Late at night.
At the entrance to Peace Lane, two burly men leaned on each other, reeking of alcohol.
"Ma Zi, I drank too much tonight. Wait while I take a leak."
One of the men let go of his companion and staggered over to the wall. He undid his belt and relieved himself noisily in the corner.
"Hurry up. I'm freezing to death." The other hunched his shoulders and stamped his feet impatiently.
"What's the rush? It's not like you've got a woman waiting to hold you when we get back."
The man relieving himself muttered as he shook off the last drop. Just then, a heavy thud came from behind him.
He turned instinctively. The sight made the hairs on his body stand on end, and the alcohol haze cleared from his head in an instant.
His companion lay stiff as a board on the ground, motionless.
The burly man was about to shout when a dark figure sprang from the shadows and punched him square in the gut.
Bang!
The punch sent him flying backward. His back slammed hard into the wall, and before he could slide down, a hand clamped around his throat and pinned him there.
In the moonlight, a young face appeared before him, its eyes cold as the depths of winter.
"I ask, you answer." Lin Yan's voice was soft, but carried an unquestionable pressure. "Scream, and you die."
The man nodded frantically.
"You're with the Three Heroes Gang?"
The man nodded.
"Which deputy chief in your gang wants to use pregnant women to change his luck?"
"It's Deputy Chief Zhao... Zhao!" The man blurted everything out without hesitation, his voice trembling badly. "Deputy Chief Zhao failed twice to break through the second stage of Skin Polishing. He heard that finding a pregnant woman could turn his luck around."
"Where's he planning to find pregnant women? Lie to me, and you die!"
"Deputy Chief Zhao originally wanted to look in the brothels, but there aren't any pregnant girls there. They can provide some, but it would take too long, and Deputy Chief Zhao can't wait. He's planning to search for pregnant women in the areas under the gang's control..."
"Where does he live? How many people are there?"
"Willow Lane, the third house. There are two locust trees by the entrance. It's... it's just him living there."
A glimmer of hope flashed in the man's eyes. "Sir, whatever you ask, I'll tell you everything I know. Could you..."
"I can."
As the words fell, the hand around his throat suddenly tightened.
Crack.
A faint sound of a joint slipping out of place rang out. Lin Yan let go, and the man's head lolled to one side as he crumpled to the ground.
"I can grant your wish."
Lin Yan turned and hauled the burly man's companion up from the ground. He pressed a finger against the man's philtrum. He had only knocked him unconscious earlier, not killed him.
"P-please spare me, sir."
The burly man came to with Lin Yan's hand around his throat and his companion lying on the ground. His whole body trembled.
"I ask, you answer. Scream, and you die."
A quarter of an hour later, Lin Yan tied stones to the two corpses and threw them into the river. A few taels of silver had found their way into his hands.
According to the two burly men from the Three Heroes Gang, Deputy Chief Zhao Kui really was targeting pregnant women in the nearby lanes. He had already picked out his targets and was just waiting a few days before making his move.
The teacher's daughter-in-law wasn't among Deputy Chief Zhao's targets this time.
From a selfish point of view, Lin Yan could have left the matter alone. He had already reached the second stage of Skin Polishing. He only had to visit the martial arts hall to exchange for a new set of disciple's clothes, then pay the teacher a visit. Zhao Kui would certainly never dare target the teacher's daughter-in-law.
But that wasn't what he wanted.
At Listen-to-Spring Pavilion, the moment he learned that the Three Heroes Gang's deputy chief was targeting pregnant women, he had wanted to kill him.
If he couldn't beat him, then so be it.
But if he could—and the Three Heroes Gang controlled the place where he lived—then he would never allow a beast like that to keep living.
If he didn't kill someone like that, he wouldn't be able to sleep easy!
As Mencius once said: "Those who bully pregnant women are no human beings."
At the third house on Willow Lane, the lights were still bright despite the late hour.
"Deputy Chief Zhao, something big has happened in the gang. The chief urgently needs you."
Lin Yan stood outside the door, deliberately lowering his voice and imitating the gang members' gruff tone.
Footsteps approached from inside, accompanied by an impatient mutter. "What big thing could happen in the middle of the night..."
Lin Yan bent slightly and clenched his right fist, gathering his strength. The moment the bolt slid back, he would strike like a thunderbolt.
But just as the footsteps stopped behind the door, the hairs all over Lin Yan's body suddenly stood on end. A powerful sense of danger shot from his spine to the crown of his head. Without the slightest hesitation, he twisted his waist and rolled to the right.
Bang!
A muffled thud rang out as a sharp weapon pierced through the door. A heavy-backed saber stabbed through the wood, its gleaming tip narrowly scraping past Lin Yan's clothes.
"I've been in this business for years. I saw the chief just this afternoon. You think I'm an idiot?"
As he spoke, the bolt was yanked open. Zhao Kui strode out with a long saber in hand. His triangular eyes gleamed with menace as he looked Lin Yan up and down.
"Just you?"
Zhao Kui sneered, letting out a breath of relief as he approached Lin Yan with his saber raised. "You can't even manage a proper sneak attack, and you're trying to play the masked man? Let's see what kind of idiot you are, and why you—"
Halfway through, Zhao Kui suddenly accelerated and slashed horizontally!
The saber wind howled, its force heavy and fierce.
He seemed not to take Lin Yan seriously, but every move was carefully calculated.
Lin Yan dodged sideways and retreated two steps.
Zhao Kui's slash missed. A flicker of surprise crossed his eyes, followed by an even more vicious grin. "You're quick to dodge, but too bad..."
His saber changed course, chopping down toward Lin Yan's head like a mountain splitting in two!
He put all his strength into this strike. Before the blade even arrived, its wind was already so oppressive that it stole the breath from one's lungs.
Lin Yan remained calm. This was his first time facing an opponent armed with a weapon. As Zhao Kui's saber came down, his body tightened like a drawn bowstring. He burst forward with far greater speed than before, slipped past the blade, and drove his right fist upward into Zhao Kui's sword wrist.
Crack!
The snap of his wrist bone breaking rang out clearly.
The saber flew from his hand and into the air.
"You... you're at the second—"
Zhao Kui's pupils contracted. The pain made him cry out, but before he could finish, Lin Yan's left fist followed close behind.
The punch slammed into his chest.
"Pfft!"
Zhao Kui flew backward and smashed hard into the courtyard wall. Dust showered down, and before his body could slide off the wall, Lin Yan had already closed in and hammered his second and third punches into the same spot.
Bang! Bang!
Each blow landed with a dull thud like a war drum.
Blood poured from Zhao Kui's mouth, and his chest visibly caved in.
After the third punch, Zhao Kui's head lolled to the side. He was well and truly dead.
To his dying day, he never understood why a second-stage Skin Polishing expert would bother sneaking up on someone at the first stage.
"In terms of strength, Zhao Kui had a saber, but his speed and power were far below mine. The gap widened even more when I used my Stone Waist Savage Spine physique."
As Lin Yan dragged Zhao Kui's corpse back into the courtyard, he reviewed the fight.
The fight had bogged down because Zhao Kui saw through his plan at the outset and caught him off guard. On top of that, Zhao Kui had a long saber in hand, which had thrown Lin Yan off balance. That was why he had retreated a few steps at first.
It had nothing to do with their relative strength. He simply lacked combat experience.
Still, the encounter had served as a warning to Lin Yan: he couldn't underestimate the martial artists of this world. Gang leaders like Zhao Kui had clawed their way through life with blades at their throats. They had surely weathered countless ambushes and dirty tricks.
In the time it took to burn a stick of incense, Lin Yan finished cleaning up the scene, looking thoroughly disappointed.
Were all these gangsters so poor? Zhao Kui's entire fortune amounted to only sixty taels.
It seemed he had wronged Zhou Wu of the Black Tiger Gang after all. Compared to Zhao Kui and Cao Peng of the Clear Water Gang, Zhou Wu counted as a rich man.
What Lin Yan didn't know was that Zhao Kui had failed twice at Skin Polishing, and had spent all the silver on him preparing for his third attempt.
The next day!
The chief of the Three Heroes Gang, Wei Hai, and its deputy chief, Liu Song, stood in the courtyard, staring at Zhao Kui's corpse on the ground, their faces dark.
"Judging from the wounds on Deputy Chief Zhao's body, the killer was clearly a fist expert. He must have spent at least ten years immersed in the art of boxing."
The middle-aged man who had examined Zhao Kui's body looked up and gave Wei Hai and Liu Song his findings.
"Coroner Zhou, can you tell which style of boxing?"
"I can't."
"Sorry for the trouble, Coroner Zhou."
Wei Hai cut off Liu Song before he could ask any more questions, then handed over a silver ingot.
"It's no trouble. I get paid for my work."
Only after watching Coroner Zhou leave did Liu Song speak, sounding dissatisfied. "Big Brother, I think Coroner Zhou clearly wasn't telling us the whole truth."
"So what?"
Wei Hai's retort left Liu Song dumbfounded. Then he seemed to realize what Wei Hai meant. "Big Brother, what are you saying? We're not avenging Second Brother?"
"Avenging him?"
Wei Hai gave a bitter smile. "There's no doubt the killer is a second-stage Skin Polishing expert. He's spent over ten years immersed in boxing, and even Coroner Zhou would rather earn less than tell us the truth. What sort of background do you think this person has?"
Liu Song fell silent. After a long while, he finally managed a few words: "A privileged disciple from a martial arts hall!"
Among the many martial artists in the county, only disciples from martial arts halls—those privileged disciples with exceptionally well-off families—would keep training in boxing. People like them, who had to take official posts or find their own ways to make money to afford martial arts resources, would also train with a weapon.
No matter how strong someone's fists and feet were, unless they had reached the third stage of Skin Polishing, they would still be at a disadvantage against an armed martial artist at the same stage.
"Third Brother, these are turbulent times. This matter was a personal grudge between Second Brother and that man. The Three Heroes Gang has no need to get involved."
Wei Hai had made his decision, and Liu Song didn't argue. It was simply the truth.
If a second-stage Skin Polishing expert from a privileged background really meant to target the Three Heroes Gang, Second Brother wouldn't have been the only one attacked last night.
The killer had only killed Zhao Kui and hadn't taken his anger out on them. In that respect, they even had to thank him for settling his grudges fairly.
Yang Family Martial Arts Hall.
Yang Qingfeng looked at the disciple before him and asked evenly, "Who do you think it was?"
"Master, based on Coroner Zhou's analysis, this person has spent at least ten years immersed in Mountain Splitting Fist and has reached the second stage of Skin Polishing. Only Junior Brother Wang and Junior Brother Fang meet both conditions. But Junior Brother Wang isn't in the city, so the only possible person is Junior Brother Fang."
Hao Jingnian gave his assessment. Of the Yang Family Martial Arts Hall's only two third-stage Skin Polishing experts, Hao Jingnian served in the Patrol Bureau. Since the killer had used Mountain Splitting Fist, Coroner Zhou had dared to conceal the truth from Wei Hai, but had deliberately told Hao Jingnian about it.
"Coroner Zhou told this disciple because he wanted to do me a favor. Zhao Kui was a gang member who regularly committed all manner of misdeeds. Junior Brother Fang killed him, so he did the people a service."
Yang Qingfeng didn't give his opinion right away. Instead, he asked, "Where is the Three Heroes Gang's territory?"
"The Three Heroes Gang's original territory was in the west of the city. Later, because of the Four Seas Gang, they were forced to retreat north. They control Willow Lane, Peace Lane, Yuliu Lane, and Daping Street."
"I understand. Let the matter drop. There's no need to investigate further."
"Yes."
Hao Jingnian promptly agreed. He wasn't surprised by his master's stance. No matter which junior brother had killed Zhao Kui, his master certainly wouldn't blame him.
If anything, should the Three Heroes Gang dare to keep investigating, then as their senior brother, he would have to help clean up after his junior.