Chapter 276: Going Up To Fight
In northern Africa, in the area outside of the arena where the International Mercenary Exchange was being held, stood a three story office building. A mercenary army was using this building, and that army was one of the oldest and most famous ones in Europe, the Black Cross.
On the highest floor, a man sat on a couch and scanned the people around him lazily. Every person he laid eyes on felt a chill down their spine. Despite being warriors who had been in battle for a long time, they had never felt so terrified even in the face of impending death.
“All of you can go downstairs for now. Remember, without my permission, none of you are allowed to come up to the third story. If you try… you’ll die.” This man was none other than Tracy’s father, Abbas. Immediately after he gave those instructions, all the leaders of the Black Cross felt like a great burden had been lifted from their backs and they quickly took their leave.
Abbas lit a cigar, took a deep puff, then exhaled the smoke out of his nose. He had a frosty smile on his lips as he glanced at Liu Qiansheng standing next to him as stiff and straight as a spear. He suddenly slapped the man’s face.
Pak! His palm landed on Liu Qiansheng’s face, but he did not flinch and maintained the same position. Abbas burst out laughing.
“HAHA! You used to be one of China’s top martial artists, but now… you’re nothing more than a dog to me!” Abbas patted Liu Qiansheng’s face with a smirk. There were several more bodies quietly standing behind him without moving, their bodies covered entirely in a black cloth.
The next morning, Su Jin went to visit Yun Tianye first. The effect of the leaves from the Tree of Life was truly amazing. In just one night, Yun Tianye had not only fully recovered from his injuries, but his body seemed to have been rejuvenated as well.
“It’s the essence of a demigod after all. It’s too bad that I don’t have many left.” Su Jin sighed to himself. These leaves were great for saving lives, but he and Chu Yi hadn’t been able to take a lot with them back then and they had used most of them already. He had been very reluctant to use the remaining pieces he had and was very careful to only use them when absolutely necessary.
“Senior Su, let’s head for the event hall now.” Yun Tianye could feel this seemingly endless amount of energy surging through his body, and he knew that it came from that magical leaf that Su Jin gave him the day before.
Su Jin glanced at Yun Tianye, then frowned as he said, “Remember, I don’t want anybody else to know about that leaf I gave you.”
Yun Tianye blinked in surprise for a moment, but quickly realized why Su Jin wanted to keep it a secret. He patted his chest and said, “Don’t worry! Besides the people in the room that day, nobody else will know about it.”
Su Jin gave a pleased nod. As the saying goes, you could become a target not because of who you are but what you had: if the martial arts world found out that he had something that was practically nature defying, he could forget about living in peace. This was something that could not only heal one from fatal injuries but also rejuvenate a grandmaster’s already strong physical body, after all.
Of course, if others did find out and tried to make trouble for him, he didn’t mind killing them all. But he wanted to avoid trouble as much as he could, and he wasn’t some psychopath who got a kick out of killing others.
By the time they arrived, the hall was already packed. Su Jin and Kano Mai had come to take a look a few times before this, since he had to turn up now and then as the person in charge of his team.
The number of people in the hall had increased compared to when the event first started. But this wasn’t surprising. They were reaching the end of the event and many were here to watch the best of the best fight. Some of the spectators were also important and influential characters who were hoping to find a suitable bodyguard among the fighters.
Right now, a man in black clothing and white hair stood as straight as a spear on the fighting arena that was in the middle of the whole hall. He looked like he was in his forties, but his head of white hair made him seem very old.
“That’s Liu Qiansheng?” murmured Su Jin.
“That’s right. That’s Liu Qiansheng, one of the best martial artists in the country while he was alive. After you left last night, I made a call to someone from the Wudang Sect and got them to check Liu Qiansheng’s grave. Guess what they found?” said Yun Tianye with a grim look on his face.
Su Jin laughed. “It’s been dug up?”
“That’s right. Someone had dug it up half a year ago, and they had done it very discreetly. They had actually dug a hole a good five kilometers away from the grave and made a tunnel leading to the grave itself. But… I still can’t understand. So what if you dig his body out from the grave? He’s already been dead for ten years!” Yun Tianye was stumped and couldn’t understand the logic behind these actions.
Su Jin thought to himself, “Of course you can’t understand how this is happening, since this is like a miracle to you. The person who did this must have used some miraculous method, and Hell’s Handbook represents that sort of supernatural power.”
“Ten years? Wouldn’t he have turned into dry bones by now? Why bother digging his body out?” said Thomas quizzically. He felt that this conversation didn’t even make sense.
“He wouldn’t have become dry bones yet, since he was a top grandmaster in China before that. Even after death, his physical body can remain undecayed for at least a few decades,” explained Yun Tianye.
“There’s no point in just talking. Let me get up there and confirm this personally,” said Su Jin before slowly making his way to the arena.
A staff member standing at the foot of the arena immediately walked over to stop Su Jin when he saw that he looked like he was about to get into the arena. But Thomas and Yun Tianye followed behind him and told them that Su Jin was from Stellar Skies, which qualified him to fight on behalf of the company.
The staff member froze in shock when he saw Yun Tianye. He remembered clearly that Yun Tianye had a huge open wound in his chest when he fell off the arena. Could this man be his twin brother?
Su Jin ignored whatever was happening behind him and walked onto the arena. He looked straight at Liu Qiansheng and surrounded the man’s body with his psychokinesis to scan it.
“Hmm. He’s dead, alright.” Su Jin frowned. Liu Qiansheng did not possess the slightest bit of consciousness and was as good as a piece of rock. This man was definitely not alive at all. Or rather, he didn’t present any signs of life at all.
Just when Su Jin was about to scan Liu Qiansheng further, Liu Qiansheng suddenly made a move. His white hair flew in the wind like a white-haired yaksha. His first move was a very powerful cannon punch!
Su Jin reached out to grab hold of Liu Qiansheng’s fist, but the moment he caught the man’s fist, his sleeve suddenly burst open. That was because Liu Qiansheng had packed a lot of energy into this punch. Su Jin’s body was able to withstand the impact, but his clothes weren’t, so they tore from the sheer force of the punch.
“What a strong body!” Su Jin was rather surprised. Liu Qiansheng was a top grandmaster, alright. His body had been trained to a terrifying level. If he was able to make a breakthrough, he would be able to defeat even owners who had consumed a Mid-level Body Strengthening Elixir. It was hard to imagine how anyone could achieve such a feat outside of the Handbook’s universe.
Liu Qiansheng’s attacks were simple, and his steps followed the standard routine. These came naturally to his body after practicing these moves day and night for so many years. In fact, Liu Qiansheng was now like Chu Yi’s body under the control of the cult, except that Liu Qiansheng didn’t even have a soul.
Su Jin casually blocked Liu Qiansheng’s moves, since they were predictable. If this man were still alive, he would have been able to alternate his moves accordingly, which would have made Su Jin fight more seriously. But now, Liu Qiansheng was merely reenacting whatever muscle memory he had. These moves were enough to defeat anybody weaker than himself, but useless when fighting Su Jin.
“That’s incredible! This guy is so incredible, I can’t believe he’s human!”
“Exactly! Liu Qiansheng defeated Yun Tianye yesterday, and Yun Tianye is practically a superhuman himself! Yet this man… he looks like he’s fighting a child!”
“Yeah! Seriously though, is this guy human at all? I watched how Liu Qiansheng smashed the concrete floor to powder with one punch yesterday, yet this guy just catches Liu Qiansheng’s fist with his bare hands!”
Those who had witnessed how formidable Liu Qiansheng had been the day before were utterly floored by how Su Jin looked like an adult fighting a child’s futile attempts. After Liu Qiansheng had defeated Yun Tianye the day before, they all saw Liu Qiansheng like a god of sorts. Yet now, the man whom they saw as a god was seen as a child by this young man.
Su Jin didn’t care about what the others thought of him. His psychokinesis was following Liu Qiansheng’s aura to search the premises. He was certain that someone was controlling Liu Qiansheng and he was trying to locate that person.
It didn’t take long for him to find that person. His psychokinesis detected a supernatural power that clearly should not belong to an ordinary human. Most importantly, this power resonated with Liu Qiansheng’s aura in a very special way, so Su Jin was sure that was the key to controlling Liu Qiansheng.
“He’s here, huh.” Su Jin’s lips curled into an icy smile. Since that person was right here, he wasn’t going to let this man get away. Not especially after he turned out to be an asshole treating his fellow countryman like a mere puppet.
He turned and pushed Liu Qiansheng against the floor with one hand. The impact of doing that caused the concrete floor of the arena to crack. He looked up with a start and a silver glint trembled in his eyes as he looked at a man hidden in the crowd.
“Found me already? You’re not bad!” That man smiled as he waved a hand. Several figures wearing black hoods over their heads suddenly leaped out from behind him, dashing onto the arena and surrounding Su Jin.
“What’s going on?”
“What’s happening”
“Are they all going to gang up against that one guy? That can’t be happening! Where did these people even appear from?!”
The spectators were also in shock.
Su Jin used one hand to keep Liu Qiansheng down so that he couldn’t get up and scanned the people who had suddenly leaped onto the arena. They all pushed their hoods back at the same time to reveal their faces.
“These people…!” Yun Tianye’s pupils constricted and Thomas’ face paled as well, because he had spotted people he recognized among this group. The only problem was that… these people were supposed to be dead for a long time now.
Including Liu Qiansheng, there were a total of seven people against Su Jin. These seven people had no soul in their eyes but their bodies were able to display their best combat moves as they attacked Su Jin at the same time.
“Very interesting!” Su Jin smiled.
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