Chapter 132: Despicable Scoundrel!

With one slash, he severed the strength of a minor-stage internal energy practitioner.
With one stomp, he extinguished the life of a mid-stage internal energy practitioner.
With one punch, he shattered the chest of a grand-stage internal energy practitioner!

These three simple moves were executed with total composure. There was not a hint of the menacing aura that inevitably accompanies a martial artist’s strike. This could only mean one thing: for Qin Mu, killing with these three moves was as natural as breathing.

"You... you..."

Blood gushed from the scarred man’s mouth, his eyes filled with sheer terror. Though Qin Mu’s punch hadn’t killed him instantly, it had brought him to the brink of death. He was only clinging to life by the fragile thread of the internal energy he had cultivated over a dozen years. In all his life, he had never encountered such terrifying force—a punch that could rend the air and strike from a hundred meters away.

Qin Mu lowered his gaze, looking at his hand with a trace of regret. He gave it a gentle shake, looked at the scarred man with a faint, apologetic smile, and murmured, "My apologies. I didn't hold back enough; I made your death too easy."

"Pfft!"

The scarred man, who had been struggling to keep a final breath of internal energy, could no longer hold on. He coughed up a spray of vital blood and his massive frame collapsed to the ground with a thud.

The crowd stared in horror at the corpse. A grand-stage internal energy practitioner—gone, just like that.

They looked at Qin Mu once more. Their assessment of this young man’s strength no longer rested on the simple assumption that he had taken a forbidden drug. They feared that Qin Mu’s true, inherent power was already monstrously formidable. Seeing his calm expression and steady breathing, the thought began to spread like a virus through their minds: what if there was no forbidden drug at all?

They refused to believe it, yet they dared not dismiss it. The young man was only in his twenties! The youngest among them hadn't even stepped into the realm of internal energy until their thirties. At twenty, they were still fumbling about with basic external techniques!

"Pull yourselves together! This brat is no simple opponent! Do not let your guard down!" A man whose fingers were as hard as steel clenched his fist, creating a sharp crackling sound in the air. He was another grand-stage internal energy expert!

Hearing this, the others shook off their daze, turned their focus to Qin Mu, and channeled every ounce of their internal energy. They felt a wave of relief. Initially, they had thought Young Master Jiang was being overly cautious—why send so many to deal with one youth? But now, it was clear: Young Master Jiang had possessed the foresight to dispatch such a large retinue of martial artist servants to prevent any accidents.

Even with their overwhelming numerical advantage, they knew they had to be at the peak of their vigilance. One grand-stage master was already dead; the loss of another high-level fighter would leave them in a vulnerable position.

Qin Mu bent down slightly, grabbed the corpse of the mid-stage martial artist, and dragged it out of the rain. He tossed the body aside and stepped into the center of their encirclement as if they were nothing. The crowd understood his intent instantly: he was fighting, but he didn't want the noise to disturb his sister’s rest.

He didn't consider them a threat at all!

Enraged, they moved rapidly across the water, forming a seamless, airtight circle. Dozens of men shifted with blinding speed, their movements erratic. They knew that if Qin Mu tried to grab any one of them, he would immediately be swarmed by the others. They had been trained by the Jiang family for years in this very formation—a specialized killing technique for multiple combatants.

Sure enough, the man behind Qin Mu moved first, charging with a sharp dagger. Before Qin Mu could turn, three more martial artists lunged from the front, their weapons aimed directly at his vital points. Then five, seven, a dozen more—all of them surged forward from every direction. It was an inescapable trap!

But these were merely diversions. The real killing blow was yet to come. The remaining four grand-stage internal energy experts finally unleashed their full power, holding nothing back!

Yet...

Qin Mu’s upper body didn't move. He simply lifted one leg and swept it out to meet their attack.

An invisible, crushing pressure smothered the hearts of the four men. The three in the lead panicked, trying to retreat, but it was too late. Qin Mu’s leg connected.

*Bang! Bang! Bang!*

The sound of shattering bones echoed, followed immediately by heart-wrenching screams. The three were kicked clean in half by Qin Mu. Their internal organs were pulverized, and they went flying backward, blood spraying from their mouths.

The last man, the one with the steel claws, reacted quickly. He tried to use his iron-reinforced fingers to catch Qin Mu’s leg and snap it. But he had vastly overestimated himself. Qin Mu’s leg, moving with a force that tore through the air, shattered the steel fingers upon impact. The man was sent hurtling through the air, crashing into a shipping container a dozen meters away and leaving a massive crater in its wake.

Four grand-stage martial artists. In an instant, they were all left bleeding and half-dead on the spot.

Those who had moved and those who hadn't stood frozen in place. Nobody could believe what they were seeing. But the killing had not yet ended.

A sliver of silver light flashed across the water, slicing through the curtain of rain and producing a violent, explosive crack in the air as it descended.

"Brat, with this blade, you are finished!"

The final attacker was the One-Eyed Man—the only peak-stage internal energy expert in the entire group. He wielded a nine-ringed broadsword forged of refined iron, his most prized weapon. With this very blade, he had once personally decapitated another peak-stage master.

*BOOM!*

A deafening roar erupted, sounding like the collision of massive sheets of steel. The shockwave was so immense that even Jiang Zheng, who had been unconscious, was jolted awake. She rubbed her forehead, shaking her head. She didn't know what she had been given, but a lingering sweetness remained on her tongue. Her fever had broken, and aside from being soaked and shivering from the cold, she felt mostly fine.

Ignoring her own condition, she instinctively looked toward the source of the blast. Through the thick, swirling mist, she could only vaguely see Qin Mu, his abdomen struck by the heavy blade.