Ninety-Nine: Break into the Underworld

“If it were me, and I had not fled at once, I fear I would have been riddled like a sieve, let alone stopping bullets in midair or turning them back,” Bai Longtu said with some bitterness.

“So would I. Mr. Chen’s strength is probably already beyond that of a martial arts grandmaster. He must be a true supreme grandmaster of the martial path,” Zhang Lianchun said with a sigh. Yet such a young supreme grandmaster had never even been heard of before, and it made them feel old indeed.

“Should we go and meet Mr. Chen?” Gu Qingyuan asked.

“To be able to meet a grandmaster of such stature is likely a chance one encounters only once in a lifetime. I must pay my respects to Mr. Chen,” Bai Longtu said after a moment’s thought.

“Exactly. I gained a great deal of insight from today’s battle. If I could receive a few words of guidance from Mr. Chen, it would surely save us years of bitter cultivation,” Zhang Lianchun also said with a nod.

“And if word got out that both master and disciple, Kazuo Yasui and the two Japanese sword grandmasters, died at Mr. Chen’s hands, the martial world would surely be thrown into upheaval,” Gu Qingyuan exclaimed.

“Whatever the case, the Chinese martial world has produced a Mr. Chen. From now on, our martial arts in China will stand stronger in the world,” Bai Longtu said.

“Yes. Yasui’s strength is now so fearsome. Even if it were the old Mr. Wu from years ago, who knows whether he had reached such a realm? And yet he was slain here by Mr. Chen. This will surely be a heavy blow to the Japanese martial world,” Zhang Lianchun said.

By now, Ou Renzhong had already walked beneath the tree where Chen Fengyun stood, and Chen Fengyun lightly descended from among the branches, as weightless as a fallen leaf.

“Hello. I am Ou Renzhong, deputy director of the Rongcheng City Police Bureau. May I ask how I should address you, sir?” Ou Renzhong had already seen, from the video sent back by Zhu Danfeng and the others, the earlier battle between Chen Fengyun and Yasui Ichiro, and so his attitude was especially grave.

“Director Ou, my name is Chen Fengyun,” Chen Fengyun said with a slight nod.

“Mr. Chen, when you called the police earlier, I was on duty at the dispatch center, so I heard everything over the phone. I am deeply grateful that you uncovered the hidden filth of Shuangxiong Villa and exposed Qin Tianxiong’s crimes of drug trafficking and illegal arms stockpiling. But when you mentioned on the phone that they were also abducting children everywhere, I would like to know whether that was true.”

“Director Ou, that police officer who gave the order to shoot me earlier—whose man was he?” Chen Fengyun asked.

“His name is Gu Changlin. He is a subordinate of Han Zhiwu, the other deputy director at the city bureau. I had long suspected that they were colluding with Qin Tianxiong, but I had never gathered proof of their crimes,” Ou Renzhong said without concealment.

“In that case, I will give you a great merit. I hope you will remember this favor. In the future, when I have need of your help, I trust you will not decline,” Chen Fengyun said after thinking for a moment, then looked at him.

“In truth, Mr. Chen has already done me an enormous service this time. Let alone one request in the future—if Mr. Chen ever needs anything, just say the word. As for the scene here, we will handle it properly and will not implicate you in any way,” Ou Renzhong said firmly with a nod.

“Then bring your men and come with me,” Chen Fengyun said at last with a smile, nodding to Ou Renzhong.

Afterward, Ou Renzhong led several dozen police officers, following Chen Fengyun toward the entrance of the underground base behind the estate. At that moment, the people inside the base still had no idea what had happened outside.

Chen Fengyun noticed that Gu Qingyuan and the other two martial grandmasters had not left, but were trailing along at a distance. He therefore sent them a message by spiritual sense: “Please come and lend a hand, the three of you.”

The three men were startled at once. They looked at one another before realizing that they had all heard a voice, and that it had sounded directly in their minds. It was Chen Fengyun’s voice, and their sense of him deepened further into something unfathomable. Without delay, they all sped off at once.

By the time Chen Fengyun, Ou Renzhong, and the dozens of police officers reached the front of a villa, Gu Qingyuan and the others had also arrived by leaping through the air. When they dropped down from the trees, the surrounding officers all jumped in alarm, though Ou Renzhong quickly stopped them.

“Greetings, Mr. Chen,” the three said together, bowing respectfully to Chen Fengyun.

“There is an entrance behind this villa that leads straight into an underground base. I believe once you see what is inside, you will feel like killing someone too. But there are still some Japanese martial artists and several gunmen inside, so I need the three of you to open the way and reduce the police casualties.

“You may rest assured that I have secretly disabled all the surveillance around this place. The people inside do not yet know that we are going down, and I will be going down with you as well to cover your backs,” Chen Fengyun said to the three of them and to Ou Renzhong.

“I’ll send more people to guard the surrounding area, so no one escapes from another exit,” Ou Renzhong immediately arranged. Some officers rushed over from afar, and two armed helicopters circled overhead on alert.

Then Chen Fengyun led them to the garage behind the villa, where they discovered a hidden lift. He nodded to the others, then brought Ou Renzhong and more than twenty police officers into the lift and descended toward the underground base.

Although there were more than a dozen Japanese martial experts inside the base, none of them were grandmasters at all, and they were no match for the three martial grandmasters. Even with more than twenty gunmen as well, they were quickly wiped out under the joint assault of the three grandmasters and the police.

During the fighting, Chen Fengyun also struck several times, helping some officers avoid death and helping the three martial grandmasters evade grenade attacks. The group made it through safely; though several were injured, not a single person died.

But the scenes they saw in the underground base were enough to enrage everyone to the core. Dozens of imprisoned children and adults, though miserable enough, could still be counted fortunate. Yet the bodies lying on the operating tables in the laboratories, dissected open one by one, were a vision of utter horror.

There were also dozens of researchers in the underground base, mostly Japanese, with a few from other countries, and even several Chinese among them. They had initially been shouting that none of it was their business, but Chen Fengyun, in his fury, controlled the bullets on the ground to shoot them all dead.

“Such filth is no better than beasts; they deserve to die. Remember this: they were all killed in the crossfire by those gunmen, so that they would not reveal the details of the research,” Ou Renzhong said through clenched teeth, and then instructed his subordinates on how to account for these deaths.

Not long after, Chen Fengyun left with the three martial grandmasters. By then, the leaders from the provincial public security department had finally arrived. At first they had shown little reaction, but the moment they discovered the underground base, every face among them changed completely.