of a patrolling security guard, walking swaggeringly through the underground garage. Swish, swish, swish. From all directions of the garage, more than ten men in black suits suddenly lunged out, pouncing on Chen Xu like fierce tigers. It was as if they didn't care at all about Chen Xu's disguised security guard identity, determined to send him to his death. His figure flickered, and without even seeing how Chen Xu moved, the dozen men in black suits were sent flying head over heels at a speed even faster than when they came, their lives or deaths unknown. "Clap, clap, clap, clap." A round of applause echoed through the empty underground garage. An old man dressed in crisp military uniform stepped out slowly, standing before Chen Xu. "Deputy Pavilion Master Chen, stop using this kind of unsophisticated bone-shrinking disguise. It might fool most ordinary people and Martial Artists, but it can't fool this minister." After Nie Renxiong stepped out, another seven or eight military men and women immediately closed in on Chen Xu from all directions. "Old man of the Nie family?" Chen Xu had some impression of this old man he had seen earlier during the day. "Are you the one looking for Chen?" Before the words faded, Chen Xu took a step spanning over ten meters, arriving right before the old man and smashing down with a punch. "You've tested Chen's strength, but Chen hasn't measured your weight yet." The surging wave of air stirred by the fist directly blew back several soldiers closest to the old man. "Well struck!" Nie Renxiong neither dodged nor evaded, locked his horse stance, and punched straight forward. His military uniform burst apart, revealing robust muscles. Centered on the two of them, the ground cracked open in a spiderweb pattern, gravel scattering in all directions. The remaining few soldiers couldn't stand their ground at all, stumbling and falling to the floor involuntarily, deep shock flashing in their eyes. "The minister was beaten back head-on in a direct collision!" Ploughing a shallow trench about ten meters long into the ground, Nie Renxiong slowly withdrew his fist. "Each generation yields talented people, each leading the fashion for hundreds of years." Inwardly, he couldn't help but marvel. According to the Chen Xu dossier from the Jinning Commandery Martial Pavilion pulled directly via his ministerial status, this young man wasn't even eighteen yet, yet he possessed such strength. Even if both sides fought to the death and unleashed his own [Martial Form], he wouldn't dare guarantee that the one left alive in the end would be himself. From this moment on, he no longer viewed Chen Xu as an ordinary commandery-level deputy pavilion master, but as a martial arts powerhouse capable of sitting on equal terms with him. "Old man Nie Renxiong. The afternoon phone call was made to Deputy Pavilion Master Chen by my subordinates upon my orders." His gaze fell upon the young soldier who had tumbled to the ground. "Deliver the [Steel Bone Skill] to Deputy Pavilion Master Chen, and also present five portions of Refining Liquid as an apology for the disturbance." "Understood." The young soldier immediately got up, saluted crisply, and then trotted over to a certain vehicle, opening the trunk to search through it. Seeing how reasonable the man was, Chen Xu naturally wouldn't burst out with full force to fight him to the death. To him, aside from wasting vital energy and stamina, that was utterly meaningless. Once the compensation gifts were delivered into Chen Xu's hands, Nie Renxiong finally spoke, "Deputy Pavilion Master Chen should have a great need for martial arts manuals and cultivation resources, right? I have a win-win cooperation proposal that can guarantee Deputy Pavilion Master Chen receives abundant martial arts and resources. What do you say?" "Minister Nie, just speak your mind." Chen Xu restored his physique to his usual one-meter-ninety stature, making the eyelids of several soldiers twitch wildly. They could not imagine to what profound realm martial arts cultivation had reached that one could alter their form so effortlessly and naturally.