Chapter 6: One Strike to the Soul, Suppressing the Evils; New Rules Established in South City Alley!

Ma San took a step forward.

The Refined Iron Ruler in his hand was two feet long, whistling heavily as he swung it casually.

The air grew heavy as his massive frame pressed forward.

Over a dozen lackeys and thugs scattered around, completely blocking the exits on both sides of the main street.

Muffled gasps came from the crowd.

"A Patrol Officer."

Ma San stopped three paces in front of Lin Chen, his lips curling into an ugly sneer.

"Scram now."

He tapped the iron ruler against his palm casually, making a dull sound.

"Don't interfere with the Black Tiger Gang's business. The waters of South City Lane are deep; if you drown here, not even a bubble will surface."

Ma San wasn't stupid; he could sense the blood and Qi circulating within this officer called Lin Chen.

But on his side, he had three Body Refining martial artists, plus over a dozen brothers carrying weapons.

If a fight really broke out, one person wouldn't be able to cause much of a stir.

Zhao Liu stood to the left and sneered.

"Big Brother Hall Master has spoken; today, the protection fees for all vendors in South City Lane are doubled."

"That dog skin you're wearing is useless here. If you know what's good for you, crawl back to wherever you came from."

Liu Heizi stood on the right, playing with a short knife that had blood grooves.

He didn't speak, but his tongue licked his lips as his gaze locked onto Lin Chen's neck.

Arranged in a triangular formation, they had Lin Chen firmly locked in the center.

Lin Chen ignored their shouting.

He looked straight ahead, his gaze passing through the gaps in the encirclement to look into the distance.

Old Zhang's grocery shop had been smashed to pieces, with shattered porcelain covering the ground.

The woman at the flatbread stall curled up in a corner, trembling as she clutched her red, scalded arm.

Not far away, the manager of the cloth shop had been pushed into the muddy water, a muddy footprint stamped on his face.

These commoners, who usually bowed and scraped with smiles, were now hiding behind doors and under carts.

Their eyes were full of despair.

Not a single ripple appeared in Lin Chen's eyes.

He was calculating.

Extorting money, picking fights and provoking trouble, and violent assault.

In Qingxi County, this was a common sight.

In Lin Chen's eyes, these actions merely corresponded to cold legal boundaries.

Lin Chen's left thumb pressed against the sword guard.

He pushed upward.

Clang.

A section of the bright blade popped out of the wooden scabbard.

The blade reflected the surrounding light; a flash of white light shot directly into Ma San's pupils.

Ma San's eyes twitched slightly as he gripped the iron ruler tightly.

Lin Chen's voice didn't rise.

There was a steadiness in that voice that excluded all emotional interference, drifting across the chaotic long street.

"I will say it one more time."

Lin Chen slowly drew his single-edged blade.

"great qian public security law."

The cries of pain and the noise of the scene seemed to pause at this moment.

"Mass extortion."

The blade was halfway out of the scabbard, the sound of metal friction ear-piercing.

"Violent assault."

The entire blade was completely unsheathed.

Lin Chen held the blade in his right hand, the tip pointing diagonally toward the bluestone slabs.

A standard thin-bladed single-edged sword, thick-backed and sharpened, weighing three catties and six taels.

"Principal offenders are to be killed on the spot."

"Accomplices are to be taken into custody."

After Lin Chen finished those last few words, his dark pupils fixed on Ma San's face.

The surroundings fell silent for two breaths.

Then, bursts of wild laughter erupted one after another.

Over a dozen thugs laughed so hard they doubled over.

Zhao Liu laughed until he bent over, tapping his own thigh with a short club. Liu Heizi shook his head.

"Have you lost your mind?!" Ma San laughed wildly, his chest heaving.

"Kill me? In South City Lane? With what..."

Before he could finish, Ma San's expression suddenly turned fierce.

Killing intent exploded.

"You're looking for death!"

With a roar, the bluestone slab beneath Ma San's feet let out a dull explosion.

His massive body, carrying the thick and tyrannical blood and Qi of the Peak Body Tempering stage, crashed straight toward Lin Chen.

There was no unnecessary testing.

The iron ruler, with a whistle that tore through the air, swung down toward his head from the front.

At the same time, Zhao Liu on the left and Liu Heizi on the right moved simultaneously. The three had worked together for years and were skilled in their encirclement tactics.

Zhao Liu's short club swept toward Lin Chen's knees.

Liu Heizi's short knife stabbed directly at the major pulse on Lin Chen's right side.

Three forces of blood and Qi squeezed the space simultaneously, sealing off all of Lin Chen's escape routes.

They wanted to beat this fool in the soap-colored uniform to death in front of the people of South City Lane.

The commoners on both sides of the long street closed their eyes. Many turned their heads away.

The wind surged.

Facing the encirclement, the world in Lin Chen's eyes was exceptionally tranquil.

In his senses, which had reached Great Perfection after being baptized by the System, the combined offensive of the three was cleanly and efficiently dismantled.

Ma San exerted too much force, leaving his right ribs completely exposed.

Zhao Liu's footwork was unstable, with a breaking point at his front-left position. Liu Heizi's wrist holding the knife was over-rotated inward.

Countless flaws.

Lin Chen did not retreat.

Facing the iron ruler swinging down from above, he took a steady step forward.

Blood and Qi compressed instantly in his legs, then flowed extremely smoothly into the muscle groups of his right arm.

The standard steel blade in his hand turned into a streak of mournful cold light.

Wind-Breaking Saber Technique, First Form.

Pushing the Boat with the Current.

This move emphasized only absolute linear penetration and clean cutting.

Under the extreme infusion of pure blood and Qi, this ordinary yamen-issued saber sliced through the air resistance in front of it.

The blade was incredibly fast.

It surpassed the initial reaction time of the human eye.

The cruelty on Ma San's face was still etched in the corners of his eyes.

His downward-swinging iron ruler stalled in mid-air.

In the very center of his vision, that blade light flashed and vanished, disappearing completely.

Lin Chen had already crossed paths with him.

The massive momentum caused Ma San himself to stumble forward two steps.

Clang.

The iron ruler fell, bouncing off the bluestone slabs.

Ma San stood in place. His body was stiff.

Below his Adam's apple, a horizontal red line appeared out of nowhere.

The red line widened rapidly, and blood burst through the constraints of the vessel walls, gushing out in a high-pressure spray.

Ma San dropped his weapon, his hands instinctively clutching his own throat.

A gurgling sound of leaking air came from his windpipe.

The severed carotid artery brought about fatal blood loss.

His eyeballs bulged outward.

Strength quickly drained from his entire body.

Boom.

Ma San's sturdy body fell straight down into the shattered porcelain.

After his body twitched twice, there was no more movement.

A large pool of blood spread rapidly across the ground.

Killed with a single strike.

Zhao Liu on the left and Liu Heizi on the right missed their marks.

They steadied themselves and turned their heads.

The big brother who had been giving orders a second ago was now a corpse with blood spraying from his neck.

The intense contrast shocked their minds, and their movements stalled for a brief second.

A martial artist of the same level, a head falling in one move.

In a life-and-death struggle, hesitation is an invitation to death.

Having eliminated the target directly in front, Lin Chen's feet didn't stop.

His combat boots shifted on the stone slabs, his core pulling his upper body as surging power drove a rotation.

The long blade, carrying residual blood, traced a large arc.

He held the hilt in a reverse grip, the back of the blade facing outward.

Zhao Liu sensed a strong wind hitting his face and instinctively raised his short club to block.

Lin Chen's path avoided the intercepting hard object.

The steel blade passed under the short club at a bizarre angle, the back of the blade carrying immense force as it accurately struck Zhao Liu's right wrist.

Crack.

The ulna beneath the flesh was shattered.

Zhao Liu's right hand was bent backward at a ninety-degree angle.

A piercing scream escaped his lips, and the short club tumbled away.

The intense pain drained Zhao Liu's strength, and he retreated repeatedly while clutching his mangled wrist.

Lin Chen did not stop there.

Using the counter-force of the rotation, he lowered his upper body.

Supporting himself with his right leg, his knees slightly bent, he formed a low posture.

Flipping the blade, he slashed horizontally across the waist.

The blade edge bore down on Liu Heizi to the right rear.

Seeing his two companions being taken out one after another, Liu Heizi was filled with terror and tried to pull back and retreat.

The range of Lin Chen's horizontal slash blocked all escape routes.

Squelch.

The sound of fabric being torn and flesh and bone being cut overlapped.

A scream pierced the air.

Liu Heizi's knees went weak. He looked down at himself.

Most of the area below his knee pits had been severed, the bone cross-sections pale and oozing blood.

Gravity caused his lower legs to lose all support, collapsing and folding inward.

His upper body fell heavily to the ground.

Liu Heizi clawed at the muddy ground with his hands, trying to get away from Lin Chen.

A large amount of filthy blood stained the ground along the trail he dragged, and his mouth let out the wails of a dying animal.

Three breaths.

Three hall experts of the Body Refining stage.

One dead, one crippled, one severely maimed.

Lin Chen straightened his back.

He held the steel blade level with one hand; blood flowed along the blade's grooves and dripped into the cracks between the stones.

His chin was slightly raised, his expression calm.

His breathing was steady and slow. There wasn't a single wrinkle on the hem of his soap-colored uniform.

The alley fell into a complete, deathly silence.

The vendors forgot to cry, and the townspeople shrinking behind doors opened their mouths but couldn't make a sound.

The dozen or so peripheral thugs who had followed along were dumbfounded.

Clatter.

A hard wooden club fell ten feet away.

The sound destroyed their remaining psychological defenses.

"Run!"

Someone's voice, distorted and out of tune, let out a roar.

Over a dozen thugs immediately turned and bolted, scrambling to reach the outer street.

In the crowding and shoving, someone fell, but they didn't even care to cry out in pain, crawling on all fours across the ground.

Lin Chen watched the crowd disperse without giving chase.

He stepped over Ma San's broad back and walked to Zhao Liu's side.

Zhao Liu's face was ashen.

He looked up, and Lin Chen was looking down at him.

Those eyes held no pleasure, no anger, only the indifference of looking at trash.

"Take the accomplice into custody."

Lin Chen gave his verdict.

"Go reflect in the Patrol Division's dungeon."

Zhao Liu repeatedly kowtowed against the stone slabs, sobbing incoherently.

Lin Chen turned away and walked to the chopping block of a butcher shop by the main street.

He picked up a greasy cloth.

Holding the blade in one hand, he unhurriedly wiped the blood from the surface of the thin blade in front of everyone, his movements precise and meticulous.

Deep within Lin Chen's mind.

The deep blue light screen flickered with ripples of light, and mechanical notification sounds rang out frantically.

The data from the System's settlement flowed down like a waterfall.