Madman!

Chapter 137: Found the Target, Three Punches Dead

West Embankment at night was just as blazing with lights and bustling with traffic.

District 1 was the city center — luxury cars lined every street, along with pleasure-seekers out for the evening.

The New Splendor Bar was well-known. Plenty of trust-fund kids and celebrities frequented the place.

A few rich boys stumbled out of the bar with women draped over their arms. One of the women immediately clutched the wall and vomited all over the pavement.

Her companions burst out laughing.

Across the street, Chen Wujun stepped out of a car and lit a cigarette.

Moments later, Curry emerged from inside the bar and jogged across the road. He nodded to Chen Wujun: "Brother Jun, he's in there. Five or six men with him."

"Test the camera, make sure it works. We'll take a few artistic photos of him afterward." Chen Wujun said to Mantis beside him.

Mantis was holding a Polaroid, already examining a test shot in his hand.

"Brother Jun, tested it. Camera's fine."Chen Wujun nodded. He flicked away his cigarette butt and headed for the bar across the street.

Curry and the others fell in behind him. The group moved with undisguised killing intent.

"Hey — what do you want?" Two lackeys at the door saw the hostile group approaching and stepped forward to block them.

Without waiting for Chen Wujun, the recently recruited Ou Jingtang lunged forward in a single stride, dropped one with an elbow strike, then side-kicked the other into the door frame before pushing the bar door open. Music flooded out.

"Barging in and throwing punches like that — people will think we're here to cause trouble. Try to be polite once we're inside." Chen Wujun said irritably, then walked in with long strides.

Inside, the space was considerable. The lighting was dim, the air thick with the smell of alcohol.

The decor was decent — a performance stage in the center flanked by two rows of tables. Along the walls ran a line of private booths, most of them occupied.

A staircase led up to a second floor with another two rows of booths overlooking the main hall below.

Men and women cavorted in the booths with reckless abandon, far too absorbed to notice Chen Wujun's group.

"Brother Jun — second floor!"

"Hey, what are you people doing?" Two security guards noticed the group and hurried over.

This bar catered to celebrities and the wealthy. The last thing management wanted was trouble.

Mantis and Ah Yong stepped up and shoved the two guards aside.

Chen Wujun led his people straight upstairs, with Curry directing him from behind.

Curry had gone in earlier for a sweep — specifically to pin down Li Wenlong's position.

Northern River Sect members in the bar spotted the hostile group and began converging.

"Brother Jun — right ahead, last booth!"

Chen Wujun looked toward the end of the corridor. A tall man turned his head to look their way.

Even in the dim light, Chen Wujun recognized the target instantly.

Li Wenlong was a bold man himself — even seeing that this group clearly meant business, he didn't bother to stand.

But in the booth ahead of his, four powerfully built men rose and filed into the corridor, blocking the path.

Meanwhile, Northern River men surged up the staircase from behind.

A pincer.

Every eye was filled with malice and violence.

"Who the hell are you? Do you have any idea whose turf this is? Coming in here to start something?" The lead man up ahead spoke coldly, rolling his wrists and cracking his neck.

"I'm here to see your boss, Double Blade Long Li Wenlong. Got a big deal to discuss." Chen Wujun answered, his voice carrying.

Flexibility was key, after all.

He wasn't afraid of a fight. What he feared was Li Wenlong slipping away in the chaos.

"Who do you think you are? You don't just demand to see our boss." The man snarled.

"Let him through." Li Wenlong stood, peering over his men's shoulders to study Chen Wujun. The visitor's posture — the curved back and upright frame of a crane — was unmistakably that of a Huayan Old Arts expert. He just couldn't imagine what the man wanted with him.

At Li Wenlong's word, his men stepped aside to let Chen Wujun pass.

Then they closed ranks to block Curry and the others.

Li Wenlong regarded Chen Wujun warily. "Who are you? What do you want to discuss?"

Chen Wujun brought his fists together in a formal salute. "I'd like to borrow something."

The instant those words left his mouth, Li Wenlong knew something was wrong.

At the same moment, the floor beneath Chen Wujun's feet cracked apart. His body hurled forward, closing the distance to Li Wenlong in a flash. His spine snapped like a whip, and the muscles across his back twisted like a python.

Both hands carved a downward arc, and a single arching hammer-fist drove straight for the center line.

The strike launched like a cannon shot — the air compressed and squeezed ahead of it, savage and overwhelming, arriving at Li Wenlong's chest in an instant.

The saying went: master one trick, dominate everywhere. That was exactly where Chen Wujun stood. His Swimming Dragon Palm and Three Emperors Cannon Hammer were both formidable, but his go-to move against any opponent was always Master's Three Arching Hands — overpowering them head-on. Only if that didn't work would he switch tactics.

Each blow in the Three Arching Hands sequence came faster and harder than the last. He'd killed several experts with this technique. Only Nguyen Minh Kim had managed to block three hammers — but couldn't survive the fourth.

Li Wenlong felt the wall of force slam into his face, nearly suffocating him. His eyes went wide and he spat out a curse: "Shit!"

Li Wenlong thrust out both hands, fingers spread, the webs between thumb and forefinger swollen high like thick pads. Both arms surged with bulging muscle as his tiger-claw hands reached to grab Chen Wujun's incoming fists.

The instant they made contact, he felt a colossal force crash through, numbing both hands completely. He couldn't grip the fist at all.

Even his footing gave way. His body lurched a full step backward.

But Chen Wujun's frame seemed to expand a size larger, his fists swelling with it. They carved another arc — faster, more savage — and hammered toward Li Wenlong's chest.

Li Wenlong's eyes bulged. With a roar, he crossed both hands into an X-block and intercepted again.

This was the Cross Intercept from the Mantis Fist style.

As he blocked, his index fingers hooked upward, sharp as iron talons.

BOOM!

Li Wenlong's palms went numb. His entire body was smashed backward into the wall, his blood and qi in violent upheaval.

Yet even as he was driven back, he seized the moment — his hooked finger slashing across the back of Chen Wujun's right hand, aiming to sever the tendons.

But when the talon scraped across Chen Wujun's hand, it was like scratching hardwood. It left nothing but a white mark.

'Horizontal Training Kung Fu!' The realization flashed through Li Wenlong's mind.

Sheer terror flooded after it. He had no idea who this ferocious young man was, or what grudge warranted an immediate killing blow.

But Chen Wujun's third hammer was already in motion — faster still, lightning quick — and it was at Li Wenlong's chest before he could react.

Li Wenlong's eyes went as wide as they could stretch. Horror consumed his face. But there was nowhere to go.

A single thought flashed through his mind.

'It's over.'

BOOM!

Chen Wujun's final blow tore through Li Wenlong's guard and hammered directly into his chest.

CRACK!

Li Wenlong's sternum and spine shattered into countless fragments. God knew how many bones snapped. His chest caved in completely.

His mouth gaped open and he vomited blood mixed with pulverized organs.

"Boss!" Li Wenlong's men behind Chen Wujun witnessed the scene and went wide-eyed, faces contorted with grief and rage.

Chen Wujun reacted in a flash — twisting aside to dodge, his left hand whipping around in a low hammer to the groin while his right hand shot out and seized a fist that was hurtling toward his skull.

The man behind him froze, eyes bulging, as everything below the belt was ruined. He crumpled slowly to his knees, his trousers stained red and white.

Li Wenlong's corpse slid down the wall and settled on the floor.

The entire exchange between Chen Wujun and Li Wenlong had been blindingly fast. Three hammers. Less than two seconds.

The men behind him barely had time to react before Li Wenlong was already dead.

The remaining men charged at Chen Wujun with grief-stricken fury.

Chen Wujun didn't bother switching techniques. He turned, brought his fists together, and unleashed the Three Arching Hands once more — stepping forward and punching. His opponent couldn't withstand it. Arms shattered, sternum crushed, the man was flung into the man behind him.

The one behind shoved the body aside just in time to see an arm whipping toward him like a steel rod. The air itself cracked open, a whistling howl trailing through the space.

Like a steel whip lashing through the air with a sharp "whoosh."

CRACK!

The man was swatted clean off his feet, crashed through a booth's table, and plummeted to the floor below.

The third man looked at his comrade who'd just been slapped down a story, then at Li Wenlong slumped against the wall drenched in blood, then at Chen Wujun — expressionless, part god, part demon. With a savage howl, he planted his feet and launched himself sideways.

He was trying to jump to the lower level.

But the instant he leaped, Chen Wujun closed the distance in a single step. His right hand came down in a Mountain-Splitting Cannon.

BOOM!

The man had barely left his feet before he was driven straight down. His upper body slammed flat onto a table, bones snapping in unknowable quantities.

Meanwhile, the last man had engaged Curry, who closed in and slammed him into a table with a grapple-throw.

By now, Northern River lackeys were flooding up the staircase in a frenzy.

And the patrons in every booth were panicking.

"Excuse me — scoot over a bit?" Fa Zai said politely to a terrified woman in the nearest booth, gesturing for her to move further in.

She shrank away so fast she nearly ended up in her companion's lap.

"Thanks." Fa Zai — tall, handsome, and broad-shouldered — flashed her a smile that, despite her terror, stirred a strange flutter in her chest.

Fa Zai placed the bag he was carrying on the seat beside her, unzipped it, and pulled out several blades, tossing them to Ou Jingtang, Wang Sen, Ah Yong, and the others.

Mantis, meanwhile, rushed to Li Wenlong's corpse with the Polaroid and began snapping photos.

"Make sure they turn out nice! I need to see his face clearly." Chen Wujun swiped a cigarette pack from a nearby table, pulled one out, and lit it. He drew a deep drag and exhaled a plume of smoke.

Then he crouched beside Li Wenlong's body and suddenly remembered something: "Did I forget to tell you what I wanted to borrow?"

"Your life!"

"There — now you can die knowing!"

He turned toward the camera with a grin and flashed a V-sign.

Click!

The flash fired.

"Damn, that thing's blinding! Remind me to wear sunglasses next time!" Chen Wujun stood up, rubbing his eyes irritably.

"Let's go!"

By then, the Northern River lackeys who'd charged up the stairs had already been cut down. The rest scattered in a panic.

The remaining men cowered at a distance. Not a single person tried to stop Chen Wujun's group as they descended.

Chen Wujun strolled past the bar counter, reached over, helped himself to a bottle of soda, and drank as he walked out.

"Back to the hotel!" Chen Wujun announced once they were in the car, tossing the empty soda bottle out the window.

"Brother Jun — the photos!" Mantis turned from the passenger seat and handed them over.

Chen Wujun flipped through them. Several showed Li Wenlong's corpse. One was a shot of himself posing with Li Wenlong's body.

Chen Wujun decided he was becoming more and more photogenic.

After a moment's thought, he fished out his phone and dialed Shark Jiu.

The phone rang six times before she picked up. The first thing she said was: "Done?"

"Yep. Found him, punched him dead. Simple as that." Chen Wujun said with a smile.

"Then get back here as soon as you can."