Darkness blanketed the jungle. All was silent, save for the occasional chirping of insects breaking the stillness.
Li Qingshan moved like a ghost along the forest paths. Even the keenest nocturnal animals failed to notice his passing.
His mind had long surpassed the mortal level. Tempered through the three realms of Entering Stillness, it had finally settled firmly in the realm of Constant Stillness.
His mind was like a mirror, free of distracting thoughts, and his vitality flourished.
The day before yesterday, he had taken another step forward from that realm of boundless clear skies, from which he would never regress.
He had glimpsed the secrets of life's transformation and entered the profoundly mysterious realm of Embryonic Breathing.
Now, his breathing was barely perceptible. The eighty-four thousand pores across his body opened and closed like stars, drawing in and expelling the subtle energies of heaven and earth of their own accord.
His thoughts, spirit, soul, and even every cell breathed in unison, while a bioelectric field enveloped him like a thin mist.
It allowed him not only to control his body perfectly, but also to begin influencing material reality.
The mental perception granted by Embryonic Breathing was even more mysterious than it had been in Constant Stillness, spreading outward like an invisible spiderweb.
It caught every trace of danger in the air and could even faintly sense the breathing of the plants and the pulse of the earth.
After last night's interrogation at Nawachai's villa, Li Qingshan had obtained crucial intelligence.
When Li Qingshan used the mental power of Thought Breathing, the first level of Embryonic Breathing, Nawachai's conscious defenses had instantly crumbled.
Combined with mental hypnosis, he had planted suggestions deep in Nawachai's consciousness, making him spill every secret like beans poured from a bamboo tube.
It turned out that Nawachai was merely the local agent for this criminal network,
while the ones truly in control were the Golden Club, hidden away in Bangkok.
The club was composed of financial magnates and warlords from across Southeast Asia, and controlled most of the region's gray industries.
More importantly, Nawachai had disclosed the secret base of General Somchai, his important partner in the military.
This military base on the Myanmar-Thailand border was, on the surface, a regular army post,
but in truth, it was an important stronghold providing armed protection for the Golden Club.
The base housed not only regular troops, but also an elite guard composed of retired special forces soldiers from various countries,
dedicated to handling "special affairs."
"Next target."
A cold light flickered in Li Qingshan's eyes as he shot into the depths of the jungle like an arrow.
Meanwhile, on the top floor of a luxurious office building in central Bangkok,
a middle-aged man in a suit and leather shoes was answering an encrypted phone call.
He was Nawachai's superior, codenamed "Boss,"
and his true identity was the Golden Club's chief representative in Southeast Asia.
"Nawachai's gone out of contact?"
Boss's voice was icy.
"That useless fool who can't accomplish anything but ruins everything. Activate the contingency plan immediately.
Contact General Somchai and tell him to tighten security."
A nervous voice came from the other end of the line:
"But Boss, I'm afraid Somchai-"
"No buts!"
Boss cut him off.
"Tell Somchai that if anything happens to the base, he can forget about continuing those shady businesses of his."
After hanging up, Boss walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and looked down at Bangkok's nightscape, a trace of unease flashing through his eyes.
This "Shura Qing," who had appeared out of nowhere, had already disrupted plans he had spent years laying.
Li Qingshan lay hidden at a vantage point five hundred meters outside the military camp, carefully studying the base's layout through high-powered binoculars.
Embryonic Breathing allowed him to clearly sense the flow of presences within the base:
Around two hundred soldiers, spread across four areas;
the armory was on the east side,
the command center on the west,
the barracks on the south,
and the training ground on the north.
Somchai's command center was in a reinforced concrete building at the far end of the base.
Inside the base, the soldiers had just finished their morning drills.
Yan Kan, a young recruit, squatted at the entrance to the mess hall with a bowl of food, chatting and laughing with a companion.
"I heard something big happened in Bangkok last night. Someone called 'Shura Qing' wiped out Nawachai's hideout."
His companion curled his lip dismissively.
"That's a tall tale, isn't it? Master Basong was holding the fort for Nawachai. Who could touch him?"
Yan Kan lowered his voice.
"It's true. My cousin works in Bangkok. He said the scene was a real bloodbath, and not a single person was left alive-"
Before he could finish, the squad leader came over and kicked him.
"What are you gossiping about? Hurry up and eat. You've got patrol duty soon!"
Inside the command center, Somchai paced anxiously beside a satellite phone.
He had just received a warning from Bangkok, telling him to tighten security immediately.
"Pass the order down. All personnel to combat readiness!"
Somchai roared at his adjutant.
"Double the heavy machine-gun positions, increase patrols to ten men each, and post two guards at every watchtower!"
Li Qingshan chose to break through at a blind spot.
The wire fence there had been loosened by the torrential rain the day before yesterday.
Circulating Transformation Jin, he tore open the fence with hands like iron clamps and slipped into the base like a fish through water.
First target: the armory.
Li Qingshan silently repeated the words to himself, his figure melting into the shadows.
Outside the armory, two sentries were smoking and chatting.
The younger one glanced nervously around.
"Squad leader, do you think that 'Shura Qing' will really come?"
The veteran squad leader blew a smoke ring.
"What are you afraid of? We've got more than two hundred men here, and heavy weapons too-"
Just then, Li Qingshan appeared behind them like a ghost. His hands darted out like lightning, and both men instantly fell to the ground.
He quickly searched them for keys and equipment,
then entered the armory and soon found explosives, including rocket launchers and packs of C4.
These will come in handy.
Li Qingshan sneered and planted the C4 at key structural supports in the armory, setting it to detonate in ten minutes.
Then he hoisted a rocket launcher onto his shoulder and aimed at the generator room on the west side of the base.
In the command center, Somchai suddenly felt his heart pound. Years of battlefield experience had given him a nose for danger.
He snatched up his radio.
"All units, report your status!"
"Watchtower one, all clear!"
"Number two, all clear!"
"Patrols, all clear-"
Just then, a tremendous boom came from the west as a rocket trailed flame through the air and struck the generator room with pinpoint accuracy.
The explosion was deafening. Flames soared into the sky, and the entire base was thrown into chaos.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
Soldiers rushed out of the barracks in panic.
"It's coming from the east! The rocket was fired from the east!"
Someone screamed at the top of his lungs.
Yan Kan was holding his bowl of food when the explosion startled him into dropping it.
He frantically grabbed his gun and ran east with the crowd, only for the veteran squad leader to seize him and pull him back.
"You fool! Run the other way!"
No sooner had he spoken than the C4 in the armory detonated on schedule.
"Boom!"
An even greater explosion thundered out. The armory blossomed like a firework, its ammunition exploding in a chain reaction. A powerful shock wave hurled nearby soldiers through the air.
"It's a trap!"
Somchai pounded the table and roared in the command center.
"Everyone fall back to the command center! Form a defensive formation!"
Li Qingshan took advantage of the chaos to charge into the heart of the base.
With Embryonic Breathing operating at full force, his perception became keen to the utmost, allowing him to anticipate every threat.
His Bagua Step was exquisitely executed, and he moved through the chaotic base as though no one stood in his way.
"Over there!"
An officer spotted Li Qingshan, raised his gun, and fired.
But Li Qingshan dodged like a ghost, and every bullet missed.
He charged into the crowd, his Xingyi Fist blasting out like cannonballs. Soldiers fell like wheat before a scythe wherever he passed.
Yan Kan hid behind an armored vehicle and raised his gun with trembling hands, but he couldn't track Li Qingshan's movements at all.
"He's not human..."
He muttered to himself, his crotch growing wet without his noticing.
"Heavy machine gun! Use the heavy machine gun, now!"
Somchai screamed at the top of his lungs from the command center.
Atop a watchtower in the center of the base, a heavy machine gun spat fire, pouring bullets down like rain.
But Li Qingshan kept dodging, his Bagua Step weaving like a roaming dragon, every step landing in a blind spot between the bullets.
He climbed the watchtower like a nimble ape. The gunner atop it had not even gotten a clear look at him before his throat was crushed.
Li Qingshan swung the gun around and sprayed the crowd below with a fierce burst of fire.
The heavy machine gun's roar became the reaper's scythe, harvesting lives.
The soldiers scattered in terror, but there was nowhere to hide.
"Use the armored vehicle!"
Somchai bellowed into the radio.
An armored vehicle rumbled toward him, its machine gun spitting fire.
Li Qingshan leaped from the tower and landed atop the armored vehicle like a great roc spreading its wings.
Circulating Transformation Jin, he stomped down with a burst of Baji force, blasting the vehicle's top hatch open.
He tossed in a grenade, then flipped off the vehicle.
"Boom"
went the explosion, and the armored vehicle became a ball of fire.
The veteran squad leader dragged Yan Kan behind cover and said between heavy breaths:
"Kid, remember this day. If I make it home alive, I'm retiring and going back to farming."
Yan Kan merely nodded blankly, having completely lost the ability to think.
By now, the base was a hell on earth. Flames leaped skyward, gunsmoke filled the air, and screams rang out without end.
Li Qingshan was like a shura descended upon the world, leaving no one alive in his wake.
His gaze was as cold as iron, yet his mind was as clear as a mirror.
Every movement was utterly precise, every bit of strength used where it mattered most.
Amid the slaughter, his cultivation steadily rose.
His Transformation Jin flowed with ever greater smoothness and ease, while his Qi and blood surged ceaselessly like the Yangtze and other great rivers.
Faintly, he touched the barrier to a new realm: Elixir Jin.
It was a realm in which all the Qi and blood in the body were refined into a single point, remaining in the dantian forever like a Golden Elixir.
Somchai watched the surveillance footage in the command center, his face ashen.
He finally understood that what he faced was not human at all, but a shura from hell.
Cries for help kept coming from the various units over the radio, but he was no longer capable of responding.
It's time to end this.
Li Qingshan looked toward the command center at the far end of the base and shot forward like an arrow.
At the entrance to the command center, Somchai's personal guards formed the last line of defense.
They were veterans of countless battles, every one of them fierce-eyed, holding automatic weapons and forming a crossfire.
But Li Qingshan did not charge in head-on.
From a distance, with buildings between them, he threw grenades directly at them. The grenades flew in perfect arcs and landed among the men.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
With his mental perception, no one could hide from him, and in the end they were all wiped out.
Li Qingshan broke down the door and entered. Somchai was anxiously calling for backup on a satellite phone.
"Let me go. I can give you money, lots of money!"
Somchai raised his hands, trembling, a wet patch spreading across the crotch of his pants.
"Where is the Golden Club?"
Li Qingshan asked coldly, his gaze sharp as a knife.
Under threat of death, Somchai spilled everything, like beans pouring from a bamboo tube:
The Golden Club was a secret organization made up of political figures, tycoons, and warlords from across Southeast Asia, and it controlled most of the region's gray-market industries.
The club's members met regularly aboard a luxury cruise ship on the high seas; their next meeting was in the Gulf of Siam, three days from now.
"You can let me go now, can't you?"
Somchai pleaded.
Li Qingshan did not answer. He struck one of Somchai's lethal acupoints with a finger.
As he walked out of the command post, the morning sun was just rising.
Li Qingshan stood alone amid the corpses strewn across the ground, his presence as deep as an abyss and as vast as the sea.
After a night of slaughter, his Transformation Jin had reached perfection, leaving him just one step away from Elixir Jin.
His Qi and blood were like mercury, circulating at will;
His mind was like a mirror, reflecting all things.
In the ruins, Yan Kan crawled out from behind cover, trembling. He was one of the few survivors.
Watching that godlike, demonic figure disappear into the morning light, he muttered to himself:
"I'm going home. I'm never being a soldier again."
Li Qingshan sped through the jungle, his Embryonic Breathing perception spreading out like a tide.
He could clearly feel the qualitative transformation in his cultivation: his Transformation Jin flowed smoothly and without obstruction, while his Qi and blood had condensed to the density of mercury.
He needed only one final step to condense his entire body's essence, Qi, and spirit into an elixir and enter the legendary Elixir Jin realm.
"Golden Club,"
He murmured as he gazed at the rising sun,
"You're next."
Li Qingshan's figure flickered and vanished into the morning light, leaving nothing but devastation strewn across the ground.
On the top floor of that luxurious office building in central Bangkok, Boss learned through an encrypted channel that the base's entire force had been wiped out. His face turned as dark as water.
He walked over to the liquor cabinet, poured a glass of whiskey, and drained it in one gulp.
"Shura Qing,"