Chapter 1: Yaoguang

May 27, 1018. 6:13 PM.

In Yunmeng City of Tiannan Province, Dayu, stood the Chihe Residence, a thirty-three-story apartment building.

Yaoguang stood quietly inside its elevator, listening to the sound that rang for every passed floor.

There was also a young couple in their twenties, and a female student wearing the school uniform of High School No. 15, which was nearby.

Dong!

A dull thud suddenly rang out. The elevator, which had just reached the twelfth floor, jolted to a stop. The lights went out completely.

"Power outage again? What are those people at the electric department even doing? Five or six times in two months!?" the young man grumbled.

"There have been more and more power outages over the past year or two. Sometimes there are more than ten in a single month. I read online that the sun is at its most active phase right now, and the solar eruptions interfere with the power grid and cause global magnetic field anomalies," the woman explained.

"I don't care if the sun's active or not," the man replied irritably and kicked the elevator door. "I just care about when the power comes back!"

"Solar storms usually don't last long, but if they damage the power equipment, it's hard to tell how long the outage will last. On average, it's back in about half an hour to an hour," the woman said.

"Damn it, that means we're stuck here for at least half an hour!?" The man cursed again and kicked the door harder.

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

The loud noise startled the high-school girl, who shrank into the corner of the elevator.

"Sir..."

Yaoguang spoke politely. "Could you please not kick the door? If it accidentally breaks, it might cause—"

"Is this elevator yours? I'll kick it if I want to. What's it to you?" the man interrupted him harshly.

Before Yaoguang could say anything else, the man gave the door another vicious kick.

Bang!

In the faint light, Yaoguang glanced at him, specifically at his neck. He had already noticed earlier that the man stood around one meter eighty-five and looked muscular, likely due to regular workouts.

Yaoguang then fell into his own thoughts.

In martial terms... Oh, he's not exactly a martial artist. At best, an apprentice.

Is the capability to harm the root of killing intent?

In a law-governed society, it's not necessarily so. At most, it might make someone more brutal and overbearing.

However...

At this distance, a single punch can snap his cervical spine.

Yaoguang's gaze flicked to the anxious high school girl beside them.

Forget it. There's a student here.

He said nothing more.

Seeing this, the man snorted derisively and gave the door another showy kick.

Bang!

"Alright, alright, everyone knows you just passed your martial arts certification. Stop showing off. You'll have to pay if you break it," the woman tugged at his arm.

"So what if it breaks? The power's out, there's no surveillance. Who's gonna know?"

The man sneered but stopped causing trouble.

Time trickled by in dull silence, fortunately only for about three minutes before the backup power kicked in. The elevator hummed back to life.

When the doors opened on the first floor, the couple swaggered out first, followed by the still-frightened high school girl who rushed toward her school. Last came Yaoguang, unhurried and calm.

Outside the apartment, he scanned a shared bicycle, mounted it, and pedaled toward the old district, technically a redevelopment zone where all the residents had already moved out.

Yaoguang cast a glance at the map projected in his mind, where a red dot was marked, and gauged its position. He then chose a shop that had long been closed and sat on the concrete steps in front of it, holding a bottle of mineral water and sipping from it now and then.

A light breeze stirred, lifting a "Demolition" notice off the ground and blowing it deeper into the alley. From that direction came a middle-aged man in a shirt, hands clasped behind his back, accompanied by a young woman in her twenties.

The man's deep, steady voice carried faintly through the alley. "Something happened with the Luo Family's household?"

"Yes. They were just a widow and her son, but they had some connection to a martial artist named He Feng. During the forced demolition, he happened to show up. There was a conflict, and Liu Zi got kicked to death," the woman reported.

The woman looked like a white-collar expert in her twenties, wearing a business suit that lent her an air of mature confidence.

"But He Feng's been arrested for murder already. A death sentence shouldn't be hard to secure. As for the widow and her child, someone will deal with them tomorrow night."

"The redevelopment of this district involves over three billion. We've invested as a technical partner for ten percent of the shares. I don't want any complications."

"Understood, Godfather," the woman replied crisply.

The man suddenly sensed something. His eyes landed on the young man sitting on the steps. It was Yaoguang, who was casually drinking water.

Yaoguang capped the bottle, rose to his feet, and met the man's gaze with calm eyes. "General Manager of Longquan Real Estate, Xia Li?"

"You are..." Xia Li frowned, studying him.

There was something dangerous about this young man.

Xia Li considered himself the strongest man in Yunmeng City and a well-known figure even on the national level. He had personally taken more than a dozen lives in the past decade, one reason investors insisted on partnering with him for this redevelopment.

Yet this man before him, barely in his twenties, could make him feel a sense of danger. It was absurd.

The next instant, Yaoguang moved.

He lunged like a dragon bursting from the sea, swift and ruthless, his murderous aura crashing down like a storm.

In the brief moment when their gazes met, Xia Li's mind trembled violently.

Killing intent!

It was the kind of killing intent only possessed by someone whose hands were stained with the blood of many.

He no longer dared to be distracted. He crouched slightly, then bolted forward, striking at the charging Yaoguang. He chose to face him head-on!

The instant they got within range, Xia Li twisted, narrowly dodging Yaoguang's straight punch. His right hand shot out like lightning, clawing toward Yaoguang's shoulder. The white shirt tore apart with a sharp rip.

But before his five fingers could crush Yaoguang's shoulder bone, Yaoguang's shoulder jolted, slipped, and twisted free from the grip as if it were coated in molten wax.

In that same instant, Yaoguang shifted around, his right hand turning as he closed in on Xia Li's side, and he slammed forward with brutal force into Xia Li's chest.

Iron Mountain Charge.

Xia Li's pupils contracted. Just as Yaoguang was about to ram into his chest, Xia Li's torso sank inward slightly under precise control, diverting most of the impact. The tremendous force of the charge dissipated into the empty air, throwing Yaoguang's balance slightly off.

"Die!"

Xia Li's chest heaved as a burst of terrifying strength gathered within him.

But before he could act again, Yaoguang leaned forward and put some power into his left leg.

Crack!

The floor shattered beneath him.

With that explosive step, he shot upward, and his right knee surged with violent power as it thrust straight toward Xia Li's chest!

"Crap!"

Xia Li was struck with terror. He pressed both palms downward to block the oncoming knee, but he was too late.

Bang!

The heavy impact resounded as knee and chest collided.

Xia Li's face flushed crimson, bloodshot eyes flaring with pain. Yet his iron will allowed him to suppress the agony of his fractured ribs.

Shifting his right foot to the side, he drove jin[1] downward, leaving a footprint on the solid stone floor.

In one motion, he steadied himself, bracing his chest against Yaoguang's knee. One arm wrapped around Yaoguang's upper body and left arm, the other around his right leg and waist, locking him in a crushing grip.

It was like a snake crushing its prey!

His physique had long surpassed human limits. The strength in his arms could crush someone's ribs and spine in an instant.

"Up!" Xia Li roared, tightening his grip with explosive Jin. His biceps bulged violently as his Jin surged, lifting Yaoguang clean off the ground.

Then his waist twisted as he arched backward in a perfect suplex, slamming Yaoguang toward the ground. The impact point would be Yaoguang's head.

If that strike landed, Yaoguang's skull would shatter, killing him instantly.

Yet as Xia Li lifted him, power surged through Yaoguang's body. His right arm shot out like an arrow, disintegrating Xia Li's Jin and freeing Yaoguang from Xia Li's locked arms. His hand clenched into a fist and came crashing down like a giant axe toward Xia Li's face.

If Xia Li continued his throw, Yaoguang's head would smash against the ground, but his own forehead would take the full force of that punch. The result...

Mutual destruction!

Yaoguang would die.

And so would he.

Being the number one figure in Yunmeng City's underworld, Xia Li had a net worth in the hundreds of millions. Being someone who basked in wealth and power, and who held an official position of responsibility, how could he be willing to let himself die with some nameless young man whose life was worth nothing?

"Ha!"

At the crucial moment, Xia Li roared. His waist twisted, and with the full strength of his arms, he flung Yaoguang, who weighed nearly eighty kilos, like a sandbag toward a nearby solid wall.

In mid-air, Yaoguang didn't even seem to notice the wall closing in on him. He twisted his body violently, regaining balance and control.

"No matter who you are, there's only one end for you today!" Xia Li roared as he charged forward with a terrifying aura, like a collapsing mountain and surging sea, overwhelming and unstoppable!

Over the years, he had beaten dozens of men to death with his bare hands. The murderous aura built up from these bloody killings now erupted in full force, enough to shatter an ordinary man's courage on sight.

"Die!"

At that instant, when Yaoguang was just a meter away from the wall, he shifted sideways, seemingly defying gravity as he stepped onto the wall.

Yes, onto the wall!

It was as if space had folded ninety degrees and the wall had become the ground beneath his feet. He stood upright upon it!

As he landed on the wall, his legs and spine bent slightly with the lingering momentum, like a compressed spring.

The next second... The spring released!

Bang!

The wall exploded.

The reinforced concrete wall cracked like it had been struck by a wrecking ball, splitting into a spiderweb pattern nearly two meters wide. Dust and debris scattered in all directions.

The windows nearby shattered instantly, sending shards of glass raining down.

Using that burst of recoil, Yaoguang pounced with ferocity. Jin surged from his feet upward, channeling through his spine, compressed into his right arm, and then descended with immense weight.

Signless Six Harmonies.

[2]

A terrifying gust of wind surged toward him, compressing the air several meters ahead until it solidified. Around that pocket of frozen air, the violent shift in airflow produced a sound of thunder and wind.

Xia Li's pupils shrank sharply.

Shit!

"

Roar!

" Xia Li let out a sound like the bellow of a tiger. Throughout his body, his bones crackled.

At the brink of life and death, he unleashed every ounce of his power. His blood and qi[3] burned. He surged forward like a raging tiger, every ounce of his Jin condensed into solid form as he met Yaoguang's descending strike head-on.

Tiger's Roar!

"Die!"

Bang!

A deep roar and a thunderous explosion rang out together.

A wave of air visible to the naked eye burst outward, scattering dust in every direction.

Dozens of meters away, the woman named Qing'er stared in horror as Xia Li's right arm twisted grotesquely, snapping in multiple places. The humerus pierced through flesh, jutting out.

The devastating strike that shattered his arm did not stop there. Its force crashed into his chest, directly at his heart.

Bang!

The expensive shirt worth tens of thousands burst apart. His chest caved in as the fist struck it, and all the ribs snapped..

The Jin of the blow pierced through his entire torso. Even the back of his shirt exploded into scraps.

The king of Yunmeng City's underworld was thrown backward eight meters, smashing into a concrete power pole. The reinforced concrete cracked apart. Rubble and sparks flew as the power lines snapped, spitting arcs of light and fire.

"Who... are you..."

Xia Li stared at Yaoguang with bloodshot eyes.

Still not transforming yet?

Yaoguang murmured in his heart.

Standing eight meters away, he gazed at Xia Li without expression and said aloud, "The ninth-generation heir of Dragon Form Fist?"

Thud.

Xia Li crashed to the ground, raising a cloud of dust. His chest heaved a few more times before it stilled completely.

"You're nothing special," Yaoguang said calmly.

Even as he spoke, he suddenly burst forward again, lightning-fast, pouncing toward Xia Li's fallen body. A formless blade appeared in his hand, plunging downward toward Xia Li's head.

The man who had already stopped breathing suddenly twitched, trying to rise, but he was a step too slow.

Shlick!

Blood splattered. The invisible blade pierced through his head, nailing it to the ground.

His body froze mid-motion.

The daemonic claws that had begun to form on his hands, threatening to transform him into something daemonic, slowly retracted. His hands turned back into those of a normal man in his fifties.

1. This is a component of some Chinese martial arts. The jin here refers to the internal force present when one is relaxed. ☜

2. Buddhist concept "signlessness" or "absence of characteristics," represents one of the three "gates to liberation" along with emptiness and wishlessness. It refers to a state of being where one doesn't react to the conceptual signs or perceptions of objects, but instead halts the perceptual process at a basic recognition level. ☜

3. In the Sinosphere and Chinese philosophy, qi is a vital force traditionally believed to be a part of all living entities. The word has multiple meanings; on the one hand "vapor", "air", "gas", and "breath" or “energy” in common use, and on the other hand "vital energy", "vital force", "material energy" etc. in traditional Chinese medicine and in Chinese martial arts. ☜