Just as Ning Luo Mountain left, Ding Fan also stopped wasting words with the gangsters. He didn't even say a word to them—he simply lifted his foot and kicked Da Shan straight in the chest.

Da Shan had never anticipated that under such circumstances, Ding Fan would be the first to strike. In his mind, the advantage was entirely in his own hands, and Ding Fan's role was limited to taking a passive beating.

Thus, caught off guard, Da Shan was solidly kicked by Ding Fan, sending his body, weighing over 160 pounds, flying sideways before crashing into a cabinet filled with medicine at the entrance of the store. Several bottles and jars immediately fell down and shattered.

"Fuck, you dare to hit me...puh!" Da Shan hadn't finished speaking when he felt a burning sensation in his chest, followed by a mouthful of fresh blood he spat out.

Ferocious as Da Shan was, he had been kicked so hard by Ding Fan that he vomited blood.

The gangsters who accompanied Da Shan looked at each other in dismay. They knew that Da Shan had once chased down eight or nine men on the street, hacking at them all by himself. For a moment, they all felt a chill down their spines.

Da Shan was no longer able to speak at this point. He stretched out a finger, pointed at his cronies behind him, and then pointed at Ding Fan.

Although Da Shan didn't explain, those few understood that he wanted them to rush forward and finish off Ding Fan.

These men glanced at each other, thinking that no matter how capable the opponent was, he was still just one person. Besides, they each had weapons in their hands. Thinking that Ding Fan couldn't possibly dodge all their attacks, they determined their course of action.

If they were scared off by one person, they would no longer be able to hold their heads up in the underworld in the future.

Having made up their minds, the men each swung their cleavers and steel pipes, and came at Ding Fan with a flurry of attacks.

Ding Fan snorted coldly to himself, thinking, "Clueless fools!"

Without any courtesy towards these vicious thugs, Ding Fan decided to use the most direct method—to instill fear. Only if they were afraid would they never dare to be insolent again.

With a swift move of his feet, the seven men suddenly saw a blur before their eyes. The previously stationary Ding Fan had all but vanished to one side, leaving them unable to discern how he had done it—it was as if he had always been standing there.

However, they no longer needed to ponder how Ding Fan had dodged, because in the next moment, with a fierce kick, one of the gangsters let out a howl akin to a wolf.

The howl was extremely mournful, causing the remaining gangsters to feel a tingling sensation on their scalps. They saw that one of their own had his right leg broken by a single kick from Ding Fan. The gangster clutched his right leg, rolling on the ground, crying so hard that his face was streaked with tears and snot.

A single kick had broken a man's leg, and most importantly, Ding Fan did it with such ease, as if breaking legs was a mundane affair to him.

"Run or not," Ding Fan scanned the six who still stood and said.

The six gangsters exchanged glances. Now that their leader and a companion had been taken down by the person before them, running away would mean they could no longer mix in the underworld.

Resolutely, the six hardened their resolve and rushed towards Ding Fan.

Others might not understand their feelings at the moment, but they were all too aware that they were engaging in suicidal behavior. Fully aware that rushing in meant getting beaten, they nevertheless felt compelled to do so.

Ding Fan snorted coldly again. Since they showed no intention of leaving, he became even less merciful. With his hands behind his back, exuding the air of a grandmaster, he casually dodged the cleavers and iron rods swung at him. In between their attacks, Ding Fan kept kicking out. In a short time, five of the six men had their right legs kicked and broken by Ding Fan.

The last one standing was dumbfounded. He had seen tough guys before, but never anyone as astounding as this. Ding Fan made beating people up look better than a dance performance.

This display only further highlighted Ding Fan's terrifying prowess. With ease, he broke people's right legs with each kick, a level of ruthlessness seldom seen even in the underworld.

Ding Fan indifferently glanced at the remaining gangster still on his feet.

Although Ding Fan's gaze was calm, the gangster was so frightened that he dropped to his knees. "Big brother, I was wrong, please forgive me. I will never dare again. Never again," he pleaded as he repeatedly kowtowed to Ding Fan.

Ding Fan, who had never had much sympathy for such vicious people, had not broken this man's right leg simply because he wanted to leave someone to carry the others back.

"Ah..." Just then, Ning Zhanshan burst in through the back door, carrying a thick rolling pin in his hand.

After calling the police, Ning Zhanshan found a makeshift weapon since he didn't have any sharp objects like cleavers in his house; the best he could find was this rolling pin.

Originally, Ning Zhanshan expected that when he charged out, Ding Fan would have been beaten beyond recognition by the gangsters. However, as he burst in, Ding Fan was seen standing with his hands behind his back, without a scratch or even a speck of dust on him.

Instead, it was the gangsters who had come causing trouble that were all lying on the ground...

What was going on here? It couldn't be that Ding Fan had single-handedly dealt with all these thugs.

As Ning Zhanshan was still in shock, Ding Fan spoke to the kneeling gangster. "You've made such a mess of this Medicine Shop. How do you plan to pay for the damages?"

The gangster was at a loss for words. Since they had entered, they hadn't caused any trouble. It was Ding Fan who had been beating them from the moment they stepped into the Medicine Shop. Any damage was the result of Ding Fan knocking them around. Strictly speaking, they were the victims, and asking them to pay was simply too unjust.

However, facing someone as ruthless as Ding Fan, the thug didn't dare to say another word.

"We'll pay, we'll pay right now!"

Using his knees as feet, the thug 'walked' over to his cohorts and emptied their pockets of all their money.

It didn't take long for him to gather seven or eight thousand yuan from the hands of the several thugs.

Ding Fan was taken aback when the money was handed to him; he hadn't expected that thugs were so wealthy these days, carrying so much cash when they went out to smash up a place.

What Ding Fan didn't know was that the money was actually the protection fees for this street for the month. Ning Zhanshan had collected it but hadn't yet had the chance to pass it on to Huang Yihai, and now it had been snatched away by Ding Fan.

Ding Fan didn't hesitate; he took all the money without a word.

"This time, I was lenient and didn't hit you too hard, but if I catch you causing trouble at the Medicine Shop again, I won't be so nice," he warned the few thugs as he pocketed the cash.

The thugs had lines of sweat on their foreheads; their violent welcome involved kicks that caused bleeding and broken legs, and this was considered lenient? But Ding Fan was so dominating that none of them, including Ning Zhanshan, dared to speak out of turn now.

"Take your people and get lost," Ding Fan said to the one thug still able to stand.

The thug acted as though he'd been granted an imperial pardon. Dragging and pulling, he managed to clear all his people out of the Medicine Shop in two or three trips.

Ding Fan dusted off his hands, looking pleased with the job done.

"This money is what those thugs compensated you for the damage to the Medicine Shop; you take it," Ding Fan said as he handed over all the seven or eight thousand yuan to Ning Zhanshan, considering he too had caused some damage amidst the fighting.

Ning Zhanshan stared at the money Ding Fan stuffed into his hand, dumbstruck. He'd lived for quite some time and knew thugs extorted protection money from people, but he'd never heard of anyone daring to rob the thugs themselves.

Although Ning Zhanshan didn't want to accept the money, Ding Fan insisted. In Ding Fan's view, this money served to compensate the Medicine Shop for the damages, and it was also like paying his rent.

Since the matter had been settled, Ning Zhanshan made a phone call to his brother, telling him there was no need to dispatch the police anymore. Ding Fan had not suffered any loss, and if the police was to come, it would only complicate things for Ding Fan. It was better to just stop them from coming at all.

After helping Ning Zhanshan tidy up the Medicine Shop, Ding Fan returned to his room to continue his training.

...

Li Guangming sat in the front passenger seat of a white van, a cigarette between his fingers. He was fantasizing about the beating that Ding Fan would receive from the guy he had found.

The white van Li Guangming was sitting in was driven by Da Ya. When Da Ya and his group had gone into the Medicine Shop to deal with Ding Fan, Li Guangming had waited in the van.

The reason Li Guangming hadn't joined Da Ya at the Medicine Shop was because Ding Fan had formidable combat skills. A person who could smash stones with his bare fists could also hurt him by mistake, which wouldn't be ideal.

So, he preferred to wait until Da Ya and the others had beaten Ding Fan until he couldn't recognize his own mother, and then Li Guangming would step in to trample on Ding Fan himself.

After waiting for about twenty minutes with no sign of Da Ya returning, and just as Li Guangming was becoming restless, he saw one of Da Ya's men carrying back the ones who'd gone to trouble Ding Fan, one by one, back to the van.

"Brother Da Ya, how's that show-off kid doing now?" Li Guangming asked upon seeing the beaten state of Da Ya's men, thinking that if Da Ya was in such a sorry state, Ding Fan must have fared even worse.

"F*ck off," grumbled Da Ya, infuriated and with no outlet for his anger. He considered himself a figure in Dongcheng, and now he'd been beaten by Ding Fan, and the protection money he'd collected had been stolen. If word got out, his reputation would be ruined.

And all this was because of Li Guangming, this son of a b*tch. You just had to mess with such a monstrous person. Messing with Ding Fan was worse than trying to provoke the world boxing champion Tyson.

Immediately, Da Ya slapped Li Guangming hard across the face. The blow knocked out two of Li Guangming's teeth, and blood started flowing from his nose.

With a kick, Da Ya sent Li Guangming tumbling out of the van and then made a hasty retreat with his followers.

Li Guangming was completely dumbfounded.

What was happening? These were his supporters; how could Da Ya hit him?

What's going on?!