The young man in the dragon mask appeared before Su Jie.
Su Jie knew this person had definitely come looking for him. The opponent’s spirit, energy, and focus were completely locked onto him — just like when he had encountered Zhang Hongqing that day.
This person before him might be slightly inferior to Zhang Hongqing, but was certainly not below Su Jie himself — also a strong expert at the “Living Dead” realm.
And he was young.
By now, Su Jie’s perception and observational ability had improved significantly compared to the time of his battle with Zhang Hongqing. First, he had absorbed many lessons from that fight. Second, he had studied the Nine Palaces Great Yu Thunder Section Orthodox Method under Zhang Nianquan, deepening his sense of the Three Powers — Heaven, Earth, and Humanity — by another layer.
His surroundings now resonated with him in a certain way.
The environment could tell him many things.
But he had the vague feeling that this young man in the dragon mask had an affinity with his environment that was no less than his own.
“Su Jie?” the dragon-masked young man asked.
“Who are you?” Su Jie replied.
“Never mind that. Prepare yourself.” Having confirmed Su Jie’s identity, the dragon-masked young man said nothing further. He suddenly attacked, his fist already at Su Jie’s face.
He was wearing gloves.
The gloves weren’t leather — they seemed to be made of some kind of metal wire, extremely sturdy. As the fist reached Su Jie’s face, the smell of iron filled his nostrils.
If Su Jie didn’t dodge and took that punch square on, his entire head would be crushed.
This was a killing blow.
Facing such lethal danger, Su Jie’s spirit and body moved in unison. He contracted sharply, raising his arm to block the opponent’s wrist in a intercepting strike.
As he blocked, Su Jie’s body moved with a natural, spontaneous elegance — like the rising of the sun and moon — his momentum harmonizing seamlessly with his surroundings.
But the dragon-masked youth’s iron fist suddenly changed direction, thrusting like a spear toward Su Jie’s chest. The punch was unpredictable, as precisely calculated as a machine — there was something of Feng Hengyi about it.
Yet he was even more skilled than Feng Hengyi.
The fist changed freely, now like spring rain nourishing all things, now like thunder shaking the world, now like a gale sweeping away fallen leaves, now like a ghost or god descending upon the mortal realm.
Now righteous, now evil. Now hard, now soft. Now yin, now yang.
In an instant, Su Jie and the dragon-masked youth exchanged three or four rounds.
The dragon-masked youth maintained an offensive posture throughout, but couldn’t bring Su Jie down.
Neither could Su Jie find any opportunity to counterattack.
Under the dragon-masked youth’s pressure, Su Jie was at a disadvantage — but it was far less strenuous than facing Zhang Hongqing.
Bam, bam, bam…
Their arms collided like two iron rods striking each other, producing a faint metallic clang.
Swish!
Their arms became entangled in mutual grappling. Their strength seemed temporarily matched. In the midst of this direct struggle, they both suddenly kicked.
Thwack!
Each of their feet struck the other’s lower abdomen.
Su Jie was sent flying by the force, slamming hard into a wall and cracking several bricks behind him.
The dragon-masked youth fared no better. He staggered backward several steps, a rumble emanating from within his abdomen — he too had taken some damage.
Both were injured simultaneously.
“Interesting.” The dragon-masked youth brushed the dust from his abdomen and struck again. His foot slid forward, bringing him back in front of Su Jie, his five fingers hooked like claws aiming for Su Jie’s face.
Su Jie hadn’t recovered yet. His physical resilience was actually inferior to the dragon-masked youth’s.
This was precisely the moment when Su Jie was weak and numb — his old strength exhausted, new strength not yet generated. The dragon-masked youth’s timing was perfect — a killing blow.
This was no joke — it was a genuine lethal attack. The opponent was aiming to kill, every move fatal.
Su Jie had never met this person before, had no idea who the dragon-masked youth was, and didn’t know why he wanted to kill him. But now wasn’t the time to think about reasons.
The iron claws were upon him, reaching his face.
If they connected, his face would be destroyed beyond recognition, and he would die.
The opponent wore metal-wire gloves, even more lethal — impervious to blades — a pair of iron claws that could extinguish all life.
Buzz…
Just as his life seemed about to end, Su Jie entered a state of suspended time. A feeling rose in his heart: he would not die here.
This was intense self-confidence — or perhaps a glimpse into some future destiny.
“I will not die!” This thought burned deep in Su Jie’s heart. “As long as I don’t want to die, there is no one in this world who can take my life — not even Heaven itself.”
The moment this powerful emotion arose, his body suddenly gained a certain power.
Emotional stimulation could cause endocrine secretions to surge wildly, producing reactions in the body even stronger than doping.
Boom!
Su Jie arched like a shrimp, rose like a spring, his hands lifting the earth, manipulating the sun and moon.
He unleashed a “Hoe Strike.”
The intent of this “Hoe Strike” was completely different from before — filled with a desperate longing for life. Like a corpse in a grave suddenly reviving and reaching out a hand. Like a spring gushing from parched earth. Like a fire-struck, charred black branch sprouting new buds.
From death to life.
Smack!
The “Hoe Strike” landed on the dragon-masked youth’s palm.
The metal-wire glove actually split open.
Their palms struck together again.
The dragon-masked youth seemed startled — he hadn’t expected Su Jie to produce such a strike. Blood appeared on his hand — Su Jie had split both his glove and his skin.
But Su Jie’s hand wasn’t in good shape either — it was also bleeding profusely.
Both of their hands were injured again.
“Not bad. Not bad at all.” The dragon-masked youth spoke two sentences, then his body retreated. “I’ll find you again next time.”
Then he withdrew directly into the dark alleyway. He had come fast, and left just as fast.
Su Jie quickly bandaged his hand and pondered who this person might be.
This confrontation had come out of nowhere. The opponent had attacked to kill, then left just as abruptly. He didn’t seem quite like an assassin — but he also didn’t seem like he was joking.
If he were an assassin, he would have been relentless, stopping at nothing to achieve his goal — he wouldn’t have just left. And Su Jie could sense that an assassin’s attitude was that extreme mentality of “I must kill you.”
But if it were a friend joking around — Su Jie could tell that the dragon-masked youth’s every move was lethal. If Su Jie hadn’t been able to defend himself, he truly would have died. This was definitely not a joke.
This youth was incredibly strong — unimaginably so. His physical condition and combat experience were both superior to Su Jie’s. It was hard to imagine who had trained him.
Take Feng Hengyi, for example — trained from the womb at Typhon Training Camp — yet even he hadn’t reached this dragon-masked youth’s level.
To have trained someone like this was nothing short of a miracle.
Su Jie found it hard to believe.
But when he compared it to his own story, he could believe it.
Just over a year ago, he had been an average high school student with merely adequate physical fitness — not even excelling in sports. Yet now he had become a top-tier figure, even serving as the bodyguard for the world’s wealthiest man, Larry, and earning his deep trust.
That was a miracle within miracles.
“This person is stronger than me. He could defeat me, but killing me would still be very difficult. Meanwhile, Zhang Hongqing — if he wants to kill me, I can only escape by luck.” Having encountered another powerful enemy in the dragon-masked youth, Su Jie had effectively lost a round. But he wasn’t discouraged — on the contrary, he was delighted to have once again gained the experience of exchanging blows with a top expert.
After this battle, Su Jie didn’t wander any further. He returned to treat his wounds and underwent minimally invasive surgical treatment and examination with extreme rigor.
Only after a series of precise examinations and minimally invasive procedures confirmed that his body wouldn’t develop any issues did he feel at ease.
He now understood that his body was extremely precious — it was the raft that carried him across the sea of suffering. If it were damaged, he would sink midway and be forever lost in that bitter sea.
Thus, he was now very meticulous about protecting his body.
After returning to China, he certainly wouldn’t have access to this level of medical care. Yet he still chose to return without hesitation, rather than stay with Larry.
Protecting Larry’s life and safety was his responsibility. But helping them research profound成果 — deep down, Su Jie was very reluctant to do that.
After this long period of study, Su Jie had considerable confidence in his own research abilities.
Even in China, given enough time, he could still develop things.
Early the next morning, he bid farewell to Larry, Zhang Manman, and the others, and embarked on his return journey to China. After a day and a night, when the plane landed, he was already at the B City International Airport. Without even going home, he went straight to school to register.
He was now something of a young millionaire. His account held the salary Larry had paid him — a total of 1.5 million US dollars. That covered his bodyguard fees and the purchase of his experimental data.
Larry needed to obtain various sports performance data from Su Jie’s body — using him as a lab rat for research — and that required payment.
Converted to Chinese yuan, he was now a ten-million-yuan rich, and in liquid cash at that.
But relative to his original goals, this was still a drop in the bucket. His goal had been to buy his parents a larger house in S City — ten million was far from enough.
Li Xiaozhen’s large apartment had cost over fifty million.
“Unfortunately, I still haven’t been able to find out anything about my sister.” Su Jie had spent this winter break very meaningfully — he had gone through many experiences, made significant progress in his martial arts and physical abilities, and earned a fortune of ten million. But the most important matters remained unresolved: he hadn’t confirmed his sister’s whereabouts, nor had he been able to help Zhang Manman secure a position on Honey Badger Security’s board.
“It seems I’ll need to find other ways to rescue my sister.” Su Jie walked into his dormitory.
It was just after winter break. All his roommates had returned.
Tan Dashi, Lin Tang, and Wang Shun were chatting animatedly — Tan Dashi in particular was talking so excitedly that he was spraying spittle.
But the moment they saw Su Jie enter, they all froze, their faces showing unnatural expressions.
“You three have been slacking off — you didn’t follow the schedule over winter break.” Su Jie could tell at a glance why they looked so uncomfortable.