The sun leaped above the gray, misty sea. A half-wheel of purplish-red flame immediately lit up the dim sky, and behind the vivid morning clouds, it was as though an endless bolt of blue silk had been unfurled.
Early that morning, as the dragon dance troupe arrived at the Gambling House in West City, preparing to seek a bit of good fortune—
"Ah—! Someone's dead!!!"
A shrill scream of utter terror tore through the morning mist.
By the time the constables and yamen runners responsible for patrolling West City arrived at the Gambling House, even they, accustomed as they were to bloody scenes, could not help bracing themselves against the walls and vomiting violently!
The first floor of the entire Gambling House was strewn with severed limbs and broken arms. Large and small intestines mingled with congealed blood, covering the ground. Even the experienced coroner needed an entire morning to piece together the corpses of over thirty thugs.
The scene on the second floor was even bloodier.
The master of West Hall, who usually lorded it over all of West City, acted with insufferable arrogance, and loved turning people into flayed dogs, had been nailed to the wall with a long blade!
His eyes were wide open, his face bluish-green, his pupils contracted, still carrying the intense terror from before his death.
In an instant.
One stone stirred ten thousand waves!
All of West City in Pingjiang City erupted in an uproar!
"Our West City's Living Yama has been killed!"
"Hahaha, Heaven has opened its eyes at last!"
"Which heroic champion rid the people of this scourge? Did he leave his name behind?"
"Son! Did you see that? The man who killed you back then has finally been killed!"
"My foolish daughter! Your father has finally lived to see the day of revenge!"
"Good death!"
At that moment.
One family mourned, while a hundred families rejoiced!
Though Yang Zheng was wicked, at most he violated other men's wives and daughters and seized their land.
But Xiang Chengjiang was different.
He ran Gambling Houses and pawnshops. His usual scheme was to first drag people into the mire, then force them to borrow money at terms of nine out, twenty-three returned.
After devouring them clean, wiping them dry, and squeezing out every last drop of blood—
He either broke their hands and feet, flayed their skin and pulled out their tendons, then threw them onto the streets to beg and earn money for him!
Or he made the men slaves and the women prostitutes, selling them into brothels and mines for brutal labor, where they would be worked to death alive within days!
He gnawed their bones and dug out their marrow; even bamboo slips could not record all his crimes!
Over the years, who knew how many people Xiang Chengjiang had driven into families torn apart and homes destroyed!
At that moment.
All of West City was stirred by an unprecedented uproar!
Too many families once harmed by Xiang Chengjiang wept in each other's arms on the streets, tears soaking their clothes as they loudly called out the names of those who had died years ago.
Afterward.
News of Xiang Chengjiang's entire household being wiped out swept through all of Pingjiang City like the tide!
Outside Pingjiang City, at a bend in the water.
Splash—!
A tall, imposing figure emerged from the water and tipped back his head, drinking down a mouthful of Whale Blood wine.
Technique: Crimson King Eyes (Entry Level) Progress: 50/500 Growth Method: Devouring Fear, raise a dragon within the eyes! Description: The dragon's pressure of Heaven and Earth, naturally becoming a king and overlord!
Fang Xuan looked at the Black Talisman panel before him, a dark golden glimmer in the shape of a dragon flashing deep within his pupils.
In merely one night, the fear he had collected had directly pushed Crimson King Eyes from the First Glimpse stage into Entry Level!
He could feel with incomparable clarity that the aura contained deep within his pupils seemed to be transforming in an unknown direction.
Its depth and grandeur were several times greater than before!
Whoosh—boom!
From the distant direction of West City came the faint sound of fireworks exploding.
"I suppose this counts as ridding the people of a scourge?"
Fang Xuan raised his eyes toward it, then shook his head with a faint laugh. In his heart, he could not help saying, Good death!
He did not consider himself a good man. Over the years, he had done some evil deeds as well.
But he had never been like Xiang Chengjiang, driving ordinary people until they had no path left to walk!
Killing Xiang Chengjiang this time served three purposes: first, to remove Zheng Juexiong's wing; second, to gather fear; and third, to rid the people of a scourge along the way.
He took a deep breath.
Fang Xuan swallowed another mouthful of Whale Blood and plunged once more into the icy river water.
A surging wave crashed toward him. Fang Xuan leaped into the air from the river's surface, using his body to battle the waves!
A full day passed.
When Fang Xuan left the Ping River, the progress of the Dragon Whale Technique had already drawn incredibly close to four hundred.
"I imagine that in just a few more days, the Dragon Whale Technique will reach four hundred progress. My cultivation should rise with the tide as well, entering the late stage of the First Heavenly Gate, right?"
As he walked along Ten Li Long Street in East City, gentle dusk draped itself over Fang Xuan's shoulders.
While pondering the progress of his various cultivation methods and martial techniques, Fang Xuan continued forward.
"F-Fang Xuan?"
Just then, a hesitant call rang out from some distance away at his side.
"Hmm?"
Fang Xuan turned his eyes toward the sound and saw the entrance of a restaurant bearing the signboard of Happiness and Fortune Restaurant.
A gentle woman stood beneath the sign. She wore plain clothes, and while she could not be called especially beautiful, she possessed the delicate grace of a modest household. She looked at him with uncertainty.
"It really is you?"
Seeing Fang Xuan stop, the gentle woman's eyes immediately lit up with delight, and she hurried over.
She looked Fang Xuan up and down, then strained to stand on tiptoe and patted his shoulder. Somewhat astonished, she said:
"Fang Xuan, how did you grow so tall after just a few years apart? I almost didn't recognize you just now."
"You're... Sister Lu Ying?"
Fang Xuan studied the woman's features for a long while before finally remembering who she was.
It was not that he had a poor memory.
Rather, although the woman before him looked much like the moonlight of his youth in his memories, she had long lost the lively, playful spirit unique to a young girl.
Though she was only in her early twenties, her skin had darkened somewhat, her waist and back were slightly bent, and her figure had begun to lose its shape. Her hands were as rough as fishing nets and tanned hide, while a trace of weathered exhaustion from life's hardships and the daily grind lay between her brows.
The bright-eyed, white-toothed, lively young girl from his memories had long become like those women in the marketplace who wove nets, endured sun and rain, and labored day and night.
"Time urges people to grow old." Fang Xuan sighed inwardly.
Seeing Lu Ying again, the lingering fantasy he had held deep in his memories of that moonlight of his youth had already scattered with the wind. What remained was chiefly a wistful sense that things had changed and people were no longer the same.
"You brat, you used to follow behind me every day, calling me Sister Lu Ying and begging for candy. Now you don't recognize me, is that it?"
Lu Ying shot Fang Xuan an annoyed glare, then grabbed him and pulled him toward the restaurant.
"Come on! It wasn't easy for me to come back this time. I'm treating today, so we have to catch up properly!"
"Alright, then I'll trouble Sister Lu Ying to spend some money on me." Fang Xuan smiled and did not refuse.
"What spending money? Don't worry. Your sister might not be rich now, but our circumstances are still a little better than before. Treating you to a meal is no problem! My husband and I can earn five hundred copper coins a month now. Order whatever you want."
Hearing the generosity in Lu Ying's tone, Fang Xuan said nothing more and merely laughed heartily as well.
"Hahaha, then I won't stand on ceremony."
They entered Happiness and Fortune Restaurant.
The restaurant proprietor, who had been working his abacus, gave Lu Ying an indifferent glance. But when he saw the tall figure behind her, his face twitched, and he hurriedly put on a fawning smile as he came forward.
There would be another update before midnight.
Before you continue