Arthur and the others moved closer to the commotion forming in the open field where hundreds of tents had been pitched. The noise grew louder as they approached, voices overlapping as miners gathered in a loose circle around a group of cultivators who were counting spirit stones on a cloth laid over the ground.
Some cultivators whispered curiously while others simply stood there watching with expressions ranging from disheartened to caution. Zhang Haoran and the others tried to push forward to see what was happening, but the crowd was thick and the view was partially blocked by people standing shoulder to shoulder.
Arthur seeing it was only a few people counting spirit stones lost his interest in the scene itself and intended to simply walk past the gathering and return to his tent, but just as he moved closer to the edge of the crowd a tall and heavily built man suddenly stepped directly in front of him and raised his hand to stop him.
"Wait."
Arthur stopped and looked at the man calmly. The man was at least a full head taller than him and had a wide muscular frame that suggested he relied more on brute force than finesse. His arms were thick, and a faint scar ran across his cheek, giving him a somewhat intimidating appearance. The man extended his palm toward Arthur as if expecting something to be placed in it.
"Hand over your weekly protection money."
Arthur stared at him for a moment, slightly puzzled by the demand. Seeing his confusion, the man chuckled and scratched the back of his head.
"Oh… looks like you are from the newly arrived batch," he said with a grin. "That explains the confusion."
He leaned closer and continued in a tone that suggested he had explained this countless times before. "Listen carefully, from now on you'll need to submit one spirit stone every week to our Iron Blade Gang." He puffed out his chest proudly and tapped it with his fist. "Under our protection you won't have to worry about anyone bullying you in this place. So really, you're not losing anything, it's a fair deal."
Arthur listened quietly, then replied in an even voice. "I don't need your protection."
Without waiting for further conversation, he stepped forward and attempted to walk past the man toward where his tent was pitched.
The man's expression immediately darkened seeing Arthur ignore him. "You…!"
Before Arthur could take another step, the man forcefully grabbed his shoulder in an attempt to stop him.
Arthur sighed internally, he had expected the situation to escalate the moment he refused to give up his spirit stone, but that didn't make it any less annoying. Without even turning his head, he subtly activated one of his abilities.
In a single instant, he increased the density of the man's body several times over.
And the effect was immediate. The man felt as if a mountain had suddenly been dropped onto his shoulders. His knees buckled slightly and the ground beneath his feet cracked under the sudden pressure.
"Arghh…!"
His hand instantly released Arthur's shoulder as he staggered backward and began panting heavily.
"W… what was that just now?!" he gasped.
Arthur continued walking as if nothing had happened.
What he had just done was extremely simple for him. If a person was significantly weaker than him, manipulating their density required almost no effort from him and they wouldn't even notice him doing that. The only reason the man was still alive was because he was a cultivator with a strengthened body. A normal human would have died instantly from the sudden compression of their internal organs.
Several of the man's companions quickly noticed the commotion and hurried over.
"What's going on, Xiao Liu?" one of them asked.
Xiao Liu was still staring at the cracked ground beneath his feet with a shocked expression.
"I… I don't know," he said slowly. "For a moment it felt like my weight increased a hundred times."
Then his eyes suddenly snapped toward Arthur. "You! It must have been your doing!"
At that moment another man stepped forward from the group. Unlike Xiao Liu, this man appeared calmer and more composed. His gaze moved between the cracked ground and Arthur's retreating figure before settling on him with clear interest.
"What happened?" he asked quietly.
Xiao Liu hurriedly explained the strange sensation he had experienced.
The man listened without interrupting. When Xiao Liu finished, he turned toward Arthur and studied him carefully.
"So you're refusing to follow the rules here," he said slowly, seeing Arthur's retreating figure.
He raised his hand slightly, and several men standing behind him immediately moved forward.
Within seconds Arthur found himself surrounded by more than a dozen cultivators.
The crowd watching nearby immediately began whispering. "That newcomer is in trouble now."
"No one refuses them and gets away with it."
Arthur looked around at the circle forming around him. All of them were in the Hollow Immortal realm, some in the Primary stage and others approaching or in the Middle stage . For newly ascended cultivators this would normally be an overwhelming force.
All of them channeled their techniques and lunged at Arthur.
But he simply vanished from his position. The surrounding thugs froze in shock as they saw Arthur reappear several meters away.
Only Zhang Haoran and the others remained relatively calm, having already witnessed Arthur's abilities earlier.
However, the leader of the Iron Blade Gang widened his eyes.
"Spatial Law?" he muttered in disbelief.
He had never imagined he would see someone who had comprehended the law of space before even reaching the Golden Immortal realm. Such individuals were extremely rare even among true sect disciples.
But he quickly suppressed his shock.
"There's no way he's a Golden Immortal," he muttered. "Why would someone like that be working in this god forsaken mine?"
His expression hardened. "Everyone surround him!" he shouted. "I don't believe we can't subdue him together!"
Now it was no longer just about collecting protection money. If the Iron Blade Gang failed to subdue a single newcomer in front of so many witnesses, their reputation in the mine would be destroyed. And nobody would take them seriously from now on and question their legitimacy if they fail to do so.
More than twenty cultivators tightened the circle around Arthur, and several of them began channeling their spiritual techniques.
Flames ignited around one man's fists, another formed wind blades around his arms. While one gathered lightning in his palms.
The ground beneath Arthur's feet began trembling as an earth technique activated.
Arthur simply cracked his knuckles and purple flame-like energy slowly wrapped around his fists.
Then he moved and his body shot forward like a bullet.
The closest thug swung an energy saber infused with sharp wind energy. Arthur stepped inside the arc of the blade before it could gain momentum and drove his fist directly into the man's abdomen.
BOOM.
The thug's body bent forward as if struck by a battering ram before he was launched backward into two of his companions.
Another attacker rushed forward with an energy spear engulfed in fire. Arthur caught the spear shaft with one hand, twisted slightly, and shattered the weapon instantly. Before the attacker could react, Arthur's elbow smashed into his jaw, sending him spinning across the dirt.
Crack! Boom!
Lightning suddenly struck from behind.
Arthur stepped sideways and allowed the attack to pass harmlessly beside him before appearing next to the attacker and kicking him squarely in the chest.
The man flew several meters through the air before crashing into the ground.
The crowd watching nearby gasped loudly. "Did you see that?!"
"He's overwhelming them!"
"How is he this strong?!"
Three cultivators attacked simultaneously, launching elemental techniques from different angles. Blades of wind, streaks of fire, and shards of stone converged on Arthur's position.
Arthur vanished again and reappeared behind them and struck with rapid attacks.
A punch shattered ribs, a kick broke a shoulder and a knee drove another man into the ground.
Within moments the formation of attackers began collapsing.
"Don't let him move!" someone shouted desperately.
Several cultivators attempted to trap him with earth chains rising from the ground, but Arthur simply teleported and appeared above them.
He dropped back down like a falling meteor. The impact sent a shockwave across the ground and knocked five cultivators off their feet.
Arthur continued moving without pause. Every attack aimed at him missed, but every strike he delivered landed with devastating power.
The battle continued for several minutes as the Iron Blade Gang desperately attempted to overwhelm him with numbers, but the result never changed.
One by one the attackers fell. Some were knocked unconscious, while others crawled away groaning.
The spectators watching the fight had grown completely silent. Even Zhang Haoran and the others stared with wide eyes.
"…I knew he was strong," one of his group members whispered.
"But this is ridiculous."
Finally the last attacker who was also the leader, collapsed.
More than twenty members of the Iron Blade Gang now lay scattered across the ground, either groaning in pain or unconscious.
Arthur stood calmly in the center of the clearing, the purple energy around his fists slowly fading away.
Without saying a word, he began collecting the spirit stones from their pouches.
No one dared stop him. When he finished counting them, he found more than three hundred spirit stones.
Arthur nodded slightly in satisfaction. Then he simply turned and walked back toward his tent.
The crowd parted automatically as he passed. Under the stunned and silent gazes of hundreds of cultivators, Arthur calmly returned to his tent as if nothing unusual had happened.
***
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