Ling Feng Extends an Olive Branch, Secrets Revealed in the Dark

Jiang Yuan returned to the decrepit old tenement building in the old district.

The room was dimly lit. He locked the door from the inside and placed the wooden box containing the broken sword by the bed.

Taking Song Xi's armor-piercing strike head-on during the day, he had to admit that kind of high-frequency vibration force was truly tyrannical.

Although most of its destructive power had been neutralized by the Baxia · Stone-Metal Body and Nine Yang Inner Force, a trace of exceptionally stubborn residual vibration still lingered in his meridians. If he did not refine it quickly, that force would continue damaging his muscle fibers and leave hidden injuries that would be difficult to heal.

Jiang Yuan took off his coat and sat cross-legged on the hard bed.

He picked up his personal terminal and skillfully opened a certain website.

Dozens of high-definition video windows popped up across the screen at once. He selected Chinese subtitles and uncensored footage, then turned the volume all the way up.

All manner of visually provocative scenes rolled across the screen, while breathless moans that made one's blood race filled the cramped room.

Jiang Yuan closed his eyes and began circulating the Nine Yang Divine Skill.

Supremely yang and unyielding inner force rose from his dantian and swiftly traveled through his extraordinary meridians and eight channels.

The sounds and images outside continuously stimulated his senses, and his blood and qi began to stir uncontrollably. That was precisely the effect he wanted.

Nine Yang Inner Force was already extraordinarily domineering. Combined with such extreme sensory stimulation, the yang energy within him was driven to an utterly terrifying level.

He guided that scorching inner force toward his damaged meridians and directly slammed it into the lingering high-frequency vibration force.

The two utterly different forces began a tug-of-war inside his body.

Sweat trickled down Jiang Yuan's forehead. The temperature of his body continued rising, and his skin took on a strange dark-red hue.

Under the repeated scouring of Nine Yang Inner Force, the residual vibrations were gradually worn away and broken apart, eventually transforming into the purest energy and feeding back into every limb and bone in his body.

After this extreme exertion, the foundation of his Metal-Stone Body became even more solid, and the toughness of his muscle fibers rose by another level.

Just as Jiang Yuan was about to end his cultivation, an exceedingly soft knock came from outside the door.

Jiang Yuan opened his eyes, and his inner force instantly withdrew.

He did not turn off the personal terminal, allowing those images to keep playing as he rose and walked behind the door.

"Who is it?" Jiang Yuan asked.

"It's me, Ling Feng." A familiar voice came from outside.

Jiang Yuan opened the door. His semifinal opponent, Ling Feng, stood in the corridor wearing an oversized black trench coat and a baseball cap pulled low over his face.

Ling Feng entered the room and was about to speak when his gaze was immediately drawn to the images on the screen.

The deafening moans left this normally composed martial artist frozen on the spot, his expression becoming remarkably colorful.

"You usually relax with this?" Ling Feng pointed at the screen, his voice carrying a hint of bewilderment.

Jiang Yuan casually pressed pause, and silence returned to the room.

"Just tempering my will." Jiang Yuan pulled over a chair and sat down. "You came looking for me in the middle of the night. Say what you want."

Ling Feng withdrew his gaze and pulled up a stool across from Jiang Yuan.

"I came to discuss a partnership." Ling Feng went straight to the point. "The move you used to cripple Song Xi in the ring today was Spiral Hidden Force, wasn't it?"

Jiang Yuan said nothing and simply watched him.

"You don't need to be nervous." Ling Feng continued, "I come from a branch family of the Ancient Martial Lineage. This kind of force-generating technique is only recorded in complete ancient martial systems."

"What exactly are you trying to say?" Jiang Yuan asked.

"Chu He has gone mad." Ling Feng lowered his voice. "He lost so much face in front of the entire school today that he definitely won't let this go. He has already mobilized Celestial Pivot Industries' hidden operatives in Jiang Hai City to seal off the three main exits from the old district."

Ling Feng took out a hand-drawn map and spread it across the table.

"They're planning to capture you alive and take you back to the secret laboratories of the military industrial division. Chu He has his eye on the ancient martial inheritance you carry, as well as the broken sword in that wooden box."

Jiang Yuan glanced over the map, which marked the enemy's positions in detail.

"What do you want in exchange for telling me this?" Jiang Yuan asked.

"I want the ancient martial inheritance in your hands." Ling Feng did not hide his purpose. "My family's cultivation techniques are incomplete. I've been stuck at the Body Tempering Peak for two years. As long as you're willing to share some of your force-generating techniques, I'll help you fight your way out of the old district."

Jiang Yuan lightly tapped his fingers against the table, rapidly calculating in his mind.

Ling Feng's intelligence was valuable, but he had no need for anyone else's protection.

"A partnership is fine." Jiang Yuan stopped tapping the table. "But there's no need for those low tricks. No need to send a woman over in the middle of the night to test me."

Ling Feng froze and stared at Jiang Yuan with a face full of confusion.

"Send a woman? What woman?" Ling Feng was utterly baffled.

"Stop pretending." Jiang Yuan pointed outside the window. "The person you brought breathes too loudly."

Ling Feng became even more confused.

He hurriedly pulled out his personal terminal, opened his photo album, and held the screen out in front of Jiang Yuan.

On the screen was a photo of a strikingly seductive mature woman in a tight cheongsam, her figure voluptuous.

"Brother Yuan, you misunderstand. I really did plan to bring a top-tier mature woman as a meeting gift to show my sincerity. But she had something to do tonight, so I didn't even have time to bring her over!" Ling Feng explained anxiously.

Jiang Yuan looked at the photograph, then turned toward the tightly shut window.

There was nowhere to stand outside the windows of this old tenement building.

If it was not Ling Feng's person, then there was only one possibility.

Celestial Pivot Industries' lookout had already made it to the window.

Without the slightest hesitation, Jiang Yuan's Nine Yang Inner Force erupted instantly.

He clenched his right hand into a fist and, using the force-generating technique of the second level of the Heaven-Burning Sword Art, Thunderclap Vibration, threw a punch through the air at the glass window.

Violent force tore through the air, producing an extremely muffled sonic boom.

The glass window instantly exploded into countless shards that sprayed outward.

A muffled female groan came from outside.

Jiang Yuan blurred into motion and leaped directly through the shattered window.

A woman in a skintight black night suit was clinging one-handed to the drainage pipe outside the wall, a trace of blood spilling from the corner of her mouth.

She had clearly suffered internal injuries from Jiang Yuan's Thunderclap Vibration.

When the woman saw Jiang Yuan pursuing her, a flash of panic crossed her eyes.

Without hesitation, she tore off the cumbersome outer layer of her night suit and tossed it downward.

The coat spread open in midair, perfectly blocking Jiang Yuan's view.

Taking advantage of that opening, the woman rapidly slid down the drainage pipe.

Jiang Yuan swept aside the coat with a wave of his hand and got a clear look at the woman.

She was Zhao Qingya, a senior agent of the Celestial Pivot Industries Intelligence Bureau.

Underneath, she wore only an extremely form-fitting black lace camisole, along with tight shorts and black stockings.

Her proud figure was fully revealed beneath the moonlight. Such an outfit was clearly meant to confuse an enemy's vision at a critical moment.

After landing, Zhao Qingya did not pause for even a moment. Like a cheetah, she darted into the dark alley.

Jiang Yuan did not continue the pursuit.

The terrain in the old district was too complicated. Charging in recklessly could easily lead to an ambush.

He flipped back into the room.

Ling Feng stood by the window, watching the direction in which Zhao Qingya had fled, his expression extremely grim.

"That's the woman by Chu He's side," Ling Feng said. "It seems she heard our entire conversation."

"It doesn't matter." Jiang Yuan picked up the wooden box from the bedside and slung it over his back. "Since they want to play, I'll play with them to the very end."

Elsewhere, Zhao Qingya clutched her faintly aching chest as she raced all the way to an abandoned warehouse outside the old district.

Chu He sat inside a black SUV, holding a glass of red wine.

"Young Master Chu, the target has been alerted." Zhao Qingya pulled down the zipper of her jacket and gasped for breath. "He discovered me. He's even stronger than he was in the ring during the day."

Chu He crushed the wineglass in his hand, spilling red wine mixed with shards of glass all over the floor.

"Refusing a toast only to drink a forfeit." Chu He gritted his teeth. "Notify every group. Launch the full-scale encirclement outside the school. Dead or alive, it doesn't matter. Just bring back that broken sword and his head!"

Outside the abandoned warehouse, dozens of fully armed killers swiftly boarded their vehicles and sped toward the old district.