Chapter 144: Phantom Spirit Powder—Nothing Special After All!
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The incident happened suddenly and without warning.
Caught completely off guard, Qin Chuan took a solid palm strike to the back. A sharp, unmistakable pain followed, making it clear that the attacker had concealed needle-like weapons in his palm. An intense numbness spread around the wounds.
“Poisoned weapons!”
Qin Chuan suddenly exerted his strength, flinging the man on his back away.
“Well, well! I never expected you to be this powerful. No wonder Miss Chiba was no match for you.”
The man twisted several times in midair before landing steadily on the ground, as light and silent as a feather.
Qin Chuan immediately circulated his inner force. His body shuddered violently, and the two poisoned needles embedded in him were forced out. They shot into the wall, disappearing completely into it.
“So what if you can project your inner force? You have already been struck by the Yagyu family’s secret poison. You will lose consciousness within three minutes. And here is a friendly warning: do not even think about using your inner force to force the poison out. That will only make it spread through your bloodstream faster,” the middle-aged man said with great amusement.
The corners of Qin Chuan’s mouth lifted slightly. He said with utter disdain, “I’ve wanted to experience the Yagyu family’s Phantom Spirit Powder for a long time. Now that I’ve seen it, it turns out to be nothing special.”
“Keep talking tough. Let’s see how long you can hold out. What is it? Can you already feel your blood beginning to boil? How about your consciousness? Are you starting to hallucinate? Look over here—how many fingers am I holding up?”
As he spoke, the man raised his middle finger and burst into mocking laughter. Clearly, he did not believe Qin Chuan’s claim in the slightest.
The Phantom Spirit Powder was the Yagyu family’s secret drug. More than a century ago, countless martial arts masters from China had fallen victim to it and been killed. The man simply could not believe that this young-sounding stranger could resist it.
Although Qin Chuan had forced the poisoned needles from his body, the Phantom Spirit Powder would spread rapidly through the bloodstream once it came into contact with blood. To resist its effects completely, one would have to drain the blood from one’s body at once—but that would mean instant death.
Qin Chuan swayed slightly. His tone was no longer as forceful as before; in fact, he sounded rather weak.
“Who... who are you? If I’m going to die, at least let me die knowing the truth. And where are Zheng Xingguo and the others?”
Seeing Qin Chuan standing unsteadily, the smile on the man’s face widened. He slowly peeled away the human-skin mask covering his face, revealing an utterly ordinary appearance. At least in Qin Chuan’s eyes, if a man with such a face were standing in a crowd, no one would pay him any attention.
“My name is Yagyu Feiwu. Of course, I also go by another name: Zheng Xingguo. I endured humiliation for all these years, waiting for this day to arrive. If that bastard Wei Baochuan hadn’t noticed the flaw, I might have obtained even more classified documents. By then, China’s defensive missiles would have been utterly useless against the Sakura Empire.”
Regret filled Yagyu Feiwu’s voice as he spoke. Clearly, he was deeply dissatisfied at having been forced to reveal his true identity so soon.
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Qin Chuan was utterly shocked. The information contained in Yagyu Feiwu’s words was overwhelming. His other identity was Zheng Xingguo—in other words, the real Zheng Xingguo had been dead for a long time.
After all, Qin Chuan could not believe that China’s stringent security checks would have allowed a citizen of the Sakura Empire to enter such a highly classified research project. So when, exactly, had he exchanged identities with the real Zheng Xingguo?
“This face was cut from Zheng Xingguo’s corpse. Otherwise, how could I have deceived you before? Oh, no—that is not quite right. I deceived not only you, but also Zheng Xingguo’s family, friends, former classmates, and colleagues. None of them noticed anything wrong over all these years.”
Yagyu Feiwu sounded rather pleased with himself. Qin Chuan, however, felt a chill in his heart, overwhelmed by fury. No wonder the earlier chip scan had detected nothing unusual—the real Zheng Xingguo had been dead for a long time.
“Where is Wei Baochuan?” Qin Chuan asked despite himself.
“Of course he is in hell,” Yagyu Feiwu replied mockingly. “I have no idea what goes on in the minds of these people. Can loyalty really be more important than one’s life? What a joke. Once you are dead, you have nothing left. So what is the point of talking about loyalty?”
“Of course a beast like you cannot understand the meaning of loyalty. Without the sacrifice and dedication of people like them, how could China ever return to the summit of the world?” Qin Chuan said coldly.
Yet after learning this, Qin Chuan’s heart sank to the bottom. Although he had been mentally prepared for the worst, he had still hoped to save the lives of the two researchers. Their deaths were an enormous loss to the whole of China—and how much anguish would their families have to endure?
“On the verge of death, and you still have the nerve to show off with your words? Are all you Chinese this foolish?” Yagyu Feiwu sneered.
Qin Chuan did not answer. His throat moved, and then he suddenly spat out a mouthful of black blood. The haziness in his eyes vanished instantly, replaced by crystal-clear awareness.
Yagyu Feiwu stared at him in stunned disbelief.
“Impossible! Absolutely impossible!”
His eyes were filled with disbelief, and his voice trembled with agitation. “No one can force Phantom Spirit Powder from their body through the circulation of inner force. It can only be done by draining every drop of blood!”
“The martial arts of China are profound and extensive. How could a petty thief like you ever comprehend them? Today, I’ll teach you a lesson.”
Before the words had even left his mouth, Qin Chuan vanished from the spot.
Yagyu Feiwu sensed an unprecedented killing intent. A warrior’s instincts warned him to evade immediately, or his life would be in danger.
But Qin Chuan was simply too fast. Before Yagyu Feiwu could complete his evasive movement, a fierce gust of fist wind struck from behind, aimed directly at his heart. If it landed, he would almost certainly die on the spot.
“Baka!”
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Yagyu Feiwu desperately twisted aside, but Qin Chuan’s heavy punch struck him squarely in the shoulder.
Crack!
The sound of breaking bones rang out as the force of the blow sent Yagyu Feiwu flying.
“Damn your baka!”
Qin Chuan had no intention of letting him off so easily. While Yagyu Feiwu was still airborne, Qin Chuan appeared before him once more and drove a heavy kick upward into his lower abdomen.
Boom!
The kick sent Yagyu Feiwu shooting straight upward, his body bent over as though a propeller had been mounted on his head. Qin Chuan still gave him no chance to catch his breath. He planted both feet against the ground, leaped more than two meters into the air, clasped his fists together, and brought them crashing down onto Yagyu Feiwu’s back.
Boom!
Yagyu Feiwu felt as though he had been struck by a heavy truck. Before he could even reach the peak of his ascent, his body began plummeting vertically toward the ground.
Thud!
Crack!
Yagyu Feiwu slammed into the floor with tremendous force, shattering the tiles beneath him. Qin Chuan descended from the air a moment later and landed heavily on Yagyu Feiwu’s back.
The entire sequence flowed together as smoothly as water. Yagyu Feiwu had been utterly powerless to defend himself. Everyone present was left dumbfounded. The hotel security guards did not dare approach; their bodies trembled uncontrollably, and all that remained in their eyes as they looked at Qin Chuan was fear.
Seizing the opportunity, Qin Chuan exerted force with one arm and lifted Yagyu Feiwu as easily as a man might pick up a chick. Then he shot away like an arrow loosed from a bow.
Only after Qin Chuan vanished into the night with Yagyu Feiwu in his grasp did the guards recover from their shock. By then, however, they had no idea which way to pursue him.
Yet someone was faster than the guards.
Several figures dressed in purple-brown ninja uniforms pursued Qin Chuan in the direction he had disappeared, clinging to his trail like maggots to a corpse.
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