Abundant Martial Arts Virtue

The rain outside grew heavier.

Thunder roared.

On the ninety-third floor of Bright Mechanical Union Technology Company, in a temporary storage room for experimental items.

Wu Xiaode squatted on the ground, talking to the crow in the iron cage.

"Ga ga ga?" he asked.

"...Ga?" the crow in the iron cage hesitated.

"Ga, ga ga ga!" Wu Xiaode said with righteous indignation, his hands tracing wavy lines, as if he were a white stripe in the waves.

"Ga ga ga!" the crow in the iron cage became excited, flapping its wings on the spot.

"Ga——"

Ya, possessing Wu Xiaode's body, was about to continue speaking but was interrupted by Wu Xiaode.

"Alright, it's enough to express yourself appropriately. Going overboard can make people annoyed. Save her quickly," Wu Xiaode suggested.

"Makes sense, let's save her now," Ya hurriedly nodded.

Wu Xiaode stretched out his hand and pulled the iron cage apart with a movement to each side—

The cage immediately opened.

"Ga Ga! Ah!" the crow flew out of the cage and landed on his head, gently pecking his scalp.

Wu Xiaode pointed to the night sky outside the window and encouraged, "Ga ga, ga ga ga, ga ga."

"Ga... ga ga?" the crow asked softly.

"Ga, Ya, ga," Wu Xiaode said.

The crow pecked him once more, then spread its wings and flew away through the window.

After a few moments,

Ya reappeared on Wu Xiaode's shoulder, looking extremely excited.

"What were you guys talking about at the end?" Wu Xiaode asked.

"She asked me who I was," Ya said.

"I see," Wu Xiaode said.

"We crows are friends with death. Once she becomes a spirit, she will inevitably come back and look for me," Ya said.

"It seems you handled things well," Wu Xiaode said with a smile.

"Brother, thank you. I'll be there whenever you call, no question about it," Ya said with gratitude.

"Sure thing, sure thing."

"Shall we go?"

"Wait, I remember these storage rooms are supposed to have two cages."

Wu Xiaode walked over to the opposite wall, mimicking the motion, and opened it.

Indeed, there was another huge iron cage here, housing an extremely beautiful white peacock.

"Such a flashy fellow," Ya commented with disdain.

"Forget it, since we're here, let's let it go too," Wu Xiaode said.

He grabbed the bars of the cage with both hands, exhaled forcefully, and completely pushed the cage open.

As soon as the white peacock saw this, it immediately jumped out of the cage and flew straight to the windowsill.

"Can it survive on its own? In this city of steel, can it find its way out?"

Wu Xiaode asked.

"It can. It's not one of those domesticated peacocks. It comes from a very distant wilderness, and it's not easily captured. I don't know how it ended up here," Ya said.

"What else could it be? Someone went and caught it."

Having said that, Wu Xiaode stepped forward and kicked the peacock on its backside.

Startled by the kick, the peacock immediately spread its wings and leaped out, vigorously flying into the distance.

In a while,

The peacock disappeared into the vast night rain.

"Since you were so intent on saving it, why did you kick it just now?" Ya asked, puzzled.

"To teach it that the human heart is treacherous, so it runs whenever it sees people and doesn't get caught again," Wu Xiaode said.

"...Okay then," Ya replied reluctantly.

Wu Xiaode shook his head, lost in thought.

It was honestly a mystery what this company was really about.

According to Xia Huilan and her colleagues' knowledge and memories, this place was supposed to manufacture Mobile Battle Armors.

But why would they need these special animals?

And there were so many spirits of the dead.

Indeed—

a mystery wrapped in enigma.

Wu Xiaode took out his phone to check the time.

11 o'clock.

—It was already late at night.

He didn't have that much time to figure out what was going on with this tech company; after all, the killings had been done, and the spirits had been consoled.

He had also gained 1 point of Merit.

Right now, he had more important things to do.

"Binjiang Road, Food God Restaurant..."

That road was very unfamiliar.

Wu Xiaode opened his phone navigation and spent a long time looking at the map.

"Can't find the place?" Ya asked.

"Right, I'm using the navigation to avoid flying to the wrong place," Wu Xiaode said with a frown.

"Let's go!" Ya said.

Wu Xiaode leaped out of the window, transformed into a crow, and soared into the clouds.

In the sky, a seductive female voice occasionally rang out:

"Estimated travel time: 31 minutes. You will pass seventeen traffic lights, with seven hundred meters of slow traffic."

"Please turn left at the second intersection."

"Beep!"

"Turn left."

As the crow flew higher and higher, the voice gradually faded away.

...

Five minutes later.

On Binjiang Road.

Outside Food God Restaurant.

A crow circled in the air several times before settling on a telephone pole.

The rain began to fall again.

The cold wind ruffled the crow's feathers.

The crow shook off the water from its feathers, utterly unconcerned with the wind and rain.

"You have reached your destination, travel time—"

The crow interrupted the voice from the phone.

It quietly perched on the telephone pole, watching a certain direction intently.

—From here, it wasn't far from room 308 of the restaurant, and across the street, one could see what was happening inside.

Looking through the window, some men were smoking and playing cards, clearly enjoying themselves.

Occasionally, someone looked outside.

```

He was a middle-aged man with a ruddy complexion and a burly figure, who radiated an aura of unspoken authority that made others seem eager to please when speaking to him.

Upon noticing a crow perched atop the power pole outside, the middle-aged man lost interest and lowered his gaze to the cards in his hands.

A moment passed.

The door to the private room opened.

A man wearing gold-rimmed glasses entered the room, saying something politely, then placed a black briefcase on the table.

Someone stood up and walked to the window, intending to draw the curtains.

"What are you afraid of? I'm in charge of these matters; you don't need to draw the curtains."

A voice rang out from the room.

The others laughed.

The person hesitated, torn between drawing the curtains or not, when suddenly he noticed a black speck in the corner of his eye growing larger.

Crash——

The window shattered into scattered fragments.

A figure breezed past the man, lightly tapping his neck as it passed.

Amidst the sound of breaking bones, the figure had already landed inside the room, moving like a whirlwind, with his hands transforming into a blur of shadows, successively striking everyone present.

——Iron Wire Fist · Swinging Force!

The essence of this technique was to send people flying, creating space for combat.

Five people.

One had his neck smashed, and among the remaining four, three were sent flying.

The last one was the burly man, who had risen when the window broke. As Wu Xiaode's strike came, he swung his fists to meet it, sneering, "So, a wanted criminal dares to trouble me?"

Slap!

The sound was like thunder.

After an exchange of blows, each took a step back.

"Eh?" Wu Xiaode's eyes widened as he looked at his opponent.

Incredible, this guy actually managed to withstand his Swinging Force, driven by soul power.

The burly man's face turned pale as he lunged forward with knife-hand strikes in quick succession towards Wu Xiaode.

Armed with countless combat experiences passed down from the Zhao family's Ancestor Spirit, Wu Xiaode remained composed and reached out to counter.

However, in this instant, he suddenly found himself moving with even greater agility.

The opponent's knife-hands were fierce, but he was confident he could dodge them.

Could it be... the "Sub-level Agility" from the Crow Spirit?

Wu Xiaode simply decided not to engage directly, his body swaying back and forth like a bamboo in a swift storm, effortlessly evading the opponent's seven or eight knife-hand strikes.

"You——"

The burly man was a mix of shock and anger, but the more he attacked, the more disheveled he became, still unable to even touch Wu Xiaode.

Instead, after observing the opponent for a few moves, Wu Xiaode finally found an opening and immediately brought his fists together, swinging them down like a massive hammer onto his opponent.

Iron Wire Fist · Hammering Force!

Among the six types of forces in the Iron Wire Fist school, the destructive power of Hammering Force was fierce. In terms of sheer power, only the supreme move "Iron Hand Blocks the River" was stronger.

Thus, executing this technique consumed a significant amount of soul power.

The Book of the Dead displayed rows of ice crystal letters:

"You executed Iron Wire Fist · Swinging Force, consuming 1 point of soul power."

"You executed Iron Wire Fist · Hammering Force, consuming 3 points of soul power."

"Remaining soul power: 0/4."

Wu Xiaode's fists glowed with a faint cold light, looking like a series of iron rings.

The man's expression changed as he exclaimed, "Iron Wire Hammer Skill!"

```

His move was outdated, and the opponent seized the flaw, leaving him no time to dodge. He could only brace himself and raise both hands, straining to face Wu Xiaode.

Thud!

A dull sound echoed, as the man was knocked back seven or eight steps, crashing into the wall with a muffled impact.

Spitting out a mouthful of blood, the man's hands trembled non-stop. He barked, "Stop! I didn't know you were a descendant of the Iron Wire Fist, otherwise I would never have issued a wanted notice for you."

A crow flew off Wu Xiaode's shoulder, circling around the corpses that had just died on the ground.

"All yours, brother, take him out."

Ya exclaimed.

Accompanied by its cries, a line of small characters quietly appeared on the Book of the Dead:

"Ya has drawn 2 points of soul power for you, current soul power 2/4."

Wu Xiaode's heart filled with a bit more confidence. He posed the question, "And who might you be?"

"I am a descendant of the Baji Blade lineage." said the man.

"The head of the Defense Management Bureau?" Wu Xiaode asked uncertainly.

"Indeed. As fellow practitioners of ancient martial arts, we should support each other. Give me some time, and I will have the wanted notice rescinded." the man said.

"Not enough," Wu Xiaode said.

After thinking for a moment, the man suddenly suggested, "At midnight every night, we can band together. I trust you'd appreciate having an extra hand."

——What is he talking about? Is he insane?

"What do you mean?" Wu Xiaode asked, not showing any emotion.

"At this stage, it's rare for anyone's human soul power to exceed 10 points because everything is just beginning. So, if you're willing, you could join my team and we can face the horror at midnight together," the man said.

Wu Xiaode cocked his head to think for a moment, then once again took up his fighting stance.

"What are you doing? Young man, really, there's no need for us to be at odds," the man said.

"Even if midnight is terribly frightening, I cannot afford to trust someone like you with my back," Wu Xiaode said.

"I mistook you for an ordinary person before. Now that we've made our identities clear, why must we fight to the death?" the man exclaimed.

Wu Xiaode sighed softly, "You could order a hit on a poor student, so over the years, how many ordinary people have you treated this way?"

"Remember, the reason I kill you today isn't just for myself."

He clenched his fist and walked toward his opponent.

The man suddenly drew a handgun from his waist, about to pull the trigger, but everything blurred before his eyes and Wu Xiaode had vanished.

"Where is he?"

The man's face paled as he turned to run out the door, only to find a crow, just having transformed into human form, blocking the doorway, and throwing a punch in return.

Crack!

The man was taken aback and took a punch to the face.

Iron Wire Fist · Propelling Force!

Twisting through the air, the man flew out and rolled to the other side of the room before coming to a stop.

He was dead.

"Caw! Caw!"

Ya flew up excitedly, flapping its wings over the corpse.

This man was quite strong, managing to take two punches from Wu Xiaode while expending his full strength—a master among mortals.

His soul power should be higher than the average person's.

Boom—

The body fell to the ground and soon emitted faint sparkling light spots that entered the crow's feathers.

Simultaneously, the Book of the Dead also displayed a line of ice crystal characters:

"Ya has shared some of the spoils with you."

"Your soul power limit has been increased by 1 point, and you have received several points of soul power replenishment."

"Current soul power value: 5/5."