Chapter 025: Chen Xiaodao

The Yu Kingdom—no, to be precise, most countries on Earthstar—officially prohibit private duels. In the shadows, anything goes; as long as you don’t disturb the peace or endanger the public, you can kill as you please. Thus, gang skirmishes always take place in secluded corners. For example, when Su Jingxing went to collect the bodies of the Black Tiger Gang and the Flying Cloud Sect, the scene was an abandoned construction site.

Street brawls, public places, schools—these are strictly forbidden for martial combat. To suppress martial artists, the Yu Kingdom established a special institution: the Martial Suppression Bureau.

The Security Team handles ordinary fights, petty theft, domestic disputes, and so on. The Martial Suppression Bureau is the bedrock of stability in every city of the Yu Kingdom.

Martial academies, sects, martial clans, underground societies, rogue alliances—anyone who practices martial arts falls under the Bureau’s jurisdiction. The Security Team is mostly composed of ordinary people, but the Bureau is staffed entirely by martial artists, with the lowest rank being Battle Soldier, each of whom is a Ninth Grade.

As for the highest rank... Su Jingxing only knows that Qinghe City’s top expert is the Bureau’s Commander, Li Linzhou—a Fourth Grade powerhouse. Under his command are Fifth Grade Guardians, Sixth Grade Controllers, Seventh Grade Commanders, and Eighth Grade Generals. The exact number of these positions is unknown. Most of the time, ordinary people rarely see them; only in special circumstances do they appear.

For instance, Wei Jiajia is preparing to set up a martial challenge arena. While private duels are officially forbidden in the Yu Kingdom, martial artists are still afforded a chance to resolve their grudges—by stepping onto the arena! Under the Bureau’s supervision, martial artists with enmity may engage in a life-or-death battle.

To set up the arena, Wei Jiajia must report to the Martial Suppression Bureau. At the appointed time, Bureau officials will attend to supervise. Wei Jiajia will handle the arrangements, and Su Jingxing’s task is simply to step onto the stage when the time comes.

The deal struck, the two soon parted ways. Before leaving, Su Jingxing used a newly purchased anonymous phone card to exchange contact information with Wei Jiajia and asked her to send a photo of her senior brother “Duan Feihong” upon returning home. Wei Jiajia, puzzled but obliging, agreed.

After returning home, she found a photo left by her senior brother and sent it to Su Jingxing. Upon receiving it, he immediately took out one of his previous finds—a human-skin mask—and began to disguise himself according to Duan Feihong’s features. After some effort, he transformed himself into Duan Feihong, achieving a seventy percent resemblance.

Moreover, since Duan Feihong had long hair when he left Qinghe City, Su Jingxing specifically bought a wig with long hair the next day. After further work, his resemblance reached eighty percent!

Wei Jiajia had a grudge against the Little Knife Society; Su Jingxing did not. His killing of Chen Little Knife was purely transactional, and he had no desire to incur the Society’s wrath, to be watched day and night. By disguising himself as Duan Feihong, he avoided such consequences. Even if he couldn’t defeat Chen Little Knife on the arena, or if Chen managed to escape, the Society would not seek revenge against Su Jingxing.

Wei Jiajia had her own calculations, and Su Jingxing was equally prepared. During these two days, aside from collecting corpses, he even cultivated the “Eight-Step Dragon Ascension.” This peerless lightness skill, once comprehended, was not difficult to master. He needed only to follow the diagram’s steps and map out an internal energy network within his body, then expend his internal energy to perform it.

Su Jingxing spent one night mastering it. When he tried it in the courtyard, within eight steps, his movements were nearly as swift as a shadow shifting—bringing him one step closer to avenging himself against Wan Rong.

As for Chen Little Knife, Su Jingxing was full of confidence. A Seventh Grade martial artist posed only limited threat to him now. With the continuous consumption of Strength Pills, the power in both his arms had surpassed seven thousand pounds each.

His mastery of the “Seven-Step Fist” had reached its deepest level. Once unleashed at full strength, it could generate nearly fifty thousand pounds of force—Su Jingxing was certain he could crush Chen Little Knife!

Therefore, he was calm regarding the upcoming challenge. That afternoon, he went about his usual routine, leisurely moving corpses in the crematorium.

Kong Dabao watched and couldn’t help but laugh: “Xiao Su, if you have good news, share it—let me be happy too.”

“Nothing special,” Su Jingxing replied, bemused. “I’m always like this.”

“Almost, but today you seem especially relaxed,” Kong Dabao raised an eyebrow. “Is it your little girlfriend...”

“Ah!” A piercing scream suddenly came from ahead, interrupting Kong Dabao’s teasing.

“What’s going on?” Kong Dabao frowned. “That voice sounds familiar.”

“We’ll know if we take a look,” Su Jingxing said, hurriedly moving forward.

The two had just finished transporting a corpse to the incineration chamber and were returning. Hearing the familiar scream, they didn’t hesitate, quickly setting aside their work to investigate.

From a distance, they saw a crowd gathered outside the farewell ceremony hall. Crematorium staff were facing off against a group of people. Su Jingxing and Kong Dabao squeezed their way in and saw a member of the second corpse collection team lying on the ground, screaming in agony.

This older collector had a broken right leg, and his left arm was bent at a right angle. The exposed white bone was visible in the air.

“Old Liu!” Kong Dabao’s eyes reddened instantly. “Who did this, who did this!”

“It was them!” a crematorium employee said, pointing at the group of martial artists opposite, whose faces were full of arrogance and disdain. He gritted his teeth: “Old Liu only accidentally bumped into a child, and they broke his hands and feet!”

“You...” Kong Dabao was about to explode, but the crematorium supervisor, rushing over, called out ahead: “Stop! All of you, stop!”

“Uncle Wang, they’ve gone too far!” Kong Dabao turned to the newcomer.

“I know, you don’t need to say more. I’ll handle this,” the supervisor, surnamed Wang, said, his face dark. He looked at a thirty-something man with a long face in the crowd and spoke gravely, “President Chen, isn’t this a bit excessive?”

“Excessive?” The long-faced man didn’t even lift his eyelids. “This lowly creature hurt my son. I only broke his hands and feet—he got off easy. If I were really excessive...”

“What are you planning?” The crematorium director strode over, voice raised.

“Well, such a small matter, and even Director Wu is alarmed.” The long-faced man glanced at Director Wu, continuing leisurely, “Director Wu, aren’t you usually a busy man? How come you have time to show up today?”

“You...” Director Wu, his hair half white and of modest stature, took a deep breath and stared coldly at the long-faced man. “Chen Little Knife! Don’t be so arrogant. Your rampant behavior will get you killed one day!”

Chen Little Knife?

The long-faced man was the president of the Little Knife Society—Su Jingxing’s target tomorrow, Chen Little Knife.

Su Jingxing, who had been silent, raised his head at these words, a cold gleam flashing in his eyes.

...

(P.S.: It’s a new week—please vote for the recommendation, (づ￣3￣)づ╭～)