A Clean Sweep

At the second watch, a black shadow drifted out of White Stone Ward and sprinted into the distance.

Xu Yang soon arrived at the location of the Tri-Union Gang's headquarters.

He did not strike immediately.

If Qian Ming was not here, killing ordinary gang members would be meaningless; his primary target was Qian Ming.

He covered his nose and mouth with a prepared cloth and gripped the dagger he had scavenged from Li Hu. He crept toward the courtyard wall, his ears catching the sound of a drinking game.

They're actually drinking!

Drinking was good. Once they were drunk, they would sleep like the dead. He might not even need to exert much effort to wipe them all out in one go.

It seemed that Li Hu's unexplained disappearance had not alerted these people.

After listening for a while longer, he confirmed that Qian Ming was present.

The man's voice was booming during the drinking game; he could be heard clearly from over ten meters away across the courtyard.

At the third watch, the sounds of the drinking game inside the headquarters gradually died down.

Xu Yang lurked in the shadows, knowing that if he waited a little longer until everyone was asleep, he could make his move.

Suddenly, the main gate of the headquarters opened, and a drunken figure stumbled out, barely able to stand.

It was Qian Ming.

As he was about to collapse, two subordinates who appeared sober rushed over to steady him.

"Master Qian, it's too late and unsafe to go home. You should wait until tomorrow."

One of the men, who had a scar on his face, tried to persuade him.

Master Qian was fine in every other regard, but once he started drinking, he would insist on going home no matter where he was.

"That's right, Master Qian. We still don't know who took out Li Hu. It's safer to stay at the headquarters," the other man added.

"That piece of trash Li Hu thinks he can compare to me?"

Qian Ming spat as he spoke. "Back when we fought the Si River Gang, I took a saber and made a dozen of them howl like ghosts. In this area, who the hell dares to touch me, Qian Ming?"

He slung his arms around the two men, ignoring their advice, and continued to head toward Big Tree Village.

"But Master Qian, the brothers are all drunk. Only the two of us are sober. If an enemy sneaks up on us, we'll be wiped out."

The two subordinates had no choice but to use the men inside the headquarters as an excuse.

"Find me a woman, or send me home!"

Qian Ming didn't care about any of that; all he wanted now was to go home and hold his young wife.

Xu Yang held his breath. He did not strike immediately, waiting until they were further away.

Both men were armed with blades, and it would be difficult to resolve the situation quickly if they fought back.

Once the three of them had walked a distance away, he emerged from the darkness and began to circle around to get ahead of them.

Under the cover of night, Xu Yang lurked in the roadside grass. As the three men passed by, he erupted into action.

He used the Bear King Claw that Zhou Yang had displayed earlier today, but the effect was entirely different.

The scarred man sensed the attack immediately, but his neck was pinned by the drunken Qian Ming, leaving him unable to advance or retreat.

He tried to draw his blade, but it was pressed against Qian Ming's body, preventing him from pulling it out in time.

By then, Xu Yang's fingers had already locked onto his throat, and he exerted sudden, crushing force.

"Snap!"

Under the immense power, the sound of a throat shattering rang out. The scarred man was nearly blinded by pain; he no longer cared about the drunkard Qian Ming and, in his struggle, shoved him aside.

But at this moment, Xu Yang unleashed his calculated follow-up combo, and his cold, sharp dagger plunged into the man's chest.

"Scarface, are you trying to die?"

Qian Ming still hadn't grasped the situation and began to curse.

"Master Qian, there's an assassin!"

The other subordinate shrieked, struggling to push away the heavy, drunken Qian Ming who was practically hanging off him.

"Squelch!"

Blood sprayed out. Xu Yang didn't even look at the result; he took a stride forward and drove his dagger into the man's upper back.

The man's struggle with Qian Ming came to an abrupt halt, a look of terror washing over his face.

He had been stabbed!

Xu Yang pulled downward with force. The terrifying strength sliced through skin, flesh, and bone, exposing the raw, red organs beneath.

"Ah..."

The scream lasted only an instant before Qian Ming's last subordinate collapsed, lifeless.

Qian Ming finally reacted and threw a punch at Xu Yang's face, but he was struggling just to stand; he had no strength left to strike anyone.

Xu Yang merely shifted slightly to the side, and Qian Ming tumbled away, carried by his own momentum.

"Who are you? I am Qian Ming!" Qian Ming shouted. How could anyone in this area dare to touch him?

Xu Yang did not speak, nor would he give Qian Ming the chance to crawl back up. He stepped forward, pressed one hand onto Qian Ming's head, and drove his dagger straight into the man's throat.

"Huu... huu..."

With his windpipe ruptured, a wheezing sound escaped, and blood-flecked foam sprayed onto the ground.

Qian Ming's body convulsed, his hands clawing incessantly at the earth.

Xu Yang's expression remained cold and sharp; this was his second time killing, and he had already adapted quite a bit.

He pulled out the dagger and delivered another strike, ensuring Qian Ming stopped moving entirely.

At this moment, the other two men were not yet fully dead, their bodies still twitching, though they were beyond saving.

Xu Yang did not rush to finish them off. He flipped Qian Ming's body over, searched him, and found a bag of money. Without checking the amount, he tucked it away and walked toward the next person.

By the time he finished looting the bodies, they were all nearly dead.

Looking at the claw marks on the scarred man's neck, he raised his foot and stomped down heavily, continuing until the neck was crushed from the head, effectively concealing the traces left by the Bear King Claw.

He picked up a blade from the ground and quickly departed.

This time, he couldn't be bothered to dispose of the bodies; there simply wasn't enough time.

Returning to the branch hall, the main gate remained open, meaning no one inside was conscious, and they were completely unaware that Qian Ming and his two companions had ever left.

He hid outside and listened for a while, confirming that there were no sounds other than snoring, before swallowing the antidote for the Muscle-Softening Powder.

After waiting a moment to ensure the antidote had taken effect, he slipped through the open gate.

The courtyard was empty, save for a few overturned stools and bowls; the sound of snoring drifted from the surrounding rooms.

Some of the room doors were not even closed, left wide open.

For those rooms, Xu Yang entered and scattered a handful of Muscle-Softening Powder, in no hurry to kill.

Once he had dosed every room with an open door, he began to call the roll for these men one by one, first covering their mouths, then piercing their throats with a single blade strike.

Ten minutes later, there was not a single living soul left.

Using blood, he scrawled the two characters for "Si River" on the wall before walking out with a large sack.

Inside were the protection fees collected by the branch hall over the past few days, consisting entirely of copper coins—likely five or six thousand of them—along with some broken silver.

Adding what he had looted from the corpses, his haul for the night was worth about ten taels of silver.

Truly, murder and arson lead to golden belts, though I cannot bring this many copper coins home just yet.

He found a hidden spot to stash the money before returning home.

The next day, while the sky was still dim, someone discovered the three bodies of Qian Ming and his men on the road. The person rushed in a panic to the Tri-Union Gang branch hall to report the news, only to collapse to the ground in terror at the sight that greeted him inside.

Before long, news that the Tri-Union Gang branch hall had been wiped out spread throughout the nearby villages.