Chapter 86: The False Core Erupts, Unstoppable

To be honest, although the delinquents at Fengming No.1 High School strutted about with a swagger, playing at being gangsters, anyone with a bit of sense could tell that in a prestigious school teeming with top students, there was no real soil for hardened troublemakers to thrive. Liu Shufeng liked to lord it over everyone, styling himself as one of the “Four Heavenly Kings,” but the moment he faced those who had truly lived the street life, the gap was glaringly obvious.

Forget about physical strength or fighting skills—the sheer ferocity and disregard for consequence with which these real thugs attacked was something no ordinary student could hope to match.

Liu Shufeng was instantly overwhelmed by the immense pressure. He whipped off the jacket tied at his waist and flung it, enveloping the head of an opponent and blinding him. Seizing a stool with his left hand, he smashed it down a few times before dodging a baseball bat that swung at him from behind. In just those few exchanges, Liu Shufeng felt as if his very life was hanging by a thread.

The situation was even worse for Zhou Xiong, Zhou Nan, and the four lackeys beside him. They were struggling against just a dozen or so enemies, even though there were seven of them fighting together. What about Shi Tiexin’s side? Liu Shufeng dared not imagine—had he already been beaten to death?

Amid the chaos, Liu Shufeng cast a glance over and was nearly petrified with shock. Over there, the enemy seemed packed together like a writhing mass, but suddenly, the group scattered like bowling pins, howling and tumbling away.

At some point, Shi Tiexin had seized someone’s wrist. With a steely grip and a twist, a sickening crack echoed, and the unfortunate soul let out a heart-wrenching scream. Shi Tiexin’s powerful arms yanked and spun the man in a circle, the victim’s pain so intense that instead of resisting, he ran faster to ease the agony, the arc of his spinning growing ever wider.

With a mighty swing, Shi Tiexin released him like a meteor hammer, sending him flying and crashing into a crowd, flattening a swath of opponents.

Two attackers leaped at Shi Tiexin from behind, swinging their bats at his head. Without looking back, Shi Tiexin stepped back and ducked, then clenched his fists, channeling his energy. Both fists shot backward—thud, thud! His iron fists landed squarely in the soft abdomens of his foes, leaving them dangling from his arms like limp chicks, half-dead and foaming at the mouth.

From the back, the barbecue vendor grimaced as if struck by a toothache. “Brutal…”

Shaking off the two now-useless bodies, Shi Tiexin suddenly leapt high. With a surge of energy infusing his legs, he unleashed a devastating split kick to either side, his legs like heavy artillery.

With two resounding smacks, the men on his left and right spewed blood and teeth, their heads tilting back as they collapsed without a sound. Landing gracefully, Shi Tiexin caught two falling bats out of midair.

One he caught by the handle, swinging it with a practiced motion into an opponent’s shoulder, producing a sickening crunch. The other he caught by the barrel and, wielding it like a javelin, hurled it through the crowd, striking someone squarely in the throat.

With a muffled gasp, the victim clutched his throat and fell, his face turning a ghastly shade of purple.

The barbecue vendor couldn’t help massaging his own throat, visibly moved. “What a savage…”

As that thug collapsed, he revealed Teng Chaoguo, who had been cowering at the back, scrambling away on all fours in terror.

With an impassive face, Shi Tiexin strode toward him in long, powerful steps. The false core swelling in his lower abdomen quickly subsided—the energy orb, once the size of a soybean, had now shrunk to smaller than a mung bean. The reason was simple: he’d spent a great deal of energy. While Liu Shufeng and his crew struggled to subdue even one or two opponents, Shi Tiexin had laid out more than ten in a single breath. Naturally, the core diminished.

But Shi Tiexin had no regrets. What is a fight without cost? If he hadn’t expended the energy stored in his core, how could he have been so unstoppable, cutting down all who stood in his way? It was precisely because of the primal energy he had accumulated over the past ten days, and the fact that he had condensed it into a core, that he could be so formidable.

By storing up strength and unleashing it in a single, decisive moment, he was demonstrating the essence of the “Nourishing Energy” phase of his martial art.

Besides, now that the core was formed, as long as he didn’t exhaust it completely, he wouldn’t have to start over from scratch. Though today’s expenditure was great, as long as he won this battle, everything afterward would be simpler. Even if he left, as long as the top scholar Shi stuck to a regimen of proper diet and supplementation, the core would quickly recover and grow, advancing toward perfection.

Someday, when the core swelled to the size of a hen’s egg and energy flowed endlessly, he could attempt to break through to the next realm—the Sharp Energy Stage. Then, his martial skill would reach entirely new heights.

While these thoughts flickered through his mind, Shi Tiexin continued his relentless advance. With each stride, a fallen thug lay at his feet. None that he passed could rise again; they all lay utterly still, their fate uncertain.

Shi Tiexin’s core was nearly depleted; at this rate, he could probably only take on five or six more before exhausting himself. Yet in battle, momentum is everything. Shi Tiexin, far from panicking, only grew more imposing, marching with the force of a tiger.

Look—those thugs who had not yet fallen were already cowering in fear. Though they circled around him, their faces were twisted in terror—they were thoroughly intimidated.

And how could they not be? No one knew his true condition, nor that his reserves were nearly spent. All they saw was a man who had single-handedly flattened more than a dozen foes without breaking a sweat or panting for breath.

Not only the thugs encircling Shi Tiexin, but even those fighting Zhou Xiong and the others were stunned. Even Zhou Xiong himself was dumbstruck.

“So that’s what he meant by rules…” Zhou Xiong muttered to himself. “This is the rule he spoke of…”

With powerful strides, Shi Tiexin stalked toward Teng Chaoguo, whose face was contorted in horror. Twice now, Teng had been flattened at the first sign of trouble; now he was consumed by humiliation, despair, and terror. Blood streamed from a deep gash on his forehead, covering his face and staining his vision red.

In that crimson world, the silent Shi Tiexin seemed all the more terrifying—a monstrous demon closing in.

“Go—go, what are you standing there for?!” Teng Chaoguo shouted frantically at the remaining thugs. “Get him! I’ll pay, I’ll pay!”

One thug let out a desperate yell and charged Shi Tiexin, rallying four or five others to rush him from behind.

Shi Tiexin didn’t turn. His core surged again, flooding his legs with power.

He suddenly ducked low, vanishing beneath the swing of a bat. One long leg swept out like a battering ram, slamming into a thug’s shin. The man howled in pain, his body arching sideways in midair.

Before he could hit the ground, Shi Tiexin delivered a lightning-fast kick to his chest. The crack of breaking ribs rang out—how many, none could say. The thug shot backward, crashing into his comrades and knocking them all down.