Chapter 69—They’ve Repaid Me

Chapter 69: Chapter 69—They’ve Repaid Me

Chapter 69—They’ve Repaid Me

Another bright blue beam descended onto Lei Cheng’s body. ’What incredible strength.’ He tensed up as he sensed massive amounts of energy piling up inside his body.

’If this goes out of control, my entire body will be torn to pieces.’ He frowned. ’I need to find a solution.’ He mused solemnly before glancing at the golden sky. ’Yue might be able to help me out.’ Until then, forcing the energy would only invite another disaster.

’Now rewards should be done, right?’

The golden sky slowly returned to normal. Lei Cheng let out a relieved breath as the energy within him turned silent and lay dormant.

Suddenly, five orbs shot down from the sky and floated before him, rotating in a circle.

Each orb was pitch black and could be easily held by an adult human palm. Lei Cheng picked one up and tapped it with the fingers of his other hand.

’It’s tough.’ He clenched it hard. ’My cultivation strength has returned... yet this still won’t break.’

He used his power little by little—then all of it. Yet it didn’t break. His palm glowed with white-golden flames. ’Even my Supreme Nine Yang Intent cannot damage it.’ His eyes widened. ’This is not an ordinary thing.’ Anything capable of surviving the full power of his Supreme Nine Yang Intent couldn’t be measured by common standards.

His nine yang intent could turn Azure Cloud City to dust, yet it failed to lay a scratch on the black orb!

He raised his leg and stomped hard on the ground. Thud!A crater a few meters deep appeared instantly as dust rose into the air.

’Indeed, my cultivation power returned.’ The brief test confirmed it—his cultivation had fully returned. He picked all the orbs and put them in his sleeve.

He then glanced around his surroundings. He was in clear open land, and broken debris littered the ground. Apart from dust and ruins, nothing remained, and destruction extended for a few streets.

’Had the skeleton unleashed everything indiscriminately, Azure Cloud City might have ceased to exist.’ He sighed at its power.

The Shadow skeleton knew it couldn’t kill him with its suicide attack, so it concentrated all the damage in one area, trying to at least injure him a little.

Despite that, the destruction was vast. Many streets had been reduced to rubble and dust.

That was enough to separate it from the streets ahead, which remained unharmed. He dashed into one of the streets in front.

On the other side, Zhu Lin muttered as he dashed toward the inner city. "Young Master Lei has finished everything. I don’t need to help him anymore."

He had a faint smile on his face. ’I need to check whether we can exit the domain.’ He glanced at the sky, which had returned to normal, turning back to blue.

As soon as he reached the inner city entrance street, he shouted, "Can you hear me?"

He waved his hands.

The guarding city guards frowned. One of them stepped forward and yelled, "What’s wrong, Constable?"

’They can hear me.’ Zhu Lin patted his chest and let out a relieved breath. His racing heart calmed down in a few moments.

He then walked toward the entrance of the inner city. The walls stood dozens of meters high, while the massive black gates remained wide open.

They were open as the city guards stood watch. As he glanced inside, he noticed many guards armed and standing at their posts. Their expressions were relaxed, yet they still held their weapons tightly. "Why did you shout? Did you find any trouble?"

Another city guard stepped forward. He was middle-aged and had a bald patch on his head. He raised his voice, "Constable, I spotted a beam of light just now. What was it? And what about that announcement?"

Before he could continue, another city guard jumped in. "What was it? Was it Young Master Lei’s work? Of killing the Bizarre Creature?"

Everyone turned toward Constable Zhu with wide eyes. Their eyes gleamed with excitement.

"Indeed," Zhu Lin replied with a broad smile. "Young Master Lei killed the Bizarre Creature. Even the heavens acknowledged his achievement, and did you all hear it?"

"We did," everyone’s mouths hung open, but their spines straightened. "And everyone should have heard."

"He took it down in such a short amount of time?" They recalled the time.

They turned toward Zhu Lin.

"We didn’t even notice a domain forming?"

"How did it happen, and when?"

They jumped in, questioning one by one.

Zhu Lin froze.

He pointed behind him and asked, "Before this beam, another beam shot into the sky. Didn’t any of you notice it?"

"No."

They shook their heads.

"We didn’t."

"What?" Zhu Lin hissed, rubbing his chin.

He recalled that the first beam had been just as magnificent as the second one where the Shadow skeleton blew itself up.

He shook his head. "This must be its power—hiding from everyone."

Indeed, the Shadow skeleton had used its concealment ability to hide the beam as well.

Hence, no one except those inside its domain had noticed it.

The city guards nodded and glanced at Zhu Lin.

"We need to prepare. Azure Cloud City will be remembered in history alongside Young Master Lei. We should honor him," Constable Zhu announced, raising his hand.

"Let’s inform the City Lord and the others first." The city guards echoed together.

They dashed toward the city lord’s mansion, leaving only two unwilling city guards behind to guard the gates.

Meanwhile, in the outer city, Lei Cheng finally entered the street. He glanced around.

’This is how it should be.’

He found the street unaffected, just as before. As soon as he stepped forward, a few people were already standing at the other end of the street. They noticed him immediately. "Young Master Lei is here!"

Everyone rushed out of their houses. Their shouts spread to the nearby streets, and one by one, people informed the others.

Within moments, before Lei Cheng could leave the street, the people who had been trapped inside the domain rushed over and stood before him.

Glancing at the crowd, Lei Cheng sighed. "What do you want? I’ve already done what I came here to do."

"We would like to thank you." An old man stepped forward.

He bent his back. "Please, let us thank you."

For many of them, surviving today already felt like receiving a second life.

Lei Cheng glanced at the old man and recalled that he was the one who had thrown the axe at the gang member. He had also been the one who stood up the most, ready to throw away his life whenever trouble arose.

"Okay." Lei Cheng nodded with a slight grin.

Someone nearby led Lei Cheng to a clean house.

"It’s my house. You can sit here." He pulled out a chair from the dining table.

Lei Cheng sat down and glanced around. The house was simple and plain, with only a few portraits, a small amount of furniture, and clean rooms. "Not bad."

The people inside the house stood quietly in the corner, while everyone else remained outside. No one dared to enter.

Time passed as the old man entered with a few cooked chicken eggs and placed them on the table. He said slowly, "This is from the slums. It’s all we can offer."

Lei Cheng glanced at the eggs and nodded. "That’s enough. At least you’re trying to repay me."

He picked up an egg and ate it.

Despite the simple meal, Lei Cheng felt warmth fill his heart. The poor people of the slums barely had enough food for themselves, yet they had come together and brought him a few eggs. He recalled that they lived in wooden huts which could be blown away by strong gusts, not even proper houses.

They knew they should repay the favor. At least they tried.

The value of a gift had never been measured by its price, but by what the giver was willing to sacrifice.

Then, one by one, more dishes arrived—each hand-cooked by outer city people who were stuck in the domain. Ranging from polished white rice to chicken noodles to fruits. The aroma of freshly cooked food slowly filled the small wooden house, yet Lei Cheng’s attention remained on the empty eggshells resting before him.

’These dishes are ordinary to me, but not to those who truly need them...’ Lei Cheng stopped after finishing the eggs. He pointed at the dishes and said to the old man, "Give them to the beggars."

The old man froze.

"Is something wrong?"

Lei Cheng shook his head. "I accepted the eggs because that’s enough. My clan doesn’t lack food."

He pointed at the dishes. "These are from the people outside the slums. Some of them are even rich. They only sent food to go through the motions."

The old man recalled what had happened.

Just before Lei Cheng entered the street, he had stood at the entrance and shouted, "That young man helped us. We should do something for him."

A few people, clad in good silk robes, immediately objected.

"Why? He’s rich. He’s from one of the great clans of the inner city. He has everything."

"We don’t have anything to offer."

The old man turned toward the protesting people. "He avenged children and saved your lives."

"So what?"

"What?" the old man hissed.

A few people from the slums suddenly declared, grinning, "I’ll give one egg."

"I’ll cook one egg. That’s all I can offer."

A few others nodded.

"An egg it is."

The others looked at the poor people in their torn, tattered clothes, offering an egg that could have been their only meal for the day. They fell silent. It felt as though someone had struck them squarely in the chest. Sometimes, the poorest people carried the richest hearts.

"...Very well."

"We’ll cook some dishes for him."

Back to the present—

"Okay. Don’t misunderstand my intentions." Lei Cheng raised his voice. "I have everything I could ever eat."

He hadn’t forgotten the gang member whose criminal record he had read—on who he had experimented. The man had purposely broken children’s limbs just so they could beg.

For them, this food would be a heaven-sent gift.

The old man nodded on the spot. "As you wish, Young Master."

"Make sure no one knows about this." Lei Cheng said, laying his legs on the table.

He pointed toward the people who had been standing silently in the back from the beginning.

"Send these out through the back. I want to see how long people will keep sending food..." His eyes turned sharp. "And don’t stop until I say so."

The old man nodded.

One by one, the dishes came in.

The people inside the house took them from the back and distributed them to the poor, the beggars, and the needy. They devoured the food without wasting even a bit. On the way, when a chicken leg fell on the dusty ground, a six-year-old kid clad in torn and dusty clothes picked it up and ate it with relish, as tears fell from his eyes. "Food. Food." He muttered. To that child, a single meal meant more than dignity ever could.

Hours passed. The sun began setting, as a crimson moon began to rise.

A few hours later, in a courtyard, a man clad in an orange brocade robe kicked over a cooking pot furiously.

Thud!

The boiling liquid spilled onto the ground. The cooking woman shrieked, "Ahh!" and stepped back.

"Husband, what the hell are you doing?" she roared.

"How much longer are you going to keep cooking?" he hissed, running a hand through his nearly tired hair.

"He saved us!" the woman exclaimed.

"My foot, he saved us! That Shadow creature was only after the children, not us!" he yelled so loudly that several nearby houses heard him.

One nearby family quietly lowered the fire. A second followed. Within minutes, everyone had stopped cooking. Even those which were arranged to send were stopped in the middle.

On the other side.

A few minutes later, the old man walked in.

"They’re tired."

Lei Cheng smiled and nodded.

"Good. That’s enough..." He stood up. "They’ve repaid me."

He had never expected gratitude to last forever. Sincerity, even for a single day, was already enough.

Just as he stepped out of the house—

Boom! Boom!

A huge golden beam of light shot into the sky from the inner city.

Lei Cheng froze.

He turned to his right.

Another golden beam shot into the sky from dozens of kilometers away.

He turned again to his left.

A third beam rose into the sky from another direction.

Glancing around, he noticed four golden beams surrounding the entire Azure Cloud City.

As he raised his head, a layer of white light spread across the sky.

Lei Cheng narrowed his eyes solemnly.

"Is it a formation?"

He scowled. ’What the hell is going on?’

He muttered, "It doesn’t seem like a Bizarre Domain."

Whatever was coming next felt completely different from everything he had faced until now.

---

End of Arc 2—Bizarre Martial Arts.

Author: How was arc 2? Did you all enjoy this arc? Please support the book with golden tickets and power stones. This book hadn’t received a single golden ticket until now.