Ten days had passed in the blink of an eye since Chen Jing began slaughtering pigs at the Slaughterhouse.
His days followed a steady routine.
He rose at dawn each day, ate and trained with Liang Youheng, then went to the Slaughterhouse after morning practice. He killed ten pigs a day, returned to the Side Courtyard at nightfall, and practiced his boxing for another two hours or so.
Over those ten days, his Pig-Slaughtering Blade Technique proficiency rose by a steady 500 points, while his Nine Forms of the Mountain Lord proficiency rose by 450.
The proficiency numbers on his panel climbed every day.
Seeing his efforts pay off gave him a solid, steady sense of happiness.
That evening, he finished slaughtering the last pig after dark. The Slaughterhouse workers packed up their tools and left one after another.
Qian Zheng was still in the accounts room, doing the final tally.
Chen Jing rinsed the chopping block, wiped down his knives and tucked them away at his waist. After saying goodbye to Qian Zheng, he headed home.
He walked out through the courtyard gate.
Green Mountain City had a curfew. It was not especially strict, but there were scarcely any people on the streets after nightfall.
To reach the main street beside the Golden Water River from Livestock Lane, he had to pass through a narrow alley.
The alley was hemmed in by high courtyard walls. Some daylight reached it during the day, but at night it was pitch-black. Only a thin strip of moonlight slipped in overhead, barely enough to see the ground beneath his feet.
Halfway through the alley, Chen Jing suddenly stopped.
Two figures appeared, one ahead of him and one behind, blocking the alley at both ends.
Both were burly men.
In an instant, Chen Jing sensed that their eyes, stances, breathing, and even the air about them were anything but ordinary.
And they carried killing intent!
The moment they appeared, both men sprinted toward Chen Jing.
Their quick, tight footfalls rattled against the bluestone paving, like two drumbeats sounding his death knell.
With two sharp clangs, they drew their steel blades. The metal gleamed coldly beneath the moonlight.
Chen Jing reacted almost the instant he sensed their killing intent.
Tiger Valiance erupted, doubling his strength!
His blood and qi surged like an exploding barrel of gunpowder. A tiger's roar and a rumble of thunder burst from deep within his bones. Chen Jing kicked off, and a crack split the bluestone beneath his foot with a sharp pop.
He lunged at the figure ahead like an arrow loosed from its bow.
As he sprang, Chen Jing used the force-release technique of the Descending Mountain Stance. His Mountain Lord talent responded to the danger, boosting both his strength and speed by fifteen percent. His form blurred into a dark streak.
The attacker's pupils contracted. So fast!
It was as though a ferocious tiger had leaped down from the mountain at him.
Clang!
Chen Jing reached behind his waist and whipped out the Butcher Knife.
With the fifty-percent boost to his draw speed from his Butcher talent, its black blade slid along his opponent's blade. Though Chen Jing had drawn second, he struck first, driving the knife into the man's throat.
Pfft! Blood sprayed.
Pig-Slaughtering Blade Technique proficiency +100.
The figure's knife hand dropped limply.
Chen Jing did not let his guard down.
As he drove in that thrust, a rush of air reached him from behind.
There was no time to turn. Every hair on Chen Jing's back stood on end.
The attacker behind him was faster than he had expected. Giving him almost no chance to breathe, the man brought his blade down toward Chen Jing's back.
Chen Jing bent both knees and dropped sharply, almost flattening himself against the ground.
The Horizontal Blade swept over his scalp. Its passing wind chilled the back of his neck.
In the same motion, Chen Jing thrust a foot between the dead man's legs and hooked it up against his back, sending the corpse flying behind him.
The attacker was about to follow up with a second slash when a dark shape hurtled toward him.
Seeing that it was his companion, he hesitated. He instinctively turned his blade aside, checked his swing, and caught the body with one hand.
In that brief hesitation, Chen Jing twisted around and darted low across the ground like a crouching tiger. Crouching Stance!
The Butcher Knife swept sideways and struck the man's ankle.
Pain shot through the attacker's ankle. The slash severed tendon and bone, and his knee buckled, sending him toppling sideways.
But he was a ruthless man who feared no death. Even as he lost his balance, he swung his steel blade in a wide arc toward Chen Jing's neck, determined to leave them both grievously wounded.
Chen Jing's chest swelled, and a deep tiger's roar burst from his throat. Roaring Mountain Stance!
The roar exploded between the alley's high walls, making the very air tremble.
The man in black heard a buzz in his ears. It felt as though someone had struck his head with a club, and his blade faltered for an instant.
In that instant, Chen Jing drove the Butcher Knife through his neck from the side.
The blade entered flesh with a soft, clean sound. Its tip emerged from the other side, trailing a spray of hot blood.
Pig-Slaughtering Blade Technique proficiency +100.
In the blink of an eye, all was silent.
Only Chen Jing's slightly ragged breathing and the faint gurgle of blood flowing beneath the two bodies remained in the narrow alley.
A night breeze swept in from the alley mouth, carrying the fresh smell of blood toward the Golden Water River.
Chen Jing slowly straightened. Blood dripped from the Butcher Knife's edge, one drop at a time.
He looked down at the two corpses by his feet, then up at the thin strip of moonlight above the alley mouth.
That burst of Tiger Valiance had cost him a fair amount of strength. But unlike the time in Creek River Village, when it had left him completely spent, his physique had improved greatly since he perfected his stance training.
Besides, he had not unleashed Tiger Valiance at full force. He had kept the boost to one hundred percent, so his strength was not exhausted. He still had enough left to fight.
Chen Jing steadied his surging blood and qi with his breathing and sent Inner Force vibrating through his bones to ease the ache in his muscles. He soon recovered.
"Aaaah!"
A terrified scream erupted at the alley mouth.
Chen Jing turned toward it and saw Qian Zheng standing there. A ring of keys had fallen from his hand.
The Slaughterhouse manager had finished tallying the accounts, locked the gate, and set off for home, only to stumble upon the scene in the alley.
Chen Jing smiled at Qian Zheng and said calmly:
"Manager Qian, I'm afraid neither of us is getting home tonight."
Qian Zheng's lips trembled, and his legs shook like a sieve. It took him a long while to force a few words out:
"J-Jing... wh-what... what is this..."
Chen Jing wiped the blood from the Butcher Knife on a corpse's clothes and tucked it behind his waist. "Villains attacked me without cause in this alley. Sorry for the trouble, Manager Qian, but could you report it to the authorities?"
The Yamen's constables arrived quickly.
Torchlight filled the alley mouth. Four or five constables rushed in, carrying staves and wearing sabers at their waists.
The squad leader opened his mouth to question them.
Then he saw the state of the two bodies on the ground.
One man's throat had been stabbed through; the other's neck had been pierced. Blood had spread far across the bluestone paving, and its thick stench made the constables feel sick.
Then they looked at Chen Jing, sitting on a stone block beside the alley. He was drenched in blood, with a Butcher Knife tucked behind his waist.
His face showed no expression, making him look all the colder.
He looked as though he had just climbed out of a heap of corpses. The constables all took two steps back, their calves trembling.
The squad leader swallowed and turned to mutter an order to a constable behind him. "Quick. Report this to the Six Gates."
The county Yamen handled the people's daily affairs and petty disputes.
Murders and bloody clashes between martial artists fell under the Six Gates' jurisdiction. If Chen Jing truly was the killer, the few of them would not be enough to withstand even one slash from him.
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