Concerns

"I told you, didn't I? A senior brother taking down a junior brother is a piece of cake!"

"Haha, Brother, you're brilliant. That brat never saw this coming—ambushed by a senior brother from his own school. Tsk, tsk..."

"Tonight, I can finally get a good night's sleep!"

Shi Ba and the other two walked with their arms around one another's shoulders, riding high. Shi Ba in particular could barely resist breaking into song.

Whether he sang well or not didn't matter. He was in a good mood.

The heavy stone weighing on his heart had finally been lifted. He felt light all over, and even the exhaustion from days of anxiety had vanished.

After leaving Langshi Wine House, Shi Ba headed toward the shadow in the deep alley, calling out as he went.

"Master Li, you were incredible! I'm deeply grateful. If you don't mind, come upstairs and let me treat you properly."

He called out invitingly, but in his heart he had already decided to spend whatever it took. Not only had he gotten rid of Lin Yin, a major threat, he could also use this opportunity to befriend Li Qianjiang.

After all, Li Qianjiang had killed Lin Yin, who had mastered Inner Strength. Shi Ba figured the gang had badly underestimated him!

Yet in the face of his warm invitation, the figure at the alley entrance merely waved, then walked deeper into the alley on his own.

The two men behind Shi Ba looked confused. Shi Ba was also at a loss, but he didn't dwell on it. He hurriedly called to them and followed.

"Let's go see. We did ambush a school disciple, after all. We can't discuss it somewhere as crowded and full of prying eyes as a tavern."

Excitement and nerves flickered across Shi Ba's face. Convinced he'd guessed Li Qianjiang's concern, he called to the other two, and all three hurried toward the alley.

Who knew? They might even get to see what Lin Yin looked like dead!

At the thought, the three grew even more excited and quickened their pace. Before long, they had each entered the narrow, shadowy alley.

If not for the waning moon hanging overhead, they might not have been able to make out the path at all. They immediately spotted a shadow standing some distance ahead.

The figure was still walking, deeper into the alley.

"Brother Li!"

Shi Ba called out as he hurried after him.

As they ran, they ventured farther into the alley, and their surroundings grew darker. Gradually, Shi Ba began to sense something was wrong. But before he could question it, the figure ahead suddenly stopped in the middle of the alley.

Suppressing his doubts, Shi Ba stepped forward.

Blue-green clothes, a straight posture—the figure's build and outline were undoubtedly Li Qianjiang's. Once he got closer, Shi Ba's doubts vanished completely.

He casually stepped forward and reached to pat Li Qianjiang on the shoulder.

"Master Li..."

The moment his hand touched the shoulder, Li Qianjiang toppled straight to one side, revealing a relatively slender figure standing in front of him.

The familiar face was expressionless, but the indifferent gaze filled Shi Ba with terror, as if he were staring at a ghost.

"Lin Yin..."

Shi Ba tried to scream, but in the next instant, crack! His throat seemed to be clamped by an invisible hand, and all he could manage was half a strangled "huh."

Before he could even cry out, Lin Yin had already moved!

His body snapped forward like a drawn bowstring, closing in on Shi Ba with lightning speed. His right fist clenched, and his protruding knuckles slammed into the artery on the side of Shi Ba's neck.

A faint crack rang out. The muffled sound of his throat bone breaking seemed to echo through Shi Ba's skull. His eyes bulged, his body went limp, and he slumped to one side.

"Brother Ba!"

Seeing this, the other two were shattered with terror. They turned and ran!

Lin Yin's Qi burst forth. His toes tapped against the alley's stone path, and he bounded forward as if stepping through thin air. In just a few strides, he was right behind them.

He brought the fingers of his left hand together, using the edge of his palm to chop the man in front across the back of the neck. The force sank through bone with ease.

Crack—

The second man's forward rush stopped dead. His body stiffened, and he fell face-first to the ground, silent forever.

The last man scrambled up the wall, hoping to escape over it. But the moment he hauled himself up, a numbness spread through his back. Lin Yin had pressed one hand against his shoulder blade and abruptly driven his thumb into his Tian Zong Acupoint.

The man convulsed violently. A strange "gurgling" sound came from his throat as both arms went limp. He toppled over the wall and hit the ground. Blood-flecked froth spilled from his mouth and nostrils; after only two gasps, he breathed his last.

The deep alley sank back into silence. A faint smell of blood drifted on the wind.

Lin Yin flicked the blood from his fingers and glanced at the three still-warm corpses. With a blur of movement, he swept the valuables from their bodies and rushed toward the alley wall.

He stepped up and vaulted over it with ease, disappearing into the night as if he had never been there.

The waning moon remained cold and pale, illuminating a few dark-red splashes on the flagstones, like spilled ink slowly seeping into the shadowed cracks.

The small house of the Lin Family.

Without disturbing his mother, who was slumped over the table, Lin Yin carefully barred the door.

He gently draped a quilt over her, then lit the candle in the room.

The dim light fell across a handsome face without expression. His skin was somewhat fair, and still held a trace of youthful softness.

Who would have guessed that a seemingly frail young man like him had just killed four burly men in succession?

He felt no discomfort at having killed them, but neither was he particularly pleased. All he felt was concern for the future.

Lin Yin furrowed his brow.

Li Qianjiang... Shi Ba...

He didn't know how the two men had become connected. What happened tonight had caught even him off guard.

No one would have expected Li Qianjiang, a disciple of the school, to be involved with a low-ranking member of the Black Scorpion Gang.

He was grateful.

Luckily, he had followed Li Qianjiang's scattered remarks to Langshi Tavern and gone there on a hunch. He hadn't expected to actually draw out the mastermind behind it all.

The three men—Shi Ba and the others—were like rusty iron nails driven deep into his heart.

But their deaths did nothing to ease Lin Yin. Instead, his nerves and sense of danger surged.

"I wonder if those three bastards told that guy about me..."

Remembering the burly man who had made him feel suffocated that night, Lin Yin's alarm bells rang.

Li Qinhu, the Black Scorpion Gang's second-in-command, was said to be unfathomably strong. Though he was second-in-command, he was the gang's top enforcer.

Li Sihhu was Li Qinhu's distant cousin. He had even slaughtered a Black Gang leader simply because he suspected him.

Those were the things Lin Yin had learned before. Once the commotion died down, he had focused on martial arts and gradually stopped thinking about the man who had once made him most wary.

Now, with Shi Ba and the others showing up out of nowhere, and Li Qianjiang taking action, Lin Yin felt the threat all over again.

If Li Qinhu was still behind these people, Lin Yin had no idea what he could do.

He couldn't take that gamble.

Lin Yin looked at the piles of silver on the table. The gleaming coins were enough to make anyone ecstatic, but with danger filling his heart, he couldn't bring himself to feel happy.

He turned to look at his mother, who was fast asleep with her head on the worktable. His thoughts raced, and before long, he had a plan.

Perhaps it was time to find somewhere safer. With this money, even his mother's shop could close for a while!