Lin Mo stepped onto the wooden planks of the southern river loading pier beside Dr. Gu Qinghe, Su Wan, and Commander Tie Niu as rain dripped off the rusted edges of abandoned cargo containers.
Midnight fog hung low over the brackish river channel while the tang of machine grease and wet iron filled the wharf.
Stepping out from the foggy shadows were forty men in black combat tunics, their faces masked with tiger-striped bandanas. They held heavy steel machetes, iron chains, and serrated hunting knives.
At the front of the circle walked Hall Master Huo.
His gaunt face was twisted into a triumphant, predatory snarl. In his hands, he held a seven-foot solid iron staff engraved with coiled serpents, humming with dark internal qi.
“Hand over the three-hundred-year blood-ginseng and kneel, Lin Mo!” Hall Master Huo hissed, his voice echoing across the empty pier. “Tonight, the river wharf is your grave! There are no police cars here, and no cameras to save you!”
Behind them on the dark river channel, the twin diesel engines of two armored pirate speedboats rumbled in idle. Heavy searchlights mounted on their bow turrets swept across the pier, cutting off any possibility of retreating toward the water.
Dr. Gu Qinghe stepped behind Tie Niu, holding the crystal case containing the blood-ginseng tightly against his chest.
“Chairman Lin,” Dr. Gu whispered with calm courage. “If these beasts want this medicine, they will have to step over my corpse.”
Lin Mo gently touched Dr. Gu’s shoulder. “Keep your coat dry, Dr. Gu. An honest doctor should never have to spill blood.”
Lin Mo looked at Hall Master Huo with an expression of calm, deadpan amusement.
“Hall Master Huo, you brought forty street thugs and two noisy speedboats to rob a box of roots,” Lin Mo remarked softly. “Did nobody ever teach you that river channels belong to working mariners?”
Huo sneered arrogantly. “Working mariners?! The southern docks belong to Black-Tiger Hall! In ten seconds, my boys will turn you into fish food!”
HOOOOOOOOONK!
A thunderous horn blasted through the fog, sounding like an ancient sea beast emerging from the depths.
Twin high-intensity maritime floodlights cut through the mist on the river channel, instantly blinding the crews on the two pirate speedboats.
Through the fog surged two massive, hundred-ton steel-hulled harbor tugboats!
The tugboats were reinforced with three-inch steel ice-breaking bows and thick rubber shock bumpers. Emblazoned across their wheelhouses in glowing emerald paint was the crest of Taichu River Logistics.
Standing at the helm of the lead vessel was Old Captain Zheng, his weathered face set in grim determination as he spun the brass ship wheel.
“Hold on, boys!” Captain Zheng’s voice roared through the ship’s public address system. “Ram those river rats!”
KABOOM!
The hundred-ton steel tugboat smashed into the flank of the lead pirate speedboat like an iron hammer hitting an eggshell.
The fiberglass hull of the pirate vessel shattered into hundreds of pieces. The pirate gunners screamed in terror as their boat was driven directly into the muddy riverbank, half-submerged under tons of swirling river foam.
The second tugboat swung hard to starboard. Thirty honest mariners and elder Hometown Orphans armed with industrial high-pressure water cannons unleashed twin torrents of high-velocity river water.
WHOOSH!
The water cannons blasted the second pirate crew clean off their deck, tossing them into the freezing river mud like ragdolls. In under twenty seconds, both pirate boats were completely neutralized.
On the pier, the forty Black-Tiger thugs froze in utter shock, their escape route by water vanished in smoke.
“Tugboats?!” Hall Master Huo screamed in sheer fury. “Where did he get armored tugboats?!”
While Huo was distracted, Dr. Gu Qinghe acted with swift medical precision.
Dr. Gu reached into the crystal vitrine, drew a sterile glass dropper, and carefully extracted a single, concentrated drop of crimson dew from the tip of the wild blood-ginseng.
“Tie Niu, open your mouth!” Dr. Gu ordered in a sharp, urgent whisper.
Tie Niu opened his mouth without hesitation. The drop of crimson essence fell onto his tongue. Simultaneously, Tie Niu scooped a generous handful of the ancient Bone-Tempering Dragon Salve and rubbed it across his chest and forearms.
BOOM!
A profound rumble echoed inside Tie Niu’s skeleton.
The crimson ginseng dew tasted like molten liquid gold. The moment it entered Tie Niu’s bloodstream, an explosion of boundless vitality detonated through his marrow. The ancient Dragon Salve seeped through his pores, bonding with his muscular fibers and coating his bones in a layer of jade-iron density.
His severed knee ligaments, healed days ago by Lin Mo’s liniment, fused with boundless internal energy.
CRACK! SNAP!
His joints expanded by half an inch. A brilliant golden-crimson steam erupted from Tie Niu’s pores, rising into the cold night rain like a roaring tiger.
[Tie Niu Martial Breakthrough!]
[Cultivation Surge: From Peak Rank 1 External to Rank 2 Early Martial (Internal Qi & Iron-Jade Bones)!]
Tie Niu opened his eyes. His pupils glowed with fierce, predatory golden light.
He raised the eighty-pound Ancient Cold-Iron Heavy Sabre in both hands. The dark meteoric blade hummed with a piercing frost resonance, harmonizing with his newly awakened internal qi.
Hall Master Huo felt the explosive surge of Rank 2 martial power erupting from Tie Niu. His face turned paper-white.
“Breakthrough?!” Huo shrieked in horror. “An external brawler broke through to internal martial arts in five seconds?!”
Huo gritted his teeth, knowing that he had no way out. He poured every drop of his Rank 2 Mid Shadow Tiger internal qi into his seven-foot iron staff, turning the metal dark purple as he lunged forward with a lethal thrust aimed at Tie Niu’s heart.
“Shadow Tiger Pierces the Dragon!” Huo roared.
Tie Niu did not retreat an inch.
He planted his combat boots into the pier timbers, took a deep breath, and swung the Ancient Cold-Iron Heavy Sabre in a downward diagonal cleave.
“Break!” Tie Niu roared like an enraged thunderclap.
CLANG-CRACK!
The dark meteoric blade met the seven-foot iron staff in mid-air.
Huo’s solid iron weapon, tempered for twenty years in martial furnaces, snapped cleanly in two like a dry breadstick.
The heavy frost-qi blade did not stop. The flat side of the cold-iron sabre slammed into Huo’s chest with the kinetic force of a speeding locomotive.
BANG!
All three ribs on Huo’s left side caved in. The dark internal qi in his dantian was shattered into fragments by the cold-iron resonance. Huo flew backward thirty feet through the air, crashing hard into a stack of rusted steel shipping containers and sliding down into the dirt, coughing up black blood.
“My... my dantian...” Huo wheezed, his eyes glazed with absolute terror as he stared at his broken staff.
The remaining forty Black-Tiger thugs dropped their machetes and chains onto the wood planks, raising their trembling hands into the air.
“We surrender! Don’t hit us!”
Behind them, Captain Zheng and thirty mariners stepped off the tugboats, armed with iron mooring wrenches, surrounding the thugs alongside Tie Niu’s Iron Guard.
Lin Mo stepped forward, clapping his hands with a faint, satisfied smile.
“Old Captain Zheng, your timing on the river is as sharp as ever,” Lin Mo said warmly.
Captain Zheng laughed loudly, wiping the cold river spray from his gray beard. Beside him stood five young sailors from the Hometown Orphans collective, their shoulders straight and their eyes shining with pride.
“Chairman Lin, when our river patrol radar picked up two pirate speedboats circling the south dock, my boys fired up the tugboat boilers immediately!” Captain Zheng said with deep satisfaction. “These orphan boys used to beg for crusts of bread along the docks. You gave them warm uniforms, technical navigation training, and dignified work on our river patrol. Nobody commits piracy on our river while Taichu holds the helm!”
“You did an extraordinary job, Captain Zheng,” Lin Mo said, placing a warm hand on the old mariner’s shoulder. “Honest shipping is the heartbeat of this city.”
Lin Mo pulled his Black-Gold Card from his pocket and handed it to Su Wan.
“Su Wan, execute an immediate reward allocation,” Lin Mo announced. “Twenty million yuan directly from our Maritime Security and Transport Welfare Fund.”
Su Wan prepared her terminal: ¥20,000,000.00.
“Allocate ten million yuan to Captain Zheng, his thirty mariners, and the Hometown Orphan river crew,” Lin Mo instructed. “Three hundred thousand yuan in liquid cash for each man, with the remainder upgrading both tugboats with sonar radar and heavy-duty towing winches. The other ten million yuan will go to Commander Tie Niu and our Iron Guard brothers as an operational victory bonus.”
BEEP.
A magnificent, resonant celestial chime resonated deep in Lin Mo’s consciousness:
[Ding! Detected spending of ¥20,000,000.00 RMB on Maritime Patrol Reward & River Fleet Upgrade!]
[Beneficiaries: Captain Zheng (91/100), 30 Mariners, Hometown Orphans (89–95/100), & Iron Guard Vets!]
[Target Integrity Verified: Protecting municipal river supply corridors, defeating organized criminal piracy.]
[Triggered 100x Pure Benevolence System Refund!]
[Received Cash Refund: +¥2,000,000,000.00 RMB!]
[Funds deposited directly into Host Personal Liquid Vault!]
[Personal Liquid Vault: ¥75,000,000,000.00 RMB!]
[Personal Wealth Milestone Achieved: Liquid Vault Reaches ¥75,000,000,000.00 RMB!]
[Benevolence Merit Points: +2,000,000 BMP | Total BMP: 167,949,528 BMP!]
[Good People Network Expanded: 9,500 Verified Righteous Allies (+30: mariners, harbor operators, and river rescue scouts)!]
Two billion cash refund, Lin Mo thought, watching his vault balance reach seventy-five billion yuan. Spending twenty million to protect the honest working mariners of Jiangcheng, and earning two billion in profit. Doing good is the most unstoppable sovereign power on earth.
Suddenly, an immense warmth surged from the crystal vitrine in Dr. Gu’s hands.
The pure, benevolent crimson spirit-qi radiating from the wild blood-ginseng resonated with the golden benevolence currents flowing into Lin Mo’s dantian.
BOOM!
A profound rumble echoed inside Lin Mo’s chest.
[Ding! System Notice: Host assimilating Crimson Medicinal Qi & Vast Civic Gratitude!]
[Host Martial Realm Breakthrough: Rank 2 Mid-Peak Martial Artist!]
[Qi Sense Expanded: Dome Coverage Reaches 700 Meters!]
[Martial Body Enhanced: Jade-Gold Armor Aura Solidified!]
Lin Mo felt his internal organs hum with crystalline harmony. His physical senses expanded outward in a seven-hundred-meter spherical dome. He could hear the fish swimming deep beneath the river mud. He could feel the heartbeat of every sailor on the water. His physical skin was layered with an invisible, impenetrable shield of Jade-Gold qi, capable of deflecting high-caliber rounds and internal martial strikes.
Lin Mo exhaled a breath of pale golden mist, feeling completely rejuvenated and grounded in boundless strength.
Tie Niu walked over, carrying a crumpled black leather folder recovered from Hall Master Huo’s silk tunic.
“Chairman Lin,” Tie Niu said, handing the folder to Lin Mo. “Look at what this dog was carrying.”
Lin Mo opened the folder.
Inside was a gilded, blood-red invitation embossed with the emblem of an iron cage and a roaring tiger:
[Invitation: Grand Grandmaster Martial Cage Match]
[Location: Black-Tiger Underground Colosseum, Sub-Level 3]
[Host: Chairman Zhao Kun, Zhao Pharmaceutical Group]
[Main Event: Chief Champion Iron-Palm Lei Hu vs. Challenger Tie Niu]
[Stakes: Winner Takes Full Pharmaceutical Distribution Rights of Jiangcheng]
Shen Qiaoqiao stepped up, her eyes wide as she reviewed the intelligence on her tablet.
“Chairman Lin,” Shen Qiaoqiao warned in a low voice. “Iron-Palm Lei Hu is the elder brother of imprisoned cartel boss Lei Bao. He is an infamous underground killer with Rank 2 High Internal Martial cultivation. Zhao Kun arranged this match to execute Tie Niu in the cage!”
Lin Mo looked at the blood-red invitation, then glanced at Tie Niu, whose eighty-pound cold-iron sabre gleamed with frost in the rain.
“Zhao Kun lost his money, so now he wants to use blood,” Lin Mo said, his voice flat, calm, and icy. “Tie Niu, do you want to test your new blade?”
Tie Niu cracked his knuckles with a ferocious grin. “With pleasure, Chairman Lin.”
Lin Mo closed the folder, tossing it onto the hood of an armored van.
“Su Wan, prepare fifty million yuan,” Lin Mo commanded. “Let us head to the Black-Tiger Colosseum. It is time to close Zhao Kun’s accounts once and for all.”