Chapter 12: The First Murder
BOOM!!!
After Li Biao received news of Yong Sue's defeat, his handsome face gradually turned sullen and frustrated. Finally, unable to vent his anger to anyone, he smashed the stone table in the room, causing it to be shattered into dust.
"That bastard Yong Sue, how stupid! I shouldn’t have trusted those pieces of shit. Being defeated in public was bad enough, but they also made the scumbag Xueming prominent until catching Zi Hui's eyes.” Li Biao gritted his teeth. His mood would not calm down if Xueming was still not eliminated from his sight.
“Young Master, as Xueming chose to side with Zi Hui, why don't you take this opportunity to flatter young master Zi Jiang?” Said Jian Chen, Li Biao's personal bodyguard, hoping that the idea would make his young master Li feel better.
“Just tell me your damn plan.” Li Biao said stiffly.
"This plan is simple. According to the report from a young child of the Yong family, the young man named Xueming has stayed in an old motel in a remote area on the south side of the city, outside the jurisdiction of the Purple Jade City Regiment. If an unexpected incident happened, like a new face in the city being killed and robbed by a thief, it would not go big and be difficult to track down the killer.”
Li Biao listened until the end. A smile began to blossom on his face, causing his lackey to stop speaking and look at Li Biao’s face with satisfaction. "Jian Chen, don't you pause. Keep talking."
"Since the boy named Xueming has befriended Zi Hui, the murder of Zi Hui's comrade would also bring joy to Young Master Zi Jiang. Wouldn’t that be killing two birds with one stone?”
"Excellent, your plan is awesome. If this plan is successful, I will report your merits to my father, and I guarantee you’ll be rewarded greatly."
“Thank you, Young Master, for your kindness.”
“Hmm… I shouldn’t cause a scene as I take care of this scumbag, a guy with just the second level of the basic Qi. Yet, this matter involves Zi Hui, so we have to be careful.”
“I’ve already thought about that, Sir. You could just hire a hitman. If things go wrong, we don’t have to worry about being tracked down.”
"Good." Li Biao hurriedly took out the money bag from the dimensional ring before throwing it to Jian Chen. "Take this, and get it done."
"You can trust me, Young Master." After taking the order, Jian Chen soared and left to carry out the plan immediately.
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Xueming's dimensional bag was now filled with the Qi Stimulating Pills. Still, in a state of excitement, he decided to not do the walking tour of the shopping district or even waste time eating delicious food in a liquor bar. Instead, he chose to accelerate his footsteps back to the inn, intending to do the most important thing: practice cultivation by taking the Qi Stimulating Medicine.
As soon as he arrived, he hurriedly brought out the Qi Stimulating Medicine from the dimensional bag, before his eyes were accidentally set on the Droplet pendant necklace, which had been cut while he was in a fight with Yong Sue. The necklace was turned into a bracelet and now that he was in his room, there was no need to wear it anymore. Xueming intended to buy a new chain after the examination of the Azure Dragon Academy, if he still had some money left. So he decided to keep the Droplet pendant in his dimensional bag first.
After that, Xueming poured out some Qi Stimulating Pills from the medicine bottle and swallowed them. The coolness arose from the medicine, and its fragrance spread all over. Xueming's body was extremely relaxed. Although Xueming had used the Qi Stimulating Medicine in practice before, the latest pill taken was many years ago. Besides, the pills obtained from the pharmacy this time were twice as good as the Yong Family's Qi Stimulating Pills. This made Xueming feel even more cheerful.
When the medicine started to take effect, Xueming then put his palms together on his lap in a meditation posture, relaxed all parts of the body, and tried to control the Qi in the body according to the Yong clan’s technique to absorb the effect of the Qi Stimulating Pills into his body's flesh and blood. But then a strange heat erupted again. Xueming hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he chose to concentrate steadily on practicing the same technique without paying attention to the heat that was running freely throughout his body.
Two shichens already passed. More than half of the first pill’s effect had been absorbed by Xueming’s body, causing the flow of the Qi accumulated in his muscles to stop at the top of the second level of the basic Qi. But when Xueming continued to try to absorb the Qi emitted from the medicine, he could not break through to the third level of the basic Qi. This was the same event he had experienced when he was twelve.
As the Yong clan’s Qi technique could not help him easily break through to the third level of the basic Qi, Xueming decided to turn his attention to the scorching energy inside his body instead.
Xueming tried to concentrate on that heat and to force it to move around to different points of the body. It was difficult at first, but as Xueming tried it over and over again, he began to gain some control over that thermal energy, but not so efficiently at the moment.
The fact that Xueming could have some control of the scorching heat made him happy, but what amazed him and made his jaw drop was what he found out after opening his eyes. At the last spot on his own body that he tried to drag the scalding energy through, a bright red flame was burning. When he calmed down and examined the spot, he found that the flames did not harm his body. On the contrary, it helped him recover from his injuries and exhaustion so well.
Usually, the ability to heal injuries by using the Qi energy required the cultivation at the top of the fourth level of the basic Qi, a.k.a. the Body Harmonization level, because it was the level that the cultivator had to extract the Qi energy and spread it into all parts of the body, not just flesh like the first three levels but also internal organs and every piece of bone.
When Xueming recalled the battle with Yong Sue in the late morning of that day, he glanced at the flame that was forced to stop at his own right fist.
... If I could control this guy to be used in the attack freely, how strong would its destructive power be? Even Yong Sue who achieved the third level of the basic Qi, when hit by this flame only once, was seriously injured and became instantly unconscious.
But then, Xueming's running thoughts were paused when his two ears suddenly heard the footsteps of someone outside the room coming toward the door.
"Who's that?" Just when Xueming's voice faded, the front door was broken in, and the window opposite that door collapsed almost at the same time.
The unexpected one-front-one-back attack gave Xueming no other choice but to defend himself. The right fist filled with a flame was thrown to the man who had broken in through the front door. The sharp tip of the dagger in the hand of the intruder struck Xueming's fist hard. The flame was so hot that the edge of the blade went limp, but the punch did not lose its power, hitting directly onto the neck of the intruder. Even the intruder’s face was covered, Xueming could still see his shocked eyes clearly.
One man in a black camouflage suit was knocked over and fell back without the ability to get back up, but the other one still attacked Xueming from behind. The dark purple blade pierced deeply into Xueming's left shoulder, almost all the way. But as soon as the pain kicked in, Xueming immediately forced the hot Qi to that spot. Although he could not counterattack, the hot energy that reached the wound helped relieve the pain to some extent.
“Who are you guys?” Xueming yelled loudly.
The intruder who had just pulled the blade out did not answer the question. He looked at Xueming in shock as he was confident that his poison-dipped dagger should have made Xueming's whole body immovable and unable to fight no more. However, when he pulled the blade out, Xueming did not fall down. Besides, Xueming was able to slide his feet and approach him with a speed that did not decrease at all.
The left shoulder injury caused Xueming's counterattack to be without the flame, as the flame was healing his left shoulder. Thus, he could only throw a punch at the intruder, pushing him backward just two steps away.
Although he was already stunned by Xueming's ability to withstand poisoning, when his eyes turned to see his own friend lying down using his hands to cover the badly-burned neck, crying in pain right now. The face under the assassin's veil instantly turned sour. After that, he tried to strike Xueming with three more moves. But every move was executed carefully, always keeping some space for himself to back off. As a result, Xueming did not need the power of the magic flame and could cope with the intruder with ease.
Finally, when the assassin realized that there were too many discrepancies between the target’s information he had received and the reality, he decided not to risk his own life. Instead, he used a zigzag attack move to pass Xueming to reach the body of his own friend who was struggling in pain.
Seeing that the assassin moved past him without attacking, Xueming realized that the guy was trying to escape. Xueming, therefore, chose to turn his body back trying to stop him.
However, the assassin did not carry his friend to escape. On the contrary, the guy who had just rushed past Xueming threw a pill into the mouth of his friend who was lying on the ground squirming. Seeing that the tossed drug reached the target, the assassin hurled back through the window. Xueming who had just flipped his body back up could not change his footing. Therefore, the assassin could soar out of the room through the window before hastening to escape into the dark of the night. Xueming was left stunned, looking at the body of the other assassin struggling with pain due to the effect of the poison that was forced down his throat to kill and shut him up.
The louder the cry, the more he twisted and turned. Xueming could not bear to listen to it anymore, thus using his palm and slamming it sideways onto the assassin’s head.
CRACK!!! The noise resonated.
A large amount of blood spilled from his face. Among two assassins aiming to kill Xueming, one was dead, while the other one, despite being able to escape, lost confidence and would not be out to hunt and kill again for a while.
It seemed that the long night was coming to an end. But then, Xueming's eyes burned unrestrainedly. The heat generated was not as comfortable as the heat he was using to heal his left shoulder. It was the heat that was ready to destroy and burn everything to the ground.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone