Lu Yun made no move to dodge. He simply raised his left hand and caught the powerful, heavy blow, his fingers closing securely around the fist.
Simultaneously, the Dark Force imbued in the fist vanished without a trace the instant it made contact with Lu Yun’s skin.
His assailant was a woman. She stood well over six feet tall, with a brawny, thick-waisted build and an exceptionally plain face.
No, ’plain’ wasn’t quite right. Her features were coarser, with hard lines. Her eyes held a ferocious glint, the kind one would sooner expect from a man.
She was dressed in a bright yellow tunic and trousers, a coarse cloth belt cinched at her waist—the uniform of the Yellow Turban Warriors.
The woman’s eyes widened as she stared intently at the "old man" before her—the one leaning on a purplewood staff with his right hand, while his left casually held her fist.
’How is this possible? She was a Yellow Turban Warrior and a Martial Artist at the Early-stage Anjin.’
’And with the Yellow Heaven Corps’ secret Technique, the Yellow Heaven Primordial Qi Technique, a punch with her full strength should have burst forth with the power of Mid-stage Anjin!’
’Yet this man had caught it so effortlessly?’
’And the Dark Force she’d sent into his body had vanished like a stone tossed into the sea.’
When the woman tried to retract her fist, she found it was clamped as if in an iron vise, impossible to pull free.
As the pressure from his hand steadily increased, excruciating pain shot up from her knuckles. She couldn’t help but cry out as her knees buckled, and she collapsed to the ground with a THUD.
"AHH!!"
Lu Yun looked down at her. "Has one of your Yellow Turban Warriors gone missing?"
Hearing this, the woman ignored the pain, her head snapping up in alarm. "You... you’ve seen Miao Gongxu?"
"What did you do to him?"
Lu Yun didn’t answer her. He just looked down on her imperiously and asked another question. "Was there anything unusual about him recently? Did any of you notice?"
"Unusual? I don’t know what you’re talking about!"
The female Yellow Turban Warrior knelt on the floor, her head tilted back. Though her eyes showed pain, they burned with more anger than anything else.
She gritted her teeth. "Whatever grievance you have with our Yellow Heaven Corps, state your business!"
"Our Incense Master isn’t here. I advise you to release Miao Gongxu at once! Otherwise, when the Incense Master returns, the Yellow Heaven Corps will show you no mercy!"
’Incense Master?’
Lu Yun studied the defiant woman, then silently released his grip.
’It seems she knows nothing.’
’But I wonder if this so-called "Incense Master" knows anything.’
Once free, the woman immediately scrambled backward a dozen or so steps, not stopping until she reached the far end of the inner hall.
She clutched her aching hand, watching Lu Yun with a wary expression. She dared not approach, nor did she make a sound. And so, they remained in a standoff.
Time passed, second by second.
About half an hour later, a sudden volley of gunfire erupted from outside the courtyard.
It was followed by screams, curses, and the sound of chaotic footsteps.
The woman’s expression changed at the familiar sounds, and she charged recklessly toward the entrance of the inner hall.
She had barely leaned halfway out the door when the deafening roar of automatic rifle fire erupted.
The woman’s body convulsed violently as she was riddled with bullets, turning her into a human sieve.
She fought to stay on her feet, mumbling incoherently, "The Blue Sky... is dead... the Yellow Sky... shall rise..."
A moment later, the inner hall’s already rickety wooden door was kicked off its hinges.
Five or six blond, blue-eyed foreign soldiers stormed in with rifles at the ready, followed by more than a dozen armed men from the Patrol Office in black uniforms.
Leading them was a tall middle-aged man of about forty.
He wore an impeccably tailored dark suit. His features were resolute, and his temples bulged slightly—the clear mark of a skilled martial arts practitioner.
The middle-aged man’s gaze swept across the inner hall, landing first on the woman’s corpse on the floor, then on Lu Yun.
"Inspector, there’s a straggler over here!"
One of the Patrol Office men started to move forward but was stopped by the middle-aged man’s raised hand.
He stared at Lu Yun, sizing him up, before speaking slowly. "No, he’s not with the Yellow Heaven Corps."
"Who are you?"
Lu Yun looked at the man, then glanced at the heavily armed foreign soldiers outside the door, his brow furrowing slightly.
Before Lu Yun could speak, a shifty-eyed Patrol Office subordinate leaned in and whispered to the middle-aged man, "Chief, there’s something off about this old codger."
"Those damn Yellow Heaven Corps members killed the daughter of the consul from Great Britain. We’ve wiped them all out, but what if this old guy is one who got away..."
"Should we take him in for the reward?"
’The Yellow Heaven Corps, completely wiped out? Does that mean the so-called Incense Master is dead?’
As a master at the Peak of Huajin, Lu Yun naturally overheard the hushed whisper.
’The Incense Master he’d waited half an hour for... was dead just like that?’
Lu Yun was silent for a moment before saying flatly, "I was just passing by."
"Passing by?" The middle-aged inspector repeated the phrase, studying Lu Yun with a suspicious gaze.
Finally, he shook his head. "Forget it. No matter how you look at him, he’s just an old man. Let him go."
The inspector waved his hand and said to the foreign soldiers and Patrol Office men, "Hurry it up. The Honorable Consul Edgar Cavendish is waiting outside. Take all these bodies back to the concession!"
"Yes, sir!"
The men began scrambling to move the bodies.
Lu Yun walked past them, his expression impassive. He was disappointed about the Incense Master’s death.
’It seems this trip was a waste.’
On the street outside the courtyard, several black cars were parked at the curb, their headlights casting a ghastly white glow.

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