Chapter 1: This is what life is all about

  The lower abdomen is like a container, in the task of dispatching by the organization, Qin Yan's lower abdomen was damaged, and the location of the damage was biased downwards, which is equivalent to drilling a hole at the bottom of the container.

  No matter how large the dantian capacity is, once the internal energy reaches a damaged place, it will leak out and can never exceed that position.

  That's why Qin Yan's internal energy is very small in quantity and can be easily exhausted. Moreover, the dantian was originally sealed, and being sealed means it can be compressed, just like a lighter has an enclosed space inside, which allows the liquefied gas to be compressed into a liquid state and exist.

  Who can fix a lighter with a hole in it and fill it with liquid fuel?

  This resulted in Qin Yan's internal energy being not only very small in quantity, but also unable to be compressed, and could only maintain the state of just having internal energy at the beginning of the sixth heaven.

  It has been several months since he was injured, and in his cognition, the damage to the dantian is irreparable, so he pinned all his hopes on the secret book obtained from the task.

  It's been several months now, and day after day I've taken the Chinese medicine recorded in the secret book to repair the damage to my dan tian without interruption, but it has had no effect.

  As time goes by, it becomes increasingly faint, if it weren't for the only possibility, if not for his persistence in his heart, he would have given up long ago.

  But unexpectedly, tonight's battle with Katsuragi was at a critical juncture, and the damaged dantian from several months ago actually fully recovered!

  In fact, he didn't know that from the first day of taking medicine, his dantian had already begun to repair itself.

  However, the damaged area was a bit too large, so it took so long. Even if the repair was only left with less than one-tenth of the original damage, it's like having a hole in a cup, no matter how big the hole is, it still leaks water, and in his mind, there was no difference at all.

  Fixed!

  A completely sealed and undamaged dantian can store a large amount of internal energy, compress the internal energy, return to the eighth heaven of martial arts, and...

  Qin Yan felt as if his mood had soared to the ninth heaven, with an unprecedented sense of exhilaration and excitement that came from regaining something he thought was lost.

  Because of the damage to his dantian, his strength greatly decreased, and he could only hide in Pingjiang, not even daring to show his true face. Is this what he wanted?

  "Today! From today on, I'm back!" He stood up from the ground and stood at the top of the peak, as if he was a king overlooking the world.

  Greedy wolf.

  Wicked and deceitful people control fortune and misfortune.

  How can someone like him be satisfied with being just a small bar owner?

  He has too many ambitions that have not been exerted, he has too many ideals that have not been realized, but all of this is built on the foundation of strong power.

  Before today, he had countless regrets but could only lie dormant. Tonight, he will soar to the sky and roam freely in the nine heavens!

  "Get out!"

  Just now, Katsuragi suddenly had a sense of unknown crisis, he felt that his opponent's body had an extra breath, but this breath flashed by, could it be an illusion?

  Can't afford to drag on for so long, even if I can kill him eventually, Lin Ling might have escaped without a trace. Once Lin Ling escapes and seeks help from above, there are many powerful people in the vast land of Yan Huang who can hold me back. It's likely that there will be no place for me to stand in the world. But to kill Lin Ling, I must first kill Qin Yan.

  Rapid breakthrough!

  He could see that Qin Yan was injured. Although he himself was also injured, the gap in strength between them was too great. He wasn't a match for him even when he wasn't injured, let alone now?

  Moon-chasing star-style, big killing move!

  With Gecheng's mid-term strength in the Seven Heavens, this move would definitely cause Qin Yan's five organs to burst, even if he had ten lives, he would still die!

  As a bow, fists as arrows, one strike can break gold and jade, whistling in.

  "Not good!"

  Qin Yan, who had already disregarded Ge Cheng, suddenly realized a terrifying thing in the instant he mobilized his internal energy.

  The dantian was damaged, making it impossible to store a large amount of internal energy. After the intense battle just now, more than 80% of the internal energy has been consumed. If it were still before the dantian's repair, the remaining internal energy would have been enough for another brief fight. Now that the dantian has recovered and returned to its peak state in the eight heavens of martial arts, but there is no time to meditate and rest during battle, leaving only a tiny bit of internal energy left.

  The originally scarce internal energy suddenly changed from the early sixfold heaven to the mid-eightfold heaven, and after compression, the total amount suddenly decreased by more than ten times.

  To put it bluntly, after compression, it became the internal energy of Wudang's Eightfold Heaven, although its quality is very strong, but the quantity is really too small.

  Not enough to launch a full-scale attack!

  The internal energy compressed through the Eight Heavens Boundary is far superior in quality to Ge City of the Seventh Heaven, but it falls short in quantity by a huge margin.

  If they were to confront each other head-on with their Qi, the opponent would surely win due to their superior quantity. At that time, even if Qin Yan could block one attack, he would still exhaust all his internal energy and become a fish on the chopping board for Ge Cheng to slaughter at will.

  Insufficient inner energy to launch a full-load strike, is tonight's last hope!

  Qin Yan's feet moved nimbly, treading an eerie and unpredictable path, like a ghostly apparition darting left and right as he approached Ge City at a speed that was more than double his previous pace.

  Huh?

  Seeing his movements suddenly speed up, Katsuragi was shocked and lost color, he couldn't fully capture the opponent's figure, how is this possible?

  Spark of electricity!

  Fight to the death!

  Just as the two sides were about to meet, Qin Yan spun like a top and barely dodged by more than 10 centimeters, seemingly ignoring the opponent's incoming killing fist wind.

  Fortunately, Dantian was restored and returned to the Eighth Heaven, otherwise, with Katsuragi's attack speed, he would not have been able to dodge and move his originally locked left chest punch to his left shoulder. He was very clear that with his current nearly depleted internal energy, it was impossible to confront Katsuragi head-on, and the only way to defeat him was to use his body to directly receive the opponent's attack while his own attack also directly hit the opponent.

  One punch per person, full force, all aimed at the opponent's left chest, where the heart is located, a guaranteed fatal blow!

  According to Ge Cheng's calculations, the opponent only had the strength of the early six heavens, and even if he was hit by his attack, relying on his own inner energy in the middle of the seven heavens, at most it would be a minor injury that didn't hurt much.

  At their level, although it's impossible to release true energy like in mythological TV dramas and transform it into a protective shield, they can store it inside their body to greatly enhance their defense.

  Kill!

  When he found that his opponent could forcibly turn around and avoid his attack position at the critical moment, he realized that Qin Yan's strength was not sixfold heaven.

  Unfortunately, both sides went too fast and couldn't change their moves!

  A loud noise!

  A strong gust of wind swept in, with the two people at its center, within a radius of two meters, the grass, gravel and dust on the ground flew out in all directions.

  Qin Yan let out a muffled grunt as he flew backward, avoiding the fatal blow to his heart but unable to completely dodge the attack. His left shoulder took the full force of Ge Cheng's killing punch. A surge of powerful internal energy ravaged his body, shattering his scapula into several pieces on the spot. The residual force coursed through his left shoulder and into his internal organs, causing him to spit out a mouthful of blood.

  Looking back, Ge Cheng merely retreated a few steps with a series of loud clangs.

  Due to the fragmentation of his dantian, Qin Yan's internal energy would overflow as soon as it accumulated to the damaged area, so the total amount of internal energy was originally pitifully small. The previous fierce battle had already consumed more than half of the meager internal energy, and now that the dantian was repaired, the internal energy compressed by the Eight Heavens was even scarcer.

  The inner energy of the Eightfold Heaven is indeed powerful, but the total amount is actually a bit too small, not enough to consume two-tenths of the inner energy in a full-force strike, while Katsuragi has a majestic and long-lasting inner energy, so he didn't get blown away and only retreated a few steps.

  But!

  Taking an opponent's attack head-on with one's body is the worst and most dangerous strategy in a fight.

  If the opponent is much weaker than oneself, using internal energy to neutralize their strength might not be a big deal. However, if both sides are evenly matched, even if they don't annihilate each other in one move, they will still suffer mutual damage.

  Katsuragi had calculated and recalculated, but he hadn't anticipated that his opponent wasn't the early Six Layers of Heaven who was much weaker than him, but rather the mid Eight Layers of Heaven who was even stronger.

  Even if it's just a small amount in terms of quantity, the level of quality is not something that his internal energy can handle. The terrifying internal energy pierced through skin, muscle, and bone, all the way into the heart, and then burst out from the back of the heart.

  "You... are deceiving..." Ge Cheng stood still but his whole body was trembling, his face as white as a sheet.

  "Really clever." Qin Yan lay weakly on the ground, spitting up blood.

  Wow!

  As if pierced by an invisible spear, with a sound like a bursting balloon, two clouds of blood exploded from the front and back of Katsuragi's chest.

  Skin and flesh were torn, bones shattered, and the heart was also smashed to pieces. The left chest area corresponding to the heart had a terrifying blood hole, and he also went limp and fell to the ground.

  Qin Yan's mouth curled up with a relaxed smile, and at the same time, Ge Cheng's final blow penetrated his left shoulder, causing internal injuries to erupt, and he spat out another mouthful of blood, his eyes rolled back and he fell into unconsciousness...

  Run!

  Run desperately!

  Lin Ling didn't run down the stone steps. As a seasoned detective, she knew that in the face of a powerful enemy's pursuit, complex environments would be the best cover for escape.

  Thorns, weeds and twigs kept whipping her body, with many small bloodstains on her arms, but she didn't dare to stop for a moment.

  She remembered what Qin Yan had said to her before the duel: Once that expert appears, I'll let you leave and you must leave, staying behind will only drag us down!

  Like this, he ran for nearly ten minutes, and was just about to reach the foot of the mountain.

  Suddenly, her footsteps came to a halt.

  "Not true!"

  She furrowed her brow, turned around to glance at the small hill behind her, and muttered: "If that guy also ran away after I escaped, Kagetora would either catch up with him and kill him before coming after me. If he couldn't catch up for a long time, he definitely wouldn't continue chasing, but instead would turn back and come after me, even using me as leverage to make that guy surrender. But... it's been so long, and Kagetora still hasn't caught up, the only possibility is... that guy won!"

  But since he won, why didn't he come down the mountain and contact himself?

  A strange possibility suddenly flashed in her mind, and she was so frightened that she forgot to escape for her life, and instead turned around and ran up the mountain.

  Corpses lie everywhere, blood flows like rivers.

  Nearly 80% of the gangsters died, and some of the remaining ones were seriously injured, lying on the ground wailing in pain. Some had lost too much blood and had fainted unconscious.

  Lin Ling sneaked in quietly and was frightened again when he saw this scene.

  She hid in the bushes near the battlefield, and before long she was discovered by her. The body of Katsuragi lay beside the stone steps, apparently having been dead for some time.