Opening the Mystery Box

Outside the courtyard wall.

Yang Jing peered through a gap in the wall at the courtyard beyond.

After Skinny Monkey Zhang Kui emerged from the Main Hall, he picked up the short axe on the stone table, left the courtyard, and headed south along the streets.

Hmm? He left?

Yang Jing paused, his brows drawing together in surprise.

He had been waiting for an opportunity to strike, intending to take their lives while they were down and kill both the injured Xu Tai and Zhang Kui at once. He had not expected Zhang Kui to leave.

Still, if Zhang Kui was gone, so be it. His departure was a good thing-it allowed Yang Jing to concentrate on Xu Tai.

Zhang Kui was merely an insignificant small fry. Yang Jing's real target was Xu Tai, Chief of the Great Fortune Gang.

Although Xu Tai was injured, he was still an expert at the Bright Strength Peak. Yang Jing would have to stay fully alert to deal with him.

After Zhang Kui left, Yang Jing sensed that his opportunity had come, but he did not act immediately.

The night was as thick as ink that would not dissolve. Not a breath of wind stirred, and the old pagoda tree stood motionless in the courtyard like a ghostly silhouette.

After Skinny Monkey Zhang Kui left, Yang Jing waited outside the wall for another half an incense stick's worth of time. Only after confirming that nothing else stirred did he leap lightly, dart through the shadows at the foot of the wall, and vault silently into the courtyard.

The moment his feet touched the ground, he hunched like a wildcat and pressed his ear to the cold brick wall, listening for movement inside.

There was nothing but the occasional crackle of the oil lamp in the Main Hall and the sound of coughing.

Treading softly, he hugged the wall and circled to the Main Hall's window. He moistened a finger with saliva and gently poked at a tear in the paper covering it, widening the hole a little.

By the dim yellow lamplight, he saw Xu Tai leaning against a bedpost with his eyes closed, resting. A broad patch of dark red had seeped through the bandages on his chest again, and his breathing rasped like broken bellows.

Yang Jing's anxious heart eased slightly.

It seemed Senior Brother Liu's information was correct. The old scoundrel Xu Tai really was badly injured.

He stepped back twice and listened intently for movement outside the courtyard. Once he was sure nobody was approaching, he suddenly raised his foot and kicked the door.

Crash!

The wooden door's bolt snapped, and the door flew open, slamming against the wall with a rush of air.

"Who's there?!"

Xu Tai's eyes snapped open, a flicker of panic flashing through them. But instincts honed through years of fighting instantly tensed his body, and he reflexively tried to duck beneath the bed.

Just then, a cold gleam flew from Yang Jing's hand. It was the short knife he had brought with him, whistling through the air straight toward the bedboards!

Xu Tai reacted quickly. Despite the pain, he twisted sharply aside. The short knife skimmed past his waist and sank deep into the bedboards with a thunk, its handle still humming.

But the evasive movement pulled at his wound, leaving him half a beat too slow. Where the blade swept past his waist, the bandages split open, and blood gushed out.

Xu Tai grunted in pain, cold sweat instantly drenching his forehead. He was just reaching for the saber beside his bed when Yang Jing pounced like a fierce tiger.

"Who are you?! Does the Righteousness Gang have a third bright strength expert?"

Xu Tai stared at Yang Jing, who wore black night-traveling garb and a blue cloth mask. His face alternated between ashen and pale as he tried to guess Yang Jing's identity.

He struggled to rise, but the moment he straightened, the world spun around him. He could only stagger backward, his back slamming hard against the wall.

Yang Jing gave him no chance to breathe. Sinking his waist and twisting his hips, he drove the Mountain Collapse Fist's Split Stone form straight at Xu Tai's chest.

Fueled by bright strength, Fist Wind carried a fierce, forceful rush of air. Xu Tai hurriedly raised his arm to block.

With a muffled thud, his arm went numb, as though it had struck a red-hot branding iron. The force hurled him against the wall again, and a coppery sweetness rose in his throat.

"Mountain Collapse Fist? You're... you're Yang-"

Xu Tai's expression changed instantly.

At that moment, he had a vague idea of his attacker's identity.

Yet once he guessed who it was, he felt an unprecedented sense of absurdity and disbelief.

Both the Sun Clan Martial Arts School and the Great Fortune Gang were in the West City area. As Chief of the Great Fortune Gang, Xu Tai naturally knew quite a bit about the Sun Clan Martial Arts School, which enjoyed considerable renown there. Some of his friends were even disciples of the school.

Thus, Xu Tai also knew something about the Mountain Collapse Fist taught at the Sun Clan Martial Arts School.

The moment Yang Jing used it, Xu Tai recognized it.

He had virtually no disputes with the school's bright strength disciples. If there was anyone he had a grudge with, it was Yang Jing.

But he had not even found the time to deal with Yang Jing yet! At least for now, it was merely a matter of a dozen or so taels of silver. Had he really come to kill him over that paltry sum?!

Looking at the black-clad figure, who refused to answer and whose eyes blazed with icy killing intent, Xu Tai felt an irrepressible surge of regret.

After his subordinates investigated Yang Jing, he had assumed the young man was just a foolish boy who knew nothing but burying himself in fist practice. Even breaking through to bright strength would not make him much of a threat.

Had he known this fellow was a ruthless killer who took lives without mercy, he would have forgone not just sixteen taels, but even a hundred, and immediately tried to mend their relationship.

For gang members like him who fought their way through society's lowest ranks, an enemy's temperament mattered most. In other words, they bullied the honest and tried not to antagonize those who were not. If a feud became unavoidable, they had to settle it as quickly as possible, killing with a single strike.

But they had misjudged Yang Jing.

Far from being a taciturn, honest man, Yang Jing was ruthless and decisive.

"Brother, don't attack! I have money! I'll give you money, gold, silver, treasure medicine-"

Xu Tai was both shocked and terrified. At his best, he would naturally have had no fear of Yang Jing, but gravely injured as he was, he could not muster even thirty percent of his strength.

He wanted to beg for mercy, to sway Yang Jing with money and valuables.

But before he could finish, Yang Jing's fist came at him again. He said nothing; his punches merely grew fiercer and more vicious!

Yang Jing knew Xu Tai was a Bright Strength Peak. Even if he had only twenty or thirty percent of his power left, Yang Jing could not afford carelessness.

Xu Tai's face darkened. He suddenly tucked up his legs and kicked hard at Yang Jing's lower abdomen, hoping to force him back.

Yang Jing neither dodged nor avoided him. His left hand clamped around Xu Tai's ankle like iron pincers, while his right formed a fist.

With a bang, his fist smashed into the outside of Xu Tai's knee.

A sharp crack rang out. Xu Tai screamed, his knee bending at a grotesque angle.

At that moment, he knew he was finished, but he still refused to accept it. His other hand seized Yang Jing's wrist, trying to use it as leverage to turn himself over.

Yang Jing's gaze turned cold. His fist changed direction, slid along Xu Tai's arm, and slammed into the existing wound on his chest!

"Pfft-"

Xu Tai spat out a mouthful of blood. His bandages turned completely red, and he collapsed beneath the bed like a puddle of sludge.

Watching Yang Jing advance step by step, his eyes filled with uncontrollable fear. "Y-you can't kill me... I know people at your Martial Arts Hall..."

Yang Jing said nothing. He merely gathered bright strength into his fist.

He recalled Force Through the Flesh, which his master Sun Yong and Fourth Senior Brother Liu Maolin had both explained before. Now, every punch landed precisely on Xu Tai's injured areas-his shoulder socket, beneath his ribs, and his lower abdomen.

His fists carried the fierce power to split mountains and shatter stone, yet he controlled each blow, preventing an instant death and letting the agony pile up layer upon layer.

Xu Tai's resistance grew weaker and weaker. From punching and blocking, he was reduced to shielding his head with his arms. Finally, he lacked even the strength to raise a hand, and only ragged gasps remained.

The oil lamp's flame shook violently in the wind of the punches, casting their shadows onto the wall-one straight as a pine, the other curled up like a dog.

For the final punch, Yang Jing gathered all the bright strength in his body and smashed it into Xu Tai's chest.

A muffled boom sounded. Xu Tai's body bounced like a sack struck by a heavy blow, then went utterly still. His eyes remained wide open, holding the last traces of shock and unwillingness.

Yang Jing stood where he was, breathing heavily.

From kicking the door open to killing Xu Tai, everything had happened in a lightning flash, in no more than a few short breaths.

No matter how Xu Tai's tongue bloomed with eloquence, no matter what he offered to sway him, Yang Jing remained unmoved.

From beginning to end, he had not spoken a single word, right up until he killed Xu Tai.

Although Xu Tai had already been seriously wounded, he was still an experienced bright strength expert. Throughout the fight, Yang Jing had not dared let his guard down for an instant. He remained utterly focused, refusing to stop until Xu Tai was dead.

Those few breaths of desperate combat had left a fine sheen of sweat on Yang Jing's body.

But this was no longer his first time killing. Counting Feng Lei and Scarface Li, Xu Tai was the third person to die at his hands.

As the number of people he killed grew, Yang Jing's mindset gradually changed. The discomfort he had felt at first was gone.

Besides, men like Xu Tai and Scarface Li deserved death-even more than Feng Lei.

After all, the Great Fortune Gang had always conducted utterly heartless business. Loan-sharking was among its milder offenses. Its ventures in abducting and mutilating people to exploit them for begging alone were enough to warrant killing those beasts eight or ten times over.

Soon, Yang Jing drew a deep breath and slowly released it. Steadying himself, he bent down and searched Xu Tai's body.

His fingers slipped inside the dead man's robes. To his surprise, instead of silver, they encountered a booklet with a rough cover.

Yang Jing withdrew his hand and pulled out the booklet. Written on the cover in heavy black ink were the words "Surging Wave Leg."

This is actually a martial art?

Yang Jing paused, then a surge of delight rose in his heart.

He was no longer the clueless novice he had been when he first transmigrated. As he continued practicing, his understanding of martial arts had grown.

He knew very well how rare and precious a martial art was.

The Sun Clan Martial Arts School, for instance, owed its present standing and considerable reputation throughout Yuhe County to the Mountain Collapse Fist.

Of course, only Sun Yong possessed the complete Mountain Collapse Fist manual, and only he had cultivated it to the level of a transforming strength expert. In Yuhe County, Sun Yong could be said to embody the Mountain Collapse Fist.

Mention the Mountain Collapse Fist, and people thought of Sun Yong. Mention Sun Yong, and they thought of the Mountain Collapse Fist.

Yang Jing gave the booklet a quick look. Its pages were yellowed and its corners worn, clearly showing its age. Although he did not know what level of martial art Surging Wave Leg was, the fact that Xu Tai kept it on his person suggested it was no fraudulent fake.

Having just killed someone, with the situation still tense, Yang Jing had no time to read it. He folded the booklet twice and tucked it inside his robes, hiding it snugly against his chest.

Then he quickly scanned and searched the room. There were only scattered wound medicines and empty bowls on the table, several empty wooden chests beneath the bed, and a few old garments in the cabinet in the corner.

Yang Jing shook his head. It seemed there was nothing else of value in the room.

Without delaying further, he bent down, seized Xu Tai's corpse by the arm, and tossed him onto the bedboards.

The corpse was heavy, but Yang Jing was now an entering strength martial artist, far stronger than an ordinary person. Moving a corpse posed no difficulty.

Yang Jing then arranged Xu Tai's body to make it look as though he had been trapped and burned to death while unconscious from his severe injuries.

Once that was done, he turned to the square table, picked up the oil lamp, and walked to the bedside, bringing its wick to the bed curtains.

The dry fabric caught at once. With a whoosh, flames leaped up and licked at the bedboards and bedding.

Yang Jing immediately backed away, turned, and rushed out of the room.

Not daring to linger, he vaulted over the wall, his figure vanishing into the darkness at the mouth of the alley.

After running several dozen yards, he looked back. The secluded courtyard was already blazing, its flames staining half the night sky red.

Quite a few figures were already gathering toward the fire. Shouts and the clatter of buckets rose one after another; clearly, nearby residents had come to put it out.

Watching the roaring blaze, Yang Jing knew Xu Tai's corpse would soon be swallowed by the flames and burned into unrecognizable charcoal.

The damage from his punches, the shattered bones, and the marks on the body would all vanish in the intense heat. Nobody would be able to tell that Xu Tai had died beneath the Mountain Collapse Fist.

Yang Jing did not look back again. He quickened his pace through the alleys, the Surging Wave Leg manual inside his robes bobbing gently with his steps.

Behind him, the fire grew brighter and the commotion louder, but none of it had anything to do with him anymore.

The entanglement between him and the Great Fortune Gang had also reached its end with the death of its Chief, Xu Tai.

Under cover of darkness, Yang Jing circled back to the rubbish heap in Fengle Ward.

He pushed aside the dead branches, fallen leaves, and other rubbish covering it. The sack Scarface Li had taken from the Great Fortune Gang Headquarters was still there, and the clinking from within finally set his anxious heart at ease.

He immediately lifted the sack. It weighed a fair amount, filling him with even greater anticipation for its contents.

With the sack recovered, Yang Jing immediately headed toward Datong Ward.

Along the way, he grew increasingly careful, choosing only the shadows beneath eaves and at the ends of alleys. Whenever he encountered a night watchman or a drunk, he shrank into a corner until they passed.

Deep in a narrow alley, Yang Jing checked that nobody was nearby, then quickly ducked into the shadows. He removed his night-traveling garb and mask and stuffed them into the sack along with the bloodstained short knife.

Once everything was taken care of, he carried the sack onward toward Datong Ward.

It was almost midnight now. Datong Ward lay deathly still, nearly everyone sound asleep. Lanterns still glowed before a few courtyard gates, though they looked as if they would soon go out as well.

The firelight and commotion in Xinghua Ward were too far away. Here in Datong Ward, there was only the silence of sleep.

Yang Jing reached the courtyard where he rented a room and gently pushed open the unlatched gate, keeping his steps exceedingly light.

The other tenants' rooms were all dark. Yang Jing hurried back to his own room and fastened the door bolt behind him.

Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. He leaned against the door, listening to his own slightly hurried heartbeat.

"Tonight was a little too exciting."

Yang Jing let out a long breath and looked down at the sack on the floor. His eyes shone, a hint of nervous anticipation flashing through them. "Whether I can break through to hidden strength soon depends on what comes out of this mystery box."