Chapter 218: Chaos in Songyang
Zhang Yu knew that ever since Fu Ji had recovered some of her evil god power and returned to the level of a rank-1 evil god, she had become exceptionally sensitive to changes in the network signal.
After all, the network that spanned Kunxu was, in essence, a divine power network, and as an existence that could steal divine power, an evil god’s perception of network signals was naturally acute.
“Is the signal poor?”
Upon hearing Fu Ji’s warning, Zhang Yu guessed that this was likely related to a gang dispute.
Since becoming a gold-medal teacher for the Dark Learning Gang, although his daily life was centered around teaching, he had also come into contact with some of the inside stories of gang conflicts.
Bai Zhenzhen, in particular, was now fighting on the front lines, experiencing one life-and-death struggle after another with the experts of the Golden Class Gang. She would sometimes return late at night covered in injuries, and over the past two months, she had often talked to Zhang Yu about the gang disputes.
“To avoid alerting the constables and righteous gods, gang battles are often fought in sparsely populated, underdeveloped locations, preferably without any surveillance.”
Zhang Yu looked at the suburban path he was on and thought to himself that it probably met the conditions of being sparsely populated and without surveillance.
“Secondly, they use signal jammers to temporarily block the network signal.”
“However, these signal jammers can only operate in places the righteous gods don’t pay much attention to, and at most, they can only be maintained for a few minutes, otherwise it will trigger an inspection from the Divine Department…”
A torrent of thoughts flashed through his mind, and Zhang Yu had already made his judgment: It seems Black Crow’s warning was correct. The Golden Class Gang must be targeting me, hoping to strike a blow against the Dark Learning Gang by attacking me, their gold-medal teacher…
Just as Zhang Yu came to this conclusion, four incredibly strong figures had unknowingly appeared on the path ahead and behind, boxing him in.
In the low temperatures of early December, plumes of white vapor puffed out with each of the four’s breaths, traveling a great distance under the streetlight’s glow before slowly dissipating.
And as the four men began to walk toward Zhang Yu in unison, a potent martial will, driven by the circulation of their heart arts, pressed down on him with fierce intensity.
At the same time, as their steps quickened, the bones and tendons within their bodies erupted with crackling pops as they moved, like a rolling beat of war drums echoing through the night sky.
From the rush of air with their every breath, to the martial will bearing down on him, to the sounds of their clashing bones, Zhang Yu could sense that all four men assailing him from both directions possessed bodies tempered through a thousand trials and a combat will honed in life-and-death battles; they were undoubtedly all peak Qi Refinement experts who had graduated many years ago.
If this had been half a year ago, or even two months ago, facing an ambush from four such peak Qi Refinement experts, Zhang Yu’s only option would have been a single word: run.
But the Zhang Yu of today had not only reached the numerical limit of Qi Refinement in both magic power and physical strength, but had also advanced more than a dozen cultivation techniques to level 10, including many top-tier Qi Refinement stage techniques.
And now, his Martial Dao Holy Embryo was newly formed.
Sensing the four experts closing in on him, Zhang Yu thought, Very well. Today, I shall use the four of you to verify the quality of my newly formed Martial Dao Holy Embryo.
With that, Zhang Yu took a step forward, meeting the two men in front of him head-on.
The four experts raised their eyebrows at this sight, and one of them, a silver-haired man, sneered, “Oh? You’re not running?”
“I don’t need to run,” Zhang Yu said with a calm expression. “As for the four of you, if you run now, you can still make it.”
The silver-haired man snorted. “Arrogant.”
They knew before coming that this Ma Yunteng was quite powerful, but no matter how powerful he was, when they were all at the peak of the Qi Refinement stage, four against one was an absolute advantage.
The next moment, the four of them charged toward Zhang Yu from all directions, their movements accompanied by the roar of wind and thunder.
Amid a series of booms, Zhang Yu blocked the fists and feet of the two experts in front with both hands, while the two behind seized the opportunity, their palms surging with violent astral qi as they brutally struck his back.
With a loud bang, the silver-haired man looked at Zhang Yu, who had taken a direct hit, and sneered, “Now let’s see who needs to run.”
Zhang Yu ignored him, focusing instead on carefully experiencing the effects of his Martial Dao Holy Embryo.
For the next ten-odd seconds, Zhang Yu continued to parry his opponents’ attacks while taking their fist strikes, palm forces, and sword qi head-on with various parts of his body.
He silently felt the force of their palms being negated by his copper-armored corpse skin and Formless Cloud-Astral Qi, and then absorbed and distributed by the flesh, bones, and organs that had been tempered by techniques such as the Thunderclap Marrow-Washing Scripture, the Whale Tendon Nine Transformations, and the Five Qi Organ Refining Art.
As he withstood these ferocious assaults, Zhang Yu could feel that his bones and internal organs are almost completely unscathed.
His skin, flesh, and fascia have sustained some wear and tear from the heavy blows, but they are already recovering quickly.
Under the amplification, the six techniques of the Martial Dao Holy Embryo were interconnected and operated as one, giving his resistance to damage a qualitative leap, making it at least sixty percent stronger than before.
And his body, under the combined operation of the six techniques, felt as if it had come alive—bruises were being expelled, wounds were closing and healing, and his body was reducing swelling, inflammation, and temperature on its own…
Zhang Yu estimated in his mind, Blunt-force injuries from ordinary punches and kicks will probably self-heal in one or two minutes, thanks to my formidable resilience.
If it’s a wound from a blade or sword, it will likely heal in five or six minutes.
Is this the so-called explosive increase in damage resistance and external wound self-healing?
At this moment, Zhang Yu had gained a general understanding of his newly formed Martial Dao Holy Embryo.
As for the four experts who had been besieging him for over ten seconds, their expressions had gradually shifted from initial coldness and excitement to puzzlement, and then to shock.
The silver-haired man shouted, “This man is proficient in multiple body-protection arts! Ordinary fists and kicks are useless, we need to use specialized magic power to injure him!”
In an instant, aside from the silver-haired man who was already using sword qi, the other three experts also changed their tactics. Their attacks were now either scorching hot, radiating chilling frost, or flashing with electricity.
Clearly, they had all unleashed martial arts that erupted with specialized magic power.
Faced with such an onslaught, Zhang Yu, who now had a general understanding of his Martial Dao Holy Embryo, no longer chose to take the hits head-on. Instead, with a roar, streams of Formless Cloud-Astral Qi erupted from his body, enveloping him completely.
Swoosh!
The silver-haired man slashed out with the sword qi at his fingertip, but he felt as if his strike had been caught in a deep-sea undercurrent, causing it to swerve and stab toward his companion.
At the same time, another companion’s fist, radiating scorching heat, was pulled by the Formless Cloud-Astral Qi and sent hurtling toward the silver-haired man’s waist.
The silver-haired man desperately twisted his waist and vibrated his sword, managing to dodge the punch while also avoiding his own redirected attack.
He thrust his sword at Zhang Yu again, but as the sword qi collided with his opponent’s palm, he felt an icy cold magic power surge from it—wasn’t this his companion’s ice palm force?
As the fierce battle continued, the silver-haired man and his three companions grew increasingly alarmed.
At this moment, they felt no advantage from their numbers at all. Instead, their attacks were constantly being deflected onto their allies, and even the specialized magic power they unleashed was always being absorbed by Zhang Yu, circulated through his meridians, and then slapped right back at them.
It was clearly four against one, yet it felt as if they could only fight Zhang Yu one-on-one.
Sometimes, they even had the illusion that Zhang Yu was the one constantly being covered and assisted by his companions, that he was the one with the numbers advantage.
The silver-haired man’s heart pounded in his chest. This man’s skill in redirecting magic power and borrowing force to strike has reached the pinnacle of perfection!
Coupled with his brutally tough physique and the amplification of several body-protection techniques, the more people there are in a chaotic fight, the more of an advantage he has!
Meanwhile, Zhang Yu was finding the fight more and more exhilarating. He thought to himself, With the enhancement of the Martial Dao Holy Embryo, my damage resistance and self-healing of external wounds are accelerated. When I borrow and redirect force, the limit of what I can endure is higher, and the power I can borrow and command is stronger, making the fight that much easier…
But just then, Zhang Yu sensed the four men before him intended to retreat.
“Oh? You want to run now?”
The silver-haired man indeed had the intention to retreat; after all, the network jammer had a time limit, and this area was near a Dark Learning Gang stronghold, so reinforcements would arrive soon.
“The four of us alone can’t take this man down. If we drag this out, we’ll be in trouble.”
With this thought, the silver-haired man made a swift decision and shouted, “Withdraw!”
But in the next instant, Zhang Yu’s Formless Cloud-Astral Qi suddenly surged, and as his Great Sun Qi Sea circulated, it turned an inky black, like an abyss that completely swallowed the four figures.
The silver-haired man and his companions felt as if they had been plunged into the bottomless depths of the sea, where turbulent astral qi, mimicking the motions of the Dragonback Mountain Toppler Hand and the Dragon-Elephant Mountain-Shattering Palm, destroyed their balance.
At that moment, they realized something: although their opponent was likely at the same peak Qi Refinement realm as them, there were still vast differences between peaks.
A short while later, when Black Crow arrived with a group of gang members, he saw only four figures lying on the ground, already knocked unconscious.
Zhang Yu stood to the side and, meeting the awed gazes of Black Crow and the others, said casually, “I’ll leave these four to you. I should get a bonus for this, right?”
Black Crow quickly replied, “Teacher Ma, you’ll definitely get a bonus for defeating Golden Class Gang experts. I know you prefer cash, so I’ll go prepare it right away. You can pick it up the next time you come.”
On the way back to his apartment, Zhang Yu replayed the day’s battle in his mind.
The Martial Dao Holy Embryo really has improved me greatly.
And even though we’re all at the peak of Qi Refinement, these guys are far, far weaker than the current Zhen, or that fellow from before… He thought of Ye Lingxiao.
If I had possessed my current strength during the last round of the Foundation Establishment exam, I might have been able to contend with that guy for victory.
Recalling Ye Lingxiao’s performance in the previous exam round, a fighting spirit ignited within him. In this last month, I have to keep earning money and cultivating, to raise my Martial Dao Holy Embryo even further…
With the failure of this assassination attempt on Zhang Yu, the conflict between the Dark Learning Gang and the Golden Class Gang grew even more intense.
Over the next ten-odd days, the two sides engaged in multiple violent clashes, not only throwing copyright bombs at each other but even printing and distributing pirated copies of their rival’s martial arts for free, forging a life-and-death feud.
In the midst of these fierce struggles, even the security teams of the Deep Sea Group and the Immortal Resonance Group began to suffer casualties.
Amidst these continuous gang wars, Le Mulan (Bai Zhenzhen) broke through enemy lines several times, defeating rival leaders in massive brawls involving hundreds of people and escaping unscathed, carving out a formidable reputation for herself in Songyang City’s dark world of tutoring. Within the Dark Learning Gang, her prestige became second to none.
In particular, due to her frequent use of copyright bombs and the flashes of lightning that accompanied her attacks, she became known as the Dark Learning Gang’s “Copyright Lightning,” who was said to bring financial ruin wherever she went and whose presence alone could silence the cries of the poor at night.
Time passed amidst this chaotic gang warfare, step by step, until mid-December.