You, a living person, are telling me I've served in the underworld for ten years?

"Lick my shoes! If you don't, I'll break your legs!"

"How dare you cheat us?!"

"If I don't kill your father today, I'll change my surname to yours!"

"Break off his fingers one by one! Let's see if he can still be so arrogant!"

"Let's crack his skull open first! Let's see if he dares to pretend to be so profound then!"

Vulgarities and malicious threats echoed through the dead-end road of the abandoned construction site, while the dim light made the five thugs' contorted excitement look like that of demons.

The steel pipe in the blond-haired man's hand gleamed with a blinding light. He grinned maliciously and took a step forward, his saliva almost spraying onto Chen Yang's face.

"Did you hear me? Kneel down! Lick my shoes! Or I'll make you taste what it's like to have your bones crushed!"

Another thug, waving a half-broken brick, squeezed forward and pointed the brick at Chen Yang's chest while cursing.

"Playing dumb, huh? You ripped me off at the bar! You're in jail now, and it's all your fault! I'll beat the crap out of you today!"

Faced with the harsh insults and the murder weapon pointed directly at him, Chen Yang's expression remained unchanged, as if he were looking at a swarm of buzzing flies.

He didn't even bother to lift his eyelids, his tone as flat as if he were giving an insignificant instruction.

"Get out. While you can still walk."

"Uh?"

The blond-haired man was stunned for a moment, then burst into ear-piercing laughter as if he had heard the funniest joke.

"Ha ha ha ha!
What did he say? He told us to get lost?! Brothers!

Was he scared out of his wits? Huh? Hahaha!

"Holy crap! Still acting tough even when you're about to die!"

"Get him!"

"Kill him! Tear his mouth apart!"

Chen Yang's casual "Get lost" was like a spark falling into a hot oil pan. The five thugs were instantly ignited! All their mockery and intimidation transformed into a furious rage at being utterly despised and provoked.

"Fuck your mother!"

The blond-haired man was closest, his eyes flashing with ferocity. Enraged, he lost his last shred of reason. He swung the steel pipe with all his might, creating a sharp, piercing sound as it smashed down towards Chen Yang's head!

If that hits hard, he'll either die or suffer a severe concussion!

Almost at the exact moment the steel pipe was about to touch the hair!
Chen Yang made a move.

His movements were incredibly simple. He slightly turned his body, and the whistling steel pipe grazed his forehead, the force of the impact ruffling a few strands of his hair. The pipe struck a nearby concrete block with a loud clang, sending sparks flying!

Huang Mao's all-out attack missed, and his body inevitably leaned forward.

In that instant, Chen Yang's back foot, which had just dodged to the side, moved forward silently yet swiftly as if it were spring-loaded, hooking a fist-sized pebble on the ground with its toe!

"Whoosh—Bang!!"

Driven by Chen Yang's skillful force, the rubble transformed into a black shadow, striking the side of the right elbow joint of the man holding the steel pipe with unparalleled precision!

"Crack!"

A sharp, teeth-grinding cracking sound rang out!
"what--!!"

The blond-haired man let out a bloodcurdling scream, the excruciating pain instantly numbing his entire arm. The steel pipe flew far away from his grasp, and he spun around in pain, clutching his limp, hanging right arm!
This sudden turn of events caused the remaining four thugs who rushed at him to freeze for half a second!

Just this half second!
Chen Yang's figure suddenly disappeared from the spot! When he reappeared, he was already ghost-like, sticking to the side and behind the thug who was waving bricks and cursing the loudest.

His movements looked slow, even somewhat leisurely and lazy, but his speed was unbelievably fast!
With his right hand fingers slightly bent, like an eagle's claw, he swiftly pecked at the Fengchi acupoint on the back of the thug's neck the instant the thug turned around in terror!
thump!
The thug's vision went black, and without even uttering a sound, before the brick in his hand could fall, he collapsed straight forward to the ground like a noodle with its tendons pulled out, completely unconscious.

"Tiger! Damn it! I'll cripple you!"

A thug with a scar on his face, holding a rusty steel bar, saw his companion fall and, with a furious rage, used the steel bar as a gun, viciously stabbing it into Chen Yang's right waist!
Chen Yang seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. Just as the steel bar was about to pierce him, his body spun around in place with incredible speed, like a top! The steel bar grazed his waist and pierced through his clothes, the wind it generated stinging his skin.

The instant Chen Yang twisted his body, his left elbow transformed into a short blade, and with the force of the rotation, he delivered a clean and swift 'returning elbow'!
"Oh!"

A heavy, muffled thud!
The thug felt as if his left side had been hit by a speeding car!

A searing pain, accompanied by a nauseating sensation of displaced internal organs, shot straight to my brain!

His eyes bulged out, and a fishy-smelling liquid gushed from his mouth.

With two "hoarse" sounds, he couldn't even let out a scream before collapsing to the ground, clutching his ribs and convulsing.

In the blink of an eye, the three of them collapsed!

One was writhing in pain with a broken hand, one was unconscious, and one was severely injured with broken ribs!
This inhuman speed and ruthless methods instantly shattered the morale of the remaining two thugs!
Just moments ago they were filled with bloodlust and fanaticism, but now all that remained was a deep-seated fear! What stood before them was no human being; it was clearly a demon in human skin, a vengeful spirit!
"You...you stay away!"

One of the thugs was so frightened that the steel pipe in his hand clattered to the ground. He stumbled backward, slipped, and fell into a pile of construction debris, scrambling backward on his hands and feet.

"It's none of my business! I just came to watch the show! Spare me! Great hero, spare me!"

The last thug who hadn't had a chance to make a move saw the miserable state of his three companions on the ground and the yellow-haired guy's heart-wrenching cries. His crotch was instantly soaked, and a strong, pungent stench filled the air.

He knelt down with a thud, his voice trembling with tears.

"Brother! Ancestor! We were wrong! We were blind to your greatness! Please, have mercy on us! We beg you!"

The crippled blond-haired man, ignoring the excruciating pain in his arm, scrambled to his knees, his face covered in snot and tears.

"Big brother! Spare us! We'll never do it again! We'll do anything you ask!"

Chen Yang stood amidst several thugs wailing and begging for mercy, not even catching his breath.

He glanced at the filth on the ground with disgust, his voice as cold as the Siberian wind.

"Who sent you? Or rather, who instigated you to use this tactic to cause trouble?"

Despite the excruciating pain, the blond-haired man quickly answered.

"It was...a person wearing a hood so their face couldn't be seen! Their voice was hoarse, and their speech was as unpleasant as a knife scraping against metal!"
A few nights ago, he found our Sea Serpent Brother... gave us some money, and told us to go to a few places like Night Drunkenness and cause trouble, the more ruthless the better! Ideally, we should force the boss to take action... he said... he said he'd give us a large sum of money afterward!

He incoherently spilled out everything he knew.

The thugs kneeling beside him nodded repeatedly.

Yes, yes, yes!

That person only appeared once! So mysterious! I think…I think his name was something like Ghost Wind…yes! He told us to call him 'Lord Ghost-Faced Wind'! That's all we know!

Ghost-faced Wind? Chen Yang's eyes narrowed slightly. Sure enough, it was that rat-like creature lurking in the shadows again!

He looked down at the group of people kneeling on the ground, trembling.

"Get out. And if there's a next time..."

"We won't dare again! Absolutely not! We'll get out of Hainan City right now! We'll never show our faces again!!"

The thugs, as if granted a pardon, kowtowed repeatedly and scrambled to drag their seriously injured companion and the unconscious Tiger away from this nightmare-like dead end without looking back, not even bothering to pick up the murder weapon that had fallen to the ground.

Chen Yang didn't even glance at their disheveled retreating figures. He turned around, preparing to leave the construction area filled with the stench of blood and urine, and return to the hotel to find Qiu Niu and the others to learn about the latest developments on the Kangping Pharmaceutical line.

# # #
My phone suddenly vibrated in my pocket, the rapid buzzing sound particularly jarring in the quiet night.

Chen Yang took out his phone, and the screen displayed an encrypted number—it was Zhong Fabai, who had stayed at the Sea Shark Association as an "informant"!
The "Heart-Eating Gu" he had previously planted in the hearts and minds of these people could not only sense unusual movements, but also included a one-way mental communication function, capable of transmitting only the briefest contact requests permitted by Chen Yang.

Judging from the vibration frequency, something has clearly happened!
Chen Yang pressed the answer button but didn't speak.

An extremely suppressed voice, tinged with panic and urgency, rang out directly in his mind like a mosquito buzzing in the air.

"My lord! They've arrived!"

That person has arrived! Right there at the 'Fengyu' cannery in the northern suburbs! The old warehouse!

He...he's checking the progress...he's only been inside for less than five minutes!"

Zhong Fabai's mental transmission carried the distinct fluctuations characteristic of the "Gu Seal," making it impossible to fake! Moreover, for him to make an urgent contact in this way, it must be that the mysterious "Ghost-Faced Wind" or an existence of equal level had directly appeared!

"Wait."

Chen Yang thought for a moment and sent back only two words.

His figure vanished instantly, reappearing a hundred meters away in the shadows of the street. His speed had increased to the extreme, like a streak of light merging into the night, as he sped toward the northern suburbs!

# # #
In the northern suburbs, the abandoned Fengyu Cannery stands. The place that once reeked of fish now only carries the pungent smell of rust and a heavy odor of mold.

The enormous workshop was pitch black, like the maw of a ferocious beast.

Only a faint, intermittent beam of light from a relatively intact old warehouse in a corner shone through.

Chen Yang's figure appeared like a ghost outside the rusty iron gate of the cannery.

The surroundings were eerily quiet. There were no chirping insects as one would expect on a summer night, and even the wind seemed to have stopped.

Only the distant hustle and bustle of the city seemed exceptionally remote.

No! It's too quiet! Even if Zhong Fabai is eager to take credit, he wouldn't openly wait for me in a place like this!
Chen Yang's eyes instantly turned icy cold.

Experience told him that this was more like a carefully laid trap! The other party had likely already noticed Zhong Fabai and the others' "disappearance" or abnormality and had set up a trap in response!

His mind raced. Retreat? Too late! Since the enemy had set an ambush, they must have a backup plan; even a retreat might not be safe. Advance? Inside was a den of wolves and tigers!
Chen Yang took a deep breath, a cold smile curving his lips. A trap? Let's see who gets eaten first!

Without the slightest hesitation, he concealed his aura to the extreme, like a true shadow, and silently approached the warehouse that was emitting light, crossing the collapsed half of the wall.

He was in the shadows, just a dozen meters away from the dilapidated warehouse gate!

"pat...pat..."

The soft sound of leather boots on the concrete floor came from deep within the warehouse, growing clearer with each step. There was more than one person!
Immediately afterwards, the warehouse door was violently pushed open from the inside!

A dozen or so dark figures, like ghosts blending into the darkness, silently filed out and instantly dispersed, occupying all the advantageous positions in the open space in front of the warehouse.

Their movements were perfectly synchronized. They wore specially made black combat uniforms and identical black masks, revealing only pairs of cold, emotionless eyes that locked onto Chen Yang in the shadows!

The air was thick with a suffocating murderous intent and utter indifference to life!

One of the men in black, who was leading the group, stepped forward. A low, hoarse, synthesized voice, electronically processed, emanated from beneath his mask and was exceptionally clear in the deathly still night.

"I've been waiting for you for a long time, Destroyer Chen Yang."

Chen Yang slowly emerged from the shadows and stood in the open space of the abandoned factory, facing the other party from a distance.

His voice was calm, revealing no emotion.

"The Heavenly Alliance, it's truly... a persistent ghost."

"A lingering ghost?"

The leader of the men in black let out a short, mocking electronic laugh, as if he had heard the most ridiculous thing.

"You sabotaged our experimental base, stole our precious source seeds, and repeatedly interfered with the progress of the 'Sacred Project'! You, you scurrying rat, are the disgusting, persistent filth!"

Another man in black replied in a cold voice.

"A mere martial artist dares to try and shake a tree like an ant! You have no idea what a great will you are fighting against!"

"great?"

Chen Yang laughed, his smile full of sarcasm.

"You claim to be great by plundering the genes of ordinary people, using innocent cultivators for human experiments, and creating inhuman and beastly garbage? Are you so great that you only dare to hide in a rat hole and manipulate puppets, so great that you don't even dare to show your true face? A bunch of cowardly and depraved scum, do you even deserve to talk about greatness?"

"presumptuous!"

The leader of the men in black suddenly raised his electronic voice, which was filled with piercing noise and chilling killing intent.

Those who blaspheme the truth will only turn to ashes!

He suddenly waved his hand!

"Attack! Death or life!"

The instant the order was given!
It was like pressing an invisible switch!
call out!call out!call out!
Several specially made alloy cables, crackling with blue-purple arcs of electricity, shot out from various tricky angles like venomous snakes, sealing off all of Chen Yang's space to dodge!

Puff puff!
Three miniature missiles with red dots flashing at their tails cut through the air and hurtled toward him in a triangular formation at an even faster speed!

At the same time, the two men in black charged forward! Their speed far exceeded that of any opponent they had encountered before!
Their strange, short blades, gleaming with an eerie light, silently sliced ​​through the air, aiming straight for Chen Yang's throat and heart! The techniques were bizarre and ruthless to the extreme!

A perfectly coordinated encirclement! Long-range firepower blocked their retreat, while the assassin launched a close-quarters attack for a fatal blow! Chen Yang was instantly placed in a life-or-death situation!
Chen Yang's pupils suddenly contracted!

The speed of these people's movements, their seamless teamwork, and the chilling energy fluctuations emanating from their missiles and cables far surpassed those of Kangping Pharmaceutical and the bar thugs! The pressure increased dramatically! (End of Chapter)