Martial Arts Livestreaming
Chapter 164 - 150 The Ancient Dragon’s Chant of the Vast Sea

Chapter 164: Chapter 150 The Ancient Dragon’s Chant of the Vast Sea

The chilly moonlight splashed down, and shadows flickered in the small courtyard.

Lao Liu and the man with glasses easily climbed over the low wall and entered Li Changsheng’s yard.

Carrying a rope, Lao Liu led the way toward the house; but as he approached the doorway, a sudden crackling noise erupted underfoot.

Startled, he shone his flashlight toward the ground and saw that he had stepped on a pile of glass shards.

These shards had been deliberately painted black, so they would not reflect light.

From his feet to the front of the house’s entrance, the ground was littered with such glass shards.

"Damn!" cursed Lao Liu in a low voice.

"What’s wrong?" The man with glasses was startled too and quickly asked.

Lao Liu pointed his flashlight at the ground, "Look."

The man with glasses swept his flashlight around and frowned, "A burglary deterrent?"

"Burglars in such a remote place? And what could an old man have that’s worth stealing?" Lao Liu cursed.

The man with glasses looked toward the front door and suddenly felt uneasy, "Be careful."

"Just a doddering old man."

Lao Liu felt disdain in his heart, but still he put away the rope. With a flashlight in one hand and a gun in the other, he walked forward.

Crunch, crunch.

With every step he took, the sound of glass shattering underfoot echoed.

Inside the house, Li Changsheng, lying on the bed, opened his eyes.

As he aged, his sleep had become light, and his former military career, combined with his narcotics enforcement career, had honed his heightened alertness. So, when the first sound of shattering glass reached him, he awoke.

Without any hesitation, Li Changsheng rolled out of bed in a swift motion, silent throughout the process.

He then heard voices outside; it was clear the visitors were up to no good, but there was no fear or worry in his eyes.

Without turning on the lights, Li Changsheng deftly reached for the wall beside him and took down the object hanging there.

It was a gun, the Baji Spear!

Since deciding to guard the graves of his fallen comrades, Li Changsheng had been prepared for the possibility of retribution from drug traffickers.

He chose to live here alone, for fear of endangering others in the retirement home.

Thus, the shards of processed glass scattered outside his house, a routine he performed each night before entering to sleep.

Thus, the presence of a Baji Spear inside his house, with which he practiced alone every day.

Seven years like one day, without a day of slack.

Li Changsheng held the spear in his hands, one foot forward, one foot back, his waist slightly bent, the spear held high, aimed forward.

Crunch, crunch.

Someone reached the door outside his room.

Bang! The door was kicked open!

The light from Lao Liu’s flashlight shone into the room, and then he saw a reflective glint, the dull point of the metal spearhead.

Li Changsheng was not directly facing the door, so his eyes were not blinded by the strong beam of Lao Liu’s flashlight.

Squinting, his body hunched, although the bright light hindered his vision at first, he could make out the rough silhouette of the intruder.

Li Changsheng did not hesitate; beneath his withered skin were sinews as tough as ox tendons, which now snapped like bowstrings. His explosive power surged through his spear with a shudder, thrusting out like lightning!

Zha! The spear tore through the darkness of the room, carrying a faint silver gleam as it precisely aimed for Lao Liu’s neck.

Even though he couldn’t see clearly, Li Changsheng relied on years of battle-honed experience and awareness to gauge the approximate location of his attacker’s neck.

Through the light, Lao Liu was astonished to see an old man holding a spear inside the house; he had expected to find an elderly face stricken with panic, hopelessly watching his approach, never anticipating the man would be waiting with a spear in hand.

The other’s gaze was not that of a weak, decrepit old man but that of a warrior, prepared for combat!

The spear thrust forward, and Lao Liu attempted to raise his gun, but it was too slow.

Thrust! The spear pierced through Lao Liu’s throat.

Swish! Li Changsheng smoothly retracted the spear.

The dark red blood spurted out, filling the area with a thick, pungent scent of iron; Lao Liu clutched his neck in disbelief before collapsing thunderously to the ground.

Li Changsheng calmly glanced at Lao Liu lying on the floor and noticed the gun in his hand, but he remained undisturbed, his eyes as cold and sharp as a blade.

The sudden collapse of Lao Liu gave the man with glasses a fright, and he swiftly ducked aside, raising his gun towards the doorway.

"Lao Liu?" called out the man with glasses.

Lao Liu’s body twitched on the ground, and as the man with glasses shone his flashlight over, he saw a large pool of blood. Lao Liu was desperately clutching his neck, his face contorted in pain, flopping on the ground like a dying fish before becoming motionless.

Lao Liu was dead!

The man with glasses felt a chill run down his side. Wasn’t it said there was just a man in his seventies inside the house? How could Lao Liu be dead?

Could there be an ambush inside? Had their movements been detected?

The man with glasses broke into a cold sweat but quickly calmed down.

It couldn’t be an ambush. If the police had known about their whereabouts in advance, they would have been surrounded by now, not like this, with Lao Liu dead and no further movement inside, the courtyard deathly still.

If there was no pre-set ambush, could it be the work of the old man in the house?

The man with glasses found it hard to believe. He thought for a moment, took out his cell phone, and while keeping a wary eye on the house, he dialed Sige’s number.

The call connected quickly.

"Is it done?" Sige’s voice came through.

"Fourth Brother," the man in glasses looked down at the already breathless Number Six lying on the ground, "Number Six is dead."

"What did you say?!"

"I..."

The man in glasses was about to speak when suddenly a muffled noise came through the phone, followed by a succession of gunshots.

Trouble at Fourth Brother’s end, too?!

The man in glasses was shocked, then heard Fourth Brother yelling from the other end.

"Take the old man somewhere else!"

After that, the call ended.

The man in glasses’ expression fluctuated, feeling a strong unease as mishaps kept occurring tonight, making him consider retreating.

But he couldn’t gauge the situation on Fourth Brother’s end—if things ultimately ended up fine and he hadn’t followed Fourth Brother’s wishes, he knew very well the consequences.

He was a wanted criminal, following Fourth Brother in hopes of leaving the country with him, having no money and no contacts abroad, reliant only on Fourth Brother.

The deterrent force of Fourth Brother, coupled with the pressure to survive, made the man in glasses decide to take his chances.

"Even if something really happened at Fourth Brother’s end, having an extra hostage in hand could increase my chances of survival."

With that thought, the man in glasses gritted his teeth and steadily approached the room ahead.

The absence of gunshots suggested the opponent did not have a gun, probably using some sort of bladed weapon. As the other party was a former police officer who would have used a gun if available.

With this assessment, the man in glasses didn’t rush in but shone his flashlight through the kicked-open door, angling it slowly, sweeping the bright light through the room and taking in the situation inside.

He saw a bloodstained spear, its shadow elongated by the light on the floor.

A ridiculous notion struck the man in glasses: "He killed Number Six with this?"

He felt a chill in his heart; from his angle, he couldn’t yet see the person holding the spear, so he kept moving to the left while the light swept to the right.

The spear moved back as well, indicating its wielder was retreating.

The man in glasses abruptly stepped to the left, his flashlight sweeping over as he aimed his gun, but the opponent was quick to withdraw, never revealing themselves.

Not content, the man in glasses adjusted the angle back and forth, but the other’s position remained a blind spot. No matter how he shone the light from outside, he couldn’t see the person, just the spear.

"Damn it!" cursed the man in glasses under his breath.

"The old man is quite a handful!"

He took a few steps forward, stepping on shattered glass, stepping over Number Six’s corpse, stood just outside the door to the left, and shone his flashlight inside. He nearly pinned down the opponent’s position by the spear and knew he would see them with just one step inside the door!

The man in glasses fired in that direction.

Bang!

"Old man, drop your weapon and come out!" he shouted into the room.

Silence. No tremble on the spear in the opponent’s hands.

"I don’t want to kill you; come out, and you can live. If I come in, bullets won’t see!"

...

Still no response.

The man in glasses was increasingly angered, with the opponent likely cornered, judging by the length of the spear, they would have to move forward a few steps to thrust at him.

He held a modern weapon, while the opponent wielded a broken wooden spear and was over seventy years old—if he didn’t dare to confront this, he should just quit the underworld!

Determined, the man in glasses had become a wanted criminal willing to follow Fourth Brother on this venture, and he was not someone to mess with. He refused to believe the opponent’s spear could be faster than his gun.

Whoosh! The flashlight suddenly flickered; the man in glasses threw it towards the corner.

Then he bent low and rushed in, two steps and he was crouching, gun pointed at the corner!

Inside, when the flashlight was thrown, Li Changsheng’s eyes were momentarily blinded by the sudden light, forcing him to close them.

Despite this, his mind was calm. He held his breath and listened for the sounds up ahead as he closed his eyes.

The frantic footsteps, someone was coming in!

Beng! Beng!

Li Changsheng’s leg tendons snapped like bowstrings as he took a strong step to the right, moving his body aside.

Bang! Bang!

The man in glasses shot twice towards the corner and missed; the flashlight had only just hit the floor.

The oscillating light created flickering shadows, and moonlight streamed in through the door, casting a large silhouette.

The man in glasses’ pupils dilated as he saw Li Changsheng standing nearby; he immediately swung his arm around, gun pointing that way.

Li Changsheng, now with eyes open, used the moonlight from the door to identify the man in glasses’ location, let out a deep shout, his muscles and bones crackling as he stepped forward.

Despite his age, the spear still moved like a dragon!

Twelve years in the military, thirty-five years on the police force, martial arts since childhood.

During the day, Wu Li inquired in the interview, weren’t you worried being here alone?

Li Changsheng had said back then, what is there to be afraid of at my age?

But there was something he didn’t say at the time:

"This old man, seventy-four this year, can still slay enemies!"

The world to him was like a sea of bitterness, and at this moment, wielding the spear, he slashed through the air, breaking the tide, with the spear singing its song.

The echoing chant of an old dragon in the vast sea.