You Only Knew You Were Going to Die

Jiang Tian slowly rose to his feet. He made no unnecessary movements, simply standing there quietly, his expression calm as he looked at Wang Moshan.

The attendants behind Wang Moshan filed out and surrounded Jiang Tian. Hou Tianzu, the only attendant with Manifest Energy, stood beside Wang Moshan with his arms crossed and a blank expression, like a door guardian.

"You—" Wang Moshan's eyes turned vicious. He ground out a few words through clenched teeth. "Break every bone in his body. Leave him breathing!"

At his command, several attendants stepped forward with wicked grins.

"This is the second time you've offended Young Master Wang. The first time, he was kind enough to spare your life. And you still haven't learned your lesson?"

One of the attendants reached for Jiang Tian's shoulder.

He had Hidden Energy cultivation, and Hidden Energy surged across his palm, flowing like thin strands and coiling between his fingers.

He was absolutely certain that with one grab, he could crush Jiang Tian's collarbone.

But the instant the thought crossed his mind, a huge hand began to fill his field of vision.

He tried to dodge.

But the hand was too fast. He didn't even have time to react.

"Crack—"

Jiang Tian clamped his hand over the man's face and applied the slightest pressure, his force surging.

With a sharp crunch, half the man's head was crushed. Red and white seeped between Jiang Tian's fingers, glistening sickeningly in the candlelight.

The cabin fell silent.

The attendants who had surrounded Jiang Tian stumbled backward, faces pale and lips drained of color.

One man's knife clattered to the floor. Another's legs gave way, and he nearly fell.

Wang Moshan's eyes flew wide. His mouth opened and closed, but not a word came out.

The detached look vanished from Hou Tianzu's face, replaced by utter seriousness and wariness. His hand had already drifted to the hilt at his waist.

Jiang Tian casually flung the limp corpse aside like a bag of garbage.

His gaze settled on Wang Moshan, a faint curve at the corner of his mouth.

"Wang Moshan, weren't you going to kill me? Why aren't you coming over?"

His voice was soft, even tinged with amusement. But to Wang Moshan, it sounded like a death warrant from the depths of hell.

Wang Moshan's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed hard.

From the corner of his eye, he glanced at the attendant with half his head caved in, then at Jiang Tian, who stood nearby with a faint smile. His calves trembled uncontrollably.

An attendant with Hidden Energy had half his head crushed by a single hand.

Manifest Energy? Or Transformation Energy?

Was this really Jiang Tian? The same Jiang Tian he used to bully whenever he pleased?

No. At most, he's reached Manifest Energy. He can't possibly have Transformation Energy!

Wang Moshan abruptly turned to look at Hou Tianzu beside him.

When he saw Hou Tianzu's face, dark as a raincloud, his heart sank to the bottom.

"Hou Tianzu!" Wang Moshan gritted his teeth, his voice edging toward hysteria. "You and the others hold him off! I'm going home to get reinforcements! The Wang Family's only a quarter-hour away. You'd better hold him here!"

With that, he turned and ran.

Hou Tianzu has Manifest Energy, and there are all these attendants with Hidden Energy. They should be able to stop Jiang Tian... right?

Wang Moshan swore he had never run so desperately in his life.

He stumbled down the stairs from the second deck, never once looking back. All he could hear was his own ragged breathing and his heart pounding like a drum.

So what if those attendants died? Did their lives matter more than his?

He still had the imperial examinations to take, honors to earn, and a bright future ahead of him.

"Bang!"

A dark figure dropped from above and slammed down in front of him with a dull thud.

Wang Moshan's pupils contracted.

It was Hou Tianzu!

The man with Manifest Energy was sprawled on the ground like a dead dog, eyes wide open as the light rapidly faded from them.

His neck was twisted at a bizarre angle. A fist-sized hole gaped in his chest, its ragged edges as if some blunt object had smashed straight through him.

Blood gushed from the hole and spread into a dark-red pool across the wooden floor.

In an instant, Wang Moshan's terror reached its peak.

His legs gave out, and he collapsed to the floor, his face as pale as paper and his whole body shaking like a leaf.

How long had it been?

A Manifest Energy expert and a group of attendants with Hidden Energy, all dead just like that?

Even slaughtering pigs took longer!

"Where are you off to, Young Master Wang?"

A voice, bright with laughter, came from behind him.

Wang Moshan jolted in fright. The stench of urine and feces spread from his crotch.

Jiang Tian sauntered up to him, pinched his nose, and looked down at him in disgust. "Aren't you so proud of being a man of culture? What cultured man relieves himself in the street?"

"Thump—"

Wang Moshan forced himself to his feet, then dropped straight to his knees.

His voice was thick with sobs. He slapped his own face again and again, each blow cracking loudly, while he begged incoherently. "Jiang Tian—no, Lord Tian! Please be the bigger man and let me go like a fart in the wind! I was wrong before! My poetry really was awful! You were telling the truth!"

"You know you were wrong?" Jiang Tian looked down at him, his expression utterly unruffled.

"I know, I know! It'll never happen again—"

His voice cut off.

"Wrong?" Jiang Tian tilted his head. The smile at the corner of his mouth slowly faded.

"You only knew... that you were going to die."

"Splash—"

A heavy splash sounded from the river nearby, as if something weighty had fallen into it, sending water flying.

Wang Moshan, who had been standing in front of Jiang Tian, was now a headless corpse.

Jiang Tian had punched his head clean off.

"Whew—"

Jiang Tian let out a long breath, feeling lighter, as if he had finally cast off a heavy shackle.

The bitterness that had long knotted inside him vanished in an instant.

It was the resentment his predecessor had left behind.

Now, at last, that resentment had dissipated.

Jiang Minghai sprinted through the night with all his might. He wore the City Patrol Division's dark uniform, a long saber at his waist, its sheath slapping against his thigh with every stride.

Last time, he had failed to protect his younger brother, and his brother had nearly died.

This time, he would never let anything like that happen again.

The Wang Family? If that young master refuses to back down, then so be it. I'll kill that spoiled brat and take my brother, my wife, and my children far away!

Soon, he spotted the large two-deck boat on the river.

It sat motionless in the water. There was no music, no laughter—only a terrifying silence, like a grave floating on the river's surface.

Jiang Minghai's heart clenched. He quickened his pace and leaped aboard in a few strides.

The lower deck—empty.

The upper deck—

The moment he stepped onto the upper deck, his thick brows knitted together and his pupils shrank to pinpoints.

Corpses were strewn everywhere.

Blood covered the floor, dark-red rivulets snaking through the gaps between the planks. The air reeked so strongly of blood that it turned his stomach.

The candlesticks had toppled, and the flames had long since gone out. Only moonlight streamed through the cabin windows, casting a ghastly pallor over the carnage.

He recognized one of the men.

Hou Tianzu, the Wang Family's Manifest Energy expert. Word was, he had been stuck at that stage for years. Though he had yet to reach Transformation Energy, he could still trade a few blows with experts who had.

But now Hou Tianzu lay on the ground with a fist-sized hole in his chest, its ragged edges as if some blunt object had smashed straight through him.

His eyes were still open, but the light had long since faded from his pupils. Frozen in them was a terror that seemed to reach down to his very bones, as if he had witnessed something unspeakably horrible before he died.

"Brother, what brings you here?"

A familiar voice came from deep within the cabin.

Jiang Minghai looked up.

Jiang Tian was crouched in the corner, pouring a jar of liquor across the upper deck. The liquor ran over the planks, mingling with the blood, and the air grew heavy with its pungent aroma.

"You..."

Jiang Minghai opened his mouth. His gaze swept over the corpses littering the deck before slowly returning to Jiang Tian's handsome face.

His expression grew exceedingly complicated.

Even a fool could understand now—

His younger brother, who had been practicing martial arts for less than half a month, had done all this.

And yet he still couldn't believe it.

He couldn't believe that this young man, calm-faced before him, had anything to do with the hellish scene around them.