Chapter 24: Remove the Root (Seek Monthly Tickets, Seek Follows)

Quicklime!

No matter how skilled you are, quicklime is your enemy.

It’s a low-brow trick commonly used by street thugs, but when deployed at a critical moment, it’s incredibly effective.

A divine tool for the weak to defeat the strong!

Inside the room, there were three others, Xu Jin calculated.

Too bad he hadn't broken through to the Second Layer of Meal Xia; otherwise, even if only one arm could freely unleash Star Arts, it would have been much easier.

Not like now, where he could only use his shoulder to strike.

Unrefined flesh cannot generate Star Force.

Originally, Xu Jin planned to wait until the three inside grew impatient waiting for the two men, then gradually emerged to search—then he’d pick them off one by one.

But after one minute, Xu Jin suddenly grew alert.

These ruffians were seasoned veterans.

If too much time passed and neither of the two made a sound, they’d likely all come out.

He had to take the initiative.

But first, he had to prepare.

In the next instant, Xu Jin propped up the first ruffian he’d killed against the wall; after a moment’s thought, he also propped up the second killed ruffian against the wall—he had to prepare for the worst-case scenario.

His mind sank into the Can Dou Platform; Xu Jin drew starlight into his body, instantly replenishing part of his depleted Star Force.

He took a deep breath, felt his state fully recover from the adrenaline surge, hid behind the second corpse, then gently shoved the first corpse.

Thud!

The first corpse fell with a heavy crash.

In the room’s main hall, Deng Hu suddenly froze, listening intently.

Seeing Deng Hu’s posture, Scar and the other ruffian also fell silent, straining to listen.

“Did something heavy just fall?”

Deng Hu set down his wine bowl and asked Scar, “How long have they been out?”

“Didn’t notice. Maybe close to a cup of tea’s time?”

“Just to piss? That long? Go check!” Deng Hu gave Scar a glance.

Scar had just risen when Deng Hu added, “Shout first!”

Scar understood and yelled toward the door, “Ironhead, you cowardly bastard, did you fall into a shit pit? Get back here, Boss is waiting to drink with you!”

Hearing this, Xu Jin immediately realized Deng Hu’s gang was on alert—but he didn’t move, silently hiding behind the corpses, gripping his blade tighter, feeling the quicklime pouch in his chest, waiting quietly.

No response!

Inside the room, Deng Hu’s face grew grim.

“Someone might have slipped in.” Instantly, Deng Hu drew a bull-ear dagger from behind his back, leapt up, and slipped on a leather-lined armor.

Scar and the other ruffian also drew bull-ear daggers and lit a torch.

The three exited, advancing slowly toward the back courtyard in a triangular formation.

On the roof, the blue-clad figure stood openly watching—even when Deng Hu glanced a few times toward the roof and courtyard walls, he spotted nothing.

“All three came out together—hard to handle.”

“The kid’s in trouble!”

“Should I lend a hand?”

“That’s a tough question.”

“I need a plausible excuse.”

“Huh?”

Suddenly, the blue-clad figure turned toward the courtyard gate.

Deng Hu’s torchlight flickered, revealing the fallen corpses.

But the three didn’t rush—they approached with extreme caution, inching closer to the wall corner where Xu Jin hid.

Suddenly, a sound came from the courtyard gate—a shadow crept in, tripped over a discarded door bolt in the dark, instantly causing Deng Hu and the others to whirl around, glaring, torchlight flashing to reveal the intruder.

“Old Xu? Was it you?”

Xu Jin had no time to wonder why his father had come.

At the very moment the three turned toward the gate, Xu Jin realized this was his best chance.

As he violently shoved the corpse before him into the ruffian behind and to the right, Xu Jin lunged forward, slashing straight at Scar.

A gust of wind—Scar, with immense combat experience, spun instantly, saw the blade’s flash, and slashed with lightning speed, knocking Xu Jin’s bull-ear dagger flying.

Seeing this, Scar sneered.

A greenhorn who couldn’t even hold a blade.

But in the next instant, Xu Jin, his dagger knocked away, curled his body and slammed into Scar’s chest—upon impact, starlight flared again on his right shoulder.

A crack of shattering bone.

Without thinking, Xu Jin knew Scar was either dead or critically wounded.

“Shit!”

Deng Hu roared, finally recognizing who was attacking them—he spun, lunged fast and fierce, stabbing toward Xu Jin.

Xu Jin, lacking combat experience, didn’t notice Deng Hu’s attack—but before striking, he’d already decided one thing.

After wounding or killing Scar, his momentum couldn’t stop—he had to use Scar’s corpse to create a fighting opportunity.

He grabbed Scar’s waist, shoved him forward into Deng Hu, then retreated, without hesitation, hurling the quicklime pouch at Deng Hu.

In the dark, Deng Hu, eyes wide, suddenly saw a blinding white cloud spray toward him—he realized his mistake, stepped back, and slammed his eyes shut—but it was too late.

In the next instant, Xu Jin flung the other bull-ear dagger he’d taken earlier at the remaining ruffian who had just risen.

He rolled on the ground, slamming straight into Deng Hu, whose eyes were tightly shut.

In life-or-death desperation, Deng Hu’s eyes were blinded by quicklime, but his vast combat experience made him wildly swing both daggers, shielding his vital points.

In the next instant, Deng Hu felt something like a sledgehammer smash into his knee.

Agony. A scream.

Instantly, his kneecap shattered.

He collapsed on the spot.

It was Xu Jin, rolling on the ground, who had slammed his shoulder’s starlight into Deng Hu’s knee.

As Deng Hu’s leg broke, Xu Jin intended to finish him off—but his eyes never left the last ruffian.

If that last ruffian charged, he’d kill him first.

But what surprised Xu Jin immensely was:

The last ruffian had pissed himself from fear.

While urinating down his pants, he frantically shoved away the corpse Xu Jin had thrown at him and turned to flee.

Running, then stumbling.

Xu Jin had once watched TV dramas and wondered why fleeing villains always tripped after a few steps, making viewers frantic.

Now, recalling his own first kill, he understood.

Heart pounding, sweat pouring like water, limbs weak, constantly glancing back at Xu Jin, the monster.

It was hard not to fall.

As the ruffian ran, Xu Jin panicked.

Today’s deed—if done, no survivors could be left.

One survivor would bring endless trouble.

He had to abandon Deng Hu’s screams and rush to deal with the fleeing ruffian.

Thud!

A heavy thump—a large club struck the fleeing ruffian down.

It was Xu Jin’s father, Xu Dajiang, who’d recovered and picked up the door bolt that had tripped him, swinging it to knock the ruffian down.

Then, the thick door bolt rained blows without mercy onto the ruffian.

Xu Jin froze, then laughed at the scene.

He casually picked up a dagger from the ground and tossed it over.

“Dad, use this!”

Then he turned to Deng Hu, still thrashing with his dagger on the ground.

But now, Deng Hu’s face was filled with terror.

He wanted to open his eyes—but his eyes burned fiercely.

He wanted to rub them, but dared not drop his dagger.

“Master Xu, spare me!”

“Master Xu, let me go—I swear I’ll never dare again!”

“Master Xu, spare me! I’ll give you silver—a hundred taels, no, all I have—two hundred taels!”

As Deng Hu begged desperately, Xu Jin didn’t stop—he lifted the corpse of the earlier ruffian and hurled it at Deng Hu.

Deng Hu, thinking it was another attack, snarled fiercely, heard the sound, and drove his dagger deep into the corpse Xu Jin had thrown.

Though struck, Deng Hu still snarled, wildly spinning the dagger embedded in the corpse!

His technique was brutally ruthless.

Suddenly, Deng Hu realized something was wrong.

Usually, when he stabbed a living person with his dagger, a half-turn of the blade would instantly trigger a scream so loud the victim would soil themselves, and some even passed out on the spot.

But why was there no sound at all now?

Suddenly, a deadly wind struck from behind his head.

A cluster of starlight suddenly appeared on Xu Jin’s shoulder as he circled behind Deng Hu, then Xu Jin’s shoulder slammed hard into the base of Deng Hu’s skull.

Thud!

Like a watermelon bursting, Deng Hu fell completely silent.

On the roof, the green-robed figure, unseen by anyone, stared in shock.

“Can this even work?”

He had assumed Xu Jin was doomed in a three-on-one situation.

But after Xu Jin’s father intervened with a divine assist, Xu Jin himself seized the opportunity with remarkable sharpness.

He’d been hiding lime in his hand!

“At just the first layer of Meal the Mist, he can instantly cast a basic star technique—that’s already a prodigy!”

“And he has courage, strategy, patience, can seize the moment, and shows no mercy at critical moments.”

“He’s a prodigy among prodigies!”

“Is my luck really this good?”

“Have I just stumbled upon a prodigy among prodigies?”

(End of Chapter)