Chen Ping'an wore a dejected expression, but still cupped his fists in a formal salute and took his leave.
Entrusting Liu Xianyang to the care of Ruan Qiong and his daughter, the two brothers stepped out of the Yang family's shop and headed for the Lu family on Fortune Street. They were going to get justice back for brother Liu Xianyang!
The two of them walked the whole way without exchanging many words. Wang Jing's eyes burned with hatred, a faint white light glimmering between his brows.
The Lu family mansion on Fortune Street was a grand estate, its high gates flanked by two stone lions that radiated an imposing and majestic aura.
At this moment, the main gates stood wide open as three or four servants leaped down from carriages to carry in the body of Lu Zhengchun.
Master Lu stood off to one side of the steps, his eyes hollow and lifeless, utterly soul-broken. In just a few short days, both his sons had perished... But the Xu family of Clearwind City had already promised him that he could go to Clearwind City to cultivate and temper his physical body, and when the time came, he could simply father a few more children as compensation.
Enticing though the terms were, Master Lu could not muster a shred of joy. He had a premonition deep in his bones that this household was finished!
Suddenly, he saw Wang Jing and Chen Ping'an walking side by side toward him. His face contorted with fury. Though he knew the deaths of his two sons were not directly caused by them, they were undeniably tied to it!
He cursed them bitterly in his heart: "Coming to you to trade for an opportunity was already doing you bumpkins a favor! You should have just handed over the items, instead of forcing things to this point! And you, Wang Jing—didn't I give you gold back then? If it weren't for me patronizing and looking out for you, you would have frozen to death long ago! Die, all of you must die, to vent my sons' anger and let them rest in peace!"
Twenty or thirty servants brandished long sabers as they leaped forward, surrounding Wang Jing and Chen Ping'an in a tight circle. Master Lu’s gaze grew fierce as he shouted coldly: "You had a path to heaven, but you refused to walk it; there is no door to hell, yet you barge right in. Kill these two little bastards for me!"
Inside Wang Jing's body, the system's "Beacon Fire No. 1" spun frantically and grew restless. A surge of billowing white spiritual energy radiated from his entire body, sending all the servants flying backward. Their blades scattered across the ground, and the courtyard filled with cries of agony.
"Ding! First, let's grant you a Third Realm Martial Artist: Mercury Realm! That burst of white spiritual energy just now was purely for style—just for show!"
Wang Jing tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and felt his blood grow as thick and heavy as mercury, while his body became feather-light!
Chen Ping'an widened his eyes in disbelief, thinking to himself: "Big Brother is actually this powerful! No wonder he wouldn't let me go ask others for help!"
Terrified, Master Lu clutched his head and fled in a panic, ordering his men to slam the gates shut as he scrambled back into the estate.
As the two arrived at the Lu residence gates, Wang Jing pointed at the stone lions guarding the entrance and said to Chen Ping'an, "Chen Ping'an, how heavy do you reckon that lion is?"
Chen Ping'an swallowed hard and stammered, "No matter how you look at it, it's got to weigh around a thousand catties!"
Wang Jing chuckled. "Good eye. I reckon about that much myself. Back in the day, the Hegemon of Chu could lift cauldrons; today, I, Wang Jing, will use a giant lion to smash open a gate!"
Before Chen Ping'an could even wonder who the Hegemon of Chu was, Wang Jing had already strode up to the towering stone lion on the right. "Ding! Unlocking the Fourth Realm Martial Artist: Heroic Soul Realm for your grand entrance!"
Martial body-refining is divided into three realms: Mud Embryo, Wooden Fetus, and Mercury. These three are the foundation of foundations. Next come the three Qi Refinement realms: Heroic Soul, Vigorous Soul, and Martial Gall.
Far up on a rooftop, Ning Yao stood atop her flying sword clad in tight black garments, watching from a distance as Wang Jing stuck his rear out and effortlessly hoisted a stone lion into the air.
She thought to herself: "Is this Chen Ping'an's big brother? Why does his style feel just as outlandish as A Liang's? If you want to get in, just kick the door down—why bother using someone else's stone lion to smash their gates? Does he have too much energy and nowhere to spend it?"
At that moment, Ning Yao cast a sideways glance out of the corner of her eye and noticed a girl not far away with a long, thick ponytail, floating in mid-air.
Further off, in the branches of a large tree, Dali Prince Regent Song Changjing sat alongside a folding-fan-wielding youth who seemed to be Chen Ping'an's neighbor, Song Jixin.
On a hillside not far from the town, two or three people were even setting out fruit platters and snacks...
She thought: "It seems everyone loves watching a good show."
Wang Jing cradled the stone lion in both hands and hurled it heavily against the Lu family's main gates. The guards who had been peering through the gaps in the door had already scattered and fled far away!
With a deafening crash, centuries of the Lu family's facade were smashed completely to pieces!
Inside the Lu courtyard, the mother and son of the Clearwind City Xu family were admiring a hard-won set of treasured armor. Though they heard the commotion outside, they seemed utterly unconcerned.
The little boy in the crimson robe held the oversized armor up against his chest, shaking it about excitedly as he cried, "Mother, Father's constitution is frail, but his killing intent is fierce. If he is blessed by this treasured armor, it will be like adding wings to a tiger! Even if he fights Song Changjing, the number one martial artist in Dali, he should be more than a match for him!"
The woman from the Xu family smiled brightly, yet she still raised a hand to make a silencing gesture, speaking in a low voice: "How many times have I told you, in this domain, do not speak names aloud."
The crimson-robed little boy rolled his eyes, a sinister smile tugging at the corner of his mouth as he gestured with his palm like a blade through the empty air. "Kill! Kill! Kill!"
Wang Jing, escorting Chen Ping'an, entered the inner courtyard of the Lu family as if walking through an empty realm. The gate guards and estate retainers had been so terrified by the brute force of Wang Jing using a stone lion to smash the gates that they retreated step by step, daring not put up any resistance.
In an exquisite circular plaza, the mother and son of the Clearwind City Xu family stood waiting. Master Lu cowered behind them, wearing a cringing expression that looked like a family heirloom.
With a ferocious look on his face, the little boy pointed at Wang Jing and shrieked, "Everything you did to Little Master here, I've locked away in my grandfather's memory! Now that the opportunity is in my hands, I'm going to tear you to pieces with my bare hands, rip out your hearts and lungs, and chop you into mincemeat to feed the dogs just to appease the hatred in my heart!"
The woman from the Xu family wore a radiant, blooming smile, yet when she cast a sideways glance at Wang Jing, she felt a wave of nausea and disgust.
Still, she was thoroughly pleased with her son's tyrannical aura and encouraged him, "My son, go all out and fight! Let these ants witness the thunderous methods of the future master of Clearwind City, and thereby defend your Daoist heart!"
The crimson-robed little boy leaped forward several steps, his arrogance soaring even higher. With a frantic laugh, he pointed at Wang Jing and yelled, "I'm even going to string your eyeballs together like candied haws—"
Heavenly lightning rumbled and struck straight down! There was not a shred of hesitation or wasted breath!
Caught completely unawares, the crimson-robed little boy was instantly charred into a crisp.
Then he dissolved into black flying ash, leaving a patch of mud upon the ground—reducing someone to dust and ashes could not be more thorough than this!
"Ding! Villains die of too much talking, and this brat was nothing more than a little demon!"
The woman from the Xu family nearly popped her eyeballs out of her head in terror. One second her son was jumping around with vitality, and the next, he had been reduced to powder?!
She instantly collapsed to the ground, two trails of tears streaming from her eyes as she beat the earth in anguish, her snowy bosom heaving.
Though she was an Eighth Realm Qi Refiner, in this grotto-heaven realm, facing such a heavenly tribulation felt like some freak accident and misfortune!
Could it be..."Has my Clearwind City committed too many evils and brought down the wrath of the heavens?!"
Chen Ping'an stared at Wang Jing in utter shock. "Big Brother, was that heavenly lightning cast by you?!"
Wang Jing's brow showed nothing out of the ordinary, and he looked just as baffled. He spread his hands with a suspicious, perplexed expression, thinking to himself: "I certainly can't tell him Beacon Fire No. 1 did this!"
Just at that moment, another bolt of heavenly lightning crashed straight down, striking Wang Jing squarely on the head. If Chen Ping'an hadn't ducked away quickly, he would have been caught in the crossfire.
Wang Jing took the full brunt of the lightning, yet his hair merely stood straight up in an exaggerated fashion and his face turned as black as charcoal; otherwise, he was completely unharmed. His eyes widened in bewilderment, as though a surge of enlightenment had suddenly sprouted in his mind.
Then he grinned, revealing two rows of gleaming white teeth.
"Ding! Body-refining three-realm patch repaired. The 'Mud Bodhisattva crossing the river' heavenly tribulation has been successfully cleared!"