"This is the place, huh?"
The address that was sent to my smartphone turned out to be that of an abandoned warehouse at the edge of the city. It wasn't too far, which made sense, considering that the gangsters wouldn't operate too far away from the school or their neighborhood. But it still took me quite some time to get there.
Closing my eyes, I reached out with my senses. After having practiced Heavenly Flow and Earthly Paths for a while now, my senses had sharpened to the point where I could detect the presences of people even behind walls and inside houses. It wasn't exactly like x-ray vision, but more of…I didn't know how to explain it. A qi detector? Something more abstract and intangible that didn't rely on sight, hearing, taste, smell or touch.
It was literally a sixth sense.
"There's about thirty people waiting inside. Not including Pang Zi."
Shaking my head, I covered my face with my palm and sighed heavily. This was not good. Thirty or so people meant that this wasn't just Qi Fu Ren and his usual gang. They had gotten outside help. Probably the real gangsters they associated with, if the rumors were true.
"Hah…"
I sighed wearily. This was going to be a huge problem. One against thirty…
At least Pang Zi was still alive. I could sense his presence, and he was currently tied up and left in a corner while the gang members sat around smoking, playing cards or lazing around.
The good news was that none of the gangsters were cultivators. While all living things, including humans, emanated qi, the spiritual energy emitted by cultivators appeared to be different. Not only that, it could also be measured in terms of quantity. A cultivator would radiate an amount of qi that was several dozen times, if not several hundred times, larger than a normal person's.
From that alone, I could tell that all of the gangsters were normal people. None of them had cultivated any martial arts or mystical methods.
That didn't mean I could afford to underestimate them, however. Even if I had trained and adhered to the stances and exercises that Kai Li Si had taught me, other than that time when I fought against Ba Bai while receiving assistance from my mentor, I still lacked practical combat experience. Yeah, I had been in a few scraps before, but I was always on the losing end. None of which would be useful to me when fighting.
If I were to walk in right now, I didn't know if I could win. If it was just ten of them, I should be able to smash their faces in with Soul Crushing Strike, but I wasn't sure if I had enough stamina to fight thirty. Not to mention, I would have to hold back my strength unless I wanted to become a murderer.
"Well, I won't know until I try."
There was no option other than to do it. Besides, I had spent four weeks practicing and learning Heavenly Flow and Earthly Paths, as well as cultivated spiritual qi and enhanced my physique to incredible levels. I should have more confidence in myself.
Taking a deep breath, I kicked the door open and strode in. As I did so, I shut the door, slid the latch and locked it.
"Ho? You were kind enough to even close the door for us?"
Immediately, the thirty gang members were up on their feet, moving toward me. They were carrying the usual weapons, from metal bats to bent pipes. Some even had chains, while others preferred blades and machetes.
I recognized Qi Fu Ren and his usual lackeys among them, but the other half comprised of older men, some of them in their twenties. Their figures rippled with thick muscles, and black dragons, serpents, tigers and other sorts of ferocious beasts were tattooed across their biceps, chests or patches of skin that were visible. Some were wearing sunglasses despite the dark interior of the warehouse while others were smoking.
I frowned in disapproval, but didn't say anything. Kai Li Si had told me that smoking clogged up the qi and negatively affected cultivation, but even without that, I didn't like cigarettes because of how bad for one's health they were. He had caught sight of a smoking farmer while we were camping in the forest.
"Ho…looks like the boy really came," one of the gangsters, who was wearing his green and yellow shirt unbuttoned, said with a sneer. Qi Fu Ren bowed his head humbly, and I immediately understood that this guy was the leader. Or at the very least ranked above the delinquent leader.
"Yes, Brother Zhou. Like I said, he's a wannabe hero. He'll never abandon his friends, even if he has to walk right into a trap. He's stupid and can't be saved.'
"But you've got to admit, someone with such guts should be admired."
Qi Fu Ren scowled, but didn't contradict Zhou. Instead, he lowered his head and urged as respectfully as he could. "Nonetheless, he should die for interfering with our business."
Zhou laughed loudly. "Indeed. We have to tie up all loose ends, otherwise how is our Black Serpent Gang going to show our face around here? If the other gangs here that we've been foiled by a little brat playing hero, they'll never let us live us down."
"That's why I suggested that we take care of him, Brother Zhou."
Ignoring their conversation, I glanced past them and toward the far end of the warehouse. Just as my sixth sense informed me, Pang Zi was held at the back. His head was drooping and he was trussed up like a turkey. Even from this distance, I could see that he had been beaten up pretty badly, with a black eye and bruises all over his face. Dried blood covered his uniform, which was torn in several places and revealing ugly bruises.
"Ah, of course you'll be worried about your friend." Qi Fu Ren was chuckling. He walked over and produced a blade in his hand.
"I'm here," I said, my voice shaking. Not just from anger but also fear. "I'm the one you want. Let Pang Zi go."
Qi Fu Ren merely chuckled and shook his head.
"Still naïve, I see. Did you really think I would let him go? Just because you came?"
"Then what do you intend to do? You already beat him up so cruelly. If he doesn't get treatment soon, his life will be in danger."
"Oh, I have a solution for that." Qi Fu Ren grabbed Pang Zi by the hair and yanked his head back. The chubby guy whimpered, a trickle of blood leaking from his mouth.
"Bro Cong…run…" he pleaded hoarsely. "They plan to kill you. Don't worry about me…���
"Aw, so touching." Qi Fu Ren shook his head. And with a single stroke of his knife, he slit Pang Zi's throat.
My poor friend gurgled, but he couldn't clutch at his throat because his hands were bound. Blood spurted from his carotid artery, spraying the ground. Qi Fu Ren stepped to the side to avoid being splattered by blood, chortling.
It wasn't just him. All the gangsters were laughing. Only Pang Zi moaned, his eyes lolling in their sockets, and he slumped down as more of his precious life-blood coursed down his neck.
"You…you killed him."
My mouth dropped open. I couldn't believe it. This had gone way beyond a schoolyard grudge. This wasn't just bullying. It wasn't even kidnapping. It was outright murder. I didn't think they would actually take a victim's life, but it seemed that I had been way too naïve.
"Don't worry." Qi Fu Ren grinned, and at his signal, the gangsters all closed in on me, wielding their weapons. "We'll be sending you to accompany him in hell soon."
I fumbled for my smartphone, intending to call the police. However, I saw that my phone had no reception.
"Why did you think we chose this place?" Qi Fu Ren sneered. "Of course it's because there's no phone signal. It's also far away from the rest of the city. Nobody will be able to hear you scream for help."
"You won't get away with this," I growled, clutching my smartphone so tightly that the frame was actually cracking. "When they find out that you've murdered someone, they won't be able to cover it up."
"Are you stupid?" Qi Fu Ren burst out laughing. "Why do you think we called you all the way here? If we kill the both of you and bury you out here in the wilderness, who's going to know that we are the ones who killed you? They'll probably spend the next few years searching for your bodies…that is, if anyone bothers looking for you. I don't think anyone will miss losers like you two."
The rest of the gang guffawed along with him, including Zhou. They leered at me with manic grins, brandishing their metal pipes and bats before closing in on me.
I sighed, forcing myself to calm down. Qi Fu Ren's words in particular struck me, and a smile slowly crossed my face.
"You're right. Thanks for reminding me. So if I kill all of you here, no one will know, and none of you can call for help."
For a moment, the entire group of gangsters stopped in their tracks and fell silent. They stared at me in disbelief, doubting what they had just heard.
"You're kidding, right?"
"What did he just say? Did I hear him right?"
"Hey, kid, have you gone insane?"
"Can't you see who's in front of you?"
I smirked as I pushed my glasses up my nose and dropped my voice into a whisper. Despite lowering my volume, every single person in the warehouse could hear my words clearly and they visibly shuddered.
"I see dead people."
For a moment, the gangsters and delinquents froze, unable to comprehend. Then…
"Let's not waste time arguing with this fuckwit! Kill him!" The first gangster bellowed in fury and charged at me. He swung his baseball bat at me, but I effortlessly stepped to the side and avoided it entirely.
I could see the attack coming…no, I could sense the attack. Even though he was emanating very minute amounts of qi, I could feel the sparks coming to life, telegraphing his speed, movement and location even before it happened. It was almost as if I possessed prescience, reading his movements and predicting his strike before he could fully execute it.
"What…?!"
I could even anticipate that he would stumble, having been thrown off balance when his strike failed to land. Without hesitation, I smashed a knee into his torso. There was a sharp crack as his sternum snapped and he doubled over, blood spurting from his mouth. His grip on his bat loosened and I sealed the deal by ramming my elbow into his back. The impact broke his spine and he fell, his bat clattering onto the ground.
Hooking a toe underneath the baseball bat, I kicked it up and snatched it from the air while simultaneously dodging a swing from a pipe. A second gangster had reached me, howling furiously as he sought revenge for his comrade.
His strikes missed. Even though I was still an amateur at martial arts, having very little experience in sparring actual experts, I could tell that his movements were sloppy. There was no rhythm, no discipline to his strikes. He was doing little more than flailing around wildly.
Too easy to evade.
At the same time, a third hoodlum stepped up and slashed at me with his machete. I practically danced out of his reach, spinning away from both of my assailants. Sensing an attack from behind, I ducked my head and almost felt the sharp edge of a blade whistle above me.
Whirling about, I smacked the fourth gangster with the bat with such force that he was sent hurtling across the warehouse, smacking into the wall and sliding down in a gigantic stain of blood. While his two comrades tried to catch me in a pincer attack, I kicked the knee of the one wielding the pipe. He howled when his leg snapped at an unnatural angle, the lower part twisting away in the opposite direction. Ducking under the machete, I then rammed the blunt end into his chest and shattered his ribcage. His eyes widened and he vomited blood as he stumbled, unable to breathe because of the shards of bone that now pierced his lungs.
I then finished off the pipe dude by slamming the bat into his face, and then kicked the staggering machete guy. He flew several meters and landed in an unmoving heap.
By now, more of the gangsters had reached me, surrounding me in a circle and trying to attack me from all angles. Despite the multiple attacks from every direction, I was able to avoid all of them by a hair's breadth, moving just the minimum required to stay a millimeter ahead of them. My bat flashed out, parrying strikes, stopping swings before they could be completed, or striking vulnerabilities that my sixth sense picked out.
In just a few minutes, I had taken down another twelve delinquents and gangsters.
"How…how is this possible?!"
Qi Fu Ren had maintained his distance, staying where he was near Pang Zi's corpse. He stared at me, his jaw hanging open and his face as pale as a ghost.
"Since when could you fight like that?!"
"This guy…he's just as brutal as Old Hu!"
Zhou was also shocked by the carnage in front of him, having realized that many of his subordinates were dead. Their heads, limbs or bodies had been bent at unnatural angles, blood pooled beneath their unmoving bodies, or they were simply no longer breathing. Whatever the case, they clearly wouldn't be getting up again.
The surviving gangsters and delinquents immediately sprang backward, watching me warily as they held their weapons in front of them. They kept their distance, swallowing fearfully.
Exhaling, I swung my pilfered baseball bat to flick the blood off its gleaming surface. With my other hand, I pushed my glasses back up again.
"I told you, didn't I? I see dead people."