I Thought You Were Going to Explode

By dusk, dark clouds had swept across the sky, and a drizzling rain began to fall.

White Cherry Villa's chief, Takeshita Ken, finally returned.

He had just come back from Wankong County, the most prosperous county under Luoshui City and also one of the planned locations.

He had traveled through three counties along the way and confirmed that the plan was proceeding without error.

He was already imagining the day the plan succeeded, slowly devouring Yongning Commandery and devouring the Wu Dynasty.

Suddenly, he frowned.

"Where are the gate guards today? Off shaking down people again? Looks like I need to punish them properly."

"How could they slack off at a critical moment like this?"

Perhaps good news put him in high spirits; even as he spoke, there was a smile at the corners of his lips.

As he entered White Cherry Villa, he gradually realized something was wrong.

Silent. Too silent.

All he could hear was the soft rustle of the rain.

His nose twitched slightly. The smell of blood, the smell of burning.

Takeshita Ken's expression changed sharply.

"Not good! The warehouse!"

He lifted his foot and ran toward the warehouse.

Gradually, his steps slowed, because he saw mangled corpses strewn all over the ground. Looking up, there was not a single intact body along the way, while blood had flowed into a small river.

And the warehouse that had occupied his thoughts day and night had already been completely burned into ruins.

Takeshita Ken dropped directly to his knees, his eyes turning hollow.

"Are you Takeshita Ken?"

Numbly, Takeshita Ken turned toward the voice and saw a scene that chilled his heart even further.

At the warehouse gate, dozens of shattered corpses had been piled into a small mountain, and Shen Qing, dressed in a bloodstained silver robe and holding a black oil-paper umbrella, sat quietly atop it.

A bolt of lightning flashed, its brilliance illuminating Shen Qing's cold, stern face.

Takeshita Ken's eyes remained hollow.

"Who are you?"

Shen Qing put away the oil-paper umbrella and set it aside. Rising to his feet, he pulled Qing He from where it had been deeply embedded in a corpse, sending blood spraying everywhere.

"Let me introduce myself. Shen Qing, Hundred Household Officer of the Luoshui Town Pacification Department."

A trace of fury appeared in Takeshita Ken's eyes. "You killed all my men?"

Shen Qing looked somewhat dissatisfied.

"Doesn't seem very passionate."

"That's right, I killed them all. It felt great. Never had such a rush before."

Takeshita Ken rose to his feet, grinding his teeth as rage blazed in his chest. "You deserve to die!"

Shen Qing's smile became ever more flamboyant, ever more unrestrained. "Yes, yes, yes! I deserve to die!"

"Your subordinates were truly loyal. One after another, they charged at me as if they didn't care about their lives."

"Oh, right! Even as they died, they were calling your name. While they fought bathed in blood, where were you, chief of White Cherry Villa?"

Unable to endure any longer, Takeshita Ken let out a furious roar and lunged at Shen Qing.

Yet the instant he charged onto the mountain of corpses, Shen Qing raised a foot and casually kicked him flying, sending him rolling through the bloody water.

Shen Qing nodded in satisfaction. "You've got spirit, but it's not enough. Let me add a little fuel to the fire."

"Yamamoto Shinichi and Matsushita Suke were close to you, weren't they?"

Takeshita Ken got up and wiped the blood from his face, his voice trembling. "What did you do to my second and third brothers?"

Shen Qing pointed toward Takeshita Ken's right. A corpse was embedded in the wall there, burned black and charred.

"That's your third brother, Matsushita Suke. Well, he's roasted a little too charred. You might not recognize him."

"As for Yamamoto Shinichi? He's in the Imperial Guards' prison. He's probably wishing he could die."

Takeshita Ken trembled uncontrollably as scene after scene flashed through his mind.

Matsushita Suke and Yamamoto Shinichi were both his sworn brothers. The three had come to the Wu Dynasty together, and their bond had long surpassed the ordinary.

"How could this be..."

"Aren't you going to avenge them?"

"Avenge them? Yes, avenge them."

Takeshita Ken raised his head, fury igniting once more as he charged at Shen Qing. He erupted with the fastest speed of his life, even leaving afterimages. The faces of his second and third brothers flashed endlessly through his mind, and he vaguely felt that his strength had reached its peak.

He roared madly.

"Second Brother, Third Brother! Watch Big Brother avenge you!"

This punch blasted out with bursts of sonic booms.

But in the next instant, Shen Qing merely raised his palm and easily caught Takeshita Ken's fist.

Shen Qing was deeply dissatisfied. He suddenly clenched his hand, swung hard, and flung Takeshita Ken onto the corpse mountain. Then he planted one foot on Takeshita Ken's chest and violently exerted strength with his left hand.

With a wet sound of flesh tearing apart, Takeshita Ken's right arm was torn off completely.

Shen Qing swung Takeshita Ken's arm like a hammer and directly hurled Takeshita Ken several meters away.

"Thunderous noise, but raindrops like pinpricks! I thought you were going to explode!"

Takeshita Ken struggled to rise from the ground, his eyes full of confusion.

Was this really a human? He could sense that Shen Qing's realm was three levels below his, but was this strength even possible?

Back in Japan, he remembered his master praising him as a genius chosen one in ten thousand. Among those in the same realm, he could be considered outstanding. And just now, he had unleashed the fastest speed and greatest power of his life.

Yet he had still been beaten like a dog by someone of a lower realm.

Shen Qing slowly descended the mountain of corpses and walked toward Takeshita Ken.

"Is this all you can do? And you wanted to avenge your brothers? You wanted to avenge your subordinates? You can do nothing. You can protect nothing."

Takeshita Ken glared viciously at Shen Qing.

"You devil! The Empire will not spare you. One day, we will occupy the Wu Dynasty, and you will become our slave!"

Shen Qing dug at his ear and stepped on Takeshita Ken's chest.

"What a stale threat. Not a shred of originality."

"You're still thinking about your plan, aren't you? Don't worry, I saw through it long ago. The Japanese pirates in Luoshui City have all been thrown into prison."

Shen Qing lowered his head, his face full of mockery.

"Are you still congratulating yourself for making several extra preparations and delivering soybeans elsewhere?"

Takeshita Ken's pupils suddenly contracted.

Shen Qing slowly pulled out his diary from within his robes.

"Sorry, I read your diary. I know every place you recorded. Once I bring this diary back to the Pacification Bureau, it won't even take half a day before all those Japanese pirates are dead!!!"

Takeshita Ken completely broke down and screamed heartbreakingly.

"Ahhhhhh..."

The next instant, his voice stopped abruptly. Shen Qing completely crushed his chest beneath his foot, and a surge of tyrannical true qi burst forth, blasting his corpse into bloody mist.

[You have killed a Xiantian Realm cultivator. Congratulations, you have successfully plundered the trait: Ninjutsu Prodigy (Purple)]

Shen Qing tucked the diary back into his robes, keeping it close to his body. The moment he had taken it out, Takeshita Ken's emotions had completely erupted. Before the Innate Six Senses, no emotion could hide itself. Everything recorded in this notebook was real.

Suddenly, the ground began to tremble faintly, and Zhang Shan's furious roar came from outside the villa.

"Everyone, follow me into White Cherry Villa! Support Hundred Household Officer Shen and slaughter the Japanese pirates!"

Immediately afterward, more than a hundred Black Riders charged into White Cherry Villa under cover of dusk. Their battle cries shook the heavens, but gradually, those cries faded away.

Because they discovered that they had charged in brimming with heroic fervor, fully prepared for a brutal fight, yet no one paid them any attention at all.

Very quickly, they spotted the burning warehouse and galloped over in a cloud of dust.

Everyone was stunned.

Severed limbs and broken arms carpeted the ground, blood flowing backward into a river. Even the eighteen levels of hell could be no worse than this.

Zhang Shan looked at Shen Qing and asked in disbelief, "You finished killing them?"

Shen Qing sheathed Qing He and raised the black oil-paper umbrella.

"Finished."

"You didn't say you were coming. If I'd known, I would've left a couple for you."

Zhang Shan swallowed hard. "So we came for nothing?"

"Not for nothing. You can confiscate the place. White Cherry Villa has no idea how much wealth it has amassed over the years. Haul all of it back."

Fang Ming and the others swept their gazes over the magnificently furnished villa. Quite a bit of silver and banknotes had fallen onto the ground after the Japanese pirates were cut apart. There was only one thought in their hearts.

This was really New Year's!