You Owe Me a Set of New Robes

"Let's play."

That was the eerie voice they heard after the "thud" sound. At first, they had thought it was him jumping down from the tall branch. But then they saw the fallen body of their comrade by Bai Hua's feet.

By instinct, they jumped and stood behind the boss lady and the leader of the group.

"I knew you good-for-nothings won't be able to take care of him. That's why I came personally," the boss lady said condescendingly.

Every black-robed man winced at her harsh words.

"Boss, let me handle him," said the leader, wounded. He needed to redeem his pride as the leader. One of his men had been easily man-handled by a kid. He was furious!

"Take him alive and if he resists too much, just kill him," she ordered ruthlessly.

"Tsk tsk tsk.. not going to even spare a young kid, eh? And I didn't even kill your man. Boss lady, you are quite impolite. Somebody ought to teach you manners. Lucky you, today I am in a good mood to teach valuable lessons to you as well," said Bai Hua as if he was talking to kids instead.

"Shut your mouth! That mouth will get you killed! This grandfather will teach that valuable lesson instead," yelled the leader and ran towards Bai Hua with every intention to make him beg him for forgiveness.

They now had realised that Bai Hua's physical strength was not only powerful but he possessed spiritual powers as well. They knew that he was rich, so it was quite obvious to think that he might have some treasure on his body to mask his aura. So, the leader did not hold back but dashed towards Bai Hua releasing his spiritual aura. It formed into crude pale yellowish gauntlet around his hands.

Bai Hua sighed disappointedly, "Just partial spiritual morphing and you wanted to teach me a lesson?"

Bai Hua also took his battle stance and covered his hands with his blue spiritual aura. Unlike the leader's crude gauntlet-shaped spiritual form, Bai Hua's was sleek and it was sparkling as if it was made of blue diamonds even without any light from the sun. It did not even look heavy but rather it looked like a dragon's scales.

Everyone gasped when they saw this. The kid was even able to morph his spiritual powers into a protective layer around his hands. They were not some petty robbers but every one of them here had strong spiritual powers above level 7 which were strong even for an adult.

The leader didn't care. He was confident that he could take down the kid. His blue gloves only looked fancy. Kids would only focus on making it stylish to show off and would lack any real strength.

He pulled back his right hand and gave a powerful blow. There was a loud yellow whoosh but he felt his blow didn't connect.

The target was not in front. His neck felt ticklish and he attacked behind him but Bai Hua was also not there. He attacked wherever he felt the target was but his blow never connected. Bai Hua had evaded all his attacks smoothly.

The onlookers couldn't believe that their leader was not even able to handle one kid. He was known as "One-Punch-Chao", that was why he was the leader. But now he had given more than 30 punches but they had not connected even once.

The boss lady didn't look concerned at all but instead, she was analysing Bai Hua's movements.

It was now already ten full minutes and the leader was profusely sweating. His spiritual power was going to drain out soon. He had gone full power from the moment he took out his spiritual gauntlet. And he had also chased this kid before. His hands were getting gradually heavy.

He decided to pull out his trump card. The kid wasn't a willing target and he had no choice but to kill him. He had no personal grudge against the kid. But now he had offended their organisation and he could only obey the boss.

Pity, the kid could have been useful, he thought.

And then claws came out of his gauntlet laced with poison. It was fast acting poison and the poison master was the boss lady herself. Assassination missions had never failed whenever he used this poison. It could even penetrate through weak spiritual shields. And he thought Bai Hua's was no exception. All the people here were immune to this poison. It was their organisation's special trump card.

"Hyahhh!" he shouted and instilled all his spiritual powers and punched at Bai Hua with enough power to bring down a building. It was a punch strong enough to cover a huge area.

This time the kid will not be able to escape, he thought. And he closed his eyes thinking that the kid would surely die.

He felt the punch connecting and heard a loud CRACK sound.

He opened his eyes thinking the deed is done. But then the cracking sound continued and he realised that his spiritual gauntlet was cracking. The poison had produced a lot of steam when he punched but now that the poison mist was clearing he could see a pair of two mirthful eyes.

And then slowly he saw that his punch had connected with the kid's punch at the same time. The kid had not evaded or escaped his punch but had actually punched him back as well.

Bai Hua's dragon gloves were steaming but it was sparkling untarnished. The poison didn't have any effect on it or him!

And to the leader's utter shame Bai Hua had used his left hand instead of his right hand to block his blow.

The cracking sound continued until the right spiritual gauntlet of the leader completely broke apart. To salvage his loss he lifted his left hand tried to hit Bai Hua but Bai Hua was faster and sent him flying with his right hand.

Somewhere far away there was a loud thud.

All this time nobody had made any noise. And now some of them rushed towards where the leader's body flew towards to check on him.

"Don't worry, he's not dead. Though he may not wake up for some months," Bai Hua called after those who went to check on their leader.

"Who are you?" asked the boss lady icily.

"I told you, didn't I?" Bai Hua said as he retracted his spiritual dragon gloves and dusted the poison mist off his clothes. "I am the Country Young Master who takes his business seriously. And now you guys owe me a set of new robes."

"You are a spy from another kingdom," the boss lady tried to guess.

"You are partly right. I am a spy but not from any other kingdom. I come from this kingdom," Bai Hua corrected her and added sweetly, "and now, why don't you tell me what you have been up to without the Lord's knowledge in this kingdom ?"

Cold sweats ran down her spine when she heard the words "the Lord".

"You're the Lord's spy? Don't spout nonsense! He doesn't have any such faction under him!" she said firmly more as to comfort herself than to dispute his claims.