The heat surged, dust filled the air, and inside the teahouse, tiles and dust cascaded down. The chaotic shouts from the street seemed to come from a distant place.

The figure with a knife and shield charged forward through the gray haze.

Lingering smoke continued to dissipate, and most people in the teahouse still had ringing in their ears. Near the inner wall of the teahouse, the swirling dust became violently turbulent.

In an instant, the waving long blade drew a clear outline in the air, scattering and splashing blood. The clash of blades and shields stirred up a cloud of floating dust. The collision between the assassin and "White Asura" He Qinzhao caused an entire cloud of dust to explode. Xiang Dasong, "Dragon Saber," wielded his steel blade wildly, the path of his blade seemingly "embedded" in the air by the smoke and dust. His "Dragon Saber" clashed heavily with the opponent's shield twice. He roared loudly, shaking the entire space, before breaking into a cough amidst his shouts.

The assassin's steel blade whistled back, a heavy blow slicing through the dust, "噗," and landing on Xiang Dasong's calf.

A horrifying spray of blood erupted.

Xiang Dasong was called "Dragon Saber" not only because of his tall, burly stature but also because his saber technique was fierce and imposing, like that of a demon god. When he charged with his blade, he towered almost half a body above the approaching assassin. His roar was also incredibly intimidating. However, the assassin was equally ferocious. With this single strike, Xiang Dasong's thick calf was severed, bone and all, with one blow.

Human muscles and bones may seem fragile compared to a blade, but they actually possess considerable resistance to impact. Like a pig's knuckle on a butcher's block, even with a heavy cleaver, it's no easy feat to sever the leg bone with a single strike. But the assassin's long blade was heavy, swift and precise. A moment before, he was still attacking "White Asura" He Qinzhao. Hearing the cough, he struck with the blade. Xiang Dasong, like a huge charging bull, crashed to the ground in pain under this blow, dust exploding around him.

A guard rushed forward. The assassin swung his long blade backhand, a white line flashed upwards in the air. The guard's chest seemed to be caught in a wave of death. After a chilling sound of bone being cleaved, he crashed against the staircase railing and tumbled down to the first floor with a loud crash.

"Aaaaah—"

Even after falling to the ground, Xiang Dasong remained valiant. With his right leg broken, he pushed off the ground with his left leg, lunging forward and reaching for the assassin's legs.

The assassin wielded a blade and a shield, his steps forming a circle. At that moment, he kicked Xiang Dasong, who was lunging in the air, squarely in the face, propelling himself forward.

Xiang Dasong slammed into an iron wall, his body momentarily suspended in the air before crashing down again.

Ahead, Yu Ci, the old man known as "Fifteen Strings," had just struggled to his feet from the dust. Seeing the assassin roll on the ground and pounce, he, a veteran of the pugilistic world, flicked his hand, and with a cry of "Ah!", hurled his iron spinning top with all his might. This was an extremely demanding weapon, relying on internal power. The spinning top would smash into the head, while the triangular dart would target weaknesses, and a strong metal wire in between, once it ensnared someone's neck, could be pulled tight to kill them in an instant. The spinning top, with its wire, suddenly drew a half-circle in the air, about to ensnare the assassin. The assassin held his shield forward, raised his blade behind, and lunged forward.

Amid the dust, the old man gave it his all, fighting with the assassin. The two figures charged into the nearby tables and chairs amidst the dust. The metal wire with the spinning top crashed against the floorboards. The old man tugged on the wire, wrestling with the assassin, and with a cry of "Ah!", sent the triangular dart towards the opponent's face. Further away, Xu Batian, "Bull Demon," charged up, swinging his giant axe. Amid the rising dust, he saw the assassin suddenly push old man Yu Ci toward him.

"Bull Demon" 's giant axe smashed into the ground. Yu Ci's back collided with his side. Amidst the cloud of dust, the old man reached out, desperately hugging the steel blade in front of him. The steel blade pierced his stomach, and the shield pressed against his face. The old man said, "Don't..."

The next moment, the steel blade twisted and dragged out.

On the battlefield, after a steel blade enters the abdomen, it twists.

"Bull Demon" Xu Batian roared, waving his giant axe. The assassin stepped sideways. "Fifteen Strings" Yu Ci tried to cover his stomach, but he didn't have fingers on one hand, his body swayed in the dust...

...

Shi Weiyang staggered, coughing as he walked.

In the time since he got up, he was still somewhat muddled. He couldn't hear clearly, and his sense of direction was vague. He seemed to hear shouts and fighting not far away, but for a moment he couldn't tell who was who. But as he walked towards the wall and then returned, the sounds and movements of the fight eventually grew louder and louder.

Amid the swirling dust, someone shouted, someone let out a desperate plea, but the most common sound was a series of gradually intensifying coughs.

Something was suddenly flung over, sticking to the side of his face, which was burning with pain. Shi Weiyang looked forward, focusing his eyes. He saw Yu Ci, the master who had previously maintained a high moral standing, slowly shaking his head. Half of his body was covered in blood, and what had just flown over was his internal organs.

"Bull Demon" 's axe whistled through the air.

The face in the air twisted in a shout, but the next moment, there was a violent collision in the dust. Xu Batian was sent flying, man and axe together, by the ferocious figure.

A guard covered in blood rushed forward next to him, but was blocked by a blade in his scream, and then struck again.

The figure with a knife and shield, wearing a mask, looked over towards this side. He was covered in dust, but even more so in blood. The eyes behind the mask were cold and devouring, and had already seen him.

Another guard rushed forward, only to be cut down in the moment of his cough...

From the sudden flight of the bamboo pole in the teahouse, to the explosion after the landing, and then to the ensuing slaughter, only a moment had passed. This assassin had already fought his way over, single-handedly, through a chaotic scene. This was the most critical moment Shi Weiyang had experienced in his life so far. His hands, body, and even face still ached, but the sense of crisis and fear in his heart was surging wildly. With a "wa—" sound, he pushed aside an overturned table and ran back again. Guards rushed towards the assassin!

For a long time, although most of the underworld figures in the world were a disorganized rabble, difficult to strictly discipline, most of those who could gain a foothold in the pugilistic world, or even make a name for themselves, were desperate men who licked blood from their blades. Especially in the vast Fair Party, those who could be taken in as guest-retainers by Shi Baofeng, and those who were arranged by Jin Yongsheng to be here now, whether they were famous heroes in the pugilistic world, or the numerous guards who followed Shi Weiyang, all had amazing skills in the past. They all belonged to tough guys who had blood on their hands and never hesitated to kill.

Therefore, even though they had been disrupted by the sudden explosion, seeing that the assassin who had broken into the teahouse was just one person, those who could still stand up amid the dizziness still rushed forward valiantly. "Dragon Saber" was still roaring in the smoke and dust even with his calf broken. "White Asura" He Qinzhao, although covered in blood after being stabbed, still tried to kill forward as he staggered to his feet. "Fifteen Strings" Yu Ci, although he was making awkward moves before being stabbed, the flying of the spinning top and the entanglement of the wire still stirred up an extremely fierce killing intent.

An ordinary underworld expert, even if they had taken the initiative of the explosion, would probably have difficulty walking ten steps in the teahouse when caught in such a chaotic situation.

However, what they were facing at this moment was originally the most "unusual" martial artist in the world.

After coming down from the battlefield in the southwest against the Jin people, Ning Ji's temperament had undergone the most solid tempering. In the year that followed in Zhang Village, he underwent various training exercises far beyond the needs of general special operations. Such as a large number of pursuits and escapes in extreme environments. Dozens, even dozens of veterans who came down from the anti-Jin battlefield would swarm over, and would not stop until Ning Ji was beaten black and blue. In the martial arts training of most people, this kind of high-intensity "brushing human stakes" training, even the direct descendants of many wealthy families, would find it difficult to enjoy.

In the end, it was still because Ning Yi felt that this son's personality was too wild. In the future, he would inevitably have some unusual experiences under the drive of this temperament. Before going to the battlefield, he still hoped to enlighten or dissuade him, but after going to the battlefield, he could only increase his survival rate in future events in this way.

In such extreme fighting training, in addition to various escape skills, there were naturally various painstakingly devised extreme combat subjects. This was a direction that had been constantly deepened since Zhou Tong passed down the small team combat tactics more than ten years ago. After the technology of gunpowder, guns, landmines and other technologies became more mature, the use of these items in cooperation with martial arts for efficient killing was the top priority of the Chinese army's special operations.

From the southwest all the way here, even when he experienced the dark events of the Kunshan Li family, Ning Ji's heart had not been stirred up with excessively strong anger.

Although he was still young and his personality was relatively simple, he was at the core of the political circle in the southwest. Just like his brother would talk about "urban planning and governance is a big problem," the father and friends around him always had relatively broad perspectives and statements when talking about the outside world. Therefore, the farce in Kunshan was infuriating, but it did not exceed his expectations.

And under the consistent inspiration of everyone in the southwest, he would also clearly recognize that this kind of tragedy needed people like Lu Wenke, who had "great potential," to gradually awaken and resist before it could be eradicated from the earth.

All the way to Jiangning, his mood had actually been relatively relaxed for a long time. The several rounds of fighting with Little Baldy in the city were full of loopholes, which ultimately was because he had not spent too much of his energy. He came to his parents' former hometown with the warm memories passed down by his mother, and saw many ridiculous farces. Even if someone splashed dirty water such as "Five-Foot Y Demon" on him, that was just a harmless little episode in a martial arts story.

Overall, it was still very interesting.

The collapsed Su family mansion seemed to still retain traces of the past in the ruins. Xue Jin, who was lame and stuttering under the bridge, made people feel the twists and turns of fate.

Those two people were like dust on the ruins of the past, living tragically and silently under the bridge. Ning Ji did not cast too much attention on the two of them. He occasionally walked past the bridge and threw some food at them. Xue Jin kowtowed under the bridge. When he was running around in the city, Xue Jin was talking about the story of more than ten years ago next to the Su family's courtyard, begging pitifully.

When the city was chaotic or the autumn rain was drizzling, Xue Jin was shivering under the bridge, holding his weak wife.

The bridge was humid and smelly, like a corner far away from the sight of ordinary people. In the gaps between running in the city, Ning Ji would occasionally think that maybe one day he would come over and the two people in poor condition would die silently... He had such a prediction, and he himself, as a military doctor in the Chinese army, had seen many lives leave...

However, after witnessing the tragic changes under the bridge and hearing about the ins and outs of the matter, a huge anger suddenly surged up...

If Jiangning City was already a ruin, the two people under the bridge were just a speck of dust in this ruin. This dust was engraved with the information of the past, lying there quietly. But at this moment, this dust was about to be swept away casually.

The existence named Shi Weiyang proudly displayed his power, turning people into ruins again.

September 9th, Double Ninth Festival.

The young man named Ning Ji, after coming out of the southwest, fully unleashed his killing intent on this teahouse for the first time.

The gunpowder that could be found in Jiangning City was not as easy to use as that in the southwest.

However, with the explosion of the gunpowder, the lime powder specially formulated by Ning Ji scattered wantonly, covering everything around it. The air was filled with pungent dust.

After the explosion, a group of fierce men in the teahouse struggled to get up from the ground, fully launching a counterattack. Most of them were truly desperate men, fighting fiercely in the pugilistic world, unafraid of death.

However, in the huge explosion, they had already inhaled the diffused powder into their lungs.

The full-strength fight soon arrived, fierce and rapid. The reactions of the pugilistic heroes were not slow. When they were in a narrow encounter, the momentum they erupted was also heart-stirring, but the more fiercely they erupted, the more severe the flaws caused by the dust inhaled into their lungs became.

For each master, it might have been a short moment of obstruction.

For Ning Ji, who covered his mouth and nose, it was a killing scene that had been rehearsed countless times.

His pace advanced, the steel blade flew. With each swing of the blade, bones, muscles, entrails... pieces of blood exploded in this violent invasion stirred up by smoke and dust. The fierce eyes that once belonged only to the southwestern battlefield, the massacre scenes originally targeting Jurchen masters as imaginary enemies, turned into a bloody path spreading across the teahouse!

The killing came close in an instant. The closer Shi Weiyang got, the clearer he could see how tragic the killing was. One after another, desperadoes who were usually fierce were hacked or smashed open by the assassin, with blood and injuries. Sticky things splashed in the air. At this moment, he had also found the direction of the teahouse facing the street, but this section facing the street was a closed wall, not an open terrace. The assassin who was rushing to kill was even closer to the direction of the terrace.

If he wanted to jump out of the teahouse directly from the window, he would have to charge towards the assassin covered in blood.

"Bull Demon" Xu Batian waved his axe in the mist, smashing tables and chairs into flying fragments, but his figure was separated from the assassin in the distance.

"Save... me..."

Shi Weiyang shouted hysterically, then suddenly exerted force and crashed into the wooden wall facing the street.

The wall was very solid. Shi Weiyang crashed into it and fell onto the floor.

"Young Master, run!"

Someone came forward.

In the swirling dust, a figure rushed in from outside the terrace on the second floor. This was an expert originally arranged on the street. At this moment, regardless of his safety, he rushed up, shouting, "Second Young Master—"

Before he had completely stood firm after flipping in, the assassin's shield smashed towards his face! The man sank his iron elbow, smashing the shield. The assassin kicked his lower abdomen with all his strength under the shield. A muffled sound could be heard in the air. The man broke through the railing behind him and flew back out of the dust.

"Save... me..."

Shi Weiyang got up and shouted with all his strength—

...

Not long after the explosion in the teahouse, a sudden, inexplicable fight broke out at the corner of the staircase on the first floor below.

At that time, a group of guards occupied the hall, closing the surrounding doors and windows, making the scene inside the hall already dim. With the sudden explosion upstairs, the light inside the first floor immediately dimmed a bit, and countless dust fell down. After a moment, someone rolled down the stairs, and smoke sank down.

The guards who reacted first wanted to rush upstairs, but a bag of lime powder exploded, and a short figure crossed paths with him in the dim light. The guard swayed and fell on the stairs.

The people rushing from behind were also suddenly hit by darts. The short figure rushed down the stairs, disappearing into the dim light, followed by several people being injured in the legs in the chaos.

On the street outside the teahouse, the experts originally arranged there were also in a short period of chaos. The huge explosion caused the smoke to dissipate. Whether there was fire or poisonous gas in the smoke was frightening. But in a moment, hearing the huge commotion coming from upstairs, the pugilistic heroes who were eating Shi's salary still mustered up their courage and decided to rush to the second floor.

A guard

who wanted to show off was the first to climb up from the side. After he went up, there was no movement. No one knew that after he went up, a girl hiding quietly by the window sealed his throat with a short sword.

The second person to rush up was "Iron Elbow" Xu An. At the moment he flipped onto the platform after running, the hysterical cries for help from Shi Weiyang also came out in the smoke and dust, so he also shouted "Second Young Master".

In less than a breath, people on the street saw Xu An flying out like a cannonball, smashing heavily on the ground.

"Save me—"

Shi Weiyang's cries for help burst out sharply, even sounding a bit moving in the huge chaos.

The several experts downstairs looked at each other, gritted their teeth, and were about to risk rushing up again. At this moment, they only heard a loud rumble in the teahouse, and more smoke and dust spurted out in all directions. After a moment, someone reacted, it seemed that half of the floor on the northern end of the teahouse had collapsed, and the area where the Second Young Master had just cried for help was in this area.

...

No one knows how many people were hit by the collapse of the floor.

The surroundings were full of shouts, chaos, and darkness...

Shi Weiyang moved his body with difficulty like a fish. He didn't even know how he got up. The surroundings were a mess, there seemed to be figures, and there seemed to be none...

Someone was waving away the smoke and dust in the distance, shouting weakly, "Second Young Master! Second Young Master—" It seemed to be "One-Word Lightning Sword" Jiang Bing.

Just now, there was a chaotic killing on the floor upstairs. "Bull Demon" Xu Batian waved his axe and smashed wildly, the assassin getting closer and closer. "One-Word Lightning Sword" dragged a guard over to protect him. The guard was cut and splattered with blood in front of Shi Weiyang's eyes, and Jiang Bing took the opportunity to drag him away to a distance.

At this moment, the floor collapsed suddenly, and a large group of people, corpses, tables, chairs, and benches smashed onto the first floor...

Shi Weiyang swayed and wanted to speak. Something hit him behind him, followed by what seemed to be a violent commotion.

He glanced back.

——He shouldn't have looked back.

The masked demon, holding a long blade, was cutting down a guard who had rushed over. He reached out and grabbed towards Shi Weiyang.

"Hey, Shit Baby!"

Shi Weiyang suddenly had a jolt, goosebumps rising from the soles of his feet to the ends of his hair almost in an instant. His body retreated with all his strength at that moment, but the man had already grabbed his collar, pulling him forward.

"Waaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh—"

Shi Weiyang, who was already ashen and bloodstained all over, shouted out at this moment. He struggled desperately, kicked forward with his feet, not knowing if he had kicked anything, waved his hands, trying hard to distance himself from the assassin. With a "bang," he took a blow to the face, but his body continued to struggle, like a shrimp twitching on the edge of life and death.

Amid the dust and ruins, it was still a violent killing field. The Shi family guards and guest retainers who had reacted were already coming over, some wielding knives and guns to fight with the assassin. The assassin dragged Shi Weiyang, who shouted and struggled like a madman. Amid the scattered dust, "One-Word Lightning Sword" Jiang Bing had also rushed over. He hugged Shi Weiyang and dragged him back. Shi Weiyang ran away with all his strength in the chaos. He had already distanced himself from the assassin, but his right hand was still grabbed by the other party.

In the great chaos, he didn't know what the assassin was shouting. Shi Weiyang couldn't hear it. His body and arms shook wildly, shouting "Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh—" non-stop.

At some point, the pulling force suddenly disappeared in the air. Shi Weiyang was dragged by Jiang Bing, staggering forward. In the dim vision, he saw the steel blade in the assassin's hand waving into a circle in the roar, cutting open a long spear that was thrust at him, and his arm suddenly felt lighter, as if it had been lost in that blade light.

The September sun shone on the dusty afternoon street.

Not long after the floor of the teahouse collapsed, a figure ran out of the door of the teahouse on the first floor in the chaotic fighting. It was "One-Word Lightning Sword" Jiang Bing, half-covered in blood and not knowing how many knives he had taken, supporting Shi Weiyang, who was also half-red with blood, running out with all his strength from the rolling smoke and dust.

Shi Weiyang's right arm was cut off at the elbow.

"Save... people—"

At this moment, Jiang Bing's voice was hoarse, shouting frantically. The people on the street outside greeted him, and then they heard him shout: "Stop! Him!"

A long spear whistled out from the smoke and dust, piercing a guard who rushed to rescue him in the long street with a "brush" sound. The figure holding a long blade rushed out of the smoke and dust like a tiger, slashing towards Jiang Bing and Shi Weiyang's backs with all his strength—