Chapter 61: Night Raid on Wang Jiu

Chen Xuan touched his chin, pondering once again.

Would it be a bit too risky to go kill Wang Jiu right now?

Yet if he did not, Wang Jiu would undoubtedly make a move tomorrow. After all, the man was accustomed to acting with total lawlessness.

"Very well, it's worth a try."

Chen Xuan thought to himself.

The reason he dared to give it a try was because he possessed two trump cards up his sleeve.

One was the Rain of Pear Blossoms Needles!

The other was the transformation of the Demonic Iron Cloth.

The Rain of Pear Blossoms Needles was the ultimate assassination hidden weapon. Once unleashed, it would pour down like a dense rain, unbreakable and piercing through everything. Even a master at the Meridian Opening realm would find it hard to escape death.

As for his Demonic Iron Cloth transformation, it was ferociously formidable.

It was admittedly a bit ugly, but both his speed and strength increased by well over half.

More importantly, in his Demonic Iron Cloth form, his body expanded to such an extent that absolutely no one would be able to recognize him. Even if he failed, he would be able to make a swift escape.

Chen Xuan returned to the presence of Yang Guangzhao, the Western Heavenly King, and inquired about the location of Wang Jiu's estate, his daily habits, and the elite martial artists guarding him.

Yang Guangzhao held nothing back, telling Chen Xuan everything he knew.

Chen Xuan quickly figured it out.

Wang Jiu was guarded year-round by three top-tier experts known as the Three Elders of the Netherworld. All of them were Meridian Opening realm powerhouses nearing fifty years of age, and each had previously consumed a Lesser Regeneration Pill, leaving their internal Qi not only profound but exceptionally pure.

Every year, people attempted to assassinate Wang Jiu, but they were either wiped out by the Four Heavenly Kings or slaughtered by Wang Jiu's three personal bodyguards.

The three experts had last made a move only half a month ago.

At the mention of these three masters, a trace of unmistakable dread flickered in Yang Guangzhao's eyes.

"Were the three experts present when Wang Jiu went to sleep at night?"

Chen Xuan asked.

"The three masters reside in the same courtyard as Wang Jiu. No matter how slight the disturbance, it cannot escape their notice,"

Yang Guangzhao replied.

Chen Xuan gave a gentle nod, carried Yang Guangzhao into a room, sealed his acupoints, dumped him onto a chair, and turned to leave the place.

With a series of leaps, he quickly slipped out of the yamen.

Under the hazy moonlight, his body instantly began to expand and grow, swelling up like an inflatable object. Thick, massive muscles ripped through his clothes and bulged outward. In the blink of an eye, he transformed into a monster standing around two meters and two tall, with a chiseled, cold, and terrifying visage.

He glanced down at his arms and veins, silently cursing inwardly.

Damn it!

Even uglier than before.

While darting forward, he opened his post-transformation exclusive panel.

Host: Chen Xuan.

Martial Arts: Demonic Iron Cloth - Superficial (0/500)

Strength: 4,000 catties.

Speed: 2.5 seconds per hundred meters.

Traits: Impervious to blades and spears, immune to water and fire. Attacks with less than twice your own strength will fail to breach your defense.

Chen Xuan's eyes flashed with astonishment.

4,000 catties of strength!

This was simply terrifying!

This was no Demonic Iron Cloth transformation; this was practically a Super Saiyan transformation.

For some reason, the more he looked at it, the more similar it felt, and he could only comfort himself this way.

Whoosh!

His figure flashed with ultimate speed, resembling a baleful gust of wind in the dark of night as he instantly streaked past several alleys.

...

"Big brother, is doing this really a good idea? The movements within the city have been a bit unusual these past two days, and many experts are lurking around here. What if we alert some of the Hidden Dragon Ranking masters? That would be disastrous."

Three sneaky figures clad in night-attire were groping their way forward in a dark alley, one of them speaking in a low voice.

"What is there to be afraid of? Those experts are all here for fortuitous encounters; they won't bother with us. As long as we loot the silver, we can immediately flee far away,"

another replied in a rough, low whisper.

"Indeed, we grab the money and run. Who is going to go out of their way to hunt us down?"

The third voice chimed in.

"Walk faster, the money shop is just up ahead,"

the rough voice muttered softly.

They quickened their pace, cutting through the pitch-black alley.

Right at that moment, a ferocious gust of wind suddenly whistled past with extreme velocity, kicking up a flurry of falling leaves across the ground. Following that, the acupoints of all three men were simultaneously sealed with sharp thuds. Their bodies went numb and instantly stiffened.

Shock filled the eyes of all three.

"Those who steal the property of others by night shall die!"

A chilling voice exploded and echoed in their ears.

The fierce wind howled and vanished from the spot in an instant.

With their acupoints sealed, the three men could not move a muscle, their hearts gripped by terror.

What kind of person was that?

What on earth had just passed by them?

...

Chen Xuan moved at lightning speed, disappearing into the distance with a curl of his lip.

The security within the city was indeed utterly corrupt.

He hadn't even been out of the yamen for long, yet he had already run into three batches of sneaky figures.

Without exception, he had sealed their acupoints and delivered a stern, chilling warning to each group.

Presumably, after tonight, these people would develop psychological shadows. If they ever dared to sneak around under the cover of night again in the future, they would likely rein it in considerably, while also casting a certain degree of deterrence over the other various underworld factions and sects.

Whoosh!

Moving with extraordinary speed, Chen Xuan finally approached Wang Jiu's residence. With a bound, his terrifying physique, wreathed in a layer of fierce momentum, scaled the wall into the courtyard and charged straight toward Wang Jiu's compound.

...

Deep within the rooms.

On the massive bed.

Wang Jiu's corpulent physique sat cross-legged atop it like a terrifying mountain of flesh. Layers upon layers of fat rolls stacked together, slumped limply across the bed. With his eyes half-closed, he quietly listened to the report delivered by a secretary standing before him.

"Master Jiu, the roster for the Black Ranking has been finalized. Word was just sent down from the Marquis's Mansion. Compared to the previous edition, there have been quite a few changes near the bottom, with several up-and-coming prodigies appearing."

The secretary clutched a black silk ranking scroll in his hands as he spoke.

"Let's hear it,"

Wang Jiu prompted.

"One of them is from our Cloud Province, named Chen Xuan, nicknamed the 'Extinction Hand'. The bounty on him is 114,800 taels, ranking eighty-ninth. He is wanted jointly by the three great families of Cloud Province and various other sects!"

"Another hails from Desolate Province, named Feng Gao, nicknamed 'Great Yin-Yang Hand'. This man patricided his father and killed his master, stole the Heavenly Rakasa Sect's supreme treasure, the Heavenly Rakasa Saber, and burned, killed, and looted all the way. He is wanted jointly by the major sects of Desolate Province, with a bounty of 103,500 taels, ranking ninety-second!"

"The third originates from Sun Province, named Dai Gaolan, nicknamed 'Shadowless Swordsman', with a bounty of 130,000 taels, ranking eighty-first!"

...

The secretary read them off one by one.

Wang Jiu narrowed his eyes, tapping his fingers lightly against the edge of the bed. "The city has been somewhat chaotic these past two days. Post the Black Ranking early tomorrow morning and have our people pay closer attention. If any of these individuals can be located, try to recruit them into our fold if possible."

"Understood, Master Jiu."

The secretary bowed and retreated.

Clear Wind City was the territory of the Marquis of Pingnan. Therefore, whether it was the Black Ranking or the Hidden Dragon Ranking, whenever they were dispatched, they were invariably intercepted first by the Marquis of Pingnan, who would then hand them over to Wang Jiu to be publicly posted.

The yamen's role in the process was entirely bypassed.

Silence descended upon the room.

Wang Jiu spoke up, "Three Elders of the Netherworld, you may withdraw as well."

Whoosh!

A faint whisper of wind stirred in the darkness, three figures flashed past in a blur, and the door clicked shut tightly.

Only Wang Jiu remained inside the room.

He took a gentle breath and circulated his True Qi. The layers of fat on his body immediately emitted a rustling sound akin to rolling waves of flesh crashing against one another. Then, the fat rapidly solidified, sinking and contracting inward. At the same time, wisps of white smoke began to rise from the crown of his head, his face flushed bright red, and the fat on his body continued to cave inward and shrink.

In the blink of an eye, he transformed from a fat man weighing five to six hundred catties into a dashing, handsome youth whose muscles rippled across his entire body like carved stone, exuding a sense of pure aesthetic power.

His gaze was sharp, his brows carved like blades. Closing his eyes, he adopted a posture with his five centers facing the heavens and began practicing a profound mental cultivation technique.

Heavenly Demonic Divine Skill!

This was an incomplete divine art he had inadvertently acquired—profound, unfathomable, bizarre, and immensely powerful. Once cultivation began, it became utterly addictive, bringing a rush of euphoria comparable to smoking opium. At first, it seemed harmless enough, but the further one progressed, the harder it was to resist.

This technique also had one major drawback: until it reached complete mastery, one's body would grow increasingly obese as the internal power deepened.

Originally, he had weighed around a hundred and twenty catties, but solely because of cultivating this divine art, he had ballooned to approximately six hundred and fifty catties.

Only while actively circulating his art could he force his body back to its former state.

Furthermore, once the Heavenly Demonic Skill was practiced, one had to perform the cultivation cycle every single night; otherwise, his body would feel as though it were being devoured by ten thousand ants, causing excruciating agony.

At this moment, he was undergoing his routine nightly cultivation.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Wisps of white smoke continuously rose from the crown of his head, gathering into a thicker cloud before being inhaled back into his nostrils through repeated cycles and circulation.

Outside the courtyard.

Chen Xuan moved with astonishing speed, his terrifying physique traversing Wang Jiu's estate at a rate of 2.5 seconds per hundred meters. Like a malevolent ghost active in the dead of night, he was practically impossible to capture, and not a single one of the patrolling guards caught even a faint trace of his passage.

Finally, he located Wang Jiu's private courtyard, and his terrifying form lunged forward in a ferocious burst.

A rate of 2.5 seconds per hundred meters was equivalent to covering forty meters in a single second—truly akin to shrinking the earth into inches.