Invincibility Begins with Mastery of Fist Techniques-Chapter 42: Night Raid

Li Qingxuan fell silent at Zhou Yuanjue’s words, knowing his mind was made up and he wouldn’t change it.

After careful consideration, she had to admit Zhou Yuanjue had a point. To venture beyond Tianlu and across the nation, he would certainly face this sort of thing more than once.

Zhou Yuanjue’s path—challenging the world’s Martial Dao geniuses and drawing sustenance from battle—naturally held endless benefits for him. But what about the Martial Arts Schools he challenged?

For them, it was a matter of their school’s honor, its future, and even its very survival. When life and death were on the line, any and all methods, no matter how unscrupulous, would become fair game.

Today it was the Tianji Sword Sect. After leaving Tianlu, he would likely encounter even stronger and more formidable schools. If he didn’t make the consequences clear now, others would only push their luck in the future.

This was the time to lay the cost out in the open, to let everyone know that while they were free to act, they had to understand what they would pay if they failed.

"I’ll give you the data on the Tianji Sword Sect’s leadership, but you need to exercise some restraint. The word from on high is that, within a reasonable scope of influence, the affairs of the martial world should be settled by the martial world."

"However, the Tianji Sword Sect’s situation is somewhat special. The school and the corporation are separate. The head of the Tianji Group, Luo Yongli, is a major figure in Tianlu Prefecture and frequently appears in the media. If he suddenly died, the fallout would be too great, and I’m afraid I couldn’t contain it. The people from the Tianji Sword Sect, on the other hand, don’t matter as much. They’re ’people of the martial world’ and don’t often make public appearances."

"My advice is to pick anyone you want, except for him."

Li Qingxuan said softly.

"Fine. I’ll let him live."

Zhou Yuanjue nodded, his face calm, as if he were discussing a trivial matter.

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「Night, eleven o’clock.」

「Leshan City, Jingshan Villa District.」

Peng Qinghe, a member of the Tianji Sword Sect’s council of elders, lived here.

At that moment, Peng Qinghe, now fifty-two, sat on a sofa in his spacious bedroom, dressed in loose pajamas. Although he was approaching sixty, his early years of successful Martial Dao cultivation meant his skin was still firm, his body robust, and his stamina plentiful. He looked to be in his early forties at most.

He held an expensive cigar, slowly exhaling clouds of smoke. His sofa faced a massive floor-to-ceiling window. The villa was situated halfway up a mountain, and through the clear glass, the entire bustling city nightscape unfolded before his eyes.

The lights of the mortal world below were brilliant and seductive.

Peng Qinghe savored the feeling—everything spread out before his eyes, as if it were all under his control.

In fact, as an elder of the Tianji Sword Sect, he was the absolute elite of Leshan City. He moved in wealthy and influential circles, possessing all the power, riches, and fame one could possibly desire.

CLICK!

The bathroom door behind him opened. A tall, beautiful woman, looking to be about twenty-five or twenty-six, emerged in a bathrobe. Ruffling her freshly dried hair with a pristine white towel, she padded over to Peng Qinghe with feline grace and draped herself lazily across his lap.

Peng Qinghe continued to puff on his cigar and gaze at the nightscape, all while gently stroking Zheng Lin’s hair.

He had many women, but Zheng Lin was different. It wasn’t that she was the most beautiful. It was that this woman, so docile and cat-like in his presence, was known to the outside world as the Black Rose—a fearsome and unattainable figure. This stark contrast gave him a unique kind of mental gratification.

It was a sense of superiority, of standing above all others—a feeling no other woman could give him.

"Brother He, I heard the Tianji Group is expanding into Changlong City. I was thinking..."

Zheng Lin said slowly, her voice a gentle, breathy whisper.

"A trivial matter," Peng Qinghe said dismissively. "I’ll put in a good word for you. Soon, the Tianji Group’s enterprises will be spread throughout all of Tianlu Prefecture. What’s one little Changlong City in comparison?"

A flash of joy lit up Zheng Lin’s wide eyes, but it was quickly followed by a hint of doubt. "I heard you’ve run into a difficult character, someone named Zhou Yuanjue? Will he affect the Group’s plans?"

"Zhou Yuanjue?"

A smile played on Peng Qinghe’s lips at the mention of the name. "It’s hard to say if he’ll even survive the night."

As a member of the Tianji Sword Sect’s council of elders, he was, of course, fully aware of the plan for tonight.

"Oh?"

A flicker of surprise crossed Zheng Lin’s eyes. But before she could ask for the reason, everything changed in an instant.

BANG!

A sharp CRACK echoed from the side window as the glass shattered, and a dark figure leaped into the room.

"Who’s there?!"

The sound made every hair on Peng Qinghe’s body stand on end. He whirled around to see a figure clad in black, form-fitting clothes, revealing nothing but a pair of cold, indifferent eyes.

SHING!

The figure immediately drew two short swords from his sides, their sharp blades glinting with a terrifying cold light.

The instant he saw the intruder, Peng Qinghe knew this was bad. Though inwardly shocked, he had once been a Martial Dao master, and his reactions were incredibly fast. He knew that being unarmed put him at a severe disadvantage.

With a sudden jolt, he sent Zheng Lin flying from his lap with immense force. She cried out, hitting the floor-to-ceiling window with a sickening thud that left her reeling.

Meanwhile, Peng Qinghe’s aging body exploded with all its latent potential in this moment of crisis, his muscles swelling violently.

"Hah!"

With a great roar, he actually hoisted the entire sofa and hurled it at Zhou Yuanjue.

The muscles in Zhou Yuanjue’s arms swelled instantly. His body moved in a circular motion, using the "Four Catties Move Thousand Pounds" technique for generating integrated power that he had learned from Zhang Ling Heng. He caught the rapidly approaching sofa and planted it firmly on the ground without making a single sound.

Peng Qinghe had used this opportunity to dash to the window on the other side of the room, preparing to dive right through it.

But as fast as he was, Zhou Yuanjue was faster. His body shot forward like an arrow from a bow, clearing the dozen-or-so meters in a single leap. He ignored all obstacles, landing right beside Peng Qinghe.

SWISH!

The hand rose, the blade fell.

Lying by the floor-to-ceiling window, Zheng Lin had just shaken off the daze from her impact when she witnessed a sight that chilled her to the bone.

With a flash of cold light, the man she had regarded as her protector and her rock—a man who held sway over all of Leshan City—had his head severed from his body. His headless corpse collapsed heavily to the ground.

THUMP... RUMBLE...

A round object, carried by momentum, rolled to a stop right in front of her.

Her pupils shrank to pinpricks, and her heart hammered against her ribs. She tried to scream, but in her absolute terror, the sound caught in her throat, emerging only as a choked gurgle. The scream wouldn’t come out.

TAP. TAP.

Then, she saw the figure in black walking toward her.

THWACK!

Zhou Yuanjue delivered a light kick to the side of Zheng Lin’s neck. Her eyes rolled back into her head, and she lost consciousness.

He then pulled a photograph from a hidden pocket in his form-fitting pants and held it up, comparing it to the round object on the floor.

Once he confirmed the identity, he tossed the photograph into the air.

SWISH!

A light slash of his short sword effortlessly sliced the photo in two. The pieces fluttered down through the air.

Zhou Yuanjue spoke calmly to himself.

"The first one."