Enemy Attack, Kill

His gaze paused slightly.

Su Xinghe walked toward the stone locks in the corner.

Ever since his Qi-Blood had entered Force Infusion a few days ago, his strength had slowly been increasing as his neural recruitment ability improved.

He stopped before the three-hundred-pound stone lock, gripped its wooden handle with his left hand, sank his legs, and exerted force through his waist, shoulders, and back at once.

The stone lock rose two feet off the ground, then dropped back down.

That'll do.

Su Xinghe thought to himself.

To avoid drawing attention, he had only used seventy percent of his strength just now. Though he could not raise the three-hundred-pound stone lock over his shoulder, lifting it was easy.

His limit should have reached a little over three hundred pounds.

In eleven days, his strength had increased by another hundred pounds. That was equivalent to the accumulated results of half a year of painstaking martial arts training since his transmigration.

True martial arts cultivation was powerful indeed.

One had to know that ordinary flesh and blood had its limits.

The original owner had been a farmer. Having a hundred pounds of strength in one arm already counted as sturdy.

After half a year of martial arts practice, he had raised it to a little over two hundred pounds. This was also the limit of most ordinary gang disciples.

But ever since practicing the Golden Ape Fist, he could feel his strength increasing every single day.

After testing his strength, Su Xinghe found a corner and assumed a boxing stance.

About ten minutes later.

"Diligence Makes Up for Dullness, a hundred practices a day."

"Golden Ape Fist, experience +1"

This time, his condition was exceptionally good, and the progress bar for his martial arts realm took another huge stride forward. He did not stop, remaining immersed in the Artistic Conception Realm brought by the chant.

Twice...

Three times...

Four times...

A scorching current suddenly surged from his abdomen, rising and falling through his chest with his breathing like flames.

Every drop of blood that passed through his heart became stained with that high-temperature fire. It spread outward through his veins again, eventually suffusing his entire body.

It was scorching like a sauna, yet also as though several little hands were massaging his internal organs.

For a moment,

saliva filled his mouth, and his eyes flashed like lightning.

Even the breeze by his ears became incomparably clear.

Without realizing it, Su Xinghe stopped his boxing. Closing his eyes, he carefully sensed the changes within himself.

His sense of taste, smell, and hearing had all strengthened. Thick currents of Qi-Blood churned within him. It seemed as though he could mobilize this Qi-Blood at any time and unleash tremendous energy.

He knew that this was the power of Qi-Blood produced after Qi-Blood entered Force Infusion.

He focused his mind on the translucent panel in his mind.

"Su Xinghe: Great River Gang (Cannon Fodder Disciple)"

"Martial Arts: Apprentice Grade (Inner Tempering 1%)"

"Fate: Diligence Makes Up for Dullness"

"Trait 1: Water-Tight, Unyielding"

"Trait 2: Many Grains Make a Tower, Success Follows Naturally"

"Golden Ape Fist (Hall-Entering) 967/1000"

"Ascending Dragon Stance (Hall-Entering) 566/1000"

"Incomplete Red Lotus Treasure Vase Qi 0/10000"

The familiar sensation of hunger came over him, and he opened his eyes.

The entire world had become clearer, as though the cover of night had been torn away.

The small courtyard in the dead of night looked to him like a sunless morning.

He did not go back to the stone locks to test his strength again, because he knew that this breakthrough had increased it by at least another hundred pounds.

An Inner Tempering apprentice could wield five or six hundred pounds of strength with one arm. He, too, had stepped halfway into the ranks of the inhuman.

The night was deep.

Old Cripple hugged his kitchen cleaver and snored loudly in the partitioned room. The food in the kitchen had long since been cleared out by those fellows staying up late to gamble with cards.

Even the night market on the long street outside had vanished.

Hungry, he found a corner against the wall in the warehouse hall, closed his eyes, and fell into a deep sleep.

In a hazy daze,

a breeze blew past Su Xinghe.

It scattered the lingering stench of sweat and sour wine at his nose, bringing with it a different sort of fishy sweetness.

In his sleep, Su Xinghe twitched his nose.

After the battle half a month ago, the injured disciples had more or less recovered. The warehouse hall had not smelled of blood for a long time.

Could it be that my martial arts breakthrough has made my sense of smell too sensitive?

Su Xinghe felt that his brain had not fully awakened, and his thoughts turned astonishingly slowly.

He wanted to open his eyes and look, but his body was as clumsy and uncontrollable as if it were still in a dream.

What's happening to me?

As his will slowly struggled, his vigorous Qi-Blood, strengthened by his Inner Tempering breakthrough, continuously washed through him, and his mind finally regained clarity.

He slowly opened his eyes.

The candles in the hall had long burned out, while the snoring around him still rose and fell.

Thanks to his improved vision last night, even though it was now the darkest hour before dawn, he could clearly see the entire layout of the hall.

First was the window.

Six, who was guarding the door, was sprawled across the table, snoring away.

This was perfectly normal.

Forget nighttime—even he himself could fall asleep while guarding the door during the day.

It was only that the ponytailed girl in skimpy clothes was gone from beside him. He did not know whether she had already left.

Then his gaze returned to the hall, where more than twenty Great River Gang disciples lay scattered across the floor.

Some of them had been on duty at the base tonight, while others had simply not wanted to go home after drinking and playing cards.

At this moment, every one of them lay on the floor, sleeping soundly.

Originally, this was nothing out of the ordinary.

The Great River Gang's base was in the bustling southern part of the city. So-called nighttime duty was merely a fine excuse for everyone to drink, chat, and play cards.

Some even spent the night in the back alley.

After all, Lin County was different from other places.

With the Lu Family, which held up half the sky, all gang factions in the city maintained a basic restraint. Even when arranging fights, they consciously went outside the city.

Nearly everyone submitted beneath that Grandmaster's prestigious might.

Something's wrong!

Su Xinghe suddenly noticed intermittent sounds of flowing water coming from the room belonging to the minor leader at the edge of the hall.

It sounded somewhat like someone relieving herself in a toilet, but he knew there was no chamber pot in that room at all.

A rustling sound arose.

The room door quietly opened a crack.

A girl's head with a ponytail cautiously poked out.

"Fuck, that's some wild play."

A rush of gossip stirred in his heart.

The young girl whom Six had held in his arms last night was actually peeing in the room where the minor leader stood night watch.

Did being a minor leader come with this sort of perk at night?

Then a black knee-high leather boot stepped out from the room. Beside it was a slender, elegant sword, crimson blood flowing down its blade.

And the sword's owner had sharp eyes. At this moment, she was striding toward Su Xinghe.

"I never expected that aside from the one inside, there would be a little expert like you among these lackeys outside. The Soul-Confusing Incense had no effect on you. You must have already begun Inner Tempering your Qi-Blood, right?"

Su Xinghe's heart sank.

For her to silently kill the minor leader on duty tonight, her strength had to surpass Inner Tempering.

She could even detect his watching gaze in the darkness.

And he had only broken through to Inner Tempering last night.

At this moment, there was no time to consider where this ponytailed girl had come from.

"Enemy attack!"

A thunderous roar burst from the bottom of his throat as he simultaneously leaped toward the Brokerage Guild in the rear courtyard.

"Kill!"

The ponytailed girl also gave a sharp cry.

Clear and crisp as a silver vase shattering, it pierced the silent night.

She took a great stride forward, the longsword in her hand turning into a ghostly bolt of lightning.

A shrieking sound of tearing air followed close behind.

Su Xinghe's roar failed to summon reinforcements. Not even the people sleeping in the warehouse hall showed the slightest reaction.

Instead, the ponytailed girl's crisp cry of "Kill" drew more than a dozen equally urgent responses from the Brokerage Guild in the rear courtyard.

The silent night instantly became a bustling marketplace.

A string of rapid explosions rang out from the direction of the Brokerage Guild. Fortunately, there was no thunder of firearms—only the crisp clashes of blades and swords striking.