Chapter 259.1: Guns and Rockets? Not a Scratch! Lu Changshengs Showdown with the King of the Century! (I)

Chapter 259.1: Guns and Rockets? Not a Scratch! Lu Changsheng's Showdown with the King of the Century! (I)

"That has to have done it."

"Bullets don't kill him... Is he even human? A rocket is a different ballgame, though. Nothing made of flesh and blood stops a rocket."

"Right? Even large animals can take a few rounds. Not a rocket, though."

Every guard in the yard had his eyes on the spot where Lu Changsheng had been standing. It was the age of guns and rocket launchers. It was possible for a rifle not to kill some things, but a rocket launcher would definitely finish the job. The two were not in the same league.

The Long Clan watched the explosion, too. They had activated the rocket launchers, about the deadliest thing they could put their hands on at short notice. If rockets didn't do it, nothing else in the house was going to.

The fireball shrank, guttered, and went out. Through the last of it, they could just make out a figure, still standing exactly where it had been.

Thump. Thump.

A sound of a heartbeat reverberated, except it was too loud for a heartbeat, and every chest in the courtyard started beating in rhythm with it.

"Wh-What's happening to me?"

"What is this?"

"It's beating too fast. I can't keep up; I'm going to die..."

Men doubled over with their hands clamped over their chests.

Lu Changsheng walked out of the smoke, one step at a time. "Rockets, huh? Not bad. Still came up short, though. I'm not dead."

His clothes hung off him in strips, and he was smoked black from head to foot. He looked ridiculous, but nobody laughed. They were on the ground gripping their chests, staring at Lu Yuan as if he couldn't possibly be real.

"You... you're alive? That's not possible. Those were rockets..."

The Long Clan and their guards gave way as he walked forward. They still had rifles and rocket launchers, but not one of them wanted to use either. Underneath the shock, there was plain fear.

The eerie thumping was coming out of Lu Changsheng's chest, and it was speeding up. Dozens of guards cried out, clutched at their chests, and crumpled down. The Long Clan members went down with them, their faces twisted with pain.

He looked at the men littering his path, groaning, and laid a hand flat over his own heart.

"Too weak."

"All I did was change the way my heart beats. Yours picked up the rhythm, and that was enough to put every one of you on the ground. Do you see it now? That's the gap between the Extreme Martial Dao and an ordinary man."

He had achieved Third Growth. He had crossed into transcendence, and transcendence came with its respective techniques. Heart resonance was one of the crudest of them.

The sound of his own heart set theirs beating in symphony, and once they were locked on, he simply drove his heartbeat faster, and theirs had to follow. It sounded harmless enough, but a body after achieving Third Growth was no longer human. A small change in his pulse was more than what ordinary humans could survive. Had he wanted them dead, he could have killed every man in the courtyard without lifting a hand.

The head of the Long Clan was an old man with a cane. He had a hand pressed to his chest like the rest of them, and his face was drawn with pain, though his head stayed perfectly clear.

"Mercy... Lu Yuan, the Long Clan will stop the Jade Dragon Kingdom from outlawing the Extreme Martial Dao Centers. Give us one chance..."

He understood their position exactly. If the Long Clan didn't beg, they would be finished. Rank and standing would mean nothing once Lu Yuan had killed them all, and it would be no comfort whatsoever if the Jade Dragon Kingdom got him afterward. So the old man begged, and he didn't waste time about it.

Lu Changsheng smiled. "Mercy?"

Senior Sister Xiang and the others came hurrying in about then, and stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of it.

The Long estate looked like a war had rolled through it. Craters were everywhere, the grounds chewed to pieces, and the whole place looked like it had been bombed. In the middle of it stood Lu Yuan, black from head to toe with a few strips of his shirt hanging off him. It was an absurd scene.

Senior Sister Xiang gave him a change of clothes. He pulled them on without ceremony and walked into the Long Clan's hall.

Out in the yard, the thumping stopped. With the pain gone, the guards started climbing back on their feet warily, hauling the Long Clan members up together with them.

The old man shoved away the hands reaching for him and leaned on his cane instead.

"Family inside. Guards wait out here. Nobody comes in without my say-so."

"Yes, Mr. Long."

The guards took up positions at the door, and the Long Clan members followed their patriarch in.

Lu Changsheng had taken the seat at the head of the room and sprawled in it like he owned the place. The Long Clan members stood in front of him with their heads down, none of them willing to meet his eyes. Most of them were furious, but all of them were afraid, and the fear was winning. Being that close to death had been an unpleasant thing to experience.

The patriarch stood with them and spoke respectfully. "Lu Yuan. You came here to stop the Jade Dragon Kingdom from outlawing the Extreme Martial Dao Centers, didn't you? The Long Clan will back the centers with everything we have."

He knew how to read a room, and he put the promise on the table himself. A man under someone else's roof kept his head down.[1] It was a concession, and only for now.

Lu Changsheng nodded with his eyes on the old man as if he could see straight through him.

"The head of the Long Clan is sensible. I'll give you one chance. What you do with it is up to you. Buy time, humor me, spend the next year working out how to get back at me. I don't care much. Just remember that it's one chance. I'll be staying in the capital for a while. Don't disappoint me."

Lu Changsheng took Senior Sister Xiang and the rest and walked out. The moment they were out of sight, the room erupted.

"Grandfather, we can't let this slide. Call in our people, and we will finish him tonight."

"Nobody treats this family that way."

"Lu Yuan has to die!"

None of the younger Long Clan members had ever been threatened like that in their lives, least of all by a martial artist.

"Enough!" The old man's shout forced the room into silence. His cold gaze swept across them. "Which of you is taking men to finish Lu Yuan? Step forward. Tell me which of you can promise that it gets done."

"You heard him. If we hit back, we get exactly one attempt. Haven't you heard? If you attack a snake and fail to kill it, it comes back for you. If he lives, this family dies. Is that the bet you want to make? Put the whole Long Clan on the table over one martial artist?"

Heads went down around the room. If they messed up their one chance, Lu Yuan would wipe the Long Clan off the map. With nothing guaranteed, who was going to place that bet?

"So what do we do, Grandfather?" someone asked.

"We swallow it. For centuries, this family has been on top, and not one day of that came from picking fights or betting the house. It came from knowing when to swallow our pride. When it concerns the whole family's survival, you swallow it. Stay alive, and the family goes on."

"Besides, what's our dispute with him, really? There isn't one. The martial arts community threw us a few favors, that's all, and we can afford to walk away from those. Remember this. You don't touch Lu Yuan without certainty. If we move, we move knowing he dies."

The Long Clan members nodded. Without that certainty, they had to swallow their pride.

The memory of what his heartbeat had done to them helped. When Lu Yuan said he would erase the Long Clan, it wasn't just talk.

"Good. I shouldn't have to spell out the rest, right? Get word to the other great clans. We're backing the Extreme Martial Dao, and we're not being quiet about it. This isn't all bad news, either. The man can't be cut, can't be shot, and can't be blown up. Maybe the centers are telling the truth about adding years to a man's life."

That revelation landed. The Extreme Martial Dao could extend one's life. It was their own claim, but the man had just walked out of three rockets. What better way to convince someone?

The Long Clan members buried what had happened. The commotion had been loud enough that half the houses in the capital picked up something, though only scraps. Lu Yuan had gone to the Long Clan in person, and afterward the Long Clan members had changed their minds and publicly supported the Extreme Martial Dao.

That flipped the capital overnight. Outlawing the Extreme Martial Dao had been as good as decided. Now, both sides were back to tugging on the same rope.

Three days later, Senior Sister Xiang stood in front of Lu Yuan and delivered the message respectfully. "Master, the Long Clan members just called. They're requesting you at the estate to discuss something important."

Ever since that afternoon at the Long estate, she looked at him the way people looked at a god. There was nothing left in her but awe.

Lu Changsheng smiled. "Sounds like they have news. Let's go."

She opened her mouth, hesitated, then said it anyway. "Master, the Long Clan members are powerful, and they've been adding guards all week. This invitation may not be a friendly one. Please be careful."

He laughed. "You think they're planning to kill me?"

She didn't answer, but she didn't have to. Her suspicions were clear.

"Senior Sister Xiang, there's probably nobody alive who understands what Third Growth means better than I do. Third Growth means transcendent power. Whatever weapons ordinary men can get their hands on, whatever tricks they've got, none of it threatens someone who has crossed that line. Besides, the Long Clan members have lasted centuries. They know how to survive. They're not staking the family on a coin flip, so don't worry."

He wasn't worried in the slightest. He left the hotel, got in the car, and rode back out to the Long Clan estate. The guards all knew his face clearly. Nobody made him wait; the gate came up immediately.

The car rolled through, and he looked around the grounds. There were undoubtedly more guards, but not one of them put out so much as a flicker of hostility, and none of them dared to even keep their eyes on his party. The Long Clan members were genuinely frightened. Without certainty, they weren't going to touch him.

The patriarch was waiting for him in the estate. The same spry old man as before, with color in his face, and nothing about him to suggest he had nearly died a few days back. That kind of steadiness put him ahead of most men.

"Mr. Lu. You've come."

Lu Changsheng didn't stand on ceremony. He immediately dropped onto the couch. "So? What's happening to the ban on the Extreme Martial Dao?"

The old man took a breath. "The martial arts community has great influence. They've talked to a great many people, and even with the Long Clan backing you openly, we can only hold the line for three more days."

"The Zhao Clan, Zhang Clan, and the Li Clan especially. Those three clans represent the nobility and a good part of parliament, and they want the Extreme Martial Dao gone. Their history with the martial arts community goes back years, too."

"If you turn those three around or get them to stand aside, we can hold the martial arts community down and let the Extreme Martial Dao spread wherever it likes. They've mentioned that they want a meeting with you. What do you say, Mr. Lu?"

So that was it. The old man couldn't handle the three clans and wanted Lu Changsheng to handle them for him. He had "persuaded" the Long Clan members, after all. Why not the other three?

Lu Changsheng gave him a look that was almost a smile.

"Go on, then. What is the trump card of the three clans? With your family's influence, surely you would know. Think it through before you answer."

His tone stayed level, but the old man's spine went cold anyway.

He didn't try to hide it. He kept his voice low. "Mr. Lu, our information says the three clans have brought out the strongest man in the martial arts community. The legend himself, Hong Chuan. He is also named the King of the Century. He's past seventy, but rumors say he has an indestructible spirit and his body does not degrade, allowing him to hold his peak fighting strength indefinitely.

"Seventy or not, he hasn't lost his edge in the slightest."

"So... I'd say they're done arguing with us. They want it settled by force."

A sharp glint flickered through Lu Changsheng's eyes, and he enunciated every word clearly as he said, "The King of the Century, Hong Chuan."

1. 人在屋檐下不得不低头: "In another man's house, you have to bow your head." When you are under someone else's power, you swallow your pride and go along. ☜