Chapter 31：The Thunderous Tiger

The mountain was deathly still and eerily silent. Zhou Xiaofan's face was strangely pale, the purest shade of white. Her fingers trembled slightly, and her mouth gaped in breathless astonishment.

Li Qiang stared up at the clear night sky.

"Zhou Xiaofan, I will ask you again. Will you become part of my Sword of Carnage or not?"

Zhou Xiaofan was silent then began stammering.

"L-L-Li Qiang, don't think you can fool me, your attack just now was an illusion! When did you hypnotise me!"

Li Qiang raised an eyebrow and turned to stare at her.

"Will you join my Sword of Carnage, or will I have to release that attack on you?"

Zhou Xiaofan was silent.

Suddenly, another voice broke in.

"Li Qiang, as the leader of the Sword of Carnage, don't you think that the 4 groups should get along?"

"We need to unite against the White Demons! Shame on you, attacking your fellow humans just to gain more power!?"

Li Qiang smiled widely at his words.

"What's your name?"

The good-looking man was silent for a moment then answered.

"My name is Yang Yan. I am the Deputy Sect Master in the White Crane Sect."

Li Qiang turned away, looking at the sky once again.

"Yang Yan, what is right? What is wrong?"

Yang Yan replied instantly.

"Righteousness is protecting and nurturing the weak. It is defeating evil and upholding order. It isn't right to attack others for power!"

Li Qiang turned away and looked back up to the sky.

"Who defined the laws of right and wrong?"

Yang Yan took a second to reply this time.

"The laws of right and wrong have been created by our forefathers and have evolved through the stretches of time to fit the social situations."

"Good answer. Now, who are the laws of right and wrong for?"

Yang Yan was silent.

"For humans."

Li Qiang turned back around, staring deep into the eyes of Yang Yan.

"Humans created these rules to protect the larger population. They protect the 'normal people'. The are ways that are defined by our social nature. Nothing more. They have no deep relevance to the universe or the world. In fact, it would be more natural if humans killed each other with no punishment and took each other's items with abandon, adhering to the strong. Afterall aren't these the laws of nature, from which human's emerged?"

Yang Yan shied away from Li Qiang's searching gaze.

"I am the strongest person in China. I will take what I want and do what I please. Zhou Xiaofan, I want an answer in the next 10 seconds. If you remain silent then I will consider your answer as a no."

Zhou Xiaofan's' shoulders slumped.

"I… Okay. I kneel to King Qiang."

Li Qiang nodded.

"My people will be here to discuss taxes and development. Change the name of your Sect to Crane of Carnage."

Zhou Xiaofan's head whipped up at the mention of changing the Sect's name but remained silent.

Li Qiang exerted force form his legs and he hurtled the air. High in the sky, he activated Qi-Walking.

He then began the long journey to Shanghai.

He traversed the country at blistering speed, passing Chenzhou, Ji'an and Hangzhou on the way there. Only Hangzhou showed signs of being populated, the other 2 cities being deserted.

Finally, after a few hours he arrived at Shanghai.

At this point in time, it was dawn, the morning sun peeked over the horizon, giving the sky a beautiful golden-orange glow.

"The sky is much clearer nowadays, and the humidity and temperature has plummeted recently."

Li Qiang reflected on these facts and put it down to the factories closing down and so global warming reduced over the past 3 months.

Li Qiang looked down on the congested city of Shanghai.

According to Qi Ru, the Thunderous Tiger Sect was not actually led by a single person, but 5 people. 2 of these were women and 3 were men. Apparently, the Thunderous Tiger Sect had been a force before the Wraiths had torn down the governmental system and since then had emerged from the shadows and taken over Shanghai and the East.

Their Sect was different to the other forces in that each of the 5 leaders was based in a different part of Shanghai.

So, intending to draw attention, Li Qiang rocketed up to the top of Shanghai Tower. He stood there, inhaling and exhaling for a few minutes. When he was finally prepared, he made a deafening shout.

"Ha!"

It bellowed through the huge city and echoed through the streets.

It wasn't the flashiest way of drawing attention, but it was the simplest and easiest for Li Qiang.

The shout was so loud that if a normal person had stood right next to Li Qiang, his ears would have bled, and he would have turned deaf. Because of this, not only did the leaders of the Thunderous Tiger Sect wake up and look towards the Shanghai Tower, but so did almost all of the people in Shanghai.

The roads filled slightly before the first leader appeared. Li Qiang's eyes were naturally drawn to a man standing on the pavement. He was absolutely huge, almost of the same size as Li Qiang. He was even wider than Li Qiang, with mountains of fats trembling with every step. He also had fiery red hair that screamed of aggression.

The red-haired man came to stop before the Shanghai Tower. Then, showing supernatural grace, he leapt high into the air. He scaled about a tenth of the building with a single jump!

At the apex of his jump, he grabbed the Shanghai Tower's walls, and like a monkey, he began climbing up the walls!

In the sky and helicopter appeared, with a pilot and 2 passengers.

Another woman ran through the pavement and up to the Shanghai Tower. Unlike the red-haired man, she decided to take the elevator instead of climbing up.

Li Qiang waited patiently for the 5 to arrive.

Almost simultaneously, the helicopter landed, the red-haired man flipped onto the Shanghai tower and the elevator dinged. Because of the Shanghai roof being surrounded by walls, the helicopter landed extremely skilfully, causing huge winds in the building.

The 2 passengers hopped out of the helicopter and the women strolled out of the elevator. The red-haired man landed heavily after flipping over the Shanghai Tower's walls.