"Run!"
The loud shout pierced the thick darkness and reached the reeds where Jiang Nanxing was hiding.
"Not good!"
Jiang Nanxing's heart lurched, and he nearly jumped out of his skin.
"Young master, what's wrong?" his trusted aide asked.
After a brief moment of panic, Jiang Nanxing quickly regained his composure.
"Uncle Yang may have met with disaster. Our position has been exposed."
"What? Even Uncle Yang was no match for him?"
"What do we do now?"
The trusted aides were all aghast.
Jiang Nanxing made his decision at once. "Get ready. We're leaving immediately."
He had misjudged Li Xian's strength, and it had cost Uncle Yang his life. If he didn't leave, he might not get away at all.
So this wasn't the time to grieve. They had to leave at once.
Once he was out of here, he could find another chance to avenge Uncle Yang.
His trusted aides all agreed.
But before they had gone very far, a burst of laughter came from behind them.
"Heehee..."
"Commander Jiang, where are you?"
"Commander Jiang, I see you. Stop hiding and come out!"
At the sound of that almost deranged voice, Jiang Nanxing and the others felt their souls flee their bodies. They ran even faster, wishing they'd practiced their lightness skills harder.
One of his men saw that things were going badly. The voice behind them was drawing closer and closer, so he gritted his teeth and abruptly stopped.
"Acheng, what are you doing?"
"Young master, today is the day I, Acheng, give my life in your service!"
Acheng spoke with grim resolve.
He would stay behind and risk his life to hold their pursuer back, giving Jiang Nanxing enough time to escape.
Jiang Nanxing's heart shuddered, and a wave of sorrow welled up from deep within him.
He clenched his teeth, forced down his grief, and led the men who remained in a headlong sprint.
"Ah!"
Soon, a scream came from behind them.
Sadly, Acheng's life had not managed to slow their pursuer.
The man's figure swept past Acheng like a shadow. With a casual flick of his hand, he took Acheng's head.
The shadow of death clung to Jiang Nanxing's heels like a maggot gnawing into his bones.
"Young master, go! I'll hold him off!"
One after another, the few remaining men stopped to give their lives in an attempt to delay their pursuer.
But it was all in vain.
Those blood-soaked lives had made no difference at all.
The man soon appeared in front of Jiang Nanxing.
"Commander Jiang, you really did make me search high and low!"
Li Xian's figure drifted down as lightly as a fallen leaf, a delighted smile on his face.
Jiang Nanxing stopped. His legs gave way, and he fell to the ground.
Looking at Li Xian's face, he felt dazed for a moment.
In all his more than thirty years of life, this was his most wretched hour.
He couldn't utter a word. His whole body was ice-cold, as if he'd fallen into an icy abyss.
Li Xian raised the head in his hand and asked, "Commander Jiang, do you know this man?"
The head in his hand was Uncle Yang's, covered in blood and grime, his hollow eyes staring straight at Jiang Nanxing.
"Ah! No... no... I don't know him... I don't know him..."
As if something had snapped inside him, Jiang Nanxing let out a terrified scream and babbled incoherently.
"Oh, you don't know him." Li Xian looked disappointed. "This man tried to kill me. I was hoping to ask Commander Jiang to investigate who wanted me dead. I'm a good person, after all."
Jiang Nanxing kept his head down, babbling nonsense as though he'd lost his mind.
He seemed to have been scared witless.
Li Xian suddenly felt bored.
The smile vanished from his face. He tossed the head in his hand, and it landed right in Jiang Nanxing's arms.
Kneeling on the ground, Jiang Nanxing held Uncle Yang's head in both hands, staring blankly into those hollow eyes.
So this was what death felt like.
Tonight, he was destined never to leave this dense reed bed.
This was where he would be buried.
A day ago, he had been the celebrated Commander of Baihua City, with a brilliant future ahead of him.
A day later, he was like a stray dog in a panic, about to lose his life.
"Ah..."
Clutching Uncle Yang's head, Jiang Nanxing suddenly burst into tears and wailed aloud, his grief tearing him apart.
Li Xian remained unmoved and walked slowly toward Jiang Nanxing, one step at a time.
"Commander Jiang, my way of doing things has always been to cut the grass and pull up the roots.
"So, since things have come to this between us, I have no choice but to kill you!"
Without waiting for Jiang Nanxing to answer, he drew his sword in a flash.
A pale sword beam flickered and vanished.
A crimson line of blood shot skyward beneath the night.
Li Xian sheathed his sword and walked past Jiang Nanxing, turning to leave without a backward glance.
Behind him, Jiang Nanxing's corpse fell limply and soundlessly onto the filthy, muddy ground.
Once, he had been a prodigy who dreamed of reaching the heavens to pluck the stars and scoop up the moon.
Now, he lay dead in this empty reed bed. Perhaps no one would find him until his corpse had rotted and begun to stink...
The twists and turns of human life were truly wondrous and unpredictable.
Jiang Nanxing's disappearance sent shock waves through Baihua City.
Jiang Beinian received instructions to investigate the case thoroughly.
But how to investigate it became a difficult problem.
Jiang Nanxing had gone out to settle a personal score, something he couldn't let see the light of day. He hadn't taken a single person from the Demon Suppressing Division with him, and he had covered his tracks so well that they couldn't find a single clue.
They couldn't even find Jiang Nanxing's body.
Jiang Beinian had a vague idea of what had happened, but he would never volunteer to say it. After all, if Jiang Nanxing was dead, it would only benefit him.
The case dragged on without resolution.
Only later, when several capable members of Jiang Nanxing's Lineage arrived in Baihua City and followed a few faint clues, did they find his stinking corpse in the reeds.
But that was all they found.
They had no idea who had killed him or what had happened at the time.
The Jiang family made a fuss in Baihua City for a while, but in the end, the higher-ups had had enough and spoke up. Only then did they back down and leave dejectedly with Jiang Nanxing's corpse.
The Demon Suppressing Division in a city as large as Baihua City couldn't be left without a leader. Jiang Beinian realized with excitement that this was the perfect opportunity to install one of his own.
As long as the Commander was one of his people, the whole of Baihua City would fall under his control.
After a series of maneuvers, the newly appointed Commander of Baihua City also became one of the Cao Gang's people.
Li Xian had played no small part in securing that bond of friendship, sending over a hefty sum of money behind the scenes.
But that was a story for later.
After that night, Li Xian's journey back went exceptionally smoothly.
He encountered no trouble along the way, and everything went off without a hitch.
He soon returned to the Cao Gang's headquarters: Yangzhou City, that land of pleasure and indulgence in the Jiangnan water country.
There, an even greater danger was waiting for him.
Before you continue