Mo Chuan exerted force and pried himself out of the wall, then coughed up some fresh blood.
Through the fight with this Teacher Ma, Mo Chuan understood two things:
First, the system's classification of damage types in this world. For ordinary punches, kicks, swords, spears, sabers, and other macroscopic physical collisions, they were all classified as physical damage. Therefore, the old man's hits on him were painful but otherwise harmless.
However, damage caused by spiritual energy, as well as collisions and reactions under physical laws, were classified as magical damage and true damage respectively.
In other words, Mo Chuan was now like an iron-shelled egg. When the old man hit Mo Chuan, Mo Chuan wouldn't lose health. When the old man used his battle qi to hit Mo Chuan, the additional magical damage provided by the battle qi would cause Mo Chuan to lose health. When the old man smashed Mo Chuan into the wall, although Mo Chuan appeared unharmed on the surface, the shock to his internal organs counted as a small amount of true damage.
Second, his current shortcomings. After so many battles, he had basically relied on unconventional tactics, assisting others, and overwhelming opponents with superior stats. He lacked any operational skill or technique, and his use of the grappling hook was not proficient. When facing an old hand like the man in the Tang suit, who had honed his skills for years in his own path, Mo Chuan had almost no ability to fight back and could only attempt to break through with sheer force.
With this thought, Mo Chuan swung the chain in his hand. His previous arrogance and complacency had decreased significantly, and his desire to become stronger had intensified.
On the other side, the old man, illuminated by the moonlight and the faint glow of the grappling hook, saw Mo Chuan struggling out of the wall and only coughing up blood. His expression immediately turned solemn.
"The monk from Mount Wutai in Jizhou couldn't endure these few punches of mine without being unharmed. This little brat in front of me seems to have only suffered internal tremors... No, I need to use some real skill..."
After muttering to himself, the old man held his breath, focused his mind, and let white battle qi gather on his fists, slowly taking the form of a fierce tiger.
"You're at most a fourth-tier cultivator, aren't you? To make me use my true skills, you're the first!"
With that, the old man's white beard fluttered in the windless air. His hands, leading the tiger's head, suddenly thrust forward towards Mo Chuan.
Mo Chuan’s face was grave. He no longer dared to be careless, gripping the chain and defending against the old man's attack.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The collision of the chain and the battle qi produced sounds like metal striking metal. As Mo Chuan clashed more with the old man, his tiger's mouth grew increasingly sore, his hands began to tremble, and his movements became sluggish.
The old man seized the opportunity and threw a punch directly at Mo Chuan's solar plexus: "Xingmen Huokuai!"
*Boom!*
The moment he was hit, Mo Chuan spat out a mouthful of blood. This punch dealt more damage than the previous four.
It turned out that the old man's special ability, "Huàqì Dòugāng," at the sixth tier, had a total of four passive abilities and two active abilities. One of the active abilities was this "hidden force."
Naturally, the magical damage was difficult for Mo Chuan to withstand, but he endured the intense pain and intended to trade blows: "Ye Ge!"
The sickle of the grappling hook swung, and a crescent-shaped black gash flashed past, instantly opening a wound over ten centimeters long on the old man's chest, from which blood spurted out.
The old man looked at his chest in disbelief, then at Mo Chuan, who was slowly kneeling on the ground, gasping for breath. Finally, his lips moved a few times, and he fell straight to the ground.
"Old comrade, I can make mistakes many times, but you can only afford to make one mistake," Mo Chuan said, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. He thought it must be the "Buddha" who had called him, so he spoke into the intercom: "Brother Zhang, I've basically resolved everything. Bring your people in."
"Okay."
Hearing the reply, Mo Chuan nodded and walked towards the main hall.
In the hall.
When the "Buddha" saw the old man Hu begin to use his battle qi, he knew something was wrong. He immediately understood the reason, and his already unpleasant expression turned black as the bottom of a pot. He said to the two thugs behind him, "Bring those three people out."
The two thugs nodded and turned to carry out the order when a shout suddenly came from outside the door: "Police! Open the door!"
The "Buddha" was stunned for a moment, but then he looked towards the corridor with disbelief—he knew Mo Chuan had connections, but he never expected it to be an official connection! And the police, no less!
The "Buddha" didn't even have time to wipe away his cold sweat before he said to the thugs behind him, "You guys come with me! Don't worry about those three people for now!" With that, he led them to run towards the back.
After the police shouted three times and received no response, at Zhang Henshui's signal, they directly used the battering ram to break down the door.
Police from the front, side, and back entrances instantly swarmed into the hall, but apart from the unconscious people in the corridor, the main leaders and hostages were nowhere to be found.
Mo Chuan also emerged from the corridor and, looking at the empty main hall with only sofas remaining, said to Zhang Henshui, "Brother Zhang, I'll go after them. You take your people and handcuff these guys, and by the way, rescue the Wang Hu brothers." With that, he swung his grappling hook, grabbed the railing on the second floor, and swung himself up.
...
The "Buddha" led his thugs to his office. First, he picked up the prayer beads from his desk and placed them on the Maitreya Buddha statue on the shelf. Then, he picked up a cup from the tea set and placed it over the incense burner in front of the statue.
With a grinding sound of gears, a pipe-like upward passage appeared before them where the shelf had been.
"You, you. You two go first, clear the way. The rest of you, eight of you, follow after I go in."
After speaking, the eleven people in the office entered the passage one by one.
Although the Great Marshal Bathhouse was his lifelong endeavor, his life was more important now. As long as he could escape Shengjing, he would find a way to hide with the Cross Alliance!
"Mo Chuan! I'll never forgive you!" The "Buddha" had only been furious when he discovered the Wang brothers were causing trouble at his bathhouse, which led Wang Hu to call Mo Chuan. He never expected that it would attract the police. This was truly a case of capsizing in a gutter.
...
Mo Chuan took an unconventional route, extending his grappling hook to catch windows and railings, and stubbornly climbed onto the rooftop, intending to survey from a high vantage point to see where they had gone.
As soon as he reached the rooftop and before he could retract his grappling hook, he heard a loud noise from an electrical junction box not far away.
He immediately hid behind the central air conditioning unit and quietly observed the electrical junction box. Sure enough, a moment later, the box cover opened from the inside, and a burly man climbed out. Judging by his attire, he was one of the thugs from before.
After the two thugs climbed out, they gave each other a hand from behind and pulled the "Buddha" out as well.
Immediately after, ten thugs and the "Buddha" stood on the rooftop. The "Buddha" took out his phone, seemingly preparing to dial.
"What a coincidence... then there's no need to wait." Mo Chuan saw that no more people were likely to emerge from the electrical junction box. He immediately swung his grappling hook, encircling the necks of two thugs with it, and then, like throwing a baseball, slammed them onto the concrete bricks of the rooftop.
"Damn it! Attack me!" Seeing Mo Chuan, the "Buddha's" blood pressure immediately surged. With a command, the thugs immediately took out their weapons and surrounded Mo Chuan.