Luo Yun stood at the gate and took a look.
This was the place.
He raised his foot and kicked the gate.
The iron gate boomed and flew open, slamming into the courtyard walls. Dust shivered loose and fell from the top.
"Everyone inside, get out."
His voice wasn't loud, but it carried far down the quiet street.
A commotion broke out in the courtyard: a woman's shriek, the sound of something shattering, and a man's coarse stream of curses.
A moment later, a burly man emerged from the villa.
He was around thirty, nearly two meters tall, broad and thickset. Bare-chested, he showed off a body covered in scars and a thick mat of chest hair.
Two women clung to him, one on each side. They wore gauzy skirts thin as cicada wings, exposing swathes of snowy-white skin. Their makeup was thick as a mask, and their smiles were seductive and cheap.
The burly man pushed the women away and swaggered down the steps, fastening his belt as he went, cursing under his breath.
"Which blind bastard dares to stir up trouble on my turf?"
He reached the gate and looked down.
A child.
A child who didn't even reach his thigh stood expressionless outside his home, dressed in black. The kicked-open iron gate lay at the child's feet.
The burly man froze for a moment, then laughed.
His whole body shook with laughter. The fat on his belly jiggled, and the veins on his neck bulged.
"Ha ha ha! I've been in Slaughter City for eight years, and this is the first time some little punk who hasn't even grown a hair has kicked in my gate!"
"Kid, do you know who I am?"
Luo Yun looked at him without replying.
The burly man stopped laughing. The mockery on his face turned into a vicious grin. He bent down, bringing his face close to Luo Yun's, and bared a mouthful of yellow teeth. The stench of booze on his breath was nauseating.
"Your grandpa's name is..."
He never finished.
Luo Yun kicked him square in the crotch.
The burly man's eyes bulged, and his mouth opened into an O, but no sound came out.
His body folded like a cooked shrimp. Clutching his crotch with both hands, he dropped to his knees, his face turning liver-red. A "guh-guh-guh" rasp rattled in his throat, as if the air were leaking out of him.
Before he could recover from the agony,
the Moon Eclipse Sword was already out of its sheath.
A flash of purple-black sword light streaked past, and a fine red line appeared across the burly man's neck.
His whole body stiffened, frozen in a kneeling pose, hands still clasped over his crotch, eyes wide open.
Then, the next second, he crashed onto the stone paving with a dull thud.
Blood spread from beneath his neck, trickling through the cracks in the stones and pooling into a small, dark-red lake.
Luo Yun sheathed the Moon Eclipse Sword, stepped over the burly man's body, and walked into the villa.
The two women were still on the steps, trembling all over, their faces deathly pale and their lips quivering. They had to support each other just to stay upright. As they watched Luo Yun approach, their eyes brimmed with terror.
But beneath the fear, there was something else.
Luo Yun had seen it in the prisons of Frost Ridge City, and on the face of the bespectacled man he'd let go.
The will to survive.
One of the women was the first to recover. She dropped to her knees with a thump, pressed her forehead to the stone, and said in a trembling voice, "Young master, please, take us sisters in! We can do any kind of work. We'll make sure you're comfortable and satisfied."
The other woman fell to her knees too, her voice choked with tears. "We won't cause you any trouble. We just... just want to live..."
Luo Yun stopped.
He looked down at the two women kneeling before him: at the scraps of gauze that barely covered their bodies, at the thick makeup smeared by their tears, and at the servile, begging light in their eyes.
His stomach suddenly lurched.
He didn't feel a trace of pity. He felt disgust.
As expected, this world ran on the law of the jungle. The strong had the right to do whatever they wanted with the weak.
He walked up to the women.
They raised their heads and looked at the sword. Their faces were filled with fear and despair.
Luo Yun watched them and turned his wrist.
A flash of sword light.
The sound of fabric ripping rang out.
The gauzy skirts that barely existed were sliced in two by the blade and slid from their bodies, revealing even thinner undergarments beneath.
The women screamed, instinctively covering themselves and curling into trembling balls.
Luo Yun sheathed the Moon Eclipse Sword and turned to enter the villa.
His voice came from inside, cold and devoid of emotion.
"Get out now, or next time it won't be your clothes."
The two women froze. In the end, they clung to each other and sobbed, looking toward the crowd of ravenous men outside the villa.
The sisters were utterly desperate.
But none of it had anything to do with Luo Yun.
After he left, the gate erupted into a frenzy.
"Holy shit..." someone muttered, covering his mouth and keeping his voice low. "Did you see that kid...?"
"One sword." Another man held up his index finger. "Just one sword."
"No, it was a kick and a sword." A third corrected him, his voice tinged with a nearly deranged excitement. "First the crotch, then the throat. Clean and crisp, without a single unnecessary move."
"Don't you think the scariest thing was his eyes?" a trembling voice called from the corner. "After he killed the man, his expression... didn't change at all. As if he hadn't killed a person, but stepped on an ant."
"He's only six..."
"So what if he's six? This is Slaughter City, not that damn Heaven Dou City."
"Frost Cloud King..." someone murmured, repeating the name. "Did you hear the news from the arena? Ten-man free-for-all. Two breaths, nine kills."
"I heard. I thought they were bragging."
"Believe it now?"
"...I believe it."
"But what about those two girls?"
"Fuck, I'm going first!"
"Cao, why should you go first? I've had my eye on those two sluts for ages!"
"Don't rush. We can all have a go. Those sisters are famous for being good in bed."
Luo Yun entered the villa and looked around.
After a quick inspection, he decided to have someone come and clean the place.
As for who to ask—
Hmph.
Luo Yun turned, left the room, and went downstairs.
When he reached the villa's entrance, the two women were gone.
The burly man's body still lay outside the gate. The blood had dried, leaving a dark-red, human-shaped stain on the stone paving.
Luo Yun glanced at the corpse, then raised his head to look at the people watching from a distance down the street.
"Clean this up for me."
The crowd fell silent for a moment. Then a few people stepped forward.
With obsequious smiles, they lifted the corpse, carried it away, and obsequiously cleaned the blood off the ground.
Their movements were practiced to the last detail.
Before you continue