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As part of a militant order, the management of Rose’s Allure had clearly identified Li Mu the moment he stepped inside here.

Li Mu smiled, hardly perturbed by the threat at all and hardly surprised that she knew who he was. “You’ve been a great host, Madam Gao,” he said gently, “So I’ll show you some courtesy. You have a quarter of an hour’s time to get whatever men you think who can stop me. After that, the game’s afoot.”

Madam Gao smiled facetiously, “Courtesy it is, Mr. Li. Admirable, I’ll give you that. I’ll be back then.”

She left to relay her orders.

Li Mu went back to his seat beside the window, enjoying his drink like it was all going to be a piece of cake.

Shen Xiaoyue never looked so worried before.

She knew how powerful the Convent was for as long as her duration here at Rose’s Allure. Many have erred by being foolish enough to cause ruckuses here but few — or rather, none — ever enjoyed the consequences that followed after. Most of them were loud and arrogant and snobbish but in the end, they would be carried out of here on stretchers after being brutally beaten into pulps.

“Shen Jia’s mentor might be a powerful person, but he’s so young. What could I expect him to do? If anything happens to him, this would be my fault!”

“I’m staying, good sir. Please, take Shen Jia and go!” Shen Xiaoyue made her decision to sacrifice herself, “I’m good here. Madam Gao has been kind to me. Just take care of my brother for me, sir! That is enough for me to owe you a debt that I can never repay. But no matter what, I cannot let you die…”

Li Mu cut her off with a reassuring smile and said, “I know what you’re worried about, Shen Xiaoyue. It’s fine. Just leave it to me.”

Shen Jia was brimming with confidence for his mentor, “My teacher is invincible, Sister.”

The quarter of an hour passed very quickly and the time that Li Mu gave Madam Gao was up.

Almost every champion that Rose’s Allure has on retainer had assembled here. Somehow news had leaked out that the Aspect of Vengeance had made landfall at Pink Alley’s biggest pleasure house and hundreds of other warriors in the vicinity had come, hoping to witness some action.

“This is Wang Wu, Mr. Li, one of Rose’s Allure’s finest,” Madam Gao motioned to one of the many champions that she had summoned, a hulking middle-aged man toting a dangerous-looking broadsword.

“The name’s Wang Wu, of the Tower of Godly Blades. I’m proud to face you in battle,” greeted Wang Wu, an impressive-looking Class VI warrior with a bulky stature. Even the aura he emanated was aggressive and robust like raging waves.

Li Mu glanced at him and remarked, “Very well.”

“On guard, Mr. Li,” Wang Wu said, freeing his broadsword from the hook on the back of his shoulder. He brandished his weapon and a burst of aura pulsed in a wave of force and winds, unabashed to display his skills as the master swordsman that he was.

“My saber has an appetite for blood that must be satiated before it returns to its sheath,” said Li Mu.

“Hahahaha! So be it then!” Wang Wu guffawed exuberantly, “Perhaps you’ll show me just how impressive the Cloudwater-style saber discipline is, Aspect of Vengeance! Here I come!”

Wang Wu swung aloft his broadsword, bringing it down on Li Mu like a lightning bolt streaking down from the skies.

“Superb skills.”

Li Mu expressed his admiration.

The stroke was simple, direct, and straightforward. But Li Mu was not deceived by its crude facade that belied the vast experience, ingenious cleverness, and ardent steadfastness that Wang Wu embodied as a warrior.

Only that was not enough to defeat Li Mu.

Li Mu’s finger came up and all he did was flicked a finger. A flick that struck exactly at the tip of Wang Wu’s blade, right where the point of the keen edge of the weapon was dangerously close to him. Such a tiny little hit and yet it struck the broadsword like a hammer, causing a ring as loud as a bell’s toll and sparks that crackled angrily as they burst into the air.

Clang!

Wang Wu almost felt as if he had struck a wall. Blood oozed out of a tear in the webspace between his thumb and index finger as he lost the grip of his broadsword that was flung out of his hands from what seemed like but was definitely not a tiny little blow by Li Mu’s finger. The weapon slammed into a granite column more than ten meters away with every inch of its blade buried all the way to the hilt, still trembling incessantly.

Peals of frightened cries chorused from the crowds overlooking the duel.

Wang Wu stared at his injured hand. Without anything more to say, he saluted and left.

The gap between their strengths was just too great.

So great that no amount of words could wash away the blemish of this defeat.

Li Mu retracted his hand and said with deliberate calmness to Madam Gao, “No one in Class VI is a match to me.”

The look of shock and astoundment flashed on her face for just one brief second before Madam Gao broke into a stiff smile. She pointed a finger at another warrior beside her. “Allow me to present Xue Ruyi, a swordsman from the Sect of the Shadow Blade.”

But Xue Ruyi looked nothing like a swordsman. In fact, he looked every bit a scholar who had gone lost on his way to the Imperial Examinations. With a scholar’s cap and a spring-green tunic, the lean and gaunt man looked both defenseless and weaponless. He sluggishly stepped forward and saluted at Li Mu. With a sickly-pale face and a quiet voice, he greeted, “Please.”

The word only just slipped out of his tongue when a glint of light shone from inside the sleeves of his tunic and something with a speed well beyond what human eyes could catch shot straight for Li Mu’s head.

Li Mu raised a finger, just like before.

Clink! Clink! Clink!

The bolt of light that was Xue Ruyi’s sword broke into pieces.

Xue Ruyi stared blankly at his sword, now broken up to the hilt, and threw it unceremoniously aside. Without anything else to say as well, he turned and retreated.

There was no need for sophistry between two skillful warriors.

All that was needed was only one exchange of blows — one exchange to measure each other’s prowess.

Quietly, Li Mu declared again, “No one in Class VII is a match to me.”

The shock lasted longer this time, although Madam Gao was quick to recollect herself. She rubbed her hands together as if to quell the swelling disquiet within her and said, “Awesome power and strength, Mr. Li. That explains your audacity to put us to the challenge. How about this next gentleman?”

She gestured with a flourish and a man — short in length with short bristles mottling his chin and hair so short that one could make out the burn marks that Buddhist monks regularly wore on their head — in Buddhist garb stepped out of the ranks of champions.

“Meet Reverend Carnage, a priest from the Fortress-Monastery of the Enlightened and the best of the best amongst our retainers. Watch out, Mr. Li. Reverend Carnage is never known to pull his punches. It wouldn’t be far off to say that he is a Wisdom King Incarnate.”

It was worth noting that Madam Gao’s introduction of Reverend Carnage carried more respect and politeness than those of Wang Wu and Xue Ruyi, showing the position and prestige he enjoyed here.

“Amitabha, sir. I shall say my prayers over your grave on this same day next year,” Reverend Carnage broke into a wicked grin.

Several inches shy of becoming a dwarf, the grotesquely hideous man did not even deign to hide his insatiable thirst for death and destruction. But his very thick and powerful aura was all he needed to intimidate anyone who wished to punish him for his detestable and repulsive visage. His malice-teemed presence slowly filled the room like smoke, heavy and dark, dwarfing the Class VI and Class VII auras that both Wang Wu and Xue Ruyi emanated respectively during their duels against Li Mu.

The main hall and the alleyway just outside Rose’s Allure were filled with a riotous mob of curious and interested warriors and onlookers, all congregating to witness the action.

The name of Reverend Carnage was known widely in Rydorburg to be the name of a man that only a fool would dare cross. Despite his provenance from a Buddhist monastery, he has developed a bloody and brutal reputation for his lack of mercy and compassion, especially for his opponents and foes.

Reverend Carnage, one of the city’s most experienced champions.

The Aspect of Vengeance, a young prodigy who managed to claw his way back from the abyss of ruin and desolation and has undertaken a crusade to avenge the sworn brothers of the brotherhood order he belonged to.

“And there could only be one victor.”

Those amongst the onlookers who were sharp enough might have realized how badly things have escalated. By fielding Reverend Carnage, Rose’s Allure — or by extension the Convent — had just turned what was just a business disagreement into a blood feud by trying to make sure that the Aspect of Vengeance would not be walking out of the pleasure house alive.

All eyes were on the imminent duel now taking place in the second-floor dining area just nearby the windows.

Li Mu hooked his finger at his newest opponent, saying, “Let’s get to it then.”

Carnage’s misshapen face twisted into a horrifying mass of warped malice. He stepped forward and the floorboards creaked and groaned as if he weighed a tone. Then he drew an arm backward before driving a punch forward with all his might. The front of his knuckles shone with a pulsing flame-red image of a snarling tiger baring its fangs at his opponent. Li Mu immediately recognized what he saw: the eldritch phantom endemic to powerful combat techniques.

The suffocating malice-filled presence of Carnage intensified like boiling water.

The atmosphere on the second floor of Rose’s Allure turned rank with the stench of death. Many began to feel their visions darkening from the asphyxiating foul aura of Carnage choking fresh air out of the area as if Death was constricting its bony claws around their very throats.

Reverend Carnage was already trying to kill his opponent right from the get-go!

But Li Mu remained calm as ever, still sitting in his chair with only an arm outstretched and a finger pointing at his foe.

Carnage’s first met with the tip of Vengeance’s finger.

All of a sudden, everything froze, even the very air everyone breathed. Time had just stopped for one split second.

Then came the sickening noise of bones snapping that jerked everyone out of their transitory moment of timelessness. Reverend Carnage’s arm began to slack and droop at speeds visible to the naked eye, then blood spurted out all over him, percolating from the pores of his skin in morbid streams of deep red while some erupted in tiny bursts of sticky red mists. Seconds later, he crashed to the ground, a bloody heap that looked more like slime and mud than flesh with all his bones shattered and pounded into sludge-like gunk because of Li Mu’s overwhelming power.

This was not just death. This was worse than death.

Li Mu withdrew his hand slowly. His voice declared with an unnerving serenity amid the stunned silence, “No one in Class VIII is a match to me.”

Madam Gao could no longer keep her astonishment and panic in check.

“Reverend Carnage, a true master of Class VIII, killed with just a finger?! Just how dangerous Li Zhiyuan really is?!”

Reverend Carnage was no ordinary Class VIII warrior. Even among all other Class VIII warriors in the Northern Steppes, Carnage was widely acclaimed as a seasoned warrior and a veteran of many battles with Mana, rank, and skills that even his peers feared. Yet here he was, dead by just a finger because of Li Zhiyuan? Just how dangerous the Aspect of Vengeance really was?

For the first time in her life, Madam Gao started to wonder if the Canoness Superior’s adamant refusal to give Moonbliss her freedom might turn out to be a huge mistake.

And she was not alone. Many amongst the crowd of onlookers and spectators that including several warriors and champions too were thinking the same.

Many once doubted Li Zhiyuan. After all, how much damage could a man who was once crippled do even if he has finally and miraculously regained his powers and strength? While most of the Nothern Steppes had heard of the Aspect of Vengeance’s exploits and his northbound crusade to avenge his sworn brothers-in-arms, nearly everyone discounted his heroics as mere exaggerations at best.

More so, since the militant sects and orders that he laid waste to were mostly minor and lesser outfits that could barely compare to one like the Convent of the Pious Rose.

But the duels that occurred this evening had disproved all doubts about Li Zhiyuan’s strength and power. Not only were the tales of his heroics true, but they might also be watered down as well! If anyone could slay Reverend Carnage with such ease as using a finger, then that would have to be at least a Class-IX warrior!

Could this really be true!? A Class-IX warrior as young as Li Zhiyuan?

…

“What?!”

The High Patriarch of the Priory of the Four Seas almost jumped from his chair.

“How could this be true?! One finger?! With one finger, Li Zhiyuan killed Reverend Carnage?! That Reverend Carnage of Rose’s Allure?! Not even I wielded such confidence! Was it really him then?! Was it him who had our Prelates slain?! No, this cannot be true! This cannot be!”

The High Patriarch felt like a tidal wave of disbelief was crashing down on his world.

Things were spiraling well out of his control.

If Li Zhiyuan had killed the Four Prelates with the outside help from another entity such as Arcusstone, that would have sounded logical and less frightening enough. But if Li Zhiyuan really had done the deed alone, then the Priory would suffer a fate no lesser than being condemned to ruin and destruction!

“But he’s just so young!” The High Patriarch almost cried aloud, still very much in denial.

…

“What?! Reverend Carnage’s killed?!”

The Canoness Superior of the Convent of the Pious Rose was lazing inside a tub sprinkled with fresh petals of flowers when the news was relayed to her and it stunned her.

Her lady-in-waiting, a female warrior kneeling on the other side of a gossamer gauze veil provided a very concise and prolix report of what happened.

“Has Yan Nanfei acted?”

the Canoness Superior asked.

“He hasn’t, last time I checked before I came here,” reported the lady-in-waiting.

The Canoness Superior stepped out of her bath, a naked body with perfect curves that slipped into robes held up for her by her handmaidens. “Even if Yan Nanfei were to get involved, he might still refrain himself from hurting anyone. I’m going there myself. This Li Zhiyuan had killed Reverend Carnage. For that, he must pay. I shall make him take the good reverend’s place and stay at Rose’s Allure as penance.”

“Very good, Mother Superior.”

…

On the second floor of Rose’s Allure.

Li Mu was rather surprised to see his next opponent.

Of all people, he did not know that he would be facing the middle-aged attendant who incapacitated the drunken Provost of the Red Temple and his men with relative ease to stop them from intruding into his suite earlier.

“Yan Nanfei, Mr. Li. A pleasure to meet you.”

Despite being just a lowly male attendant of a pleasure house, Yan Nanfei exuded the airs and dignity of a true master in the crafts of combat and warriorship. Even the aura he emanated was enough to convince Li Mu that he was most definitely a warrior well beyond Class VIII.

This could potentially be Li Mu’s most difficult opponent since he embarked on his northbound crusade.

Yet why would such a powerful figure be serving at such a humble and debase capacity here in a pleasure house such as Rose’s Allure?