Apotheosis Begins with Tai Chi

THUD—

A dull thud suddenly exploded through the alley.

Wu Dong didn’t even get a clear look—was it a man or a ghost that attacked?—before he felt his left ribs get smashed by what felt like a red-hot battering ram.

His entire body flew backward, tracing a bizarre arc through the air. A sickening, spine-chilling crack echoed from his back before he slammed heavily into a pile of junk several meters away.

Broken wooden planks and pottery shards flew everywhere, burying him. Then, silence.

”...What?!”

Liu San was a bit slower to react. By the time he whirled around, Wu Dong was already gone.

In his place stood a silent, motionless black shadow.

In the dim moonlight, Liu San could just barely make out that the figure was wrapped from head to toe in black cloth, so tightly that even their face and hands were covered, leaving only two narrow slits for the eyes.

”Are... are you a man or a ghost?!”

Liu San’s eyes were wide with terror. His voice trembled uncontrollably and his calves felt weak. The fingers resting on the hilt of his blade were stiff and cold; even the courage to draw his weapon had vanished.

He knew all too well that even though the attacker had the element of surprise, to take down an expert like Wu Dong in a single blow, leaving him unable to get up, his fate unknown...

...the difference in their strength was an insurmountable gap!

’Fighting him is a dead end.’

’And running? In these winding, dark alleys that my opponent seems to know better than I do? That’s just a fantasy.’

”We... we can talk about this... Sir, which path do you walk? Maybe... maybe this is all a misunderstanding!”

Liu San forced an expression uglier than tears as he tried to negotiate.

But it was as if fear had robbed him of his senses. He’d completely forgotten that in the face of such an enormous power gap, the weak are never afforded the chance to negotiate.

The strange figure in black cloth gave no reaction to his words, only slowly raising an arm...

The movement was sluggish and limp, like stirring something in a thick bog, carrying a bizarre sense of discord.

Liu San froze for a moment. ’What is he doing?’

And that single moment of confusion cost him his last chance to draw his blade.

The slow-moving black shadow, in one imperceptible instant, suddenly accelerated!

It went from extreme stillness to extreme motion with no transition, so fast it tore through his vision, leaving only a blurry afterimage seared onto Liu San’s retinas.

THUD—

Another dull thud, identical to the first, and Liu San’s entire face contorted in agony.

The distinct crack of bone burst from his chest. At the same time, a strange and vicious Power pierced through his body, like countless red-hot iron skewers stabbing and churning through his internal organs.

”Urk...”

Liu San couldn’t even manage a full-throated scream as he was thrown backward like a kite with a snapped string, flying even faster and farther than before.

With a loud CRASH, he smashed through and collapsed a dilapidated, rickety shack.

Rotting planks, felt blankets, and other junk rained down on him.

Amidst the wreckage, Liu San lay curled up as mouthful after mouthful of fresh blood, mixed with chunks of his organs, gushed from his mouth and nose, instantly blocking his windpipe.

He was like a fish out of water, his mouth opening and closing uselessly. His eyes bulged and his limbs twitched uncontrollably.

In the end, he slowly drowned in his own warm blood, sinking into despair and darkness.

The strange figure wrapped in black cloth strolled unhurriedly over to the wreckage, bent down, and picked up the locked wooden box.

He had already noticed the many pairs of eyes in the surrounding shacks, secretly watching everything that had just happened through cracks in doors or gaps in the walls.

But he didn’t seem to care in the slightest. He walked slowly over to Wu Dong and Liu San.

With his cloth-wrapped hands, he cleanly and decisively snapped both of their necks, completely extinguishing any chance of their survival.

Then, the strange figure unhurriedly reached into their robes and pulled a Money Bag from each.

Finally, the strange figure slowly straightened up and vanished silently into the deeper, thicker darkness of the alley.

「Some time later.」

Scar Bear arrived in a fiery rush with more than a dozen of his lackeys.

Upon seeing the bodies of Wu Dong and Liu San, Scar Bear first felt a jolt of alarm, then immediately slapped his thigh and began to roar hysterically.

”Search! Search the area! See if there’s a locked wooden box! Find it for me, now!!!”

The lackeys hurriedly fanned out, but no matter how carefully they searched, it was all in vain.

Growing more and more anxious, Scar Bear kicked open the broken door of a nearby shack, dragged out a gaunt man, and slammed him to the ground.

”What happened here!? Don’t you dare tell me you didn’t see anything! Speak... Speak!!!”

”He’s here... he... he’s here!”

The gaunt man suddenly raised a hand and pointed toward the shadows at the corner of the alley.

”...Huh?”

Scar Bear looked up, but there was only an impenetrable darkness there.

But when a lackey approached with a lantern, everyone’s pupils contracted sharply.

Reflected clearly in their dark eyes was a strange figure wrapped in black cloth, charging out of the darkness at incredible speed, appearing before Scar Bear in the blink of an eye.

A cloth-wrapped arm slithered out, like a black python gliding through a sticky marsh—it looked incredibly slow and stiff.

The RUSTLE of the cloth rubbing together was clearly audible to all in that moment of dead silence.

But in the next instant, that slow arm, as if a bowstring had suddenly snapped, exploded with a speed imperceptible to the naked eye in one brief moment.

THUD—

Before anyone could react, they heard another sickening, dull thud.

The hand, so wrapped in black cloth that not even the outline of the knuckles was visible, shot forward like a demonic claw tearing through the void. It struck Scar Bear squarely in the chest with no frills or fanfare.

The sound wasn’t like a blow to flesh, but more like a heavy hammer striking a dozen layers of compacted leather.

The last trace of suspicion and ferocity on Scar Bear’s face froze instantly. His eyes bulged, and his entire body lifted off the ground as if all his bones had been removed, flying backward.

His massive frame, weighing well over two hundred pounds, was like a heavy sandbag thrown with immense force, crashing down into the crowd behind him.

The dull thud of bone and flesh, the sudden howls of pain, the chaos of lackeys tumbling over one another—it all erupted in an instant.

The alley was simply too narrow. The lackeys were sent sprawling, finding it difficult to even get back on their feet, let alone give chase or form an encirclement.

As for the strange figure in black cloth, he didn’t spare the messy scene a single glance. He turned calmly and slowly vanished as if he had never been there at all.

...

The night was black as ink.

Chen Cheng emerged from a deserted dead-end alley somewhere in the slums.

Inside the alley, the last few sparks flickered weakly before being extinguished.

The ashes of the burned black cloth and wooden box were caught by a gust of night wind, swirling into the air and scattering without a trace.

Tonight’s operation had gone far more smoothly than expected.

Not only had he eliminated two of Zhao Chuan’s lackeys and reaped a hefty reward, but more importantly, he had completely muddied the waters!

The black cloth wrapped around his body was just the first smokescreen.

The more crucial part was this: ever since meeting Zhou Long, Chen Cheng had been pondering how those *real* figures in black cloth actually utilized their Force Manipulation.