The Omniscient

Chapter 24: Ambush at Home

The old man, knowing he couldn’t escape, obediently led the two upstairs.

When they reached the door of his rented apartment, just as he was about to unlock it, Huang Ji suddenly furrowed his brow and stopped him.

“What’s wrong?” the old man asked, puzzled.

Huang Ji glanced at the doorknob, then at the floor by the stairs. He raised a finger to his lips, signaling for silence, and gestured for the old man to open the door.

The old man unlocked the door, and Huang Ji was the first to step inside. His footsteps were heavy, making no attempt to be quiet. However, he gestured to the two behind him, signaling them to remain silent.

What’s going on? Lin Li was baffled but followed Huang Ji’s instructions.

The old man, realizing something, also stayed quiet and followed Huang Ji’s lead.

The two cautiously stepped inside.

He glanced at the bedroom door and smiled faintly.

He then walked naturally to the living room sofa, picked up the remote control, and deliberately made his footsteps loud so anyone nearby would know he had walked to the sofa.

Then, he tiptoed back into the hallway, silently motioning for the others to follow him. They hid behind the corner outside the bedroom door. Huang Ji reached out and turned on the TV with the remote.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

“I swear! A 100% genuine South African diamond, 100% Swiss movement. I bet when I say the price, our phone lines will be jammed! Take a guess—just 666...”

The TV blared, filling the once-silent room with noise.

Huang Ji even switched channels a few times, settling on a reasonable drama channel.

After setting the trap, he leaned against the wall, waiting silently with the other two at the corner.

The old man and Lin Li exchanged glances. Lin Li’s eyes were filled with confusion. What’s he up to? Is he playing hide-and-seek?

“Bro...” Lin Li started to whisper.

Huang Ji shot him a sharp look and raised a finger, signaling silence.

Lin Li quickly covered his mouth, quietly waiting.

“Creak...”

Suddenly, the bedroom door around the corner opened from the inside!

The faint creak would have been inaudible over the TV if someone were sitting on the sofa.

Lin Li’s eyes widened in shock, while the old man’s face grew grim as he stared at the living room floor. There, faint shadows cast from the bedroom indicated the presence of two figures. Ȑ𝖆ΝÔ𝐛Ę𝘚

Someone was hiding in his bedroom! Two people!

The intruders, hearing the “old man” return home, walk to the sofa, and even switch channels, began creeping out of the bedroom towards the sofa.

This was clearly a planned ambush targeting the old man, lying in wait at his home!

“Close call! If he hadn’t noticed something was off, I’d probably be sitting on the sofa right now, getting ambushed,” the old man thought.

“No, with two of them, even if I had opened the bedroom door and discovered them, I wouldn’t stand a chance in a direct fight...”

The old man stared in awe at Huang Ji’s calm demeanor, recalling the sharp observational skills he had demonstrated earlier during the chase.

Huang Ji had deduced the presence of intruders merely from slight marks on the door lock and stairs—evidence that the lock had been tampered with. From there, he immediately guessed that the intruders were hiding in the bedroom. Using his footsteps and the TV as bait, he lured them out.

At this moment, the two intruders, still thinking they were undiscovered, were quietly approaching the sofa.

Believing themselves to be hunters, they were unaware of Huang Ji and the others lurking in ambush behind them.

As the intruders crept closer to the sofa, Huang Ji suddenly stepped out and silently approached them from behind.

The old man and Lin Li followed carefully but quickly fell behind. Huang Ji moved with an uncanny stealth, his steps completely silent as he closed in on the intruders.

Both intruders carried knives, moving one behind the other.

The one in front reached the sofa, only to find it empty.

“No one’s here?” he muttered in surprise.

The second intruder, alarmed, began to turn around, but Huang Ji struck first. With a precise and clean chop to the back of the head, the second intruder collapsed instantly.

The blow targeted a specific point on the skull, which Huang Ji had identified as highly susceptible to inducing unconsciousness based on information he had studied. His technique, refined through martial arts, allowed him to unleash nearly 90% of his muscle power in a single strike—far beyond the average person’s capability.

While most people can only harness 20% of their strength, trained martial artists might achieve 40%, and true masters could reach 70% to 80%. Huang Ji’s technique enabled him to deliver the force of a full swing with just a short arm motion.

“Thud!” The intruder dropped, out cold.

The remaining intruder, hearing the commotion, whipped around and slashed with his knife. His swift and practiced movements showed he was no amateur.

But Huang Ji had already anticipated the attack, crouching low to dodge the blade.

“What the...!”

The man’s slash missed, passing harmlessly over Huang Ji’s head.

Before he could strike again, Huang Ji drove his index finger into the man’s chest, right at the small depression in the middle of the ribcage—an unprotected point without muscle coverage.

“Ugh... uh... uh...”

The man gasped and wheezed, his lungs spasming from the strike. The force expelled all the air from his lungs, leaving him momentarily paralyzed and unable to breathe.

Huang Ji stepped back, evading the flailing arms of his gasping opponent. Grabbing the knife hand, he gave a sharp twist, dislocating the joint with a sickening crack.

Without hesitation, Huang Ji’s hands moved in a blur, striking key joints along both arms.

“Snap! Crackle! Pop!”

He dislocated the man’s limbs with expert precision, rendering him utterly defenseless.

Dividing Tendons, Dislocating Bones!

Before long, Huang Ji had dislocated all four of the man’s limbs—both arms and legs—as if dismantling a remote control. With every joint rendered useless, the man crumpled to the ground, trembling uncontrollably. Huang Ji followed up with a firm kick, knocking him unconscious.

“So... so incredible!” Lin Li had watched the entire process, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.

Whether someone knew martial arts or not was glaringly obvious at a time like this.

The average person, when fighting, generally relied on instinct. They would throw a punch first and then react based on the opponent’s response, often fighting without any clear thought or strategy. Most fights Lin Li had seen looked like turn-based brawls—both parties trading blows without much technique.

But Huang Ji was different. From the moment he made his move, it was clear he never intended to give his opponent a chance to counterattack. This was true combat—no wasted movements, no tentative probing, just swift and decisive action to subdue the enemy.

Every strike had a clear purpose, with no guesswork or hesitation. Lin Li had been in fights before, but no matter how fancy the moves he imagined beforehand, they always devolved into grappling matches: shoving, headbutting, and pushing each other around. Most fights ultimately turned into clumsy wrestling matches.

“For someone so young to have such skill... ordinary people wouldn’t even last a single move against him!” Lin Li was astonished, and even the old man was stunned.

The old man silently reflected on his earlier reluctance to cooperate. If he had acted rashly, he might be lying on the floor just like these two intruders.

“Big Brother! What was that move just now? You just jabbed him, and he couldn’t breathe!” Lin Li couldn’t contain his excitement. This was the first time he had seen real martial arts.

When he saw Huang Ji’s finger jab into the man’s body, he initially thought it had pierced the skin. But upon closer inspection, the skin was intact, with only a reddish indentation that was slowly returning to normal.

Huang Ji calmly explained, “That’s a pressure-relief spot in the chest cavity. A heavy blow there forces all the air out of the lungs.”

“Whoa! The ‘Air-Expelling Finger’!” Lin Li immediately coined a name for it.

Huang Ji gave him a wordless, exasperated look.

At that moment, the old man spoke up. “Who are these people?”

“How would I know? They’re here for you,” Huang Ji replied deliberately.

The old man’s gaze sharpened. “And who exactly are you? How much do you know?”

Huang Ji remained calm. “I know quite a lot. Wang Xiaofan told me. He once invited me to join you, but I couldn’t at the time, so I refused.”

“Later, I learned that he had died. Since then, I’ve been tracking you down.”

“I’m deeply sorry for his death.”

Wang Xiaofan was the old man’s son. At the mention of his name, the old man’s eyes reddened instantly.

...