Lein hit that line like a stone thrown into a pond.The first wave, twenty people from the front row, came at the same time. Lein didn't slow down. His body dropped under the first fist coming from the left, his feet pushed sideways, and his shoulder drove into that man's waist with enough force to send him crashing into the three people behind him.Four from one motion.From the right, two men came with clubs. Lein jumped upward, his feet landing on the first man's shoulder as a launching point, pushing off to jump higher, and both feet swept downward hitting both their heads simultaneously before he landed lightly between them.Six.Someone from behind tried to lock both his arms. Lein bent forward, threw the man over his shoulder, directly into two people running from the front. Three bodies stopped at the same time.Nine.The rhythm didn't break.A slap to the right side of the head. An elbow rising to a chin. A low leg sweep catching three sets of ankles at once. Lein moved left,

Drace moved first again, but differently from before.His iron gauntlets trembled, the runic engravings on their surface glowing with a dark reddish-black light, and the Soul Realm energy flowing into them began turning the air around his fists into something denser."Iron Burial Fist!"His fist drove forward, and the pressure wave radiating from the motion wasn't an ordinary one. This felt like a moving concrete wall, trying to destroy not just the body but the space around the target.Lein stepped left. The wave passed him and hit the asphalt behind him, leaving a star-shaped crack in the road surface.Drace didn't stop. His technique wasn't a single shot, but a barrage. Left fist, right, left again, each impact into the air releasing the same pressure wave, filling the entire space in front of him with attacks that couldn't be avoided by simply stepping back.And Lein clearly wasn't stepping back in any ordinary way. He moved sideways, sideways again, diagonally, his body always in

Edran's legs were shaking.Not the kind of shaking he could control with willpower. This came from somewhere deeper than willpower, from something the body does automatically when the mind can no longer deny what's standing in front of it.But he was Edran Varcrest. The head of a family who had held this position for twenty years. He didn't shake in front of anyone.His teeth pressed together, his jaw locked, and his legs stopped shaking by force."Me?" His voice came out, still carrying some tone in it even if not as strong as usual. "Run? Never. I am the head of the Varcrest Family. I won't—"SMACK.Edran's head snapped to the left. Two of his teeth hit the asphalt along with blood running from the corner of his mouth, and the pain that immediately radiated from his right cheek through his entire face was the kind he hadn't felt in twenty years because nobody had ever dared."How dare you slap me, bastard!" His eyes came back to Lein, anger trying to cover something more real undern

Edran's Jeep stopped in front of Valcrest Premier Hospital with tires that barely had time to fully settle before he shoved the door open.His broken hand screamed when it hit the door, but he had no attention for that right now.The hospital lobby at this hour should have been quiet. One or two receptionists, a half-drowsy security guard, lighting dimmer than during the day.But what he found was a corridor with too many people moving too quickly for this hour of the morning, and a doctor in a white coat already waiting for him near the entrance with an expression Edran didn't want to read."Mr. Varcrest." The doctor approached, his tone too careful. "We... there's something we need to tell you—""What is it?!"The doctor swallowed. "Young Master Lucien... he's not in his room, sir. We just found his room empty about two minutes ago."Edran stared at him for three full seconds.Then his feet moved toward the elevator."Mr. Varcrest, your hand—"He was already not listening.The eleva

Lein stood in the yard filled with bodies still lying under the streetlights.His eyes swept across all of it once."I'll count to three." His voice came out in a way that didn't need to be loud to be heard by everyone. "If the count ends and you're still in front of me, don't blame me for what happens next. One."Nobody moved in the first second."Two."Then everything moved at once.A hundred and twenty people and five cultivators who had previously been unable to stand properly suddenly found a way to do so. Bodies wincing from pain forced themselves up off the asphalt, hands propping up dizzy heads, legs that were shaking but didn't stop moving. They didn't run in any organized direction. They ran toward their respective Jeeps in a way that could only be described as highly efficient panic.Car doors were opened and closed within seconds. Engines started almost simultaneously. Tires spinning on asphalt.Before Lein raised his voice to say three, the yard was already empty.Nothing