One Clean Sweep

At the second watch, a dark figure slipped out of White Stone Ward and hurried into the distance.

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

He didn't act immediately.

If Qian Ming wasn't here, killing ordinary gang members would be pointless. Qian Ming was still his primary target.

He pulled the cloth he'd prepared over his mouth and nose, gripped the dagger he'd taken from Li Hu, and crept toward the courtyard wall. The sound of people playing drinking games drifted into his ears.

"They're actually drinking!"

That was good. Once they'd had enough to drink, they'd sleep like the dead. Maybe he wouldn't even have to lift a finger to take them all out.

It seemed the strange disappearance of Li Hu hadn't put anyone on their guard.

He listened a while longer and confirmed that Qian Ming was there.

The man shouted so loudly while playing drinking games that he could be heard from more than ten meters away, across the courtyard.

By the third watch, the sound of drinking games inside the headquarters had gradually faded.

Xu Yang lay hidden in the darkness. He knew he just had to wait a little longer, until everyone was asleep, before making his move.

Suddenly, the headquarters' front gate opened, and a drunken figure staggered out, barely able to stay on his feet.

It was Qian Ming.

Just as he was about to fall, two subordinates who didn't seem to have been drinking hurried over and caught him.

"Master Qian, it's too late to go home safely. You should wait until tomorrow," advised one of them, a man with a scar across his face.

Master Qian was good in every way, except that once he started drinking, no matter where he was, he'd insist on going home.

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

"That useless Li Hu thinks he can compare to me?"

Qian Ming sprayed spittle as he boasted, "Back when we fought the Si River Gang, I took a single saber and hacked a dozen of them until they were howling like ghosts. Who the hell around here would dare lay a hand on me, Qian Ming?"

With an arm slung around each man, he ignored their advice and kept walking toward Big Tree Village.

"But, Master Qian, the brothers are all drunk. We're the only two who are sober. If enemies sneak in, they could take us all out in one sweep."

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

"Find me a woman, or take 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 and didn't attack just yet. He'd wait until they were farther away.

Both men were armed with knives. It wouldn't be easy to deal with them quickly.

He waited until the three were far away, then stepped out of the darkness and began circling around to get ahead of them.

Under cover of night, Xu Yang hid in the grass beside the road. As the three men passed, he suddenly burst out and attacked.

He used the very same Bear King Claw Zhou Yang had used that day, but the result was different.

The scar-faced man sensed the attack immediately, but Qian Ming had an arm around his neck. He couldn't move forward or back.

He tried to draw his knife, but Qian Ming's body was pressing down on it, and he couldn't pull it free in time.

By then, Xu Yang's five fingers had already clamped around his throat. They suddenly tightened.

"Crack!"

Under the crushing force, the sound of his throat breaking rang out. The scar-faced man was in so much pain he nearly passed out. He couldn't spare a thought for the drunken Qian Ming. As he struggled, he shoved Qian Ming away.

But Xu Yang had already calculated his next move. His follow-up attack came at once, and the icy dagger plunged into the man's chest.

"Scarface, you trying to get yourself killed?"

Qian Ming still hadn't figured out what was happening. He shouted a curse.

"Master Qian, someone's got a knife!"

The other man screamed and desperately tried to push Qian Ming, who was practically hanging off him.

"Pfft!"

Blood sprayed. Xu Yang didn't even check the result. He stepped forward and drove his dagger into the man's back.

The man's struggle against Qian Ming abruptly stopped. Terror crept across his face.

He'd been stabbed!

Xu Yang yanked downward with all his strength. The terrible force sliced through flesh and bone, exposing the bright red organs beneath.

"Ah..."

The scream lasted only an instant before Qian Ming's last subordinate crumpled to the ground.

Qian Ming finally reacted. He threw a punch at Xu Yang's face, but he could barely stand, let alone muster the strength to hit anyone.

Xu Yang merely leaned aside. Qian Ming's own momentum sent him sprawling.

"Who are you? I'm Qian Ming!" he shouted. Could someone in this area really dare attack him?

Xu Yang said nothing, and certainly wasn't about to give Qian Ming a chance to get back up. He stepped forward, pinned Qian Ming's head down with one hand, and drove the dagger straight into his neck.

"Ghh... ghh..."

His windpipe was severed, and a wheezing sound escaped as blood and foam spurted onto the ground.

Qian Ming's whole body convulsed. His hands scrabbled helplessly at the dirt.

Xu Yang's expression was cold. This was his second time killing someone, and he'd already grown more accustomed to it.

He pulled out the dagger and stabbed him again. Qian Ming finally stopped moving.

The other two men still weren't quite dead. Their bodies were twitching, but they wouldn't survive either.

Xu Yang didn't rush to finish them off. He turned Qian Ming's body over, felt around, and found the money pouch. Without checking how much was inside, he pocketed it and moved on to the next body.

By the time he'd finished searching them, the men were nearly dead.

Seeing the claw marks on the scar-faced man's neck, he raised his foot and stamped down hard. He didn't stop until he'd crushed the man's neck away from his head, hiding the marks left by Bear King Claw.

He picked up a knife from the ground, then hurried away.

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

When he returned to headquarters, the front gate was still open. That meant nobody inside had woken up, and they had no idea Qian Ming and the other two had left.

He hid outside and listened for a while. Once he was sure there was nothing but snoring, Xu Yang swallowed the antidote to Muscle-Softening Powder.

He waited until he was sure the antidote had started working, then slipped inside through the open gate.

The courtyard was empty, with only a few toppled stools and scattered bowls and chopsticks. Snores came from rooms on both sides.

Some of the room doors hadn't even been shut. They stood wide open.

For those rooms, Xu Yang went straight in and scattered a handful of Muscle-Softening Powder. He didn't hurry to kill anyone.

After he'd spread Muscle-Softening Powder in every room with an open door, he began picking them off one by one. First he covered their mouths, then plunged a knife through their throats.

Ten minutes later, not a single person there was still alive.

He used blood to write the two large characters "Si River" on the wall, then walked out carrying a large sack.

Inside was the money the headquarters had collected in protection fees over the past few days. It was all copper coins, probably five or six thousand of them, along with some broken silver.

Including what he'd taken from the dead, tonight's haul should come to around ten taels of silver.

"Sure enough, murder and arson make a golden belt. But I can't bring all these copper coins home just yet."

He hid the money somewhere secluded, then returned home.

The next day, while dawn was still breaking, someone found the three men dead on the road. He hurried to the Tri-Union Gang headquarters to report it, only to be so horrified by what he saw inside that he collapsed on the ground.

Before long, news that the Tri-Union Gang's headquarters had been wiped out in one fell swoop spread through the nearby villages.