The sudden home invasion assault, seeing Ye Yuanpei lying on the ground being brutally kicked by a group of people, left Wang Longhu and Lin Haitao stunned.
"It's that guy who came looking for someone to beat us up before, how did he find us here?" Lin Haitao recognized the man with the butterfly knife and exclaimed in shock.
Wang Longhu frowned, understanding why Ye Yuanpei and Lin Haitao, who were involved in shady ways to make money, would get beaten when someone came to collect debts.
Making money involves risks, and if you're involved in lending, you should be mentally prepared to not get your money back and take a beating for it.
But having already beaten someone and then chasing them a long distance to their home is a bit too much.
Wang Longhu stood up; he had known Ye Yuanpei since childhood.
Just upon returning to his hometown, Ye Yuanpei warmly and generously invited him to meals and drinks without any reservation.
Watching Ye Yuanpei getting beaten while standing by, Wang Longhu couldn't do it.
The leader was a young man with a crew cut and a noticeable scar from the corner of his eye to his nose, looking extremely fierce, clearly not a good person.
He pressed the butterfly knife against Ye Yuanpei's arm and said menacingly from above.
"Bring out the video of you borrowing money earlier, my mom's ID and property deed, and the IOU with fingerprints and signature, give me these things and we'll call it even, otherwise you won't have a good ending tonight."
"Stop!" Wang Longhu walked forward with clenched fists and shouted harshly.
Instantly, he drew the attention of the group of intruders, who sneered disdainfully as they saw Wang Longhu's appearance.
"Don't meddle, or we'll beat you up too."
"Pretending to be tough, do you have any say here?"
Faced with this group of skinny, 18-19-year-olds in loafers, Wang Longhu took a deep breath, bent his knees, and directly assumed the Beng Fist stance.
After practicing for a few days, Wang Longhu had managed to integrate the three-form stance and Beng Fist, with each punch igniting a heat within. According to the monk, he had achieved a small success in Ming Jin.
However, whether small or large success, practicing alone without real combat only leads to a dead end, empty talk with a full force but no fighting experience.
This group's actions tonight could absolutely be considered home invasion robbery, a justified cause, so Wang Longhu intended to act, eager to test the results of his hard training on them.
"Hu, don't be reckless." Lin Haitao hurriedly stepped forward to pull Wang Longhu back, still shaken from a beating earlier in the day.
Having been in the business, Lin Haitao had encountered tough cases before, understanding well the principle of not confronting the opposition head-on when outnumbered.
"Don't worry, they broke into our home and assaulted us; the law is on our side. You don't need to worry about them getting in trouble," Wang Longhu reassured without turning back.
Lin Haitao widened his eyes in disbelief, "What nonsense are you talking? I'm worried about you getting in trouble."
However, before he could finish, Wang Longhu had taken a few steps forward and punched the nearest young man.
The punch was a sudden and fierce strike, Beng Fist's hidden power, short-range and rapid release, arms not fully extended. Wang Longhu had grasped the essence of generating power from the root.
Caught off guard, the man took a punch square to the chest, uncontrollably staggering back two steps and falling down hard on his back.
Holding the place where Wang Longhu hit him, he howled in pain, clearly seriously injured.
A human punch comprises muscle force and impact force; typically, muscle force in an ordinary person's punch doesn't exceed 100 pounds.
Impact force is the maximum force hit upon a target, with an average adult punch ranging between 100 and 300 pounds.
Wang Longhu once found an unverified formula online stating that an untrained person's punch force is about 1.2 times their body weight, while professionally trained athletes can exceed twice that.
Like the boxing champion Tyson, he allegedly once punched with 800 pounds of force, equating to 720 Jin.
If an ordinary person received such a punch, Tyson might have to kneel down pleading for their survival.
Although Wang Longhu's current punch force wasn't on par with Tyson's, his strength of 1.13 wasn't something these skinny thugs could withstand.
The Beng Fist requires speed akin to an arrow piercing through when executed, generating power akin to a collapsing mountain, with Wang Longhu achieving minor success in Ming Jin, a punch capable enough to break bones.
Seeing their comrade attacked, the remaining ones froze for a second or two before rushing toward Wang Longhu.
Except for the crew-cutted one, the rest were unarmed, fueling Wang Longhu's desire to spar, believing that, in the worst case, he'd simply take a beating since they likely wouldn't dare to commit murder.
As one lifted a leg to kick, Wang Longhu unhurriedly punched back in a seamless flow.
The Beng Fist clashed directly with the foot, with Wang Longhu merely swaying slightly while the other lost balance completely, crashing onto the ground unable to move due to pain.
But since they outnumbered him, before Wang Longhu could defend himself, another punch landed viciously on his face.
Angered by the pain, Wang Longhu instinctively swung back with a palm strike, producing a crisp sound in the air.
The blow immediately broke the man's nasal bone, a torrent of blood erupted, losing seven or eight teeth, spat onto the floor mixed with bloody froth.
"Ah!" The man knelt on the ground clutching his face, his loud screech frightening the two cats in the living room into darting to the bedroom.
In just a short while, Wang Longhu efficiently took down three individuals, leaving the remaining three in shock.
It was too easy; Wang Longhu injured three people effortlessly, igniting retreat intentions in their hearts.
Seeing their comrades injured, they realized even if they stepped up, it would be hard to gain any advantage from Wang Longhu.
"If you're scared of fighting, then leave, and take your men with you." Wang Longhu said nonchalantly.
Though only executing a few moves, he had already tested the results he desired, proving that even with just learning the Beng Fist from Master Chen, his current prowess was more than enough to handle these skinny thugs lightly.
Both strength and martial arts could be described as oppressive here.
This power disparity rendered further fighting meaningless for gaining real combat experience, prompting him to promptly choose to escort these people away.
"You've got guts, we're leaving." Though the crew-cut guy felt timid, he couldn't help but verbally retaliate.
Pointing arrogantly at Wang Longhu while spouting harsh words, he prepared to exit.
If the guy had obediently left, Wang Longhu might have let things slide, but who would've thought he'd dare provoke before leaving, leading Wang Longhu to seize the opportunity to kick his waist from behind.
The man stumbled, ironically flopping face-first out of the door, dropping the butterfly knife inside the room.
"Get out." Wang Longhu barked unceremoniously.
The spirited lads sprawled on the ground ignored their pain, scrambling out in a hasty four-limb crawl, fearing being punched by Wang Longhu every second they delayed.
"Next time you dare cause trouble here, I'll break one leg of each of you." Wang Longhu walked to the door, issuing a warning to those outside before closing the door, turning to pull up the still-laying Ye Yuanpei.
"Hu, is that really you? When did you become such a fighter?" The battered and bruised Ye Yuanpei, momentarily disregarding his injuries, gazed at Wang Longhu with great surprise.
Having grown up together, he never saw Wang Longhu learn martial arts, always being the one beaten in fights as kids.
Could it be he had some stroke of luck in Hang City?
Urban war king?
Or possibly the Dragon King returning home?
As a reader of online novels for over a decade, Ye Yuanpei, considering Wang Longhu's absence over the years, suddenly delved into a conspiracy theory. He believed it was a ruse.
Wang Longhu definitely wasn't merely staying in Hang City; perhaps a force in ancient martial arts spotted him, taking him to remote mountains or snowy deserts to train.
Only then could he possess such formidable one-against-many strength tonight.