Chapter 88: Senior

Fish in the pond held bubbles in their mouths, daring not to release them.

The green bamboo by the white wall pressed low in the wind.

The entire courtyard seemed sealed within a piece of amber, utterly silent.

Only the sky light remained as before.

"You looking for me?"

The man in martial attire lay on a rattan chair, hands folded behind his head, glancing at Li Jun from the corner of his eye.

"Boss Song said you're also interested in that *Tengwang Xingxing Peinu Tu*?"

Li Jun sat sideways on the rattan chair, right foot arched slightly, sole grinding gently against the floor tiles.

The man raised an eyebrow. "What, I can't be interested?"

Pretty arrogant.

Li Jun subconsciously scratched his eyebrow. "Of course you can. But the proprietor specifically instructed me before I came that the painting must be brought back. If you're willing to lend a hand, brother, just say the word if you ever need Shu Dao Logistics in the future."

"This isn't Chengdu Prefecture. The Shu Dao Logistics signboard doesn't scare anyone here."

Li Jun shrugged. Though wary of the man's breath-concealing technique, if he were scared off this easily, he'd have no business walking the Martial Path.

Pig or tiger, one punch would tell the difference.

"So, no deal?"

Sole scraping the floor with a harsh screech, Bajiquan force surged from foot to waist, a fist wrapped in blue veins blasted forward.

"Deal!"

The abruptly halted force snapped his sleeves with cracking sounds, the fist tip freezing suddenly before a bronze waist badge, the carried gale buffeting the badge into a sway.

"I don't want it anymore."

Li Jun suddenly stood, turned and bolted for the exit, his back to the man, face full of displeasure.

He had a similar badge, only his read *Xiaowei*, while others read *Zongqi*.

A constable buying erotic paintings—could there be a shred of professional integrity?

"An auxiliary Xiaowei watching his superior turn and leave, ignoring our rules?"

Li Jun treated it as wind in his ears, his striding pace never pausing.

The man behind continued unhurriedly: "No need for the act. I, Wei Juan, may be a Zongqi of Baoning Prefecture, but I know plenty about Chengdu Prefecture affairs."

"Did that dead fatty Yu Kou tell you only he knew your identity? He was bluffing. If you believed that and thoughts of betrayal sprouted, you'd be surrounded and killed by the Embroidered Uniform Guard instantly."

"Once you've worked for the Embroidered Uniform Guard, you're their man for life."

Li Jun, already at the courtyard gate, froze. He looked back over his shoulder, wolfish, making no effort to hide the fierce light flashing in his eyes.

"What business does Lord Wei have with me?"

Wei Juan didn't rush to answer. Rising from the rattan chair, he tossed out a mechanical contraption shaped like a dragonfly.

The 'dragonfly' spread tiny wings and hovered under the eaves, ripples spreading from its body.

Li Jun stood outside the ripples, seeing 'himself' and 'Wei Juan' still lying on the rattan chairs, chatting and laughing, seemingly enjoying the conversation.

An illusion? No, no sense of a *Huangliang Dream*.

Pure visual deception, likely.

Wei Juan stood under the eaves, legs shoulder-width apart, sinking his waist and straightening his back. Under Li Jun's shocked gaze, he slowly unfolded a fighting stance.

Fingers joined like blades, feet stepping with a hook and buckle, moves shifting with cracking sounds of breaking air, like sharp blades hacking at the void.

"Changing palms to knives, this is Baguazhang. He's Martial Path? No!"

Li Jun's raised eyebrows suddenly furrowed. Wei Juan's Baguazhang was clearly perfect in form and spirit, incomparable to Zhao Qingxia's mimicry or Gu Yong's stolen learning.

But within the moves, there was distinctly not a trace of internal force circulation!

This bizarre sense of severance made Li Jun blurt out: "What Sequence are you exactly?"

Wei Juan slowly retracted his Baguazhang stance, slowly rolling up his right sleeve, revealing a section of smooth, delicate forearm.

It was a mechanical prosthetic limb wrapped in bionic skin.

Li Jun stared long at Wei Juan's right hand, frowning. "Weapon Path? Then your Baguazhang..."

"I was once a fellow traveler like you. Later, a hand was chopped off, my pure flesh ruined, a lifetime of martial arts shattered clean."

"Fortunately, some Weapon Path genes remained in my bones. To avoid becoming useless, I had to swap my red blood, switch to the Weapon Path."

Wei Juan spoke lightly, but Li Jun listened with a pounding heart.

He knew the difficulty of switching Sequences. The pain of genes relocking alone was beyond ordinary men.

Not to mention the barriers, each higher than the last; a single misstep meant genetic collapse.

Even a hero like Zhao Ding had been brought low by genetic collapse, a dragon stranded in shallows.

And to become an Embroidered Uniform Guard Zongqi, Wei Juan was at least peak Weapon Eight.

Switching from Martial to Weapon Path and reaching this height—one could imagine the sheer tenacity of his genes.

Wei Juan smoothed his sleeve, looking at Li Jun whose hostility had faded considerably, and smiled: "I spent no small effort finding this chance to contact you. Care to sit and talk?"

Li Jun stepped back under the eaves, face stern, cupping his fists in a salute to Wei Juan.

This bow honored not the man's seniority, but his will and character.

Wei Juan stood there, calmly accepting the salute, his gaze complex.

"I'm broken. I came to find you this time because I don't want you ending up like me. You're good stock; a waste to break."

Li Jun's eyes sharpened. "Lord, you mean breaking Eight to enter Seven?"

Wei Juan nodded. "Though I'm no longer Martial Path, my eye remains. You're close to breaking the lock and ascending, aren't you?"

"Lock sounds long, martial arts become art." Li Jun did not hide it.

"Already at this step?!"

Brilliant light flared in Wei Juan's eyes, then swiftly dimmed.

"Do you know the ritual for Martial Seven?"

Li Jun spat two words: "Sole Ruler."

Wei Juan looked surprised. "Seems you know quite a bit."

Li Jun said blandly: "Some people love dropping useless harsh words before they die. Kill enough, you learn secrets."

"True. Few have hard bones these days. Can't get answers? Blame your own fists not being ruthless."

"Hard bones can talk too. Just gnaw the bone and suck the marrow."

Wei Juan stared, then burst into loud laughter. "Temper fierce enough. No wonder you've walked this road so fast."

After the laughter, the man's voice instantly sank. "To ascend to Martial Seven, you must tread on the bones of other Sequences to cross the abyss. One step life, one step death, the world your enemy. Many will want you dead. Afraid?"

Li Jun shook his head. "Fear is useless. Even if you hide, many will come looking. Confucian lackeys, Yellow Turban warriors, Buddhist Vajras—they won't even leave us bones."

The Gu clan, the Wu clan, White Dragon Temple.

As he spoke, one grotesque face after another flashed through Li Jun’s eyes, finally freezing on Yu Kou’s smiling, plump visage.

"They won't let me go, and I’ll be damned if I let them go."