Apotheosis Begins with Tai Chi

Those with better skills scaled the walls directly.

Those with worse skills could only desperately push toward the main gate.

After a period of pushing, a few loud BOOMS rang out. The two heavy wooden doors had actually been torn down by the crowd. Immediately after, a large section of the courtyard wall was also toppled.

The Armored Warriors surged in like a tide.

There’s an old saying: bandits pass through like a comb, but soldiers pass through like a fine-toothed one.

Tonight, regardless of whether they could find the other half of the Red Moon Original Vow Scripture, not a single one of the Armored Warriors who rushed in would be leaving empty-handed.

To put it bluntly, what Lin Fengxiao had offered them wasn’t some vague, illusory merit.

It was a tangible, legitimate opportunity to get rich.

As for how much they could ultimately haul away, that would depend on their own abilities.

”This... this...”

Fu Yunchen’s face was deathly pale, and he was breaking out in a cold sweat. His legs were so weak he could barely stand.

His lips quivered desperately, but before he could say a word...

...several Armored Warriors, at a nod from Lin Fengxiao, pounced on him. They slammed Fu Yunchen to the ground, and with a CLANG of chains, had him bound tightly in the blink of an eye.

”I’ve been framed... I’ve been framed...”

Fu Yunchen’s face was shoved into the snow, filling his mouth with icy slush.

As if shocked awake by the cold, he suddenly found his voice and began to howl.

”Lin Fengxiao! This is a personal vendetta under the guise of official business! I want to see your superior! I demand justice! Justice! I’ve been wronged!!!”

Lin Fengxiao said nothing, merely flicking a glance in their direction.

Immediately, a burly Armored Warrior strode forward, lifted a foot bigger than Fu Yunchen’s face, and began to viciously kick and stomp on his mouth.

After a series of sickening thuds...

...Fu Yunchen’s mouth was a mangled ruin of flesh and blood. His teeth were shattered, his tongue lacerated by the fragments, and he could no longer form a single coherent word. All that came from his throat was the gurgling sound of blood welling up.

Seeing this, Lin Fengxiao finally walked over slowly. He looked down at him and said...

”Fu Yunchen, from the moment you conspired with the brigands of Grass Head Mountain, you became my mortal enemy!”

”You had a backer to help you escape punishment, so I couldn’t touch you before! But I, too, have a powerful expert assisting me from the shadows!”

As he said this, a clear flicker of reverence flashed in Lin Fengxiao’s eyes.

He paused, then glanced sideways and commanded...

”You men, continue ’entertaining’ Boss Fu until he confesses.”

”Yes, sir!”

Several Armored Warriors immediately surrounded him. They may not have had torture instruments on hand, but they had plenty of other ways to ’entertain’ Fu Yunchen.

As for confessing, even if Fu Yunchen wanted to, he had no idea what he was supposed to confess to.

The final outcome was self-evident.

”You’ve all worked hard, brothers. After this is over, I, Lin Fengxiao, will not treat you poorly!”

”Yes, sir!”

Hearing Lin Fengxiao’s promise, his squad of Armored Warriors was instantly reinvigorated. They ’entertained’ Fu Yunchen with even more vigor.

For a time, the muffled thuds of fists on flesh, the sharp cracks of breaking bones, the squelching of splattering blood, and pig-like squeals of agony filled the air... This continued for about half an hour before finally falling into a deathly silence.

...

The back door of the Fuchang Trading Company opened onto a vast, intricate network of dark alleyways.

Han Tianqi wasn’t familiar with this area. Moreover, he loathed the filthy, chaotic, and stinking alleys of the Outer City.

But the commotion on the main street was too great for him to risk it, so he had no choice but to force himself into these alleys.

There wasn’t a single light inside.

And with the heavy snow filling the sky, the light of the stars and moon was completely blotted out.

He plunged in headfirst, into a darkness so thick he couldn’t see his hand in front of his face.

Even for someone as powerful as Han Tianqi, he couldn’t help but become disoriented.

Several times he wandered in circles, only to end up back in the same spot.

This made him incredibly frustrated.

The key was that the commotion from the main street was growing louder and had even spread rapidly throughout the entire Fuchang Trading Company.

This unsettled his Heart Spirit even more, making it difficult to concentrate.

Gradually, the more he tried to quicken his pace, the more he stumbled and bumped into things.

His legs kept tripping over debris, his forehead hit a low eave, and his arm scraped against a broken wooden plank... Several gashes were torn in his brocade robe, with tufts of cotton padding poking out.

The longer it took, the more agitated he became.

What he found even more unbearable was the foul stench that permeated the air.

In truth, the air in this area was already quite good compared to the slums.

But for a young master from the Inner City like Han Tianqi, the smell was still unbearably foul.

According to him and his degenerate friends, this was the ’stench of poverty’.

He had always avoided it like the plague.

But now, this ’stench of poverty’ was crawling into his nostrils and clinging to his skin.

Frustration, oppression, indignation, suffocation...

The negative emotions kept piling up, almost driving him insane.

”Fuck—!”

Han Tianqi’s foot suddenly sank into a patch of snow. It didn’t find solid ground, but instead plunged down a short distance.

It was soft and squishy, whether it was rotten mud or something else, he didn’t know.

He couldn’t help but curse out loud, pulling his foot out and trying to shake off the sticky substance...

Just then, the swirling snow in front of him seemed to be tugged by something, its trajectory completely altered.

However, the surroundings were pitch-black, making it impossible to see. The howling wind also masked all other sounds.

Crucially, Han Tianqi was agitated to an extreme degree, his attention completely focused on whatever his foot had stepped in.

As a result, in that single instant, he was completely oblivious to the object rapidly approaching him from the front.

The final sound of the ”fuck” he had just uttered hadn’t yet faded.

When he suddenly felt a chill on his neck.

A cold blade, without any warning, pierced his skin, severed his blood vessels, and bored through his muscle...