Inside Chen's Noodle Factory, in the blink of an eye.
Li Xiuwen struck out with another palm!
The other punk's face changed drastically as he raised both arms to block.
Bang! A wave of invisible qi surged, sweeping up the white flour inside the workshop into a visible white breaker.
The punk plastered against the wall like a hanging picture before crashing to the ground. A series of sharp cracking sounds burst from inside his body; who knew how many ribs had snapped, puncturing his chest cavity.
Li Xiuwen stepped onto the punk's neck with a crunch—the carotid artery ruptured, and blood gushed forth.
His sole trod over the dead punk's terrified, shock-stricken face, whose pupils had narrowed to mere slits, and he moved expressionlessly toward Viper to kill him.
"Strikes that plaster a man to the wall like a hanging picture... A trained fighter. It really was you who killed Ah Ji!" Viper glared fiercely at Li Xiuwen, his eyes filled with disbelief.
As far as he knew, Li Xiuwen had only joined the martial arts hall last month; at the absolute most, it had been a month and a half since he took a master.
Logically speaking, reaching the Green Membrane would have been remarkable enough.
Yet with the skill Li Xiuwen was showing now, Viper would believe it even if someone told him he had reached the Purple Membrane.
Even with the help of Ye Tiannan's disciple, even if he were popping pills, reaching the Purple Membrane in a month and a half was beyond reason.
The air detonated with a sharp crack. Snapping back to his senses, Viper saw a massive palm, broad as a cattail fan, slamming toward his chest.
He practiced martial arts of the Water Snake style; his footwork was as slippery as a loach, and by a hair's breadth, he dodged Li Xiuwen's strike.
"Not bad." Li Xiuwen followed up with a second palm, then a third.
Viper did not dare clash head-on, dodging and weaving across the cramped room.
Suddenly, he drew a dagger from his waist and lunged at Li Xiuwen.
With one hand, Li Xiuwen slapped the dagger aside, and with the other, he unleashed the Flipping Sand Palm.
Rigid force erupted over mere inches with an explosive burst. Viper was blasted backward, eyes bulging, clutching his chest as he coughed up a huge mouthful of blood.
Any ordinary person would have died on the spot.
Though protected by his Green Membrane, he was still gravely injured.
Viper tried to flee, but a massive hand pinned him down like an iron weight. His footing buckled, and he collapsed to the floor.
Li Xiuwen casually slapped Viper across the face, knocking the Green Membrane expert out cold.
Turning to his still-shaken aunt and uncle, Li Xiuwen said calmly, "Keep him breathing for now."
The two nodded reflexively.
Once he recovered his wits, Uncle asked, "What are you going to do?"
"Find Third Master... and kill him, eliminating future trouble once and for all," Li Xiuwen replied.
Since Viper had come looking for trouble and had even started investigating and suspecting him, striking first was the best move.
Besides, his strength would be exposed sooner or later during the upcoming martial hall challenge.
He needed to eliminate Third Master before that exposure occurred, lest Third Master suspect him and cause endless grief.
"Kill Third Master?" Uncle's face paled. That man was the local despot ruling over Longjin Road.
"I'm confident I can kill him; the problem is finding him," Li Xiuwen said.
Purple Membrane plus the Armor-Binding Art—
anyone below the Black Membrane could be slaughtered.
His only concern was whether Third Master possessed a gun.
That was why he needed to keep Viper alive for now.
Thump, thump, thump!
Outside the door, a neighbor knocked.
"Ah Ying, what's going on? Are you two fighting in there?" an old woman asked.
"Nothing's wrong! We're just trying for a baby," Aunt called back with a chuckle.
The neighbors were all elderly folk with poor hearing, assuming the couple was just having a domestic quarrel.
Having expressed their concern, they shuffled off.
Uncle looked at the two corpses and asked, "Ah Wen, how do we deal with them?"
"Hide them first. In the middle of the night, I'll find a chance to dump them in the sewers. The rats down there are as big as cats—who knows how many bodies they've eaten," Li Xiuwen said.
"Ah Wen, was Brother Ji killed by you?" By now, Aunt understood completely. Brother Ji hadn't vanished; he was dead.
The timid, cowardly Ah Wen of her memory had just slain two punks with terrifying calm, showing none of the hesitation of a first-time killer.
Li Xiuwen said, "Yes."
"You... you mastered it?" Uncle was stunned.
"You could say that. In any case, dealing with most punks in the Walled City is effortless."
"This..." Uncle fell silent.
Aunt also said nothing.
Neither of them knew what to say.
Every day they had watched Ah Wen train diligently, and he had indeed grown stronger.
Yet his demeanor and personality had seemed entirely unchanged—he still appeared timid.
Until tonight, Ah Wen had remained just as they remembered him.
Now, everything had changed.
"What's wrong?" Li Xiuwen smiled. "Now that I've succeeded in my training, why are you both silent?"
Aunt laughed through tears. "It just doesn't feel real... like a dream."
Uncle said, "It's a good thing! Now I have even more motivation to earn money. To support a martial arts expert—my whole life has been worth it!"
"Go back and get some rest. I'll handle what comes next," Li Xiuwen said.
His aunt and uncle went to bed, but how could they sleep? Their minds were flooded with the image of Ah Wen sending a punk flying with a single palm strike, leaving behind mangled flesh and blood.
***
Late into the night,
taking advantage of the empty streets, Li Xiuwen carried the two corpses a long distance away and dumped them into the sewers.
Rinsing away any traces with foul water, he took a winding route back home.
He dumped a basin of water over Brother Snake, who sputtered awake to find himself tied to a pillar.
Flipping a butterfly knife in his hand, Li Xiuwen said, "Do you want to die quickly, or slowly?"
"Don't kill me! However much money you want, I'll give it to you! I'll never collect protection money from your family again!" Brother Snake pleaded, all his former arrogance gone.
"Tell me where Third Master lives."
"If I tell you, you can't kill me."
"You don't have a choice." Li Xiuwen plunged the knife into Brother Snake's thigh, sawing back and forth as if slicing pork.
"I'll tell you! I'll tell you!" Brother Snake quickly caved.
Punks like him possessed neither underworld code nor martial will.
To Li Xiuwen's relief, Third Master did not have a gun.
Most street punks and small gang members in the Walled City had no channels to obtain guns and ammunition.
Only the key figures of major triads had a chance of getting them.
Li Xiuwen finished Viper off cleanly and headed into the sewers to track down Third Master.
Suddenly, as though startled by his footsteps, an animal darted across the murky water ahead in a dark blur.
Its massive size meant it was definitely no rat.
By the dim light, he saw it clearly.
It was a somewhat deformed crocodile, roughly ten feet long, clutching a severed human arm in its jaws.
"Fuck, this 'Dragon Palace' really has a 'dragon' in it... Who the hell raises a crocodile in the sewers?"
Li Xiuwen did not linger. Turning a corner, he set off toward Third Master.
Xianghai had no native crocodiles, so the beast in the sewers could only have been raised by the triads.
Its purpose, of course, was to serve as the Walled City's "scavenger."
He had always thought of it as an urban legend, but now he was seeing it with his own eyes.
***
Splash, splash, splash...
The sound of someone wading through water echoed faintly.
Third Master opened his eyes upon his throne of scrap metal and casually snatched up a woodchopper.
He rose to his feet and concealed himself behind a wall, waiting.
His hideout was surrounded by water on all sides; unless someone possessed an exceptionally profound movement technique, walking silently was impossible.
The footsteps drew closer.
Like coiled dragons, veins bulged across Third Master's aged arms as his blood-and-breath energy surged, his skin membrane shimmering with purple light in the darkness.
A foot appeared before his eyes.
Third Master raised the woodchopper and brought it down in a vicious chop.
Squelch! A sickening sound of sliced flesh and crushed bone rang out, like a hog being slaughtered for the New Year.
A corpse, split nearly in two with ragged sinews barely holding it together, tumbled into him.
Third Master looked down and cursed under his breath, "Fuck—Viper?!"
Chapter 28