In the Yu Nation…
More accurately, in most countries on Earth Star, private fights were generally prohibited.
However, there were no rules on fights behind closed doors. As long as no citizenry was disturbed or harmed in the process, they could pretty much fight to their heart's content.
Therefore, fights between syndicates usually took place at remote places.
For example, after the last clash between the Black Tiger Gang and the Flying Cloud Sect, Su Jingxing had collected the corpses from an abandoned construction site.
Fighting at public areas, the main drags, schools, and so on were strictly off-limits.
To keep the martial artists in check, the Yu Nation had specially set up an agency.
The Martial Suppression Office!
Security teams were only in charge of handling matters like ordinary fights, petty theft, family disputes, and so on.
The Martial Suppression Office was what ensured the stability of the various cities in the Yu Nation.
Dojos, sects, martial arts families, underground syndicates, independent cultivator alliances…
All martial artists were under the jurisdiction of the Martial Suppression Office!
There were many ordinary people in the security team, but the Martial Suppression Office consisted of only martial artists. Even the weakest members among them were ninth-grade.
As for the strongest…
Su Jingxing only knew that the Rank 1 expert in Qinghe City was the Commander of City Governance of the Martial Suppression Office—Li Linzhou!
He was a fourth-grade martial artist.
Under his command, there were fifth-grade Commissioners of Defense, sixth-grade Chiefs of Control, seventh-grade Commissioners of Command, and eighth-grade generals.
These titles were held by an unknown number of people.
Under most circumstances, it was rare for ordinary people to even see them in person.
But there were special circumstances that made that possible.
One of them was an arena match—much like the one Wei Jiajia was organizing.
Even though the Yu Nation generally forbade private fights, it did provide martial artists a chance to settle their grudges.
In the arena!
Under the supervision of the Martial Suppression Office, rivaling martial artists could participate in an organized arena deathmatch.
To organize an arena match, Wei Jiajia had to first submit a report to the Martial Suppression Office.
During the match, the Martial Suppression Office would send supervisors to the venue.
The procedures of the event were up to Wei Jiajia to decide.
All Su Jingxing had to do was show up on time to attend the arena fight.
The two quickly went on their separate ways after sealing the deal.
Before parting ways, Su Jingxing exchanged phone numbers with Wei Jiajia, using a phone card—which did not leave any caller IDs—he bought that morning. He also asked her to send him a photo of her Eldest Senior Brother Duan Feihong when she got home.
Wei Jiajia did not know his intentions but agreed anyway.
As soon as she reached home, she dug out a photo that was left behind by her Eldest Senior Brother and took a picture of it, then sent it to Su Jingxing.
After receiving the message, Su Jingxing immediately got down to work. Using one of his previous loots—the human skin mask—he began disguising his features with Duan Feihong's facial features as reference.
After putting in some serious effort, he successfully took on the appearance of Duan Feihong—the resemblance was around 70%!
Since Duan Feihong had long hair when he left Qinghe City, Su Jingxing made the special effort to buy a long hair wig the next day; it came with a fake scalp as well.
After returning home, he continued to work on his disguise. Finally—the resemblance was now about 80%!
While Wei Jiajia nursed a grudge against the Dagger Gang, Su Jingxing didn't.
Killing Chen Xiaodao was only part of the deal. Naturally, he did not want to make enemies with the Dagger Gang and have them going after his ass and tracking his every movement.
However, now that he had disguised himself as Duan Feihong, this worry was out of the window.
Even in the worst-case scenario where he loses to Chen Xiaodao or lets him get away, he wouldn't be the one the Dagger Gang looks for when they try to settle the scores.
Wei Jiajia might have her own schemes, but Su Jingxing was also well-prepared.
In the past two days, apart from moving corpses, Su Jingxing also practiced the Eight Step Rising Dragon.
The peerless lightness skill proved rather easy to learn after he comprehended it.
All he needed to do was follow the instructions on the illustrations and set up an internal force network within his body. After that, he could expend his internal force to execute the martial art.
Su Jingxing mastered the basics after a night of practice.
To test his progress, he executed the martial art in his courtyard. As he was taking the eight steps, he was moving almost like a shifting shadow.
Su Jingxing was yet another step closer to taking revenge on Wan Rong!
As for Chen Xiaodao, Su Jingxing was confident he could take him down.
At this point, seventh-grade martial artists could not pose much of a threat to him.
Due to the consistent intake of Strength Pills, Su Jingxing's hands had both already exceeded 7,000 catties of power.
With his Seven Steps Fist at the highest level, he could unleash nearly 50,000 catties of power at once! Su Jingxing believed that was enough to send Chen Xiaodao to an early grave!
Therefore, Su Jingxing was very calm about the fight on the following day.
In the afternoon, he worked leisurely in the crematorium as usual, moving corpses from one place to another.
Kong Dabao smiled at his mannerism. "Let me in on the good news, Little Su. Share some joy with me."
"What are you on about?" asked Su Jingxing, unsure of how to react. "I'm not doing anything different from usual."
"That may be so, but you seem especially laid-back today."
Kong Dabao raised an eyebrow. "Did your little girlfriend…"
"Ah!!"
Kong Dabao was interrupted by a bloodcurdling scream that came from ahead.
"What the heck?" Kong Dabao frowned. "That voice sounded familiar."
"Only one way to find out," said Su Jingxing as he moved towards the direction of the scream.
The two of them had just returned from transporting a corpse to the incinerator room.
Upon hearing the familiar scream, they immediately put their work aside and went to check out what was going on.
From a distance away, he could see a throng gathered outside the entrance of the farewell ceremony hall.
The crematorium staff was having a stand-off with a group of people.
Su Jingxing and Kong Dabao walked over and jostled their way through the crowd. A member from Corpse Collection Team 2 lay on the ground, screaming in agony.
The elderly corpse collector's right leg was broken, and his left arm was bent to 90 degrees.
White bones were showing. A ghastly sight.
"Old Liu!"
Kong Dabao's eyes reddened. "Who did this? Who the f*ck did this?!"
"It's them!"
A crematorium staff pointed at a group of arrogant martial artists who were sneering. He gritted his teeth and said, "All Old Liu did was bump into a child by mistake and they broke his hands and feet!"
"F*cking piece of…"
Just as Kong Dabao was about to fly into a rage, the manager of the crematorium rushed over and shouted, "Stop! Everybody stop!"
"They crossed the line, Uncle Wang!" said Kong Dabao, turning around to look at the comer.
"I know. Stay out of this. I'll take care of it."
The crematorium manager—Manager Wang—was looking livid. He gazed towards the other party at a long-faced man in his thirties. "Don't you think you went overboard, President Chen?" he said in a deep voice.
"Overboard?"
The long-faced man didn't even bat an eyelid. "The sad sack hurt my son. He should be glad I only broke his arms and legs. If I wanted to go overboard…"
"What would you have done instead?" demanded the crematorium director in a booming voice as he made his way towards the group.
"Ho. To think even Director Wu is alarmed over such a small matter." The long-faced man glanced at the crematorium director and said unhurriedly, "Aren't you a busy man, Director Wu? Nothing on your schedule today?"
"You…" Director Wu was a man of medium build with graying hair. He drew a deep breath and shot an icy stare at the long-faced man. "Chen Xiaodao! Don't be too arrogant, or you are bound to die an ugly death someday!"
Chen Xiaodao?
The long-faced man was Chen Xiaodao, the president of the Dagger Gang? The man he was going to fight on the next day?
Su Jingxing, who had been silent all this while, couldn't help but look at the long-faced man. A cold glint flashed across his eyes.
…