The street was silent, save for the scrape of steel against stone as ten halberds lowered in unison. Their polished blades gleamed in the lamplight, a jagged wall closing in on one man.
Liam stood at the center of the avenue, hands loose at his sides, expression calm as a quiet sea. His gaze swept across the guards, then to the gathering crowd, then back to the narrow-eyed captain who glared at him like a wolf about to pounce.
"Bind him!" the captain barked. His voice carried over the rooftops, sharp as a hammer strike.
The squad made their move, as they rushed at him.
One guard lunged first, halberd thrust straight for Liam’s chest, aiming to kill and not to subdue. The steel tip should have punched through flesh and bone, but it didn’t.
The weapon froze mid-thrust, suspended inches from Liam’s sternum as if the air itself had turned solid. The guard’s arms trembled, veins bulging, his entire body straining to force it forward.
Liam didn’t move, as he glared at the guard. He could clearly see the intention to kill in his eyes and from his actions. He really wanted to retaliate accordingly and also kill him, but he knew that he would only be escalating the issue by doing so.
Also, he understood that if he really go ahead and kill the guard, then there will be no coming back from it. He would be a killer forever. He has no idea if he was willing to handle something like that on his conscience yet. Besides, there was a saying back on Earth, killing a killer doesn’t reduce the number of killers in the world. It remains the same.
But while he won’t kill them, doesn’t mean that he would let them off lightly. He immediately took action and with a flick of his wrist, the halberd ripped free from its wielder’s grip. The weapon spun across the street, embedding into a stone wall with a deafening crack.
Liam moved, concentrating the field around his hand, he took a step forward and slapped the guard hard on the chest, causing his breastplate to crumpled and he was sent flying back.
The guard crashed into the stone wall, right next to his halberd. He coughed up a mouthful of blood, as he stared at Liam with a face with a face drained of colour.
The captain frowned, a little taken aback when he saw this. He was actually the personal guard of the City Lord’s son, before the young master left to join one of the major sects in the empire.
He had sparred with him after he came back. Though he was utterly defeated, which was natural, he still remembered that fight vividly. The difference between himself — a seasoned cultivator in the 8th stage of Qi Refining — and the young master, who had only been an outer sect disciple for a year and achieved the 3rd stage of Foundation Establishment, was like heaven and earth.
That was the power of the great sects. They molded even their lowest disciples into monsters. The young master’s aura alone had been enough to crush him, and his techniques were refined beyond anything a city guard could hope to touch.
And yet... The way this stranger — this so-called "wandering merchant" standing before him — moved, the invisible force that had stopped the weapon and the force of that slammed one of his men to the wall, leaving him in a near death state, the calm sharpness in his eyes... it stirred the same instinctual dread the captain had felt that day sparring the young master.
He ground his teeth, trying to smother the unease tightening his chest. No... impossible. This boy has no cultivation. I can’t even sense Qi within him. There’s no way he could rival a sect disciple.
But still, his gut whispered danger to him.
"Together!" the captain roared, treating the feeling as an illusion.
The rest of the squad closed in, boots hammering the cobblestones. Steel arcs swept in from every direction, a cage of death meant to shred him.
Liam exhaled slowly, then he raised his hand.
Immediately, an invisible force exploded outward. The cobblestones cracked in spiderweb patterns. Dust and lantern-light twisted in a cyclone.
Five guards were hurled back instantly, slammed against nearby walls so hard their armor screeched. Their halberds clattered uselessly across the street.
The remaining four staggered but stayed on their feet, teeth bared. Two slashed downward in tandem, their weapons slicing through the haze of dust.
Liam stepped forward. His hand rose lazily — and the halberds wrenched from their hands, twisted midair, shattered like brittle sticks and fragments rained down like hail.
The guards froze, stunned, their palms shaking in pain and bleeding where splinters had cut deep in them. Content originally comes from novelꞁire.net
Liam took a step and brushed past them without a glance.
The captain knew that he had made a mistake offending who he shouldn’t have, when he saw how Liam easily took down nine of his remaining men. But the arrow had been shot from the now, and could no longer be retrieved. He has to see this through to the end. Even if he loses, he trusts the young master to step in personally.
His aura surged like a tidal wave, oppressive and heavy, forcing weak among the bystanders to stumble back. Cultivation energy rippled outward, thick as oil, smothering the air. He revealed his level — late Qi Refining, 8th stage.
He leapt, halberd raised high, it and his body glowing faintly with Qi. His strike descended like thunder, aimed to split Liam in half.
But Liam didn’t flinch.
His telekinetic field was already in place. The halberd slammed into it with a booming crack — and stopped dead. The captain’s arms shook violently, veins bulging as he poured strength into the strike. But the weapon might as well have struck a mountain.
Liam’s eyes narrowed faintly. With one hand, he reached up, caught the haft barehanded and snapped it in two.
The captain’s face drained of blood when he saw this.
Before he could retreat, Liam reached out his hand, gripped the air in front of him and an invisible force gripped the captain like a giant’s hand, and slammed him into the ground.
The cobblestones cratered under the impact. The captain coughed blood, his body trembling as he struggled to rise — only for Liam’s invisible grip to press him down harder. His knees buckled until he was forced to kneel, armor screeching against the stone.
The crowd had gone silent. Not a breath stirred. Even the guards who still stood dared not move.
Liam stepped closer, his presence radiating like an unseen blade pressed to every throat. His eyes, cold and sharp, locked onto the broken captain.
"This," Liam said quietly, his voice carrying to every corner of the street, "is your warning."
The captain’s teeth ground together, but he couldn’t lift his head. The invisible weight kept him kneeling.
"If the Xuan family," Liam continued, voice like iron, "or the City Lord, or any lapdog in this city dares accuse me falsely again... I will not stop at mercy. Only death."
The words slashed through the silence sharper than any blade. The crowd shuddered as if struck by winter wind.
Then Liam released the pressure. The captain collapsed forward, gasping. His halberd lay in broken pieces beside him, useless.
Liam turned away and was about to walk away, but a voice stopped him in place.
"To openly challenge both the City Lord and the Xuan, you must either be courageous or stupid. Well, all that doesn’t matter as I will make sure to take you in and make you pay for insulting my family’s name, the City Lord’s. I wonder if you consider me his son a lapdog," the voice said, releasing his aura, showing his cultivation that was at the 3rd stage Foundation Establishment.
Liam sighed internally when he heard this. He has really had enough of the tomfoolery. Enough of this crap.
I guess I will have act like the Romans when in Rome. If this world only understands force, then force it will get.
Without even waiting for whoever it is to attack, he turned towards him disappeared from his spot, appearing instantly in front of him.