Accountability

"Not bad." Zhao An sheathed his blade, feeling quite satisfied.

The Soul Slave had been deducing the blade technique, and it seemed to be the result of only one year of effort.

However, the trait of a Soul Slave is that it neither sleeps nor rests, knows no fatigue, and never slacks off.

Therefore, the Soul Slave deducing a blade technique for one year yielded results vastly different from an ordinary person honing their blade skills for a year.

The gains from enslaving this Soul Slave were even greater than Zhao An had anticipated.

The Black Tiger Blade Technique, which hadn't been particularly refined to begin with, had already reached the Great Completion stage. In the memory fragments Zhao An absorbed, he had even faintly grasped something more!

That didn't belong to the blade technique itself. If Zhao An's guess was correct, after the Black Tiger Blade Technique reached Great Completion, the Soul Slave had used it as a foundation to deduce even more profound insights into blade arts.

"The Fierce Tiger Blade Art, is it?"

Zhao An had once seen the leader of the Tiger Head Gang perform the Fierce Tiger Blade Art. The Black Tiger Blade Technique was derived from it, and since the Soul Slave followed the task of striving for perfection, it seemed capable of reverse-engineering the complete Fierce Tiger Blade Art!

Zhao An saw this potential, but perhaps the one-year enslavement period wasn't enough, and it hadn't been fully deduced in the end.

"One Soul Slave isn't enough, then I'll just get another..."

Zhao An still had the Soul Slave of Xu San, which he had just refined. This Soul Slave had a full five-year enslavement period and also possessed the Martial Savage trait bonus.

Perhaps it could really allow the Soul Slave to deduce a complete set of blade arts.

Zhao An did not hesitate, feeding his own Great Completion-stage Black Tiger Blade Technique to Xu San and letting it continue the deduction.

As noon approached, Li Gou'er knocked on the door and walked in, looking somewhat flustered. "Brother Zhao, the gang leader is calling for you."

"He probably found out that you beat Xu San to death yesterday."

Hearing this, relevant memories of that gang leader surfaced in Zhao An's mind.

Zhou Hu was like his name; he was a domineering man who couldn't tolerate any sand in his eyes.

If one offended him, it was unlikely to end well.

The most critical point was that this gang leader had opened his Qi Sea and cultivated internal energy, making him more than just a martial savage who only knew how to use brute force.

According to martial arts terminology, those who had cultivated internal energy were considered "ranked" and could be counted as proper martial masters. Dealing with ordinary martial savages was, for them, effortless.

"Let's go see him." Zhao An said calmly, slanting his Big Ring Blade behind his back, and led Li Gou'er and Zhao Chunzi toward the main headquarters of the Tiger Head Gang.

This matter had to be settled eventually.

Walking through a deep alleyway, they soon saw a large courtyard with the words "Tiger Head Gang" prominently carved above the gate.

Two men dressed in dark blue short-sleeved tunics, with short sticks tucked into their waists, were squatting by the gate chatting.

Seeing Zhao An stride over, the two Tiger Head Gang members immediately put on fawning smiles.

"Brother Zhao is here. The gang leader is looking for you; he's inside." As the man spoke, he took the initiative to push open the door and clear the way.

As one of the gang's leaders, Zhao An held a certain status, and ordinary members dared not offend him.

"Hmm." Zhao An didn't stop, stepping into the courtyard in one stride.

Inside the courtyard, twenty or thirty young, strong men were sparring and training their bodies.

If nothing else, just looking at the physiques of these men—all of them muscular and strong—showed that this gang had some real strength.

After all, in this era of war and chaos where the country was on the brink of collapse, most people were starving and unable to fill their bellies.

By comparison, at the very least, this leader of the Tiger Head Gang was capable of feeding his subordinates, which was a skill in itself.

In the main hall, the Tiger Head Gang leader, Zhou Hu, sat squarely in the primary seat, a cup of tea and a large golden blade placed on the table beside him!

Zhou Hu's stature didn't actually appear tall, but he was sufficiently sturdy, his face full of flesh. When he wasn't smiling, he carried a hint of ferocity, and others felt an invisible pressure when facing him.

In addition, there were six chairs in the hall.

Five of the gang's leaders were already seated, and Zhao An was the sixth, as well as the youngest.

Aside from the leaders and the gang head who could be seated, the remaining elite backbone of the gang could only stand in the back, having no qualification to sit.

"Everyone." After Zhao An approached and scanned the room, he noticed that beside Zhou Hu, there was also a man in black with a beard. His face was narrow and long, and although his frame was tall, his limbs didn't appear thick.

This person was not from the Tiger Head Gang, but Zhao An had an impression of him.

It was none other than the leader of the Python Gang, Xu Donglai.

The red name floating above his head indicated that this Python Gang leader was steeped in sin.

In fact, there were few people present who didn't have red names, especially Zhou Hu, whose name was the reddest and most eye-catching in the entire room.

This is like walking into a den of red-named villains... Zhao An sighed inwardly. In this world, it was truly not hard to find a red-named evildoer.

It was the kind-hearted people who were truly rare.

Xu Donglai narrowed his eyes, his gaze sharp and filled with scrutiny as he sized up the young man who had recently gained quite a fierce reputation.

Although Zhao An's frame was burly, his facial features were not actually fierce. At the very least, compared to the fleshy-faced Zhou Hu, this young man was much more handsome.

"Zhao An, was it you who beat Xu San to death yesterday?" Xu Donglai went straight to the point, questioning him directly.

"It was me." Zhao An answered crisply and clearly, showing no sign of timidity in the face of a gang leader.

BANG!

Xu Donglai slammed his large palms down and shouted with a glare, "Well played, Zhao An, you've got guts!"

"Zhou Hu, what do you say about this?"

Zhou Hu furrowed his brows, looking at Zhao An, who was still wrapped in bandages.

"Xu Donglai, don't be so impatient. At the very least, we need to get to the bottom of what happened."

"Zhao An, explain yourself clearly."

Upon hearing this, Zhao An glanced at Li Gou'er beside him.

Seeing this, Li Gou'er swallowed hard, but he had no choice but to muster his courage and recount the events of yesterday.

The truth was that while Zhao An was indeed at fault for beating Xu San to death, Xu San had been the one to reach into Zhao An's territory yesterday, not only trying to snatch girls but also attempting to skim the profits from that street.

If one were to trace the root of this conflict, it was Xu San who had started it all.

"Boss, you have to stand up for your brothers! Not only did Xu San cross the line, but he also had people ambush us yesterday and nearly killed Brother Zhao. Brother Zhao was only defending himself, which is perfectly justified!"

Li Gou'er was somewhat clever and quick-witted; in just a few words, he cleared himself and the others of any blame while pinning several charges on the deceased Xu San.

"Xu Donglai, the place where Xu San died is indeed the territory of the Tiger Head Gang. He was in the wrong first," Zhou Hu said in a muffled voice.

"Bullshit! If you don't hand over Zhao An, this isn't over," Xu Donglai said coldly.

Regardless of right or wrong, the fact remained that Xu San was dead, and he couldn't go back and face his gang members without an explanation.

Furthermore, this matter was fundamentally a power struggle between the two gangs, not just a personal issue between Xu San and Zhao An.

"Zhao An is also a key member of the Tiger Head Gang." Zhou Hu's tone also turned grim. In this situation, as the gang leader, he couldn't afford to appear weak either.

Although Zhao An had killed a man, it didn't seem to be entirely his fault; both sides had committed errors.

It was simply that Zhao An was the more capable one and had come out on top.

Just as the two sides were deadlocked, the gang advisor standing beside Zhou Hu suddenly stood up and proposed a solution.

"Both leaders, since Xu San is already dead, let's wipe the slate clean regarding who was right or wrong. Why don't we both take a step back? It is absolutely impossible for the Python Gang to just take Zhao An away like this.

Why not follow the old rules? Leader Xu provides the men, and Zhao An undergoes the Three Trials. Once that is done, the matter is settled. If Zhao An fails to pass, it will be considered as him paying for Xu San's life."