The next day, news of the Zhou Family's birthday banquet swept through Zhou City like a plague of locusts crossing the sky.
Countless people were shocked to hear that Gu Chen had refused to yield an inch against the Zhou Family and had even injured Jiang Kun with a single punch. As events unfolded, the letter of divorce issued at school also spread like wildfire.
In everyone's mind appeared the stubborn image of Gu Chen holding his ground against the overbearing Zhou Family. But however forcefully Gu Chen had acted, the break between the Zhou Family and the Gu Family was already a foregone conclusion.
Almost everyone knew the Gu Family was finished!
It was only a matter of time!
Gu Chen paid no attention to any of the news. It was just past nine in the morning, and after his father went out, he put on a specially purchased floor-length robe and a pair of oversized sunglasses, shrouding both his figure and his face in darkness.
Then he drove away from home.
Yulin Road.
This was one of the busiest downtown streets in Zhou City, but every prosperous place had its dark side.
On a backstreet off Yulin Road was an alley. At its entrance, a particularly scruffy old man sat smoking. His head was covered in filthy hair that almost obscured his entire face. As it happened, several men who looked like thugs passed by him. His little eyes darted around as though he had spotted something, and he took a wallet from one of them, a blond thug.
"Someone stole your stuff!"
But the old man's technique was far too clumsy and blatant, and the blond thug's companions quickly spotted what he had done.
The blond thug felt his pants, and a vicious look immediately appeared on his face as he turned to the old man.
The old man didn't run. He simply stood there, grinning and chuckling foolishly.
"You old bastard, how dare you steal from me!" The blond thug grabbed the old man by the collar. "Hand it over!"
The old man shamelessly waved the wallet in his hand and said, "I haven't seen your wallet! I didn't steal it!"
"Beat him up!" The blond thug was furious. This old man actually dared to provoke him.
The three thugs held the old man down and gave him a brutal beating. Before long, he fell to the ground with his hands over his head, rolling around.
"You old bastard!"
After beating him for a while, the blond thug gave him one last vicious kick and cursed, "Don't let me catch sight of you again. I'll beat you every time I see you."
"Hey, don't go!" When the old man saw the three of them leaving, he scrambled to his feet and wrapped his arms around one of their legs. "I'm telling you, I'll steal from you again next time!"
"Courting death!" The blond thug flew into a rage and gave him another round of punches and kicks, even more vicious than before.
But after a few minutes, the blond thug sensed something was wrong.
Though the old man kept screaming as if he were being subjected to the cruelest torture, he was completely unharmed. It was as though he couldn't feel the punches landing on him at all.
The thugs, on the other hand, were gradually running out of strength and were drenched in sweat.
The blond thug looked at the old man, who revealed his face and flashed a grin, his two big yellow front teeth standing out.
Damn it, how can this be so freakish?!
Fear crept into the blond thug's heart, and he tried to get up.
"Brother, I stole your wallet. You're just going to let me off like that?"
The old man grew anxious and grabbed the blond thug again.
"Get lost, you old lunatic!" The blond thug panicked. When he saw that the old man didn't have so much as a scratch on him, he was horrified. He kicked the old man away, and the three of them fled, scrambling and stumbling.
Only then did the old man slowly get up and pat the dust off himself. "Young people these days have had their bodies hollowed out by wine and women. They can't even keep going after such a short beating."
He shook his head as if he weren't the one who had been beaten, and even seemed rather regretful.
But just as he was about to return to the alley entrance and continue waiting, someone suddenly appeared ahead of him, standing in his path.
"Can I help you?"
The man was wrapped from head to toe in a long black robe, with sunglasses and a mask on his face. An ordinary person might have been a little frightened at the sight, but the old man wasn't. Instead, he lit a cigarette and regarded him with a careless air.
"Are you Zhao Bo?"
The black-robed man spoke evenly.
The old man narrowed his eyes. "You know me?"
"I don't just know you. I also know why you wanted to be beaten." The black-robed man deliberately kept his voice deep and low, projecting it through his true qi so that neither his gender nor his age could be discerned.
A cold smile appeared at the corner of Zhao Bo's mouth. "Then tell me, why would I?"
"You cultivated the Undying Divine Skill," the black-robed man said evenly. "The only way to improve this cultivation technique is to keep passively taking beatings. When your meridians congeal, true qi can strike those congealed places and break through automatically."
Boom!
In an instant, the playful look on Zhao Bo's face vanished completely!
He rose from the ground, his aura erupting. Beneath his long bangs, a pair of deeply sunken, dark eyes flashed with a cold, fierce light. He spoke word by word. "Who are you?"
His right hand was already behind his back, its five fingers slightly curved like a crane's claw, ready to attack at any moment.
He had been in Zhou City for many years, yet no one had ever known his origins. Most people called him things like "old geezer" or "old lunatic." The cultivation technique he practiced was even more of a taboo!
"Want to make a move?"
But the black-robed man before him seemed to have seen through his thoughts and spoke indifferently.
"Three seconds. If you don't talk, you die!"
Zhao Bo no longer looked like the wretched, helpless man the thugs had bullied. Instead, a threatening killing intent poured from his body. As his aura rose, whirlwinds sprang up from the ground at his feet, showing how fiercely his energy was being unleashed!
"Then try it!" The black-robed man stepped back and assumed a defensive stance!
"Three seconds are up! Die!"
Zhao Bo's hair bristled with rage. His hand shot out from behind his back, clawing straight at the black-robed man!
He was aiming for his opponent's shoulder. His claw could pierce metal and split stone, and it came with a gale of fierce force. If it landed squarely, the entire shoulder would likely be ruined!
But the black-robed man gave a sinister chuckle, and his own aura erupted.
Emperor Fist!
Second form!
God in the Universe!
His fist struck out with the force of ten thousand thunderbolts. The air around them was compressed violently, clearing a path for the attack alone!
At that moment, Zhao Bo's claw strike seemed riddled with openings. Not only was its offensive force completely neutralized, but its waves of energy were also scattered without a trace!
At the bizarre sight, Zhao Bo's expression changed drastically with shock! But by then, the black-robed man's fist had already reached him, smashing viciously into his face!
Bang!
Zhao Bo flew backward, face up, and crashed to the ground, a spray of blood bursting from his mouth!
"What kind of move is that?" Zhao Bo's face was grim. Under the pressure from the black-robed man, he raised his head to look at him, his eyes full of shock!
What he had just used was the Five Void Claw from the Undying Divine Skill. With his strength at the Late Bone-Forge Realm, he could fight opponents above his own realm; even taking on a Revolving Illumination Realm martial artist was no problem.
Yet against the man before him, he couldn't last a single exchange!
"I am your opportunity." The black-robed man calmly lowered his hand and stood with his hands behind his back. "Now, pay your respects."