Chapter 49: Criminal Waste

"Never would I have thought that I would be dispatched to kill a fool today. How demeaning."

"Idiot, plenty of people are gunning for your life, so I simply had to take it as a reluctant favor!"

Li Moxuan suddenly burst into loud laughter.

"How utterly amusing. It seems your brain is no better than that moron Lin Mofei's."

"Did the Gale Hall or Lin Mofei send you?"

Ning Xiao shook his head slightly.

"I truly cannot tell if your composure is born of steady resolve or the blind fearlessness of ignorance."

"Never mind. A dead man has no need to know so much. Off to your grave you go!"

Li Moxuan nodded slightly in agreement.

"You're right. There is indeed no need to waste words with a corpse."

Ning Xiao struck without warning.

A formidable wave of oppressive aura, riding a violent gale, lunged directly toward Li Moxuan's chest.

His prominent knuckles, sharp as the talons of a swooping falcon, vowed to tear Li Moxuan's beating heart straight out of his chest.

Taking merely half a step to the side, Li Moxuan effortlessly evaded the attack.

He shook his head with an expression of faint pity.

"Too weak. Simply far too weak. Lacking in power, devoid of speed—you are as sluggish as a snail."

Having missed his strike and facing such scathing mockery, Ning Xiao flushed crimson with fury and roared, "Mere ant, how dare you spout such arrogant nonsense? Die!"

Taking a deep breath, Ning Xiao's entire demeanor underwent a sudden transformation.

A faint cyan aura seemed to swirl around his body.

His presence instantly surged, turning several times sharper and more lethal than before.

He lunged forward once more.

A wind-swept afterimage hurtled toward Li Moxuan.

The ordinary eye could scarcely capture Ning Xiao's movements.

"Heart-Plucking Claw!"

Ning Xiao unleashed the full extent of his power.

His hands, formidable enough to shatter reinforced concrete, lunged swiftly toward Li Moxuan's chest, executing his signature lethal technique.

Li Moxuan rolled his eyes in sheer disdain.

"What a middle-schooler fantasy. And I suppose I know the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms."

Facing Ning Xiao's full-powered assault, Li Moxuan made no attempt to dodge.

He took the blow head-on.

Bang...

Ning Xiao's fingers slammed into Li Moxuan's chest.

It felt as though he had struck a plate of solid iron.

Even a solid iron plate would have been pierced through by his strike.

Yet Li Moxuan remained completely unmoved, entirely unscathed.

Conversely, all ten of Ning Xiao's hook-like fingers snapped backward in unison.

Excruciating agony wracked his frame, leaving him breathless.

Li Moxuan remarked with calm sarcasm, "Only women use their fingernails to scratch people, don't they?"

Staring at his ten distorted, broken fingers, Ning Xiao scrambled backward in horror, casting a terrified gaze at Li Moxuan.

"You... how can this be? Even late-stage Xiantian martial artists are no match for me. How could you, a mere early-stage Xiantian cultivator, emerge completely unharmed?"

Li Moxuan countered with a question of his own.

"When did I ever say I was an early-stage Xiantian martial artist?"

Li Moxuan flicked his wrist.

Ning Xiao let out a muffled grunt.

His body was sent flying backward dozens of meters, crashing violently against a concrete pillar by the roadside.

The concrete pillar shattered, fracturing into countless spiderweb-like cracks.

Puff...

Ning Xiao coughed up a mouthful of dark blood as eighty percent of his skeleton, including his spine, instantly fractured.

He was left entirely powerless to resist.

Like a phantom, Li Moxuan materialized before Ning Xiao, seizing the man's body and employing his spiritual sense to scour the lingering memories within his corpse.

After a moment, Li Moxuan nodded.

"Ah, so that is how it is. Donggong Chang has been hiding deep, but at last, I know where his rat hole is."

"Since this Gale Hall refuses to let matters rest, I shall grant them their wish!"

Li Moxuan cast a cold glance at Ning Xiao's remains.

Whoosh...

A burst of golden flame flared over Ning Xiao's body.

In an instant, the corpse was reduced to fine ash, scattering silently on the wind.

With the aftermath dealt with, Li Moxuan leaped into the air, heading straight toward the domain of Donggong Chang.

...

Wushi City.

Inside the luxurious villa of the Gale Hall.

Donggong Chang reclined upon a sofa, swirling a glass of red wine with a leisurely and self-satisfied expression.

He inhaled the rich bouquet of the vintage with deep contentment.

"With Ning Xiao taking the field, that Li Moxuan will soon be headless."

"I originally intended to let him live a little longer, but since Lin Mofei is pressing so hard, I have no choice but to wipe him out."

Donggong Chang reached for his phone. Drinking with such high spirits called for summoning a little beauty to come over and indulge in some merrymaking.

At that very moment, Donggong Chang sensed the villa become enveloped in an eerie, unnatural aura.

An absolute, heavy silence fell.

The atmosphere grew dreadfully oppressive, as though frozen in place.

Donggong Chang cursed under his breath: "What is the meaning of this?"

Though the situation felt slightly amiss, Donggong Chang harbored no fear.

This was the primary stronghold of his hall, guarded by no fewer than a hundred martial arts experts.

No one could possibly threaten his safety here.

Yet no sound answered him from the outside.

There remained only a deathly stillness.

Just as Donggong Chang began to feel a creeping sense of unease,

Boom...

The heavy doors of the villa shattered into pieces.

A dashing, upright figure stepped leisurely through the threshold.

It was none other than Li Moxuan.

Li Moxuan dusted off a speck of nonexistent dust from his clothing, casting his gaze around the lavish interior of the villa.

Indeed, it was blindingly opulent and extravagantly luxurious.

Li Moxuan chuckled dryly. "Who would have thought a bunch of trashy martial brutes would be sitting on so much wealth?"

"Who the hell are you?" Donggong Chang demanded, raising his glass of wine.

Li Moxuan countered, "Weren't you just searching everywhere for me? Why the sudden lapse in memory?"

Realization dawned on Donggong Chang in an instant.

"You are Li Moxuan?"

"That's right. Didn't you send someone to invite me over? And so, here I am!"

Standing on ceremony, Li Moxuan walked right over to the wine cabinet as if it were his own home.

Pulling out the most expensive bottle of red wine, he popped the cork and poured himself a glass.

Donggong Chang stared fixedly at the young man before him.

Since Li Moxuan had appeared here, it meant Ning Xiao was unquestionably dead.

Yet the perimeter of this villa was entirely secured by his Gale Hall elite.

Sentries, both overt and covert, were countless.

There were easily two to three hundred men stationed outside.

Among them were no fewer than five late-stage Xiantian masters.

Donggong Chang refused to believe that Li Moxuan could have dispatched all of them without making a single sound.

"Someone, come here!"

No matter how loudly Donggong Chang shouted, the area outside remained dead silent.

A chilling premonition gripped Donggong Chang's heart.

"Stop howling. Those trash outside are already gone for good."

Seated comfortably on the sofa, Li Moxuan leisurely sipped Donggong Chang's red wine, valued at over eighty thousand.

"You did this?"

"Indeed, I did!"

No, Donggong Chang stubbornly refused to believe it.

Li Moxuan must have accomplices.

Having weathered numerous storms in his life, Donggong Chang quickly forced himself to regain his composure.

"Since you've delivered yourself to your death, you have only yourself to blame!"

Even if his underlings were gone, the three branch hall masters of the Gale Hall were no pushovers.

Every single one of them was a mid-stage Grandmaster.

The Supreme Hall Master was an even more terrifying existence—a Great Grandmaster.

Few indeed were the individuals in all of Wushi City who could rival him.

Since his subordinates were gone, he would take matters into his own hands.

Donggong Chang instantly erupted with a terrifying, overwhelming aura.

Moving with the speed of lightning, he lunged furiously toward Li Moxuan.

The very floor tiles beneath his feet pulverized into fine powder.

Bang...

Donggong Chang threw a full-powered punch, generating a sharp crack of a sonic boom.

Facing such a ferocious onslaught, Li Moxuan merely blew a gentle puff of air.

Donggong Chang felt a sudden wave of compressed force wash over him.

Before his very eyes, his own fist, his wrist, and his entire arm began to disintegrate from the sheer pressure.

They burst into microscopic fragments out of thin air.

Donggong Chang let out a shrieking wail that shook the rafters.

"Aah..."

Bang...

Wracked with agonizing pain, Donggong Chang collapsed heavily to his knees, staring in horror at his arm, which had vanished into nothingness.

He raised a terrified, bewildered gaze toward Li Moxuan.

Unable to comprehend how such a feat was possible.

"Such terrifying inner Qi... You... are you a Martial Saint?"

Cold sweat poured down Donggong Chang's face as he stared in utter humiliation and dread at Li Moxuan, who remained comfortably seated on the sofa, sipping his wine.

Terror crawled over his scalp.

With an expression of mild annoyance, Li Moxuan frowned.

"I have already told you, I am not a martial artist. In the eyes of you frogs at the bottom of the well, is there nothing else in existence besides martial artists?"

Li Moxuan walked slowly toward Donggong Chang.

He intended to extract information about the rest of the Gale Hall through him.

For the sake of eradicating the roots, he planned to annihilate the Gale Hall completely.

Donggong Chang was frightened out of his wits, cold sweat soaking his entire body.

"What are you going to do?"

"What do you think? If I don't slaughter you, am I supposed to violate you?"

Donggong Chang gnashed his teeth in absolute desperation.

"You dare? Push me, and we'll perish together in mutual destruction."

"Oh? What's this? You still have a trump card? Bring it out then!"

"Fine! Then let us die together!"

Using his remaining arm, Donggong Chang fumbled inside his robe and drew out a white stone the size of a fist.

It was semi-translucent, of a pure texture, and etched with dense, intricate runes across its surface.

A faint golden radiance pulsed within it.

"Oh? How interesting."

Li Moxuan recognized the object at a glance.

It was nothing less than a spirit stone.

Spirit stones contained the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and served as the most vital cultivation resource for practitioners.

However, with the depletion of spiritual energy in the modern world, spirit stones had become exceedingly rare.

Even his own masters had possessed very few reserves, all of which had been given to him for his cultivation.

He never expected this man to actually possess a spirit stone.

And this one had runes carved directly into its surface.

Noticing that Li Moxuan recognized the item, Donggong Chang declared excitedly, "Since you know what this is, get lost right now, or neither of us walks out of here alive."

Li Moxuan, however, remained completely unfazed by the threat.

"Where did you get this thing?"

"That is none of your concern! This is a spirit bomb, charged with terrifying celestial might."

"If it detonates, it will flatten a radius of a hundred meters into a wasteland. Even if you are a Martial Saint, you will be crippled if not killed outright!"

A spirit bomb?

A dark line crossed Li Moxuan's forehead.

"A spirit your fucking bomb, you idiot! This is a goddamn spirit stone!"

"Ignorant fool!"

"To actually use such a precious spirit stone like a hand grenade—you people are truly brain-dead."

Still, since this fellow had one, he undoubtedly possessed more.

Whoever had manufactured this device must have a source, which meant he could follow the trail to acquire even more spirit stones.

Li Moxuan resumed his unhurried stride toward Donggong Chang.

Donggong Chang was struck with utter astonishment.

"You... are you out of your damn mind?!"

Gritting his teeth in final desperation, Donggong Chang instantly activated the spirit bomb and hurled it straight at Li Moxuan.

Li Moxuan effortlessly caught the spirit stone out of the air.

With a casual sweep of his sleeve, every single detonation rune engraved upon its surface was completely erased.

"Thank you..."

The mechanics of this object were roughly analogous to a hand grenade.

The explosive runes etched on the exterior destabilized the spiritual energy locked within the stone, triggering a violent release of compressed energy.

All one had to do was wipe away those runes to neutralize it.

"Idiot!"

Seeing Li Moxuan catch the spirit bomb bare-handed, Donggong Chang sneered in bitter mockery.

"You are simply courting death!"

Even if Li Moxuan were a Martial Saint, holding a world-shattering spirit bomb directly in his hand would surely blow him into a million pieces.

Yet as the seconds ticked slowly by, the spirit stone in Li Moxuan's hand remained completely inert.