Just then, Chen Jing saw a dark shape swelling rapidly in the firelight beyond the window.
He shifted his footing and wheeled around. A thunderous crash rang out.
A burly figure smashed through the window, scattering splintered wood and sparks as he landed on the roof tiles.
It was the man whose hand Chen Jing had cut off earlier.
He had bound his severed arm haphazardly with cloth, and blood still seeped through it. His face, however, was twisted with murderous intent.
He held his blade across his body with one hand and roared hoarsely at Chen Jing:
"You whelp! Your life is mine!"
Before the words had left his mouth, Chen Jing lunged.
No talk. No hesitation. The butcher knife traced a black arc through the night.
The blade moved so fast it was almost impossible to catch even its afterimage.
It slashed diagonally downward, cleaving his breastbone and severing his ribs. From his right shoulder to his left abdomen, it laid his entire chest open.
Blood and entrails sprayed out.
The man's roar cut off abruptly.
The blow sent him sprawling onto his back. He slid down the sloping tiles and crashed to the ground.
Pig-Slaughtering Blade Technique proficiency +100.
At the sight, Bai Zhixing nearly vomited on the spot.
"Get inside!"
Chen Jing seized Bai Zhixing and leaped through the broken window into the building.
At the same time, another crash came from a window on the other side.
The burly man who had been fighting Cheng Qingshi flew backward into the building, his back gouging a long scrape across the corridor floor.
His breastbone had caved in completely.
Blood poured from his seven orifices. He was already dead.
Cheng Qingshi leaped in through the window. His blood and qi churned like boiling water, but after a few breaths, he forced them back down.
Fighting so many opponents at once, then trading heavy blows with that man, had nearly exhausted him.
Chen Jing shouted toward Cheng Qingshi:
"Fight your way to the stairs!"
"If this keeps burning, we'll all be roasted into jerky!"
The three met up in the corridor.
The flames had already spread across the entire third floor.
The thick smoke stung their eyes until they could barely open them.
Chen Jing led the way with his butcher knife, while Cheng Qingshi dragged Bai Zhixing close behind.
After the running fight around the eaves, more than half of Zhou Yunhan's swordsmen were dead or wounded.
With the Six Gates, Liu Yunfei, and Liang Youheng attacking fiercely from below the stairs as well, the swordsmen finally buckled under the assault from both sides.
Chen Jing sent the last two swordsmen guarding the stairs flying with one slash. He and Cheng Qingshi hauled Bai Zhixing past corpses and pools of blood, straight into Liu Yunfei as he charged up from below.
"Junior brother! Fourth brother!"
Liu Yunfei grabbed their shoulders. "Are you hurt?"
"Just flesh wounds. Nothing serious."
Chen Jing panted heavily.
He glanced back at the corridor, now swallowed by flames.
Liang Youheng supported Cheng Qingshi. Seeing his fourth senior brother's fists covered in blood, he could not help drawing a sharp breath.
None of them dared linger. Under the cover of Duan Mu and the constables, they hurried downstairs.
Only when they reached the entrance to the Hundred Flowers Pavilion and the night wind struck his face did Chen Jing feel the scorching taste of smoke in his lungs begin to fade.
He looked back.
The entire third floor of the Hundred Flowers Pavilion had been swallowed by the blaze.
Tongues of fire licked out of every window, lighting half the night sky as bright as day.
The fire spread toward the second floor. Crackling flames and the dull snaps of breaking beams sounded one after another.
The street was packed with yamen runners and townspeople who had rushed over from nearby. Everyone stared up at the raging fire.
Bai Zhixing suddenly cried out:
"Oh no! Zhou Yunhan's still up there!"
Everyone looked up together.
A figure stood on the third-floor terrace.
Zhou Yunhan stood amid towering flames. Fire had caught his brocade robe, and sparks danced along its hem.
But he seemed not to notice.
He raised his face to the night sky and let out a desolate cry:
"Heaven denied me! All is lost!"
Then he turned and strode into the raging inferno.
He never came out again.
The fire at the Hundred Flowers Pavilion burned half the sky red.
Thick smoke blotted out the moon, and firelight washed all of Flower Moon Street crimson. From a distance, it looked as though half the city was ablaze.
The Six Gates' alarm gongs rang loud enough to shake the heavens. The County Magistrate was woken by his adviser and even put his boots on the wrong feet.
In a panic, he ordered every yamen runner to report for duty, then called nearly half the city-defense troops stationed in the west into the city to fight the fire.
The county office brought out its stored water carts. Laborers formed a long line from the wells, passing buckets along and throwing water onto the blaze one after another.
Still, the flames burned ever fiercer.
The whole wooden building stood like a giant torch planted in the ground.
The fire was not extinguished until dawn began to break.
All that remained of the Hundred Flowers Pavilion was a charred skeleton.
Li Dingfang of the Six Gates, Bai Family head Bai Deyuan, Cheng Lianshan, and a crowd of direct disciples all arrived at Flower Moon Street.
Cheng Lianshan found Chen Jing, Cheng Qingshi, Liu Yunfei, and Liang Youheng in the crowd. Chen Jing and Cheng Qingshi were covered in blood.
All four had faces blackened by smoke and several holes burned through their clothes, but thankfully, none appeared badly hurt.
Only then did Cheng Lianshan's face, tense throughout the journey, ease a fraction.
Bai Deyuan arrived on Flower Moon Street with a group of servants and guards. When he found Bai Zhixing and heard him explain that Zhou Yunhan was a mole for Clear Wind Stronghold, his vision went black.
Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that the chief manager he had trusted for over a decade was so wolf-hearted. Zhou Yunhan had not only tried to kidnap his son but had dared set fire to the Hundred Flowers Pavilion.
Li Dingfang approached in a blue official robe, his expression dark as water. Behind him stood two rows of constables with blades at their waists.
The County Magistrate was overseeing the firefighting.
Li Dingfang needed to investigate the Clear Wind Stronghold mole without delay.
"Master Cheng, Master Bai, and everyone else involved, please come with me to the Six Gates."
Li Dingfang had put it politely. Cheng Lianshan and Bai Deyuan both understood that answering the Six Gates' questions was only proper.
So they took the disciples and followed Li Dingfang to the Six Gates.
In truth, when considered alongside the attack on Chen Jing, the whole affair was already clear.
Zhou Yunhan was Clear Wind Stronghold's mole in Green Mountain City.
Over the years, he had likely used his position as chief manager of the White Horse Pharmacy to provide Clear Wind Stronghold with no end of assistance.
Medicinal herbs, silver, information—the list went on.
His son Zhou Fan had made an enemy of Chen Jing at Lianshan Martial Arts Hall. After being expelled, he had tried to use Clear Wind Stronghold's power to take revenge on Chen Jing.
Instead, Chen Jing had struck back and killed him.
Fearing that the Six Gates would follow the vines to the melon and discover his identity, Zhou Yunhan had decided to strike first. He meant to abduct Bai Zhixing, the Bai Family's only son, and offer him as a pledge of loyalty to Clear Wind Stronghold.
What he had not counted on was Bai Zhixing meeting Cheng Qingshi and Chen Jing for a small gathering at the Hundred Flowers Pavilion. That was what brought his plans to ruin.
It had cost him his own life, too.
Li Dingfang immediately sent men that very night to search Zhou Yunhan's residence and the White Horse Pharmacy's premises.
They discovered that Zhou Fan had already been sent out of the city. His whereabouts were unknown.
Li Dingfang then ordered the city gates sealed and every vehicle entering or leaving thoroughly searched.
But the Clear Wind Stronghold men waiting outside the city had long since taken Zhou Fan and vanished into the night.
"Master Bai, the White Horse Pharmacy belongs to your family. Zhou Yunhan served as your chief manager for over a decade. He colluded with Clear Wind Stronghold all those years, and you claim you knew nothing?"
Li Dingfang tapped the tabletop lightly, his gaze fixed on Bai Deyuan.
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