Ideas

Chen Yiming's eyes widened. His muscles tensed, ready to spring, as he strained to make out the burly man's movements.

This was the weakest of the three men, not even strong enough to have undergone a first Body Metamorphosis. He relied on ferocity to fight for his life, but to Chen Yiming, who had the strength of three Body Metamorphoses, his movements were as slow as a child's.

Chen Yiming used no technique. With reaction speed far beyond his opponent's, he easily dodged the swinging machete and answered with a simple slash as they passed each other.

Crack!

A sword flashed.

A head, its eyes bulging wide, traced an arc through the air, cleared the courtyard wall, and fell into the neighboring yard.

Chen Yiming even had time to dodge the spray of blood before turning toward the remaining two men. Fire seemed to burn in his eyes.

A cold wind suddenly swept through the alley, chilling the two men to the bone.

Silence fell. A headless corpse lay between the three who remained.

The scarred man's face darkened. He quietly gathered strength in his legs, already thinking of retreat.

He was older now, no longer the hotheaded young man who would risk his life at the slightest provocation. The moment he saw Chen Yiming move faster than he could react, he knew the young man was stronger than him.

The man with black cloth over his eyes turned deathly pale. Unlike the scarred man, he had never undergone a first Body Metamorphosis. He had only learned some saber techniques, making him stronger than the third brother.

If they ran, he knew he could never keep up with his stronger eldest brother.

"You're so weak!"

Chen Yiming raised his wooden sword. Drops of blood fell from its tip.

The gap between someone who had undergone three Body Metamorphoses and someone who had undergone none was overwhelming in every respect. There was no contest.

The scarred man gritted his teeth and forced himself to speak fiercely.

"Fine, fine, fine! You dare kill our third brother? Second Brother, let's take him together and avenge him."

The blindfolded man's eyes lit up. Thinking their leader had decided to fight to the death, he made a threat of his own.

"Brat, you killed our brother. Have you decided how you want to die?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the two men's muscles bulged. They were gathering strength, ready to rush Chen Yiming at any moment.

Chen Yiming quietly braced himself too, his gaze fixed on them.

He had gauged their approximate strength, but he had not yet decided how to fight them both at once. To play it safe, he planned to dodge their first attack, then look for an opening.

Both sides took their stances, as though they would clash to the death in the next instant.

Close-quarters combat often came down to ferocity. Both men were experienced fighters, and for a moment, they held the advantage in sheer presence.

Then the scarred man and the blindfolded man turned in unison and sprinted for their lives in the opposite direction.

Each wanted the other to cover his retreat. They shoved at each other, hoping a surprise push would knock the other down and delay Chen Yiming long enough for him to escape.

Chen Yiming had no intention of letting them go. For all their threatening looks, the men were all bluster. They could only bully people weaker than themselves.

Thrust! Thrust!

Chen Yiming caught up to the blindfolded man in a flash and drove his sword through his chest. Without stopping, he caught the scarred man and pierced his chest too.

He was too fast. In the few breaths it took him to catch them, neither man realized he was already behind them. They made it less than ten meters before the wooden sword ran through them from behind, and they fell one after the other.

The force carried by the wooden sword shattered both their hearts. After struggling for a few breaths, they went still. They were dead.

Chen Yiming looked at the three bodies on the ground. Still-warm blood dripped from the tip of his sword.

Against someone with the strength of three Body Metamorphoses, people who had undergone only one—or none at all—could not even escape.

He now understood how vast the gap was. Then he thought of the supply escorts into the Wilderness Zone, which required a leader who had undergone six Body Metamorphoses.

He had only just completed his third Body Metamorphosis. He did not dare draw too much attention even inside the city, much less venture outside it on a whim.

More determined than ever to keep a low profile while growing stronger, he glanced at the bloodstained wooden sword and entered the courtyard where the men had lain in wait. He intended to find a tap and wash the blade.

The first thing he saw was a ransacked living room. Its metal door had been forced open.

Torn clothing was scattered across the floor. Leftover food and drinks sat on the table, and several broken chairs lay strewn about.

The three men had already terrorized the family who lived here and looted their home.

Seeing it firsthand, Chen Yiming was deeply grateful that he had arrived in this world with an extraordinary gift that let him protect his family.

Without the strength to defend themselves in these troubled times, a single unexpected calamity could destroy a family.

He did not enter the living room. Instead, he found a tap in a corner of the courtyard.

The blood had not been on the wooden sword for long and had yet to fully clot. A quick scrub with the brush beside the tap cleaned it off.

As he straightened up to leave, he happened to glimpse the room beyond the living room.

A young woman lay motionless on the bed, her clothing barely covering her. Her long legs were mottled with bruises.

Clear marks ringed her neck, and her eyes bulged unnaturally. Someone had gripped her throat and suffocated her to death.

The sight weighed heavily on Chen Yiming.

Without enough strength to protect oneself, beauty could easily invite disaster in troubled times.

An urban village could not compare to a residential complex with professional property management. Too many different people came and went, and no one knew when disaster might strike.

Chen Yiming thought of his parents and younger sister, who were still ordinary people.

He had to go to the martial arts school to train every day. He could not protect his family around the clock.

His status as a student there might deter the petty criminals nearby, but it could not guarantee that no robbers would take the risk. After all, a student's family was likely to be relatively well-off, with plenty worth stealing.

As long as the war in the west continued, supplies in the city would grow scarcer month by month. Only the first month had passed, and public order had not completely broken down yet. Once people began starving to death, the Chen family would inevitably become a target whenever he went out.

Buy a home!

The urge seized him.

Residential complexes developed by major corporations had their own security staff. They might not be especially strong, but they could fend off the robbers among ordinary rioters.

For the Chen family, that would be enough to let Chen Yiming leave home with peace of mind.

"Next, I need to think seriously about earning money."

Chen Yiming spoke softly to himself, adding that goal to his original plans.

Mutated Beast meat cost money. A home cost money. Equipment cost money too. Everything came down to money.

But Chen Yiming had not figured out how to earn it yet. He decided to swallow his pride and find a chance to talk with Senior Brother Wang.