WebNovels

Chapter 23 - Chapter 21: The Gang Boss Who Kneels

The city was suspended in the cold, pre-dawn silence when Lin Xuan executed the final phase of his plan. Li Mo, rigid with anxiety, drove the unassuming sedan, parking exactly where instructed—a secluded spot half a kilometer from Ma Feng's heavily fortified uptown mansion. Lin Xuan, cloaked in his perfected Qi-Concealing Veil, was already gone before the vehicle stopped.

He bypassed the exterior defenses effortlessly. The Molecular Phasing Edge, powered by a mere thread of Stage Three Qi, shimmered through the reinforced steel walls and electronic sensors, granting him seamless, silent entry. His Elementary Spirit Sense Technique acted as a perfect thermal and kinetic radar, guiding him through the compound's dark gardens and silent halls, ensuring not a single security dog or sleepy guard was alerted.

Lin Xuan reached the rooftop greenhouse precisely at 05:30.

Ma Feng was already there, seated cross-legged on a silk cushion, facing the faint light gathering on the eastern horizon. His massive, granite-like body was exposed, and, as Lin Xuan's surveillance had predicted, the crude D-Rank Concealment Field was dissolved, allowing the morning Qi—weak as it was—to touch his skin. The Stage Four martial artist was completely, arrogantly vulnerable.

Lin Xuan stood fifty meters away, concealed behind the rooftop chimney access. He did not need to be closer; his Stage Three Qi propulsion was absolute. He pulled the Spiritual Paralysis Pin from his sleeve, charged it with a hyper-focused Qi Filament, and aimed.

The Emperor does not engage in petty duels with dogs. He neuters them.

The strike was silent. The Spiritual Paralysis Pin became an invisible missile, guided by the precision of his Divine Will. It traveled with near-instantaneous velocity, bypassing the speed of sound entirely. It struck Ma Feng exactly where the largest surface meridian met the spinal column at the base of his neck.

The Pin did not penetrate deep; it didn't need to. It delivered its internal payload—the high-frequency vibrational Qi lattice—directly into the Stage Four cultivator's core flow.

Ma Feng's body seized violently. His eyes, fixed on the horizon, widened in pure, incomprehensible terror. The chaotic, red-orange Qi that had been flowing so aggressively through his meridians instantly scrambled, turning into a static spiritual noise. His Spiritual Sea, utterly unprotected, took the full shock of the high-frequency vibration. The feeling was not pain, but complete systemic shutdown. The ability to move, speak, or even command a single muscle fiber vanished.

Ma Feng was a statue, rigid and paralyzed, his face frozen in a mask of realization and utter helplessness. The attack was perfect: instantaneous neutralization without structural damage or noise.

Lin Xuan walked forward, the Qi-Concealing Veil dissolving as he approached the paralyzed man. He stood over the Stage Four martial artist, who could only scream internally, trapped within his own formidable, yet now useless, body.

"You sought to harm those under my protection," Lin Xuan stated, his voice quiet but carrying the chilling weight of cosmic law. "Your debt is paid."

Lin Xuan did not linger. He quickly located a secured, hidden safe within the training room—again, guided by the subtle spiritual resonance of its contents—and pulled out a collection of files. Ma Feng's operational records were messy but revealing. Lin Xuan's eye fixed on a series of recent correspondence detailing protection payments and a territorial dispute involving the City University Library. The name attached to the correspondence was Brother Xiong—the local gang boss who provided the "security" for Ma Feng's external operations.

Lin Xuan's gaze sharpened. The Gang Boss was the perfect, expendable tool for his next urgent task: securing the Library perimeter.

Lin Xuan returned to the apartment an hour later, the sun fully risen. He had left Ma Feng paralyzed, a terrifying warning to anyone with the Spirit Sense to find him.

"Li Mo," Lin Xuan commanded, shedding his jacket. "Summon Zhang Wei. Have him locate this man immediately: Brother Xiong, local head of the 'Steel Serpent' gang. He must be brought here, quickly and without incident."

Zhang Wei, still riding high on the financial euphoria of the Black Steel Group's collapse, executed the order with ruthless efficiency. By noon, a large, heavy-set man, dressed in a too-tight suit and sweating profusely, was dragged into the apartment by two of Zhang Wei's newly hired, enormous bodyguards.

Brother Xiong—a man whose power was absolute in the city's murky underworld—was furious and terrified.

"Who the hell are you?" Xiong roared, trying to pull free. "You can't touch me! I have protections! I deal directly with Ma Feng! He's Stage Four, you morons!"

Lin Xuan stood before him, emanating no spiritual Qi, yet possessing an overwhelming, gravitational authority that made the room feel small and dark.

"Ma Feng no longer deals with anyone," Lin Xuan replied, his gaze locking onto Xiong. "He has taken a long, silent retirement."

Lin Xuan gestured to Li Mo. She placed a high-resolution, time-stamped photograph on the table: a close-up image of a perfectly healthy Ma Feng, seated rigidly, staring blankly, with the tiny, almost invisible entry wound of the Spiritual Paralysis Pin visible at his neck.

Brother Xiong stared at the image, his face draining of color. He knew that look. He had seen rivals crippled by strokes, but never one so perfectly preserved, so utterly alive yet dead. He had witnessed Ma Feng crush concrete with a bare hand. The idea that someone could touch him and leave him like a wax doll was physically nauseating.

"W-what..." Xiong stammered, his bravado dissolving into liquid fear.

"I need a task completed," Lin Xuan continued, ignoring the question. "You will secure the City University Library and its entire surrounding block. You will halt, immediately and permanently, the current renovation project. You will ensure that not a single piece of construction equipment, not a single laborer, nor any local police officer or curious citizen, steps onto that property for the next seventy-two hours. The area must be silent, clear, and absolutely quarantined."

Xiong understood the implication instantly. Whoever Lin Xuan was, he was not a financial magnate or a cop. He was the force that made Stage Four grandmasters kneel, even if they couldn't move.

"T-the renovation is tied up with municipal contracts," Xiong whispered, sweat pouring down his temples. "It'll cost millions, Master. They'll demand to know why."

Lin Xuan did not raise his voice. He simply leaned forward, his eyes radiating a cold, infinite depth. "Tell them there is a seismic shift. Tell them there is a massive unexploded ordnance from the last war. Tell them the cost is negligible compared to the alternative. If I detect one shovel breaking ground, or one curious reporter entering the perimeter, you will be joining Ma Feng on the rooftop."

The threat was clear. It was a spiritual execution order.

Brother Xiong dropped to his knees, his hands trembling violently on the floor. The city's feared gang boss had been reduced to a pleading child.

"Yes, Master!" Xiong gasped, tears of terror mixing with the sweat. "It will be done! The Library will be sealed! I will personally guard the perimeter! I am yours to command!"

Lin Xuan nodded, the transaction complete. "Rise, Brother Xiong. You have seventy-two hours to earn your life. Now, go."

The gang boss fled the apartment with the speed of a man escaping a collapsing building, leaving Zhang Wei and Li Mo in stunned silence. Lin Xuan had, in the space of a single dawn, removed his most potent spiritual threat and converted the city's most formidable underworld operative into his personal, free security force. The City University Library—the source of the vital Rank B Formation—was now awaiting his arrival, professionally quarantined by the local underworld. Lin Xuan now had a clear, secure path to the first major spiritual treasure of his return.

With the Library secured by a terrified gang boss and the hostile Stage Four neutralized, Lin Xuan is ready for the next phase.

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