HBWnovel Chapter 4 The Real Rules
Chapter 4 The Real Rules
"Yes."
The dull thud of finger bones tapping the table still echoed in the air.
Outside the old tenement building. Under the brick wall covered with moss.
Lei Bao, the leader of the Flying Tigers, raised his right hand. He was signaling a tactical assault.
His hand froze in mid-air.
His entire right arm creaked under the strain. The German-made submachine gun, weighing 3.5 kilograms, was now terrifyingly heavy. The sling was digging deep into the flesh of his neck.
"Clang!"
Lei Bao's knees buckled. He crashed straight onto the asphalt. The sound of his kneecaps shattering was particularly jarring in the night.
He opened his mouth and gasped for air. But his lungs were firmly compressed by the bones in his chest cavity, preventing even a tiny bit of oxygen from getting in.
Dozens of elite gunmen in bulletproof vests stood nearby. Not a sound was uttered. They all lay prostrate on the ground, their bulletproof helmets cracking under the invisible weight. The shock absorbers of the modified off-road vehicle emitted a terrible scream. The chassis slammed into the ground, and the tires burst instantly.
The iron gate was pushed open.
Lu Yuan walked out.
He wasn't wearing shoes. His blue cloth shoes were left inside the house. He walked barefoot in the muddy alleyway, which was full of puddles and cigarette butts.
Lei Bao's eye ruptured. Blood blurred his vision. He strained with all his might, his finger gripping the trigger.
"Da da da da da..."
Flames spewed out. Dozens of bullets tore through the night.
Lu Yuan did not dodge.
The brass bullets, about a foot in front of him, struck an invisible wall. The bullets, warped and deformed by the intense heat, turned into lumps of scrap metal, which clattered and fell into the muddy water.
Lei Bao's eyes were about to pop out of their sockets.
What the hell is that monster?!
That old bastard Chu Wanshan! What kind of living devil did he mess with?!
Lei Bao cursed inwardly. He didn't want to earn that life-risking money anymore. He just wanted to get out of this damned alley alive.
Lu Yuan walked up to Lei Bao.
He raised his foot and stepped on the barrel of Lei Bao's submachine gun. The steel barrel was crushed into a flat disc under his foot.
Where is Chu Wanshan?
Lu Yuan spoke.
Lei Bao's jawbone was dislocated. He could only make a hoarse, leaky sound.
Lu Yuan did not wait for his reply.
He spread his five fingers and gripped Lei Bao's skull.
Soul-searching technique.
Lei Bao's body convulsed violently. His brain matter boiled inside his skull. In just two seconds, he collapsed, black blood flowing from his seven orifices. He became an empty shell, devoid of any soul.
Lu Yuan withdrew his hand.
The western suburbs manor. One hundred and twenty outer gunmen. Three internal energy masters. An underground armory.
He turned around and looked at the gunmen lying on the ground, still barely clinging to life.
"Since you're here, stay."
Lu Yuan raised his hand and waved it.
The gravitational field within a radius of 500 meters increases exponentially.
Dozens of human-shaped balloons were simultaneously popped. Blood and fragments of internal organs splattered all over the red brick walls on both sides.
Lu Yuan took out nine low-grade spirit stones from his storage ring. These were scraps he wouldn't even consider worthwhile in the cultivation world.
He drove the spirit stones into the ground around the tenement building according to the nine palaces.
Simple Nine Cauldrons Protective Formation.
Even if a modern armored company drove up in tanks, they wouldn't be able to set foot in this building.
Having done all this, Lu Yuan looked towards the western suburbs.
Western suburbs of Jiangzhou. Chu Family Manor.
Chu Wanshan sat on the leather sofa in the hall. The walnuts in his hand had been replaced by a string of sandalwood prayer beads.
Outside the lobby, 120 fully armed bodyguards completely surrounded the main building. Two heavy machine guns were even mounted on the roof.
Three middle-aged men dressed in training clothes sat on either side of the hall. These were the only three remaining internal energy masters of the Chu family.
Lei Qianjue has already left. He lost an arm. He fled back to the Jiangzhou Martial Arts Association overnight.
Chu Wanshan fiddled with the Buddhist prayer beads.
This matter cannot be resolved peacefully. Old Man Lei is already dead. That kid's methods are definitely not those of an ordinary martial artist.
But so what?
No matter how skilled in martial arts, one is still afraid of a kitchen knife. Moreover, he controls the entire underground black market arms network in Jiangzhou.
An hour had passed since Lei Bao and his men set off. No news had come back. Only the static of the radio filled the air.
"Chairman Chu."
The worshipper on the left with the goatee stood up.
"Lei Bao might be in some trouble."
"That kid was able to cripple Zhao Tieshan in one move. He must have real skills. Although Lei Bao and his men have firearms, they can't effectively use them in that cramped shantytown."
Chu Wanshan did not respond.
He slammed his prayer beads onto the coffee table in frustration.
"Find out who that little bastard is!!"
"How did a poor high school student suddenly acquire such bizarre and unorthodox martial arts skills?!"
Chu Wanshan looked at the fat man offering sacrifices on his right.
"Third brother."
"Take ten men and go capture that kid's sister."
The fat man hesitated for a moment before offering his prayers.
"Chairman Chu. The law doesn't extend to family members. That's the rule of the martial arts world..."
"Screw the rules!!"
Chu Wanshan roared.
"My son is still lying on that steel bed, suffering a fate worse than death!! And you're telling me about rules?!"
"Take him alive. If that brat dares to resist, I'll skin his sister alive, one slice at a time!!"
The fat man sighed and turned to walk outside.
He had just reached the door.
The manor's two large, three-ton-high, solid copper, intricately carved gates, along with their concrete pillars, were lifted into the air.
The gate slammed into the fountain in the center of the yard. Water splashed up several meters high.
The bodyguards in the courtyard were in complete uproar. The sound of gun bolts being pulled back filled the air.
"Fire!!"
Someone shouted out.
More than a hundred assault rifles opened fire simultaneously. Two heavy machine guns on the roof spat out tongues of fire that were half a meter long.
A dense hail of bullets formed a seamless metal mesh, pouring towards the gate.
In the hall, Chu Wanshan stood up. The three elders simultaneously drew their short swords and stood in front of him.
The gunshots lasted for a full two minutes.
The lawn in the yard had been stripped bare. The stone path at the gate had been smashed to powder.
The gunfire ceased. The bodyguards changed magazines. The air was thick with the acrid smell of gunpowder.
The smoke of battle has cleared.
There was a person standing at the main gate.
Wearing a long blue robe. Her hair reached her waist. She was barefoot.
Before him floated a metal wall composed of countless bullets. Tens of thousands of bullets, densely packed, remained suspended in mid-air. Not a single one could cross the line.
Lu Yuan raised his eyelids.
"Here you go."
He flicked his finger.
The metal wall suspended in mid-air collapsed instantly. Tens of thousands of bullets, traveling ten times faster than when they left the barrel, flew back the way they came.
The muffled thuds of bodies being pierced echoed one after another.
One hundred and twenty elite bodyguards. Before they could even scream, they were riddled with bullets. Limbs and severed bodies flew into the air. Blood stained the entire lawn dark red.
Two machine gunners on the roof. They were shredded into mincemeat by a hail of bullets, along with their guns.
The entire process took less than three seconds.
The vast manor courtyard was deserted except for Lu Yuan; not a single other living person was standing there.
in the hall.
Chu Wanshan's legs started to spin. He gripped the back of the sofa tightly to keep from collapsing to the ground.
The three internal energy masters' hands trembled uncontrollably as they gripped their knives.
They practiced martial arts their whole lives. They'd witnessed internal energy being projected outwards. They'd seen people injured from a distance.
Who has ever seen tens of thousands of bullets bounce off?
This is something no human being would do.
Lu Yuan stepped over the blood and flesh scattered on the ground, ascended the steps, and entered the hall.
"You...you stay away!!"
Chu Wanshan roared hysterically.
"I am the vice president of the Jiangzhou Chamber of Commerce!!"
"You dare touch me. The entire Jiangzhou underworld will not let you get away with this!!"
Lu Yuan didn't even glance at the three worshippers.
He walked straight toward Chu Wanshan.
"superior!!"
"Stop him!!"
Chu Wanshan kicked the goat-bearded worshipper in the waist.
The goatee bit his tongue, using the intense pain to unleash his potential. He raised his dagger and slashed at Lu Yuan's neck.
Lu Yuan did not stop.
He just uttered a single word.
"die."
The goatee's body froze instantly before the offering. His head, along with his entire spine, was forcibly pulled from his neck cavity by an invisible force.
The headless corpse spewed out a two-meter-high jet of blood and collapsed to the ground.
The other two worshippers' knees buckled. They knelt down on the spot, throwing their knives far away. Their heads slammed against the polished marble floor, creating two bloody craters.
"Please be merciful..."
"We're just doing this for money... Please just ignore us..."
Lu Yuan ignored them.
He walked up to Chu Wanshan.
Chu Wanshan finally couldn't hold on any longer. He knelt down on the ground with a thud.
"Mr. Lu... Mr. Lu..."
"I was wrong......"
"I have money!!"
"I have lots of money!!"
"I'll give you half of the Chu family's shares!! No. All of them!!"
"Just spare my life!!"
Chu Wanshan pulled a stack of blank checks from his inner pocket and held them above his head with both hands.
He had only one thought in his mind: to survive. As long as he survived, with his connections in Jiangzhou, he could always find someone to kill this kid.
Lu Yuan looked down at him.
"I said that."
"Within three days, go to my mother's altar and kowtow to apologize."
Lu Yuan's voice was completely flat.
"You didn't go."
"I'm going right now!!"
"I'll go right now!!"
Chu Wanshan kowtowed frantically.
"It's too late."
Lu Yuan raised his hand.
"Mortals always think that by holding a few pieces of waste paper and making a few pieces of scrap metal, they can control all living beings."
"Today I will teach you what it means to have rules that transcend life and death!!"
Lu Yuan placed his fingertip on Chu Wanshan's brow.
Soul-Devouring Death Curse Seal.
Black veins instantly spread across Chu Wanshan's entire face. He let out a scream that was not human, collapsed to the ground, and rolled wildly, his hands clutching his throat, tearing pieces of flesh from his skin.
Lu Yuan turned around.
He looked at the two worshippers kneeling on the ground.
"Take him with you."
"Go to the Jiangzhou Martial Arts Association."
"Tell your vice president what's-his-name."
"Before midnight, bring him his own head to me."
"Otherwise, I will slaughter the entire martial arts community of Jiangzhou."
The two retainers scrambled to their feet and carried the writhing Chu Wanshan out of the hall.
Lu Yuan stood in the center of the empty hall.
His gaze fell on an oil painting deep in the hall.
Behind the oil painting, there is a safe.
Lu Yuan grabbed at it from a distance. The pure steel safe shattered into pieces on the spot.
There were no banknotes inside. There was only a sandalwood box with yellow talismans pasted on it.
Lu Yuan opened the box.
Inside lay half a copper plate covered in green spots.
This copper piece. It was the same as the one his mother wore close to her body, but which disappeared at the scene of the car accident.
Lu Yuan looked at the ancient patterns on the bronze plate.
This is not from Earth. This is a fragment of a coordinate scroll from the Sirius Star Region of the cultivation world.
The Chu family is a secular, wealthy family. How could they possibly have such a thing?
My mother's car accident. Was it really as simple as Chu Tiankuo driving under the influence?
There's more to this than meets the eye.
Lu Yuan put the copper piece into his Nine Heavens Storage Ring.
He walked out of the hall.
In the courtyard, the bodies of the bodyguards lay scattered about.
A dark red flame emerged from Lu Yuan's fingertip.
Samadhi Fire
He flicked his finger. A spark landed on the lawn.
The fire swelled with the wind and engulfed the entire manor on the spot.
A steel gun barrel. A concrete wall. Under the scorching heat of the Samadhi Fire, it didn't even last a second. It turned to ashes instantly.
Not even a corpse. Not a single drop of blood was left.
Lu Yuan stepped into the night.