Chapter Twenty-Three: Death by Lightning

Shen Ye did not rush to strike. When he reached the side of the thunder blade, he gripped it firmly. On the hilt was a small, easily overlooked button. He pressed it, and the lightning on the blade vanished at once. Pressing it again, he saw sparks begin to dance and hiss along the blade once more.

Holding the blade, he walked step by step toward Yang Feikuang. Shen Ye lowered his head and said, "You like shocking people. You have used electricity to torture one young person after another. Worse still, you have personally electrocuted three youths to death. Your crimes are far too deep and far too heavy. Now, please die."

"Before you die, I’ll let you taste what it feels like to be shocked."

"He who shocks others shall himself be shocked."

The thunder blade plunged straight into Yang Feikuang’s body.

Yang Feikuang felt an unimaginable surge of electricity pierce him at once. Even with his tolerance, immense pain crashed over him. His body first curled up like a shrimp, then snapped outward again as he screamed miserably, "Aah! Stop, stop now!"

"When you’re the one taking the shock, your endurance is not much to boast of. You tell me to stop, but have you ever thought of how many children and youths you tortured, how many of them were begging you to stop? Did you stop then? Today's fruit comes from yesterday's cause," Shen Ye said with a cold laugh.

The thunder blade was pulled free.

But immediately, it stabbed into Yang Feikuang again.

When the blade was withdrawn, Yang Feikuang had barely managed to recover a little.

But in the next instant, the thunder blade struck again. The pain of the stab itself was one thing, but being struck by a thousand volts directly turned his whole body blackened and charred. Agony convulsed through him as froth spilled from his mouth. "No! Spare me!"

He was not some iron-willed hero.

But his pleas did not last long.

Nor did his struggle.

Very quickly, he was shocked unconscious. His skin was burned black all over, crackling and hissing, his internal organs blasted apart. Even his hair stood on end.

A thousand volts was an extremely high voltage.

A martial artist could endure it for a few seconds and only suffer injury.

But if it went on long enough, even someone with Yang Feikuang’s strength had only death waiting for him.

As Yang Feikuang died, countless thoughts flashed through his mind. Some were scenes of Tong Xianzi kicking his manhood apart; others were scenes of him torturing those young people, one after another, in mad succession. He himself did not know what this was. Was it regret before death?

A loud crack rang out.

The electricity was still coursing over Yang Feikuang’s body.

His frame and fingers still twitched faintly.

But he was already dead.

If you kill, you must do it cleanly and decisively. Shen Ye gave the thunder blade one final thrust, driving it straight into Yang Feikuang’s throat. "If there is another life, be a good person. Don’t harm others again."

In truth, the thunder blade was quite useful. With a thousand volts coursing through it, it made an enemy unable to do anything but evade.

But there was a problem: the blade was too strange, too conspicuous. If he took it home and the police came searching, it would be exposed at once.

So he could only bear to abandon it.

Among Yang Feikuang’s belongings, however, there was a book bearing the title Chronicle of the Martial Underworld of Cloud City.

Shen Ye had always been an outsider to the circles of martial arts and the underworld. Even now, he still had not figured out what the martial world of Cloud City was truly like. Seeing the book, he naturally took it along.

Now was not the time for reading. He cleared away the traces he needed to erase as thoroughly as he could.

Then he stood.

His figure drifted through the Flying Mad Net Rehabilitation Center, the Eye of Justice sweeping everywhere.

Clearly, the center had not only those two "doctors," Sister Lan and Wang Wei. If he encountered others of the same kind, those who made a vocation of abusing youths and whose evil value exceeded five, he struck at the throat without hesitation. Along the way, he killed several more of these so-called doctors and gained some experience, but he was still some distance away from reaching level five in the Hero system.

After killing all those who deserved to die, he quickly evaded and left the place.

In a secluded spot, he changed his appearance, including his clothes, mask, and everything else.

A moment later, Chopsticks Demon had become the owner of a restaurant.

As he walked, Shen Ye basked in the sunlight.

At the same time, he held the book and read the Record of the Martial Underworld of Cloud City.

It turned out that the masters of the martial world did not have any rigid division into third-rate, second-rate, or first-rate experts. After all, reality was not an online game, with fixed numbers laid out for all to see.

In the martial world, the Beggar Gang was the most widespread, present everywhere.

Moreover, the Beggar Gang had strict rules. To advance in bag ranks, one had to have the corresponding strength.

So, in the martial world, people were accustomed to making comparisons.

This person was roughly as strong as a three-bag elder.

That one was about on par with a five-bag elder of the Beggar Gang.

That one was about the level of an eight-bag elder.

That one was about equal to a nine-bag elder.

Of course, anyone comparable to a nine-bag elder of the Beggar Gang was already unimaginably formidable. In the martial world, such a person would count as a first-rate expert, only a step away from the very pinnacle.

Old Beggar Lu, when young, had been a four-bag elder, but after age and infirmity weakened him, he had been demoted to three bags. And among three-bag elders, he was rather ordinary.

As for the Thunder King Yang Feikuang, he counted as having the strength of a four-bag elder, though among four-bag experts he was on the weaker side.

Shen Ye calculated it and found that, by that measure, his own current strength also amounted to four-bag level in the martial world. He was still far from anything like nine bags.

Still, he had the Hero system. As long as he leveled up, his attributes would surge upward in great strides. And once he reached level ten, there would be a second advancement. He estimated that the second advancement would bring another massive boost in attributes. By then, his strength in the martial world would be outrageously strong. The masters of the martial world were not nearly as invincible as he had imagined.

There were no powerful martial factions near Cloud City.

Compared with other places, martial arts here were not especially prosperous.

The three major forces in Cloud City were, first, the Beggar Gang branch led by Branch Master Zha Qiaotian, known as King Zha. He was a seven-bag elder of the Beggar Gang, and it was said that he might soon challenge for eight bags.

The second force was Luo Rong, King Luo, of the South Sea Sword Sect, stationed here. He was a sword expert, and his strength was said to be about equal to King Zha’s.

The third was not one of the Ten Major Sects, but a local sect from the Guangdong and Guangxi region called the Southern Fist Sacred Sect. The name sounded imposing, and even styles like Wing Chun belonged to this sect’s boxing traditions. The sect had deep commercial resources and had invested heavily in Hong Kong films to promote itself. The Southern Fist Sacred Sect had once tried to rise and seize a place among the Ten Major Sects, but the South Sea Sword Sect had once taught them a harsh lesson, and in the end they became honest and stopped making trouble.

Shen Ye actually felt rather sorry about this. Since he was not a person of the martial world, he could not learn the true martial arts of the various sects.

The publicly known forms like Tai Chi and Baji Fist were of little use.

After midnight tonight, there would be another update.