My Style of Doing Things Is Always to Cut the Grass and Remove the Roots

"Run!"

That sharp shout pierced the thick night, reaching the reed thicket where Jiang Nanxing was hiding.

"Not good!"

Jiang Nanxing's heart jolted, nearly making him leap up in fright.

"Young master, what's wrong?" the trusted subordinate beside him asked.

After a moment of panic, Jiang Nanxing quickly regained his composure.

"Uncle Yang may have already met with misfortune. Our position is exposed."

"What, even Uncle Yang was no match?"

"Then what do we do now?"

Several trusted subordinates were greatly alarmed.

Jiang Nanxing made a snap decision. "Pack up. We leave immediately."

His misjudgment of Li Xian's strength had already cost Uncle Yang his life. If he didn't leave now, he might not get another chance.

So this was no time for grief or sorrow. He had to leave at once.

Once he escaped this place, he could find another opportunity to avenge Uncle Yang.

The trusted subordinates all responded in agreement.

But before they could run far, they heard a burst of playful laughter from behind.

"Hehe..."

"Lord Jiang, where are you?"

"Lord Jiang, I see you. Stop hiding. Come on out."

Hearing that unhinged voice, Jiang Nanxing and the others felt their souls flee in terror. They ran faster, only regretting that they hadn't trained harder in lightness skills on ordinary days.

One subordinate, sensing the situation was dire and that the voice behind them was drawing closer, gritted his teeth and abruptly stopped.

"Acheng, what are you doing?"

"Young master, today is the day Acheng gives his utmost loyalty!"

Acheng's face was set with resolve.

He would stay behind, trading his life to slow that person's pursuit and buy Jiang Nanxing enough time to escape.

Jiang Nanxing's heart shuddered violently, and a wave of sorrow welled up from the depths of his being.

He clenched his teeth, forcibly suppressing the pain in his heart, and led the remaining subordinates in a desperate sprint.

"Ah!!"

Soon, a scream rang out from behind.

Regrettably, Acheng's life did not slow that person's pace.

The figure merely swept past Acheng, casually flicking a hand to sever his head.

The shadow of death, like a bone-gnawing maggot, clung tightly to Jiang Nanxing's heels.

"Young master, you go! I'll hold him off!"

One by one, the remaining subordinates stopped, sacrificing their lives to delay that person's steps as much as possible.

But it was all futile.

Several bloody lives accomplished nothing.

That person soon arrived before Jiang Nanxing.

"Lord Jiang, you really made me search high and low!"

Li Xian's figure drifted down as lightly as a falling leaf, a delighted smile on his face.

Jiang Nanxing halted, his body going limp as he collapsed to the ground.

Staring at Li Xian's face, he felt a momentary daze.

In the thirty-plus years of his life, this night was his most wretched moment.

He couldn't utter a single word, his entire body cold, as if plunged into an icy abyss.

Li Xian raised the head in his hand and asked, "Lord Jiang, do you recognize this person?"

In his hand was Uncle Yang's head, covered in blood and grime, its hollow eyes staring straight at Jiang Nanxing.

"Ah! No... no... I don't know him... I don't know him..."

Jiang Nanxing seemed triggered, letting out a terrified shriek as he babbled incoherently.

"Oh, you don't know him." Li Xian's face fell with disappointment. "This man tried to kill me. I was hoping to trouble Lord Jiang to look into who wanted me dead. I'm a good person, after all."

Jiang Nanxing kept his head down, rambling nonsense like a madman.

He appeared to have been scared out of his wits.

Li Xian suddenly found it all boring.

He wiped the smile off his face and tossed the head in his hand, landing it squarely in Jiang Nanxing's arms.

Jiang Nanxing knelt on the ground, clutching Uncle Yang's head in both hands, staring blankly into those hollow eyes.

This was what death felt like—nothing more.

Tonight, he was destined never to leave this dense thicket of reeds.

This place was his burial ground.

A day ago, he was the Commander of Baihua City, basking in boundless glory and a bright future.

A day later, he was as panicked as a stray dog, about to lose his life.

"Ah..."

Jiang Nanxing, holding Uncle Yang's head, suddenly burst into tears, wailing loudly, crying as if his heart were being torn apart, his guts shattered.

Li Xian remained unmoved. Step by step, he slowly approached Jiang Nanxing.

"Lord Jiang, my way of doing things has always been to pull out the roots when cutting the weeds.

So, since we've come to this point, I have no choice but to kill you!"

With that, without waiting for Jiang Nanxing to reply, he abruptly drew his sword.

A pale Sword Light flashed and vanished.

A streak of crimson blood shot up into the night sky.

Li Xian sheathed his sword, stepped past Jiang Nanxing, and walked away without looking back.

Behind him, Jiang Nanxing's body fell silently, powerlessly, onto the filthy, muddy ground.

Once a genius who dreamed of plucking stars and moons from the sky.

Now, dead in this empty reed thicket, his body might rot and decay before anyone ever found it...

The twists of fate in this world were truly strange and unfathomable.

Jiang Nanxing's disappearance stirred up a huge commotion in Baihua City.

Jiang Beinian received orders to thoroughly investigate the case.

But how to investigate became the problem.

After all, the matter Jiang Nanxing had gone out to handle was a personal vendetta, something that couldn't see the light of day. He hadn't brought a single person from the Demon Suppressing Division, and he'd cleaned up all the loose ends thoroughly, leaving no clues to be found.

They couldn't even find Jiang Nanxing's body.

Jiang Beinian had a vague idea of what had happened, but he certainly wasn't going to speak up. After all, if Jiang Nanxing died, it only benefited him, not harmed him.

The case dragged on without resolution.

It wasn't until later that several skilled experts from Jiang Nanxing's family arrived and, through a few faint traces, found Jiang Nanxing's rotting corpse in the reed thicket.

But that was it.

Who killed him, what exactly happened—they knew nothing.

The Jiang family made a fuss in Baihua City for a while, until the higher-ups grew tired of it and issued a statement. Only then did they quiet down and slink away with Jiang Nanxing's body.

The vast Demon Suppressing Division of Baihua City couldn't be left leaderless. Jiang Beinian excitedly realized this was a perfect opportunity to install his own people.

As long as the Commander's office was filled with his men, the entire Baihua City would fall under his control.

After a series of maneuvers, the newly appointed Commander of Baihua City once again became a member of the Cao Gang.

And in all this, Li Xian's generous contributions of thick stacks of bills behind the scenes were indispensable in forging such a solid alliance.

But that's a story for later.

After that night, Li Xian's return journey was exceptionally smooth.

He encountered no trouble along the way, everything going without a hitch.

He soon returned to the Cao Gang's headquarters, that decadent water town south of the Yangtze—Yangzhou City.

Here, greater dangers awaited him.

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