An Organ Refining Enemy

Xiao Cha charged forward and shouted angrily, "Stop!"

A group of burly men wore matching blue uniforms. When they turned and saw a female constable, they all wore sneering smiles.

Some even leered at her, looking her up and down.

At the sight of their clothes, Xiao Cha's expression turned grave.

"Tooth Brokerage men! How dare you abduct people in broad daylight? Aren't you afraid of King's Law?"

The Tooth Brokerage men burst into laughter.

A middle-aged man with narrow eyes and a sinister face stepped through the crowd, hands clasped behind his back.

"Officer Luo, isn't it? Long time no see. You're the one who killed my Tooth Brokerage men?"

The moment Xiao Cha saw him, her face changed dramatically. She took a step back.

"Yi Qingchuan! You're a Martial Master, for heaven's sake. What are you doing here?"

Yi Qingchuan was a high-ranking member of the Tooth Brokerage, but what made Xiao Cha's face change was his Martial Arts cultivation: Organ Refining!

And he was brimming with malice!

At that moment, Xiao Cha felt as if a Fierce Tiger had fixed its eyes on her. Her breathing grew so tense she could barely catch her breath.

It was an instinctive fear of a powerful life-form, something no one could escape.

Even Lu Li felt his heart skip a beat when the man's gaze swept over him!

But that was precisely what made the whole thing absurd—why would a master like him come to abduct children? Wasn't that beneath him?

Yi Qingchuan produced an official document and flashed it.

"The great and good took pity on all the beggars in the city, so they had our Tooth Brokerage deal with them. Your Constable Bureau is supposed to cooperate, too~"

The official document bore the seal of the Governor's Mansion. Xiao Cha's face turned white at once. "What are you going to do with them?"

Yi Qingchuan sneered. "Perhaps send them to work in a factory. Who knows?"

Xiao Cha gritted her teeth, about to try to take Tong Shao away.

But an imposing voice suddenly called out to her. "Luo Xiaochá! What are you doing?"

A young man in a constable's uniform, with stars on his shoulder straps, stepped forward and barked at her.

"Who gave you the right to get in the way? Get lost!"

"Captain Qin..."

"Shut up! You have no say here!"

Captain Qin's face was full of disgust and impatience.

Seeing that her own superior had arrived too, Xiao Cha realized there was more to this than met the eye. But it also left her all the more helpless.

She clenched her fists tight and watched as Tong Shao was led away by a rope.

Yi Qingchuan had started out looking amused, but when he happened to catch sight of Wan Qing behind Xiao Cha, his expression lit up with delight! He hurriedly whispered something to one of his men.

Lu Li saw the whole thing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the group had left, Lu Li asked the dazed Xiao Cha, "Can an Organ Refining martial artist be killed with a gun?"

"They can... What are you planning!?"

Xiao Cha shuddered and said, "An Organ Refining martial artist has a body as powerful as a Fierce Tiger and the strength to lift three thousand jin! Their movement is unbelievably fast. They could twist your head off before you even knew what was happening!"

As long as bullets can hurt him, that's good. But with a body as powerful as a Fierce Tiger's, I'll definitely need a high-caliber weapon...

Xiao Cha then said, "You two go home first. I'll buy the Calming Incense myself and look into things while I'm at it... I have to get Tong Shao back!"

Lu Li handed her the silver ingot. "Don't worry about buying the Calming Incense yet. Getting her back comes first. If money can solve this, all the better."

With this much money, getting a little girl back shouldn't be difficult.

Xiao Cha looked at him intently, gratitude in her eyes. "Thank you!"

"Don't mention it. Go on."

Xiao Cha nodded and hurried off with long strides.

Lu Li led Wan Qing toward the medical clinic.

Along the way, whenever they came to a bend or a dip in the road, Lu Li would pause to quietly warn her, carefully looking after her.

Wan Qing suddenly smiled. "I really am lucky to have met Young Master Lu."

"Likewise. I'm very glad to have met you, too."

They had reached the clinic's entrance. Lu Li supported Wan Qing by her tender, lotus-like arm as she stepped over the threshold and into the courtyard.

"What would Young Master like to eat? I'll make it for you."

"Anything. I love everything you cook. Oh, it'll get a little noisy in a while, so don't mind it."

Wan Qing smiled gently and headed for the kitchen.

Lu Li took the shotgun out of his room and went to a far corner of the courtyard to test-fire it at a stone weight.

The gunshot was like a huge firecracker, and the recoil was strong. But with a pump-action, single-shot gun, it didn't really matter.

Gunfire boomed across the courtyard. Lead pellets whistled out and blasted the stone weight to pieces.

A shotgun was a simple, easy-to-use firearm, and Lu Li got the hang of it quickly.

After loading the magazine to capacity, Lu Li set the gun aside and began practicing the White Dragon Whip Technique.

He practiced for most of the day, until Xiao Cha returned dejectedly at dusk.

One look at the girl told him she'd brought back nothing but bad news.

First, she took out two boxes of Calming Incense. "The price went up again. It's two hundred Ocean Dollars a box now. Buying two boxes made me stand out a bit, but I had no choice. There's a rumor they'll be rationed from now on."

Lu Li wasn't too concerned about that. Instead, he asked, "What about Tong Shao?"

Xiao Cha's pretty face was taut. "I sent word through someone and offered two hundred Ocean Dollars to buy her freedom, but the Tooth Brokerage refused!"

That was several times the going price. Normally, no one would turn down that much money.

Lu Li frowned. "Is it because the Tooth Brokerage holds a grudge against us?"

Xiao Cha shook her head with a sigh. "I had someone else handle it. I never showed my face at any point... There's something fishy about this."

She paused, then continued, "I plan to keep an eye on the Tooth Brokerage and see where they sell the people. Then I'll buy her back from the next buyer... I'll need to use your money."

"Use as much as you need. If it's not enough, I'll find a way to get more."

As far as Lu Li was concerned, money was a small matter.

It was just... though traffickers normally wouldn't damage their own merchandise, this time seemed rather different.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, at a farmstead ten miles outside Tianjin City.

Yi Qingchuan stood beside a table covered in wooden figurines, his hands clasped behind his back.

He watched a group of sallow, emaciated child beggars, his expression half-smiling.

"See these wooden figurines? Pick whichever one you like. They're yours."

Some of the figurines were missing arms, others legs; all were hideously misshapen.

But the child beggars were no more than eight or nine at most, at an age when they loved to play. Not one of them minded. They rushed forward to snatch them up.

In no time, each child had gotten the "toy" they wanted.

Yi Qingchuan's smile widened. "Good, good. Everyone got one, right? Hold them up high so I can see."

All the children raised the wooden figurines in their hands...

In a flash, Yi Qingchuan shot forward, turning into a blur as he swept across the entire group.

Amid the grating crack of breaking bones, the children's arms and legs were snapped. Every one of them became a twisted mirror image of the wooden figurine in their hands.

As their screams rose in a chaotic chorus, several burly men in blue uniforms hurried to flatter him.

"What a fine Heavenly Mountain Plum Blossom Hand!"

"Turning the light into the heavy—Steward Yi's skill has reached perfection!"

Yi Qingchuan found a piece of white silk and wiped his hands.

"Enough. Less talk, more work. Dump these cripples in the foreign concessions to beg money from the foreigners. Take good care of the few with spiritual aptitude."