Chapter 114: Severing Ghosts to Break Obstacles

In less than an hour, all the people planted by the Tiger Blade Gang in the Martial Arts Hall were taken away.

Li Fei, who had been playing a supporting role by Cheng Bi's side the whole time, received a commendation from the Inspectorate that afternoon:

Martial Arts Hall Grade A student Li Fei assisted the Inspectorate in its operation and performed meritorious service. According to the calculation of participating in one end-of-month assessment, it was counted as a Grade A-plus evaluation, receiving a Grade A-plus reward.

This was an assessment that only Li Fei participated in, and he was the only one who got a Grade A-plus.

That afternoon, Hao Yi gave Li Fei a bottle of Bitter Origin Pills and a bottle of Clear Insight Pills, 50 pills per bottle!

Under normal circumstances, the top three in the monthly exam only got 10 Bitter Origin Pills and 10 Clear Insight Pills. This time, because only Li Fei received the reward, all the rewards that were to be issued for one monthly exam were given to him alone!

The Bitter Origin Pills were one thing, but now that he had 50 Clear Insight Pills in hand, plus the Clear Insight Pills he hadn't finished eating before, Li Fei could almost raise his aptitude in implant compatibility from Grade B-minus all the way to Grade B-plus.

And without the big mountain that was the Tiger Blade Gang, it was almost a certainty that he would get the quota for the Stop-Goe Department of the university in the Martial Arts Hall next year.

Among the remaining Grade A students, none could be found who performed better than him and had received Grade A-plus evaluations for several consecutive months.

From the beginning, Li Fei's goal was to get the quota for the university's Stop-Goe Department, but unfortunately, this goal seemed out of reach, and the Tiger Blade Gang blocking the way had gradually become his biggest mental obstacle.

Now that he had killed Zhang Mingze in the identity of 'Ghost Face', thereby triggering the decline of the Tiger Blade Gang, it could be said that he had personally broken the barrier before his eyes and achieved his goal!

This morning, he had followed Cheng Bi around making arrests again and witnessed with his own eyes that the era of the Martial Arts Hall belonging to the Tiger Blade Gang had completely passed.

After such an experience, the 'obstacle' in Li Fei's heart had been broken through much more, and his mental power had been greatly improved!

After killing Zhang Mingze, Li Fei's mental power had improved once. Afterward, he took a large amount of elixirs, and after a night of digestion and absorption, his Steel Armor implant had officially broken through to the late stage of Body Breaking.

At this point, Li Fei could use 'Tyrant Body' more than thirty times in a short period, and his physique had also strengthened accordingly. In just one night, the number of Blood Souls increased by another 2, and the total upper limit became 104.

Now that his mental power had improved again, Li Fei could clearly feel that the 'threshold' in the dark was about to be crossed by him.

This 'threshold' was the Qi Transformation stage!

The power of the mind, the power of the implant, and the power of the body were fused together; only then could the Innate Qi be stimulated.

And the power of the mind could affect the growth of the implant, and the growth of the implant could affect the strengthening of one's own physique, so as long as the power of the mind was strong enough, breaking through the realm was a matter of course.

This was the power of the cultivation method of 'Breaking Mental Obstacles'.

Now Li Fei felt that his mental power was only a tiny bit away from breaking through to the Qi Transformation stage.

"Is it because I haven't really gotten the quota for the university's Stop-Goe Department? Or is it because I haven't completely toppled the Tiger Blade Gang?"

Li Fei analyzed his own heart seriously, wanting to find out where that last little bit was missing.

In fact, he could reach the peak of the Body Breaking stage very quickly now, and then he wouldn't even need to go through life-and-death tempering, because his mental power was already strong enough to directly take elixirs for breaking through the realm to complete the breakthrough.

This was the way most martial artists in the world chose when breaking through to the Qi Transformation stage—using the power of elixirs to help themselves complete that last, most critical step.

But Li Fei had already come this far, and he was only a tiny bit away from completing the 'Breaking of Mental Obstacles'; how could he give up?

After completing training in the afternoon, Li Fei bid farewell to Hao Yi and returned home.

After dinner, he locked himself in his room and began to think quietly.

From the moment he first entered the Martial Arts Hall until now, Li Fei recalled every bit of what had happened during this period carefully again.

He confirmed his mental state changes when facing every single thing bit by bit.

Hao Yi had once told Li Fei that the hardest part of 'Breaking Mental Obstacles' was not just the process of 'breaking', but also the difficulty of recognizing oneself.

The human heart is fickle, and sometimes what is hardest for a person to understand is their own heart.

They are clearly very good friends, yet in their hearts, there is a hidden jealousy.

They clearly think they have let go, but after decades, when they think of it again, they still cannot let it go.

They are clearly two people who seem to not care at all, yet at a critical moment, they can erupt with unimaginable emotions...

To truly recognize oneself, how easy is it?

And if one cannot recognize oneself, the 'obstacle' in the heart cannot be completely broken.

Time passed bit by bit, and Li Fei locked himself in his room to meditate, not going out until late at night.

He went directly to the Qingyuan Fist Village.

Now that he had 'reunited' with his Martial Aunt Shangguan Xiao, after obtaining Hao Yi's consent, Li Fei could go to the Qingyuan Fist Village every night to fight in matches and temper himself.

So he could now run to the Qingyuan Fist Village openly without hiding his identity.

Entering the inner village and seeing Shangguan Xiao, Li Fei asked this Martial Aunt to do him a favor.

Shangguan Xiao agreed without hesitation.

In the following days, Xingcheng looked calm on the surface, but in reality, there were undercurrents, and there were constant earthquakes in the officialdom!

Now that the Tiger Blade Gang had lost power, the General Manager's faction naturally wanted to press their advantage. Just taking down one Martial Arts Hall could not satisfy Chief Gu Zhenhui. He frequently had the Inspectorate take action these past few days, constantly taking away officials of the Tiger Blade Gang faction for investigation.

And Yu Hu naturally would not sit still and wait for death; he also fought back, having the Supervisory Academy constantly arrest officials of the General Manager's faction.

Both sides had fought for so many years, and they each held a pile of each other's leverage. Moreover, the officials under their respective commands were not good birds either, so naturally, they were arrested one by one.

For several consecutive days, the Judicial Academy had to receive several cases related to official corruption every day, and every single one was a major case involving murder for money!

Late at night, a middle-aged fatty with a blessed figure walked out of the gate of the Judicial Academy.

"My Lord!"

His subordinates, who had been waiting outside the gate for a long time, hurriedly went up to support him.

"My Lord, how is it? Are you all right now?"

The subordinate asked with a look of concern.

The middle-aged fatty shook his head in low spirits: "I'm fine for now. Let's go, let's return."

His name was Kong Peiquan, a Level 3 Director of the Ministry of Works of the Internal Affairs Academy, a second-class subordinate official, and also an official of the General Manager's faction.

Two years ago, because he accepted bribes, he violated regulations and handed over the project of building a pavilion by the post road outside the city to someone else. As a result, in order to make more money, the other party cut corners, and the quality of the pavilion built was extremely poor.

Originally, this was a common occurrence, but unexpectedly, a rainstorm led to an accident. At that time, more than twenty passersby were taking shelter from the rain in the pavilion, and then the pavilion suddenly collapsed, eventually leading to fifteen deaths and seven serious injuries!

In order to resolve this matter, Kong Peiquan used many connections at the time, using both soft and hard tactics on the victims' families, forcing the matter down and not letting the other party report it to the authorities.

But several of the families were very stubborn and unwilling to accept a private settlement, insisting on reporting it to the authorities, so Kong Peiquan found people to kill them all, and the whole family ended up neatly together.

It was just such a matter that was targeted by the Tiger Blade Gang at the time, and they grasped the key evidence, waiting until now to take it out for a counterattack.

So Kong Peiquan was approached by people from the Supervisory Academy, taken away on the grounds of being involved in a murder case, and then sent to the Judicial Academy.

However, after staying in the prison of the Judicial Academy for two days, Kong Peiquan was released due to 'insufficient evidence'.

This was Chief Gu Zhenhui taking action to protect him, dealing with the criminal evidence held by the Tiger Blade Gang for him, making him safe for the time being.

But after such a toss, Kong Peiquan knew very well that his official career was basically over. It would be difficult for him to rise again in the future because he had a stain on him and could always become a place to be attacked by the Tiger Blade Gang. Chief Gu Zhenhui would not let such a subordinate reach a high position.

That was why Kong Peiquan was so low-spirited, feeling that there was no point.

Soon, supported by his subordinates, he got into a car and left the Judicial Academy.

The car finally drove into a courtyard in the Kaiping District, and the driver got out of the car to open the door for Kong Peiquan.

Kong Peiquan got out of the car with a look of exhaustion, and in a trance, he saw a figure standing in front.

He was shocked: "Who?!"

His driver, who was also his guard, immediately drew a revolver from his waist upon hearing the sound and aimed it behind him.

Swish—

A flash of blade light passed, and the guard's hand holding the gun was severed at the wrist!

Before he could let out a scream, his head followed and flew up.

Kong Peiquan looked at this scene with horror on his face, his brain blank.

It was not until he saw the cyan ghost mask worn by the person coming that he realized who he had encountered:

"Ghost... Ghost Face?"

After the previous 'Market Entrance' incident, Kong Peiquan had actually been somewhat afraid and worried for a time.

But he felt that Ghost Face only killed officials of the Judicial Academy, and he was from the Internal Affairs Academy, so he should be relatively safe, and he would wait and see after the big search operation ended.

Afterward, he learned that Ghost Face had killed his way through the Tiger Blade Gang's motorcade single-handedly and killed the Tiger Blade Gang's Secretary Zhang!

Originally, he should have been even more afraid and worried, but that battle had the Great Leader of the Qingyuan Fist Village take action, which made Kong Peiquan feel that Ghost Face was actually a person from the Qingyuan Fist Village, and all the things he had done before were to deal with the Tiger Blade Gang, not really to act chivalrously and sweep away corrupt officials.

Thinking this way, he felt he was safe again.

As a result, Ghost Face suddenly appeared in front of him now.

"Why... why..."

Kong Peiquan asked, trembling.

Swish—

Li Fei did not answer his question, but slashed out with his blade, cutting off the other party's head.

The blade he held in his hand this time was exactly the one Shangguan Xiao had given him—Ghost Severing.

The favor he asked Shangguan Xiao for at the Qingyuan Fist Village a few days ago was to have her send people to help him inquire about intelligence in the Xingcheng officialdom; he wanted to know which other officials deserved to die.

After some meditation, Li Fei clarified the last bit of mental obstacle in his heart.

He had embarked on the path of 'Breaking Mental Obstacles' because he killed Feng Zhenshan; that was the first time he faced the darkness and filth of this feudal era directly.

At that time, he knew very well that he couldn't change anything with his own strength alone. He took action to kill a few corrupt officials not to be a great hero who would leave a good name for thousands of years, but just to live more happily himself.

And after he finally broke the biggest obstacle of the Tiger Blade Gang, he realized that his mental obstacle was not just the Tiger Blade Gang.

The remaining bit of mental obstacle was branded in his heart from the beginning. Or rather, it was the mental obstacle left over from his previous life!

Once, he was powerless and died suddenly. Now, he wanted to live this life happily!

So he found Shangguan Xiao and wanted to get accurate intelligence.

Now the General Manager's faction and the Tiger Blade Gang were fighting fiercely, stabbing each other in the back; this intelligence didn't need to be sought with effort at all, and could be easily obtained.

And at this point, the General Manager's faction and the Tiger Blade Gang faction could no longer join forces, nor did they dare to provoke a third-party force, lest they be taken advantage of by their opponents.

This meant that Ghost Face could kill even more unscrupulously!

Since the filth before his eyes made him unhappy, and he could sweep it away at will without endangering himself, why not do it?

Using the Ghost Severing blade to sever the ghosts in the human world—only then could it be considered truly satisfying!

That night, Ghost Face visited them one by one, killing seven subordinate officials and eleven clerk officials in a row!

Finally, these heads were all placed under the gatehouse at the Market Entrance, and wooden signs with the crimes written in advance were inserted next to the heads.

After doing all this, the time was already approaching dawn.

Li Fei turned and left the Market Entrance.

Just at this moment, a ray of sunlight broke through the darkness and shone down.

Dawn had arrived.

Li Fei looked back at the light breaking through the darkness in the distance.

Although weak, it was brilliant.

In a trance, he seemed to see himself from his previous life smiling at him.

Under the mask, a smile also appeared on his face.

At this moment, the obstacles in his heart were all gone, and there were no more mental obstacles!

Early the next morning, the second 'Market Entrance' incident shocked Xingcheng again!

After Chief Gu Zhenhui and Yu Hu received the news, they were both shocked and angry, yet they were helpless.

At this time, the two sides could no longer join forces to launch a big search operation to arrest Ghost Face like before; everyone was busy stabbing each other, and once distracted, they might reveal flaws.

Moreover, Chief Gu Zhenhui and Yu Hu were both worried that once they targeted Ghost Face, the other party would drag the Qingyuan Fist Village into it again like before, which would be even more troublesome.

And to a certain extent, Ghost Face could be considered to have helped them solve the people they wanted to solve, but Ghost Face's method was simpler and cruder, and it was an indiscriminate attack.

In the end, the Tiger Blade Gang faction and the General Manager's faction both silently swallowed this bitter fruit and chose to continue supporting new officials to take office.

It was just that the officials supported this time had to be strictly selected and strictly restrained in terms of character. They could be corrupt, but they couldn't have suicidal behaviors, and they couldn't draw Ghost Face out again.

And the officials below, seeing that there was no reaction from above, immediately became restless.

Some people who had held a fluke mentality before now dared not have it at all.

Thus, the Judicial Academy ushered in a 'big climax of surrender' again. This time, the number of officials who ran to surrender voluntarily was several times more than the previous time!

For a time, Ghost Face, by his own strength alone, forcibly brought Xingcheng's officialdom to a clean situation that had never been seen in decades.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 115 =====