Chapter Twenty-Five: The Hero’s Fan Club

Guangzhou had three major powers.

First, the branch of the Beggars’ Gang.

Second, the branch of the South Sea Sword Sect.

And third, the local sect of the two Canton regions, the Sacred Gate of the Southern Fist.

At this moment, in one corner of Guangzhou, on the top floor of a thirty-three-story tower, stood a vast flat occupying more than ten thousand square feet. Though it was not in the city center, the price per square foot was still ruinous; this single residence was worth tens of millions of yuan.

Behind an immensely wide executive chair sat the sect master of the Sacred Gate of the Southern Fist, Old Fist Liu.

He was sixty-three years old. To ordinary people, that was already the age of decline, but for a martial artist, it was still the prime of life. For instance, Old Beggar Lu did not begin to weaken until after eighty, and at ninety-eight he could still clash head-on with Shen Ye.

By rights, Old Fist Liu should still have been in robust condition, without a single white hair to be seen.

Yet now half his hair had gone white, and deep lines had settled across his face.

In his younger years, he had wanted to expand the Sacred Gate of the Southern Fist.

But the two Canton regions were already a battleground for numerous factions, and they would not permit the rise of yet another new power. Back then, one of the ten great sects of the martial world, the deputy sect master of the South Sea Sword Sect, the Lone Soul on the Sea, Zhuo Yijian, had personally intervened and beaten Old Fist Liu into grievous injury.

Since then, a hidden danger had remained within him.

He would not live beyond five more years.

What gave him the greatest headache, of course, was the matter of succession. A fortune this large, once transferred, would inevitably stir up many storms within the great clans.

Just then, an elderly man with graying hair and a black suit walked in. “Sect Master, this is the latest martial-world news from the two Canton regions.”

The two Canton regions were a crossroads of many powers; the situation was perilous, and while petty squabbles were common, truly major matters were not many.

Old Fist Liu scanned them one by one. Then he reached the battle between Chopstick Demon and the Thunderous King of Lightning, Yang Feikuang, and could not help furrowing his brows. “The Thunderous King of Lightning, Yang Feikuang—I have some memory of him. His strength, within the Beggars’ Gang, would count as that of a Four-Sack Elder, would it not?”

“Yes.” The gray-haired man in the black suit nodded. His name was Liu Older Virtue, the Liu family’s steward. He was a little older than Old Fist Liu himself, and had always been loyal to the core.

“A Four-Sack Elder in strength is truly a master in Guangzhou, not easy to deal with.” Old Fist Liu looked at the materials. “And moreover, it is said that during that battle, two small spheres appeared in Chopstick Demon’s hands, and instantly turned into a pair of black gloves, all full of that old-fashioned, battle-worn look. That means our information has been wrong all along. Chopstick Demon is not acting alone. Behind him stands a high-tech conglomerate.”

No one knew which faction was backing Chopstick Demon from behind.

Or perhaps an outside dragon was trying to force its way into Guangzhou to take a bite of flesh, using Chopstick Demon as the vanguard.

Old Fist Liu made one judgment after another.

One man might do what Chopstick Demon was doing for the sake of justice.

But a group of people could not possibly do it for justice; there had to be other interests at work.

He was not the only one to reach this conclusion. The people of the South Sea Sword Sect’s branch in Guangzhou and the Beggars’ Gang’s branch in Guangzhou had come to the same judgment. The number of martial-world figures privately searching for Chopstick Demon also increased.

...

Meanwhile, the hacker Du Li had naturally already found the news of Chopstick Hero striking again.

He had broken into the police system and was reviewing the detailed process of this latest act.

He himself was a devoted fan of Shen Ye, and read it with delighted approval.

Then he began to organize his thoughts and write a post: “Chopstick Hero Strikes Again. This time, his target is the Thunderous King of Lightning, Yang Feikuang, the man recently cursed by the internet.”

Within the post, he described in detail certain police records of the incident.

For example, that Yang Feikuang turned out to be a master.

Or that after Yang Feikuang died, the so-called allies he had treated were overjoyed to the point of tears, and one man named Xiao Wei even went so far as to bite into Yang Feikuang’s flesh in the records.

The post was soon finished.

Then it was uploaded to the Hainan Forum.

On the forum, many people had been discussing a wildly popular television drama of late—a court-and-harem feud fest, with several young starlets tearing into each other with fierce intensity.

But once they saw this post, they swarmed into it madly.

No drama could match reality for excitement.

Besides, both Chopstick Demon and the Thunderous King of Lightning, Yang Feikuang, were figures whose popularity had recently exploded across the internet.

After reading the post, someone immediately sent a wide-eyed, jaw-dropped emoticon: “Damn, that is explosive.”

“The Thunderous King of Lightning, Yang Feikuang, was actually a master. Damn, I even said before that if Yang Feikuang ever went to prison, I’d have my buddy in there go and screw him over. Good thing I didn’t do that, or my buddy would’ve been harmed because of me,” said a user with the ID Street-Basher Seven Brother.

“But in the end, the higher path still prevails. People like Yang Feikuang, this piece of trash—I thought the law couldn’t punish him, that he could keep roaming free, keep electrocuting those young people. I never expected the great Chopstick Hero to strike again and kill the Thunderous King of Lightning, Yang Feikuang. Truly magnificent! From this day on, I’m a die-hard fan of Chopstick Hero.”

“I’m becoming a die-hard fan too.”

“Chopstick Hero is simply too handsome.”

“Look at those young people in the post, the ones who had been ‘treated’—when they saw Yang Feikuang die, they were crying and laughing at the same time. There was even one named Xiao Wei who went straight to bite Yang Feikuang’s flesh. That alone shows how deep their hatred was. Trash like Yang Feikuang deserves to die! For him to live is practically the greatest mockery of everyone else,” said a user named Heroic as Mountains and Rivers.

“That’s right. I’m one of the allies from the Feikuang Internet Rehab Center. In the past, just because we loved going online, Yang Feikuang would madly electrocute us. If we made a mistake in there—say we didn’t fold the blanket into proper shape, extra circle; if we didn’t sweep the floor properly, extra circle; if we argued back to our parents by even one sentence, extra circle. Once the circles piled up to a certain point, we had to endure Yang Feikuang’s special treatment. I was subjected to it once. It was horrifying. Even now, when I think about it, I still shiver all over. Thank you, Chopstick Hero, for killing Yang Feikuang and freeing me from the shadow in my heart,” said a user with the ID Flying to the Sky. “From this day on, I’m also a die-hard fan of Chopstick Hero.”

“With Chopstick Hero striking again and again, if he keeps this up a few more times, Guangzhou’s public order will probably improve a lot.”

“Chopstick Hero is truly great.”

“Chopstick Hero is practically on the same level as Batman, Iron Man, and the Flash in American movies.”

At that moment, another user suddenly said: “Chopstick Hero is this amazing, so why doesn’t he have his own website? Let’s make an exclusive website for Chopstick Hero.”

“Heh, stop joking around. If you really made a site like that, believe me, it would be shut down instantly.”

Watching the discussion, the hacker Du Li seemed to have been reminded of something. He immediately posted: “I’m a hacker. Leave the website to me. I can make it very quickly. I’ll put the server overseas. If it gets shut down, I’ll teach everyone how to bypass the wall and view it. We Chopstick Hero fans really do need a site as a fan nest.”

“What should Chopstick Hero’s fan site be called?”

“How about Chopstick Station?”

“Lmao, forgive me, but when I saw that name, I thought it sold chopsticks. My stomach hurts from laughing.”

“Same here; my stomach hurts from laughing too.”

“Just call it the Official Chopstick Hero Website. Simple and clear,” proposed hacker Du Li.

“Good.”

“Not bad.”