Chapter 3: Interstellar Thief

Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Interstellar Thief

A dead silence fell over the surroundings.

Taking down three people was normal; anyone with a high enough martial arts cultivation could do it. But playing with a human head in the middle of a fight? What kind of sick fetish was that?

Just how deep was this grudge?

"Just who exactly are you?" a middle-aged man with a long beard asked coldly, glancing at Li Ye and the head trapped under his foot.

"The one who wants your lives." Li Ye looked at him with a wicked grin. "When I wanted to talk, you refused. Now, I don’t feel like talking anymore."

He knew nothing about this world. No matter what identity he used, he risked blowing his cover. It was better to maintain a tough stance and beat them into submission first. Once that was done, they would have no choice but to believe whatever he said. No matter the environment, villains always had an easier time surviving than good people.

Besides, every time he used the Team Emblem, the Demon Qi improved his physique. In this unfamiliar world, Li Ye needed power. Therefore, the crowd before him was basically free EXP.

Sure enough, his words enraged everyone before they even faded into the air.

A scar-faced old man flew into a rage. "We’ll see who takes whose life! Everyone, attack together! There’s no need to speak of Martial World morality when dealing with a Demon from the Demon Sect! If he doesn’t die, we will!"

SHUFFLE. More people surrounded him, but only three attacked Li Ye at the same time.

These Martial Arts World experts each had their own methodical way of attacking. If too many of them struck at once, they would only get in each other’s way. Thus, the majority of the crowd formed a layered blockade around the perimeter.

In an instant, Li Ye was engulfed in a whirlwind of flashing blades and sweeping swords, with every escape route completely sealed off.

Faced with this heavy siege, Li Ye simply smiled faintly. The moment the weapons were about to strike his body, he dribbled the head at his feet. With a feint to the left and a dodge to the right, he broke out of their three-pronged encirclement by a hair’s breadth.

Seeing Li Ye break through, two of his attackers coordinated a pincer movement to intercept him. However, as if he knew Shifting Form and Shadow, Li Ye darted right between them in a flash.

In the blink of an eye, the two men lost their balance, crashed into each other, and tumbled to the ground. Li Ye showed them no mercy. The moment they hit the ground, he ruthlessly brought his foot up and kicked them squarely in the face. Their faces immediately turned into a bloody mess as they were sent spinning backward through the air, landing over a meter away.

The scar-faced old man was the only one left standing, but his fate wasn’t any better.

After escaping the encirclement, Li Ye hooked his toe and stepped down, bringing the rolling head to an instant halt. He turned back to face the scar-faced old man and raised his leg, pretending to kick the dead man’s head. However, his foot deliberately missed its mark, brushing just above the head and flying straight toward the space between the old man’s legs. The strike was as swift as the wind and as fast as lightning.

SMASH!

His instep landed a direct hit on the man’s vitals. The scar-faced old man let out a miserable AARGH, leaping three feet into the air. He dropped his Lancet and crumpled to the ground, clutching his groin and rolling around in agony.

What was going on? The people on the perimeter were absolutely dumbfounded.

A Groin Kick was vicious, but it was also the easiest to defend against. Earlier, when Hu was hit by a backward kick, perhaps he had overextended his move and lacked the time to react. But what was the scar-faced old man’s excuse?

The Demon Sect’s Demon had not moved that fast. By simply bringing his legs together in time or dodging backward, the old man could have easily evaded such a vicious strike. So why had he stood there like an idiot and taken the kick head-on?

While they were frozen in shock, Li Ye did not stop.

There were at least a few dozen people still on the field. Naturally, he had to strike first to gain the upper hand. Did they really expect him to wait for them to snap out of it and surround him? Moreover, Li Ye was already immersed in the absolute thrill of his rapidly surging strength.

Looking at the densely packed crowd opposite him, Li Ye smiled faintly. With a flick of his toe, he brazenly dribbled his "ball" forward and broke through their lines.

Slide tackles, elbow strikes, sweeping waist kicks, upside-down bicycle Groin Kicks, sliding sweep double-kicks...

At that moment, Li Ye seemed possessed by soccer superstars like Pepe, Ramos, Costa, Roy Keane, and Barton all at once, charging unstoppably through the crowd. Wherever he passed, people were sent tumbling in every direction. They were either clutching their legs, holding their faces, or covering their crotches.

No one could withstand even a single exchange with him.

In just a short while, Li Ye broke out of the crowd and reached the entrance of the cave. Looking at the brightly lit exit, he suppressed the urge to shoot a goal. Slamming on the brakes, he spun around and charged back into the fray.

The Knights who had narrowly escaped his earlier rampage were terrified. A few had their courage completely shattered; they dashed past Li Ye and bolted toward the outside of the cave. But before they could reach the entrance, a voice exploded in their ears like a crack of thunder.

"Whoever leaves, dies."

Before the echo faded, Li Ye flipped backward and executed a flawless bicycle kick. The nameless head flew out with a loud WHOOSH, tracing a beautiful arc through the air before intimately greeting the back of the farthest fleeing Knight’s head.

SMASH!

The two heads collided. The Knight’s head split wide open, and he pitched forward, collapsing stiffly onto the ground.

This brutal display stunned everyone in their tracks.

Li Ye sprang to his feet with a smooth kip-up. "Who else wants to run?"

The Demon Qi continued to passively refine his body. He felt a literal explosion of power surging within him. His senses of sight and hearing were incredibly sharp; even without a ball, he could easily handle everything in front of him. Of course, if someone was truly unconvinced, there were plenty of fallen victims lying around. He could simply pluck off a fresh head on the spot.

Inside the cave, those who had been slide-tackled or kicked by Li Ye were groaning incessantly. The remaining survivors kept their mouths tightly shut, looking at him with eyes full of absolute terror. ℴ

"Just what kind of person are you?" Finally, a middle-aged man with a short beard stepped out from the crowd. He looked at Li Ye and asked, "We have no past grudges and no recent enmities. Why are you being so ruthless toward us?"

"What do you mean ’so ruthless’? The second I showed up, you lot were screaming for my blood. Now that I’ve beaten the fear of God into you, you suddenly want to talk about having ’no past grudges and no recent enmities’? It’s too late." Li Ye let out a sneering laugh. "I actually prefer the unruly, arrogant attitude you had a minute ago."

"..." The middle-aged man paused, then asked tentatively, "Young Hero, you aren’t a member of the Red Flame Sect?"

Li Ye continued to sneer, brazenly bluffing as he put on a front. "I am an Interstellar Thief. I’ve destroyed countless civilized planets! What the hell is the Red Flame Sect? Do they even deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as me?

"If I hadn’t run into a spatial-temporal turbulence during a warp jump and sustained heavy injuries—leaving my Skill Level at less than one-ten-thousandth of its normal peak—I could crush small fry like you with a single finger."

A Time Traveler’s mission was to gather resources from other civilizations and eliminate escaped Demon Qi, but Li Ye’s sole goal was just to survive. He would have to be an idiot to admit his true identity as a Demon Hunter. If he hadn’t spawned in such a terrible location when he crossed over, he would have loved nothing more than to lay low for a year, hide from that other guy corrupted by Demon Qi, and then get teleported safely back home!

Given the current circumstances, his hand had been entirely forced.

Spatial-temporal turbulence? Interstellar looter? The middle-aged man was utterly bewildered by these terms, but the claim about his Skill Level being at less than one-ten-thousandth of its peak made his cheek twitch. This guy was really bragging out of his mind. If he were truly that powerful, why would he resort to dirty tricks like a Groin Kick?

However, Li Ye’s Body Technique was peculiar, and the way he had just appeared out of nowhere was indeed bizarre. Now certain that the other party wasn’t from the Red Flame Sect, he didn’t want to provoke further combat. He simply played along with Li Ye’s words and said, "Young Hero, there might be a misunderstanding between us..."

"It was a misunderstanding earlier, but the moment you laid hands on me, it stopped being a misunderstanding." Li Ye’s eyes swept over everyone in the cave as he found a rock to sit on. He spoke in a careless, domineering tone. "Send over a few knowledgeable people to brief me on the societal structure of this planet. I’ll be recuperating here for a while. Oh, and you there, kick my ball back..."

Looking at Li Ye, who was conveniently blocking the exit, the crowd exchanged hesitant glances. No one stepped forward. Nobody wanted to face that psycho, especially a psycho who clearly seemed mentally unhinged.

However, the man Li Ye had singled out obediently kicked the head back toward him.

Strangely enough, the very same head that Li Ye had kicked around endlessly without causing it much damage instantly burst open when this man kicked it, sending blood and flesh splattering everywhere.

This scene stunned the crowd yet again. It was absolute proof that Li Ye’s control over his technique had reached the true pinnacle of mastery. Moreover, it showed that he had at least met the threshold for Inner Power Projection...

GULP.

Many people swallowed hard, a trace of deep dread creeping into the way they looked at Li Ye. They suspected that this guy might actually be an unparalleled expert!

The title of ’Interstellar Thief’ hadn’t scared them, but the display of Inner Power Projection certainly had.

A sharp glint flashed across the short-bearded middle-aged man’s eyes. He turned toward a man in his sixties standing on the other side and said, "Sect Leader Liu, let the two of us go over and clear up the Young Hero’s confusion!"