Lin Shu rose to his feet and pushed open the door.
The mist enveloping his body not only let him use the Immortal Method, but also made his senses far sharper.
Thinking this, Lin Shu looked into the courtyard.
Little Widow had spent the whole night without returning to her room to care for the frightened child. Instead, she had carefully dragged the three corpses to the corner of the courtyard.
She had even dug up some earth to cover the bloodstains on the muddy ground.
"Tsk." A hint of meaning flickered in Lin Shu's eyes, but he said nothing more. "Come in if there's something you need to discuss."
"Okay."
Yun Niang's small face was smudged with dust. She nervously clutched her sleeve, hesitated briefly, then walked into the room.
She had a feeling that, judging by how casually he had turned away the night before, he wouldn't bring up that embarrassing topic again.
Things went just as Yun Niang had expected.
Even after they sat opposite each other at the broken table, the young man's gaze remained perfectly ordinary.
When their eyes met, she was the one who looked guilty.
"What is it?" Lin Shu asked casually.
"My lord, the bodies in the courtyard..." Yun Niang gathered her thoughts.
She pointed toward the large courtyards on either side, paved with blue stone. "At night, those people might not want to get involved."
Her screams the previous night hadn't brought anyone to help, but they had certainly woken quite a few people.
The people of Blackwater City didn't like getting involved in trouble after dark, but once daytime came...
"It's daylight now. Their gatekeeper should have already gone to report this to the authorities."
Yun Niang lowered her head apologetically.
The other man had killed those people to save her, so it counted as a righteous deed. But the constables, who could squeeze a few drops of oil even from a stone, were experts at making trouble for people.
"It's fine."
Lin Shu wasn't worried. He had plenty of experience dealing with constables.
Besides, for once, he was clearly in the right.
What truly troubled him was something else.
Blackwater City was indeed a chaotic, isolated place.
Unfortunately, the chaos wasn't quite thorough enough.
From the memories left by his predecessor, it seemed that at least two major powers—the local authorities and the Blackwater Gang—maintained a peculiar kind of order together.
And to evolve a new cultivation method, he needed plenty of Evil Coin.
Under this peculiar order, killing someone might not require observing the law, but it certainly required having the right connections.
What a headache.
Lin Shu closed his eyes and gently rubbed his brow with his fingertips.
With his background in an Opera Troupe, his chances of currying favor with the local authorities were rather slim.
The Ma Brothers had said that Liu the Third had paid tribute to the Blackwater Gang for many years. That might be an opportunity.
If he was being reasonable, he was a member of the Opera Troupe too. Why shouldn't he inherit Third Master's connections?
He just didn't know how to get back in touch with them.
While Lin Shu was pondering this, a flurry of hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the courtyard!
As the saying went, where there was a widow, gossip was never far behind—especially when her home also housed a handsome man around her age.
Yun Niang showed no sign of trying to avoid the matter. She stood up directly. "I'll go explain things to them with you."
Lin Shu glanced at her in mild surprise, but didn't refuse.
The two had just stepped outside.
Bang!
The flimsy courtyard gate was roughly shoved open.
Two men in crisp black robes, long sabers hanging at their waists, followed the stench and peered into the courtyard with furrowed brows.
They were evidently constables of Blackwater City.
Behind them, the gatekeeper from the neighboring courtyard poked his head out curiously.
Judging by his expression, the old man who had minded his own business all night and hurried to report it in the morning hadn't been worried that something was wrong. He simply wanted to know what had happened in the widow's home.
The gatekeeper leered at Yun Niang first. Then he noticed Lin Shu beside her, and his face took on a look of indignant satisfaction, as if this proved everything.
He spat under his breath, "You filthy bitch."
It wouldn't take long for the neighbors to have a new bit of gossip to chew over.
"Sir."
Yun Niang seemed used to such looks. She stepped forward, about to explain.
Suddenly, a figure strolled past her, followed by a practiced front kick!
Bang!
Before the gatekeeper could react, his whole body went flying. He rolled across the street three or four times like a broken sack.
"Cough, h-hah!"
The old man lay sprawled on the ground, staring at the adulterer in disbelief. He lifted a trembling finger. "You..."
Lin Shu glanced over, not the least bit ashamed of having hit an old man. "What the hell are you looking at? Keep staring and I'll dig your eyeballs out."
His moral standards were low, and he'd never been one to suffer a loss in silence.
If he'd slept with her, then he'd slept with her. If he hadn't, then he hadn't.
"Outrageous!"
The two constables' brows shot up as they shouted angrily and moved to stop him.
But they saw that the hoodlum had plenty to say, yet stayed obediently inside the courtyard without making another move.
It gave them the feeling of having strength with nowhere to use it.
"..."
Lin Shu calmly looked away, completely unbothered.
He'd used just the right amount of force.
If the old man ended up with even a minor injury, it would mean Lin Shu's skills weren't up to scratch.
Seeing this, Yun Niang's mind short-circuited once again.
She stared at Lin Shu ahead of her, blinking, and had already forgotten what she'd been about to say.
"Well, there's a show to watch first thing in the morning."
Just then, a teasing voice came from the street.
At the familiar voice, the two constables' expressions turned icy. They spun around and drew their sabers halfway from their scabbards.
But the blades never came free.
The handsome, carefree young man in white casually gripped both their right arms, then forcibly shoved the sabers back into their scabbards.
"Gentlemen, no need to get worked up."
The young man in white smiled as he slung an arm around each constable's shoulder and looked into the courtyard. "This is a family matter. We'll handle it ourselves, so there's no need to trouble you."
"..."
The constables glared at the young man, then shifted their eyes to another tall figure nearby.
The woman was young too, dressed in a thin blue-green robe. Her lips were pressed tightly together, and a fierce glint shone in her eyes.
Neither of them carried so much as a blade, yet they had the constables outmatched in sheer presence.
"You pack of stupid wolves—keep your cubs in line."
The constable shook off the young man's hand. His eyelid twitched with anger, but he didn't press the matter. Instead, he turned and left.
"Such a temper, sir. Take care on your way out."
The young man in white had been shaken off, but he still smiled, unconcerned, and brushed at his sleeve.
He and the woman strolled into the small courtyard, then turned and shut the gate behind them.
Creak.
Once the gate was shut tight, the two turned around. Their faces had gone completely blank, leaving only cold indifference.
"Hah! Hah!"
By rights, the two had helped them out of a tight spot.
But Yun Niang's breathing suddenly caught, and there was no gratitude on her face at all.
She could keep her composure even when she saw a corpse, yet now she instinctively edged a few steps closer to Lin Shu.
Shutting the gate to handle things.
This was the Blackwater Gang's family business.
The newcomers were two Fierce Wolves!
"..."
Lin Shu glanced at the courtyard gate. To be honest, he'd expected the Blackwater Gang to get involved.
After all, once Wang Xu had died, the remaining members of the Opera Troupe certainly wouldn't just sit around doing nothing.
It made sense that they'd chosen to do something like reporting the matter to the authorities and gone to notify the Blackwater Gang instead.
The one thing Lin Shu hadn't expected was that members of the Blackwater Gang could openly cow the constables in the middle of the street.
Interesting.
Before you continue