Chapter 53: A Born Talent!

“Iya!”

A leg wreathed in blazing black-gold spiritual fire came crashing down.

“Uwaa!”

Hands covered in spiritual energy shot up.

With a deafening boom, dark golden flames scattered in all directions.

The man on the ground was sent flying like a curling stone, sliding across the floor.

The kicker was Ding Nan.

The one kicked was the Patrol Officer.

“How is this possible?” the Short Man asked, unable to believe the sight before him.

“Do you have to be this ridiculous!” the Thin Man screamed.

The two skinny and short human traffickers stared at the Patrol Officer, who was curled up like a shrimp.

Ding Nan used both hands to remove the ropes tangled around his long spear.

Gripping it tightly, he assumed a fighting stance.

“Is this really the Early Qi Refining Stage?” the Short Man questioned.

“He couldn’t be some young master from a big clan, could he?” the Thin Man speculated.

The Patrol Officer’s hands trembled as he crawled back to his feet, swallowing a mouthful of bloody spittle, a complex mix of emotions on his face.

‘That’s right, that’s the look!’ Ding Nan felt a surge of immense satisfaction.

He loved crushing arrogant spirits under his heel, grinding them down and humiliating them over and over!

‘It’s back. Everything’s back. I was once a genius, standing out from the crowd, looking down on everyone, undefeated among my peers.’

Finally, he was having a normal fight.

It had been so strange before, constantly being overpowered by people whose strength defied imagination.

It was as if every strong person around had him in their crosshairs—first Luo Yao slapping him to the ground with a single palm strike, then his own clan members ganging up to tie him up and drag him back to the courtyard.

Today, he could finally hold his head high!

He knew it! With his ability to comprehend things, honed by the brutal schooling he’d received, there was no way he was supposed to be that useless.

All those complicated concepts in cultivation techniques—

Yin-Yang, the Five Elements, Jing-Qi-Shen—they came naturally to him.

He understood them innately, without needing further study.

He could take the best from countless techniques and martial skills, letting them complement each other.

Learning one manual was easy.

Learning ten allowed him to start improving them.

If he learned a hundred, he reckoned he could probably just churn out a bunch of inferior manuals at will.

If it weren’t for losing all his spiritual energy, how could he have been so suppressed?

How could he have suffered all that cold mockery?

Even though that mockery was all Luo Yao’s doing—that yandere had ordered others to isolate him so he would become completely dependent on her—

Ding Nan still didn’t know how to face his own Ding Clan members now.

The ones who used to mock him were now the ones jealous of him.

He used to think it was because he was too much of a genius back then, acting like an Ice Goblin, annoying everyone else.

But it turned out the one who truly hurt his heart was someone else entirely.

And that person just wanted to fly away with him, to be together forever.

Tch, a heavy woman!

Someone who hurts you and then acts possessive is a yandere.

Is a yandere scary?

Yes.

Is a yandere cute? Depends.

Luo Yao’s kind of yandere, low in aggression and relatively obedient, was the “cute” kind.

As for why she punished him, Ding Nan wasn’t sure.

He felt there was some kind of misunderstanding.

Maybe it touched on the “ill” part of her “illness.”

But seeing that Luo Yao could listen to reason, Ding Nan felt there was hope for a cure.

Too bad he couldn’t face her right now—if they met again, he’d probably still get brutally humiliated.

He had to get stronger.

Strong enough, at least, to not be taken out in a single palm strike.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t even have a chance to explain himself.

But for now, he was no longer worried about his own strength.

With the Jade Tablet and his own brains, how could Ding Nan worry about not being able to reach the peak and dominate the world?

He had trained in techniques for so long, and the ones he was using now were top-tier.

At the Qi Refining Stage, where differences in Spiritual Qi didn’t translate to massive differences in output, if he still couldn’t win, he’d truly be useless.

Besides, against these guys, Ding Nan hadn’t even used the Sunset Cloud Sword or the Fire Cloud Spear Technique.

He was only using the Yellow Stone Palm, a low-grade technique of the Ding Clan that he had later modified.

Ding Nan raised a hand and slicked back his bangs.

‘This is power!’

‘I’m terrified of my own talent!’

The three men watched as Ding Nan’s expression shifted, gradually becoming one of pure delight.

He flashed a brilliant white-toothed grin and made that meaningless hair-slicking gesture.

How could he have such confidence?

In an instant, fear spread through the two traffickers.

If a young master from a noble family went missing, his clan would surely come looking.

They were just small-timers. How could they defy that?

“Maybe we should run…” the Short Man whispered.

“Run? Run where?” the Thin Man replied.

You can’t run away from a temple, even if you run away from a monk.

The moment Ding Nan reported them to the City Guard Office, both the traffickers and the Patrol Officer would be arrested.

Human trafficking was a serious crime.

Dereliction of duty was also a serious crime.

Embezzlement was an even more serious crime.

All were punishable by exile at the very least, and death at worst.

A Patrol Officer guilty of embezzlement and participating in human trafficking had double the crimes to answer for.

So, if they let Ding Nan escape now, losing their “shadows under the lamp,” they would be in real danger.

“Thin Man, go get more people,” the Patrol Officer ordered.

“Short Man, you’re with me. We’ll hold him off.”

Seeing and hearing this, Ding Nan planned to pick up the little girl on the ground and try to jump over the wall to escape.

But the Patrol Officer wouldn’t let him.

He leaped like a mudskipper, grabbed Ding Nan’s ankle, and used all his strength to pull him back to the ground.

Ding Nan was forced to put the little girl down and resume his stance.

‘Looks like I’m not getting out of here unless I beat these two within an inch of their lives,’ Ding Nan thought.

His gaze hardened.

He raised his spear and unleashed the Fire Cloud Spear Technique.

The sound of the spear was like a cicada’s chirp; the afterimages were like lightning.

Ding Nan’s fierce spearmanship drove the two men out of the dead end alley.

Deprived of the advantage of their weapons, and naturally cowardly and despicable, the two retreated.

“Aren’t you going to run?”

Ding Nan taunted.

Although he was saving someone, killing people in the city was a huge hassle.

If possible, Ding Nan didn’t want to kill them.

For one, if their bodies were disposed of, there would be no evidence.

For another, killing someone would definitely land him in the dungeon.

Ding Nan had no intention of sleeping with fleas down there.

The Patrol Officer and the Short Man kept their eyes fixed on Ding Nan.

Then, Ding Nan heard a rustling sound.

He looked up, his eyes narrowing, and was shocked to see that behind the Patrol Officer and the Short Man, several thuggish-looking men in coarse clothing had squeezed into the alley.

One look told him they were local riffraff.

Ding Nan’s expression changed.

How were they here so fast?

The only explanation was that this area had its own den.

So they arrived quickly.

Ding Nan was in trouble now.

He could beat a few of them.

He could take any one of them one-on-one, and he could even handle a two-on-one.

But against a group? No way.

It was like in that arena game he played in his past life.

If your stats were similar, and you didn’t turn on god mode, you’d get beaten to death by the mob.

Ding Nan slowly backed away.

It looked like he had no choice but to go for the kill now.

However, after a brief exchange among themselves, the arriving gang members had no intention of fighting him hand-to-hand.

They each took out a talisman.

Ding Nan saw the inscriptions on them and recognized them as the cheapest kind on the market: Blasting Talismans.

They had very little power.

Comparable to dangerous firecrackers from his past life, they could leave someone battered and bloodied.

But their power could be increased by pouring more spiritual energy into them.

Seeing their cold, dead-fish stares as if he were already a corpse, Ding Nan finally felt like he was about to die.

If he were at the Foundation Establishment Stage, his range for releasing spiritual energy would be larger.

He could have forcibly rewired the talismans as they flew at him.

Too bad he was only at the Qi Refining Stage.

His spiritual energy could only be released close to his body.

The men threw their Blasting Talismans.

Left with no choice, Ding Nan shielded the little girl behind him and activated his Spiritual Energy Shield.

“How do you always end up in situations like this just by buying clothes?”

Suddenly, a clear, resonant voice rang out.

Several magic swords descended, forming a sword formation in front of Ding Nan, blocking the impact of the explosions.