Chapter 23 I'm the One
Chapter 23 I'm the One
"You killed him with a basic stance."
The scarred Enforcer Captain stared at the splintered cabin wall. The remaining elite disciple lowered his steel saber as his hands shook violently.
Ye Chen looked at his own bare palm. A strange new heat flooded his veins.
It was not the burning golden Qi of his cultivation art. It was the raw adrenaline of a predator.
For three years he had cowered in the damp stables. He took the beatings from low level servants.
In the Myriad Beast Forest he fought to survive the night. He was the prey running from mutated wolves and greedy mercenaries.
Today the cycle broke. His body was a forged iron vessel. He was the monster in the dark.
Ye Chen embraced the dark philosophy of malice he learned in his isolated cave. He did not fight to defend himself anymore. He fought to annihilate.
The second disciple took another step backward in the mud. He opened his mouth to shout for reinforcements.
Ye Chen vanished.
His maxed Swift Wind Steps activated without a wasted movement. He crossed the muddy ground in the blink of an eye.
He appeared directly beside the trembling disciple. Ye Chen did not bother to draw a weapon.
He drove his palm upward into the side of the man's neck. The Mountain Crushing Palm delivered raw force straight into the spine.
The bone snapped with a loud crack. The elite disciple collapsed face first into the blood soaked mud. He died before he understood he was hit.
"Court death."
The Enforcer Captain roared. The giant man lunged forward. He swung his heavy spiked mace in a brutal horizontal arc.
Thick yellow Earth Qi enveloped the iron spikes. The elemental magic manipulated the gravity around the weapon. It made the mace weigh thousands of pounds.
Ye Chen reached over his shoulder. He drew the colossal rusted iron sword.
He swung the heavy blade to meet the incoming mace.
The collision rang like a cracked temple bell. The shockwave blew the muddy water out of the nearby puddles.
Ye Chen felt his boots sink deep into the earth. The weight of the Earth Qi traveled down the rusted blade and into his arms.
His muscles screamed under the sudden crushing load. His hands went numb.
His bones did not break.
His Level One Iron Bone Vajra Skill held firm. His maxed Iron Skin Mantra absorbed the residual vibration tearing at his flesh. The body upgrade functioned exactly as designed.
"You block heavy strikes with garbage," the Captain sneered. He pulled the mace back and swung again.
Ye Chen parried the second blow. He deflected a third downward smash.
The Captain fought with savage fury. He relied on the overwhelming mass of his Earth Qi to batter his opponents into submission.
Sparks flew into the night sky with every clash of iron. The captive mortals in the wooden cages pressed themselves against the far bars. They watched Ye Chen fight a high ranking sect official on equal footing.
Ye Chen shifted his weight to launch a counterattack.
His back boot slid sideways.
The ground beneath him was slick. The mud was softened by the blood of the tortured mortals dripping from the holding pens.
Ye Chen lost his footing for a fraction of a second. He stumbled backward.
The Captain saw the opening immediately. A cruel smile stretched across his scarred face.
"Your head is mine," the Captain bellowed.
He raised the glowing spiked mace high above his head. He gathered every ounce of his Earth Qi into the heavy iron head. He brought the weapon down toward Ye Chen's unprotected skull.
Ye Chen had no room to dodge. The mud trapped his boots.
He raised the rusted sword horizontally with both hands. He braced his bones for the impact.
The spiked mace slammed directly into the center of the blade.
The ancient iron could not withstand the concentrated force of the Earth Qi. The sword fractured down the middle.
The metal shattered into dozens of jagged shards. Rusted fragments rained down into the bloody mud.
Ye Chen held nothing but a broken leather hilt.
The Captain laughed. He raised his mace to deliver the final killing blow to the unarmed boy.
"You die now, beggar."
Ye Chen did not retreat from the broken guard. He stepped directly into the Captain's personal space.
He dropped the useless leather hilt into the mud.
Ye Chen funneled his roaring golden Chaos Qi directly into his bare right fist. The knuckles took on a faint bronze metallic sheen.
He struck the Captain square in the center of his heavy steel breastplate.
He executed the Chaos Bone Shattering Fist at point blank range.
There was no loud explosion of surface force. The heavy steel breastplate did not even dent.
The shockwave traveled straight through the metal armor. It bypassed the defense and erupted inside the Captain's chest cavity.
The Enforcer Captain froze with his mace raised high in the air.
The cruel smile vanished from his scarred face. His eyes bulged in sudden confusion and blinding pain.
The shockwave ruptured his heart into several pieces. His massive lungs collapsed under the internal pressure.
The spiked mace slipped from his thick fingers. It splashed into the mud.
The Captain fell to his knees. He looked down at his unbroken steel armor. He could not comprehend how the unarmed boy had delivered a fatal strike.
He opened his mouth to speak. A thick stream of black blood poured over his lips.
The Enforcer collapsed face first into the bloody mud. He died staring at Ye Chen's muddy boots.
Ye Chen looked down at the dead man. He felt no remorse. The execution was efficient and necessary.
"System," Ye Chen commanded. "Extract."
A stream of pure energy flowed from the dead Captain into Ye Chen's Dantian.
The blue interface chimed in the dark.
\[Experience gained.\]
\[Target defeated. Reward: 50 System Points.\]
Ye Chen checked his balance. He now had sixty System Points. It was a small step toward the one thousand he needed for the demonic manual.
He turned away from the corpse. He walked toward the wooden holding pens.
The captive mortals stared at him in silent awe. They expected the Enforcers to butcher them before dawn. Instead a boy in a shredded gray tunic had slaughtered their tormentors in minutes.
Ye Chen gripped the heavy iron lock on the first cage door. He squeezed his fingers.
His dense iron bones and maxed physical strength snapped the crude padlock in half. He pulled the cage door open.
"The Enforcers are dead," Ye Chen announced to the terrified prisoners. "Take their weapons from the mud. Flee into the lower slums before the sect sends reinforcements."
A young woman crawled out of the cage. She coughed heavily. Ye Chen recognized the sickening rasp of lung rot in her chest.
It was Zhang Hu's sick daughter.
She looked at the broken padlock and then at Ye Chen.
"Who are you?," she whispered through her coughing fit.
"I am the man who collected your father's final debt," Ye Chen replied.