The Assassin

The night was deep and still, with a moonless sky and wind sweeping through.

Lin Qing was still awake, keeping watch over his surroundings.

Just past midnight, all sound fell silent.

Suddenly, an extremely faint thud came from beyond the rear courtyard wall.

If Lin Qing hadn't been concentrating so intently, he would never have noticed it.

They're finally here.

A moment later, a stifled groan, suppressed with all their might, came from atop the wall.

"Damn it, what the hell pricked me..."

A voice rang out, startled and angry.

"Second Brother, what's wrong?"

Another voice asked, a little more composed.

"It's nothing. I think a shard of a blade nicked me. This place is cursed—the wall's got something buried in it, too."

The first voice spat, seemingly unconcerned.

Two dark figures vaulted over the wall and landed lightly in the courtyard.

When one of them landed, he stumbled slightly and shook out his right hand.

"Big Brother, this courtyard's small. The target should be in the inner bedroom."

The injured figure spoke in a low voice.

The other nodded, and the two of them crept toward the main house in silent understanding.

But they had taken fewer than five steps when the dark figure with the injured right hand suddenly froze. His voice trembled slightly.

"Big Brother, something's wrong. I'm going numb..."

Before he had even finished speaking, he pitched forward and fell flat on the ground, his body convulsing violently as white foam spilled from his mouth and nose. In the moonlight, the sight was especially chilling.

The figure called Big Brother changed color. He hurriedly crouched to examine him, then took a packet of antidote powder from his clothing and made the other man swallow it.

"Damn it, that little bastard's vicious."

The dark figure cursed under his breath, his eyes filled with alarm and fury.

"I've worked as Farmer Twin Fists for over a decade and never missed. I miscalculated today."

He fought down the urge to check on his brother right away.

He knew he had to deal with the target first. Getting the antidote was the only sensible move.

He was anxious about whether his brother would live.

But years spent living by the blade quickly steadied his mind.

He hurried to the window of Lin Qing's bedroom and listened carefully.

From inside came even, unhurried breathing. It seemed the master of the room had already fallen asleep.

"Hmph. You don't even know you're at death's door."

The dark figure sneered inwardly, taking a long, thin bamboo tube from his clothes. Carefully, he poked a hole through the window paper.

He put one end to his lips, pointed the other into the room, and blew gently.

A colorless, odorless cloud of knockout smoke silently spread through the room.

He waited about ten breaths, estimating that the drug had taken effect, then soundlessly worked the latch aside with the tip of his blade and slowly pushed open the door.

As soon as the door opened a crack, he was about to slip inside.

But the unexpected happened.

A puff of colorless, odorless powder, as though it had been waiting for him, showered down from above the lintel!

It was none other than Seven-Step Smiling Madness.

Caught off guard, the dark figure reacted swiftly, holding his breath and retreating.

But plenty of powder still clung to his face, and he even inhaled a little.

In the darkness, a figure who had been lying in wait sprang into action!

Lin Qing clenched his fist, the veins on his hand bulging.

He unleashed every ounce of power behind his Iron Wire Fist. Qi and blood surged as he raised his hand and launched an overwhelming Overlord Breaks the River, its force like mountains crashing down, straight at the figure's muffled cry!

His fist wind roared, brimming with killing intent.

Bang!

A dull, heavy impact, like a fist smashing through leather, rang out in the silent night.

All of Lin Qing's strength struck the dark figure square in the chest, and the Kirin Spike pierced straight through him.

The instant the blow landed, the dark figure felt an immense force rush through his body. His breastbone cracked with a teeth-grating sound, and his internal organs seemed to shift and rupture under the blow!

He couldn't even manage a proper scream. His body flew backward like a kite with its string cut, slammed into the courtyard wall, then slid limply to the ground. His limbs twitched a few times before he went still.

The courtyard fell silent once more.

Only Lin Qing's slightly labored breathing remained.

One strike, one kill.

"Qing, what's going on? I think I heard something."

His sister Lin Wan's worried voice came from the inner room, edged with alarm.

Clearly, the dull impact and brief scuffle had startled her.

Lin Qing quickly steadied his breathing and made his voice sound as calm as possible. "Sis, it's nothing. I was practicing. I tried putting some force into a move and accidentally knocked something over."

"I'm at a crucial point in my training, so don't come out and disturb me."

He knew his sister well. If she found out someone had died outside—two people, no less—she would be scared out of her wits.

Some darkness was his to bear alone.

"Oh. Don't stay up practicing too late, or you'll hurt yourself..."

Lin Wan still sounded a little puzzled, but after hearing her brother say that, she didn't press further. She only reminded him to be careful, then went back to sleep.

Lin Qing breathed a sigh of relief. Only then did he walk over to the dark figure's corpse, crouch down, and yank off the black cloth covering his face.

Beneath it was the plain-looking old farmer's face he had seen several times outside the tavern window!

Even now, a trace of disbelief remained in the old farmer's eyes.

So it really was you.

The last weight on Lin Qing's heart lifted.

With the death of the man who had been following him, the feeling of being watched that had haunted him for days finally vanished.

He stood up and walked over to the other corpse in the courtyard.

The dark figure who had died from poison.

He searched this one as well and confirmed he was completely dead.

The two men had been skilled at tailing and assassination.

They knew to scout the place in advance and blow in knockout smoke.

They must have been known figures in Qingping County.

Yet now they had silently met their end in the backyard of Benevolent World Hall.

Lin Qing calmly began searching the bodies.

Between the two men, he found several dozen taels of silver in loose coins and a few taels of gold, totaling around seventy or eighty taels.

More importantly, he found two black iron tokens belonging to the Ge Pao Society. The backs were engraved with "Sixty" and "Sixty-One."

"The Ge Pao Society again."

Lin Qing gripped the two cold tokens, his brow furrowing.

Instead of clearing up his doubts, it only deepened them.

By rights, these two men and the previously encountered lanky man shouldn't have been working together.

"I've never had any dealings with the Ge Pao Society. Why have they sent assassins after me again and again? Liu Xiaodao and his men might have been acting out of a personal grudge, but what about these two?"

"Who would spend such a fortune to hire the Ge Pao Society and insist on taking my life?"

Could it be the Security Hall?

That was the first place he thought of.

After all, with the Pan Family's influence, hiring professional assassins wouldn't be difficult.

But he needed to confirm it.

For now, the most urgent thing was to dispose of the bodies.

Killing someone inside the city would bring enormous trouble if he were discovered.

Without hesitation, he returned to the tool shed and took out a sturdy iron shovel. In an inconspicuous corner of the rear courtyard, where the soil was soft, he began digging with all his might.

His strength now far surpassed that of an ordinary person. In less than half an hour, he had dug a pit nearly four meters deep.

He dragged the two bodies into the pit, then took out a porcelain bottle. Inside was corpse-dissolving liquid he had prepared while experimenting with poisons.

He carefully poured the pungent liquid over the bodies.

"Hiss, hiss..."

A spine-chilling sound of corrosion rang out, accompanied by white smoke and a foul stench.

The two bodies dissolved before his eyes, turning into a puddle of yellow liquid that seeped into the soil. Hardly any bones were left.

Lin Qing watched without expression. Once the corrosion stopped, he filled the pit with earth and tamped it down.

He scattered some of the original loose soil and fallen leaves over the area, carefully covering every trace.

By the time he finished, dawn was near.