Chapter 252 - 246: Not Cherishing Life

Chapter 252: Chapter 246: Not Cherishing Life

"That’s a nice haircut, Kitty. You got a shave, too. You look much sharper."

Beneath the eaves of the barbershop, Fu Juemin beamed at Kitty, praising him endlessly.

Kitty said nothing, only giving him a faint, exasperated look.

The young barber standing nearby, a white towel draped over his shoulder, chuckled as well. ’These guys look vicious,’ he was probably thinking, ’but they’re actually pretty easy to talk to.’

"Big Cat, do you want one, too?"

After complimenting Kitty, Fu Juemin turned to ask Big Cat, who had been holding an umbrella over him.

Big Cat looked down at him, his expression solemn.

"Young Master."

"Yes?"

"They’re here."

The smile on Fu Juemin’s face slowly faded. Big Cat raised the umbrella higher. His gaze pierced the thick curtain of rain, looking past the silent archway in the downpour to the end of the long street, where a group of people was rushing out.

The group ran through the rain, followed by a rickshaw swaying unsteadily behind them.

The moment the people and the rickshaw appeared at the mouth of Vermilion Bird Street, figures began pouring out from the buildings and alleys on both sides.

Without a moment’s hesitation, the two sides clashed the instant they met.

Gunshots rang out incessantly as figures fell one after another. One man among the group protecting the rickshaw was particularly formidable; in the dozen or so seconds Fu Juemin observed, he had already cut down four or five people.

Through Yao Ling, Fu Juemin recognized the man as Tang Jing.

The escorts were the Revolutionary Faction, which meant the person in the rickshaw had to be Li Mingyi.

SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH—

The sound of rapid splashing grew louder, but it was coming from behind them.

Fu Juemin turned and saw a group of men, all with white cloths tied around their arms, rushing out of the Dingqing Tea House several hundred meters away.

The Instructor, wielding a Fused Copper Long Staff, led the way. The group moved faster and faster, finally breaking into a run through the downpour and speeding past Fu Juemin.

Fu Juemin glanced up, his eyes meeting the concerned gaze of Madam Ding, who was sitting by a window on the third floor of the Dingqing Tea House.

"Did you pay?"

Fu Juemin retracted his gaze and asked suddenly.

Under the dripping eaves, all three of them froze.

Kitty was the first to react, replying in a gruff voice, "Didn’t you say it was your treat, Young Master?"

"I forgot."

Fu Juemin chuckled and shook his head. He then pulled a silver coin from Big Cat’s pocket, tossed it to the young barber, and said gently, "Keep the change."

"Hurry and close up shop. The streets aren’t safe right now."

The young barber stood frozen for a moment, holding the silver coin Fu Juemin had given him. Then, snapping out of it, he muttered, "Oh, oh," and scurried back into the shop, obediently beginning to close up for the day.

As the shutters of the Da Guangming Hair Salon were closed one by one behind Fu Juemin, the distant, rain-lashed street had all but transformed into a slaughterhouse with the arrival of the Instructor and his men.

More and more men poured out from the sides of the street. At first, they were just ordinary gang members, but the combatants grew progressively stronger. The gunshots faded, replaced by the clash of cold steel and the thud of fists and feet.

The rickshaw, at the very center of the vortex, moved as if mired in mud, every foot of progress a struggle.

Corpses littered the path behind and ahead of the rickshaw. Blood mingled with the rain, staining the street crimson.

The Fused Copper Long Staff in the Instructor’s hands was a blur. He guarded the rickshaw, leading the charge, single-handedly absorbing nearly sixty percent of the pressure.

Yet he moved as if through an empty battlefield. Any opponent who raised a weapon within ten feet of him had their limbs and torso explode without warning.

Until...

A ghostly figure shot through the curtain of rain and abruptly joined the fray.

"Smoker!!"

Even from half a street away, Fu Juemin heard the Instructor’s roar—a sound thick with fury, confusion, resentment, and anguish.

The traitorous Smoker engaged the Instructor. The power radiating from the two Gratitude Sensing Realm Martial Artists was so intense that no one else could get near. Amid the downpour, only constant explosions of mist and spray were visible...

"Your key, sir."

The young barber, finished with his closing, carefully held out a copper key on a red string to Fu Juemin. He glanced at the street, now a river of blood, and whispered, his face pale, "If things get bad... you can hide in my shop."

"Aren’t you afraid we’ll wreck your shop?"

Fu Juemin glanced at the key in the young man’s hands and asked with a smile.

The young man gave a shy smile and shook his head. "The whole shop isn’t worth much. Besides... what’s more important than your life?"

"You’re right."

A glint in his eye, Fu Juemin nodded and took the key. "Thank you."

He watched the young man’s retreating figure, then turned his attention back to the street.

By now, the rickshaw had already swayed past the central archway, now only about a hundred meters from where he stood.

The ambushers and escorts were locked in a chaotic melee, leaving no one free to pursue the rickshaw. The area immediately around it had become strangely empty.

Fu Juemin stepped out from under the eaves, Big Cat and Kitty close behind. Raindrops pattered against the black umbrella over his head.

WHOOSH—

With a whistle of air, the rickshaw puller, who had been running at full tilt, suddenly collapsed to the ground, his head lolling to one side.

Fu Juemin remained calm, but Kitty shot forward like an enraged lion.

BOOM!

Kitty sprang in front of the rickshaw, catching it with one huge hand just as it was about to tip over.

He stood beside the rickshaw like a solid wall, facing diagonally across the street as rain streamed down his freshly shaved scalp.

As a new puller scrambled to take over, seven figures slowly emerged from the rain diagonally across the street.

Big Cat silently handed the black umbrella to Fu Juemin, then strode forward.

「Meanwhile, on the third floor of the Dingqing Tea House.」

The middle-aged man sitting at the square table with Elder Feng seemed to sense something and his eyes snapped open.

He suddenly placed a hand on a long saber that lay on the table, wrapped in layers of cloth strips. Then he drained his wine bowl in one gulp, picked up the saber, and rose to his feet.

Seeing him rise, Elder Feng and the other masters on the third floor also began to stir.

The group moved swiftly downstairs. The middle-aged man strode at the front, slowly unwrapping the cloth from his saber layer by layer as he spoke casually to those beside him. "The Seven Heroes of Jiangzuo... aside from their leader, Broken Mountain Saber Xue Hen, the other six are nothing but clowns."

"I’ll have to trouble you, Elder Feng, and the rest of you, to hold back the other six. Leave Xue Hen to me."

"The saying in the martial world goes, ’Nie Yunzhen of the South, Xue Hen of the North.’"

"Today, I, Nie Yunzhen, will see for myself which is stronger—the Southern Blade or the Northern Blade!"

As he finished speaking, the last of the cloth fell away from his saber. The sudden flash of cold light from the blade illuminated the entire area, bright as snow.

His eyes burned, and he radiated an immense will to fight, a palpable saber intent. Saber in hand, he strode through the teahouse doors.

But just as he crossed the threshold, his eyes fell upon three figures standing silently in the middle of the street directly opposite him.

The instant he saw them clearly, the man’s imposing aura deflated like a punctured balloon, vanishing in a breath.

The man froze, his face turning pale. His eyes were locked on one of the three—an old man with a handlebar mustache who was now giving him a casual glance. In a trembling voice, he muttered, "Black Tower... Fan Wuyan?!"

...

BOOM!

Beneath the archway, the battle ignited in an instant.

Big Cat and Kitty were locked in combat with two of the seven who had emerged from across the street.

Fu Juemin stood in the rain, one hand holding his umbrella. He didn’t watch the fight, his eyes fixed only on the rickshaw.

Ten meters...

Five meters...

One meter...

Once the rickshaw safely passed by him, Fu Juemin turned and began walking calmly back toward the barbershop, umbrella in hand.

BOOM!

A figure suddenly flew past him, trailing a spray of water, and slammed into the barbershop’s wooden shutters, smashing a huge hole in them.

Kitty shook his head and climbed out of the pile of splintered wood. A stark gash was visible on his chest.

Fu Juemin paused for a fraction of a second, glanced at Kitty, and then continued on his way.

CRASH—

Another body was sent flying back, landing in a heap at his feet.

This time, it was Big Cat.

Fu Juemin stopped again. After a moment’s thought, he finally turned around.

He raised his eyes.

There, under the curtain of rain, a slender, upright figure stood silently before him.

He was a man who appeared to be in his thirties, dressed in Profound-black martial attire that was now completely drenched.

He must have been exceptionally handsome, but anyone who met his eyes would immediately forget his face.

They were a pair of incredibly sharp eyes, like an unsheathed saber, like molten iron trapped in ice. They seemed capable of piercing through anything.

He held an Eyebrow Knife with an azure tassel in one hand. The blade was bright as snow. An incisive momentum that felt like it could slice through anything radiated from him. The raindrops falling toward him exploded into hazy mist over his head, around his body, and on the level blade.

"The rickshaw has already passed. I’m not in your way."

Fu Juemin stood in the rain under his umbrella, his tone mild as he spoke to the man.

The man’s lips twisted into a mocking smile.

"You’re the one I’m looking for."

He strolled toward Fu Juemin, the puddles on the ground parting automatically before him.

"Twenty years ago, Demon Elephant Ji Shaotong killed my father and my brother. My mother and sister-in-law died of grief as a result!

"Ji Shaotong murdered my entire family!

"You are his apprentice. If you cooperate today and lure him out, I can grant you a quick death."

The edge of his blade hummed faintly in the rain.

"If you refuse..."

The man stopped five meters from Fu Juemin, his handsome face twisting into a savage snarl. "Then I will carve you up, slice by slice," he said cruelly, "until Ji Shaotong finally decides to show himself!"

Fu Juemin listened in silence, not saying a word.

Rainwater dripped in streams from the ribs of the umbrella.

The patience in the man’s eyes evaporated. With a cold sneer, he raised his blade and slashed at Fu Juemin.

In the torrential downpour, a water curtain several meters high suddenly rose, followed by an arcing flash of the blade that seemed to warp the very air as it cleaved a path straight toward the black umbrella!

The slash was almost too fast for the eye to follow!

Yet, when this astonishingly powerful slash landed, there was no impact. It was utterly silent.

As if it had been swallowed by the deepest night.

No clash, no thunderous sound.

The man froze. He looked at his saber hand, then back toward the umbrella, his expression one of disbelief.

A moment later, over the patter of rain on the umbrella, a gentle voice sighed.

"With your entire family wiped out, you of all people should understand that nothing in this world is more important than life."

"Even a common street barber knows to cherish his life. Why don’t you?"

Beneath the black umbrella, Fu Juemin, who had caught the very tip of the man’s saber in his palm, finished speaking calmly. Wisps of Vitality, like condensed white smoke, began to emanate from his body...

The hand that had been holding the umbrella gave it a gentle push upward.

The black umbrella left his hand, spinning as it ascended, rising into the torrent like a full, black moon.

And then...

BOOM!—

A terrifying aura erupted from him. In a ten-meter radius, every single raindrop instantly atomized, creating a dense, churning white fog that blotted out everything....