The Black Water Gang's Training Ground.
No one dared speak. The atmosphere was suffocating.
Dark clouds hung low as the cold wind swept sand into people's faces, stinging like needles.
Thousands of Black Water Gang members filled the square, a dark mass standing in complete silence.
Every eye was fixed on the raised platform.
Seven or eight stretchers had been laid out there.
White sheets covered them, but the fabric was soaked through with blood, and the mangled bodies beneath were faintly visible.
The air reeked of blood.
At the center of the platform, Gang Leader Chen Wanli sat in a Tiger Skin Throne, his face dark with anger.
He toyed with two iron balls in his hand. As they spun, they scraped together with a grating sound that set people's teeth on edge.
Beside him stood Zhao Tieshan, the War Hall's leader, and several other hall leaders. Every one of them wore a grim expression, murder in their eyes.
Lu Chen stood at the front of the War Hall's ranks. As a newly promoted Junior Leader, he had earned a place near the front.
His gaze swept over the stretchers, and his heart gave a slight jolt.
There were a lot of dead.
Judging by the shapes beneath the sheets, some had clearly been hacked apart with sharp blades.
"Is everyone here?"
Chen Wanli's voice was not loud, yet the inner energy behind it carried it clearly to every person present. It was bone-chillingly cold.
"Reporting to the leader: the entire War Hall is present!"
"The entire Punishment Hall is present!"
"The Trade Hall..."
One after another, the hall leaders stepped forward to report.
Chen Wanli nodded and slowly rose to his feet.
He walked to the stretchers and suddenly yanked away one of the sheets.
A wave of sharp, horrified breaths swept through the crowd.
It was a headless corpse. The cut at the neck was jagged, as if the head had been hacked off with a dull blade.
His chest had caved in, too. He had clearly endured inhuman torture before he died.
"This is Old Li."
Chen Wanli pointed at the corpse, his voice ice-cold.
"He was my brother for ten years. He was in charge of escorting the gang's third cargo ship."
"Last night, the third cargo ship was attacked downstream on the Angry River."
"The entire shipment, worth three thousand taels of silver, was stolen! Not one of the twenty-eight brothers aboard survived!"
The crowd erupted.
Three thousand taels of silver!
It was an astronomical sum.
More importantly, twenty-eight of their brothers had been slaughtered. It was a slap in the Black Water Gang's face, an attempt to tear out its roots!
"Who did this?!"
"Damn them! They dared lay a hand on our people!"
The gang members roared in fury, their cries rising one after another.
Chen Wanli raised a hand, silencing the crowd.
"The Red Fish Gang."
He spat out the three words, each one forced through clenched teeth.
"Only those water rats would do something so vile!"
"And..."
Chen Wanli's expression darkened further. He lowered his voice, so only the leaders in the front ranks could hear.
"Among that shipment was a box of goods specifically requested by a 'big shot' in the city."
"The goods are gone, and that big shot is very unhappy."
Lu Chen's heart stirred.
A big shot?
Someone who could make even Chen Wanli so wary could only be one of the true powers behind the scenes in Nujiang County.
No wonder Chen Wanli was so furious.
This was about more than money and lives. It concerned the very foundation of the Black Water Gang's position in Nujiang County.
If they couldn't even protect a big shot's goods, the Black Water Gang would have no reason to exist.
"This debt must be paid in blood!"
Chen Wanli suddenly drew the long saber at his waist, pointing its edge to the heavens.
"Take my orders!"
"From this moment on, the entire gang is to enter a state of readiness!"
"Recall everyone stationed outside! The smithy is to work day and night, forging weapons!"
"In three days, we raid Red Fish Dock by night!"
"I'll wipe the Red Fish Gang off the map of Nujiang County!"
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
Thousands of gang members raised their weapons and unleashed a deafening roar.
Their killing intent surged into the sky, parting the dark clouds above, if only a little.
After the meeting ended, the halls began assigning tasks.
As the main force, the War Hall naturally received the most difficult assignment.
Inside the War Hall's great hall,
Zhao Tieshan stood before a huge sand table, holding a wooden stick and pointing out the terrain.
"Red Fish Dock was built over the water. It's easy to defend and hard to attack."
"The front is a water stronghold, riddled with traps. Those Water Ghosts in the Red Fish Gang are kings of the underworld in the water. A frontal assault would cost us too many lives."
Zhao Tieshan's gaze passed over the dozen Junior Leaders present before settling on Lu Chen.
"Lu Chen!"
"Here!"
Lu Chen stepped forward and cupped his fists in acknowledgment.
"Take thirty good men and sneak through the Reed Marsh on the flank."
Zhao Tieshan tapped one corner of the sand table with his stick.
"Though it's riddled with mudflats and difficult to cross, it's also where the Red Fish Gang's defenses are weakest."
"Your job is to strike from the flank as the main force attacks. Set fire to their granary and docks, and sow chaos!"
"Remember, you're both the spearhead and the bait. Once you cause trouble over there, the Red Fish Gang will have to send men to deal with it. Then the leader and I will personally take the army straight to the heart of their stronghold!"
It was an extremely dangerous mission.
A lone unit venturing deep into enemy territory could be surrounded if discovered.
But it was also the easiest way to earn great merit.
Lu Chen studied the sand table, rapidly plotting out the route in his mind.
"This subordinate accepts the order!"
He did not hesitate. His voice rang with conviction.
Fortune favored the bold.
If he wanted to rise through the gang and gain more resources for his cultivation, he had to risk his life.
"Good! You're every bit the man I thought you were!"
Zhao Tieshan nodded in approval and tossed Lu Chen a token.
"Go to the storehouse for your equipment. For this mission, each of you may take a leather cuirass and three hand crossbows!"
Leather cuirasses! Hand crossbows!
Those were strategic supplies, normally kept under lock and key.
It seemed the leader was truly willing to spend big for this operation.
Over the next three days, the entire Black Water Gang ran like a finely tuned war machine.
The sound of whetstones rang day and night.
Cartload after cartload of supplies was hauled into the Main Hall.
Lu Chen did not sit idle, either.
He selected thirty sturdy men from the War Hall, including the quick-witted Wang Xiaoliu.
"Listen up!"
In a corner of the training grounds, Lu Chen faced the thirty men, his expression stern.
"This mission is a brush with death."
"If you're afraid to die, you can leave now. I won't hold it against you."
No one moved.
In a world like this, anyone afraid of death had long since starved to death.
Risking their lives alongside Lu Chen, the "strongest newcomer," was still better than being cannon fodder.
"Good."
Lu Chen nodded, then pulled gleaming Mountain Splitting Sabers from the chest behind him and tossed them to the men.
"If none of you are afraid to die, then sharpen those blades!"
"On the battlefield, if any of you screw up, you won't need the Red Fish Gang to deal with you. I'll cut you down myself!"
"Yes, Leader Lu!"
The men answered in unison, their eyes burning with ferocity.
As Lu Chen watched them, though, his thoughts turned to something else.
The Red Fish Gang's leader, Li Qingyi.
They said she was a woman, but she was ruthless, and her skills on the water were astonishing. Her strength was no less than Zhao Tieshan's.
He wondered whether he would run into this legendary female leader during the night raid.
If he could...
Lu Chen touched the Iron Cloth Shirt manual inside his robes.
He had made some progress over the past few days, but he was still far from mastering the technique.
If he could get his hands on a few expert corpses during the battle, or some precious pills...
Greed shone in his eyes.
To him, war was not only a crisis. It was the greatest hunting ground of all.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
On the night of the third day,
the sky was black as the bottom of a pot.
Fog shrouded the Angry River.
Boat after boat loaded with Black Water Gang elites slid silently into the river and headed downstream toward Red Fish Dock.
Lu Chen's thirty-man squad did not take a boat.
Dressed in black, they trudged through the mud and struggled through the person-high reeds.
Icy water rose to their knees. Mosquitoes buzzed in their ears.
But no one made a sound.
They all clenched wooden plugs between their teeth and gripped their blades tightly.
Ahead, a cluster of brightly lit buildings was just visible.
Red Fish Dock.
Tonight's slaughterhouse.
Lu Chen stopped. Through a gap in the reeds, he watched the enormous water stronghold in the distance.
He let out a cold laugh.
"We're here."
He gave a slight wave of his hand.
The thirty pairs of eyes behind him gleamed with bloodlust in the darkness.
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