Ascending to the Clouds Alone

Someone sneaked into the clinic at this time; they were definitely not good people.

Lin Su suppressed his breathing, got up and pressed himself against the window, looking outside.

Three dark figures were seen heading straight for the herb garden, the leader holding a curved knife.

Lin Su thought to himself:

If it were just a regular theft, why carry a knife? Is it some kind of robbery?!

Inside the clinic were only the old doctor and Qingqing, the grandmother and granddaughter. The old doctor did not appear to have any cultivation, and Qingqing was young. If they were to encounter this group of desperate criminals, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Lin Su was nervous and, disregarding his unhealed wounds, quietly pushed open the door and followed them out.

Unbeknownst to him, two figures were standing in the shadows under the eaves of the main building of the clinic.

That was the owner of the clinic, He Qingqing.

Qingqing clenched her little fists, eager to try:

"Grandfather, watch me teach these petty thieves a lesson! I guarantee I'll chase them away in no time!"

The old man stood with his hands behind his back, the moonlight shining on his thin face, his expression still serene.

He raised his hand and pressed it on Qingqing's shoulder, his voice calm:

"Keep quiet and let's see what this young man is capable of."

Qingqing blinked, puzzled but still didn't move, only staring intently at the courtyard.

Lin Su crept closer to the herb garden, quickly calculating in his mind:

Although these three are ordinary martial artists, their strength is unknown. I am injured, and I may not be their match in a head-on confrontation.

It would be better to make a commotion and let them know that their whereabouts have been discovered; they would most likely back down.

So he deliberately stepped on a dead branch and broke it off.

"Snap!"

Then, he coughed a few more times.

That should be enough; just wait for them to leave on their own.

"Who?!"

The three thieves looked around, and the leader had already drawn his curved knife.

After exchanging glances, the group did not retreat but instead followed the sound and approached.

Upon seeing that Lin Su was alone, the leader sneered:

"Just a little brat? You scared the hell out of me."

"Kill him!"

Ultimately, he underestimated them, and Lin Su had no choice but to focus on the battle.

Without further ado, the leader swung his sword and slashed straight at the enemy.

Lin Su immediately dodged to the side. The man's heartbeat and the vibrations from the blade struck his brain, but in his haste, he didn't notice.

The wound on his left rib was aggravated, and the pain made him freeze in place. At that moment, the second knife had already swept down to his waist!

He flipped backward, the wind from the blade whistling past his clothes.

The moment his feet touched the ground, he reached out with his right hand and grabbed the other person's wrist, then exerted force suddenly.

With a crisp "crack," the man's wrist nearly dislocated on the spot, and the curved knife fell to the ground.

The person had barely uttered a cry of pain when Lin Su struck him on the side of the neck with a palm strike, causing him to fall to the ground.

Judging from this, these thieves were just ordinary mortal martial artists, how could they compare to the female deacon's swordsmanship?

Seeing that the leader was no match for them, the remaining two quickly surrounded him.

The man on the left delivered a powerful punch, while the man on the right concealed a short dagger hidden in his sleeve!

It was too late to dodge.

In a flash, Lin Su lunged forward against the wind of the punch, narrowly avoiding the heavy blow, and delivered a powerful elbow strike to the opponent's ribs.

The man groaned in pain, staggered and lost control, and then collapsed.

This sudden, hard-fought fight aggravated his old injury, and the bandage on his left rib was now soaked with blood.

Before he could regain his footing, the last thief was already behind him, his short dagger aimed straight for his back.

Lin Su didn't turn around. He listened for a moment, then suddenly lowered his body, grabbed the other person's wrist, and twisted and pushed it as he turned around.

As the opponent's dagger slipped from his hand, he twisted his waist and sprang up, sweeping out with his left leg, knocking the opponent to the ground.

Lin Su felt a chill run down his spine:

Fortunately, I learned the art of wrist-locking and deflecting force from Aunt Zhou, otherwise I really don't know how I would have ended things tonight.

He stood among the crowd, his chest heaving, his breathing somewhat rapid, but his eyes were as cold as if they were filled with ice.

The three were utterly terrified, kneeling on the ground and kowtowing repeatedly, their voices trembling uncontrollably.

"Young hero, spare our lives... We truly have nowhere else to turn!"

"The town was ravaged by war year after year, and the houses and fields were all outside the town, so people dared not go home to farm."

He had no choice but to hide in the town with his wife and children. Now that they had run out of food, he was confused and thought of stealing a few medicinal herbs from the herb garden to exchange for some food to survive...

"We have never harmed anyone, we only ask for food, please forgive us this time, young hero, we will never dare to do it again."

One of them rolled up his trouser leg, revealing many old wounds on his leg, clearly indicating that he had been struggling on the brink of life and death for many years.

The three of them cried and complained, their breaths shallow and labored, clearly indicating extreme hunger, which did not seem fake.

No wonder they were able to take them down in just a few moves.

Lin Su looked at the three of them, thinking that he couldn't stay at the clinic forever.

Letting them go today will give us a chance to spread the word that "the clinic is guarded by someone who is ruthless."

This might deter petty thieves in the neighborhood and reduce the trouble for the grandfather and grandson.

Once the thought was made up, Lin Su remained expressionless, but the image of Han Xiangyu from the past flashed through his mind.

After a moment of silence, he deliberately lowered his voice and imitated Han Xiangyu's cold and hard tone:

"I can tolerate someone stealing other things out of hunger. But breaking into a clinic and stealing medicine, jeopardizing someone's chance to live, is absolutely unforgivable!"

The three of them lay on the ground, barely daring to breathe, listening intently to Lin Su's reprimand.

Lin Su's gaze sharpened, and his voice suddenly rose:

"If it weren't for the fact that this is your first offense, I would break your legs right now!"

Once you're out, tell anyone else that if they dare to covet this place again, they will be killed without mercy! Get out!

As soon as he finished speaking, the three men prostrated themselves on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly. They picked up their weapons and fled over the wall in a panic, never daring to look back.

Lin Su glanced down at the still-bleeding bandage, and was about to turn around when he suddenly stopped.

He discovered that the ability to "listen" seemed to be able to be actively activated.

Just now, when I was facing three people, those sounds and vibrations crashed into my brain, but I didn't even realize it at the time.

But why didn't the buzzing sound come?

Even if one's hearing is extraordinary, able to hear breathing, heartbeat, and the force of a punch.

What about the lingering tremors of the knife and dagger?

Lin Su recalled that this kind of "hearing" had always been passively generated before, and that he would always feel a dull pain in his ears, as if a string had been stretched to its limit, with the aftershocks lingering for a long time.

He was used to this price, and even accepted it silently. There is no such thing as ability without effort in this world; with gain, there must be loss.

In the battle just now, he heard things more clearly than ever before, yet his ears remained calm and showed no abnormality whatsoever.

Lin Su listened intently to what was happening outside the courtyard wall.

He caught every detail of the three thieves' footsteps, heavy breathing, and muttered curses.

He waited quietly for a moment, but there was still no buzzing, no stinging, and not even the slightest effect.

For a moment, Lin Su was stunned.

In the shadows of the eaves, Qingqing slowly loosened her clenched fist, lowered her voice, and said:

"Grandfather! He... he's that powerful? He single-handedly repelled those three martial artists!"

The old man gazed at Lin Su, who stood motionless in the courtyard, a slight ripple appearing in his eyes, his voice as soft as the night breeze:

"His dantian and dantian are sealed, yet he can use his body as a weapon and his spirit as a guide, which means he has already touched the threshold of the innate qi..."

Qingqing seemed to understand but not quite:

"Primordial Qi? What is that?"

The old man smiled slightly and patted her head.

"Let's go, don't disturb him."

Then, the figures of the grandfather and grandson disappeared into the night, as if they had never been there.

In the courtyard, Lin Su looked up at the night sky, and a thought suddenly arose in his mind.