Chapter 40: Fury

Tong Jin exited the cave dwelling and shot straight out of the Divine Rest Palace. When he reached the main entrance, the two young guards, seeing the speed at which Tong Jin was approaching, did not attempt to stop him again. However, Tong Jin voluntarily came to a halt.

"Little brother, where is the Tianchen Gang?" Tong Jin asked in a low, heavy voice.

The guard who had just tried to block him was about to speak when an intense sense of pressure surged toward him. The boy trembled, nearly collapsing to the ground. Tong Jin looked like a completely different person; his gloomy face radiated a heavy, fierce aura of violence.

The young guard swallowed hard and stammered, "Out the gate and to the right, it's in the east of the city..."

In the blink of an eye, the oppressive, fierce aura vanished, and Tong Jin was already a hundred paces away. Only then did the guard exhale a long breath and say to his companion, who was still stunned in place, "That friend of our Martial Uncle is terrifying."

Meanwhile, Tong Jin was speeding toward the Tianchen Gang. Since childhood, Tong Jin had grown up alone with his grandfather. Although there were cousins of similar age in his main family branch, they rarely met, and Tong Jin, always attached to his grandfather's side, felt no deep connection to them. But after meeting Su Tan, the two had gone from rivals to friends: they had drunk together, scuttled cargo ships, traveled to the Holy Capital, visited Shen Nongzi, and met Bai Xuan... These memories flashed through Tong Jin's mind, only to be replaced by the image of Su Tan covered in blood.

Having experienced the tragic devastation of his family and the forced parting with the Ghost Doctor, his protective instinct toward those he cared about had, without him realizing it, reached a near-maniacal level.

"Sun Hao, today you will be crippled!" Gone was Tong Jin's usual composure and kindness. He was now like a provoked beast, his eyes glinting with fierce, cruel rage.

Following the screams of the two guards at the entrance of the Tianchen Gang, a loud *bang* echoed as the heavy, towering wooden gates were reduced to rubble. Before the flying splinters had even settled, a thunderous roar rang out, heard across half the Tianchen Gang.

"Sun Hao! Get your ass out here!!!"

The Tianchen Gang, like a calm lake disturbed by a stone, erupted as dozens of burly men rushed toward the entrance where Tong Jin stood.

"You brat, do you have any idea where you are, daring to run wild here? Take him down!" The leader barked an order, and four or five subordinates charged at Tong Jin.

Tong Jin, his heart burning with an unholy fire, moved with fluid speed, delivering a palm strike to each man. The thugs were sent flying backward, crashing to the ground and falling unconscious.

The leader gritted his teeth, realizing he had encountered a tough opponent. He signaled to one of his men behind him while roaring for the rest of his group to surround Tong Jin.

"Kill him!" The man drew a short blade from his waist and lunged. As he did, dozens of other thugs pulled out their weapons and swarmed forward.

Tong Jin let out a furious shout, his palms striking out like axes cleaving a mountain. These gang guards were merely at the Body Refining stage; they could handle ordinary people, but against someone like Tong Jin, who had reached the early stage of the Qi Transformation realm, they were nothing but paper tigers. Wherever Tong Jin’s palms landed, cries of agony followed.

Seeing nearly half of his dozens of men wailing on the ground, a cold voice shouted, "Stop!"

Tong Jin halted, his fierce gaze fixed on the man who had issued the order. The man wore a white silk robe and, aside from slightly small eyes, looked quite presentable. Behind him stood two men in black tight-fitting outfits, arms crossed, their eyes glinting—clearly experts of the Qi Transformation realm.

The man in white laughed instead of showing anger. "Haha! Good! This little brother has impressive skills and even greater courage. To storm my Tianchen Gang alone and injure dozens of my men—you have guts!" He clapped his hands in a mocking manner before his expression turned somber, a thin line forming at the corner of his mouth. "But such guts come at a price. I wonder if you can afford it."

Tong Jin’s expression grew even darker. With an icy, emotionless voice, he asked, "Are you Sun Hao?"

The man in white was momentarily stunned to be addressed by name, then he smirked. "It is I. So what?"

"Then you deserve to die!" Tong Jin squeezed the four words through his teeth. He shot forward, his palms moving like sharp blades, chilling the air around him.

Sun Hao narrowed his eyes and flipped backward through the air. The two men in black, who had been behind him, stepped forward to block his path. "Don't hold back. Kill him," Sun Hao ordered coldly. He then strolled to the side as if watching a play, and a guard brought out a wooden chair for him to sit on.

Tong Jin did not slow down for an instant. Even facing two powerful enemies at the early stage of the Qi Transformation realm, he had no intention of retreating. "Those who bully me, I can endure! But those who bully my kin and brothers—even if they are strong, I will slay them!" There was only one thought in Tong Jin’s mind: since he had come today, he would cripple Sun Hao. Whoever blocked his path would be his mortal enemy!

Tong Jin let out a roar and attacked one of the men in black. The man, who stood a full head taller than the still-developing Tong Jin, threw a heavy, powerful punch that collided with Tong Jin’s palms. Before Tong Jin could recover or borrow force to retreat, the other man in black swept a leg toward him. Tong Jin glared at the vicious kick, gritted his teeth to suppress the churning blood in his body, twisted in mid-air, and whipped his own leg out to meet the strike head-on.

*Boom!* A dull thud echoed, and Tong Jin was sent flying sideways for several yards. Managing to adjust his posture in mid-air, he barely landed on his feet, stumbling back four or five steps before stabilizing. Feeling the numbness in his palms and right leg, Tong Jin’s rage flared again.

At that moment, the true qi within his body began to flow along a peculiar path through his meridians, and the diagram from the *Manual of the Raging Sun Palm* suddenly appeared in his mind. The two men in black were already darting toward the barely steady Tong Jin, intent on delivering a lethal blow.

Tong Jin had no time to think. He gritted his teeth and let his true qi flow along that strange, intuitive path. His mind surged, and the bizarre character for "Rage" from the book appeared before his eyes, forcing a primal roar from his throat: "RAGE!"

*BOOM—!* A violent, turbulent burst of energy erupted from Tong Jin’s palms. The two men in black were caught head-on and sent flying, crashing into a stone wall a dozen yards away. Sun Hao, who was sitting with his legs crossed and a sinister smile on his face, was nearly knocked off his chair.

"How is this possible!" Sun Hao kicked the wooden chair aside and stood up, staring at the scene in disbelief!