Xu San'er immediately understood and nodded gravely:
"Exactly."
Then he waved a hand, and several soldiers stepped forward with cold faces, prying open Wang Chengen's mouth.
"Jiang... mmph... even as a ghost, I won't let you off."
Wang Chengen struggled without cease, glaring at Jiang Che with hatred and terror in his eyes, incomprehensible sounds spilling from his mouth.
Jiang Che dug at his ear and turned away.
Bloody scenes like this were what he could least bear to watch.
"Brother Chen, I've wronged you."
Jiang Che wore an awkward expression as he looked at Captain Chen, seemingly wanting to speak but holding back.
"Just say what you have to say, Brother Jiang."
Seeing Jiang Che's expression, Captain Chen had a rather bad premonition.
Jiang Che let out a soft sigh and said in a low voice:
"Just now, I had intended to have Wang Chengen released directly. But after I went in, I discovered that the fellow feared I would punish him, so he secretly bit off his tongue and killed himself."
"What?"
Captain Chen's expression changed drastically. He had taken silver for this.
"This counts as me breaking my word. I have also severely punished the two soldiers guarding Wang Chengen. What do you think should be done about this? If you want the man, I'll give him to you. If not, I'll give him a proper burial."
"You..."
Captain Chen stared at Jiang Che, his expression somewhat unsightly.
He was no fool. How could he so easily believe Jiang Che's explanation?
But with matters having reached this point, there was nothing he could do.
As for demanding back those Inner Breath Realm prisoners, that was likely impossible as well.
No wonder Jiang Che had ordered those prisoners taken away the moment they met—he had been afraid Captain Chen would regret it.
This brat was truly damn unscrupulous in his dealings!
"Don't be anxious, Brother Chen. This time, I truly failed to keep watch over Wang Chengen. Sigh... it was all because of a momentary lapse on my part." Jiang Che shook his head, carrying fake benevolence and false righteousness to the very extreme.
"Brother Jiang, if you handle matters like this, I have no way to explain myself to Yu Zongping."
"It's fine. When the time comes, Brother Chen, just pin everything on me. In any case, the two of us have already become enemies. I'm not afraid of becoming enemies again. I definitely won't make things difficult for you."
"Sigh, forget it, forget it. I'll take the corpse back first."
Things had already come to this. Even if Captain Chen wanted to get angry, there was nothing he could do.
After all, if this matter were truly examined, he himself had embezzled quite a bit of silver.
He could only follow Jiang Che's words and place all the blame on him.
As he watched Captain Chen and his group gradually disappear into the distance, the smile on Jiang Che's face slowly faded. He casually asked:
"Has a buyer been found for that batch of goods?"
"We are still looking. Several forces within the county know that we just seized the Cao Gang's goods. Few would dare accept them and offend the Cao Gang because of it."
"This subordinate is contacting merchants from other counties."
Xu San'er bowed slightly.
"Handle it quickly."
Jiang Che nodded.
"Captain Chen, I gave you two hundred taels of silver, and all you got me was a corpse?"
Looking at the body covered by a white cloth, Yu Zongping's expression had turned ugly to the extreme. His tone was no longer courteous and even carried a trace of accusation.
"I never expected Jiang Che to be so ruthless. He took the silver, yet still failed to keep watch over Brother Wang, allowing him to bite off his tongue and kill himself." Captain Chen looked ashamed.
But asking him to return the money was impossible.
Don't ask. If asked, the answer was that the silver had already been given to Jiang Che.
He had purely been helping out of goodwill.
"Suicide?" Yu Zongping sneered, gritted his teeth, and said heavily:
"If I do not avenge this hatred, I, Yu Zongping, swear I am not human!"
"Cheng En!!!"
Madam Wang staggered, nearly falling to the ground. Once she pulled back the cloth and looked, the tears on her face could no longer be restrained. She threw herself onto Wang Chengen's corpse and began to wail bitterly.
She had only this one younger brother.
No matter how he treated outsiders, toward her, his elder sister, he had always obeyed her every word.
Their relationship had been exceptionally close.
He was her only relative from her maiden family, as well as the support she could rely on in the future.
Now that he had died just like this, she immediately felt as though the sky had collapsed.
"Stop crying. I will seek Cheng En's vengeance from Jiang Che."
Listening to the sobbing, Yu Zongping felt his head buzzing.
For so many years, no one had dared toy with him like this.
Humiliation!
Jiang Che. Jiang Che. Jiang Che.
That name echoed unceasingly in Madam Wang's ears. Suddenly, inspiration flashed through her mind, and she remembered something from before.
Could this person... be the Jiang Che whom the Gang Leader's Wife had ordered her younger brother to deal with more than a month ago?
Though she had no conclusive proof, she simply had that intuition in her heart.
She raised her head and looked at Yu Zongping, just about to say it.
But remembering the Gang Leader's Wife's warning that the siblings must not reveal it to anyone, she forcibly swallowed the words that had reached her lips.
She had also come to understand one thing: if Yu Zongping had been capable of killing Jiang Che, her younger brother would not have become a corpse.
She could only seek out the Gang Leader's Wife.
And she had to seek her out!
Martial camp, prison.
Three Inner Breath Realm martial artists were bound one by one to crosses. Jiang Che waved a hand, signaling everyone else to leave, then slowly walked up before them.
"Spare my life, my lord."
"I'm willing to serve my lord with my life."
"Hmph."
All three were awake, and their attitudes differed. Yet they had one thing in common: they had vaguely guessed why Jiang Che had brought them from the prison to the West City Martial Camp.
He wanted to gather them under his command and make them serve him!
Such examples were actually quite common. So long as martial artists with some ability had not offended some great figure, there would be people willing to fake their deaths and give them new identities to serve under.
The only difference was that two of them desperately wished to get out immediately.
The last believed his strength surpassed the other two and wanted to raise his own price.
He wanted Jiang Che to treat talent with humility and offer conditions that would satisfy him.
But.
Very clearly, all of them had guessed wrong.
Jiang Che wanted them only as sacrifices.
Without even acknowledging their words, he first tied strips of burlap over their mouths. Then he took a small knife from his sleeve and pulled open one man's chest.
With a calm gaze, he slid the blade downward.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
The first man had already fainted. Terror swiftly filled the eyes of the second and third.
This man was not trying to recruit them.
He was going to kill them!!!
The first type of sacrifice was ready. Jiang Che placed the small bowl containing a martial artist's Heart Blood into the Heavenly Stele Space, then calmly helped them fasten their clothes back up.
This was the first time Jiang Che had personally killed someone since coming into this world.
There was none of the fear he had imagined, nor any so-called excitement.
There was only calm.
Even the deaths of the three men failed to stir much of a ripple within him.
Perhaps from the very first moment he had seen them, Jiang Che had not regarded them as people, but merely as sacrifices.
After leaving the prison, Jiang Che personally watched Geng Dabiao and the others dispose of the corpses cleanly before he felt at ease.
If methods like his were ever exposed,
he would almost certainly be branded a demonic-path fiend.
That would be extremely disadvantageous to him.
He wanted to become a great, glorious, upright man—not some fiend everyone wanted to beat to death.