Chapter 41: A Clean Sweep
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“How is this possible?”
The scene had unfolded in a flash, too fast for Lu Qinghu and the others to follow. Shock and disbelief were written all over their faces as they gradually recovered their wits.
Ma Tianba was an outstanding level-three adept of Qi-gathering who would rank among the top five level-three adepts of the three elite lesser families.
But he had been killed by a single attack from a seventeen-year-old youth.
Although they had not confirmed that Ma Tianba, who had been sent flying, was truly dead, they knew without a doubt that he was indeed dead.
Under the circ.u.mstances, it would be a miracle if Ma Tianba had not died.
“Is he holding… the black iron spear from the second floor of the Hall of G.o.ds?”
“Isn’t he only a level-two adept? How could he wield a black iron spear weighing one thousand two hundred jin so effortlessly?”
“If it wasn’t that black iron spear… how could Patriarch Ma have been sent flying like that?”
When Lu Qinghu and the others looked back at Zhou Donghuang, their expressions turned serious, and their eyes were filled with dread.
“Let’s advance together.”
With a quiver of his body, Zhou Donghuang stepped with the Star-Stepping Footwork and darted forward, aiming to attack Lu Qinghu and the others directly.
Although the hefty black iron spear weighed one thousand two hundred jin, he was not slowed down in the least.
Zhou Donghuang had no intention of stopping after killing Ma Tianba because he knew that he had not yet sufficiently intimidated Lu Qinghu and the others.
They could be thinking that he was only putting up a show and had actually exhausted himself, because such a display of prowess could only be performed once.
Indeed, they had that exact same thought.
Now, seeing Zhou Donghuang coming at them with the spear, Lu Qinghu’s gaze froze, and he shouted, “Take him down together! Let’s find out if he can perform such a powerful attack a second time.”
Saying so, Lu Qinghu took the lead and leaped at Zhou Donghuang like a tiger bounding down a mountain.
“Let’s get him!”
As Lu Qinghu attacked, the second master of the Lu family, Lu Bao, and the head elder of the Lu family, Lu Pinglan, followed up with their own attacks.
The second elder of the Ma family, Ma Dongfeng, the patriarch of the Fang family, Fang Jishan, and the head elder of the Ma family, Fang Zhan, were close behind,
With Lu Qinghu in the lead, the six level-three adepts attacked as one, advancing on Zhou Donghuang from all sides.
As level-three adepts, these six were very fast and surrounded Zhou Donghuang in the blink of an eye. They began to attack him in unison.
However, although they were fast, Zhou Donghuang was not any slower.
Although Zhou Donghuang was only a level-two adept of Qi-gathering, he was able to exert his maximum muscular strength, and would not be any weaker in terms of strength compared to a level-three adept.
In addition, he had the level-three swiftness technique, Star-Stepping Footwork to fall back on, while Lu Qinghu and the others did not practice any swiftness techniques. His speed was therefore equal to Lu Qinghu.
The others could not match him in speed.
“It’s a swiftness technique!”
Now, Lu Qinghu and the others finally realized that Zhou Donghuang had used a swiftness technique. Their focus had not been on Zhou Donghuang’s legs, so they had not realized this earlier.
“Die, kid!”
Lu Qinghu roared in rage as he leaned forward and propelled himself like a cannonball towards Zhou Donghuang.
“Well met!”
Faced with Lu Qinghu’s ferocious a.s.sault, Zhou Donghuang turned serious and adjusted his stance to meet the incoming attack.
Simultaneously, he also evaded the attacks of three out of his five other opponents, and the closest any of the three got was brus.h.i.+ng against his sleeve.
The five of them surrounded Zhou Donghuang and would never have imagined that he would have chosen Lu Qinghu, who was the strongest among them, to be his breaking point.
Perhaps he thinks Big Brother is our weak link because of how thin he is? That’s begging for death!
Lu Bao chuckled to himself.
Seeing Zhou Donghuang not bothering to dodge his attacks and even stepping up to face them instead, Lu Qinghu flexed his arms, clawed his hands, and grabbed at Zhou Donghuang from both sides.
Lu Qinghu’s attack was ferocious and intimidating.
However, just when he thought he had caught hold of Zhou Donghuang, Zhou Donghuang moved in close enough that his body brushed against Lu Qinghu’s. He slipped past him, as agile as a spirit snake.
The move was exquisite, and it seemed like Zhou Donghuang had indeed transformed into a spirit snake.
It was a level-two martial art technique, Way of the Spirit Snake
“Big brother, be careful!”
“Patriarch, be careful!”
“Patriarch Lu, be careful!”
“Brother Qinghu, be careful!”
Zhou Donghuang had slipped past Lu Qinghu, who had no time to check his momentum and saw the other five looking at them with shock at something behind him.
Chi-chak!
The black iron spear descended like black lightning, and the razor-sharp edge of the spear head severed Lu Qinghu’s arm like tofu.
Peng!
As the black iron spear descended to a point beside Lu Qinghu’s chest, it was suddenly and savagely shoved horizontally, and the fearsome force snapped several tendons and bones and sent him flying over five meters away. He was in an untenable situation and completely lost the will to fight.
Fang Jishan and the other five were shocked at Lu Qinghu’s injury. Zhou Donghuang took full advantage of their distraction and thrust it towards Fang Jishan, who was standing on their extreme left.
The black iron spear thrust towards Fang Jishan like a dragon emerging from the sea, and before he could react, the spear head was a hair’s breadth away from him.
“No—”
There was no way Fang Jishan could dodge in time, and he let out a shout of despair as death descended on him.
His shout did have its intended effect however, and at this most critical moment, the spear head moved away from his chest and towards the side, pa.s.sing under his armpit.
“Hng!!”
Zhou Donghuang grunted with effort, and mustering his qi and stacking it, he channeled it to his right hand that was holding the spear.
Zhou Donghuang grasped the spear single-handedly and swept it towards his other four opponents, carrying Fang Jishan with it. With Zhou Donghuang’s qi close to spent, they were sent flying, just like Lu Qinghu.
This all happened in the blink of an eye, leaving the four no time to dodge.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
…
There was the sound of multiple bodies. .h.i.tting the ground, and in the blink of an eye, the remaining six of the seven level-three adepts of the three elite lesser families had been defeated, with Ma Tianba, the patriarch of the Ma family, having been killed.
Of the six, Lu Qinghu was the most gravely injured.
Of the remaining five, only Fang Jishan had avoided major injury, and the others had various broken bones and torn ligaments.
“Take this.”
Zhou Donghuang used the last of the qi within his body and threw the black iron spear to the two strong men with a flick of his arm.
The two strong men had been scared silly by what they had witnessed and could not react in time. The black iron spear clattered to the ground on the floor in front of them with a great crash, scaring them even more.
The floor tiles could not support the weight of the black iron spear and cracked, the cracks spreading out like a spider’s web.
Right then, Lu Qinghu and his five companions could no longer doubt the weight of the spear.
“Many thanks to Young Master Donghuang for his mercy.”
Fang Jishan was the least injured, and after he struggled to stand up, he thanked Zhou Donghuang profusely with dread written on his face.
If Zhou Donghuang had not shown mercy, the black iron spear would have impaled his chest, and he would have surely been dead. It was because Zhou Donghuang had adjusted the spear head and thrust it towards his armpit that he had only suffered only superficial injuries and some light internal injuries.
“Your life… should be worth two hundred thousand liang of silver?”
Zhou Donghuang looked at Fang Jishan with a smile, showing two rows of snow-white teeth.
Although he knew that Zhou Donghuang was extorting money from him, Fang Jishan did not dare refuse and nodded his head eagerly, “It’s worth it! Worth it! Completely worth it.”
Two hundred thousand liang of silver was not a small sum to the Fang family, but they would still be able to afford it.
“Lu Qinghu, three hundred liang of silver for your life… any objections?”
Zhou Donghuang asked as he fixed a piercing gaze on Lu Qinghu as he struggled to stand.
“No… no objections.”
Although Lu Qinghu looked extremely foul, he did not dare object given the circ.u.mstances, and he was terrified that any hint of objection would cause this youth to kill him.
“And for you, you should have no objections to a hundred thousand liang of silver each for your lives?”
Zhou Donghuang’s gaze fell on the other four people, and they shook their heads without hesitation, their faces pale.
“In ten days, I want to see thirty servant girls and fifty waiters at Yunxuan Restaurant in Qingshan town.”
With that, Zhou Donghuang led Fu away from the Lu family residence, and the two strong men hurriedly lifted the spear and followed them out.
“If you breathe a word about what happened today, you can forget about living if you remain another day in the city!” Lu Qinghu threatened the two strong men before they left.
If the day’s events became widely known, the prestige of the Lu, Ma, and Fang Families would be left in tatters.
They did not wish for that to happen.
“Patriarch Lu, we understand.”
“Patriarch Lu, we will definitely not say a word.”
The two strong men trembled at Lu Qinghu’s threat and nodded hurriedly. They fled in the wake of Zhou Donghuang and Fu who had left long before.
The large receiving chamber reverted to its peaceful state.
“Brother Qinghu.”
After Zhou Donghuang and the others had left, Fang Jishan helped Lu Qinghu up as the others struggled to their feet. Each of them looked ashen-faced and battered.
“I never thought our three elite lesser families would one day be subdued by a seventeen-year-old youth.”
Lu Qinghu shook his head, smiling ruefully to himself.
“And who would have thought that at seventeen years of age, he would possess such fearsome ability… Zhao Fengxia and Hong Yunfei are not even worth a mention compared to him!”
Zhao Fengxia was the first master of the Zhao family who governed the prefecture capital. He had attained level-two of Qi-gathering when he was eighteen years old and was acknowledged to be the first among the young generation of Yunfeng prefecture.
Hong Yunfei was the first young master of the preeminent Hong family and had attained level-two of Qi-gathering only a month after Zhao Fengxia.