Chapter 77 – Crippling Strike

Lu Yuan walked along the fourth-floor corridor, looking downwards.

The courtyard was eerily quiet.

The Man in a Vest, who had been feeding birds earlier, was nowhere to be seen.

Lu Yuan didn’t continue exploring the remaining rooms. Instead, he descended the nearby staircase directly.

Unlike when he had come up, he didn’t deliberately conceal his footsteps. He even hoped the people in the hall below would hear him and come up.

“Tap-tap-tap.”

As he was about to reach the second floor from the third, suddenly—

“Crash.”

A sound like pots and pans falling to the ground echoed from below.

Lu Yuan paused.

He slowly leaned his face downward, listening carefully to the commotion below.

“Go check it out.”

He seemed to hear a voice.

Soon, faint footsteps started coming up.

Lu Yuan’s eyes flickered.

He synchronized his steps with those coming up and gradually descended to the second floor.

At the corner of the second-floor staircase, he stood still.

Moonlight streamed through the nearby window, half illuminating his face while the other half remained in shadow.

Lu Yuan quietly closed his eyes, letting his faint Mental Power spread out like the glow of a tungsten filament.

He could vaguely “see” a tall figure slowly approaching.

“I don’t recall seeing anyone like this downstairs,” Lu Yuan thought, puzzled.

The person coming up suddenly stopped.

Lu Yuan’s eyes snapped open, staring intently at the spot where the staircase emerged.

Had he been discovered?

It seemed not.

After a few seconds, the footsteps resumed their ascent.

“Hiss—”

Lu Yuan slowly inhaled, oxygen filling his lungs and fueling his heart to pump harder, sending more blood and energy through his body.

He felt his body starting to function like a well-oiled machine.

The footsteps grew closer and closer.

Finally, a head began to emerge from the stairs leading up to the second floor.

“Now’s the time!”

Lu Yuan’s eyes flashed with determination, his handsome face suddenly fierce.

In a single bound, he covered several meters, using his right hand to push off the stair rail for leverage.

His right leg swung up like a battle axe, aiming a vicious kick at the temple of the emerging figure.

The dim stairwell echoed with a sharp, whistle-like whine.

“Bang!”

The person coming up seemed to raise a hand to block, grunting as they staggered backward, their feet clattering against the steps.

Lu Yuan felt as if he had kicked a solid steel plate instead of a person.

The expected scene of him easily overwhelming the opponent didn’t occur. Instead, his foot throbbed with a bone-cracking pain.

“Not one of the Man in a Vest’s people!”

“They’ve got new help!”

“And they’re strong!”

These thoughts flashed through Lu Yuan’s mind in an instant.

With barely a millisecond of hesitation, Lu Yuan launched himself at the figure below. He pushed off from the last step of the staircase with both feet.

“Bang!”

The tiles and cement on the step exploded on impact.

He sidestepped slightly, seizing the moment while the person below was still reeling from his initial kick.

In a downward, side-leaning dive, Lu Yuan crashed into the person’s chest.

The person, who had just barely regained their balance, was taken by surprise and slammed heavily into the wall.

“Boom! Crash!”

With a loud bang, the person’s back embedded into the wall.

Large sections of plaster cracked and fell away, revealing the broken red bricks beneath.

Pressed tightly against the person, Lu Yuan could clearly hear the sound of ribs cracking inside their chest.

He had fought countless battles within his Consciousness Space—hundreds, in fact.

He was no longer the naive, clumsy novice he once was.

Those imaginary enemies who had once “killed” him or been “killed” by him—

Their experience and techniques had nurtured Lu Yuan’s rapid growth like vital nutrients.

These skills lay dormant within him, quietly flowing like blood.

And finally, at this moment—

They erupted!

“Crash—”

Lu Yuan propped his elbow against the person’s chest and quickly stood up.

He tilted his head slightly, using the faint moonlight to lock onto the person’s head.

His facial features were hard and sharp, not at all like those of a young boy, and his eyes glowed with a fierce, blazing light.

“Hiss—”

Lu Yuan took a deep breath, his chest rising rapidly.

His right hand clenched into a fist, bones cracking audibly.

“Whoosh—”

Lu Yuan’s punch was almost too fast to see.

In the moment of striking, it felt as though a switch flipped in his mind, unleashing a torrent of images.

Crane Breathing, crane flight, Crane Spreading, Crane Walking.

“Cry—”

In the misty clouds, a crane shadow appeared, followed by a loud crane cry.

Crane Cry Punch!

“Boom!”

Lu Yuan’s Crane Cry Punch, triggered by [A Moment of Inspiration], landed squarely on the person’s face.

With a resounding “thud,” the person’s head was driven into the wall as if struck by a sledgehammer.

The punch went clean through the more than one-foot-thick wall, allowing light from outside to seep in.

Expressionless, Lu Yuan shook his hand after the punch, not even sparing a glance at his opponent.

He swiftly leaped up the stairs, hesitating not for a moment, and vaulted out of the small window he had entered through.

The outer wall of the building was within reach. With a light leap, Lu Yuan could completely escape this “cultist hideout.”

Once outside, with the photos saved on his mobile phone, he could return tonight with Ge Wenjun and take this place down.

The cultists who arrived later were quite strong.

Lu Yuan had to exert all his strength just to take down one of them. The remaining enemies were unknown, and staying any longer would only plunge him into greater danger.

“I’ll have Cheng Yue investigate the Crow Deity Sect thoroughly. It seems like the recent Missing persons case in Jiaoyan City is their doing. The actual number of victims far exceeds the figures reported in the news.”

As Lu Yuan soared through the air, these thoughts flashed through his mind.

With 12 agility points and 13 strength points, the three-meter distance between the window and the wall was nothing for Lu Yuan.

He was almost over the high wall when he suddenly felt a tight grip on his right foot. It was as if a pair of iron clamps had locked onto his ankle, yanking him down from mid-air!

Lu Yuan’s body plummeted rapidly.

Before he could react, he felt his arms being swiftly restrained as well.

A powerful force from behind slammed him against the wall.

Instinctively, Lu Yuan tried to struggle.

To his horror, he realized•

Even with his 13 strength points, he couldn’t break free from the grip on his arms and the pressure on his back. It was as if he had been nailed to the wall.

At that moment, Lu Yuan heard voices behind him.

“You still want to escape!”

“Damn! No.13 was almost wrecked by him!”