In the span of a moment, Ge Jingchun, who had been calm and composed just moments ago, was already sprawled on the ground like a dead dog, his face ashen.
What else could he do now? Other than closing his eyes and waiting for death, there was no other road left to take.
He followed the direction of the voice, but he could not see Chu Qing's face. It was covered.
"Who exactly are you?"
Ge Jingchun's voice began to tremble as well.
His suffering was even worse than Mei Qianluo's.
His arms had been torn directly from his shoulders, while both his feet had been cleanly severed.
This man's blade technique was fast and vicious, with distinctive traits.
Yet Ge Jingchun carefully ran through every master of the blade he knew, but could not connect a single one of them to the man before him.
"A kind-hearted passerby."
Chu Qing smiled casually.
"I saw you lot chasing down an innocent young woman, then killing people here to silence them.
"I truly could not stand watching it, so I showed myself to uphold justice."
"..."
That was pure nonsense.
Ge Jingchun did not believe a single word of it.
He gave a bitter smile.
"Fine. Give me a quick death."
At this point, there was no hope of survival. Even if Chu Qing did not kill him, such severe injuries would still lead only to death.
Rather than slowly endure agony until he died, he would rather have Chu Qing finish him with one slash.
But Chu Qing shook his head.
"There are some things I want to ask you about... Has the Divine Sand Gang already submitted to the Valley of Ten Thousand Nights?"
Ge Jingchun's expression turned cold.
"They... deserve that?"
"Then you are working together?"
Chu Qing seemed thoughtful.
"Tell me, what are you planning to do in Heavenly Dance City? And how did you sneak in?
"Even if Heavenly Dance City's defenses were as lax as they could be, surely they could not have let renowned figures like you slip in so easily and hide yourselves.
"Is your Divine Sand Gang's Gang Leader, Cheng Sihai, currently in Heavenly Dance City?"
Ge Jingchun stared fixedly at Chu Qing, then suddenly said:
"Falling Rain Hall helped us infiltrate Heavenly Dance City.
"We entered through Falling Rain Hall's secret passage...
"You were right. There is indeed cooperation between us.
"Our objective, working from within and without, is to take Heavenly Dance City. When the time comes, Heavenly Dance City's power will be divided in two—half for the Divine Sand Gang, half for the Valley of Ten Thousand Nights!!"
At this point, he paused slightly and gave a cold laugh.
"If the Gang Leader were currently in Heavenly Dance City, how could we allow you to run wild here!
"Tonight, you would surely die!"
As soon as Ge Jingchun finished speaking, a weak voice came from the corner.
"He is lying...
"Cheng Sihai is in Heavenly Dance City!"
Ge Jingchun's face instantly darkened.
Lies were often seven parts truth and three parts falsehood, or nine parts truth and one part falsehood.
By revealing Falling Rain Hall's secret passage, he had already provided an enormous amount of information, and his purpose had been perfectly reasonable.
Only the Gang Leader's whereabouts were what he wished to conceal.
Yet before Chu Qing could even react, Xia Wanshuang had exposed him outright.
Looking back over everything that had happened tonight, Ge Jingchun's greatest regret was that he had not strangled Xia Wanshuang to death the moment Mei Qianluo entered.
He had believed her life and death were entirely within his grasp.
He had even been able to use her to lure Chu Qing out... Yet he had not expected Chu Qing's martial arts to be far stronger than he had imagined.
He had succeeded, and he had failed.
He had successfully lured Chu Qing out, but Mei Qianluo had ended up losing his head to Chu Qing's blade.
Then, during his confrontation with Chu Qing, Xia Wanshuang had launched a sneak attack.
That was how he had ended in such a crushing defeat.
If Xia Wanshuang had died then, would his ending still have been the same?
But when he asked himself that question, he had no answer.
He had not seen through Chu Qing's martial arts at all.
This man had emerged from a shroud of mist, and all his abilities were hidden beneath that mist. Clearly highly skilled, he still refused to fight him head-on.
Instead, he used every manner of trick to ambush and scheme against him.
Yet based on this man's blade technique alone, he was certainly no mediocrity... In a true fight to the death, without actually fighting, it was impossible to say.
It was not Ge Jingchun's fault for being uncertain. As an assassin, Chu Qing did not follow the path of those heroic wanderers of the martial world.
They disdained sneak attacks from the shadows and favored open, upright contests.
But what did assassins care about being open and upright?
Unless one day his martial arts truly became capable of crushing the world beneath his feet, he would always seize the initiative whenever possible and establish an overwhelming advantage.
Even without an advantage, he would forcefully fight to gain one.
That was the basic quality of an assassin.
Chu Qing silently glanced at Ge Jingchun, then turned his gaze to Xia Wanshuang.
"How did you know Cheng Sihai was in Heavenly Dance City?"
"The Divine Sand Gang has a blood feud of extermination with my family. Ever since my martial arts reached some level of attainment, I have wanted every moment of every day to slaughter Cheng Sihai and those other treacherous villains.
"So I have always remained hidden outside the Divine Sand Gang, watching their every move.
"That is why I know Cheng Sihai, Ge Jingchun, Mei Qianluo, and the Divine Sand Gang's Four Great Guardians left the Divine Sand Gang together and came to Heavenly Dance City."
As Xia Wanshuang said this, her breathing grew unsteady. Only after taking two breaths did she continue.
"He said they entered Heavenly Dance City through a secret passage. That should not have been a lie.
"I personally watched them arrive at a forest, where someone received them and led them into the secret passage... I did not dare rashly enter, but I recognized the man who met them. He was Tang Xi, the young hall master of Falling Rain Hall.
"Afterward, I waited outside the city for several days without seeing any trace of them, so I came into Heavenly Dance City.
"After investigating in secret, I found Ge Jingchun and Mei Qianluo's residence.
"Unfortunately, Cheng Sihai hid himself too deeply... I could not find him."
Chu Qing nodded and said to Ge Jingchun:
"You see, I find this young lady's words much more convincing than yours.
"Why not tell me again? Where exactly is Cheng Sihai now?"
Ge Jingchun seemed to have had every ounce of strength drained from his body. He looked weakly at Chu Qing.
"I do not know where the Gang Leader is."
"So you are unwilling to cooperate."
Chu Qing sighed. He reached out and tapped several acupoints on Ge Jingchun's body, slowing the flow of blood.
Then he went to Mei Qianluo's corpse and began searching through it.
As the Third Boss of the Divine Sand Gang, Mei Qianluo's wealth far surpassed that of the others.
There were over a hundred taels' worth of banknotes alone, along with quite a bit of silver and gold, all stuffed into a bulging money pouch.
Besides that, there were three small porcelain bottles.
The contents of those were difficult to identify.
This man was skilled with hidden weapons and clearly had some knowledge of poison, but Chu Qing did not know which one could cure Wen Rou's poison.
As Chu Qing did this, he noticed Xia Wanshuang had been staring at him the entire time.
After being watched by her for so long, Chu Qing thought for a moment, then took out a small piece of gold from Mei Qianluo's money pouch and tossed it to her.
"Those who see it get a share."
"..."
The look Xia Wanshuang gave Chu Qing changed, but after pondering briefly, she did not dwell on it. Instead, she asked:
"Why are you looking for Cheng Sihai?"
Before you continue