Chapter 97: A Martial Artist, Nothing More

It is all right. After you return, start making preparations for the renovation. I’ll wander around for a bit and head back on my own later.

With that, Stone Jay left on his own.

A few minutes later, Lin Fan finally heard a clumsy rush of footsteps behind him.

But before the other man could even speak, Lin Fan said without turning around, "Bai Jiahao, you really are incapable of changing your spots."

"You..."

Bai Jiahao froze on the spot. How had Lin Fan recognized him?

Then he noticed Lin Fan standing on the balcony and thought that perhaps he had seen him bringing people up from below.

So he stopped pretending to be mysterious.

"Damn you! Last time you got lucky because Young Master Wang was protecting you. Today, no matter what, I’m going to make you kneel and call me grandpa!"

"With you?" Lin Fan finally turned around and looked him over with cool indifference.

"You really went to a great deal of trouble just to get revenge on me... It’s a pity you’re far too full of yourself. Ever heard that there is always a higher mountain, and a stronger man beyond each one? In this world, there are always people you cannot afford to provoke."

His words dripped with layered mockery.

Unfortunately, Bai Jiahao had strong limbs and a weak mind; he could not catch the hidden meaning at all.

"You stole my woman and still have the nerve to provoke me? So what if you can fight? Today I’m going to tear a layer of skin off you! Then I’ll play with you slowly until you die! Heh heh..."

Bai Jiahao sneered darkly, as if there were something he wanted to say but was holding back.

He very much wanted to tell Lin Fan that he was already firmly under the thumb of Su Qianlong and him, but he absolutely could not say that aloud.

What he did not know was that Lin Fan had already seen through him.

Not only had he guessed their purpose, he even knew exactly what was going on in the fellow’s head.

The difference between Bai Jiahao and Su Qianlong was that Bai Jiahao lacked both brains and judgment; any seasoned old hand could see through him at a glance. Su Qianlong, true to his name, was a hidden dragon: patient, deeply scheming, far more restrained, and a full level above that idiot Bai Jiahao.

Otherwise, he would not have been manipulated and used by the two brothers.

"Not bad, you brought two more men than last time. Seven in all, all trained hands from a martial school. Come on, let me see just how capable you so-called experts are..."

Lin Fan ignored Bai Jiahao entirely and swept a dismissive glance over the seven men.

The pockmarked-faced leader stepped forward first.

"Don’t get cocky! One punch from us can kill a man. So what if you’re trained too? You and us are not on the same level. You’re nothing but a third-rate hack; we’ve got years of real training behind us. You won’t be able to block us..."

Before he could finish, Lin Fan cut him off with obvious irritation.

"Can you stop talking nonsense? If you’re going to fight, then fight. Why all the beating around the bush?"

"Motherf..."

The pockmarked man exploded in rage and let out a roar. The next instant, he shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow.

Lin Fan was facing a trained fighter for the first time and had no experience to rely on. He could only dodge instinctively by bending at the waist, but the pockmarked man was fast. Seeing him duck, he immediately drove an upward underhand blow toward his waist.

With a dull thud, Lin Fan was knocked back two steps, yet his face showed no expression at all.

The pockmarked man cried out in shock, unable to believe it.

By rights, even a fellow practitioner should not have been able to endure his full-force strike.

So why did Lin Fan look as though nothing had happened?

Even more infuriating, Lin Fan actually mocked him in return.

"Tickling me? You can’t even summon enough strength to fight properly, and you call yourselves trained fighters? So what are you, cockroaches? Give me something more exciting!"

Lin Fan said with a faint smile.

With the Golden Armor item card in play, even if ten men surrounded and beat him, they still could not seriously injure him.

The pockmarked man snorted furiously, drew a breath into his dantian, and clenched both fists until they cracked. A terrifying killing intent burst from his whole body, forcing even Bai Jiahao to take two wary steps back as he stared at Lin Fan with malicious delight.

But to his astonishment, when the pockmarked man surged in for a sudden attack, Lin Fan seemed to anticipate it and narrowly evaded the strike.

Even so, relying on his rich experience and formidable fighting power, the pockmarked man managed to land two consecutive blows on Lin Fan’s chest.

Yet the eerie thing was that Lin Fan still looked untouched.

"Hit his face! Brother, hit his face! This guy’s bones are hard, so it only looks like he’s fine. Hit his face—he definitely won’t be able to take that!"

His companions behind him hurried to shout, urging the pockmarked man to change his target.

But by then Lin Fan had learned a thing or two as well.

After taking several strikes, he had seen that the fellow merely had brute strength and kept aiming at the armpit and chest, his attacks stubbornly repetitive.

Bang! Bang!

After taking two more blows, Lin Fan suddenly turned and used a Wing Chun finger strike, seizing the opening to hit the pockmarked man’s throat.

"Cough, cough!"

What looked like a light, almost casual strike nearly broke the man’s throat.

Terrified, the pockmarked man staggered backward several steps, clutching his neck. His features twisted grotesquely, his face contorted with agony.

The others were shocked beyond words by the sight.

Bai Jiahao’s expression changed drastically as well. In utter panic, he shouted, "All of you, go together! Go!"

The other six rushed in without another word.

But after several exchanges, Lin Fan was practically like a body of bronze and iron. Their fists struck him and did not so much as cripple him; on the contrary, Lin Fan even grinned at them with open mockery.

"Now it’s my turn!"

As the fight grew fiercer, Lin Fan only became more spirited, his blood surging hot, his battle intent burning bright.

After taking dozens of blows, he had accumulated considerable experience. He now knew which attacks were most lethal, how to evade them, and how to expose his opponents’ flaws.

All of that came from the fact that he had maxed out the three most basic skills: Taekwondo, Wing Chun, and Tai Chi.

Those three skills might sound ordinary, but when used by a trained fighter, they became something entirely different in battle.

Moreover, his physical toughness was beyond ordinary. While he could not kill with a single blow the way these trained fighters could, combining Wing Chun and Tai Chi allowed him to use force of a thousand pounds against a mere four ounces, striking their weak points and leaving them crying out in anguish and gravely injured.

Anyone versed in martial arts could easily break a rib with a single punch, damage internal organs, and in severe cases leave lifelong disability and lingering harm.

Naturally, Lin Fan showed no mercy.

Ten minutes later, he had flattened all six of them.

The pockmarked man, who had started the fight first, had now recovered somewhat. But seeing his six companions suffering severe internal injuries, he turned deathly pale, his soul practically flying out of his body.

"You! You... how can you be this strong? Did you practice iron-body hard qigong, so your body is like a wall of bronze and iron?"

The pockmarked man stared at Lin Fan, stunned senseless.

Lin Fan was still the same as at the start: expressionless, calm, and utterly composed.

He had taken so many punches and still acted as if nothing had happened. It was outrageously unnatural, enough to overturn the man’s understanding of the world.

The only explanation was that Lin Fan must have practiced hard qigong.

But that was a skill only masters of external martial arts could learn. Without sufficient talent and years of training, it was exceedingly difficult to master.

To reach the level of being impervious to blades and spears would take at least twenty or thirty years. Yet Lin Fan was only in his early twenties; it simply made no sense.

"Heh. Didn’t I just say it? There’s always a higher mountain, and a stronger man beyond each one..."

Lin Fan gave a faint smile, ignored him once more, and turned his gaze like a blade toward Bai Jiahao.