Chapter 14

Originally this day was supposed to be when Bai Lang finally finished converting all his internal force; he also decided to take a brief rest in the afternoon, go out for a walk and treat himself to a good meal. Walking down Lan Zhou Cheng's main street, everywhere were stalls selling lamb and beef rice dishes; smelling the fragrant aroma of grilled meat, Bai Lang couldn't help but feel his appetite stir. He had money, and plenty of it—no matter how you put it, Shanghai's housing prices rank among the highest nationwide; the money from selling his own house would be enough to live a lifetime in a place like Lan Zhou Cheng.

He simply ordered a whole roasted sheep. Bai Lang is now training the Thirteen Tai Bao Golden Bell Shield; the density of heavenly and earthly qi in this world is too low for this art to absorb enough qi externally, and the first three stages he's just entered cannot yet draw qi from outside, so practitioners must extract qi from the food they eat. Therefore, anyone who begins training the Thirteen Tai Bao Golden Bell Shield is practically a big eater at first.

Lamb is cheap here—over a thousand bucks gets you a whole roasted sheep, and then a few beers arrive, after which Bai Lang starts eating and drinking heartily. The restaurant's staff and owner later came to watch—after all, it's not common for one person to eat an entire sheep plus a lot of beer; perhaps it's the only time anyone has seen such a thing, so everyone gathered to gawk.

Bai Lang, full and satisfied, felt a slight tipsiness—even though he had trained martial arts, his alcohol tolerance wasn't affected; his limit was still low, and after drinking so much beer he was a bit drunk. Not in a hurry to go back, he walked the streets with his hands in his pockets, leisurely enjoying the myriad aspects of modern civilization. As night fell and the lights first came on, his buzz didn't fade but grew stronger—this beer was really good, not a light lager but a higher‑alcohol dark brew.

As Bai Lang walked down the road, his steps shifted slightly, perfectly avoiding a person's collision. Since that person wasn't buffered by Bai Lang, he slammed heavily into the wall behind him and then collapsed to the ground. Bai Lang glanced sideways and saw it was just an ordinary person; ahead, the direction the person had come from, several people were rushing over. The leader, holding a watermelon knife, shouted, 'Damn! You dare bump me! I'll beat you to death!'

The fallen man was quickly surrounded, and these people kicked him around. 'Hey hey, that's enough—if you keep going you'll kill him!' Bai Lang couldn't stand by; the man shouting that he'd been hit looked fine—indeed, even if he'd been hit by a car, he wouldn't be beaten to this state. 'I'm calling the police!' Bai Lang, not wanting trouble, decided to resolve the matter by calling the police.

This is a society that upholds the law; resorting to violence is the way of barbarians—if it were the world after my transmigration, Bai Lang would have already struck, but adapting to local customs plus his memories made him become a law‑abiding citizen rather than the thug Bai Lang. Yet his words and his action of stopping those men seemed to provoke them. The leader wielding a watermelon knife looked about thirty, the others were also in their twenties, clearly not good people—their demeanor made their faces unpleasant, a look Bai Lang had seen many times; that was the look of petty thugs and hooligans.

These men also reeked of alcohol, so they likely didn't notice Bai Lang simply extending his arm to push them aside easily—the meaning of that move. The leader leapt up, his watermelon knife slicing straight at Bai Lang: 'Even if you're pretty drunk, do you still instinctively use that meat‑splitting chop to strike people? Looks like you're a veteran, you know how to do it.' Bai Lang instantly saw through their background, then leaned back slightly and easily dodged the blade.

Missing his target made the man furious, stammering, 'He, he, he damn it!' His brothers rushed forward to grab Bai Lang, while this guy simply thrust his knife forward—though it's a watermelon knife, it still has a point, so the outcome would be different. Bai Lang gave a wry laugh, not regretting that his intervention had brought trouble; he flicked his wrist, knocked the knife aside, then lightly pressed his palm against the man's chest.

Bai Lang didn't need to use his true skill against these thugs. After landing his palm, the man collapsed instantly; Bai Lang turned his body left and right, chopping with his hand, and in a single breath he had felled everyone present. 'Just use enough force to knock them out.' Bai Lang's ear twitched slightly; he crouched to look at the first man he'd knocked down and said, 'This is troublesome—he has no breath!'

Bai Lang was decisive as well; he pressed on the man's neck, confirmed there was no pulse, then immediately took out the man's phone and dialed 120—he needed to keep his own phone, in case calling would reveal his location. After briefly stating the location, Bai Lang dropped the phone and ran—he wouldn't go back to collect belongings, as there was nothing necessary to carry—right now, getting away quickly was the real priority.

Bai Lang certainly didn't want to go to the police station; the situation was unclear, so leaving first was best—plus he didn't need to take a train or long‑distance bus, let alone a plane, so he'd just run on his own legs. Still, he could use a taxi to get out of the city—Bai Lang quickly bought a map, then hailed a taxi and drove straight out of Lan Zhou Cheng—he couldn't take the highway, as there might be checkpoints, and national roads were the same, so somewhere in Lan Zhou Cheng he got out of the taxi.

He had bought a map book containing maps of Lan Zhou Cheng and Gan Su Province—mainly tourist maps. Where Bai Lang circulated his internal force, his breath was enduring; after using lightness skill on his legs, he wasn't slower than a galloping horse, so under the cover of night he headed south as fast as possible. 'Perfect—take the Han Zhong route to Sichuan, then keep going south trying to reach Southeast Asia—today really made up my mind.' Bai Lang's feelings were truly a mix of laughter and tears; he never expected that a single act of righteous courage would end up killing someone......

'What the hell is wrong with this bastard? How could he be so fragile! I didn't even exert any force...... and it feels like I didn't break his ribs, much less drive a broken bone into his heart to kill him......' Bai Lang ran while thinking, and in the end could only blame heaven for wanting to take that kid, so a light tap killed him.

Police cars had surrounded the area; the several men involved in the fight were taken aside by officers for questioning, and the original victim was treated the same. Crime scene investigators were taking photos, while the coroner conducted a preliminary autopsy—when the ambulance arrived, it was already clear this was a death from a brawl, so after confirming death they didn't move the body. 'Preliminary judgment is myocardial infarction, or perhaps the fight stimulated the heart causing cardiac arrest, and then he died......' The coroner lifted his head and said to the officer in charge nearby, 'What do you call this......' The officer also shook his head and said.