Yan Yue-Ren
News of the Demon-Hunting Team's preliminary qualifications spread quickly, and the various gangs and factions soon received word.
At the Wild Wolf Gang.
Yan Yue-Ren sat sprawled in a chair, while two beautiful young married women behind him massaged his shoulders and legs. Two female attendants stood beside him, peeling grapes for him.
"Incense Master! Three lads outside are making a fuss about seeing you. They say they have something important to report."
"Oh? Let them in."
Yan Yue-Ren spoke indifferently. As soon as he finished, he suddenly pulled one of the beautiful women behind him into his lap and began groping her all over.
The beautiful woman's face was streaked with tears and full of grief and indignation, but her family and children were all in Yan Yue-Ren's hands. She had no choice but to submit to his lecherous tyranny.
Soon, three gang underlings came in.
"Incense Master, we have something important to report."
"Speak."
Yan Yue-Ren kept pawing roughly at the beautiful woman as he looked at the three men.
"We ran into the woman you investigated last time, Incense Master."
"Oh?"
Hearing that, Yan Yue-Ren stopped what he was doing.
"The one you mean... is her?"
A portrait appeared in Yan Yue-Ren's hand.
"That's right, it's her!"
The three pointed at the portrait and said loudly, "We just saw her on the street."
"Are you sure?"
Yan Yue-Ren raised an eyebrow, a flicker of excitement in his eyes, and kicked the woman beside him away.
"Excellent! That saves me a trip! Hahaha, men, go and bring that little beauty back to me!
"Remember, I want her alive. You absolutely must not hurt her."
Yan Yue-Ren paced back and forth excitedly. At the thought of soon pinning that little beauty beneath him and doing whatever he pleased, he could hardly restrain himself.
He immediately sent people to investigate where Embroiderer was staying.
In Qingyang County, with his status, seizing a respectable woman was as easy as plucking something from his grasp.
"Incense Master, the Hall Master wants you to see him."
A gang member came over to deliver the message.
"Got it."
Yan Yue-Ren rubbed his chin. "Could it be that there's progress on joining the Demon-Hunting Team?"
The Wild Wolf Gang had recently secured a powerful backer and wanted to join the Demon-Hunting Team.
For the gang, the monthly stipend and martial arts were secondary. What they valued most was information!
Much of the information circulating in the jianghu was confidential and circulated only within the authorities. Outsiders had to pay a price to learn it, but if they sent someone from their own gang inside, things would be entirely different.
Once they had firsthand information, it would be the same as seizing the initiative. Failing that, they could sell the information to others, a guaranteed profit with no chance of loss.
It was nearly impossible for ordinary gang members to become yamen runners, as the authorities conducted background checks beforehand. But the Demon-Hunting Team was different: it recruited from among the people in the first place, bringing them in to work for the authorities and the imperial court.
But because the Demon-Hunting Team was under the yamen's jurisdiction, it was also part of the authorities' forces in a sense.
Yan Yue-Ren met Hall Master Qingmu and learned from him that he had become a reserve member.
"That Xiong San thinks fast, to have come up with a move like this."
Yan Yue-Ren said coldly, "But I reckon he must have run out of options too. This time, there were forty or fifty organizations in Qingyang City that put their names forward alone. However you count it, nearly half that number pulled strings and became reserve members. Twenty competing for one spot—that's no small challenge."
"No need to worry."
Qingmu took a bottle of pills from his robes. "These were specially prepared for you. They're enough to get you to the Late Flesh-Refining Realm. Perform well and don't disappoint the gang leader, understand?"
"I'll do my utmost."
Yan Yue-Ren took the pills, his eyes shining as he looked at the bottle in his hand.
Meanwhile.
Qin Ming and the others had already found places to stay.
Every inch of land in Qingyang County was worth its weight in gold, especially near the county yamen, where prices were even more outrageous.
Even an ordinary house with a small courtyard cost several hundred taels of silver a year to rent. If Qin Ming hadn't come into a windfall, his means would never have been enough to afford it.
Thanks to his Junior Brother Xiong San, Pei Heng rented a run-down room nearby with a large courtyard as a temporary place to stay. He planned to reopen the Eight Trigrams Martial Arts Academy later.
There weren't many rooms, so the junior brothers could only squeeze in together as best they could. Qin Ming rented another house not far away.
The house had two rooms and a small courtyard, with a peach tree in the yard.
Knock, knock, knock.
Qin Ming had just settled in when someone knocked at the door.
He opened it to find Li Shengnan standing outside.
Li Shengnan scratched her head, looking a little awkward. "Junior Brother Qin, could I live with you two? I can pay part of the rent."
Qin Ming understood at once.
Li Shengnan was a woman, after all. She couldn't squeeze into a room with her fellow disciples.
"You're welcome to stay, Senior Sister. There's a spare room, and there's no need to pay rent. Given our relationship, talking about silver would be treating each other like strangers."
Qin Ming stepped aside. "Please."
"Sister Li, you came at just the right time. You can keep me company when you have nothing to do."
Embroiderer said with a giggle. The two women chatted quietly as they went inside and began cleaning.
"You two tidy up. I'm going out for a look around."
Qin Ming touched the thick stack of silver notes in his robes and strode out.
Keeping those silver notes on him did him no good at all. He might as well exchange them for spirit medicines to improve his strength.
Besides, Qin Ming was also wondering whether he could use the silver notes he had to hunt down a Horizontal Training Martial Art in the Black Market.
He currently had several martial arts manuals on hand, all of which he could sell, including the Tiger Martial Arts Academy's Tiger Fist and Fierce Tiger Stance Art.
Not long after Qin Ming left, members of the Wild Wolf Gang came sneaking into the area.
"That woman should be living around here. Knock on every door, and make sure you find her!"
The group immediately scattered and began searching for Embroiderer.
At that moment, Embroiderer was still making the bed with Li Shengnan, completely unaware that danger was approaching.
Then someone knocked at the door.
"Huh, is it another of Brother Qin's fellow disciples?"
Embroiderer got up to answer the door.
Li Shengnan hadn't thought much of it at first. After all, this was Qingyang County, not far from the county yamen. How could anyone possibly abduct a woman in broad daylight?
But then Embroiderer's shrill scream rang out from the doorway, and Li Shengnan's expression changed drastically. "This is bad!"
Li Shengnan immediately rushed out.
Three Wild Wolf Gang members were carrying Embroiderer, preparing to put her in a carriage and leave.
Embroiderer had already been drugged unconscious and lay on the ground insensible.
This was their usual method: they used a secret drug to knock people out before taking them away. That way, their captives couldn't shout or struggle.
"Embroiderer! Embroiderer!"
Seeing Embroiderer's eyes tightly shut and getting no response, Li Shengnan's eyes nearly split with rage, almost spitting fire.
"Leave her here!"
With that, Li Shengnan drew her saber and slashed at one of them.
Although Li Shengnan was only at the Late Skin-Refining Realm, her strength was by no means weak. She cut one man down with a single slash, sending his severed arm flying.
In just a few strokes, she felled all three.
Just as Li Shengnan breathed a sigh of relief, another person came racing over from the distance.
Before the person even drew near, Li Shengnan felt a chilling, dreadful cold.
This was a Flesh Refining Realm expert!!!