The earth-shaking battle on a private island in the Nanyang sea, along with the series of operations that preceded it,
had consequences far beyond the physical destruction.
Like a boulder hurled into the tranquil lake of global politics and the underground world, it stirred up towering waves,
and the shockwaves quickly spread to every corner of the world.
The successive destruction of Heaven Island and its associated islands,
and the near-total annihilation of the Golden Club's core members and important clients,
made the name "Shura Qing" Li Qingshan,
in an incomparably bloody and forceful fashion,
the focus of attention among the upper echelons of the international community and the underground world.
The first to react was Interpol headquarters.
After receiving confirmation from multiple sources, and above all facing intense pressure from the forces behind the scenes,
it immediately issued a highest-level red notice for Li Qingshan.
The notice was quickly distributed to all 189 member countries, calling for global cooperation in his capture.
The notice was worded in exceptionally severe terms,
describing Li Qingshan's physical appearance based on limited intelligence and making particular note of the following:
"The target is extremely dangerous and may possess weapons of mass destruction,
and has the extreme capability to confront and annihilate large numbers of people, either alone or with a small armed force.
Law enforcement agencies in all member countries are advised to exercise extreme caution upon encountering him,
avoid direct confrontation, and immediately seek support from special forces."
The issuance of the notice seemed to formally set Li Qingshan against the entire international community.
Immediately afterward, governments around the world made statements one after another, each taking a different stance.
A spokesperson for America's federal government was the first to speak at a White House briefing, using fierce language:
"We strongly condemn this utterly inhumane act of barbaric violence, committed in defiance of international law and basic human rights!
This is an open challenge to the order of the civilized world.
The federal government will work closely with the nations of Southeast Asia and the international community, employing every necessary resource and means,
to capture this lawless murderer at any cost and bring him to justice!"
Afterward, an anonymous senior Pentagon official went so far as to tell the media that, at an ally's request, the possibility could not be ruled out
of sending its most elite Navy SEALs or Delta Force to take part in a cross-border manhunt,
showing how seriously it regarded the matter.
The response from the John Bull Nation's foreign ministry appeared relatively cautious and restrained, with its customary air of ambiguity:
"We have noted the reports from the region concerned and Interpol's notice,
and are currently in close communication with our partner nations in Southeast Asia to assess the specific situation.
We urge all parties concerned to exercise the utmost restraint
and resolve this issue through legal means and international cooperation."
But according to intelligence, MI6 had already quietly taken action, stepping up its intelligence gathering in the region.
The Southeast Asian nations whose interests were most deeply entangled with the club reacted most directly and fiercely.
The Kingdom of Siam's military was the first to announce that its armed forces nationwide had been placed on high alert,
sending additional troops to guard Bangkok, the royal residences, and critical infrastructure in particular,
terrified that this god of slaughter might appear on the capital's streets at any moment.
The Federation of Malaya's police announced a reward of up to ten million ringgit
for any useful information that could lead to Li Qingshan's arrest,
a fortune large enough to drive people to take desperate risks.
The Republic of Indonesia's presidential office convened an emergency interdepartmental security meeting overnight,
after which it announced the immediate tightening of maritime and land border controls,
with the strictest screening for everyone entering or leaving the country.
The Philippines president's remarks were the most representative. He spoke passionately in a televised address:
"This is an open provocation against the sovereignty and legal order of Southeast Asian nations!
We will never allow any individual or organization to do as they please on our soil, in our region,
no matter how powerful he may be as an individual! We will defend our national dignity and the safety of our citizens!"
Compared with the political statements made in public,
the global underground world, especially the network of gray industries in Southeast Asia,
had fallen into genuine panic and paralysis.
The Golden Club was not an isolated organization. It was more like the core of a vast and evil ecosystem.
Its sudden destruction
had sent the many industries connected to it-human trafficking, drug manufacture and transportation, arms smuggling, high-end pornography, illegal organ trading,
and even political lobbying and money laundering-
into instant chaos, like a host of dragons left without a head, with transactions interrupted.
In encrypted communication channels, bosses of every stripe who had once been arrogant and overbearing were now exchanging messages of alarm and unease.
"It's terrifying, simply unbelievable. In a single night, Heaven Island and the Hunting Ground are both gone,"
a drug lord who had operated in northern Myanmar for years said hoarsely on an encrypted channel, his voice full of lingering fear.
"I paid a huge price to buy some photos of the scene from an insider. God, it was hell itself!
There wasn't a single intact body! They looked like they'd been torn apart by heavy machinery-no, ripped apart by sheer force!"
"Heaven Island wasn't the half of it!"
another boss, who controlled a human trafficking route along the border between Siam and Cambodia, added in a trembling voice.
"I heard that on the Hunting Ground island, that 'Shura Qing' took less than two hours
to kill his way through every defense from the perimeter inward, taking out every guard on the island and those 'guests.'
We'd all better lie low for a while. Heaven knows who this god of slaughter will target next!"
On the black market, the price of reliable intelligence about Li Qingshan and clues to his whereabouts had long since been driven to astronomical heights.
Yet, despite the enormous bounty, the dark world that had once produced desperate outlaws in droves
was now experiencing the rare situation of a price with no sellers.
A veteran intelligence broker with an excellent reputation admitted privately:
"You might live to earn this money, but you have to live to spend it, too.
Even the ironclad defenses the Golden Club spent more than a decade building couldn't stop him on his own.
Little fish and shrimp like us probably wouldn't even be enough to warm him up if we went after him.
No one dares take this job."
The gangs, warlords, and scam syndicates that had once run rampant across Southeast Asia all kept an unprecedentedly low profile.
Many of the big bosses chose to leave their home bases
and head to Europe, North America, or more remote places for a "vacation," to watch how things unfolded.
Drug production and trade in the Golden Triangle plummeted in the short term;
gambling ships on the high seas shut down one after another;
even the most rampant telecom scam compounds temporarily suspended operations, afraid that too high a profile would make them the next target.
"This is the biggest earthquake the Southeast Asian underground has seen in a decade. The entire landscape has been reshuffled."
An old-guard Siamese gang godfather, long since semi-retired but still enormously influential, sighed during a secret conversation with his son.
"The Golden Club's downfall has left a power vacuum and shattered chains of interests.
There's no telling how many years it will take or how much blood will be spilled before order is restored.
And this instigator, 'Shura Qing'-he changed everything by himself."
Meanwhile, in China, the martial arts world had likewise been swept up in stormy seas.
News reached the country through special channels, causing enormous ripples in the highest circles of Guoshu.
Deep inside the Yan Family martial arts school in the capital.
Yan Yuanyi held a confidential report that had just arrived through a special channel.
It documented the brutal outcome of the battle on the Nanyang islands and the inhuman combat power Li Qingshan had displayed, reconstructing events as fully as possible.
She said nothing for a long time, her expression shifting across her breathtakingly beautiful face.
At last, she put down the papers and let out a long sigh, her tone complicated and hard to read.
"Decisive in killing, determined to wipe out evil, thunderous in his methods, with the heart of a bodhisattva?
Perhaps. In that resolve, that willingness to shoulder responsibility, I fall short of him."
Her trusted disciple, standing beside her, looked astonished and incredulous at her words.
"Master, you're an expert who has reached the great completion of Elixir Jin, standing above your peers. Why would you say that?
No matter how strong Li Qingshan is, surely he couldn't-"
Yan Yuanyi shook her head slightly, cutting her disciple off. She gazed out the window, as though she could see through space to distant Nanyang.
"One's realm is certainly a measure of strength, but it isn't everything.
On the martial path, courage and relentless progress are important, but the cultivation of one's character is more fundamental.
Knowing full well there's a tiger on the mountain, he still headed for it;
though ten million stand against him, he would go forth. To rid the people of this cancer on humanity is also a righteous cause; that courage and spirit, which pay no heed to personal life or death, honor or disgrace-
I am ashamed to say I fall short."
Her voice was soft, but it carried a trace of admiration and self-examination that was hard to detect.
A top-floor office in a premier office tower in Lujiazui, Shanghai.
Feng Cai had just concluded negotiations for a business acquisition involving billions in capital.
She dismissed everyone and stood alone before the floor-to-ceiling windows, looking down at the bustling scene on both banks of the Huangpu River.
Her assistant entered silently and placed a briefing on her desk.
Feng Cai turned, picked it up, and quickly read through it. A light sharp as a sword flashed in her eyes, deep as a sea of stars.
She was silent for a long time before her red lips parted and she murmured to herself:
"What a 'Shura Qing.' What a Li Qingshan.
So you've already reached such a point."
Her slender fingers unconsciously stroked the scabbard of an antique-style Han sword displayed on her desk as an ornament.
"If I have the chance, I'd really like to meet him myself."
Her assistant asked cautiously:
"President Feng, regarding Li Qingshan and the international notice, does our group need to take any measures in response?
Some of our business divisions seem to have had indirect dealings with the Golden Club in the past-"
Feng Cai smiled faintly, but her smile carried an unmistakable decisiveness.
"Pass down my instructions. Every subsidiary and every business division under the Feng Group is to conduct a thorough internal review immediately.
Any business dealings or connections of any kind, past or present, with the Golden Club or its associated entities
are to be severed at once, cleanly and decisively!
Anyone who disobeys will be punished without leniency!"
She paused, her tone leaving no room for doubt.
"Also, issue an informal statement to several of our core partners in my personal name:
The Feng Group and I personally support all actions that uphold justice and eradicate wrongdoing and evil.
As for the international notice, that's a matter of politics."
The assistant's heart tightened, and she immediately bowed and replied:
"Yes, President Feng. I'll take care of it right away!"
Inside an old-fashioned martial arts school with more than a century of history in Foshan, Guangdong.
It was late at night, but the lights were still on in the teahouse in the rear courtyard.
Several elders held in high esteem in the local martial arts community were sipping tea and talking into the night.
Naturally, their conversation turned to the recent major events in Nanyang that had shaken the martial arts world's highest circles.
"You've all heard, haven't you? Someone extraordinary has appeared over in Nanyang! Codename 'Shura Qing,' real name said to be Li Qingshan.
Single-handedly, in one night, he wiped out a base belonging to that infamous Golden Club, the one with connections reaching all the way to heaven!"
"More than heard! I have a good-for-nothing disciple serving in the Southern Theater Command's special forces.
He secretly told me about their internal assessment report on the scene. It was brutal!
They said the fortifications were destroyed by brute force, and the guards were basically all killed in a single blow.
A lot of the wounds didn't look like they'd been made by conventional weapons at all."
"Hiss, what level of strength would that take? Even a Transformation Jin grandmaster probably couldn't do that, could they?"
An elder who had been silent all this time, his hair and beard white but his eyes clear as a baby's, slowly put down his teacup.
He spoke, his voice quiet but instantly silencing the others.
"If the rumored casualty figures and extent of the destruction are true,
and if he was still able to withdraw unscathed after a hard battle-"
The elder paused, a glimmer of recollection and disbelief flashing in his eyes.
"Then this man's kung fu has probably gone beyond the realm of Elixir Jin."
Everyone immediately grew solemn, even their breathing becoming quiet.
"You mean Gang Jin? That legendary realm?"
The elder nodded slowly, his tone grave and certain.
"Only when one's Qi and blood are like Gang, spreading beyond the body, destroying all in their path and impervious to water and fire,
Only that could explain such inhuman, thunderous methods and defensive prowess.
Otherwise, even Elixir Jin could hardly guarantee survival under the concentrated fire of modern firearms.
"This young man is no longer a creature confined to a pond!"
The tea room fell silent,
leaving only the gurgle of boiling tea and the heavy breathing of the elderly men.