The Art of the Invisible Strike

Chapter 3

The air in the Discard Pit was thick with the white dust of the lime powder. It looked like a ghostly fog. Through that fog, Han Feng launched himself.

He didn't move like the old Han Feng. The old Han Feng was slow, dragging his feet because of his damaged nerves. This new Han Feng moved like a released spring. His feet pushed off the soft, rotting trash with such force that a small crater appeared where he had been standing.

Enforcer Tie was a man of the Third Realm of Body Tempering. His skin was tough, and his muscles were like thick ropes. He had spent twenty years bullying disciples. His reflexes were fast.

"You little rat!" Tie roared. He didn't know how the "Null" had jumped so high, but he didn't care. He raised his heavy iron mace. The mace was a brutal weapon, covered in blunt studs meant to crush bone.

Tie swung the mace in a horizontal arc. He expected to hear the sound of Han Feng’s ribs shattering again.

But Han Feng did something impossible. In mid-air, he twisted his torso. It wasn't a normal human movement. It was a violent, rhythmic contraction of his core muscles. The movement created a "wave" that shifted his center of gravity. The mace whistled an inch past his stomach, catching only the fabric of his ragged shirt.

Han Feng landed on the edge of the pit, right in front of Tie.

"You missed," Han Feng said. His voice was flat. Cold.

"I’ll peel the skin from your face!" Tie screamed. He dropped the mace and tried to use his heavy boot to kick Han Feng back into the pit. Tie’s boots were tipped with steel. A kick like that could kill a horse.

Han Feng didn't retreat. He stepped into the kick.

He reached out and placed his open palm against Tie’s chest. He didn't punch. He didn't push. He just touched Tie’s leather armor, right over the heart.

"What is this?" Tie laughed, his boot inches from Han Feng’s chest. "A caress? You truly are a—"

Tie’s voice stopped.

Han Feng closed his eyes. He felt the vibration of his own reinforced skeleton. He sent a pulse of bio-energy, his refined Qi, down his arm. But he didn't release it all at once. He vibrated his muscles at a specific frequency, a high-speed hum that matched the resonance of the water inside a human cell.

Vibrational Palm.

To an outsider, it looked like Han Feng was just resting his hand on Tie. There was no explosion. No flash of light.

But inside Enforcer Tie, a disaster was happening.

The shockwave from Han Feng’s palm passed right through the leather armor. It passed through the skin. It hit the internal organs. Because the human body is mostly liquid, the vibration traveled like a ripple in a pond, but with the force of a tidal wave.

Tie’s heart didn't stop, it disintegrated. His lungs turned into a bloody pulp. His liver and kidneys liquefied instantly.

Tie’s eyes went wide. The silver reflection in Han Feng’s eyes was the last thing he saw. He didn't even have time to scream. A single drop of blood leaked from his ear, and another from his nose.

Tie’s body stood frozen for a second. Then, he collapsed like a suit of clothes with no one inside.

Han Feng stood over the body, breathing hard. His palm felt hot. His heart was hammering against his ribs, not from fear, but from the sheer amount of energy he had just moved through his nervous system.

"It works," he whispered. "The Scripture... it’s real."

He looked down at Tie. The Enforcer looked perfectly fine on the outside. There wasn't a single bruise on his chest. But if someone were to cut him open, they would find nothing but red soup. This was the "Silent Predator" style of the Bone-Forging Scripture. It was a way to kill that left no evidence.

Panic began to set in, but Han Feng suppressed it. He was a "Null." If a Sect Enforcer went missing and he was the only one around, he would be tortured and killed.

"I have to hide this," he muttered.

He looked at the empty lime sack. He looked at the pit.

With his new strength, Han Feng picked up Tie’s heavy body. Tie weighed at least two hundred pounds, but to Han Feng, he felt like a bag of feathers. He tossed the body deep into the Discard Pit, making sure it landed under a pile of heavy wooden debris.

He then picked up the iron mace and threw it in after him. He took the remaining lime powder and scattered it over the area to cover the smell of blood and death. Finally, he used a branch to sweep away his footprints in the dust.

As he worked, a cold realization hit him.

The "Outer Sect Culling" was coming.

In the Azure Cloud Sect, every six months, there was a test. The disciples were ranked. The bottom ten percent, the trash, were removed. 

In the past, removed meant being sent to work in the coal mines until you died of lung disease. But lately, with the new Great Elder in charge, removed meant something more permanent. They were simply never seen again.

"Thirty days," Han Feng said, looking at his scarred hands. "In thirty days, they will come for the Nulls. If I haven't reached the 'Copper Skin' realm by then, I won't be able to hide my strength or defend myself against the elders."

He couldn't stay near the pit. He needed a place to train where no one would look for a lowly slave.