Breaking the law through martial might

"Unbelievable!"

The crowd burst into cheers and ushered Su Ziyang back to his seat.

"Brother Su, Brother Su!" The group had already switched from calling him Doctor Su to Brother Su.

"Have you trained in internal energy too?" they teased. "Brother Su, don't tell us you're a virgin too! Hahaha!"

Su Ziyang smiled mysteriously and raised his glass without answering. Beside him, Bai Pengyu nodded at him in sympathy, then raised his own glass and clinked it against Su Ziyang's. "Ah, the wine says it all!"

"Hahaha..."

Seeing their expressions, everyone burst into laughter again. Since Su Ziyang still had to work that afternoon, the group exchanged contact information and ended the meal, then escorted him back to the Daoist Medicine Clinic.

Bai Pengyu said they would stay and have fun for a few more days. After looking around, they would make plans again when Su Ziyang had the weekend off.

Back at the clinic, Su Ziyang drank some tea and regulated his breathing to dispel the smell of alcohol before preparing to see patients. By midafternoon, no patients had arrived, but Daoist Master Xiao Yang appeared, strolling along at an easy pace.

"Hello, Daoist Master Yang!" Su Ziyang was the first to rise. He cupped his hands to greet her.

"Hello, Doctor Su. Are you busy right now?" Daoist Master Xiao Yang returned the greeting and asked.

Su Ziyang glanced around the room and joked, "Looking at things, I'd say I'm not busy!"

"Hmm..." Daoist Master Xiao Yang seemed a little hesitant. "If you're not busy, come to the Daoist temple out back. My master would like to see you about something!"

"Old Daoist Master Xiao wants to see me?" Su Ziyang pointed at himself. "Is there a patient with a strange illness?"

Daoist Master Xiao Yang didn't want to explain. "You'll know when you get there! I have something else to do, so I'll get going. If you're free, head over first!"

With that, Daoist Master Xiao Yang turned and hurried away. Su Ziyang gave it no further thought, shut the consultation room door, and headed for the Daoist temple.

As soon as he entered the guest quarters' tea room, Su Ziyang saw a familiar figure: Daoist Jin, who had looked at him that morning as though his nose and eyes were all in the wrong places.

Daoist Master Xiao sat in his seat brewing tea. Seeing Su Ziyang enter, he chuckled. "Haha, come, come, Xiao Su, sit down!"

Su Ziyang didn't stand on ceremony. He walked over and sat beside the old Daoist master.

Seeing Su Ziyang sit down, Daoist Jin snorted. "Hmph... You sit just because you're told to? You don't know the first thing about proper manners!"

Su Ziyang sucked at his teeth at Daoist Jin's reproach and sighed. "Daoist Jin, we're complete strangers, and there's no bad blood between us. You've been making barbed remarks at me since this morning. Isn't that a bit inappropriate? Besides, Daoist Master Xiao told me to sit. When an elder offers something, you shouldn't refuse! Why can't I sit?"

Old Daoist Master Xiao patted Daoist Jin on the arm. "Come now, Daoist Jin. Since I've called Xiao Su here, why not just say whatever you have to say? Those who cultivate the Dao prize truth. Whatever it is, tell him what he's done wrong. His master, Mr. Mengfei, is a dear friend of mine. As long as he's done wrong, I can punish him on his master's behalf!"

The two Daoist masters' words left Su Ziyang unable to tell north from south. What were they talking about?

"What truth or falsehood? It's wrong of him to hurt people!" Daoist Jin seemed even angrier at Daoist Master Xiao's words.

Daoist Jin didn't even give Old Daoist Master Xiao face, leaving him a little embarrassed. For a moment, he fell silent.

Su Ziyang was even more bewildered. Hurt people? Who had he hurt? He hurriedly said, "You can eat whatever you like, but you can't just say whatever you like. Who have I hurt?"

Daoist Jin snorted. "Do you dare say the five people who came to your room this morning weren't struck by you with the Blood-Blocking Technique? First you beat them, then you played doctor and made them come begging you for treatment! I was wondering why you normally have no patients, yet five came today! So you've been hurting people with this evil technique. Old Daoist Master Xiao, in my opinion, someone like him should be driven out of our Daoist Medicine Clinic, so he won't sully its reputation."

When Daoist Jin had come to Old Daoist Master Xiao about this at noon, the old master hadn't taken it seriously. He wasn't familiar with Su Ziyang, but he knew Mr. Mengfei. Anyone Mr. Mengfei accepted as a disciple would be beyond reproach in both character and intelligence and could never do such a thing.

"Xiao Su, were you the one who injured those people?" Old Daoist Master Xiao turned to ask Su Ziyang, who was sitting beside him.

"Yes!" Su Ziyang nodded without hesitation.

His frank admission shocked not only Daoist Master Xiao, but Daoist Jin as well.

"Daoist Master Xiao, look, look... He, he, he... He's acting so righteous about it!" Daoist Jin looked furious, his pointing finger trembling with anger.

Old Daoist Master Xiao frowned too. "Xiao Su, tell us what happened!"

Looking at Daoist Jin, who was picking a fight, Su Ziyang nodded helplessly. "Why shouldn't I act righteous? I wouldn't want to make you so angry you die. You're getting on in years; don't have a stroke. If I had to treat you afterward, it wouldn't be easy!"

"Xiao Su, don't be rude!" Old Daoist Master Xiao scolded.

Hearing the rebuke, Su Ziyang understood that Old Daoist Master Xiao valued proper manners and stopped teasing him. He explained the conflict he had had with Bai Pengyu and the others, and also told them everything, in full detail, about how he and Bai Pengyu had since reconciled and become friends.

"I don't believe you!" Daoist Jin said sharply. "Don't think I don't know. From the moment you came to work here, I looked at your face and saw that you've got a smooth-talking mouth that can turn black into white. You made up a few lines on the spot, and Old Daoist Master Xiao is a kind man, so he might believe you. But I don't!"

"I don't give a fuck whether you believe me, you old fart!" Looking at the somewhat crazed Daoist Jin, Su Ziyang began swearing outright. "Are you fucking crazy? What the hell does this have to do with you?"

After cursing him out, Su Ziyang felt somewhat angry. He cupped his hands to Daoist Master Xiao to indicate that he was going back to work.

He had only just turned around when Daoist Jin stepped in front of him. "You can't leave. You have to make yourself clear today. Otherwise, I'll clean up scum like you who use evil techniques!"

With that, Daoist Jin thrust a palm straight at Su Ziyang's face. This is bad, Su Ziyang thought. He dodged, barely avoiding the blow. Daoist Jin's fingers and palm stirred a wind that made the tip of Su Ziyang's ear sting.

Seeing Daoist Jin attack, Su Ziyang instinctively counterattacked. Jiang Kui's two months of special training hadn't been for nothing. Su Ziyang used the Plum Blossom Hand, striking straight at Daoist Jin's chest. The blow struck four acupoints in succession: the Danzhong, Shencang, Zigong, and Yutang points.

But contrary to Su Ziyang's expectations, the strike didn't knock Daoist Jin down. Instead, his fingers felt as though they had jabbed into an iron wall. His palm went numb and all five fingers throbbed with pain.

The five fingers were connected to the heart. Before Su Ziyang could recover from the pain, darkness filled his vision, and he flew backward into the wall.

"Cough, cough!" Su Ziyang's physique was no longer what it had once been. Though the fall wasn't enough to injure him, it left him badly dazed, and he didn't get up for a moment.

Daoist Jin didn't press his advantage. Instead, he said to Old Daoist Master Xiao, who had risen to his feet and looked somewhat angry, "Daoist Master Xiao, you saw that, didn't you? This child went straight for my major acupoints. If not for the Iron Cloth Shirt I've cultivated for years, I'd have fallen for his trick today. He's so vicious at such a young age! He can't be allowed to keep his martial arts. We must sever the tendons in his hands and feet and cripple his cultivation!"

Su Ziyang caught his breath as ten thousand alpacas galloped through his mind. This old man was too ruthless. This was a fucking society ruled by law. Saying he would sever the tendons in Su Ziyang's hands and feet-that was a crime...

Old Daoist Master Xiao hadn't been able to stop Su Ziyang's attack in time, but he had seen it clearly. Any expert could tell that Su Ziyang's instinctive move had indeed targeted major acupoints. If it had landed, injury would have been certain.

"Xiao Su! Get up first! Let me ask you: who taught you that skill? And those five patients who came today, did you injure them on purpose?" Old Daoist Master Xiao's previously mild tone had also become somewhat stiff.

Seeing the two Daoist masters' grave expressions, Su Ziyang felt a surge of irritation. Why was it that, in the eyes of these older people, he had to be hurting others? Who would abandon a perfectly good job just to go around hurting people? He wasn't crazy...

"My master taught me martial arts. I injured them, but it wasn't on purpose. If you don't believe me, I can bring them here to confront me!" Su Ziyang got up and brushed the dust off himself. "Do you have a persecution complex or something? Why would I hurt people? And, like you said, if they came to me to unblock their acupoints, I'd charge them, wouldn't I? I didn't take a single cent for treating them today, so what would I be after? Making trouble for myself?!"

"Hmm..." Old Daoist Master Xiao pondered for a moment. "You have a point!"

Daoist Jin's brows shot up. "Daoist Master Xiao, why waste words on such a vicious child? Didn't you see the palm strike he just used on me?"

"How about this? I won't sever the tendons in your hands. Break your own thumb and index finger, and you can leave! And never show your face in front of me again!"

Daoist Jin pointed at Su Ziyang as he spoke.

Lunatic! Su Ziyang cursed inwardly. He had no intention of paying either of them any attention and prepared to leave.

"Who said you could leave?!" Daoist Jin shouted sharply and charged at Su Ziyang. Su Ziyang had thought he could at least exchange a few moves with him, but darkness filled his vision again. Before he could see what had happened, he went flying. This time he flew straight out of the room into the courtyard. The courtyard was paved with stone, and the fall tore two gashes in his arm, from which blood flowed.

Old Daoist Master Xiao had just been pleading and speaking on Su Ziyang's behalf, but now he seemed to have silently consented to Daoist Jin's actions. He merely watched from behind with a dark expression.

As soon as Su Ziyang got up, Daoist Jin charged at him again, and Su Ziyang went flying once more. This time, Su Ziyang felt dizzy and as though his whole body had fallen apart. He struggled a couple of times, only to find he couldn't get up at all.

Daoist Jin produced a tiny knife gleaming with golden light from somewhere and slowly walked over to Su Ziyang. He crouched and pinned Su Ziyang's right hand down. "It's all right! I'm very quick. It won't hurt too much. Even if you end up disabled, you can only blame yourself for learning such crooked, evil arts!"

The tip of the knife had already pierced his skin when a tremendous boom rang out in the courtyard.

The enormous sound shook Su Ziyang so hard that all he heard was a high-pitched "eeee-" before the world seemed to fall silent. He knew he had been temporarily deafened.

The blast also made Daoist Jin stagger and fall flat on his backside. The exquisite little knife went flying.

In his daze, Su Ziyang felt a strong, large hand help him up.

"So you're the one who wants to sever my disciple's hand tendons!"

The newcomer was none other than Mr. Mengfei!