Chapter 50: Chapter 50
“Die?”
“You think you can make that happen?”
Li Suifeng looked at Chen Dao. Thirty-something. Considerably uglier than himself.
No wonder Lin Zhixu wasn’t interested.
“Young man, don’t be too brash. Someone like you—” The old woman behind Chen Dao began, her voice frosty.
“If a young man isn’t brash, then he’s not much of a young man.” Li Suifeng cut her off.
“Cocky brat!”
The old woman’s eyes turned to slits of ice. “Don’t think that killing one wounded sixth-rank fighter gives you the right to talk tough in front of me.”
“Today, I’ll show you what a real sixth-rank master—”
But before she could finish, Li Suifeng was already moving.
Both palms pressed together, then drove forward — the opening form of the Great Vajra Palm: “Saluting the Buddha.” The sheer force of the strike made the old woman’s face twist with alarm.
“Good! This level of martial arts… I underestimated you!”
In desperation, Granny Yu threw out a palm to meet him head-on. She was a sixth-rank master. Even in a straight collision, this brat shouldn’t be able to touch her.
WHAM!
Palm force erupted in all directions.
PFFT!
Granny Yu spat blood and staggered back five steps before barely steadying herself, horror etched into every line of her face.
Her right hand — the one that had met Li Suifeng’s strike — was hidden behind her back, trembling uncontrollably.
“Boss Li’s unbeatable! His divine arts have no equal!”
Wen Bubao saw the result and cheered with undisguised relief.
Boss Li had lived up to every expectation. A sixth-rank master — staggered in a single exchange.
“Such incredible power… and that external hardening…”
Granny Yu felt a stabbing pain through her right hand. The bone was damaged.
The force behind that one palm was more than even a sixth-rank fighter could comfortably absorb. Now she understood how Ba Hu had died.
Today, she could not take this young man.
“Granny Yu!”
“Are you alright?”
Chen Dao couldn’t process what he was seeing. Granny Yu was late sixth-rank. And she’d come out worse from a single exchange?
How was he supposed to bring Lin Zhixu back now?
“Young Master — today… let it go.”
Her hand was damaged at the bone. Her organs had been shaken by the impact. Not critically, but enough — overpowering Li Suifeng was no longer within reach.
“Li Suifeng — think very carefully about the consequences of crossing me.”
Unwilling to accept defeat, Chen Dao glared at Li Suifeng, his voice venomous.
“A waste of space who hides behind women — so what if I cross you?”
Li Suifeng fixed Chen Dao with a level stare.
“Today I’m not just crossing you. I’m killing you.”
“You — what did you say?” Chen Dao’s face went blank.
His mother was a fifth-rank master. A Valley Elder. And Li Suifeng was threatening to kill him?
“HA HA HA!”
Suddenly, Chen Dao threw back his head and howled with laughter. One finger jabbed at Li Suifeng.
“Go on, then! I’m standing right here! Let’s see if you actually dare!”
BOOM!
Li Suifeng stamped the ground and launched himself at Chen Dao.
The flagstones cracked beneath his feet.
“You wouldn’t dare!”
Granny Yu screamed, ignoring her injuries, and threw herself forward to intercept.
If Chen Dao was harmed, Elder Ji would flay her alive when she returned to the Valley.
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
Li Suifeng’s hands darkened to blue-black as every hardening art surged to its limit. Great Vajra Palm — strike after strike — hammered into Granny Yu. Dozens of exchanges blazed past in the space of a breath.
CRASH!
The courtyard’s flagstone floor had been laid with care, but under the shockwaves of their battle, the stones erupted and shattered. The area outside the courtyard was strewn with rubble.
“Who’s fighting?”
“Those Valley people were never up to any good!”
“Crossbows — get ready! Wait for Boss Li to disengage, then turn them into pincushions!”
Thundering footsteps. Nearly a hundred branch disciples swarmed the area, bows drawn and weapons bared, forming an airtight cordon around the courtyard.
“Stand down — that old woman is no match for Boss Li.”
Wen Bubao waved them off, signaling them to lower their bows.
Granny Yu’s cultivation was slightly above Li Suifeng’s — on paper. But she was clearly losing.
PFFT!
On the thirty-sixth exchange, Granny Yu vomited blood and was flung backward, dismay written across her face.
“Boss Li is invincible!”
“Valley trash — you think you can take Boss Li?”
The Canal Gang disciples erupted in cheers.
The branch had endured one crisis after another recently. Every time, it was Boss Li who pulled them through. Now even an uninjured sixth-rank master was being forced to spit blood. Boss Li’s strength had to surpass the late Helmsman’s.
Just as triumph lit every Canal Gang face—
FWIP!
A concealed dart streaked toward Li Suifeng’s right shoulder.
CLANG!
Metal struck metal.
The dart sliced through fabric, revealing the blue-black skin beneath — veins coiling like iron ropes across the surface. The dart ricocheted away.
“You—!”
Chen Dao’s jaw dropped.
That sleeve-dart had been custom-forged on his mother’s commission. Compact, devastating, and coated in a toxin lethal enough to kill a sixth-rank fighter within three days.
And it hadn’t even broken Li Suifeng’s skin?
“Bold.”
A predatory grin spread across Li Suifeng’s face. He charged.
BOOM!
“No — if you hurt him, Elder Ji will never forgive you!”
Granny Yu forced out a burst of true qi despite her injuries. Five needles — each a foot long, gleaming with cold light — materialized in her hand and stabbed toward Li Suifeng’s eyes.
“More of this shit?”
WHAM!
Li Suifeng didn’t bother dodging. One palm crashed down on the hand holding the needles.
CRACK!
All five needles snapped in half. Granny Yu’s right hand bent at an impossible angle — the bone had shattered.
Her face went chalk-white. She swayed on her feet, cold sweat pouring down her forehead.
SLAP!
Li Suifeng closed the distance. One open-handed blow struck the side of Granny Yu’s head. Her skull rotated a hundred and eighty degrees. Defiance still frozen on her face, she collapsed.
“You…”
Chen Dao’s mouth hung open wide enough to fit an egg.
He hadn’t believed Li Suifeng would actually kill Granny Yu. Wasn’t this man afraid of his mother’s retribution?
“Stop!”
A shout rang from the distance.
Three figures sprinted toward the courtyard — Qi Hu, flanked by Sun Xi and Zhou Chao.
Qi Hu saw that Chen Dao was unharmed and breathed a sigh of relief. He turned on Li Suifeng, triumph dripping from every word:
“Li Suifeng — what audacity!”
“You’re attacking a Valley Young Master over a woman? Are you trying to start a war between the Canal Gang and the Valley of Ten Thousand Flowers?”
“Are you telling me how to run my branch?”
Li Suifeng turned his gaze on Qi Hu.
Qi Hu’s pulse spiked — but the thought of Ye Mingchu on his way steadied his nerve. His voice was ice:
“If you lay a finger on Young Master Chen, the Disciplinary Hall will be knocking on your door.”
“Then let them come.”
Li Suifeng spoke the words and walked toward Chen Dao.
Suddenly — Chen Dao’s eyes flashed with vicious intent. Both hands curled into gleaming talons and raked at Li Suifeng’s throat.
“Boss Li — watch out!”
Wen Bubao, who’d been tracking Chen Dao’s every twitch, shouted the warning.
The claw strike was fast — swift as a gale. The technique clearly bore the marks of a master’s instruction. An ordinary seventh-rank fighter might not have been Chen Dao’s equal.
Li Suifeng thought he caught a flicker of mockery in Chen Dao’s eyes.
His own hands arrived second but struck first. Two fingers jabbed into the nerve clusters on both of Chen Dao’s arms.
CRACK!
Bone snapped.
“AAAGH—”
The scream barely had time to form before Li Suifeng’s palm descended on the crown of Chen Dao’s skull.
CRUNCH!
Half of Chen Dao’s head was hammered into his chest cavity. His body didn’t fall — Li Suifeng’s blow had driven both legs a foot deep into the flagstones. Blood and grayish-white matter oozed from the stump of his neck, dripping to the ground.