Smash Them to Death, the Hero Who Violates the Law with Martial Arts

No excessive nonsense. Just one word.

Smash!

Hong Yuan gripped Huang Shaotang by the neck, like a master craftsman in a smithy raising a heavy hammer to forge a weapon, swinging the "hammerhead" in a full arc and bringing it crashing down!

How terrifying was his strength now?

With this "hammer" swung down, it was probably backed by a thousand catties of force.

A thunderous boom exploded.

With just one blow, Huang Shaotang's lower body collided with Huang Yihe's head. Amid the shrill, miserable screams, it was impossible to tell whether Huang Shaotang or Huang Yihe had roared.

Or perhaps father and son had both screamed at once.

The sound of bones bursting apart rang out, blood sprayed everywhere, and Huang Shaotang's two legs instantly snapped, twisting into pretzels.

The great chair beneath Huang Yihe, as that force poured into it, directly exploded into splinters.

Wood chips flew everywhere!

Huang Yihe's body collapsed at once among the broken chunks of wood, his head and face covered in blood, his neck drooping low.

Whoosh!

But Hong Yuan swung again.

Bang!

Bang bang!

Three consecutive "heavy hammer" blows, like a game of whack-a-mole. A heart-rending scream burst from Huang Shaotang's throat, and the flesh, muscle, and bone of one leg could no longer hold together; half a leg flew out, dripping blood.

With a "plop," it happened to smash right into the face of a middle-aged noblewoman standing behind Huang Yihe.

The noblewoman had originally been shocked pale by this sudden upheaval, her mind blank.

At this moment, the severed leg that flew out struck her face. She only felt a sharp agony in the bridge of her nose, and a thick stench of blood surged up, making her nearly faint. At last, she let out a shrill, piercing scream.

Along with that scream, as if a small pebble had been tossed into a pool of stagnant water, the stiff, stupefied guests in the Huang Mansion finally reacted.

In an instant, one place roared, everywhere shrieked, and sharp screams rang out in all directions.

Two or three hundred guests panicked, rising like headless flies, fleeing in every direction, shouting and yelling from time to time as they called the names of their own attendants and guards.

Crash!

Tables and chairs toppled, cups, plates, bowls, and dishes fell one after another and shattered. Carefully cooked dishes rolled all over the floor, oil and broth splashing everywhere, causing who knew how many people to slip and fall.

Cries of pain rose one after another; guests who had fallen were being trampled by many others.

The entire scene descended into chaos.

So much so that the Huang Mansion's guards and servants, who had originally been rushing toward Huang Yihe's position, were now blocked by the guests crashing about everywhere.

Because of these guests' statuses, they also did not dare punch and kick their way through.

These people were either gentry and great households like Huang Yihe, or had business dealings with him, or had come purely to curry favor with him...

But at a time like this, who could still care about that?

They had no idea that Huang Yihe, the main figure of the day, had already breathed his last. His neck was broken, his head hung limply against his chest, and his whole body had been pierced by who knew how many wood fragments.

Huang Shaotang's throat bone had also been crushed.

Hong Yuan flicked his hand back, and Huang Shaotang's half-ruined body smashed into the face of one of his brothers. The two of them were instantly knocked several meters away, crashing through a table.

Without delaying for even an instant, Hong Yuan's figure was like a fierce tiger descending the mountain.

Roar, roar!

His whole body was wrapped in the vicious, Baleful Intent and brutality of a ferocious beast hunting prey. He was so fast he seemed to drag out an afterimage, and only several muffled "puff, puff, puff" sounds could be heard as his fists swiftly shattered four people's throats.

When one looked again, in less than two or three breaths, Huang Yihe was dead, Huang Shaotang was dead!

Huang Shaotang's five legitimate and illegitimate brothers were all dead.

Earlier, there had still been more than ten womenfolk gathered around Huang Yihe offering congratulations. Now they all screamed, each face full of terror, trembling all over. A few were already so frightened their legs went weak, and they collapsed to the ground.

A stench of urine spread.

After killing seven people in one breath, Hong Yuan felt a kind of clarity of mind, a drippingly satisfying delight.

It was not revenge for the original owner, nor the completion of some lingering obsession of the original owner, but the exhilaration of a warrior using force to violate taboos!

Pleasure!

Too pleasurable!

What was the point of practicing martial arts? Wasn't it so that when anger rose, one could draw the blade, utterly without taboo?

There was no need to speak grandly of righteousness and evil.

Hong Yuan also would not place himself in some chivalrous position. The great hero, serving the country and the people, was certainly admirable, but that was another person's road. It could not define him.

At this moment, Huang Mansion guards had already forced their way through the crowd and were pouncing toward where Hong Yuan was.

Without a word of warning, the man swung a steel saber at his neck. Hong Yuan seemed to have grown an eye on his back; his head tilted slightly, and his elbow shot back in a counterblow.

Amid the sound of breastbone shattering, the guard was not sent flying. Hong Yuan had already seized the hand holding the saber, exerted force, and twisted; that arm turned as if into a fried dough twist, and the steel saber slipped free and fell.

Hong Yuan raised a hand to catch it, then swept it backhanded, ending the life of the guard who had launched the sneak attack.

Within the estate courtyard, a thunderous shout rang out at the very same moment. "All guests, do not move! Do not panic!"

County Magistrate Zhang kicked a guest who was screaming, clutching his head, and darting about into the air, then hooked his foot beneath an overturned table and kicked it up.

The table flipped a few times and landed atop another table. County Magistrate Zhang tapped off with the tip of his foot, leaped up, and landed steadily on the platform made by the two square tables.

Looking down from above, he roared like thunder, "Everyone, heed my command! Guests are not to move about! Servants, rescue and support the wounded! All guards, obey my orders and follow me to seize that villain and save my brother Guiling!"

His voice was like a thunderclap. In an instant, it shook the entire scene into silence. The panicked crowd stilled, leaving only cries of "ow, ow" from those in pain.

And those servants and guards seemed to have found their backbone as well, gathering one after another toward County Magistrate Zhang.

As County Magistrate Zhang watched this scene, however, a strange glint surfaced in his eyes.

Save Huang Guiling?

What kind of joke was that?

With one earlier glance, he had seen that his brother Guiling was almost beaten into tortoise jelly. Collecting his corpse was more like it.

"And besides, Huang Guiling relied on bribes and supplying Commander Xiang with medicinal materials and pills, and he actually dared to call me, Zhang, his brother? If he were allowed another few years to curry favor with Commander Xiang, wouldn't he end up stepping on the head of my Zhang Family?"

County Magistrate Zhang's expression was solemn, while inwardly he sneered again and again.

Good that he died. Too good. I really must thank that murderous madman...

County Magistrate Zhang looked in Hong Yuan's direction, and some wariness showed in his eyes as well.

The Great Yin central court had lost power, and authority had returned to the localities. The benefit was that great gentry households like theirs had risen, holding fast to all civil and military offices.

The drawbacks were also very obvious.

If this were during Great Yin's flourishing age...

No, even several decades ago, when a few scraps of the Great Yin central court's authority still remained.

When encountering a madman who dared assassinate a powerful gentryman in public like this, one would only need to report it upward, and there would naturally be a bounty posted and circulated throughout the regions. Even a subtle-realm master artisan would be forced to hide east and flee west.

But now, that would not work.

Great Yin's power had returned to local great clans and powerful households, but at the same time, it had also been cut into countless pieces. Forget a prefecture in a province—even the clan forces in a county or a town had become like independent kingdoms.

Issue a bounty?

Go ahead.

Forget crossing provinces and passing through prefectures; even other counties and towns had to be willing to recognize it.

This was the best era for noble houses with hereditary honors and powerful gentry clans; likewise, it was also the era when wandering swordsmen who used martial force to violate taboos were at their most rampant, their most surging.

In this world, there truly were mighty men who could fight one against a hundred.

No one could afford to take their strength lightly.

There was no saying that martial men were lowly.

On the contrary, scholars had declined; even the imperial examinations had been abolished.

Toward the likes of wandering swordsmen, County Magistrate Zhang naturally would not look down on them.

"Huang Guiling has oppressed medicine farmers and squeezed out his peers all these years, used who knows how many underhanded methods in secret, and not only did he take a concubine every two or three years, whenever he saw some woman of good looks in ordinary times, he would secretly order local rats to abduct her..."

"Of the women who entered the Huang Mansion, those without some backing were considered long-lived if they survived a year or two."

"Huang Guiling is finally suffering the backlash..."

County Magistrate Zhang dropped down from the high table, and numerous guards immediately poured out around him, clustering around him tightly.

He had no intention of avenging Huang Yihe.

But under the banner of catching the thief, he not only had thoughts of stirring up trouble—he had plenty of them.

"Huang Guiling is dead, but the medicinal materials business cannot be cut off. If he could be one of Commander Xiang's legs, then my Zhang Family can take over that leg too."

"In that case, the Huang Family will have to be cleaned out a bit more thoroughly."

Huang Guiling and all six of his sons were dead, but there were still grandsons, granddaughters, and the womenfolk in the estate, as well as collateral-branch uncles, nephews, and the like.

"Luckily I, Zhang, had the thought to make a trip to this Huang Mansion. Otherwise, I really would have missed the perfect opportunity to interfere... Heaven aids my Zhang Family."

He waved a hand, having four personal guards dressed in leather armor step forward.

These four were either collateral branches of the Zhang Family clan or household-born servants who had served for several generations. Their loyalty was beyond doubt.

County Magistrate Zhang had them come forward, then lowered his voice and began giving instructions.