Stopped

Chang Guan neither regret nor feared punching the obese 16-year-old. The way he saw it, the worst that could happen to him is... Well, nothing.

After all, in the entire Purple Forest region, there should be nobody capable of defeating Chang Guan. Even if for some reason the Emperor decided to send an army out to fight Chang Guan, he would still be able to take care of it with no issues at all.

At this point, Chang Guan had nothing keeping him the town. He had already prepared for his journey, had his sleep, and even eaten breakfast. Now, he might as well leave to go on his travel across the border of the Purple Forest region, to the Black Desert region.

"HALT!!"

As Chang Guan was about to walk out of the town, he heard a loud shout coming from behind him. He turned around and saw 4 men clad in heavy armor sprinting towards him. Chang Guan's eyes flashed as he immediately sensed hostile intent radiating off of the 4 men.

He glanced towards their breasts, noticing an emblem. Each of the emblems were identical and had a white tree surrounded by darkness inscribed on it. This sight made him think in his heart, `Some sort of guards? Probably for someone important. But for who? I can't remember anyone I've pissed off recently... The boy?´

Suddenly, something in Chang Guan's head clicked. Out of all the people, he had offended, only the fat boy was possibly rich enough to have this sort of thing happen. This thought made Chang Guan sigh in resignation and say,

"*Sigh*, Oh well, I do need some exercise. Otherwise, who knows when I may get rusty."

He unsheathed the sword hanging from his waist and casually swung towards the guards. This clearly shocked the guards as they brought out their own swords and swang them at Chang Guan. It didn't end up well.

Chang Guan's sword moved like lightning, easily reaching its target before the opponents' strike. The strike hit each of the 4 guards and knocked them back several feet. Chang Guan brought his sword back to his body and entered a basic sword stance, declaring calmly,

"You are all lackeys. I won't make things to difficult for you, just turn around and I won't hurt you. If you do not heed my warning, well, I'll let your imagination decide what I'll do to you."

Hearing this, all of the guards' face paled, becoming as white as a sheet of paper. Despite all of the guards being scared, one of the guards spoke out words of encouragement,

"Guys! Let's get him. If we can't then, what are our families going to live off of?!"

This guard was very tall and judging by the way the others listened to him, it was clear that he was in charge of the other 3. Directly after saying this, he charged forwards, brandishing his sword at Chang Guan.

Hearing these words, the remaining 3 guards felt their morale increasing, and they too charged towards Chang Guan.

Chang Guan thought to himself, `Damn! I was close to breaking their morale. Well, I'll just have to step it up a notch then won't I?´ And swung his sword once more.

This time, his target was the guard's sword. As he swung, he started circulating his Qi into the sword. The sword moved once more like lightning, producing the sound of thunder, as it rammed into the guard's sword.

*Crack!*

The moment the 2 swords collided, the guard's sword was sliced in half. With a regular swing, Chang Guan would only have the power of a powerful adult. But if his sword was infused with Qi, then it could easily slice metal in half.

In fact, even with this swing, Chang Guan had held back a lot of his power, otherwise, he may have caused the air to become a wave, continuing his slice onwards and cutting through everything in a 10 meters radius.

As ordinary mortal warriors, seeing something like a sword being slashed in half was extremely scary, and the guard's morale instantly plummeted to the ground. The 4 guards stopped in their tracks and began staring at Chang Guan with wide eyes and an opened mouth. They kind of looked like fish, which of course, made Chang Guan chuckle when he noticed it.

Chang Guan took another look at the 4 of them and spoke once more,

"Because I am a kind and generous person, I'll give you, let's see, how about, 10 seconds to leave before I start cutting you to shreds."

As he said this, a gentle smile covered his face. Although there was truly nothing sinister about this face, to the 4 guards, it seemed as though the devil himself had come to the mortal plane to end their lives.

Suddenly, one of the guards dropped his sword and began sprinting away. Judging by the way he ran, it seemed as though a second more in Chang Guan's presence and he would pass away. With the first having fled, the others quickly followed, scrambling to get away from Chang Guan.

With that minor inconvenience gone, Chang Guan turned around and attempted to, once again, leave the town. Fortunately, there were no further distractions and Chang Guan could leave with no issues.

===

Inside of a fancy looking house in the very same town that Chang Guan had just left, 3 middle-aged men were sitting around a table. One wore extremely posh clothing, with plenty of golden accessories. This man also had a fat boy standing behind him. This fat boy was indeed the same one that had been punched by Chang Guan earlier that day.

The second wore military clothing and had a badge signifying his rank as a general on his left breast. This man had a girl standing behind him. Once again, this girl was someone that Chang Guan would have been familiar with if he had seen her. It was the girl accompanying the fat child in the restaurant.

The final man looked a bit older than the other 2. He wore normal clothing, but gave off a powerful aura, indicating his status as a martial artist.

*Bang*

The rich man slammed the table and yelled,

"Today my son was hit by someone!"

The person who replied was the general. He said,

"We know. Isn't that why we sent some soldiers to take care of him"

"Yeah, but this bastard is getting off too easily if we just kill him like that!"

"Then what do you suppose we do? It's not like we can torture him to death. Besides, your son looks fine, so why even make a big deal out of it?"

During this conversation between the rich man and the general, the martial artist merely sat with his eyes closed, listening to what was being said.

*Knock! Knock!*

In the middle of the conversation, somebody knocked on the door, stopping the conversation and causing the rich man to yell,

"Come in!"

The door opened and a steward entered the room. Behind him stood one of the 4 guards who was still in shock from Chang Guan's stunt. The steward said shamefully,

"The person got away! I couldn't understand what the soldier was saying, so I brought him in."

As if hearing his cue, the soldier stumbled forwards and began stuttering,

"Mo, Monster! Swo, Sword w, w, wa, was cu, cut in hal, half!!"

After saying this, the soldier fainted and fell over where he stood. This action caused the rich man and the general to stand up form their seats with a serious expression plastered on their face. Whilst this was happening, the martial artist merely opened his eyes, revealing an intrigued gaze.

"You may leave! Bring him with you!"

It was the general who spoke. Upon hearing the command the steward let out a breath of relief, and grabbed the unconscious soldier, helping him leave the room. The general, who was still standing, began slowly sitting down, saying,

"Did you understand that?", he quickly followed up by saying, "It sounded to me as though he said that a sword was cut in half by a monster."

Then, he turned over to look at the martial artist. Sensing this action, the rich man followed and waited for the martial artist to speak. The martial artist glanced upwards, seeming to recall something.

Half a minute later, he finally spoke,

"It's not impossible. In fact, it's not very difficult at all. Even I can do it, and I myself stand at the bottom of martial artists. What do you know about the person that hit your son?"

Hearing this, the rich man's face darkened, and he said,

"Why? Does this mean we can't get revenge?"

"Not necessarily, it depends on his strength."

"Well, from what I've understood, he looked about 25 years old, but he had no aura like you. If he did, my son wouldn't dare to get close to him."

"I see, this can only mean one of 3 things, 1. He is extremely powerful, to the point that he can hide his aura, 2. He has mastered a technique that can hide his aura, and 3. He is very weak. Someone who has just started martial arts.

We have to pray that he is one of the latter 2 options if we are going to defeat him. Honestly, at this point, getting revenge isn't worth it. I will not continue helping you."

Having said what he wanted, the martial artist stood up from his seat and began walking out of the room.