Chapter 148. Battle Overseer Han, Run!
“Let me see what progress Chief Overseer Bai has made lately.”
Xu Yuan first went after his old opponent, Bai Jinwu. His figure flashed, and an unending torrent of fist force crashed toward his opponent like raging waves.
“Arrogant!”
Bai Jinwu hurriedly moved to block, and his expression changed at once. What a heavy punch!
At first, he was somewhat battered and awkward, but he gradually managed to steady himself.
“This is better. It is far more satisfying than watching you run all over the place like before!” he snarled with a savage grin. Dodging the attack with a twist of his body, he shot forward and chopped down with a palm strike, borrowing the force of his charge.
Smack!
Xu Yuan’s expression remained calm. He shifted half a step to the side, dodging the blow, then casually flicked his hand back as though swatting a fly, striking precisely at the point where Bai Jinwu had been gathering power.
The impact scattered that breath of force. Bai Jinwu only felt his strength seize up, and he staggered backward several steps in succession.
Like a disease clinging to the bone, Xu Yuan pressed forward. His chain of punches flowed without end, suppressing Bai Jinwu so thoroughly that he could not even lift his head.
‘How is this possible? I clearly trained the Cloud-Treading Step to Major Mastery, yet I still cannot keep up with his speed...’
At first, Bai Jinwu had still been able to confront Xu Yuan head-on. But little by little, he realized that Xu Yuan’s speed was growing faster and faster, forcing him to retreat as he fought, looking increasingly panicked and disheveled.
At that moment, Xu Yuan’s figure blurred slightly and his speed surged again. Catching an opening, he drove a punch into Bai Jinwu’s shoulder. Bai Jinwu let out a muffled grunt and was forced back several more steps.
‘What kind of cursed thing is this?’
Just as Bai Jinwu was about to gather himself and charge in again, the qi and blood inside his body suddenly became turbulent. For a moment, he found it hard to control it, and his movements grew slightly sluggish.
Yet unexpectedly, Xu Yuan did not press the advantage. Instead, borrowing that burst of force, he shot to the left. At the very instant Bai Jinwu raised his guard in alarm, Xu Yuan twisted his body and struck the nearby seven-meridian martial artist with a palm.
Bang!
That seven-meridian martial artist was sent flying off the ground. In midair, a blossom of blood exploded from his chest. Flesh and blood sprayed everywhere before he crashed heavily to the ground, barely breathing, his life hanging by a thread.
With a single blow, he had beaten a seven-meridian martial artist into a heavily wounded, dying state!
This was something neither Zhao Wuji nor Bai Jinwu could accomplish.
“Battle Overseer Shen?! Aaaah! Xu Yuan, I want you dead!” When Bai Jinwu saw this, his eyes nearly split with fury, and he rushed forward at top speed.
“Xu Yuan, you insolent dog!”
Xu Yuan did not even spare him a glance. He threw a punch that forced back the approaching Zhao Wuji, then dashed straight toward the other seven-meridian battle overseer who was fighting Yang Cang and launched a sneak attack from behind with a palm strike.
Everything that had happened before took place in the span of a lightning flash. That seven-meridian battle overseer had just been distracted by his companion’s scream and Bai Jinwu’s furious shout. The moment he turned his head, Xu Yuan’s palm was already slamming into him head-on...
Xu Yuan’s strength already exceeded his by a wide margin, and now he was attacking by surprise while using his full power. The blow blew the man’s head apart on the spot, leaving the front of his face a mangled mess of blood and flesh. Even his own parents would not have been able to recognize him.
The price for that, however, was a punch to the back from the pursuing Bai Jinwu. But a faint bronze sheen flashed across Xu Yuan’s body, and he merely swayed slightly. He did not suffer the slightest injury.
“Xu Yuan, you truly deserve to die! You despicable, shameless thing—do you dare fight me head-on?”
Under Xu Yuan’s gaze, a gaze that seemed to be looking at an idiot, Bai Jinwu’s fury surged even higher.
“Good, good, good! You think you are the only one who knows how to bully the weak with strength?”
He turned his furious eyes toward Yang Cang, who had begun quietly retreating, then stamped his foot and shot toward him like a cannonball.
Yang Cang’s face changed dramatically: ???
Are you here to make jokes? Are you going to threaten Xu Yuan with me?
But acting on pure survival instinct, he still roared at the top of his lungs, “Battle Overseer Xu, save me!!”
“Bastard! Bai Jinwu, if you dare lay a hand on Battle Overseer Yang, I will never let you go!”
Xu Yuan shouted furiously, his face full of rage, yet his feet remained rooted where he stood, and he did not move an inch.
Bang!
“Why did you not do anything earlier? Too late now!”
Hearing the sound of Xu Yuan’s “defenses breaking,” Bai Jinwu secretly felt delighted and attacked Yang Cang even more ruthlessly.
He was not as ferocious as Xu Yuan, but against a mere seven-meridian martial artist, life and death could be decided within ten moves.
“No...”
Yang Cang was beaten until blood spilled from his nose and mouth. His hair came loose and scattered wildly. In his heart, he only hated that he had not been born with two extra legs.
“Wait... can we settle this peacefully? I am willing to join the Bai—”
Looking at Bai Jinwu’s broad hand coming down like a fan, Yang Cang’s face filled with terror. He wanted to explain himself, but he had no chance at all.
Bai Jinwu unleashed a full combination attack, both palms crashing into Yang Cang’s skull, blowing his head apart and killing him on the spot.
“No! Battle Overseer Yang...”
Xu Yuan looked stricken with grief and fury, as though he had suffered more than if his own father had died. His eyes immediately reddened, and he glared fixedly at Bai Jinwu, his voice hoarse as he said,
“Battle Overseer Yang was a pillar of my Shangyang Residence, yet you people persecuted him like this. I swear I will make sure you die a miserable death!”
“Hahaha—!”
Seeing Xu Yuan look so ‘frantic with rage,’ Bai Jinwu felt unspeakably satisfied.
“Xu Yuan, this is the price of opposing my Bai Family!”
At that moment, Zhao Wuji landed beside him and said in a low voice, “Move quickly. Qin Chuan will be here soon!”
Bai Jinwu nodded. He knew they could not drag things out any longer. As long as they killed Xu Yuan this time, they would come out with a sure profit no matter what.
But just then, Xu Yuan’s eyes turned bloodshot as he slowly looked toward Han Li and shouted urgently, “Battle Overseer Han, what are you still standing there for? Run!”
Hearing this, Bai Jinwu’s eyes lit up, and he turned to look at Han Li in the distance.
Killing one was killing. Killing two was killing too. It was only a matter of convenience, and it would also strike another blow at Xu Yuan.
“Why are you shouting at your mother?!”
Han Li had already been stunned by Yang Cang’s death, and the moment he heard those words, his face turned green.
Xu Yuan was obviously trying to kill with a borrowed knife!
The moment he saw Bai Jinwu charging at him, Han Li was so frightened that he immediately fled.
But how could he possibly outrun Bai Jinwu, whose movement technique had already reached Major Mastery?
Bai Jinwu flashed forward several times in succession, his fists falling on Han Li like pounding rain and heavy hammers of ten thousand jin.
In no more than seven or eight exchanges, Han Li was beaten until blood streamed from all seven orifices. His resistance weakened, and in the end Bai Jinwu seized an opening and slammed a palm down onto the crown of his skull.
Crack!
Han Li let out a muffled groan and collapsed to the ground, red and white matter spilling all over the floor.
...
“It seems your Shangyang Residence has some internal discord?”
On top of a tower two li away from Tongren Street, two men stood facing one another. One of them wore a long robe with a red base and golden patterns. His skin was dark, and his tone was openly mocking.
“Even so, those two from your Bai Family will not accomplish anything.”
The other man wore a dark purple robe. His brows were sharp and heroic, and his expression remained cold and indifferent as he replied.
Even more eye-catching were the nine horizontal stripes on his shoulder, making it clear at a glance that he was an Extraordinary Meridians martial artist.
These two were none other than Gan Ze, resident retainer of the Shangyang Residence, and Wang Lu, resident retainer of the Bai Family—the true rulers of the Level Four zone.
“That Xu Yuan is quite a promising seedling,” Wang Lu said, his gaze flickering as a faint murderous aura seeped from his body.
Gan Ze’s expression remained calm. With a faint chuckle, he said,
“But one who has not entered the Extraordinary Meridians still counts for little. This single step of difference may look simple, yet it can consume years of time. And when the time comes, the key question will be whether he has enough qi and blood to step into the Grandmaster realm.”
Then he kicked up the large stone in front of him and set it upright. Gathering force in his fingers, he actually carved several bold and vigorous characters into the stone from a distance:
Five lives drift through the mortal world; nourish the viscera into truth.
“The Grandmaster realm is hard indeed,” Gan Ze sighed.
Yet the fine and exquisite control over force displayed in that act made Wang Lu’s heart tighten, and he quietly put away those darker thoughts of his.