Caught in an Ambush

It was the lunch break.

Chen Yiming got on his bicycle and headed for the address Senior Brother Wang had given him.

The address was in an urban village in the north of the city, more than ten kilometers away.

With no phone navigation, finding an unfamiliar place was a hassle. If he hadn't had the strength of the Third Body Metamorphosis, he would never have dared go.

Chen Yiming rode along, weaving between main roads and village lanes. He checked the house numbers as he went, following their sequence toward the address.

The villages in the north were even more desolate than those in the east. Few people walked the streets, and many roadside shops looked as though they hadn't opened in ages. The whole area felt run-down.

Suddenly, Chen Yiming slammed on the brakes and stopped at the mouth of a lane.

He couldn't see the end of it. Clothes lay scattered along the way, along with shoes, jewelry, hair ribbons, and other things.

They were still clean, not things anyone would have thrown away. Something bad had clearly happened here; they must have been dropped by people fleeing.

He checked the house numbers near the entrance and found that the lane led straight toward his destination. If he went to the next intersection instead, he would have to find his bearings all over again.

"No navigation. What a pain."

Chen Yiming couldn't help cursing.

He didn't know this part of the city. The urban village was a maze of densely packed lanes, and if he lost his sense of direction, it would take ages to get his bearings again. He didn't have time to waste searching for a route.

I'm at the Third Body Metamorphosis now. Most people in an urban village are ordinary. Even if something happened here, it shouldn't involve anyone at my level.

And if things go badly, I can just run.

Chen Yiming muttered under his breath, confident in his strength. He didn't believe anyone here could stop him from escaping.

He mounted his bicycle again and rode quickly into the lane.

As he went, he kept scanning his surroundings so he could dodge in time if trouble appeared.

But sometimes the thing you feared was exactly what you got.

At a bend in the lane, a boulder blocked his path.

It was over a meter wide and lodged squarely in the middle of the lane, hidden from view along the straight stretch. Chen Yiming might survive hitting it, but his bicycle certainly wouldn't.

"Fuck!"

Chen Yiming slammed on the brakes again and pulled the wooden sword from his back.

He used it for everyday practice. He hadn't expected to get into a bloody fight so soon, so he hadn't spent the money on a metal sword.

Seven or eight meters ahead, the door of a house opened and two burly men stepped out.

Both stood over 1.9 meters tall. They wore ragged leather coats and carried heavy-backed machetes more than a meter long.

One had a scar running from his right forehead to the corner of his mouth. The other's right eye was covered by a black cloth, and dried blood still clung to his blade. Both radiated a bloodthirsty air.

Before Chen Yiming could turn around, footsteps sounded behind him. A third burly man emerged.

Unlike the two in front, the man behind him carried a wooden shield as well as a heavy-backed machete, clearly to stop anyone from escaping.

The man with the covered eye studied the golden sword emblem on Chen Yiming's chest and said to the scarred man beside him:

"Big brother, he's a student of the Praying Mantis Snake Sword Academy."

The Praying Mantis Snake Sword Academy was one of East Lake City's thirteen martial arts schools, a major force they couldn't afford to provoke. The man with the covered eye held back and waited for his big brother's decision.

The scarred man's face twisted into a sneer. "What are you afraid of? Even if he's from the Praying Mantis Snake Sword Academy, what's a student with a wooden sword going to do? Let's give him a proper welcome."

Hearing his big brother's decision, the man behind Chen Yiming rolled his neck and grinned, showing a mouthful of yellow teeth.

"Big brother, second brother, you two stand back and rest. This kid looks soft. Let me chop his feet off first."

The man behind him was the weakest of the three, and they usually attacked together. Now that he'd found an easy target, he wanted the pleasure of a solo kill.

The scarred man glared at him. "Enough nonsense. Take him down first. Don't let him get away."

The three traded remarks without hurrying to attack, as though Chen Yiming was already theirs. The wooden sword in his hand didn't look threatening at all.

Chen Yiming didn't want to fight them. "I'm a martial arts student," he said in a low voice.

"We have no quarrel, and I don't have anything valuable on me. How about we pretend we never met?"

He had no real combat experience and was trapped in the lane. Confident as he was in his strength, he would rather avoid a fight. They might have some dirty trick that could hurt him.

Seeing Chen Yiming back down, the scarred man grew bolder.

"That won't work on us. Hurt one of you students, and someone tougher comes after us. You think we'd fall for that? If we let you go today, we could lose our heads tomorrow."

When the negotiation failed, Chen Yiming's gaze sharpened.

"So one side has to die today."

He didn't want to fight, but that didn't mean he feared these robbers. His raw strength far exceeded theirs; it was doubtful any of them had even reached the First Body Metamorphosis.

The scarred man laughed wildly. "You're the one who's dying. We'll live. You think we don't know the academy won't care if an ordinary student dies?"

The scarred man was the strongest of the three and their leader. He had spent his youth in gangs and met many martial arts students who held positions in them, so he knew how things worked.

In his younger days, he had learned a blade technique and struggled through the First Body Metamorphosis. Ruthless and decisive, he could usually beat martial arts students who had never seen blood.

As he grew older, his strength declined badly. He recruited two underlings and began making a living by collecting protection money in the urban village.

War had broken out in the west some time ago, and many elite City Guard members had been sent to the front. The City Patrol, left with little manpower, couldn't keep order in the urban village.

The three grew bolder. No longer content with protection money, they committed crimes openly and killed anyone who resisted.

Chen Yiming stood his ground, holding his sword across his chest in a defensive stance as he waited for the men to attack.

His first fight was a fight to the death. His heart pounded. He planned to rely on the raw strength of the Third Body Metamorphosis and counterattack after defending.

The scarred man burst out laughing. "Third brother, the kid wants to fight you to the death. What are you waiting for?"

The man behind Chen Yiming burst into wild laughter and charged.

"Still not running, kid? Die!"

The man weighed nearly a hundred kilograms. He charged like a small tank, swinging a heavy-backed machete weighing dozens of kilograms as if he meant to cut Chen Yiming in half at the waist.