Heaven Denies Me, All Is Lost

Just then, Chen Jing saw a black shadow inside the window rapidly swelling within the firelight.

His footwork shifted, his body twisting sharply, and there came a thunderous boom.

A burly figure smashed through the window, wrapped in splintered wood and sparks, and crashed onto the roof tiles.

It was none other than the man whose hand Chen Jing had cut off earlier.

His severed arm had been hastily bound tight with cloth, blood still seeping out, yet his face was filled with savage killing intent.

Holding his blade horizontally in one hand, he roared hoarsely at Chen Jing:

"Whelp! Hand over your life!"

Before his words had even fallen, Chen Jing had already thrown himself forward.

No nonsense, no hesitation—the butcher's knife carved a black arc of light through the night sky.

The blade was so fast that even its afterimage could scarcely be caught.

It hacked in diagonally from above, the edge splitting open his breastbone, cutting through his ribs, cleaving all the way from his right shoulder to his left abdomen, laying his entire chest open.

Blood and viscera sprayed out.

The big man's roar cut off abruptly.

His whole body was split backward by that one slash, sliding down the slanted roof tiles before crashing heavily to the ground.

Pig-Slaughtering Blade Technique proficiency +100.

Bai Zhixing watched the scene and nearly vomited on the spot.

"Into the building!"

Chen Jing yanked Bai Zhixing up and leaped through the broken window into the building.

At the same time, an explosive crash rang out from the window on the other side.

The burly man who had been locked in battle with Cheng Qingshi flew backward and smashed into the building, his back plowing a long scrape across the corridor floor.

His breastbone had already completely caved in.

Blood poured from all seven orifices; he had long since lost all breath.

Cheng Qingshi leaped in from outside the window, his blood and qi surging like boiling water, then forced it back down over the span of a few breaths.

Fighting many enemies alone earlier, plus going head-to-head with that big man, had also nearly drained Cheng Qingshi's stamina to the bottom.

Chen Jing roared in Cheng Qingshi's direction:

"Kill our way to the stairwell!"

"If this keeps burning, we'll all be roasted into jerky!"

The three converged in the corridor.

The fire had already spread through the entire third floor.

The thick smoke stung so badly that they could barely open their eyes.

Chen Jing held the butcher's knife and led the way, while Cheng Qingshi dragged Bai Zhixing along close behind.

After a round of fighting around the eaves, Zhou Yunhan's bladesmen had already suffered more than half their number dead or wounded.

On top of that, Six Gates, Liu Yunfei, and Liang Youheng were launching fierce attacks from below the stairwell. Caught in a pincer from both sides, the bladesmen finally could not hold out.

With one slash, Chen Jing sent the last two bladesmen guarding the stairwell flying. The two of them dragged Bai Zhixing over the corpses and pools of blood littering the floor and ran straight into Liu Yunfei, who was charging up from below.

"Little Junior Brother! Fourth Junior Brother!"

Liu Yunfei grabbed both of their shoulders. "Are you hurt?"

"Just flesh wounds. Nothing serious."

Chen Jing panted heavily.

He looked back at the corridor that had already been swallowed by the raging fire.

Liang Youheng supported Cheng Qingshi, and when he saw that this Fourth Senior Brother's fists were covered in blood, he could not help clicking his tongue inwardly.

None of them dared linger. Under the cover of Duan Mu and the constables, they hurriedly withdrew downstairs.

Only after they had retreated all the way outside the main doors of Hundred Flowers Pavilion, with the night wind blowing against his face, did Chen Jing feel the scorching taste of thick smoke in his lungs disperse somewhat.

He looked back.

The entire third floor of Hundred Flowers Pavilion had already been completely swallowed by raging flames.

Tongues of fire licked out from every window, illuminating half the night sky as if it were broad daylight.

The fire was spreading toward the second floor. The crackling of the blaze and the dull thuds of collapsing beams rose and fell one after another.

The street was packed with yamen runners and commoners who had rushed over from nearby, and everyone was looking up at the roaring inferno.

Bai Zhixing suddenly shouted, "Oh no! Zhou Yunhan is still up there!"

Everyone looked up in unison.

There, on the third-floor terrace—

A figure was standing amid the towering inferno. Zhou Yunhan's brocade robe had already been licked by tongues of flame, sparks rising from the hem.

Yet he seemed completely unaware.

He lifted his head to the night sky and let out a shrill, desolate sigh. "Heaven will not grant me this! All is lost!"

Then he turned and strode into the raging sea of fire.

He never came out again.

The fire at the Hundred Flowers Pavilion burned half the sky crimson.

Thick smoke blotted out the heavens and veiled the moon, while firelight painted all of Flower Moon Street red. From afar, it looked as if half the city had been set alight.

The warning gongs of the Six Gates rang loud enough to shake the heavens. The county magistrate was roused from his sleep by his adviser and, in his panic, even put his boots on the wrong feet.

Flustered, he repeatedly ordered every constable to be mobilized, and even transferred nearly half the city-defense troops stationed in the west of the city into the city to fight the fire.

The county yamen brought out all the water carts in storage, and the laborers formed a long dragon from the well, passing water hand to hand, bucket after bucket splashing upward.

Yet the blaze only burned fiercer and fiercer.

The entire wooden building was like a giant torch planted in the ground.

Only when dawn began to gray the sky was the fire finally put out.

The Hundred Flowers Pavilion had been burned down to nothing but a charred black skeleton.

Li Dingfang of the Six Gates, Bai Deyuan, the head of the Bai family, Cheng Lianshan, and a crowd of direct disciples all rushed to Flower Moon Street.

Cheng Lianshan found Chen Jing, Cheng Qingshi, as well as Liu Yunfei and Liang Youheng in the crowd. Chen Jing and Cheng Qingshi were covered in blood.

All four of their faces had been blackened by smoke, and their clothes had several holes burned through them by the fire. Fortunately, they did not appear to be seriously hurt.

Only then did Cheng Lianshan's face, tense the entire way there, loosen slightly.

Bai Deyuan brought a group of household servants and guards to Flower Moon Street. After finding Bai Zhixing and hearing him explain that Zhou Yunhan had been Clear Wind Stronghold's inside man, his vision immediately went black.

He had never imagined that the chief shopkeeper he had trusted for more than ten years would turn out to be so wolf-hearted and dog-lunged—not only wanting to abduct his son, but even daring to set fire to the Hundred Flowers Pavilion.

Li Dingfang, dressed in a blue official robe, his face as heavy as water, walked toward them with two rows of constables wearing horizontal sabers at their waists standing behind him.

The firefighting was under the county magistrate's direction.

As for Clear Wind Stronghold's inside man, he had to seize the time to investigate and judge the case.

"Master Cheng, Family Head Bai, and all those involved, please come with me to the Six Gates."

Li Dingfang had spoken politely enough. Cheng Lianshan and Bai Deyuan both understood that cooperating with the Six Gates' questioning was only right and proper.

And so they brought the disciples with them and followed Li Dingfang to the Six Gates.

In truth, combined with the case of Chen Jing being attacked and nearly killed, the whole matter was already very clear.

Zhou Yunhan was the inside man Clear Wind Stronghold had planted in Green Mountain City.

Over the years, by borrowing his identity as the chief shopkeeper of White Horse Pharmacy, who knew how much convenience he had provided Clear Wind Stronghold.

Medicinal herbs, silver, information—too many to count.

His son, Zhou Fan, had made an enemy of Chen Jing at Lianshan Martial Arts Hall. After being expelled from the martial arts hall, he wanted to borrow Clear Wind Stronghold's power to take revenge on Chen Jing.

In the end, Chen Jing killed him instead.

Zhou Yunhan feared that the Six Gates would follow the vine to the melon and fix their eyes on him, dragging his identity into the open. So he simply chose to strike first, wanting to kidnap the Bai family's only son, Bai Zhixing, and use him as a pledge of allegiance to join Clear Wind Stronghold.

Only, he had not calculated that Bai Zhixing was having a small gathering at the Hundred Flowers Pavilion with Cheng Qingshi and Chen Jing, which was why all his efforts fell short at the final hurdle.

He had even thrown his own life in with it.

Li Dingfang immediately sent men that very night to raid Zhou Yunhan's residence and the White Horse Pharmacy storefronts.

In the end, they discovered that Zhou Fan had already been sent out of the city in advance, his whereabouts unknown.

He then ordered the city gates sealed and all incoming and outgoing vehicles strictly inspected.

But the men from Clear Wind Stronghold waiting outside the city had long since taken Zhou Fan and vanished into the night.

"Family Head Bai, White Horse Pharmacy is your Bai family's business. Zhou Yunhan worked as your Bai family's chief shopkeeper for more than ten years. He colluded with Clear Wind Stronghold for so many years, and you say you knew nothing at all?"

Li Dingfang lightly tapped the tabletop, his gaze locking onto Bai Deyuan.