Chapter 071: The Life of Wan Rong

With Wan Rong dead, Su Jingxing felt an inexplicable lightness suffuse his entire being.

It was a strange sensation—profound, subtle, and impossible to describe in words. It couldn't be called a shackle, yet the obsession of his former self had certainly affected him. Now, with Wan Rong gone and the obsession fading, Su Jingxing felt, for the first time, as though he truly belonged to this world. Odd as it was, it brimmed with a freshness he had never known.

Thinking back, Wan Rong truly deserved to die.

Su Jingxing composed himself, calming his surging blood and energy. His predecessor had never known the fate of Boss Wang’s family, whom they’d tried to help. But Su Jingxing did. He had investigated specifically, uncovering why a seventh-rank martial artist like Wan Rong would target an ordinary man like Wang Fugui.

It was simply because Wang Fugui’s daughter was beautiful.

There was nothing complicated about the case. Wan Rong happened to see the girl by chance and was captivated at first sight. Later, he sought her out, demanding that she become his mistress. Naturally, the girl refused—Wan Rong was older than her father, already nearing fifty. Though he was a martial artist, the girl herself was talented and unafraid, so she rejected him outright.

Humiliated and enraged, Wan Rong resorted to force.

The girl, spirited and unyielding, ended her life by jumping from a building. Her mother, overwhelmed by grief, followed her into death. Wang Fugui himself did not; instead, he waited for an opportunity and, one night, tried to crash his car into Wan Rong, hoping for mutual destruction.

On Earth, perhaps he might have succeeded. But this was Star Planet, and Wan Rong was a seventh-rank martial artist. Warriors possessed keen senses and exceptional reflexes; two seconds before the crash, Wan Rong evaded effortlessly.

In the end, Wang Fugui died, while Wan Rong remained unharmed.

Such a tragedy, the destruction of an entire family, should have ended with Wan Rong’s death. But there was no evidence. As a seasoned criminal, Wan Rong left not a trace. Although it all began with his assault on the girl, the deaths of Boss Wang's family were all ruled suicides; Wan Rong had never laid a hand on them.

Such was the absurdity. Wan Rong was no ordinary man—he was a seventh-rank martial artist, influential and well-connected.

No matter how furious Wang’s relatives were, they could only swallow their grievance in silence. When Wan Rong advanced to the sixth rank, any thoughts of revenge vanished completely.

Of course, Wan Rong had always been on the Zhenwu Division’s wanted list. Now that he was dead, the Zhenwu Division would be delighted. To kill such scum, Su Jingxing felt not the slightest guilt.

A prompt appeared: “Corpse detected. Retrieve?”

“Yes.”

A card appeared as his reward. Su Jingxing glanced at Wan Rong’s corpse, then turned away, lightly tapping his toes and vanishing from the scene in a flash.

Beneath the streetlight, Wan Rong’s body—split cleanly in two—lay quietly in a pool of blood.

At the entrance to the residential complex, the security guard waited for a long while, making sure Su Jingxing was truly gone, before stepping reluctantly out of the guard booth, annoyance written across his face.

He looked from afar at Wan Rong’s remains, then dialed the crematorium’s service number on his phone.

“Hello, is this the crematorium? Yes, there’s a body here… Alright, thank you, much appreciated.”

He hung up with a forced smile and immediately called the security team.

“Hello, security team? There was a fight at the entrance to our complex… Yes, someone was cut in half… How would I know what the killer looks like? What if I went to check and got caught up in the danger? Fine, fine, I’m just making a report—come or don’t, as you please.”

He hung up impatiently, lit a cigarette, shoved it into his mouth, and cursed under his breath.

“Damn it, can’t you take your revenge somewhere else? Had to pick the complex entrance, of all places—don’t you know a lot of people live here? What rotten luck!”

…

Having finished his vengeance and feeling utterly at ease, Su Jingxing strolled back to his small courtyard at the foot of the mountain.

He sprawled lazily on the sofa, taking out the card he had retrieved from Wan Rong’s corpse.

Gripping it, he accessed its contents.

A memory card.

Again, a memory card.

But this time, compared to Fan Chungan’s, Wan Rong’s memories spanned a full forty years.

Su Jingxing unlocked it and watched the memories flash by in his mind like a film.

Forty years of recollections, almost the entirety of Wan Rong’s life.

From a street thug, to joining a gang, to becoming a daring, ruthless enforcer unafraid of death, then finally striking out on his own as a boss.

Wan Rong’s early life was the whole trajectory of most gangsters. If not for a stroke of fortune—acquiring a martial art manual—his end would have been the same as the rest: dying anonymously in some alleyway.

Thanks to that opportunity, Wan Rong truly set foot on the martial path and became a warrior.

But to become stronger, a martial artist needs money. Wan Rong resorted to every trick: swindling, cheating, robbing, murder, kidnapping, and rape—he committed every atrocity.

Through ruthless methods, he finally became a seventh-rank martial artist, gaining some status.

But seventh rank was not enough—naturally, Wan Rong wanted to go further.

For this, he paid a heavy price, currying favor with Shi Yankan, a direct descendant of the Shi clan, and sold himself to them in exchange for the first level of the Shi family’s ultimate art, the “Cold Smoke Method.”

The “Cold Smoke Method” was a high-level internal technique capable of cultivating true qi. Even just the first level was enough to advance to the sixth rank.

Once Wan Rong acquired it, he invested heavily, preparing no fewer than ten wall-breaking pills. With his decent talent and ten years of effort, he truly succeeded and advanced to the sixth rank.

A sixth-rank martial artist was a mainstay in the Shi family.

Thus, Wan Rong achieved his goal and became a guest elder for the Shi family. He had just received his identity token last month.

Last time Su Jingxing extorted him, Wan Rong truly thought it was a move by Chu Zhaoyun.

So this time, returning from the provincial city, Wan Rong went straight to the Shi family to consult with the second master, planning to strike at Chu Zhaoyun—for Chu Zhaoyun had powerful backers, too.

The Shi family agreed.

As Wan Rong returned, busy contacting associates, he was ambushed by Su Jingxing and split in two.

After reviewing the memories, Su Jingxing’s expression remained impassive.

Looking back over Wan Rong’s life, there was nothing admirable about him.

Although Su Jingxing could now transcribe the first level of the “Cold Smoke Method” and follow it to cultivate, solving one of his major problems, this internal art belonged to the Shi family—and only the first level at that. If he practiced it, he would always be dependent on the Shi family to grow stronger.

That was not the life Su Jingxing wanted.

So, the “Cold Smoke Method” was dismissed from his mind.

As for Wan Rong’s assets and mistresses, Su Jingxing had no use for them.

His first stroke of luck, a fierce palm technique, also paled in comparison to the “Seven-Step Fist.”

All in all, only the ten million in secret cash that Wan Rong had squirreled away was truly of use to Su Jingxing.

Oh, and by browsing Wan Rong’s memories, Su Jingxing had, in effect, watched a documentary on the major and minor events of Qinghe City over the past forty years—including the rise of the Shi family.