Ultimate True Lord

Two days later.

Fenghepu, the headquarters of the Gray-Clad Gang.

Inside a house with a courtyard, gang leader Xiong Ping sat in the main seat, occasionally picking up a cup of tea and taking a sip. Deputy gang leader Du Yuan stood to the side, his sharp eyes watching the gang members reporting to him.

"Gang leader, deputy gang leader, after more than a month of investigation, we've basically reduced the suspects to three."

The gang member bowed his head and spoke respectfully.

The first one is Zhou Hu, a powerful martial artist from Mingjiangpu. He has mastered the Mountain-Splitting Palm technique and is quite famous in the area. His fighting style is fierce and powerful, which matches the characteristics of the killer that night.

The second one is Zhao Meng, a disciple of the Hongsha Martial Arts School in Fenghepu, who is skilled in the Gangjin (internal strength) style. He is strong and robust, and has been working on breaking through to the Gangjin level for quite some time, but has not yet reached the pinnacle of Gangjin.

The third one, also a disciple of the Red Sand Martial Arts School, was Jiang Ming.

After listening to their subordinates' report, Xiong Ping and Du Yuan exchanged glances and, combining some detailed intelligence, began to analyze the situation.

First, Zhao Meng from the Red Sand Martial Arts School can be ruled out. Although he is strong and taller than the average person, he doesn't have the same imposing and heavy frame as that mysterious man from that night.

The difference is quite significant; it's safe to say it's not him.

Therefore, the only two people who truly meet the requirements are Zhou Hu from Mingjiangpu and Jiang Ming from Hongsha Martial Arts School.

Inside the room, just as Xiong Ping and Du Yuan were discussing how to proceed with the investigation, another trusted subordinate entered.

He whispered a few words in Xiong Ping's ear.

Xiong Ping's brows relaxed instantly, and he was overjoyed. The person who had been cooperating with their Gray-Clad Gang had arrived, bringing with him the martial arts manuals they had agreed upon last month, one of which was the one he wanted.

The force secretly funding the Gray-Clad Gang was none other than the Cangshi Sect, one of the three factions outside the city.

The Cangshi Sect and the Gray-Clad Gang had a dirty deal in the past. The Gray-Clad Gang was responsible for kidnapping girls in the city, while the Cangshi Sect exchanged a steady stream of money and martial arts skills for them, and also funded their growth.

Xiong Ping didn't know what the Cangshi Sect wanted so many girls for, but he didn't care, as long as he could get real gold and silver and martial arts manuals. What their purpose was was completely irrelevant.

When someone arrived from Cangshi Gate, Xiong Ping dared not delay and immediately got up to go out and make contact.

Inside the room, Du Yuan chatted for a while with the subordinate who had come to report earlier. Afterward, he immediately set off, taking two trusted confidants, both masked, intending to secretly probe the two suspicious targets.

Du Yuan had a brief encounter with the mysterious killer that night. As soon as the two targets made a move, he could immediately tell who the killer was.

After giving a few instructions, Du Yuan led his men and quickly left the Gray-Clad Gang headquarters.

……

……

Fenghepu, Baishui Street, new home.

In the courtyard, Jiang Ming looked at the last two bowls of strong red medicine soup in front of him, gulped them down in one go.

For the past few months, he has been training day and night, so much so that he doesn't even have time to go out at night to beat people up and vent his emotions. Finally, some time ago, he broke through to the realm of perfect strength, mastering the power of a punch as heavy as a hammer.

However, Jiang Ming did not stop. He immediately used his savings to buy half a red herb from the Wen family, brewed it into a medicinal soup, and began to focus all his energy on developing his soft strength!

With the help of the red medicine, Jiang Ming's accumulated power grew stronger and stronger, and his blood and qi became more and more vigorous, giving him a feeling that he was about to burst forth.

Finally, today he felt a strange movement within his body.

Since morning, his Qi and blood had been fluctuating restlessly, slowly rising step by step. Jiang Ming decisively took out the last two bowls of red medicine and drank them down. At that moment, the Qi and blood in his body surged dramatically.

"call!"

"call!"

In the center of the courtyard.

Jiang Ming was shirtless, sweat dripping down his back, his strong, bronze muscles bulging and contracting, giving him a powerful and elastic look. He continuously unleashed his Red Sand Palm strikes at a high frequency, his arms moving like the wind.

As the effects of the red medicine continued, Jiang Ming felt a warm sensation inside his body, as if a heater was continuously baking his internal organs.

He then unleashed another palm strike forward. He then stood firmly with one foot in front of the other, his back slightly arched, his knees bent, and his hands clasped in front of his chest.

This formed a stable training frame.

Jiang Ming remained motionless for ten minutes.

In those ten minutes, his blood and energy seemed to have reached a peak, and then touched an invisible barrier.

The two forces collided with a deafening roar, their opposing forces canceling each other out.

"Click!"

The next second, the bottleneck of the greatly weakened soft force was once again violently impacted by Jiang Ming's powerful blood and qi, and shattered with a crack.

Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain all over his body. His internal blood and qi surged as if being burned in a furnace, and a surging heat flowed wildly beneath his skin, bringing waves of pain.

Jiang Ming's arms rapidly swelled and became engorged with blood, instantly becoming several sizes larger than before. At the same time, his physique also seemed to grow stronger, noticeably larger. Throughout his body, muscles and tendons writhed and undulated.

"Buzz!"

Jiang Ming felt as if his brain had been struck by a hammer. The thick white leather gloves on his fists turned brown, with a stone-like luster, as if his palms were covered with a layer of hard rock.

Within his palm, a supple and sustained force gradually gathered, forming a stark contrast to the sharp and swift power of the previous technique.

"It's done!"

He suddenly opened his eyes, moved his body, and a series of crisp cracking sounds came from his bones, like popping beans.

Jiang Ming slowly raised his right hand, his large brown palm suddenly clenched into a fist, and with a bang, a gust of wind quickly escaped from between his fingers.

"Such powerful strength! It's at least several times stronger than when I reached the peak of my strength! And that's without me using any soft power."

He muttered to himself, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.

"Oh right, and also bone-penetrating force."

Jiang Ming flipped his right hand and immediately felt an invisible force continuously gathering in his palm, forming a strange penetrating power. This power seemed capable of easily piercing through leather armor and injuring the enemy.

"With the combination of soft power and penetrating force, my current strength is far beyond what ordinary soft power can match!"

Overjoyed, he quickly tested the food for a while. Afterward, Jiang Ming changed into clean clothes and planned to go out to buy some of his favorite braised meat to celebrate this special day.

"Click."

As soon as he pushed open his courtyard gate, he bumped into three men in tight-fitting clothes standing straight at the door. The four of them looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Du Yuan, the vice leader of the Gray-Clad Gang?"

Jiang Ming glanced at them and instantly recognized the leader, even though they were masked.

A fierce glint suddenly flashed in Jiang Ming's eyes. His first thought was that he had been completely exposed and the Gray-Clad Gang had confirmed his identity.

"They must have discovered my identity. I might as well just kill them!"

Jiang Ming's thoughts flashed like lightning. He didn't give the other party a chance to speak at all. His newly broken-through, powerful, yet gentle, energy burst forth, carrying a strange, penetrating force, transforming into a lightning-fast palm strike!

"It's you!?"

Du Yuan was startled and immediately realized that the culprit was Jiang Ming. He suddenly unleashed his power, raising both arms to try and block the extremely fast palm strike.

"Snap!!!"

At the moment of impact, Du Yuan's forearm broke, and the bone made a painful cracking sound.

White bone fragments scattered, and blood splattered. He felt as if he had been hit by a boulder, and he was completely unable to stop it.

He flew out as if riding on clouds, tracing a parabola.

Doorway.

Jiang Ming took a leap to catch up, and another punch landed like a heavy hammer, cracking with a loud crack.

Du Yuan's neck was broken, his spine was fractured, and his skin was torn open in several fine cuts, revealing the bright red muscles underneath.

He fell heavily to the ground and died instantly.