Smack!
A black official's boot embroidered with golden auspicious clouds came down heavily into a puddle on the bluestone road, splashing water everywhere.
Yang Zheng chased after the woman in the pale yellow dress. Before long, he had left the alley and arrived at Pingjiang Riverside.
The sky was a crushing expanse of black. Furious thunderclaps continuously exploded between heaven and earth, while towering waves surged across the river as if it had become a raging sea.
A torrential downpour was falling, and the river was at high tide. The riverside had long since been deserted.
"Where are you off to, little lady?"
Yang Zheng slowed his pace and let out a long laugh.
The two constables following beside him immediately understood. Taking several quick strides forward, they blocked the beautiful woman's path.
"Little lady, Brother Zheng called for you. How come you can't hear him?" The two constables gripped their sword hilts and gave the beautiful woman false smiles.
Within a few steps, Yang Zheng had already come up behind her.
He reached out, placed a hand beneath the yellow-dressed woman's chin, and gently lifted it.
A face with brows like distant dark mountains, eyes like autumn waters, and lips lightly bitten between her teeth appeared before Yang Zheng.
In an instant, Yang Zheng's entire body jolted, as if a giant hand had clenched around his heart. Even his breathing stalled.
What a peerlessly beautiful face, so pitiful and delicate!
Before this woman, the famed courtesans and untouched songstresses he had encountered before all seemed to pale into insignificance, reduced to gaudy powder and vulgar rouge.
"In such heavy rain, where is Miss headed? Why not come to this official's home and have a cup of ginger tea to warm yourself?" Yang Zheng teased.
"Of-official sir, my husband is still waiting for me at home," the woman in yellow said weakly.
"What? You have a husband?"
Yang Zheng was delighted to hear that, his heart beginning to pound wildly.
The two constables beside him exchanged glances and both let out filthy chuckles.
What Brother Zheng liked most were married women.
Best of all was to toy with a man's wife and daughter right in front of him. That was the most thrilling!
"So I ask that Official Sir show mercy and let me leave. My husband has a quick temper. If I return too late, he will surely come looking for me." The woman in yellow bit her lip lightly, her watery eyes filled with pleading.
"Hahaha, what's so difficult about that? I, Yang Zheng, have always been the most hospitable of men. Why not invite your husband over and have him accompany us to my home? Perhaps your husband and I might hit it off and even become sworn brothers-in-law!"
Yang Zheng looked at the pitiable woman in yellow, his heart growing hotter and hotter. His gaze roamed brazenly over her body.
Her rain-soaked clothes clung tightly to her skin. Through the fabric, he could even see her soft, tender skin, white as mutton-fat jade.
With an ass like that, one slap would send three waves rolling over it. Absolutely prime stuff. Yang Zheng swallowed, thinking to himself.
With that thought, Yang Zheng wrapped a large hand around the yellow-dressed woman's willow-slender waist and prepared to hoist her over his shoulder and take her away.
Suddenly.
"My husband is here!" The woman looked into the distance and cried out softly.
Yang Zheng raised a brow and followed her gaze.
Not far ahead, mist rose from every direction, while a dense curtain of rain shrouded heaven and earth.
A tall figure wearing a bamboo hat and straw rain cape, with a saber at his waist, stood silently in the rain.
"Hm? He came at just the right time."
Yang Zheng gradually narrowed his eyes, a hint of chill appearing on his face.
"Zhang San, Wang Wu, bring that man over here!"
"Got it!"
The two constables grinned viciously, rolled their shoulders, and headed toward the tall figure in the straw cape and bamboo hat.
That figure merely pulled his bamboo hat lower, then likewise began walking toward Yang Zheng.
The next moment.
Under Yang Zheng's mocking gaze, Zhang San and Wang Wu simultaneously placed their large hands on the shoulders of the traveler in the bamboo hat and straw cape.
Bang! Bang!
With two soft sounds.
Zhang San and Wang Wu seemed to have been frozen in place, their entire bodies stiffening as they allowed the tall figure to brush past between them and continue walking step by step toward Yang Zheng!
Rumble!
A furious thunderclap exploded!
Pale lightning flashed and vanished. Most of the straw-cloaked swordsman's face was hidden beneath the bamboo hat, and a chin with slightly sparse stubble briefly appeared in the flash.
"Zhang San, Wang Wu? Pah, useless trash!"
Yang Zheng flung away the woman he had been carrying over his shoulder, drew the long saber at his waist with a clang, and spat on its blade.
The next instant, fierceness burst from his eyes. When the tall figure was less than half a zhang away, he viciously brought his saber down!
"Playing tricks in front of me? Die for me!"
Whoosh!
A frigid saber gleam flashed through the rainy night, carrying a howling gale as it slashed down fiercely.
Bang—!
A large hand with thick knuckles and clearly defined fingers caught the blade in its grip.
"This saber technique."
"It's so clumsy it makes one laugh."
A deep voice exploded beside Yang Zheng's ear!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
That large hand slowly exerted force, and fine cracks immediately spread across the blade!
Then.
More cracks appeared, more and more, until they covered the entire saber!
The next moment.
Bang!!!
The entire blade shattered into countless crystalline fragments, exploding from that large palm!
Amid the pale lightning, the tall figure in the bamboo hat slowly raised his head, revealing from beneath its shadow a face with lowered eyes and an indifferent expression.
"You're Fang Xuan?!"
Yang Zheng's face first went pale with shock. Then, a nameless fury surged straight to the top of his head!
All fear came from the unknown.
And as the mysterious veil surrounding Fang Xuan was lifted away, fear was replaced by anger!
"What are you trying to do?!!"
Yang Zheng roared furiously, glaring viciously at Fang Xuan.
"Fang Xuan! You lowborn bastard, you've got some nerve! Let me warn you, my father is Yang Jiang. If you dare touch me—"
Bang!!!
A black Jiao Mark lit up in the night.
The next moment.
Before Yang Zheng could finish a single sentence.
A sharp, fierce saber radiance, carrying a bone-chilling cold, rapidly expanded in his pupils!
Splurt!
In almost an instant, the saber cleaved straight down from the top of Yang Zheng's head and split out through the center beneath his crotch!
There was no form or technique to this strike—only terrifying force!
Flesh, bones, sinews—everything was severed cleanly and neatly!
"You're about to die and still won't stop yammering. If you don't die, who will?"
Rainwater fell like strings of beads from the brim of the bamboo hat. Fang Xuan turned around, calmly shook the scarlet bloodline from his saber, and sheathed the chipped blade with his distinct-knuckled fingers.
Violent lightning flickered and died, shaking heaven and earth into silence!
Behind him, blood gushed forth in torrents as the red-robed constable's body, split in two down the middle, crashed to the ground like a fallen banner!
Fang Xuan looked toward the woman in the distance, who was already bent over against a tree and vomiting violently. Raising his head, he smiled faintly.
"Miss Chen, see? I told you that you wouldn't come to harm, didn't I?"
In the distance, Miss Chen, who had come from the prefectural city and once met Fang Xuan with a cold glare, was already clutching the tree and vomiting until her insides churned like an overturned sea, stars dancing before her eyes.
Today brings great fortune—favorable for voting!
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