“It seems you really weren’t well-liked when you were a kid…” Qing’er glanced at Jiang Tian teasingly.
“As long as you like me, that’s enough. Being famous across the world with all the powerful bowing down is nothing compared to a smile from my beloved wife!” Jiang Tian transmitted his voice through divine sense.
“You’re so full of yourself…” Qing’er rolled her eyes at Jiang Tian, but her eyes were full of tender affection.
After a long while, Cheng Ming sighed faintly and said, “Let’s sleep. Once it’s light, we’ll leave Jinling and head south. See if we can smuggle ourselves into Southeast Asia… Once we’re abroad, we’ll be safe… Take the blanket and cover yourself. It’s freezing cold…”
No one knew what Cheng Ming muttered under his breath, but then he started yelling again: “I told you to cover yourself, so cover yourself! I’m not afraid of the cold. You dumb hillbilly, if you keep yapping I’ll beat you like a woman!”
They waited for over an hour.
Suddenly, two SUVs with northeastern license plates came speeding over, without their lights on, driving by the white light reflected off the accumulated snow.
The cars stopped. The doors opened, then closed silently.
Eight short and stocky men got out, surrounding a man dressed as a samurai in a kimono and wooden clogs, quietly approaching the cave.
The eight big men all wore stand-collar black suits and black trousers, with fierce buzz cuts, murderous looks in their eyes, and intimidating auras. Most had knife scars on their faces—clearly not good people.
Click! Shhh!
The sounds of bullets being chambered and katana being drawn rang out softly. Under the reflection of the white snow, cold gleams flickered everywhere.
“Cheng Yi, get up!”
Suddenly, Cheng Ming kicked his son to his feet, pulled out a machete, and dragged him toward the entrance.
“Cheng-san, we meet again!”
The lead samurai had a shoehorn-shaped face, a toothbrush mustache, and held his scabbard with an incomparably cold gaze.
“Chiba Shoichi!”
The moment Cheng Ming saw who it was, his heart lurched. His face turned deathly pale, and he instinctively pulled his son back a step.
Chiba Shoichi was a kendo master of the Hokushin Itto-ryu style, ranked in the top thirty in Japan.
Japanese kendo, based on cultivation level, is divided into Grand Master, Master, Sword Master, and Swordsman, corresponding respectively to the Divine Realm, Transformation Realm, Inner Energy, and Iron Body cultivation in Chinese martial arts.
Chiba Shoichi was a Hokushin Itto-ryu kendo master, his strength equivalent to a Transformation Realm expert. He could stand on equal footing with Chinese martial arts grandmasters like Hong Tianzhao and Mo Haoxiong. His strength was formidable.
Chiba Shoichi held dual identities: chairman of the Yamaguchi-gumi’s Inagawa-kai and a member of the Sakura Society. The Inagawa-kai had tens of thousands of desperate men under its banner, controlled hundreds of clubs, entertainment venues, and bathhouses, with assets worth hundreds of billions of yen—equivalent to tens of billions in Chinese currency.
He held a very high status in Japan and had even been elected as a member of the Diet. He could sit as equals with the mayor of Osaka, drinking and laughing together.
“Cheng-san, hand over the real gems!”
Chiba Shoichi stood straight as a javelin, his edge fully exposed, and snarled, “Otherwise, I’ll have no choice but to kill you!”
“I’ve already given you all five gems!”
Cheng Ming said angrily, “What more do you want? Must you hunt us to extinction?”
“Those were fakes, you cunning Chinese monkeys! You deserve death!” Chiba Shoichi said furiously.
“Dad, why waste words on them? Kill them! Avenge Mom!” Cheng Yi’s eyes were red as he charged forward.
Chiba Shoichi was the very man who had raped and murdered his mother. At this moment, Cheng Yi wanted nothing more than to hack him into ten thousand pieces, to grind his bones to dust and scatter his ashes.
“Cheng Yi, don’t speak!”
Cheng Ming roared, then tears nearly came to his eyes as he pleaded pitifully, “Master Chiba, I really did hand them all over. If you don’t believe me, you can search our luggage!”
How could he not want revenge? But he understood the vast gap in strength—he was simply no match for the other man.
“Hmph, such treasures—would you really carry them on you? What if you hid them somewhere else?”
“You refuse to hand them over? I see you Chinese are just pigs—you forget the pain once the beating stops. I’ll cut off your son’s limbs and turn him into a human stick! He’ll beg for death but won’t find it!”
Chiba Shoichi’s eyes were full of killing intent as he slowly drew his long sword. With one slash like a bolt of silk, he cut toward Cheng Yi.
That slash came out like a howling gale, with sonic booms ringing again and again. The blade light reflected off the white snow, a stretch of cold gleam, as if the whole world had lost its color.
It could be said that the destructive power of this one slash was absolutely no less than that of a martial arts grandmaster. The Cheng father and son simply could not defend against it.
“Cheng Yi, run!”
At the critical moment, Cheng Ming flashed forward, knocking his son more than three meters away. He raised his machete in front of him, trying to take that slash head-on.
That sharp blade qi instantly cut through the machete in his hand and was about to slice into his face.
In that instant, images flashed through Cheng Ming’s mind like a lantern show—his parents’ gratified smiles when he stepped into Iron Body, his beloved wife’s charming and shy smile on their wedding night, the congratulations from his martial brothers when his son was born, himself jumping and hopping with joy like a child…
“Son, your dad is going to die here today. You must live on well…”
Cheng Ming’s heart was full of sorrow and despair.
But just then—bang!—a white light flashed, and that heavy, substance-like blade qi instantly scattered.
“What? I actually blocked that slash?” Cheng Ming stepped back, his face full of disbelief.
“Hm? What kind of hidden weapon is that? Such powerful force!”
Chiba Shoichi, however, could tell that someone had fired a hidden weapon to shatter the blade qi. He quickly scanned the surroundings but couldn’t see any hidden weapon.
He suddenly realized—it was a snowball!
The other party had actually used a soft clump of snow to break his blade qi!
“Who’s there! Come out!”
In that instant, Chiba Shoichi’s heart clenched in shock. He scanned the surroundings warily and shouted, fully on guard.
“You little Japanese devil, you dare cause trouble in Jinling? Do you have a death wish?”
A cold, stern voice came. Everyone saw two figures slowly walking out from the dense forest.
“Who are you? Don’t stick your nose where it doesn’t belong!”
Chiba Shoichi carefully sized up Jiang Tian, fully on guard, and shouted with a frown.
“Oh, my name is Jiang Tian. I’m Cheng Yi’s classmate. My dad is a deputy department-level official, and my mom is the chairwoman of a listed company! All the syndicates in Jinling are under my command!”
Jiang Tian said slowly.
“Heh heh, so you’re just a rich second-generation brat. Chinese rich kids really are as brain-dead as they say on the internet! You scared me to death!”
One of the Yamaguchi-gumi members behind him doubled over laughing.
“Idiot!”
Cheng Ming sneered inwardly. He thought: I told you to leave and you didn’t. You’re courting death—don’t blame us.
With your status, you can throw your weight around in the mundane world, but this man is a kendo master and a Yamaguchi-gumi member. What kind of person wouldn’t he dare kill? When has he ever cared about a deputy department-level official—let alone just his son?
“This is… really…”
Chiba Shoichi was also speechless.
This young man was calm and composed, with great presence. He’d thought he might be someone important, but upon closer inspection, he found no trace of the unique aura that Chinese martial artists possessed.
So he was just a mundane person, a rich second-generation brat. That slash earlier must have been blocked by Cheng Ming, not this young man.
“Forget it, forget it. For your father’s sake, I’ll let you go. Get lost!”
Chiba Shoichi waved his hand helplessly, as if shooing away a fly.
After all, he was the son of an official. If he killed him, the Chinese authorities would likely pay serious attention, which would be very detrimental to the Yamaguchi-gumi’s future operations in China.
“Let me go? What’s so funny? Hand over the gems now, or I’ll kill you!”
Jiang Tian said coldly.
At this, Chiba Shoichi’s anger flared. Give him face and he won’t take it—fine, just kill him clean.
“Shoot! Kill him for me!” Chiba Shoichi gnashed his teeth and waved his hand ruthlessly.
Several Yamaguchi-gumi members immediately raised their pistols, about to fire.
But how could Qing’er give them the chance to shoot?
“Scram!”
Qing’er gave a low shout, raised her right hand, and waved it like swatting a fly—seemingly slow but actually fast.
Boom!
A force of overwhelming power shot out in all directions like a rocket. This vast force, like an immortal carving land into rivers, pushed out snow, solid ice, and millstone-sized rocks, sending them flying in all directions.
This force plowed a gash about three meters wide into the ground, extending more than ten meters.
In the face of this terrifying bulldozer-like power, the eight Yamaguchi-gumi strongmen directly turned into meat paste, completely vanishing on the spot, not a trace left behind. Even the katana and pistols in their hands were twisted into bizarre scrap metal.
Qing’er couldn’t stand anyone attacking Jiang Tian. This sleeve strike held nothing back, fully displaying the power of her Stainless Phoenix Maiden immortal body.
“Not good!”
The instant Qing’er made her move, warning bells rang wildly in Chiba Shoichi’s heart. He slashed ten times in a row, forming a blade-light blockade, trying to block that terrifying power.
Crack!
Bang!
But the blade light shattered like paper, and the man flew out more than ten meters like a straw dummy.
He landed staggering, his kimono torn to shreds, his wooden clogs gone, his whole body covered in cuts and dripping with blood.
The entire scene fell deathly silent.
The Cheng father and son were petrified with shock, staring at Qing’er in disbelief, as if they’d seen a ghost in broad daylight.
The scene before them was a total mess, as if a bulldozer had plowed through, heavy artillery had bombarded it, a typhoon had swept past.
Such a delicate young girl, with the power of a single sleeve, could actually possess such terrifying strength?
“Amazing! Madame Jiang’s strength, her strength—it’s probably peak Transformation Realm, right?” Cheng Ming swallowed hard, his gaze dull.
“I don’t know either. I’m not amazing—my husband taught me!”
Qing’er blushed shyly, seeming a little embarrassed.
“Taught by Mr. Jiang? Then Mr. Jiang…”
Cheng Ming looked at Jiang Tian in disbelief, feeling his brain wasn’t enough, that it had crashed.
Qing’er was already this powerful, and yet her cultivation was taught by Jiang Tian. Then how strong must Jiang Tian be? He simply couldn’t imagine Jiang Tian’s strength.
Cheng Yi also stood with his mouth wide open, unable to close it for a long time, a trace of envy in his heart.
Damn, Qing’er is this powerful and this virtuous. Jiang Tian really is lucky.
“You’re martial arts grandmasters!”
Chiba Shoichi looked at Jiang Tian in utter horror, seeming to understand something. He suddenly cried out, “Surname Jiang? The Medicine King Group is your family’s, isn’t it? You’re Jiang Taichu, the number one expert below the Divine Realm in China!”
“At least you know your stuff!” Jiang Tian didn’t deny it.
“You dare kill me? I’m the chairman of the Yamaguchi-gumi’s Inagawa-kai and a member of the Sakura Society. I have over ten thousand men under me…”
Hearing this, Chiba Shoichi felt a chill all over. He threatened fiercely but cowardly.
He hadn’t yet decided whether to uphold the spirit of bushido and fight to the death, or to turn and run.
“You still dare threaten? Courting death!”
Qing’er had already shouted delicately, raising her hand and flicking her finger. The finger light struck the air.
“Sakura Society? Hmph, so amazing? However many come, we’ll kill them all!”
