The room plunged into darkness.
He walked over to the hard wooden bed and lay down fully clothed.
He closed his eyes.
At the same time.
In the old city district, at a dimly lit alley where even most of the streetlights were broken.
Three dark figures skulked along the wall, their eyes fixed on the window of Su Yu’s rental room, where the light had just been switched off.
The man in the lead wore a shabby black leather jacket, a cheap cigarette dangling from his lips.
The dim moonlight fell on his face, illuminating a hideous scar that stretched from the corner of his eye all the way down to his chin.
Old Mo.
A notorious gangster from the underground market of Jiang City.
At the same time, he was also a bona fide martial artist.
Although his Qi and Blood value was barely 110 points—the lowest tier among martial artists—it was enough for him to bully his way through this old district.
"Brother Mo..."
Beside him, a lackey with dyed yellow hair swallowed hard, his voice trembling noticeably.
"Are we... really going to do this?"
Old Mo shot him a sidelong glare, his gaze icy. "What? Scared?"
"How could I not be!"
Another lackey, a fat one, lowered his voice and spoke anxiously, "That's a high school student! The college entrance exam is just around the corner!"
"The laws of the Great Xia nation clearly state that during the exam period, all senior high school students are under the government's key protection!"
"If the City Defense Bureau or the Martial Arts Association finds out we crippled a student before the exam..."
The fat lackey shuddered and didn't dare to continue.
That was a capital offense!
"Slap!"
Old Mo unceremoniously smacked the fat lackey on the back of the head.
"Have you no spine!"
Old Mo swore in a low voice. "What are you afraid of! The government protects those who have a shot at getting into martial arts universities—those geniuses!"
"For an ordinary high schooler, the most they have is 10 Qi and Blood points."
"Even those so-called top prodigies at Jiang City No. 1 High School max out at under 100 points by the time they graduate."
Old Mo sneered, pulling out his phone and pulling up a file.
The faint light from the screen illuminated the scar on his face, making it look even more savage.
"Besides, Master Zhao's intel clearly says it."
"This kid called Su Yu only has a Qi and Blood value of 0.8!"
Old Mo stretched out a finger and jabbed it hard at the number "0.8" on the screen.
"You know what 0.8 means?"
"Even a stray dog on the street that eats a bit better has higher Qi and Blood than him!"
Old Mo stuffed his phone back into his pocket, his expression full of contempt. "With Qi and Blood that low, he can't even beat a regular adult. If I, an official martial artist, go in person and still let this kid make a fuss, I might as well find a piece of tofu and bash my brains out!"
The yellow-haired lackey was still uneasy, rubbing his hands together. "Brother Mo, what if... just in case..."
"What if this kid is slippery and starts yelling in the dead of night, waking up all the neighbors?"
"Impossible."
Old Mo cut him off decisively.
"There absolutely won't be any accidents."
"For a loser with 0.8, I can control his throat in one move and stop him from making even a single fart."
Old Mo glanced at the old mechanical watch on his wrist.
Eleven forty-five at night.
"Hold on."
Old Mo blew out a smoke ring, his eyes turning cruel and greedy. "We wait until the middle of the night."
"Once he's sound asleep, we slip in."
"Master Zhao’s orders: break both his legs, have him stay in the hospital for half a month, and make him miss the exam."
"Once this job is done, two hundred thousand yuan in hand. I'll take you lot to the Nightspot and let you have a good time for a few days!"
At the mention of the two hundred thousand fortune, the two lackeys instantly started breathing heavily.
Fear, in the face of money, was quickly suppressed.
The three of them lurked like hyenas in the shadows, staring fixedly at the dark window.
Time ticked by, minute by minute.
Midnight, twelve thirty in the morning.
The old district fell into absolute silence, broken only by the occasional stray cat's meow.
"Let's go."
Old Mo tossed away his cigarette butt and crushed it under his toe.
The three crept quietly into the rundown apartment building.
The hallway reeked of mold and sour filth.
Old Mo stopped in front of Su Yu's door.
It was an ancient wooden door, its lock cylinder long rusted.
Old Mo pulled a thin wire from his waist and deftly worked it into the keyhole.
Inside the room.
On the hard wooden bed.
At the moment the wire touched the lock cylinder, Su Yu's steady breathing paused almost imperceptibly.
After breaking through to the Martial Master realm.
His five senses had been heightened to a terrifying, superhuman level.
Not just the sound of lock picking outside the door—
Even the dripping of a water pipe in the neighboring building, if he wanted to hear it, he could catch every drop.
In Su Yu's current perception.
Outside the door stood three people.
Two ordinary men, their hearts racing and breathing rapid—obviously very nervous.
And one...
With a steady, powerful heartbeat, the sound of his blood flowing thicker and louder than a normal person's—undoubtedly an official martial artist who had broken through human limits.
But in the perception of Su Yu, who had just stepped into the realm of 'Martial Master,' the martial artist's blood energy fluctuation outside the door was like a faint candle flame, pitifully insignificant compared to the vast, ocean-like depths within his own body.
Too weak.
So weak that Su Yu didn't even feel the slightest sense of urgency.
In the darkness, Su Yu didn't move, but his mind raced quickly.
"In the dead of night, an official martial artist brings two ordinary men to pick my lock?"
He was an orphan too poor to even pay his rent, the most valuable thing in this room being that pile of review materials—nothing worth a thief's trouble.
Not after property—then it had to be after the person.
And in the three years he'd lain low, besides working odd jobs and training in martial arts, he hadn't come into contact with any underground forces.
The only exception was just a few hours ago.
"This afternoon I refused Zhao Ze's request to buy my exam results, and by midnight a martial artist shows up at my door."
Understanding dawned instantly in Su Yu's mind.
"Master Zhao really couldn't even wait one night, could he?"
If the deal didn't go through, he resorted to black-hand tactics.
That was how the privileged classes operated in this high-martial-arts world.
To them, ordinary people were truly just ants that could be crushed at any moment.
If it had been Su Yu from just a few hours ago—
Facing an official martial artist and two henchmen breaking in in the dead of night—his only fate would have been to have his legs broken, be thrown to the ground like a dead dog, and be forced to watch his chance to change his destiny be ripped away.
But now—
Click.
An extremely faint, crisp sound.
The lock, opened.
The old wooden door was pushed open a sliver.
The faint moonlight from the hallway filtered through the crack, stretching three twisted shadows across the floor.
The same moment the wooden door was pushed open—
On the bed, Su Yu instantly opened his eyes.
What kind of eyes were those?
No trace of fog from just waking up.
No hint of panic at facing intruders.
Only boundless cold detachment.
Like a lofty deity looking down upon three clueless ants crawling into its territory.
Old Mo slipped into the room first, as nimble as a cat in the night.
He gently closed the door behind him.
The room was plunged into darkness once more.
Old Mo’s eyes quickly locked onto the hard wooden bed not far away.
On the bed, a hazy figure lay motionless.
“Sleeping like a log,”
Old Mo sneered inwardly.
He gestured to the two men behind him, signaling them to pin down the target’s arms.
Then, he pulled a solid steel pipe from the small of his back.
The cold metal exuded a chilling dread in the darkness.