Chapter 91: The Fall of the Beast (Patreon)

For the first time that night, a gloomy look appeared on Beast’s face.

Every fight mattered to him. Each one was a step toward either the enlightenment he desperately craved or the end of his consuming obsession. To interrupt him was unforgivable. Worse still, it was a weakling who had done it—and with a gun, the ultimate coward's weapon.

Beast stood up with a dark expression. He rose so effortlessly that it was obvious he had been pretending to be more injured than he really was.

He moved at blinding speed. Even the person who had shot him couldn’t follow his movements, much less the Axe Gang members.

—

I was taken aback when a fist aimed at my heart and a sword blocking it suddenly appeared in front of me. Beast stood before me, his arm fully extended from the punch. Colleen stood beside me, her sword pressed against his fist. I had merely noticed blurs, yet both were suddenly right next to me.

“Why don’t you fight someone your size?” Colleen said calmly.

My hero.

Beast looked at Colleen. The gloomy look vanished from Beast’s face, replaced by an excited smile. The change was so sudden that it felt as if the previous gloomy look had merely been an illusion.

Dude, pick an expression and stick with it.

“So, you’re the genius master,” Beast said.

“I didn’t know you were famous,” I said with a light laugh.

Colleen rolled her eyes, but her gaze never left Beast. It was clear that if she gave him even a slight chance, he would use it to brutally murder me.

I noticed that the surviving Axe Gang members—or whatever was left of them—were crawling out of the wreckage. Unfortunately. The four elites, that oily advisor, and their leader were still alive.

Beast turned back to Sum Weilong and gestured toward Colleen. “Is she the one you want me to kill?”

“Yes, she’s the one,” Sum Weilong said, clutching his bleeding head.

“And what about the rest?” Beast asked.

Oh yeah, it wasn’t just Colleen and me. Behind us were the three first-rate warriors of Pigsty Alley, Liu Hongbin, Cai Jin, and Zhou Lin. And there was Frances as well. I wore my expressionless white mask, while Frances wore a black domino mask she had borrowed from Felicia.

Liu Hongbin had informed me about Sing and the couple’s movements. I had asked him to watch them if they ever entered Axe Gang territory.

When he found out why they had gone to the casino, he and the others insisted on coming too. I didn’t mind; the more, the better. As for Frances, I brought her along as extra insurance. And finally, I brought Colleen. Sing had already freed Beast, so there was a good chance he’d be with the Axe Gang.

“Kill them. Kill them all,” Sum Weilong said venomously. He looked at the newcomers. “So what if there are more of you? I’ve already called every single Axe Gang member. In a few minutes, they’ll all be here. You’ll all die. I’ll feed your bodies to the dogs for daring to oppos—”

“Shut the fuck up, bitch.”

I shot him in the head. He dropped to the ground with a look of disbelief. Clearly, he hadn’t expected to die in the middle of his grand speech.

“Brother Sum!”

“Brother Sum!”

Apparently, the bastard had enough charisma that his pet goons were genuinely devastated by his death. They all turned toward me, their eyes filled with grief and rage.

“Avenge Brother Sum!” Li Qiang, one of the elites, shouted, his eyes red with rage.

“Avenge Brother Sum!” the rest of the Axe Gang members shouted in unison.

“Looks like you kicked the hornet’s nest,” Colleen said calmly.

“Isn’t that better?” I said casually. “Now we can exterminate the whole nest at once.”

Beast didn’t stop me from killing Sum Weilong. Clearly, he didn’t care whether the Axe Gang members lived or died. He cared only about fighting strong martial artists.

“Why did you come here?” the landlady asked, her voice weak.

“Yeah, you shouldn’t have come here,” the landlord added, his voice equally weak. “These people are dangerous. You might have killed their leader, but they have more than a hundred members.”

“With Beast here, we can’t even help you,” the landlady said. “You should all run. We’ll hold them back.”

Before I could say anything, the trio from Pigsty Alley came forward.

“Seniors,” Zhou Lin said, stepping forward. All three bowed together. “First, we apologize for never realizing you were masters. Please forgive us if we ever offended you in the past.”

“Don’t be like that. We never cared about such things,” the landlord said with a friendly smile.

“You fools, this isn’t the time for this,” the landlady snapped.

Zhou Lin smiled, and all three straightened up. “That puts our hearts at ease.” His gaze turned sharp. “As for running, I didn’t learn martial arts to flee in the face of danger. If you can risk your lives for us, then we can do the same.”

Liu Hongbin and Cai Jin nodded, their expressions serious.

“This is not the time to be a hero,” the landlady said, frustrated.

I got bored of their conversation, so I looked at the Axe Gang members. The gangsters clearly wanted to tear us apart—or rather, tear me apart—but they were biding their time. They huddled at a distance, waiting for the rest of the gang to arrive.

I looked over at Beast, who wore a faint smile.

“You’re looking pretty chill over there,” I said casually. “Trying to recover your strength?”

“How could that be?” Beast said with an innocent smile. “I’m merely showing respect to my fellow masters and allowing them one last conversation with their juniors.”

“Oh, and by the way,” Beast said suddenly, his smile still in place. Once I’m done with these three masters, I’ll make you regret being born. Just because I’m in a good mood about fighting a genius doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten about you. No one can run away from Beast.”

“Sure,” I said, nodding with a smile.

I turned to Colleen. “Can you handle him with the landlord and the landlady?”

Colleen looked thoughtful. “It’ll be challenging, but it should be doable.”

“Confidence, I like it,” Beast said, chuckling. “It makes the fight all the more enjoyable.”

I ignored Beast and turned back to Colleen. “Good. Then leave the rest to us.”

By then, more and more Axe Gang members were filing into the building. When they looked at Sum Weilong’s lifeless body, their eyes filled with disbelief and grief.

“Everyone!” Chan Mingfai shouted. “Kill them all!”

“Kill them all!” the Axe Gang members shouted in unison as they drew their axes.

At least they were smart enough not to use guns in such a crowded space. Once the fighting started, stray bullets could easily hit their own people.

I unsheathed my katana.

The fighting naturally divided into two groups. On one side, Beast stood with a faint smile, facing Colleen and the couple. On the other side, Frances, the trio, and I faced the Axe Gang members, who looked at us with murderous eyes.

The masters moved first. The four masters unleashed their qi from the start. Colleen’s pale yellow qi, the landlady’s dark yellow qi, the landlord’s white qi, and Beast’s sickly green qi enveloped their bodies. However, that wasn’t the end. Faint silhouettes appeared behind each of them. Behind Colleen appeared a samurai in full-body armor; behind the landlady, a majestic lion; behind the landlord, the taiji symbol; and behind Beast, a massive toad.

“You dare look away in a life-and-death battle?” an Axe Gang member said as he attacked me with a Tang sword. He was one of the four elites, but I hadn’t seen him before. The system identified him as Lin Fan, the strongest of the four elites. Several other gang members hovered around him, ready to strike whenever they got an opening.

I smiled as I blocked his attack with my katana.

With a glance around, I saw that the trio had split up, each fighting one of the elites. Individually, the elites were no match for them, but the surrounding Axe Gang members kept interfering. Another group of Axe Gang members surrounded Frances.

Looks like everyone has their hands full.

I looked back at Lin Fan. “Let the party begin.”

—

Zhou Lin faced Jin San.

“I look forward to your advice, Senior,” Jin San said respectfully.

He slashed at Zhou Lin from the right, but Zhou Lin easily parried the blow with his spear. When the spearhead met the sword, Zhou Lin kept it pressed against the blade and slid it toward Jin San’s hand. Jin San hurriedly pulled his hand back; otherwise, the spearhead would have sliced through his fingers.

“I wanted to leave that life behind,” Zhou Lin said as he parried a gang member’s axe and kicked him away. “That’s why I became a simple cook.”

“It’s not so easy to leave the Jianghu, Senior,” Jin San said. His expression remained respectful, though a hint of disdain crept into it.

“Maybe it is,” Zhou Lin said in a low voice. “Maybe it’s not.”

This time, as another gang member attacked him with an axe, he didn’t hold back. Before the axe could reach him, the spearhead pierced the gang member’s throat.

Killing was far easier than defeating someone while deliberately keeping them alive. Previously, when the Axe Gang attacked Pigsty Alley, he had held back because he didn’t want to kill, which made dealing with so many gang members much harder. But now, he stopped holding back.

Zhou Lin spun in a full circle, sweeping his spear through the gang members surrounding him. Deep, ugly cuts opened across their bodies. They screamed in agony and soon collapsed.

Jin San looked at Zhou Lin warily. He exchanged glances with the gang members around him and nodded. Zhou Lin looked at them nonchalantly. Then they attacked together. Zhou Lin dropped into a crouch as several axes swept over his head. Still crouched, he spun on his heel and swept the spear in a circle, severing the legs of the gang members around him. Jin San looked at Zhou Lin in fear and tried to back off. But he underestimated the spear’s superior reach. Zhou Lin thrust forward, driving the spear into Jin San’s stomach. Jin San spat blood and collapsed.

—

Liu Hongbin faced Jun Kai, and Cai Jin faced Li Qiang.

Like Zhou Lin, Liu Hongbin and Cai Jin didn’t hold back against the gang members. Every strike was meant to kill.

Liu Hongbin caught a gang member with a roundhouse kick. The gang member’s head snapped to an unnatural angle, and he collapsed dead. Cai Jin’s thick iron rings covered his forearms as he struck the gang members on either side of him. Neither gang member managed to make a sound before collapsing, their chests crushed by the blows.

Li Qiang wrapped his fists in green qi and lunged at Cai Jin, but Cai Jin struck first, caving in his face with a single punch.

Brown qi enveloped Jun Kai’s hands as he attacked Liu Hongbin, who yanked a nearby gang member in front of himself as a shield. The punch killed the gang member instantly. Liu Hongbin threw the body towards Jun Kai. As Jun Kai shoved the body aside, Liu Hongbin launched a dropkick into his chest. Jun Kai collapsed dead.

—

Frances smashed her baseball bat into another gang member’s head. She deliberately refrained from using her powers so she could gain experience fighting without them. Still, they steadily pushed her back. She was a decent fighter, but against trained martial artists, she still fell short.

She felt the wall behind her. The gang members surrounding her stared coldly, convinced they had cornered her.

She didn’t panic. Instead, she drew in a sharp breath. A few of the gang members surrounding her had been present when the landlady did something similar. They began to feel déjà vu.

And she screamed.

The force hurled the gang members away. Those closest to her had their internal organs ruptured by the sound.

The landlady heard the scream. She exchanged a surprised look with the landlord. But they immediately turned their attention back to Beast.

—

I tilted my upper body aside to dodge the axe and decapitated another grunt in the same motion.

More Axe Gang members kept flooding in to attack me. Lin Fan didn’t fight me directly. He attacked whenever he saw an opening; otherwise, he stayed behind the grunts. I knew he was using their lives to tire me out.

“Your technique is nothing impressive,” Lin Fan said from behind one of the grunts. “You’re only holding on because of your extraordinary physical abilities.”

“Why don’t you experience my extraordinary physical capabilities yourself?” I said with a smile as I kicked an axe aside and drove my sword into the grunt’s stomach.

I paused and added, “No homo.”

He circled behind the grunts while three of them kept me occupied. I felt a tingle on my back. I shoved past two of the grunts just as Lin Fan’s sword slashed through the space I had occupied.

“You have sharp instincts too,” Lin Fan said. “But how long can you last?”

This motherfucker.

I drew a gun with my left hand.

“Using a gun in a martial arts battle?” Lin Fan said contemptuously. He hid behind a grunt. “You have no honor.”

“You’re not worthy to lecture me about honor, bitch.” I fired. I snapped my wrist as I fired. The bullet bent around the grunt and buried itself in Lin Fan’s forehead.

The surrounding grunts stared at me in disbelief.

Time to end this shit.

The fight with the remaining grunts didn’t last long. Soon, all of them were dead. The last few tried to run, but I shot them down.

The five of us regrouped and watched the masters’ fight, which was also nearing its end.

Colleen slashed at Beast’s chest, and the landlord’s punch sent him flying. Beast sprawled across the floor, glaring at his opponents with hate-filled eyes.

The bell was nowhere near them. I looked around and found it embedded in the second-floor wall. It looked like Beast had made sure they couldn’t use the same technique twice.

Beast planted both palms on the floor and pushed his upper body up as if doing a push-up. He drew his knees up toward his chest. His thighs swelled to twice their normal size. His throat ballooned outward, green veins bulging across it. He made toad-like croaks.

He launched himself forward like a bullet, his body still crouched in the posture of a toad. His target was Colleen. She braced for impact as the landlady and landlord hurried behind her to help absorb the force. Even so, when Beast’s head slammed into Colleen’s stomach, the impact drove all three backward. They stopped only after crashing through two walls.

Beast sprang away and dropped back into his toad-like stance, croaking.

“The Toad Style of the Kwan Lun School?” the landlord gasped.

Beast launched himself at them again. The three scattered in different directions, and he missed.

Beast launched himself again, but this time Colleen didn’t dodge. She settled into a stance, katana ready. The instant Beast reached her, she stepped aside and severed one of his arms.

Beast screamed in agony.

Before she could follow up, he shouted, “I surrender!”

For Colleen, honor mattered deeply. Even though she knew Beast had tricked the couple before, Colleen stopped attacking once he verbally surrendered. However, she kept a wary eye on him.

This foolish girl.

The moment she glanced toward the couple, Beast lunged at her again.

Colleen showed no mercy this time. She decapitated him in a single stroke.

Finally, the Axe Gang is over.

A thought suddenly struck me. I felt like I was forgetting someone. Then I noticed someone quietly trying to slip away and remembered exactly who was left.

I walked up to him and looped my arm around his neck like we were old friends. “Advisor Chan, how can you leave without telling us? That’s no way to treat your guests.”

Chan Mingfai forced a smile that looked worse than crying. “Please don’t kill me,” he begged. “I can work for you. I can prove my worth. I was responsible for much of the wealth Sum Weilong accumulated.”

“Really?” I asked skeptically.

Chan Mingfai nodded so quickly his head practically bobbed.

“But I don’t want to offend Sum Weilong by taking his advisor,” I said.

“What?” He looked confused.

“How about this?” I suggested. “Ask for his permission. If he agrees, you can work for me.”

“Ask his permission?” Chan Mingfai stuttered.

“Ah, I get it,” I said. “You’re wondering how to ask for permission now that he’s dead, right?”

He went pale but nodded.

“Simple.” I looked at him as if the answer should have been obvious. “Just go where he is and ask him.”

“Wha—”

I shot him in the head.

Finally, it was time to leave.

However, before we could leave, the landlady stopped us.

“Kevin,” the landlady called.

I looked at her.

She glanced at Frances, then asked me, “How did you get the Lion’s Roar?”

“Why do you think I’m the one who gave it to her?” I asked with a smile.

“Don’t play coy with me,” the landlady snapped. “Her fighting style clearly showed that she had no martial arts background. Even her understanding of the Lion’s Roar is superficial. You’re the one with martial arts knowledge.”

“Someone else could’ve given it to her,” I said with a smile, still trying to deflect.

She gave me a death glare.

“Fine,” I said, raising my hands in surrender. “I gave it to her. I asked the old man who teaches me martial arts for a copy, and he happened to have one.”

The landlady looked thoughtful. “Is he also the one who taught you that sword art?”

Who the fuck is that old man?

“Maybe,” I said.

“Whatever,” the landlady said dismissively. “I don’t care about your secrets. But I have something to discuss with the girl.”

“Girl, would you like to become my disciple?” the landlady asked, dropping the bomb.

The trio from Pigsty Alley were the most shocked. Apparently, getting an offer like that from a master was a pretty big deal.

“Why?” Frances asked. “And I don’t know if you’ve realized this, but I’m a mutant. I don’t know if you’d even want to teach one.”

“What does it matter if you’re a mutant?” the landlady said simply. “I want to teach you because you’re gifted. Your mutant power gives you exceptional aptitude for sound-related martial arts. For a martial artist to reach higher realms, talent is extremely important—and you’re currently squandering yours.”

Frances looked skeptical.

“Look, girl,” the landlady said. “I promise you, with your talent, I can help you become a master in a few years. As a bonus, my husband will teach you his Taiji Quan as well.”

“Why me?” Frances asked, still skeptical. “And I’m not a good person.”

“Martial arts are neutral,” the landlord said with a smile. “There’s always some good in the bad, just as there’s some bad in the good. We don’t care what you are or what you’ve done. As my wife said, you’re the best person to inherit our legacy.”

A melancholic look crossed the landlady’s face. “We know we have no future on the martial path. We can’t progress any further. But we don’t want our legacy to disappear with time. We won’t force you, but we hope you’ll agree.”

Frances looked back at me with imploring eyes.

“It’s up to you. I’ll respect your decision,” I said with a smile.

She smiled and turned back to the couple. It looked like she had made up her mind.

—

I sat in my taxi in traffic, waiting for the light to turn green.

After exterminating the Axe Gang, we had left. As for cleaning the place out, I had already left that job to someone proficient.

Frances, as expected, accepted the landlady’s offer. I was all for it. Training under the landlady would improve both her martial arts and her control over her mutant powers.

Since I was feeling a little tired, I decided to unwind with a quiet drive and pick up a few passengers along the way.

“The cab is too hot,” the man sitting in the back said.

“Too hot?” I asked incredulously. “Dude, the AC is dialed all the way up. What more do you want from me?”

“It's getting stiflingly hot here,” the man said. I glanced at him through the rearview mirror. He wasn’t even sweating. “I’m leaving.” He passed me a few bills. “Keep the change.”

“Got to find some water,” the man muttered as he left the car.

Strange dude.

The moment the guy left, I noticed three Latino men walking toward my car.

“If you’re free, could you take my associates and me to a good hotel?” the guy in the lead asked.

I checked the app. There was no new ride nearby.

“Sure, man, hop in,” I said.

Soon, I dropped the three off in front of a hotel.

After the three got out, the man in the lead turned back to me. “You’ll forget about ever seeing us.”

Note: Juan Meroz used divine-origin-based mind control on the host—effect nullified by Gamer’s Mind.

This fucking motherfucker. Why are there so many mind controllers in Marvel?

However, I didn’t immediately give that man a piece of my mind. First, I wanted to see what the System said about him. I was also intrigued by the words “divine-origin.”

I quickly looked at his status.

Interesting.

“I understand,” I said in a mechanical voice and drove away.

Through the rearview mirror, I watched the three enter the hotel.

I pulled out my phone and called Jessica. It rang for a few seconds before she picked up.

“Hey, Jes,” I said. “I have a job for the agency.”