Murder

The next day, news from North City Pier spread.

The White Horse Gang had not only suffered a heavy loss in its clash with the Black Mud Gang, but had also lost a mysterious expert!

According to gang members who had been lucky enough to escape, a mysterious figure wearing an iron mask had suddenly appeared and singled out the White Horse Gang's best fighters for attack.

In the end, he had lured away and killed that mysterious expert, then sunk his body in the river.

By the time they fished him out, the expert's corpse was in a terrible state, his body swollen.

His wounds had been mangled by a sharp blade, making it impossible to identify the specific martial arts he had used.

"Iron Mask?"

Lord Leopard listened to his subordinate's report, his face frighteningly dark.

Only he himself knew Zhou Heng's identity.

He had hired him at great expense. Zhou Heng was also one of his most trusted men, and had secretly helped him carry out many shady deeds.

His death was not only a loss of fighting strength; it could also bring trouble.

"Investigate! Turn the whole county upside down if you have to, but find this Iron Face!"

Lord Leopard roared in fury. "He dared lay a hand on one of my White Horse Gang men. I'll make sure he doesn't die with his whole body intact!"

The name Iron Mask spread for the first time through the underworld at the bottom of Qingping County, accompanied by Zhou Heng's death.

It stirred up speculation and unleashed the White Horse Gang's towering fury.

Over the following few days, Yongning Street seemed to return to its former peace.

But business at Benevolent World Hall remained quiet.

Lin Qing simply had silver and grain in hand, so he was not the least bit worried.

In fact, his days were more fulfilling than before.

Every day, he practiced Iron Wire Fist with painstaking dedication at the martial arts school.

With every punch, he could clearly see his own progress.

His fight with Zhou Heng had given him a profound understanding of the importance of mastery in martial arts.

Though they were both in the Tendon Opening Realm, Zhou Heng's claw techniques were fierce but lacked focus.

As for Lin Qing's Iron Wire Fist, after ceaseless practice day and night and tempering through life-and-death battles, it had already reached the realm of supreme mastery.

His force was condensed into one, and his movements flowed in perfect circles.

That was what had allowed him to meet force with force and sweep aside a martial artist of the same realm like a dead branch before a storm.

Strength was the foundation, while technique was the lever that magnified that foundation's power to its utmost limit.

At night, he shut himself away to study the Thousand Aspect Technique.

This cultivation art was extremely difficult to master. It required precise control over countless tiny facial muscles and even a unique method of circulating qi and blood, combined with certain medicines to gently stimulate the bones.

"It looks like I'll have to find the medicinal ingredients needed to practice the Thousand Aspect Technique. A few of them are rather rare."

"I may have to visit the Black Market."

Lin Qing pondered, but didn't set out right away.

After all, the trouble caused by Zhou Heng had yet to die down.

Over the next few days, Lin Qing became increasingly cautious.

During that time, he changed his clothes several times and quietly visited the Ge Pao Society's stronghold to discreetly gather information.

Sure enough, rumors about Iron Mask had quietly spread through the underworld at the bottom of society, mixed with the White Horse Gang's blazing fury and killing intent.

What made Lin Qing's heart tighten even more was what he learned from a member who couldn't keep his mouth shut.

The White Horse Gang had used the Ge Pao Society's channels to officially put a hundred-tael bounty on Iron Mask.

A hundred taels was enough to make many desperate men in Qingping County's eyes turn red and their hearts pound, tempting them to risk everything.

"It looks like I'll have to be even more careful about using the name Iron Mask from now on."

Lin Qing showed nothing on his face, but alarm bells rang in his heart.

Though he had now entered the Tendon Opening Realm and greatly increased his strength, two fists were no match for four hands. If a crowd surrounded him, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Under this pressure, improving his strength was his only way forward.

He couldn't let his practice of the Thousand Aspect Technique stall, either, since it might become the key to saving his life in the future.

That day, Lin Qing changed his appearance again and put on a conical hat.

He disguised himself as a weary traveling merchant with a sallow complexion.

Following the route he remembered, he returned to the Black Market hidden in the abandoned mine.

This time, unlike before, he knew exactly what he was after.

After briefly circling the outskirts of the Black Market, he went straight to several stalls selling medicinal herbs.

His voice was hoarse and his words brief. He quickly bought the few herbs he needed, wrapped them in cloth, and tucked the bundle inside his robe.

The whole process was quick and low-key, and he didn't talk much with anyone.

He bought just the right amount—not enough to attract anyone's greed.

Once the deal was done, he immediately lowered his head and blended into the passing crowd, winding through the streets as his senses sharpened to their utmost.

Only after confirming that no one was following him did he finally breathe a little easier and hurry off along the remote path he had taken to get there.

His footsteps crunched softly over the gravel road.

In the distance, Qingping County's outline looked hazy beneath the afternoon sun.

He would be safe once he crossed the relatively open stretch ahead that connected to the main road.

But just ahead, the scene looked strange. A cargo wagon stood crookedly in the middle of the road, its goods scattered messily across the ground.

Yet there was no sign of the driver or the owner; only the tired packhorse pawed anxiously at the dirt.

A faint smell of blood mingled with the dust and drifted over on the wind.

Lin Qing stopped abruptly, a warning stirring in his heart.

If something was out of the ordinary, there was bound to be something wrong!

He didn't hesitate for a moment. Abandoning the main road, he veered aside and slipped soundlessly into the dense woods by the roadside.

He had a plan in mind: he would use the trees for cover and skirt around this suspicious stretch of road.

Inside the woods, shadows crowded beneath the trees, and the light was dim.

Lin Qing held his breath and gathered his presence to its faintest, moving quickly along the rugged mountain path.

He didn't want trouble; he only wanted to leave this place of conflict as quickly and safely as possible.

He had crept a few hundred meters and was just about to skirt the chaotic area.

Suddenly, hurried footsteps, cries, and vicious curses rang out from behind the slope ahead.

"Go! My lady, go!"

A man's desperate voice rang out.

Lin Qing's eyes narrowed as he crept closer without a sound.

Parting the dense shrubs, he peered through the leaves. In the shallow valley below the slope, a man in a faded scholar's robe waved a stick he had picked up, swinging it wildly.

He was trying to hold off three bandits wielding steel sabers, their faces vicious.

Behind him, a young woman in a cloth skirt and thorn hairpin, her features beautiful, clutched a child of about three or four and stumbled backward in flight. Her face was bloodless, full of despair.

The scholar was clearly no martial artist. He was relying on nothing but a surge of courage.

He turned and shouted, "My lady, go! Don't worry about me. Take An'er and run!"

The moment he turned around,

a lean, cunning-eyed bandit suddenly darted out of the dense woods beside them.

His steel saber plunged even more fiercely toward the man in the scholar's robe.

"Shhk!"

The blade drove cleanly into the scholar's flank!

"Ah!"

The scholar let out a wretched scream, and the wooden stick fell from his hand.

Another bandit stepped forward with a sneer and struck him again, bringing his blade down hard across the man's chest!

Blood burst out at once, staining the worn scholar's robe red.

The scholar's body jerked violently. His eyes flew wide, filled with terror and unwillingness, and he toppled straight backward, never to move again.

"My husband!"

The woman let out a heart-rending cry in the distance. Her legs gave way, and she nearly crumpled to the ground.