No Match for a Single Blow

Crack!

Lightning flashed, bleaching the vault of rain-white sky.

At the eastern end of Luoyang Town, a sprawling manor stood silently amid the curtain of rain.

Under the torrential downpour, the manor's lofty horse-head walls and heavy gatehouse had become blurred silhouettes.

Only its flying eaves and upturned corners abruptly revealed their sharp outlines whenever ghastly white lightning tore across the night sky.

And upon one such upturned eave stood a black-clad figure with a long saber at his waist, planted there as steadily as a steel nail.

Rainwater streamed urgently from the brim of his conical hat. Behind that chain of droplets was a stern, lean face, cold yet brimming with righteous resolve.

He was Qin Wufeng, a divine constable of the Great Yi Dynasty's Six Gates. He had come to Luoyang Town to hunt down the infamous Flower-Plucking Gentleman—Xia Zhiwan.

This man had roamed throughout the Southern Yan Region, preying on men and women alike without discrimination. Once he was done, he would dismember his victims and scatter the pieces among different households. He was a villain among villains.

Qin Wufeng's gaze pierced through layer upon layer of rain, locking tightly onto a somewhat lower rooftop ten zhang away.

There stood a red-clad figure with flowing long hair, holding a crimson umbrella.

In the cold rain and wet wind, the wide sleeves and fluttering robes of the red-clad man spread like ghostly wings, giving him an exceedingly eerie air.

Beneath the red umbrella, his jade-pale face was as pretty as a woman's. He had even powdered his face and applied rouge.

That was right. This neither-male-nor-female creature was Qin Wufeng's target: the flower-plucking thief, Xia Zhiwan.

"Tut, tut, tut, tut~"

Xia Zhiwan's languid voice pierced through the rain and reached Qin Wufeng clearly. "Divine Constable Qin, why chase