Opportunity

The hall was dim.

Only two or three oil lamps swayed faintly.

Their light fell upon the hideous corpses sprawled in pools of blood across the floor. The Chai Gang's old leader was among them, his head severed from his body and held aloft by someone gripping his gray-white hair.

As the words echoed through the hall,

Meng Xuan's pupils suddenly contracted.

It wasn't because his father, a Third Refinement expert who had once ruled the Outer City, had just been beheaded. It was because the ruthless man holding his father's head and slowly turning around had the face of the Qin Family's... patriarch, whom he'd seen only that evening.

"How... how could this be..."

Meng Xuan's voice trembled.

His mind was nearly a blank.

He could only think that this man had a fearsome temper. That evening, he'd made a couple of thoughtless remarks and been beaten black and blue for it. Now, barely after nightfall, the man had stormed the Chai Gang and twisted his father's head off. No one could remain calm in the face of that.

"My father was a Third Refinement expert. You, you..."

"Don't waste your breath."

Qin Jiu tossed aside the head in his hand and crossed the distance in two strides, reaching Meng Xuan in the blink of an eye.

Then he raised a hand and seized him by the throat.

"Tell me."

"Who's backing your Chai Gang and the Fisher Gang, and why are they gathering Demons around Songshan County? When will the Wei Army reach the county seat?"

"What?"

Meng Xuan froze, then sneered. "You'd better not kill me, or else..."

Crack.

Qin Jiu's face remained expressionless.

His right hand suddenly tightened.

Meng Xuan's eyes bulged. Then his head lolled limply, and all signs of life vanished from him in an instant.

"Tap, tap."

Footsteps sounded outside the hall.

Qin Jiu casually dropped the corpse at his feet and turned toward the doorway. Almost at the same moment, Qin Xuanzhou, Huang Jing, and the others hurried inside.

"Patriarch, the Chai Gang's core members have all been executed."

"We've also found their secret vault."

"What should we do next?"

Qin Xuanzhou cupped his hands in salute.

The others followed suit, though when their eyes swept over the corpses on the floor, their faces couldn't help twitching.

"You three, bring all the corpses to this building."

"Huang Jing and Qin Xudong, go to the secret vault."

"You, come with me to the Li Family first."

After saying this, Qin Jiu added, "Once you've done that, leave one person behind at the Chai Gang. After an hour, set this building on fire. Qin Xudong will transport the vault's contents back to the Qin Family alone. The other three will head to the Li Family at once to rendezvous with us."

"Any objections?"

"None."

They answered in unison.

Qin Jiu nodded slightly, then swiftly left the Chai Gang with Qin Xuanzhou.

On the way,

Qin Xuanzhou hesitated several times before finally asking, "Patriarch, are you... truly a Second Refinement martial artist?"

His voice was far from steady.

By seniority, this patriarch was his younger cousin. Until recently, he'd been nothing but an incorrigible playboy. Even when Qin Guihong had been alive and tried every way to force him to practice martial arts, nothing had worked. Yet tonight, he'd personally beheaded a Third Refinement martial artist.

It was simply unbelievable.

When had he started practicing martial arts? When had he broken through to Second Refinement?

And he was only at Second Refinement?

Questions surged through his mind like crashing waves, leaving him unable to calm himself.

At Qin Xuanzhou's question,

Qin Jiu nodded slightly.

"I only broke through to Second Refinement recently. There's no need to be so surprised."

"If the old gang leader hadn't taken your punch, and if he hadn't been old and frail, with his qi and blood depleted, I wouldn't have been able to catch him off guard and take his head with a single slash," Qin Jiu said, shaking his head. "Don't misjudge my strength. You'll have to deal with the Li Family's Third Refinement expert later."

"That man is different from the Chai Gang's old leader."

"He's in his prime. You mustn't let your guard down."

"Understood."

Qin Xuanzhou nodded.

But his thoughts kept drifting.

He remembered clearly that on the day he took over the Hundred Beasts Garden, Qin Jiu had been no more than a sickly man, tainted by the aura of Demons. He couldn't possibly have been a martial artist; otherwise, how could that aura have entered his body?

And that had been less than a month ago...

More than half an hour later,

the two returned to the Inner City and headed straight for the Li Family estate.

But after reaching the Li Family,

Qin Jiu didn't attack at once. Instead, he and Qin Xuanzhou surveyed the area around the estate. For one thing, the Inner City was nothing like the Outer City; any commotion here could easily draw people from the County Office.

For another, although the Li Family appeared to have only one Third Refinement martial artist,

the strength of its guards

far surpassed the Chai Gang's.

"Should we go back to the Qin Family and bring over the guard squad?"

From a rooftop on the outskirts of the Li estate,

Qin Xuanzhou stood on the eaves, watching the night patrols below as he spoke in a hushed voice.

Qin Jiu immediately shook his head.

"No."

"The more people there are, the easier it is for things to go wrong."

"I do intend to wipe out the Li Family tonight, but if outsiders learn that the Qin Family was behind it, then tonight's operation will be for nothing." He considered the matter briefly, then continued, "Let's wait for Huang Jing and the other two to get here."

"We'll go straight for the Li Family patriarch and kill him as quickly as possible. Once he's dead, the Second Refinement martial artists among the guards will know enough to look out for themselves. When the Li Family members are all dead, the hired guards from other clans will scatter like loose sand."

Qin Jiu knew all too well how hired guards in a great family behaved.

As the old saying went,

How much silver could a lowly guard like you earn in a month? Was it really worth risking your life for?

Before long,

Huang Jing arrived with two others.

Qin Jiu told everyone to cover their faces.

At the Chai Gang, he hadn't made them do that, but they'd been wiping out the entire gang. The Li Family was different. He had no intention of committing the inhuman atrocity of slaughtering every last person in the household.

Killing the Li Family's direct line would be enough.

Li Family, inner hall.

The Li Family patriarch, Li Shuyan, sat in the main seat, eyes closed as if resting.

But his hands were clasped together,

and he kept rubbing the ring on his finger.

Clearly, he was brooding over something.

"Tap, tap."

Footsteps approached.

Li Shuyan opened his eyes and looked toward the doorway, a flicker of surprise crossing his face.

"Mu'er, you haven't gone to bed either?"

"For some reason, I've been feeling inexplicably restless, so I wanted to come out and get some air."

Li Mu entered the hall. First, he shook his head as he spoke, then asked, "Father, why are you still awake so late? What's on your mind?"

"Mm."

Li Shuyan nodded. "I'm thinking about the Qin and Han Families."

He thought highly of his son, who had reached Second Refinement before the age of twenty, so he didn't keep anything from him. "According to the original plan, the Fisher Gang was to take the Qin Family's secret recipe, while the Chai Gang was to take the Han Family's businesses and martial arts."

"Our Li Family was to take over the Qin Family's assets."

"But now, nearly all the Fisher Gang's members are dead, leaving only its leader. I think our Li Family should take the recipe for ourselves. We can present it to that person when he enters the city one day, and use it to secure a bright future for you."

"A chance that might let you..."

"one day break through beyond Internal Strengthening."

"What opportunity?"

Li Mu asked, puzzled.

But almost at the same moment, Li Shuyan's expression changed drastically.

In an instant,

a bone-chilling blade flashed with a tremor as it pierced down through the roof, aimed straight at the crown of his head.