"You lot stay here and keep watch. Your young master's going inside to have himself some fun!" Li Baoyu sneered and pushed open the door to the back courtyard.
The guards watched his retreating figure with envious eyes.
"The young master's really in high spirits today."
"Yeah. He's always been a rascal, but he's never been this lawless before."
"Wonder if he'll leave us a little something to enjoy afterward."
They exchanged suggestive looks and snickered under their breath.
In a room in the back courtyard, the door had barely closed when Li Baoyu spread his arms and lunged toward the graceful figure.
"Beauty!"
Yu Qinglian slipped to the side and kicked him in the lower back, sending him sprawling to the floor.
Li Baoyu's body jerked twice, then he passed out.
Yu Qinglian lifted her eyes to Lin Yi, who sat calmly at the table, sipping tea as if nothing were amiss. "Are you sure he's my enemy?"
Lin Yi set down his teacup, walked over to Li Baoyu, and crouched beside him. After feeling around inside the front of his robe for a moment, he soon drew out a smooth, warm jade pendant and held it up before her. "Surely you recognize this."
Yu Qinglian's pupils contracted.
A plum branch was carved into the pendant.
Of course she recognized it.
Back then, the Joyous Sect had seized countless girls and raised them as Cultivation Vessels. Whenever one of the girls completed her cultivation and was ready to be harvested, someone bearing a jade pendant of this design would come to collect her.
Hatred flared in her eyes. Her voice turned cold. "What do we do now?"
"Just wait." Lin Yi rolled Li Baoyu onto his back, leaned close, and breathed a wisp of corpse True Qi, dark purple and black, into his body.
"What are you doing?" Yu Qinglian frowned.
"Taking a life." Lin Yi's lips curled slightly.
The moment the yin energy entered his body, it shot straight to Li Baoyu's heart meridian. His face flushed red, his body convulsed, and his legs kicked wildly. Before three breaths had passed, he fell completely still, his life extinguished.
Against an ordinary man without a shred of cultivation, Lin Yi had no trouble at all.
"You've gone mad!" Yu Qinglian's face turned livid. "We agreed to kill Hu Ma and no one else! Do you know the Master of Qingsong Hall injured his foundation practicing martial arts when he was young, and Li Baoyu is his only son? He dotes on him like his life, and you just killed him like that!"
Did Yu Qinglian want Li Baoyu dead?
Of course she did. Ever since she learned he was the son of her enemy, she had wanted to hack him into a thousand pieces.
But the circumstances were all wrong.
A seventh-grade martial artist!
The toughest man in Jiaqing County, the one with all the knives, spears, and cannons—what could they possibly use to fight him?
They should at least have built up their strength first!
Did Lin Yi know that?
Of course Lin Yi knew. But Li Baoyu had to die.
First, only a dead Li Baoyu was of any use. Only as a corpse could he be completely controlled by the Corpse Puppet Path.
Second, Lin Yi needed this to bind Yu Qinglian to him more tightly.
The fact that Hu Ma was the county magistrate's biological son was still a secret. When Yu Qinglian agreed to help him deal with Hu Ma, she hadn't known.
But paper could never wrap up a fire. Once the truth came out, she might well betray him.
Now both of them had Li Baoyu's blood on their hands.
He was the ringleader.
She was his accomplice.
To protect herself, she would have no choice but to give everything she had to their cause from now on.
Yu Qinglian paced back and forth, her face livid.
She hadn't expected Lin Yi to be so brazen as to kill the son of a seventh-grade martial artist without a second thought. She couldn't help regretting it.
But what was done was done. There was no going back.
Yu Qinglian gritted her teeth and looked at Lin Yi.
"This is going to cost me dearly. I've practically staked my life on it..."
Lin Yi frowned. "What do you want..."
Yu Qinglian said, "From now on, you'll help me cultivate the Infatuation Path until I reach the eighth grade..."
"I swear it by the Heavenly Dao..."
At the Black Wind Gang's headquarters, Hu Ma sat in his chair like a warlord. Clutching a beef shank in one hand, he tore at it like a hyena, grease shining across his mouth.
"Damn it, what rotten luck! That old bastard from the Lin Clan won't bend no matter what!"
"Hall Master, what do we do now?" A subordinate seated below cautiously raised his head.
"What else can we do?" Hu Ma shot him a sideways glance and snorted. "If he won't bend, we wipe out his whole clan."
"But the gang leader told us to keep a low profile lately... Isn't wiping out a whole clan a bit much?"
"Too much, my ass!" Hu Ma flung the gnawed-clean bone at him. "These are extraordinary times, so we use extraordinary methods. It's not the first time we've done this. If anything goes wrong, I'll take responsibility. What're you scared of, you spineless coward? I feed you lot, not a pack of yellow-bellied curs!"
Everyone below fell silent, too frightened to breathe.
Hu Ma hadn't risen to where he was through that ridiculous, ugly physique of his, but through the ruthless streak of a street-bred tough that ran deep in his bones.
His men both respected and feared him.
"Boss! Boss!"
"Something terrible's happened!"
A rush of hurried footsteps came from outside. A short, thin figure came tumbling in and threw himself at Hu Ma's feet, dropping to his knees.
"A-Liang?" Recognizing him, Hu Ma jumped to his feet. "Didn't I tell you to keep an eye on Lian Niang at the Willow Pavilion? Why are you back?"
"Did something happen to Lian Niang?"
The servant called A-Liang panted, "Something happened to Lian Niang! The son of the Master of Green Pine Martial Hall—that spoiled brat Li Baoyu who bullies men and women all day—wants to force himself on her... When I escaped, he'd already taken her into the back courtyard!"
Before A-Liang could finish, True Qi burst from Hu Ma's body, and he was already racing toward the stable behind the hall.
"Neigh—!"
A fine horse let out a long whinny.
Hu Ma's face was flushed crimson. His voice boomed like thunder as he shouted, "I'm heading to the Willow Pavilion first! Follow me!"
Hu Ma was beside himself with rage.
For all these years, Lian Niang had been the moonlight in his heart.
Back then, in the bitter cold of winter, if she hadn't given him charcoal and steamed buns, he would have starved to death long ago.
And now, after all these years, he had made his name, grown powerful, and risen to prominence.
He could have taken her by force, but he had still treated her with respect, waiting for her consent.
He'd never imagined that the treasure he cherished so dearly was about to be ruined by a good-for-nothing playboy.
Could Hu Ma stand for that?
Hu Ma could not!
This was the first time he'd risked his life for anyone!
Lian Niang, wait for me!
Even if you've been sullied, you'll still be spotless in my heart. I won't look down on you.
On horseback, Hu Ma's already dark face flushed with blood, and he looked just like a braised egg that had simmered too long as he raced toward the Willow Pavilion.
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