A Deal

Tonight, Wang Hu had been attacked by the gang leaders of the Black Pole Gang, the Canal Gang, and the Great Whale Gang.

If Wang Hu hadn't been close to Li Ziren and regularly paid off the people in the government office, allowing him to quickly summon their help after he was attacked, he would have been dead by now.

But County Commandant Li Ziren and the others were government officers, not his hired muscle. They had come to mediate in the middle of the night only to maintain stability and keep the common people from suffering, and they had no wish to get involved in the gangs' affairs.

So they had deliberately taken their time, arriving only when he was nearly beaten to death. Even then, they had only driven the attackers away, caring nothing for whether he lived or died.

Even if the Green Bamboo Gang changed Gang Leaders, they wouldn't receive a single coin less than they were due.

The Green Bamboo Gang had originally been controlled by the brothers Wang Hu and Wang Bao. Now that the Wang brothers were dead, they might even receive more money.

They didn't concern themselves with the Green Bamboo Gang's grudges against the other gangs.

The other three major gangs had already achieved their goal, so it no longer mattered whether Wang Hu died now.

He was so badly injured that he wouldn't live more than a few days anyway.

Wang Hu stared at the masked man in front of him and frowned. His weakened body hadn't made his mind feeble too.

"I've never seen you in Shahu County... Who are you?"

With some effort, he raised his hand, straightened his clothes, and tied his loose, bloodstained hair back up. Then he pointed to a seat beside him. "Please, sit!"

Lu Chen was a little surprised.

Wang Hu seemed to place great importance on etiquette. Even on the verge of death, he was still straightening his clothes and headwear upon meeting him.

"Thank you!"

Lu Chen answered politely, took a relatively clean chair, and set it down opposite Wang Hu before sitting.

"You're about to die? Would you mind telling me who came after you?" Lu Chen was a little curious.

Wang Hu forced an ugly smile, then hissed in pain. "You still haven't told me who you are. Why should I tell you?"

Lu Chen nodded. "Fair enough! But if you want revenge, I can help you! The Black Pole Gang, for instance—they were involved today, weren't they? I can help you wipe them out!"

Wang Hu wasn't surprised. This man had made it all the way here, so his strength was clearly nothing to scoff at.

He didn't reply. Instead, he braced his still-intact right hand against his chair and rose unsteadily. Dragging a broken leg, he went to another chair nearby, lowered his head, and stroked its smooth back with a sigh.

"This is my younger brother Wang Bao's chair. By now, cough, cough, he must have gone on ahead of me, right? Heh, hahahaha!"

He chuckled softly at first, then burst into laughter, his voice full of desolation.

"Thirty-seven years. It took me thirty-seven years to go from a peddler to the Gang Leader of the Green Bamboo Gang! For a single cultivation method, I spent half my life, sought out countless people, and spent countless money, yet all I could get was an incomplete Swordsmanship manual. With my talent, if I'd had a cultivation method that could take me to the Marrow Washing Realm, things would be entirely different today!"

"For people like us, climbing higher is too hard... cough, cough... I could only stake lives on the fight—my own life and other people's lives!"

He spoke to himself in a low voice.

Lu Chen's expression remained unchanged, but a flicker of surprise passed through his eyes.

Were cultivation methods so hard to obtain in this world?

Given Wang Hu's status, he was clearly among the very top people in Shahu County. Yet after all that time, he had only managed to obtain an incomplete Swordsmanship manual—the Ox-Splitting Saber he was practicing now?

"You're the one who's been stirring up trouble and sowing discord in secret these past few days, aren't you?"

Wang Hu sat down in Wang Bao's chair and looked at Lu Chen.

"I'm guessing you killed Cheng Kui, Huang Sangu, and Lu San too! I've thought about it for a long time these past few days. Everything started when something happened to Lu San and his men!"

He looked at Lu Chen, another trickle of blood running from his mouth.

He wiped it away and continued, "But I could never understand it, cough, cough... Who could a mere Cheng Kui have offended? If you were an expert, you wouldn't have needed poison to deal with those ruffians. If you weren't, how did you manage to play all our gangs in circles right under our noses?"

Lu Chen didn't deny it. He simply stared at Wang Hu.

Wang Hu asked no more. He chuckled, revealing teeth covered in blood.

He spat. "Let's make a deal!"

"What kind of deal? What do I get?"

Wang Hu's head hung low. If Lu Chen hadn't still been able to see his body rising and falling with his breaths, he would have thought him dead.

After a while, Wang Hu finally raised his head and forced a strained smile.

"Sorry, I almost fell asleep."

It sounded as if phlegm were blocking his throat. He coughed a few times and spat out a solid lump streaked with blood.

"Much better!" Wang Hu said with a smile. "The deal is, help me kill everyone in the Black Pole Gang. If possible, there should still be quite a few kidnapped children there. If you save them, perhaps you can earn me a little blessing too... In my next life, I don't want to be human."

Lu Chen fell silent for a moment. "And what do I get? Don't tell me it's the Green Bamboo Gang's money. Once you're dead, it'll still be mine."

"Hahaha! Cough, cough!" Wang Hu laughed freely. "Besides the Green Bamboo Gang's money, you'll get a piece of information. That's all I can give you!"

"What information?"

"The thing I've dreamed of! A cultivation method—a complete, unblemished cultivation method that can take you to the Marrow Washing Realm!"

As he spoke of it, the light in Wang Hu's eyes grew a little brighter.

Lu Chen was interested. "You know where this cultivation method is? Why didn't you take it yourself?"

"It's in Registrar Wang Xiong's hands. Zhao Defu, the Gang Leader of the Black Pole Gang, is his man. Wang Xiong practices the White Ape Staff Technique, and he keeps his cultivation well hidden, but I know he's in the Marrow Washing Realm! Zhao Defu also uses a staff and practices an incomplete version of the White Ape Staff. The same goes for Li Mantun!"

Lu Chen was startled.

Damn it, I thought that now I've reached the Blood Exchange Realm, I was already one of the strongest people in Shahu County. I even thought I could refuse to eat beef.

The information he had heard from Qian Gui was that only County Magistrate Hu Bufan might be in the Blood Exchange Realm, while everyone else was at the Organ Refining Realm or below.

These people were all so underhanded, every last one of them, hiding their strength so deeply.

"No wonder you couldn't get it." Lu Chen understood. "Where is the Black Pole Gang hiding?"

"The ground beneath the Constables’ Barracks next to the County Yamen in the west of the city has been hollowed out. That's their territory."

Fuck! Lu Chen cursed inwardly.

It was darkest beneath the lamp?

"Who else in Shahu County is an expert, apart from Wang Xiong? I mean those at the Blood Exchange Realm or above."

Wang Hu gave Lu Chen a faint glance and smiled. "Hu Bufan, Marrow Washing Realm. Li Ziren, Blood Exchange Realm. Meng Ping, Blood Exchange Realm."

The corner of Lu Chen's eye twitched.

Damn it, everything Qian Gui told me was false!

So the people with the highest cultivation were all these officials.

He remained outwardly calm and continued questioning him. "Since they're all either at Blood Exchange or Marrow Cleansing, how could there be only one cultivation method? Don't tell me they all practice the same one?"

Surprise appeared in Wang Hu's eyes.

He stared at Lu Chen in the faint light cast down from a pillar, then suddenly laughed.

"Little brother, you... Forget it. You only need to know that cultivation methods are held in a death grip by those at the top. The crucial parts aren't even put on paper; they're passed down by word of mouth alone."

"And practicing a cultivation method also requires a matching set of medicinal herbs to temper the body. Those crucial herbs are likewise held in their hands. Even if you obtain a cultivation method, it's still useless without the medicine."

"For ordinary people like us to climb higher, unless we join the army and render great service, we can only become someone's dog and hope a few bone scraps fall from our master's mouth."

Lu Chen frowned.

"One look is enough to tell you're not some young master from a great Aristocratic Clan. To have this level of cultivation, perhaps you had an opportunity of your own, cough, cough..." Wang Hu gasped for a long while. Once he recovered, he continued.

"I'm guessing you don't have a cultivation method that can take you straight to the Marrow Washing Realm either, do you?"

When Lu Chen said nothing, Wang Hu took it as an admission.

The reasoning was simple.

If his background had been even a little better, he wouldn't have been so lacking in common sense.

Nor would he have patiently listened to him ramble for so long.

He had said "ordinary people like us" and "people like us" several times, yet Lu Chen had neither grown impatient nor objected. He had none of the bearing a person in a high position should have.

That could only mean he truly came from the bottom.

He was also so young. Even with his face covered, that vigorous youthful spirit was plain to see. Most likely, he had encountered some extraordinary opportunity.

Back in the day, he too had been that young!

He lowered his eyes and suddenly said, "Zhao Defu probably isn't in the Organ Tempering Realm, but the Blood Exchange Realm! He's hiding his strength. If you really can kill him, you can contact Hu Bufan to deal with the aftermath!"

"Hu Bufan? The county magistrate? Why him? I heard you were quite close to Li Ziren."

Lu Chen didn't understand.

"Li Ziren? Heh, he's nothing but a dog!" Wang Hu sneered, leaning back in the chair and coughing. "Did you also hear that Hu Bufan doesn't concern himself with affairs and is set on getting transferred away?"

"Yes."

"Hahaha, Hu Bufan isn't from Shahu County, or even Shanyang Prefecture. He's from Mingde Prefecture. A few years ago, the Shahu County magistrate was killed by bandits, and only then was he transferred here. As for the other three, every one of them has been in Shahu County for more than ten years. Meng Ping is even a Shahu County native, with roots sunk deep here!"

"If Hu Bufan wants to do anything, no one listens to him. He's already been stripped of his power. As time went on, he stopped concerning himself with affairs."

"You're saying Hu Bufan isn't on the same side as them, and the Black Pole Gang was backed by the others?"

Wang Hu shook his head.

"They don't have the ability to back the Black Pole Gang. Its name sounds ridiculous, with no imposing air at all, but the Black Pole Gang in Shahu County is only one tiny branch. They have people all across Great Qian."

He kept sneering.

"Didn't you say Zhao Defu was Wang Xiong's man?"

"Does that contradict it?"

Lu Chen fell silent for a long while.

The news was too shocking.

An organization that trafficked women and children, maimed children and forced them to beg, had branches throughout Great Qian. What that implied made a chill run down his spine.

"So, after listening to everything I've said, do you still agree to this deal?" Wang Hu looked at Lu Chen through half-closed eyes, his voice growing weaker. "It couldn't have been easy to gain the strength you have. Why not take my advice? The water's too deep for you to handle. Give up, go home obediently, marry, and have children."

The corner of Lu Chen's mouth curved up beneath the black cloth.

"Of course I agree."

Watching the light gradually fade from Wang Hu's eyes and the rise and fall of his chest grow ever fainter, Lu Chen stood up.

"I accept your deal. But you're not in very good shape right now, and you look like you're in a lot of pain. Want me to give you a quick death? No charge."

Wang Hu's eyes widened, then he burst out laughing.

"Interesting! Then let me tell you one last thing. I should say, it's my guess... cough, cough... The Flying Eagle Horse Gang may be men of the Northwestern Border Army."

Lu Chen froze for a moment.

The Northwestern Border Army?

They had come all the way south?

And how had a border army become a bandit horse gang?

"Why do you think everyone joined forces to attack my Green Bamboo Gang?"

Wang Hu rose unsteadily from Wang Bao's chair and sat back down in his own seat.

A pool of blood remained on Wang Bao's chair.

"Because my Green Bamboo Gang has an iron mine, and the Flying Eagle Horse Gang are men of the Northwestern Border Army. Zhang Dajing of the Great Whale Gang also came from the border army!"

Wang Hu sat upright in his chair, straightened his clothes, and closed his eyes.

"Do it."