Starforce Warriors

Chapter 138: Someone Is Jealous

Li Xiaofei dropped Zhong Ling off at the entrance of Qishen Academy. He watched her walk into the school before riding his bike back home.

By the time he returned to the slum, it was already 12:30 a.m. He pushed the door open and went inside. The light in the living room was still on. His aunt was sitting at the dining table, slowly grinding medicine. In the dim light, her profile looked as gentle as time itself.

"You're back?" said Little Aunt, turning toward the door.

"Why haven't you slept yet?" Li Xiaofei asked in surprise. "I sent a voice message saying I had a banquet today."

His aunt put down the pestle and said, "Get on the bed."

“Oh.”

Li Xiaofei took off his clothes and lay obediently on the bed. Dressed in loose cotton pants and a fitted short-sleeve top, Little Aunt straddled his back. She skillfully rubbed her hands together to warm them, breathed on them and began to massage.

"Your physical condition has improved a lot recently." She said while massaging. "Your starforce cultivation has increased, so the damage from your martial technique to your body is decreasing. However, the improvement in your physical strength is also starting to slow down."

Li Xiaofei pondered this.

It seems that obtaining a new cultivation technique is necessary. As my cultivation and strength improves, the Great Strength Vajra Fist can no longer provide me with an absolute advantage.

His aunt's hands moved like magic, her slender fingers pressing on various points all over Li Xiaofei's body.

"Turn over," she said.

Li Xiaofei lay obediently on his back as his aunt began another round of massage. She pressed all the major acupuncture points on his body once again. Li Xiaofei felt like his acupuncture points were being pricked by needles as her fingertips kneaded and pressed.

The sharp pain soon transformed into a warm current, spreading through the acupuncture points. It was as if she was clearing out long-blocked caves filled with sand. The entire massage process took a full hour. His aunt's breathing became rapid, with a slight hint of panting. She got off him and took the medicine jar she had placed to the side. It contained the herbal paste she had previously prepared. The dark green herbal paste emitted a faint herbal aroma.

His aunt pinched the herbal paste into small, uneven balls and pressed them onto the acupuncture points she had just massaged on Li Xiaofei. A burning pain instantly pierced his skin and flowed into the acupuncture points. The sensation was even more intense than the massage.

Then, she used a bandage to wrap Li Xiaofei together with the herbal balls, binding them tightly against him. President Li was almost mummified.

"Sleep," Little Aunt said. "When you wake up, you will have absorbed the medicine and the bandages can be removed."

Her words seemed to have a hypnotic power as Li Xiaofei felt his eyelids growing heavier. Unknowingly, he drifted into a deep sleep.

In the last moment of his fading consciousness, he felt someone lie down beside him. Someone had nestled close to him and fallen asleep.

***

"Ah..."

Li Xiaofei woke up suddenly. Sunlight streamed through the window. The soft golden light felt as warm as a lover's first kiss.

He got up from the bed and began to unwind the bandages. The herbs pressed against his acupuncture points had turned white, like cotton fluff, and fell off easily. He felt an unprecedented lightness throughout his body. A sense of strength he had never experienced before spread through him. It was as if he had been reborn.

Today was the weekend. There was no need to go to school. Li Xiaofei put on his clothes and went to the living room where he found a freshly prepared breakfast on the table. A note was left beside it.

Little Jie had already finished breakfast and gone to cultivate with his friends. Meanwhile, his aunt had gone to dry herbs. Li Xiaofei finished his breakfast, wiped and sterilized the dishes. Then he rode his modified motorcycle to the headquarters of the Cloudy Sky Gang. The street had started to bustle with activity. It was also clean and hygienic. It was like heaven and earth compared to a few months ago.

What satisfied Li Xiaofei the most was that the renovation of the slum was progressing very smoothly. Many of the buildings were hundreds of years old, so renovating them felt like stepping back five hundred years.

The scenery and atmosphere gave Li Xiaofei a deep sense of immersion. This might be the last trace of the world from five hundred years ago that he could grasp.

"Boss."

"Boss."

Along the way, people greeted the young gang leader. The base city was currently under lockdown due to the beast tide incident. Thus, the slum's hunting team could not go out and was fervently cultivating in the gang's training ground.

Li Xiaofei's arrival motivated every member of the hunting team to work even harder and strive to impress him. The young talents who had been selected as his disciples worked even more diligently upon seeing him. He walked around and made a few remarks, but that was enough for these young people to be instantly fired up with enthusiasm.

Soon, Li Xiaofei made his way to the conference room, where Yang Cheng, Li Junjie, Chu Yuntian, and other mid-to-senior members of the gang were present. President Li's prestige was sky-high in recent days, and everyone looked at the young leader who had rebuilt the slums with eager and admiring eyes.

The meeting's agenda was tight. First, they discussed the Ye family's aggressive land purchases in the slum. The Cloudy Sky Gang had used this situation to expel some malevolent elements from the slum. Now, all the remaining property owners followed President Li's will. No matter the price, they refused to sell even an inch of land. Thus, the Ye family's progress in acquiring land had been extremely slow.

"Boss, the Ye family's acquisition team hasn't come around these past two days," reported Yang Cheng, the chubby housekeeper of the gang, who had a ready ear to the ground for any information. "But there's word outside that they've established a real estate company called Paradise Island. They've reached a joint development agreement with the Dragon Claw Gang, Flying Cloud Sword Gang, Daxing Gang, and Iron Palm Ltd, the five registered gangs. I suspect they're targeting us."

The five gangs Yang Cheng mentioned were major powers within the base city. The Dragon Claw Gang and Flying Cloud Sword Hall were the strongest of the lot, since they ranked sixth and eighth among the registered gangs in the city. They each had a hundred-year history, substantial power, and masters at the Acupoint Opening Realm. Their influence permeated all aspects of the base city.

Moreover, from the virtual map projection of the light core, the territories controlled by these five gangs formed an encirclement around the entire slum.

"It seems the Ye family, having failed with soft tactics, is now resorting to hard ones," said Chu Yuntian.

The other hall masters and incense masters present showed expressions of indignation. The Ye family was pushing them too far.

The slum had barely emerged from its previous hellish conditions to see some light. People now had enough to eat and were engaging in legitimate businesses to support their families. They had only started their good days when others started eyeing their success with jealousy.