"What?! Who would be suicidal enough to do that?"
As a premium, mid-to-high-end residential community, the iPartment complex boasted extensive amenities. In addition to the internal shopping street, it featured a massive commercial gym and even a sanctioned sparring ring. The moment word spread through the complex's WeChat groups that some pale, reclusive landlord had actually challenged Hu Yifei—the undisputed, terrifying apex predator of the community—everyone immediately dropped what they were doing and sprinted toward the downstairs bar.
"Let me tell you something, the one thing I absolutely cannot stomach in this life is being openly challenged," Yifei sneered. She cracked her knuckles, the sharp, popping sounds echoing in the tense air. She turned her head slightly. "Zeng Xiaoxian, did you pre-dial an ambulance for him?"
Initially, Yifei hadn't truly wanted to engage in a street brawl with her landlord over a few words. But since the arrogant bastard had dared to imply she was a coward, she wouldn't be Hu Yifei if she swallowed the insult.
"Landlord, I am begging you, you really need to think this through!" Zeng panicked, waving his hands frantically. "Yifei is way too high-level! You do not want to spend the rest of your life eating out of a tube in a wheelchair, do you?!"
"Get the hell out of my way!"
Seeing the pathetic radio host still standing between them, nagging like a terrified mother, Yifei's temper flared. She simply reached out and shoved him aside.
The casual thrust of her hand sent the heavy, grown man flying. Zeng Xiaoxian performed two and a half cartoonish, physics-defying spins in the air before crashing heavily into a leather sofa with a loud, pathetic thud.
"Impressive raw power," Adrian stated calmly, offering a slow, cynical clap in sincere admiration.
"It is not too late for you to drop to your knees and beg for mercy," Yifei warned, her tone dropping to a lethal, freezing register as she cracked her long, slender fingers one by one.
Admittedly, she possessed a volcanic temper, but she wasn't a mindless thug who only knew violence. Before she put someone in the hospital, she always ensured she had a legally defensible reason. The cost of assault was too high in modern Shanghai. If she maimed a billionaire without provocation, his lawyers would bleed her dry. But a mutual, agreed-upon martial arts challenge? That was a beautiful legal loophole.
"I have heard legends of Miss Hu's peerless martial arts. Please, enlighten me," Adrian smiled, stepping back to adopt a loose, flawless combat stance. He gestured for her to make the first move.
As the old martial arts proverb states: A master's true skill is evident from their very first breath. Yifei had initially pegged this guy as a soft, sickly shut-in who watched too many kung fu movies. But the moment his feet shifted and his center of gravity dropped, she instantly felt a terrifying, invisible pressure lock onto her. He wasn't posturing. He was a master.
"Take this!"
Yifei dropped into a fierce horse stance, her right palm snapping forward in a blinding arc aimed directly at Adrian's waist and abdomen.
"Aiming below the belt so soon, Miss Hu? Are you trying to permanently sever my bloodline?" Adrian smoothly twisted his hips, dodging the heavy palm strike by a millimeter before chopping down viciously on Yifei's exposed wrist.
"Stop talking trash, you already dodged it!" Yifei retorted sharply, pulling her arm back.
In truth, she had intended to strike the center of his chest, but because Adrian was significantly taller than her usual punching bag, Zeng Xiaoxian, her trajectory had been misjudged. She had nearly ruptured his kidney instead.
'With the sheer, unnatural kinetic force of her palm, a direct strike to the kidney could absolutely cripple a normal man's sex life,' Adrian analyzed coldly as he parried her next blow. 'Is that why Zeng Xiaoxian acts like an emasculated eunuch? Did she permanently destroy his internal organs years ago?'
"Oh my god! Oh my god! What am I looking at?!"
Chen Meijia, Tang Youyou, Guan Gu Shenqi, and the rest of the iPartment crew rushed into the bar, gasping in utter, wide-eyed disbelief as they watched the pale landlord actually going toe-to-toe with the demon king of their complex.
"Who...? Who attacked me? Where am I?" Zeng Xiaoxian finally groaned, peeling his dizzy, battered face off the leather sofa cushions.
"Ha!"
Yifei exhaled sharply, unleashing a flurry of devastating kicks and palm strikes. Adrian countered, redirected, and evaded. The two fought at a blinding pace for nearly three minutes, neither able to gain a decisive, overwhelming advantage.
Admittedly, Yifei's martial arts was terrifyingly strong. Adrian knew with cynical certainty that if the original Masao Busujima were here, relying strictly on unarmed tournament rules, he might actually lose to this woman. Let alone Adrian, who currently only possessed the Sword Saint's mental experience strapped into a flabby, untrained vessel!
However, in a true fight, physical strength and technique were not the only deciding factors.
In the apocalyptic ruins of his previous world, Adrian had personally slaughtered men and monsters alike to forge his bloody empire. His kill count numbered in the thousands. The suffocating, murderous aura he projected was exponentially darker and more lethal than the honorable Masao's had ever been.
Even the most skilled modern karate champion wouldn't dare to actually murder an opponent. While Yifei could pop off a bottle cap with a single finger or bend steel pipes with her bare hands, she had never fought a true predator fighting with absolute, unrestricted lethal intent. If she had ever used her full, unrestrained power on Zeng Xiaoxian, the idiot's skull would have been caved in years ago.
"Flash!"
Seeing that she hadn't been able to effortlessly crush the arrogant landlord after several dozen exchanges, Yifei became genuinely annoyed. She gritted her teeth and immediately activated her ultimate, signature grappling technique.
The ordinary onlookers couldn't even process her movements, but Adrian's superhuman, transplanted reflexes saw it perfectly.
Yifei's right hand shot forward, her five fingers twisting and contorting at an angle that utterly defied the fundamental laws of human skeletal structure. Her fingers coiled like venomous spider silk, hyper-extending in a way no normal human joints could possibly achieve.
'What the hell is this sitcom-reality bullshit? Is this bitch a mutant?' Adrian's brain reacted instantly, calculating the trajectory. There was absolutely no way his current, sluggish vessel could physically dodge the unnatural grapple.
If he couldn't dodge, he had to trade. Mutual destruction.
The crowd only saw a violent blur of motion. The next second, a sickening crack echoed through the bar.
Adrian stumbled backward, his face entirely devoid of color as he clutched his right wrist, dropping into a low crouch.
Simultaneously, Yifei let out a sharp, breathless shriek, staggering backward and crossing both of her arms tightly over her chest in shock.
Who won? Who lost?
The speed of the final exchange was so blindingly fast that it had completely dazzled the onlookers. It ended so abruptly that no one in the peanut gallery could comprehend what had just transpired. Judging from their postures, it seemed both fighters had suffered heavy, paralyzing damage.
"I am so sorry. My apologies, I simply couldn't stop my momentum," Adrian gritted his teeth, cold sweat beading on his forehead as he tightly gripped his violently dislocated wrist.
It was absolute, blinding agony.
'That violent bitch,' Adrian hissed internally, his eyes burning with dark, predatory rage. 'She dislocated my joint in a single, unnatural move. I will make her pay for this in blood. I will break her on her back.'
"No! No! It is nothing! We are both martial artists, there is absolutely no need to be so formal!" Yifei gasped, waving her left hand dismissively while her right arm remained clamped defensively over her heaving chest.
Just seconds prior, seeing that he couldn't evade her lethal grapple, Adrian had abandoned his defense. Just as Yifei's unnatural fingers had clamped down to snap his wrist, Adrian's left hand had shot out like a viper, bypassing her guard entirely to violently and ruthlessly grope her right breast.
He hadn't just brushed it; he had grabbed a massive, humiliating handful of her tit, squeezing hard enough to leave deep bruises. Even a terrifying powerhouse like Hu Yifei was biologically wired to panic when her most intimate anatomy was suddenly violated in the middle of a strike. The shock had forced her to immediately release his arm and retreat.
"Yifei! Are you hurt?! Where are you hurt?!"
Zeng Xiaoxian stumbled over to her side, his face etched with frantic, pathetic concern as he tried to inspect her.
"Get lost!" Yifei roared, instantly delivering a thunderous, backhanded slap that sent the radio host spinning to the floor once again.
'Damn it!' Yifei screamed furiously in the confines of her own mind, her face flushed brilliant red with a mix of adrenaline and profound humiliation. 'That pale bastard grabbed my tit! How the hell am I supposed to say something like that out loud in front of everyone?!'
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