A Bloody Road

A Trail of Blood

Zhang Sanxian took a coarse cloth pouch from his robe.

He had looted it from the bandit stronghold last night. Inside were several dozen taels of loose silver, along with a few silver ingots of decent quality.

After weighing it in his hand, he casually tossed it to Old Liu.

Old Liu caught it instinctively. When he opened it and looked inside, he froze. "Sanxian, this is—"

"If I'm giving it to you, take it." Zhang Sanxian's voice remained calm, devoid of any discernible emotion.

"Leave this place. Head south—it'll be safer."

After a pause, he added, "Find a new place and open another shop."

With that, he leaned on his blind cane and strode out the door.

Old Liu tremblingly put away the money pouch, his mouth opening and closing as though he wanted to say something.

Gratitude? Or worry?

Perhaps both.

In the end, though, he could not utter a single word.

He could only drop heavily to his knees before Zhang Sanxian's receding back and kowtow heavily.

After leaving the blacksmith shop, Zhang Sanxian leaned on his blind cane and headed toward the town yamen.

His footsteps made no sound, yet an invisible chill clung to him, colder than the wind sweeping down from the mountains.

The street ahead remained deathly silent, but through the winds blowing in from every direction, Zhang Sanxian's ears caught stifled sobs and pleas, savage barks of rebuke, and the crisp crashes of smashed jars and pots.

Of course Zhang Sanxian knew what those sounds were. They were the Divine Strategy Bandit Army committing evil throughout Luoyang Town.

More than a hundred meters away, around several street corners—

Several soldier-bandits clad in filthy, worn leather armor were brutally battering down the door of a household.

At the house