Lu Shanjun’s build didn’t seem like that of a strong and muscular man. He wasn’t exactly skinny, but he was certainly quite refined and seemed gentle.
However, this martial arts world wa full of extraordinary individuals, and some mysterious martial arts did not discriminate by physical condition. The fact that the chopstick in the floor was still trembling was enough to prove that the person who stood up was an expert.
Hearing Lu Shan Jun’s obviously sarcastic voice, Jiang Meng narrowed his eyes and looked him up and down.
“Who are you, sir? This man poisoned my friend and me, then attacked us with a blade. He has only himself to blame. It’s none of your business, is it?”
Lu ShanjJun smiled.
“No, no, I actually don’t really care about this Fan guy. It’s just that the guy over there owes me a debt, and you happen to be with him, so you might as well help him pay it off.”
Lan Ningke snorted and stood up.
“Hmph, you’re talking about me? I don’t remember ever seeing you before, nor do I remember owing you any debt.”
Lu Shan Jun didn’t speak. He flicked his sleeves left and right, and his clothes slowly changed color, from the previous blue robe to a light yellow. The black cloud pattern on the edge of his sleeves also extended upwards, almost like a floral pattern.
This scene astonished the surrounding martial artsists.
“Does this person know magic?”
“Or is he performing a magic trick?”
“I don’t know, it’s a bit eerie!”
“Let’s see how that Jiang and Lan handle this.”
…
The whispers of the bystanders carried a mixture of curiosity and schadenfreude, while Jiang Meng and Lan Ningke themselves felt increasingly pressured.
The color change of these clothes was so striking; there might have been poisonous powder on them. If he truly was some kind of supernatural expert, this could become quite troublesome.
At this moment, Lu Shan Jun glanced at Jiang Meng, then his gaze swept towards Lan Ningke.
“Of course you don’t remember what I look like. Let me give you a hint so you know who I am. In the early spring of the year of Dingchou, in front of the Mountain God Temple on Niu Kui Mountain, I listened to the master’s teachings and spared your lives. We made an oath that, after you nine escaped with your lives, you vowed to aspire to be chivalrous heroes for the rest of your lives. In the future, I would personally come down the mountain to see if you had kept your promise. Lan Ningke, do you remember now?”
Lu Shan Jun spoke slowly, but every word was like a heavy hammer blow to Lan Ningke’s heart. His eyes widened and grew bloodshot, his breathing picked up speed, and his face turned extremely pale.
He remembered. He remembered that night many years ago. He remembered that scene outside the Mountain God Temple on Niu Kui Mountain. Then he looked at the color of the scholar’s clothes.
‘This… this is…’
Lan Ningke was terrified and slowly backed away. Sometimes, memories once thought to be forgotten are in fact simply buried deep in the heart. At this moment, with the crisis approaching, everything came back at once.
“Brother Lan, who is this?”
Jiang Meng stared intently at Lu Shan Jun. Seeing that the other party had actually explained things clearly, he thought of asking Lan Ningke, but the latter’s emotions were obviously not very stable.
“Brother Jiang, he might not be human…”
“What did you say?”
Lan Ninke was so terrified that has voice came out quietly in broken sentences.
“He said I might not be human!”
Lu Shan Jun grinned. His fingers curled up one by one, forming a claw-like shape with bulging tissue, and raised his head to speak in a low but loud voice.
“I will also be using the Tiger Fist technique. Watch carefully!”
As soon as he finished speaking, Lu Shan Jun opened his mouth and roared.
“Roar—”
Boom…
Everyone around instinctively covered their ears. The enormous roar made all the porcelain tableware in the restaurant to shake violently, and many even cracked.
Jiang Meng felt as if he had been hit on the head with a heavy hammer. He was completely stunned, and a buzzing sound filled his ears.
But though he was dazed, he could still watch through wide-open eyes as Lu Shan Jun crouched down and rapidly approached, his shoulder tucked at a slant.
In a daze, he seemed to see a fierce tiger with piercing eyes rushing towards him as it pounced, its aura flowing through his very bones, like a tiger pouncing on its prey.
Jiang Meng tried to react, but his body felt extremely heavy. Everything around him slowed down for a moment, and before he could even raise his hand, in the blink of an eye, the shoulder slammed hard into his chest.
“Bang…”
“Crackackackack…”
With a series of crisp cracking sounds, Jiang Meng’s chest caved in, followed by a sharp pain in his left chest.
“Boom……”
The window on the second floor of Rengui Restaurant exploded, and a figure, followed by fragments and splinters of wood, smashed through the wooden wall of the restaurant, flew seven or eight feet, before crashing into the street.
Jiang Meng was still alive, trembling on the ground, blood gushing from his mouth, unable to speak, his hands and feet seemingly shattered and unable to move.
“Hah…uh…hah…uh… cough…”
His eyes were fixed on the second floor of the inn. Then he looked down at his chest, only to see a large, gaping hole.
His strong physique allowed him to hold on for a little longer before collapsing to the ground, dead.
On the second floor of the inn, Lu Shan Jun held up a bloodstained hand, with a bloody heart still beating in his palm.
“Oh, so this person’s heart is still red after all.”
This move, “Black Tiger Claws the Heart,” was so brutal and shocking that everyone around felt their scalp tingle, yet they remained completely silent.
Lan Ningke was the first to react, but he lacked the courage to fight back. Without saying a word, he leapt out of the restaurant through the hole Jiang Meng had smashed, channeling his inner energy to its limit and fleeing frantically for his life.
What martial arts tournament, what status in the martial arts world—none of that mattered as much as his own life.
Disregarding everything else, Lan Ningke took off running at breakneck speed. His qinggong reached a record level of skill, truly making him as swift as the wind.
He had considered going to temples or similar places, but Lan Ningke immediately dismissed the idea. He didn’t dare to gamble and place his hopes on those clay sculptures.
Lan Ningke’s first thought was to escape to Luoxia Villa, where Luo Ling, a top figure even among innate masters, resided. Only he could stop this monster.
Moreover, even if Master Luo couldn’t stop it, going in that direction was definitely the right thing to do. Lan Ningke knew that “Cloud Pavilion” was also in that direction, and it was a significant territory within Duming Prefecture. Lu Chengfeng would definitely be there!
‘I can’t die, or if I do, I can’t die alone! Lu Chengfeng… Lu Chengfeng was involved too! He was involved back then!’
A silent roar raged in his heart. His face contorted with a mixture of fear and elation.
On the second floor of the restaurant, Lu Shan Jun watched Lan Ningke frantically fleeing, but did not immediately follow. Instead, he walked to the wall with the gaping hole in it, looked down at the lifeless body of Jiang Meng outside, then at the silent crowd inside the restaurant. Finally, he looked down at Fan Tong, who was equally horrified, but whose eyes revealed a deep sense of pleasure.
“Hey hey hey… Aaah… Spare me!”
“Great warrior, spare me! Spare me!”
“We’re just Lan Ningke’s attendants…”
“We know nothing, we know nothing!”
“Thump thump thump…”
Lan Ningke’s two companions immediately knelt down, crying and kowtowing to Lu Shan Jun.
However, Lu Shanjun completely ignored them, and casually tossed the still-beating heart in his hand. It landed with a thud right in front of Fan Tong.
“I could have spared Jiang Meng’s life, but I owe your Fan family a small favor. Since you want him dead so badly, then let him die.”
This statement was made abruptly and without any context, but Lu Shan Jun didn’t seem to have any intention of fully explaining. He left the heart behind and leapt lightly out of the restaurant.
Only after Lu Shan Jun did the people in the restaurant feel the color drain back into their faces, and finally dared to breathe again. The oppressive feeling just now was too strong, as if they were mere children standing alone in front of a tiger.
“Was that an Innate Realm master?”
“No doubt about it. He’s probably one of the most powerful cultivators even among Innate Realm masters!”
“So terrifying, so ruthless! He literally ripped the heart out of River Tiger Jiang Meng!”
“Hmph, now he’s dead, discarded like the corpse of a dead cat
1
downstairs.”
“Does he have some history with the Fan family?”
“No doubt.”
“This is going to be interesting…”
Fan Tong stared blankly at the heart on the ground until it finally stopped beating. A martial arts expert came over to help him up.
“Master Fan, are you alright? Get up, get up!”
“Congratulations, Master Fan, on avenging your great grudge!”
“Indeed.”
…
In the quiet of the night, the loud noise of fighting naturally attracted attention. The underworld messengers arrived even before the officials, accompanied by a chilling wind.
The two nighttime patrol officials stopped abruptly beside Jiang Meng’s corpse, frowning as they looked at the large hole in Jiang Meng’s chest and then in the direction of Rengui Restaurant.
“The roar just now came from here!”
“Hmm.”
The two underworld messengers scanned their surroundings, but did not sense any evil aura at the moment. When they turned to look at Jiang Meng’s corpse, they saw a dazed new soul emerging from his body. On the other hand, Jiang Meng’s soul was entangled with evil karma and malevolent energy.
“Hmph, there really aren’t many good people in the martial world.”
“Let’s take him with us!”
One of the underworld messengers reached out and yanked Jiang Meng’s soul out of the corpse, striking it on the forehead with the hilt of his sword. Jiang Meng, stunned, followed behind them like a puppet.
2
Although Jiang Meng wasn’t a local, since they had encountered him, they naturally could not tolerate having wandering ghost around.
“That roar was rather strange. Could it be that some evil spirit has infiltrated the city? We need to investigate further.”
“That’s right!”
After exchanging a few words, the two night patrol officials surveyed their surroundings. Amidst the pervasive yin energy, their gazes fell upon the yang energy of the martial artist who had been alive only moments before. A thin mist seemed to form before their eyes, and through the haze they saw the outline of Lan Ningke fleeing in panic.
“Over there!”
“Let’s go!”
The two nighttime patrol officials stepped forward, transforming into two blurry ghostly figures, and chased after Lan Ningke in the direction he had fled.
…
Lan Ningke couldn’t care less about consuming his True Qi or maintaining his fighting strength. He knew perfectly well that he was no match for a monster; any resistance meant death.
Fortunately, by desperately stimulating his potential, he broke through the limits of his qinggong skill and soon approached the Luoxia Villa.
“Master Luo, Master Luo Ling—I’m being hunted down by evil martial artists! I beg you, Master Luo Ling, to help me! Master Luo, save me—!
“Lu Chengfeng… Lu Chengfeng, come out quickly! Our enemies are here! Come and help me!”
Forget about pride and manners, Lan Ningke didn’t care about anything now. He channeled his inner energy and shouted whatever came to mind as he charged towards Luoxia Courtyard.
Because his nickname/title is River Tiger, so now he’s just a dead cat
Lit. “like a wooden chicken”
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