Lu Kan ran like the wind.
Those assassins lurking in the narrow alleys were all old hands with extensive experience in the underworld.
Seeing Lu Kan leap into the air, easily soaring more than ten zhang (about thirty meters), they knew that no matter how much effort they put in, they couldn’t catch up with him.
No one made a futile attempt to attack Lu Kan.
Expressionless, they formed a strange killing formation and jointly attacked Xiong Dingtian.
Poor Xiong Dingtian.
His horizontally tempered kung fu had already reached a masterful level, his strength profound indeed.
Yet, the natural weakness of horizontal tempering martial arts lay here.
He couldn’t jump very high, at most five or six zhang upward.
He couldn’t run very fast, at best a couple of times faster than an ordinary man.
And though these assassins’ agility didn’t match Lu Kan’s, each one could jump higher and run faster than Xiong Dingtian.
A group surrounded Xiong Dingtian, their vicious techniques like a sudden storm, quietly enveloping him.
Heaps of poison-coated hidden weapons rained down upon Xiong Dingtian.
With muscles bulging, Xiong Dingtian swung both arms wildly, scattering flying knives, needles, caltrops, iron sand, and coin darts everywhere.
He exhaled and shouted as he prepared to punch a man standing just before him, who had stabbed his lower abdomen seven or eight times.
Suddenly, a fist-sized paper package flew out from the crowd, smashing toward his face.
Xiong Dingtian reflexively slapped the paper package away. ‘Puff!’ The package exploded, sending clouds of lime powder spraying toward his face.
Xiong Dingtian let out a startled cry, hastily covering his face and retreating several big steps.
No matter how highly honed his horizontal tempering skills were, some parts of the human body were notoriously difficult to cultivate—the eyes being a deadly weak point.
With Xiong Dingtian’s strength, no ordinary fist could harm his eyes, but that cruel lime powder was another matter entirely.
He’d just stepped back two paces when suddenly his belt loosened.
These assassins didn’t hold back in the slightest; ruthless to the bone.
As he covered his face and fell back, two assassins leapt at his sides, stabbing his kidneys with short swords seven or eight times.
Discovering they couldn't pierce his skin, they simply slashed his belt in two.
Such a burly man as Xiong Dingtian suddenly had his belt cut, and his big lantern pants slipped slipping down with a swift swoosh.
As the head of the Xiong Martial Hall, Xiong Dingtian definitely cared about his dignity.
He gave a strangled cry and almost instinctively reached out, grabbing his sliding pants.
Before he could pull them up, a ‘shh shh’ sound rang out as two assassins cleaved his big underpants inside the lantern pants to shreds.
Another startled shout escaped him.
Xiong Dingtian suddenly clamped his legs shut and awkwardly raised his hands to defend himself.
On the ground, four round, plump assassins rolled forward like fat balls.
They moved both hands and feet, coiling around Xiong Dingtian's scattered legs like cowhide ropes.
With an easy twist and a tug, Xiong Dingtian let out a roar, arms and legs sprawled as he crashed heavily to the ground.
Before he could scramble to his feet, a group of assassins pounced on him.
Some kept throwing lime powder in his face relentlessly.
Others grabbed steel needles over a foot long and jabbed wildly into his ear canals.
Even more wielded exquisite pickaxes, hacking crazily at the small exposed parts of his head whenever his hands moved carelessly.
With sharp 'shh shh' sounds, dozens of slick, dark steel wires rapidly coiled around Xiong Dingtian’s neck, elbows, wrists, ankles, knees, all tangled together indiscriminately, even binding his head within the snarl.
Seven or eight assassins put every ounce of force into pulling the wires taut, leaping to stand on the walls on both sides of the alley, then yanked fiercely.
With a creaking groan, Xiong Dingtian’s nine-foot-tall frame was forcibly lifted off the ground, hanging like an insect caught in a spider’s web.
The remaining assassins unleashed their cruel tricks, wildly swinging and striking at him without mercy.
Xiong Dingtian silently shut his mouth and eyes, his ears twitching like pig ears, instantly shutting his ear canals tight.
Lime powder coated his face.
Sharp steel needles pricked into his ears.
The pickaxes hammered wildly around.
Short knives, poisoned steel needles, iron hammers—all stabbed and slashed at every inch of his body.
Someone even crouched beneath him, brandishing weapons, thrusting mercilessly into his most “shameful” and “unspeakable” places.
Xiong Dingtian’s muscles bulged as veins throbbed and twisted.
He fought hard against the assassins’ shameless, boundless frenzy.
But his horizontal tempering kung fu had reached an extraordinarily high level.
Even his body’s most vulnerable and critical parts had been tempered to hardness like steel.
Though surrounded by thirty or so assassins beating him relentlessly, not a single bit of harm came to him after seven or eight breaths’ worth of time.
A cold and ruthless voice sounded: “Throw the oil and burn him!”
Xiong Dingtian’s body stiffened instantly, sweat beads the size of soybeans breaking out through every pore.
Indeed, his body was like reinforced steel, impervious to blades and spears, but he was still mortal, not a celestial immortal.
Throw him into water and he’d drown.
Bury him alive beneath the earth and he’d suffocate.
Set him on fire and he too would be burned to death.
A mighty roar erupted from his chest.
Caught off guard by the assassins’ strange and vile tactics, Xiong Dingtian’s muscles swelled explosively.
His limbs snapped inward abruptly.
The seven or eight assassins standing on the courtyard walls pulling the wires lost their footing and fell headlong from the walls.
A loud roar rang out.
Several assassins closest to Xiong Dingtian shot blood from their ears simultaneously; the roar shattered their eardrums and injured their brains.
Xiong Dingtian landed on the ground.
He paid no mind now to his underwear woes; his legs planted firmly, he let out a heavy, gusty breath.
His legs seemed like battering rams, launching a dozen thunderous kicks all around.
The assassins surrounding him scrambled to dodge, except for those whose brains had been rattled by the roar—they were kicked flying left and right.
Cracks of broken bones sounded repeatedly as several assassins slammed into the alley walls on both sides.
The courtyard walls collapsed.
The assassins became massacred bloody lumps, smashing through the walls and tumbling inside.
Xiong Dingtian still closed his eyes, wildly swinging his fists toward nearby enemies.
His movements were lightning fast; fierce winds howled and thunderclaps roared with every punch.
The assassins were forced back, unable to get close.
They darted wildly around him like ferocious hyenas circling a crazed wild bull, ever poised to seize an opening and deliver a fatal blow.
But even on their cold, indifferent faces, a flicker of anxiety showed.
They had already wasted considerable time on Xiong Dingtian.
Lu Kan had been running for a little while.
They couldn’t settle matters with Xiong Dingtian so easily or quickly.
Their retreat route had been carefully calculated, meticulously planned.
If nothing went wrong, they should have already slipped into a safe hideout, far from the government’s intense manhunt.
Yet with Xiong Dingtian and Lu Kan causing this unexpected mess, their prearranged hideout was clearly useless now.
“I’m certain we’re doomed today. We’ll drag him to the grave with us,” came the cold cruel voice again—the very one who’d ordered the assassins to burn Xiong Dingtian alive just moments ago.
“Swallow the Burning Blood Pill and perish together with this bastard.”
The assassins’ attacks suddenly faltered.
They all took two steps back, opened their mouths, and bit off their collars.
Tearing their collars to rags, the assassins simultaneously swallowed a pill.
The pill was deep red, shimmering with faint black flame patterns on its surface, looking extremely wicked.
After a breath, the assassins all let out a ‘moo’ like wounded wild bulls, panting heavily.
Their skin flushed bright red, their eyes bloodshot and bulging.
Bizarre bulging veins emerged under their skin, the sound of blood rushing became distinctly audible.
Their heartbeats accelerated by several times.
The once-cold, even lifeless gaze suddenly grew wildly frenzied.
Several fist-sized ceramic bottles were hurled at Xiong Dingtian.
He swung heavy punches and shattered all the bottles aimed at him.
When the bottles broke, brilliant fire oil splattered over Xiong Dingtian’s arms.
The fire oil mixed with substances like white phosphorus, highly inflammable.
Once exposed to air, along with friction from the shards, flames suddenly burst to life on Xiong Dingtian’s arms.
He groaned in pain and shouted out.
Though he feared no blades or spears, the burning flames racked him with unbearable torment.
Still, with his horizontal tempering at this level, his flesh was far more resistant to fire than normal men.
Though it hurt, he gritted his teeth and kept fighting desperately, smashing through the side wall of the alley.
Behind the wall was a dimly-lit courtyard where Xiong Dingtian had been hiding, planning to ambush Lu Kan.
Roaring, he broke down the wall with his burning arms, fleeing madly toward the front gate.
Beyond that gate lay a busy street, heavily guarded by countless Imperial Guards, officials, military officers, and secret police.
If he could break out of the courtyard and pass through the gate, these assassins would be finished, and he would be truly safe.
The assassins, crazed after the Burning Blood Pill, lunged at him like ghosts.
They already had faster agility than Xiong Dingtian, but after taking the pill, they moved with eerie speed and gained tremendous strength, utterly fearless of death.
With a single leap, they were upon Xiong Dingtian, entangling him with seven or eight hands and feet, slamming him heavily to the ground.
Fists struck, knees rammed, teeth tore, and all manner of weapons hacked and pierced like maniacs.
Fists were crushed to bits.
Knees smashed into mush.
Teeth shattered from the force of recoil.
Weapons bent and broke against Xiong Dingtian’s body.
He howled in pain and bellowed toward the courtyard gate: “Help! Assassins! There are assassins here!”
Just then, Lu Kan, who had darted away, came running back.
He had only pretended to flee before the assassins, waiting several hundred zhang away, and then charged back the same way.
Seeing the blood-mad assassins relentlessly attacking Xiong Dingtian, Lu Kan pulled a pellet from his waistband and flung it into the sky.
‘Boom!’
A burst of blood-red flame erupted overhead.
Noise erupted from all directions as powerful secret police warriors soared, running along rooftops toward this side with speed.
The surrounding streets also echoed with the heavy galloping of Imperial Guards.
Some earlier chapters have been slightly revised with explanations and clarifications on key points.
(End of Chapter 40)