Chapter 4: Intimidator of Intimidators
The public bus pulled up to a stop about two blocks away from Yijin's apartment. He disembarked in a disorganized scramble and began a walk down the sidewalk. His bag was heavy with textbooks and notebooks. Near the apartment building was a café that was built in a rustic fashion. It seemed to Yijin like a great place to go to escape from the hectic lifestyle that is modern life. He pulled on the handle of the door and walked in.
Air conditioning slightly hummed in the background and provided relief from the summer heat. The walls were lined with novels, novellas, and other sorts of fictional tales that would somehow entertain the reader. At the Northern part of the building after entering, there was a counter where stood people in a line. While at the front of the line, coffee was being given to them.
Yijin instinctively searched his pockets and pulled out a small wallet, within was a flexible plastic card marked with numbers. Yijin remembered vaguely the code. The same as his phone's password. The line moved rather efficiently and eventually, Yijin found himself at the front of the line.
"So many confusing options... I won't find an answer as long as I could live." This and many other thoughts flew through his mind. Eventually, a young lady walked up to the counter dressed in the uniform of one of the workers. She could see the confusion plainly on his face. It was at this moment that Yijin noticed her. She was around the same age as Yijin, and an ever-present kind smile was painted on her face. She spoke softly to Yijin personally.
"Don't worry about it. All of us get confused about the orders here from time to time." She turned to the baristas working behind her. "One special of the day. Pre-prepared for just an occasion like this."
Yijin quickly paid for his drink and bowed his head to the barista. He finally briskly walked off and sat down at a table with one chair. He quickly dialed Haoyu's number and sighed. "This is going to be comedic." Yijin raised the phone to his ear and waited for the line to be picked up. A loud click was heard and a deep, masculine voice began to speak.
"Who is this? How did you get my number?"
Yijin grinned to himself, "This is your worst nightmare speaking. My name is Yijin Liu. As to how I got your number, I'm assuming your lackeys showed up and explained the deal. So, let's cut the bullshit. You've been doing some shifty things at our school. I'm here to make sure that you shut your trap and learn your place. Meet me tonight at the public park that is four miles away from the school. I'll teach you who I am and just how insignificant a piece of dirt like you is."
"What the hell? How dare you say such outlandish shit?! Think you can hold up to your word?! I'll-"
It was at this point that Yijin hung up on Haoyu and laughed quietly to himself. He drank his coffee slowly. "That barista really knows what she's doing." He finished his drink and carried the cup off with him, heading for the Yunnan Public Park near the high school. The hour was about twenty-two and Yijin was becoming restless. He waited and murmured to himself.
"This damn little prick, making me sit out in the goddamn cold in the middle of the night. I swear I'll beat him and whoever he brings with him half to death. Sons of absolute shits. He won't even be able to last five minutes against me. Now he has the nerve to bother me by making me wait."
The man in question appeared after another twenty minutes of Yijin's waiting for him. Yijin rose from his seat on the park bench. This is just my opinion but, where the hell were the cops by the way? Yijin rose from his seat on a park bench as someone, clearly posing as Haoyu, but not Haoyu, approached him. Yijin shouted at him in frustration, venting his anger on the man. The man stared at him for a moment.
"You think you gained my boss's respect by beating a few lackeys? Ha, you're too humorous. I'll prove to you that you aren't ready to face Haoyu. He doesn't deserve to have to fight a weakling like you."
Yijin grinned, "I'm going to make you choke on those words, boy. You don't know what you're up against." Spoken like a true badass grandpa.
The Haoyu impersonator entered his fighting stance. Yijin didn't waste a single moment. Life was just too easy now. Wasn't anyone a cultivator anymore? He dashed and appeared behind Fake Haoyu. The man was completely surprised and Yijin slammed a side kick directly into the man's upper back, sending him flying into a nearby tree. He was left bloodied and bruised, his body contorted into a sort of cobra stretch position with the tree acting as a stoppage point for him.
The rest that had come with the Haoyu impersonator charged Yijin all at once, but Yijin rapidly reacted and leaped into the air slamming his foot into the face of one of the assaulters. The man fell back and created a gap for Yijin to escape the attempts of the other four opponents.
Yijin dashed forward in a blink of an eye and grabbed the injured combatant from the ground, whirling him at the other four and following it up by leaping back into the fray and slamming multiple fists into one on the left. The other two were caught by the injured one and fell to the ground. Yijin quickly slammed his fingers into their pressure points and left them there immobilized.
He dialed Haoyu's phone number once more and made the call. The click was heard again and Haoyu began. "I take it that the bastard is unconscious and you took his phone, right Junchen?"
"Surely you jest, Haoyu. If this is truly how you act, then you are far more immature than I thought. Come on, I'm still at the park. Let's have some fun. Your friends are here with broken noses and dislocated arms. Show them that you are no better than they are."
At this point, Yijin began laughing harshly through the phone. "I'll be waiting with anxiousness unlike any other." Yijin hung up at this point and let Haoyu brood over his lackeys' loss to Yijin.
He sat back down on the bench which he had claimed earlier and hit the pressure points of the lackeys once more as the effects of the first round had worn off. He brought one of the injured ones by his bench and contorted the man's body into a quadruped position. You all know what is about to happen. Yijin placed his feet on the back of the man and sighed in satisfaction. He crossed his arms and began to play video games on his phone.
Yes, it's true... Yijin had recently discovered mobile games and found he has a natural knack for them. I guess the Chief Marketing Officers do a good job if a thousand year old guy is able to play games on his phone without much questions asked.
And thus, the injured man had been made into a human ottoman. Yijin was beginning to lose patience with Haoyu when he suddenly heard the loud rumblings of motorcycle engines. "Finally he's here. Goddamn."
Yijin kicked the injured man in the lower lumbar spine region and forced him to the ground, afterwards he rose from the ground and started to walk toward the sound of the motorcycles. Haoyu caught sight of Yijin within a few moments and dismounted. "You the one causing all that trouble with me and my guys?" Yijin smiled, "No, I'm just the one trying to set things on the right course again."
"I'll take that as a yes, Mr. Liu. You look much scrawnier than I expected you to be. I'll show you where your place is, licking my godforsaken boots." Haoyu raised his arms and stepped forward in a different stance than Yijin had seen thus far in the modern era, The ancient school of martial arts known as Dual Mantis Palms. Yijin had seen this only twice before, granted it was because he had killed both the users of the art with ease, but it proved to Yijin that there must still be ancient masters in the world.
Yijin also entered the stance of the Soul of the Unknown Swordsman. He paced forward and his eyes narrowed. He tried not to show the slightest hint at where he would attack next. Haoyu slammed his foot downwards and broke the ground, dashing forward at incredible speed. Yijin grinned, "So that's your master. Now I know whose clan taught you. Your weakness is my greatest strength."
Yijin knew that close range would not work against this school of Dual Mantis Palms. As such, he stayed out of range, allowing Haoyu to tire himself out. Haoyu fired a flurry of blow after blow with his bent wrists, but none were able to even graze Yijin. Yijin beamed in delight at the difference in their skill. He twirled in mid-air and looked as if he were dancing to a sonnet in an ancient opera. Haoyu halted his onslaught of blows at one point to catch his breath. It was then that Yijin struck with the entirety of his intelligence.
Yijin slammed his foot into Haoyu's frontal shin as lightly as he could so as to not inflict any permanent injuries and followed up the attack with a well placed palm to the chest. Haoyu stumbled backwards for a moment and yelped, "You touch me again and my father will have you in jail faster than you can say bail." Yijin grinned menacingly, "Then I guess your father will have to be taught a lesson as well. Let me show you the difference between the Unknown Swordsman and your Dual Mantis."
Yijin entered the stance of the second stage of his twelve stage martial art style. It was the second most simple strike of the Soul of the Unknown Swordsman, but from the outside seemed incredibly complicated. Then again, every move in the Soul of the Unknown Swordsman was incredibly complicated to the untrained eye. Yijin leaped forward and circulated his qi within his meridians towards his right palm.
He pushed off of the ground and bounced off both legs, alternating each step as if he were skiing. Finally on the last jump, he feinted another alternation before finally lunging forward and slamming his pointed hand like a chop directly into Haoyu's chest and sending him through the air for ten meters. Yijin had not even used all of his ability in that strike. "It's true. The warriors nowadays are all nothing but weaklings. Whoever they may be." Yijin grabbed Haoyu by the collar. "Do you yield, you insignificant speck of dust?"
Haoyu coughed once, blood streamed steadily from his left nostril. He looked at Yijin with no hint of letting up and spat on Yijin's face. Yijin grinned, "So, you still have a little something within you. Let me beat it out of you." Yijin rose up and began slamming his heel into Haoyu, but suddenly the divine lightning struck Yijin's body once more.
"Little, Insolent Huanzhi. You must not go any further. Settle your differences already. You've done enough." The damnable divine voice boomed. Yijin groaned and lifted Haoyu with a final blow. "Is that enough for you, you little prick?" Haoyu groaned as Yijin lifted him. "Fine, I let up... Boys! Get him!" Yijin sighed. "Not the best course of action, my friend." Yijin whirled Haoyu and sent him flying into a nearby tree, coincidentally the same tree that his lackey had been thrown into earlier. Haoyu's body left a mark the exact same size as his underling had on the tree as the rest of his posse began to approach Yijin.
Thoroughly armed and riding motorcycles, Haoyu's gang came forward and began to rev around Yijin. Yijin had dealt with mounted assaulters before and thus knew just how to deal with them. As one of the high schoolers drove forward, Yijin leapt upwards at great speed and overtook the man. He sent the high schooler flying backwards and landed safely before him, unlatching the high schooler's helmet and throwing it with force at the opposite assaulter. Yijin's throw proved to be well-aimed as it met its target, the nose of the next underling.
Finally the last two drove up on a single motorcycle. One lackey was driving while the other held a metallic bat in his right hand.
Sprinting forward, Yijin met the accelerating men in the midpoint. There he leapt upwards slamming his foot into the driver's chest and thus, killing the metaphorical two birds with one stone, knocked both driver and passenger off of the automobile. Yijin stood above them and clicked his tongue. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. When will you people learn." Once again as he was about to knock the two unconscious, divine lightning struck.
"Damn you! What did I do to deserve this?!"
"I just felt like it this time, Huanzhi. You look funny when you get struck by the divine bolts. I wanted to see your face again." The voice laughed and boomed once more. Yijin groaned and walked off. "So above that, I have to deal with someone like you." The voice was quiet for a moment. Yijin turned and walked off after taking a photo of Haoyu and his underlings after being beaten.
He posted it on one of the school group chats which was considered to be the go-to for the fighters at the school. Yijin said, "Haoyu is no longer good enough to be considered the best fighter. I humbly beg of you all. Stop creating issues for the students at this school. Or you'll be next..."
With that Yijin walked off, the moonlight hanging over him. It was a picturesque scene. A great warrior leaving behind the bodies of his enemies under a pale white moon above. Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh? More like Blood Moon by Yijin Liu.
On this final note, Yijin returned to his apartment and changed from his scuffled clothing into the cleaner nightclothes. He dropped himself into the bed and was out as soon as his head hit the pillow. He placed a hand over his eyes and allowed himself to dream for once.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone