Chapter 106 - 102: Fighting Martial Marquis_1

The curtain of night falls on the second day.

Lu Yan arrives at the Qiu Family’s villa. He repeats his previous trick, engaging the Qiu Family to trade at Tianfeng Lane during the third quarter of the Hour of the Ox, and then quietly waits in the shadows.

"I hope I can lure both of them out."

Lu Yan secretly hopes.

If it doesn’t work today, he can only try with the Ouyang Family tomorrow.

If all else fails, he will lose his purchasing qualifier and have to think of something else.

Soon, the Hour of the Ox is approaching, two figures emerge from the Qiu Family’s villa.

"It’s them."

Lu Yan’s eyes light up.

All is in order.

The two leaving are Martial Marquises, martial artists at level two and three. It seems that only a martial artist at level one is left to guard the villa.

Lu Yan waits a while longer, after confirming that the two have left, he quietly sneaks in to the Qiu Family’s villa.

He grabs a burly man by the throat and demands, "Where are the Qiu Family’s abalones kept?"

"In the storeroom in the backyard, guarded by the Martial Marquis himself. Please don’t kill me," the burly man pleads.

Lu Yan knocks the man out with a palm strike and swiftly heads towards the backyard.

In the storeroom, a lamp flickers, casting the enormous silhouette of a man on the window.

The Qiu Family’s Martial Marquis, Qiu Baiye, is guarding the place himself.

Lu Yan makes his way to the entrance of the storeroom.

"Who’s there? Weren’t you instructed to avoid the storeroom?" A grumpy voice comes from inside the storeroom.

Lu Yan, standing outside the door, responds, "Sir, earlier, the man who wanted to sell the abalones wants to see you."

"Didn’t Brother Liu go to meet him for the trade? Why did he come here?" asks a bewildered Qiu Baiye.

"I’m not sure," Lu Yan simply answers, bowing down. He gathers his qi-blood, preparing to launch a surprise attack once Qiu Baiye opens the door.

"Have you had dinner yet?" Qiu Baiye suddenly asks.

Lu Yan is taken aback but replies, "Yes, I have eaten, sir."

"Hmm, I’ll go and see him then." The silhouette inside the storeroom stands up and with a loud creak, opens the door. As Lu Yan is about to punch him, a table flies towards him, carrying a whirlwind of violence with it.

Lu Yan smashes the table with his fist. A towering figure then lunges toward him, raising his palm to strike Lu Yan’s forehead. The force behind the strike is tremendous and sturdy.

Lu Yan quickly counters with his own attack. After exchanging three strikes with the opponent, he retreats three meters.

"How did you know something was amiss with me?" Lu Yan can’t help but ask.

"Your answer should have been ’I’m not hungry’," Qiu Baiye replies, charging at Lu Yan again, both palms ink-black, aiming at Lu Yan.

"...using a password like this, how cunning," Lu Yan mumbles, readying his punches to meet the opponent.

Just like a lion hunting a rabbit, he uses all his abilities, not to mention that the opponent is a Martial Marquis. He puts his Vajra Indestructible Skill to full use, throwing his full might into the fight.

If a surprise attack fails, his strategy must be swift and decisive.

If the other two Martial Marquises from Qiu Family return unexpectedly, then he will be in danger.

Although it’s highly unlikely they’ll return soon, he must still be prepared.

Lu Yan’s body turns golden yellow, especially his hands, which are as hard as bronze and indestructible.

After several rounds, Qiu Baiye keeps retreating, his face turning red, with blood dripping from the corner of his mouth.

"You have no bone strength, it’s you," Qiu Baiye growls.

When Lu Yan first arrived and asked by name to see him, he had exchanged a few moves with Lu Yan.

Now he realizes he has been tricked. Lu Yan’s actual objective was to divert away the other two Martial Marquises.

His goal wasn’t to make a trade, but to take their abalones.

Lu Yan remains silent and continues his onslaught.

Qiu Baiye’s strength exceeds Liu Yuanfu of the Liu Family by a large margin. But Lu Yan isn’t uninformed anymore.

Originally, his qi-blood was established through the practice of second-rate martial arts. Although vast, it crumbled upon contact with bone strength.

Now, his qi-blood has achieved the proficiency of first-rate martial arts, becoming more condensed, allowing for a fair fight against bone strength.

In addition, his qi-blood, currently at the Fifth Breakthrough, is overflowing, reaching six times the level of an ordinary person’s qi-blood. Additionally, with unity of man and martial arts through a first-rate martial art, Lu Yan’s strength vastly exceeds what it was, completely overpowering Qiu Baiye.

Qiu Baiye spends all his effort in blocking Lu Yan’s onslaught, completely giving up on counterattacking and solely focusing on defense.

He needs to buy time.

After another five or six rounds, Lu Yan feels a tingling sensation in his hands. He looks and sees that his hands have turned pitch black.

"It’s poison," Lu Yan realizes.

"You dared to challenge my Thousand-Spider, Hundred-Poison palm. Now that the spider poison is in your body, I would like to see how you die," Qiu Baiye smirks with relief.

Once the spider poison enters the body, it begins to corrode qi-blood and meridians. The poisoned person’s strength will plummet in a flash.

He had been solely on defense, waiting this moment to happen.

But in the next moment, he sees a shocking scene. The black qi on Lu Yan’s hands is quickly fading, returning to their golden hue.

Boom, boom, boom.

Without stopping, Lu Yan keeps up his fierce attack, his strength unaffected.

With the Vajra Indestructible Skill at its core, the combination of Vajra Body and Man Xiang Body has evolved into a first-class martial art. His body has grown stronger and is virtually invulnerable to poison.

At least ordinary poison can hardly harm him.

You could say Lu Yan is Qiu Baiye’s nemesis.

Qiu Baiye defends with all his might, but shaken by the shock in his mind, he exposes a flaw. Lu Yan lands a punch in his abdomen.

Bang!

Qiu Baiye was flung backward, smashing a wall.

Lu Yan immediately pursued him.

"Fool! You’re going down with me."

Qiu Baiye’s face contorted, his Qi-blood boiled, his bones sprung into action. His veins bulged like earthworms. His arms audibly creaked, and incredibly, from his elbows... grew a pair of black... spider legs.

Yes, spider legs.

Sharp as spears, they swept towards Lu Yan.

The spider legs emitted a green glow, clearly containing powerful toxins.

At first, Lu Yan was startled, thinking he had come across another Martial Spirit, but soon realized that the other person showed no signs of possessing a Martial Spirit.

It was the effect of first-rate martial arts.

Lu Yan reached out and instantly caught both spider legs in his hand.

If it were an ordinary Martial Marquis, such a grasp would be the thing of nightmares—the potent toxin from the spider legs could permeate through one’s bone strength and infiltrate one’s body.

But Lu Yan had no fear of toxins.

His hands glowed golden and created a barrier against the toxin. He mustered his strength and snapped the two spider legs in half.

Howling in agony, Qiu Baiye lashed out at Lu Yan with both palms.

Lu Yan didn’t dodge or evade, choosing to counter the two palms head-on. At the same time, he stabbed Qiu Baiye with the broken spider legs held in his hands.

Boom! Boom!

Squish!

Both of them struck each other almost simultaneously.

Qiu Baiye’s palms hit Lu Yan’s chest as though striking metal. Lu Yan staggered several steps backward, feeling a dull ache in his chest, as if his breastbone was about to break.

Fortunately, the damage was superficial, no harm had reached his heart.

The formidable defensive force of the Vajra Indestructible Skill was undeniably reflected here.

On the other hand, both of Qiu Baiye’s temples were pierced by spider legs. Brain matter seeped from his temples. His eyes bulged in fury, and his sturdy body thudded to the ground, lifeless.

Without wasting time on the corpse, Lu Yan had drawn the attention of Qiu Family’s other members—the sound of fighting had attracted them and they were rushing to the scene.

Lu Yan rushed into the storage room, picked up two bamboo baskets, and bolted.

"Villain, stop!"

"You’re seeking death!"

A group of Qiu Family martial artists had entered the courtyard, catching a sight of Qiu Baiye’s corpse. In great shock, they let out a roar of fury, but their legs remained glued to the ground, not daring to take a step forward.

Lu Yan leaped onto the rooftop and sprinted away.

Only after Lu Yan disappeared from sight, the martial artists ran forward, their eyes filled with rage, all shouted and looked ready to take on Lu Yan.

"Surround the courtyard, don’t let the villain escape."

"If I find him, I will chop him into pieces and feed him to the dogs."

"I will make him beg for death."

Their roars echoed louder and louder.

Lu Yan, with the baskets on his back, leveraged the darkness of the night, zigzagging and changing directions seven or eight times before returning to the inn.

Opening the bamboo baskets, he found them full of abalones.

Gauging the weight, it was definitely over 200 pounds.

As expected, without taking any action, it would be nearly impossible for him to obtain the purchase qualification on his own.

He tore open his clothes to inspect his chest wound. His breastbone had a minor crack, but as long as he regulated his Qi-blood for recovery, he would heal quickly.

"The Vajra Indestructible Skill provides strong defense, but I shouldn’t take such risks next time."

Lu Yan mulled over it.

In his duel with Qiu Baiye, he could have avoided taking the straight hit. He could reduce risks by prolonging the fight for ten rounds and would still kill his opponent.

But he was afraid that delaying too long would complicate matters. Therefore, he chose to tactically allow mutual damage to resolve the fight swiftly.

"It appears that with my current strength, I can handle common Martial Marquis Level One opponents and surface-level Marquis martial artists."

Lu Yan had a clearer understanding of his strength.

Of course, even within Martial Marquis Level One, there are strong and weak individuals. For instance, some Martial Marquis have only achieved mastery in first-rate martial arts, some have reached the Peak of Perfection, and even some have achieved Transcendence.

Or even some have an Innate Martial Body, formidable bone strength, or are cultivating special martial arts to support their combat prowess.

Never be complacent or careless. It always pays to be cautious.

"Damn it, we’ve been deceived."

Only when the two Martial Marquis from the Qiu Family returned to the courtyard did they realize they had been tricked, and they were furious.

One of the Martial Marquis was about to order a city-wide manhunt for the killer, but was stopped by the other Marquis.

"This person robbed the abalones, and in the end, he will have to submit them to the Gao Family. We should place our people outside the Martial Cuisine Manor of the Gao Family, and we will definitely capture him."

The Marquis advised.

The location for submitting the abalones was at the Martial Cuisine Manor of the Gao Family, where they specialized in preparing Martial Food.

"Exactly, this person exchanged many rounds with Baiye, which indicates his Cultivation Level isn’t high, at most, Martial Marquis Level Two. I will kill him."

The other Marquis said coldly, filled with murderous intent.

By a strange coincidence, Zheng Family from Qingfeng County had the same plan and had sent people to patrol outside the Martial Cuisine Manor, preparing to intercept Lu Yan.

Of course, they were outsiders, and the Gao Family was the master of this area. They had their own rules. It was impossible for the two feuderal lords to enter the Gao Family’s Martial Cuisine Manor to catch anyone.

They could only intercept from the outside.

Master Gao, a number of people denoted themselves as suspicious individuals outside the Gao Family’s Martial Cuisine Manor in the past few days. I suspect them to be from the Zheng and Qiu families."

Two days later, Li Quan reported to Lu Yan.

Lu Yan nodded. He had guessed that the two feuderal lords would do this.

NanYi City is so vast. Relying only on their subordinates, how could they find Lu Yan?

And the Gao Family only cares about the results, and they don’t care about the process.

Whoever has more abalones is eligible to buy the Jade Bone Tiger. Of course, they won’t help the two feuderal lords to catch Lu Yan.

"Then we will deliver the abalones a few days later."

Lu Yan said.

"But Master Gao, the fixed date for abalones submission set by the Gao Family is tomorrow," Li Quan added.

"The Gao Family wants the abalones, not a specific date. A delay of a few days should not be a problem."

Lu Yan concluded.