Two weeks passed.
In the tropical rainforest, the rising sun shone through the dense canopy, casting dappled light and shadows on the ground.
Li Qingshan strolled alone through the primeval jungle on the Myanmar-Thailand border.
The terrain was rugged and sparsely populated, making it his ideal place for secluded cultivation.
After breaking through to Transformation Jin, he had chosen to travel south, partly to experience the various martial arts schools of Southeast Asia,
and partly to consolidate his cultivation through real combat and seek an opportunity to break through to Elixir Jin.
The early-morning jungle teemed with life, filled with the constant calls of birds and insects.
Using the Bagua Step, Li Qingshan weaved through the dense forest like a wandering dragon, taking in the breath of nature.
His Transformation Jin cultivation made his perception of his surroundings keener, allowing him to detect any movement within a hundred meters,
and even sense plants growing and insects crawling.
His breathing fell in rhythm with the jungle, and his spiritual realm continued to rise amid nature, deepening his understanding of the martial path.
Suddenly, he heard faint groans in the distance,
mingled with heavy footsteps and the rustling of branches and leaves being pushed aside.
Li Qingshan immediately concealed his presence and approached the source without a sound, moving like a ghost.
A young man in ragged clothes was stumbling forward, covered in wounds, his left arm twisted at an unnatural angle, clearly broken.
His face was as white as paper, his lips were cracked, and his eyes were full of fear and despair.
Every so often, he looked back, as though fleeing from someone.
His steps were unsteady. He was clearly exhausted, pressing on through sheer survival instinct.
"Help, help."
The young man murmured to himself in halting Chinese, his voice barely audible but full of despair.
Li Qingshan appeared and blocked his path. The young man fell to the ground in fright, trembling all over as he curled into a ball with both hands over his head:
"Don't take me back, please! I won't ever run again!"
"I'm not here to take you back."
Li Qingshan spoke in a calm, gentle voice, releasing a trace of gentle presence to soothe him.
"You're hurt. You need help."
The young man studied Li Qingshan closely and saw that he had an extraordinary bearing and clear eyes.
He looked nothing like the vicious thugs at the compound, and only then did the young man relax a little.
With Li Qingshan's reassurance, the young man haltingly told him what had happened, his voice trembling constantly from fear and weakness.
His name was A Ming.
He was twenty-two years old and came from a small county town in Yunnan, China.
Three months earlier, he had met a girl online who called herself "Xiao Fang."
Xiao Fang's profile picture showed a sweet, pretty young woman,
and her social media feed was full of photos from her travels in Singapore.
The two had hit it off and quickly started an online romance.
Xiao Fang said she worked as a tour guide in Singapore and invited A Ming to visit Southeast Asia.
She had even offered to buy his plane ticket and promised to cover his food and lodging.
"Love went to my head, and I didn't think much about it at all,"
A Ming said through sobs. Tears mingled with blood, leaving dirty streaks down his face.
"It wasn't until I got to Siam that I found out there was no Xiao Fang. A few burly men came to pick me up.
They tied me up, threw me into a van, blindfolded me, and took me to a telecom fraud compound."
The compound A Ming described was like a prison, surrounded by three-meter-high walls
topped with electrified wire, with armed guards patrolling twenty-four hours a day.
More than a hundred people were held inside, most of them Chinese who had been tricked into coming.
They were forced to commit telecom fraud, working over sixteen hours a day.
If they failed to meet their quotas, they were beaten, locked in a dark cell, or even given electric shocks.
They had only ten minutes to eat and slept on a shared sleeping platform, where turning over meant bumping into the person beside them.
"I saw someone get his legs broken with my own eyes, just because he tried to escape."
A Ming's voice was full of fear, and his body trembled involuntarily.
"Someone else went three days without meeting his quota and was hung up and beaten all night. By the next day, he wasn't breathing anymore.
Last night, while it was raining and the guards were drinking and celebrating, I pried open a bathroom window and escaped. I ran through the jungle all night."
Li Qingshan listened quietly, his gaze gradually turning cold as frost.
Although he had heard of Southeast Asia's telecom fraud compounds in his previous life,
he had never imagined the reality would be so cruel. It was simply horrifying.
What angered him even more was that these criminals deliberately targeted their own compatriots,
exploiting their trust and kindness to commit such atrocities.
He could sense that A Ming's injuries went beyond superficial scrapes and broken bones;
he also suffered from deep depletion of Qi and blood and psychological trauma, all the result of prolonged abuse.
"I'll take you to the police."
Li Qingshan helped A Ming to his feet and used his Transformation Jin cultivation to gently regulate his Qi and blood, stabilizing his injuries for the time being.
The two went to the police station in the nearest border town.
It was a somewhat shabby two-story building, with the local police station's sign hanging by the entrance.
The officer on duty was a middle-aged man in a rather untidy uniform, leisurely drinking coffee and reading a newspaper.
When he heard what had happened to A Ming, he immediately put on a show of righteous indignation, slamming the table as he stood up.
"How outrageous! These criminals are utterly lawless!"
the officer declared righteously.
But Li Qingshan keenly noticed the flicker in his eyes.
"Don't worry, we'll get to the bottom of this and bring these people to justice! I guarantee we'll give you an answer!"
Li Qingshan calmly observed the officer.
Although the man appeared thoroughly righteous,
Li Qingshan's spiritual realm at the Entering Stillness Third Level allowed him to clearly sense the hypocrisy and nervousness in his emotions.
What made him even more suspicious was that, when the officer heard the compound's exact location,
his eyes flickered noticeably and his fingers drummed involuntarily on the table, both signs of a guilty conscience.
The officer's breathing was also slightly irregular; he was clearly forcing himself to appear calm.
"Sir, thank you for bringing him in to report this."
The officer turned to Li Qingshan, his tone warm but his gaze wandering.
"According to regulations, we first need to complete the relevant paperwork for this gentleman.
He has no passport, so it will take some time.
Why don't you go back and rest first? Once the paperwork is done, we'll send him safely back to his home country."
His smile looked overly deliberate and unnatural.
Li Qingshan sneered inwardly, but showed nothing on his face.
"Sorry for the trouble, then."
He left his contact information and departed the police station.
In fact, Li Qingshan did not go far.
He circled around to the station's back courtyard, silently climbed over the wall, and hid in a large tree,
where he could see into the office through a window.
The concealment skills of a Transformation Jin grandmaster let him blend into his surroundings like a leaf,
his breathing in sync with nature and his heartbeat keeping time with the wind. No one could detect him.
Sure enough, once he had "left," the officer's attitude immediately changed.
He made a phone call and said a few words in the local language, then told A Ming:
"Wait here. I'm going to get some forms."
His tone was cold, utterly unlike the warmth he had shown before.
Although Li Qingshan could not understand the local language, he could tell from the officer's tone that he was reporting the situation to someone.
A Ming sat uneasily in his chair, clutching the hem of his clothes tightly in both hands. He had clearly sensed the change in atmosphere too.
Half an hour later, a black van pulled into the police station's back courtyard.
Several burly men got out, all of them ferocious-looking and carrying the stench of blood, just like the compound's thugs A Ming had described.
The officer smiled and shook hands with them, then pointed at A Ming in the office and made a gesture of exchange.
They really are in it together.
A cold light flashed in Li Qingshan's eyes as killing intent stirred within him.
The thugs roughly hauled A Ming up and dragged him toward the van.
A Ming struggled in terror, but it was no use.
One of the thugs slapped him hard across the face and cursed in halting Chinese:
"Run! Go on, run again and I'll break your legs! You'll get what's coming to you when we get back!"
Just then, Li Qingshan appeared like a ghost.
Without a word, he struck.
His Xingyi Crushing Fist shot out like lightning, and the first thug fell to the ground.
His Bagua Step carried him through them like a wandering dragon.
A Turning Palm sent the second thug flying into a wall with a dull thud.
The third thug's attack was easily neutralized, and an elbow strike knocked him unconscious.
The entire exchange took less than three seconds. All three thugs fell dead before they could even scream.
The officer collapsed to the ground in fright, his crotch soaked, and stammered:
"You... what do you want? I'm a police officer! Assaulting an officer is a serious crime!"
Li Qingshan's gaze turned cold, like a flash of icy lightning.
Without any visible windup, he delivered a simple Crushing Fist, and his fist split the air with a sharp, explosive crack!
Bang!
The man's head burst open like a watermelon struck by a heavy hammer.
Before the red and white matter could splatter, a gale of incomparably concentrated fist force swept it away, blasting it in all directions.
The headless corpse stood rigid for a moment before collapsing limply.
"Master Li!"
Both shocked and overjoyed, A Ming burst into tears, dropping to his knees and kowtowing repeatedly.
"It's all right now."
Li Qingshan checked A Ming's injuries.
"I'll take you somewhere safe first."
He used Transformation Jin to give A Ming some basic treatment, stabilizing his injuries for the time being.
Li Qingshan took A Ming through streets and alleys until they finally stopped before an ancient temple with mottled red walls and silent yellow tiles.
It was a Chinese temple where incense had burned for a hundred years.
The courtyard was deeply tranquil, its ancient trees towering into the sky. Amid the wisps of incense smoke, a solemnity prevailed, far removed from the clamor of the world.
He had stayed there for a night on a previous visit.
He knocked at the temple gate, and the abbot who appeared was the same monk, already past seventy.
The old monk's eyes were clear. Recognizing Li Qingshan, he raised one palm before his chest in a slight bow, a hint of surprise and concern on his face.
"Master, sorry to disturb you."
Li Qingshan returned the bow and briefly explained what had happened to A Ming.
After listening, a trace of compassion passed through the abbot's eyes, and he said without hesitation:
"Rest assured, Benefactor Li. This is a place of peace, with no ties to the outside world. This young benefactor may stay here with me; no one will come to disturb him."
He turned to A Ming, his tone gentle but firm.
"You may stay here with peace of mind. The temple has vegetarian meals and guest rooms, and you will be safe here."
Li Qingshan knew well that the old monk's cultivation was profound and that he was an upright man. The temple also held a position apart from local affairs,
so with the abbot's protection, A Ming's safety would be assured.
He gave a slight nod and told A Ming:
"Settle down here for now and regain your spirits.
There's no need to worry about returning home. Once things have quieted down a little,
the abbot will contact a reliable Chinese chamber of commerce and arrange a suitable route to get you safely home."
A Ming looked at the solemn hall and the kindly abbot before him, then at the composed Li Qingshan beside him.
His mind, which had been taut all this time, finally relaxed, and he nodded emphatically.
"There are powerful forces behind these telecom fraud compounds."
The old monk warned him, worry in his eyes.
"Some even have ties to important local military and government officials. Your martial arts may be formidable, benefactor, but you should still be careful."
Li Qingshan nodded.
"Thank you for the warning, Master. But since I've come across this, I can't stand by and do nothing."
He left some money to cover A Ming's food and lodging and promised to resolve the matter completely.
The old monk sighed, uttered a Buddhist invocation, and arranged for a young monk to take A Ming to rest.
When he left the temple, the sun was already sinking in the west, and the clouds on the horizon were red as blood.
Li Qingshan stood before the temple gates, gazing at the mountains stretching into the distance, his eyes cold as blades.
He seemed able to sense the countless evils hidden among those mountains.
Night fell, and Li Qingshan's figure vanished into the jungle.
He knew that this battle had only just begun, and he was ready.
Whether it was the telecom fraud compound or the protective umbrella behind them,
all would pay for their crimes.
The insects still chirped in the jungle, but tonight, a hint of killing intent seemed to hang in the air.
Li Qingshan slipped through the forest like a ghost, every step treading the path of justice.
He had already made his plan: first, he would wipe out that telecom fraud compound once and for all,
rescue the compatriots inside, then follow the vine to the melon and drag out the protective umbrella behind it.
He would use martial force to stop war, and violence to curb violence.