Night fell.
Linjiang Prefecture.
An extensive courtyard district in the northwestern corner of the prefectural city.
A phantomlike figure slipped between the courtyard walls, darting to and fro like a ghost lurking in the dark.
His movements scarcely stirred a whisper of wind before he suddenly reached a grand mansion at the heart of the district.
This was the Longjiang Gang's headquarters.
Dragons and snakes mingled in Linjiang Prefectural City, where people from every walk of life gathered and gangs abounded. Those with recognizable names alone numbered well over a hundred.
Even among all these gangs, the Longjiang Gang ranked in the top three for power and renown.
Or, more accurately, notoriety.
The Longjiang Gang controlled several small and medium-sized docks and warehouse districts on the city's outskirts. Any merchant ship docking or unloading there without powerful backing had to pay a hefty protection fee.
They also aggressively seized territory within the city, collecting "peace money" from the shops and street vendors under their control.
Beyond that, the Longjiang Gang's chief sources of income were usury, brothels, gambling dens, and doing dirty work for certain powerful clans.
A dockside Yan San, only several grades stronger.
Hong Yuan spread his arms like a great bird taking flight and drifted lightly toward the main house as that thought surfaced.
It was hardly surprising.
The lofty aristocratic clans, wrapped in splendor, and the noble military families were merely the other face of the same coin as these filthy gangs of the lowest order.
Where were all these supposed saints and faithful souls?
To maintain their extravagant pleasures, they employed much the same methods. The powerful clans simply cared a little more about appearances and wrapped their deeds in prettier packaging.
Hong Yuan had come to the prefectural city because he needed something to do while his weapon was being forged. He could not waste that time.
Whoosh!
He vaulted through the air, drifting toward the main house's courtyard as though riding the wind.
While Hong Yuan was still airborne, sharp, successive whistles reached his ears.
Crossbow bolts!
More than a dozen bolts shot toward his vital points from above and all around him. In an instant, he was plunged into extreme danger.
No way forward, no way back, nowhere to dodge!
Just as the powerful crossbows were about to turn him into a hedgehog, his sleeve suddenly fluttered and spread as softly as a cloud.
But what unfolded was no cloud.
It was light—blade light!
A ribbon of icy blade light spilled from Hong Yuan's sleeve: a curved saber with a long, narrow blade. The moment it settled into his hand, a crescent moon seemed to rise in the dark.
That chilling crescent shone, and the saber's light swept fiercely around, drawing every incoming bolt into its vortex.
A string of crisp cracks rang out as the bolts shattered into fragments that sprayed across the courtyard.
Clap! Clap, clap!
"Good! Very good!"
A hoarse voice accompanied the applause, grating like a night owl's cry. "As expected of the 'Flying Yaksha,' whose name has spread throughout the prefectural city in so little time. Those eyes, that lightness skill, that saber work... you do have some substance. You've justified the preparations I, Li Jiao, made for you!"
Whoosh!
Torches flared on the surrounding rooftops.
In their light, figures leaped down from every direction. Eight burly men with fierce, capable bearing closed in.
Each held a powerful crossbow, already reloaded.
A breeze stirred the torches, making light and darkness dance across half the courtyard.
Two figures emerged from the main house.
One was around forty. He was not tall, but his body was exceptionally sturdy and muscular, his dark skin resembling an iron billet hammered and tempered over many years.
Cruelty glinted in his eyes as he stared at Hong Yuan with a cold smile.
This was the Longjiang Gang's leader, Li Jiao!
The other man was short and ordinary-looking, save for the sinister glint in his narrow eyes. With his hands tucked into his broad sleeves, he surveyed the courtyard with interest.
"So this is the 'Flying Yaksha.' I wonder what his real face looks like. Is he truly as terrifying as the yakshas of legend?"
"Don't be impatient, Brother Cao. Once we capture this scoundrel, you can look at him however you like," Li Jiao said mildly.
Ignoring the eight crossbowmen surrounding him, Hong Yuan looked straight ahead. "Li Jiao, you knew I would come for you?"
"Heh!" A hoarse chuckle escaped Li Jiao's throat, his gaze mocking. "You 'Flying Yaksha' started in Wushan County and fought your way through one county after another, challenging experts everywhere. You reached the prefectural city a few days ago, and in that short time, you've challenged six martial arts hall masters, three gang leaders, and two experts from powerful clans. Any with a little notoriety ended up dead or crippled at your hands!"
"With a name as big as mine, would you pass me over? If I hadn't prepared something, wouldn't you think little of me?"
Li Jiao's gaze grew colder. "If you don't want to suffer, I advise you to surrender. I cherish talent. With your martial skills, if you agree to serve me, I'll let bygones be bygones."
His words already treated his opponent as a bird in a cage, a turtle in a jar.
He had reason to be confident.
Aside from the eight crossbowmen in the courtyard and himself, Cao Gang beside him was a Demonic Path expert who had fled another prefecture. He had allegedly raped and murdered women and daughters from several powerful clans, forcing him to flee when those clans jointly put a bounty on his head.
Li Jiao had paid a tremendous price to win Cao Gang over.
But it was worth it.
Cao Gang was an expert of the same caliber as himself. Both had reached the level of "balancing hardness and softness, receive-and-release-at-will."
And that was not all. Li Jiao had stationed nearly a hundred agile fighters throughout the mansion. All he needed to do was clap his hands and light the torches.
His men would receive the signal and swarm in to kill!
Hmm?!
Li Jiao frowned, his heart giving a sudden jolt. Something felt wrong. He abruptly clapped again.
The sharp claps rang through the night, carried far away on the breeze.
But Li Jiao's face stiffened and turned livid, as though someone had slapped him viciously.
Cao Gang's narrowed eyes also flew wide as he stared at Hong Yuan in astonishment.
"If you're trying to summon your men, I suggest you save your strength. Or I can send you down to meet them right now."
Hong Yuan looked at the curved saber in his hand and chuckled.
"Impossible. Brother Cao and I were both on guard. There were nearly a hundred men. Even a Subtlety grandmaster couldn't kill them without a sound..."
Beyond disbelief, Li Jiao felt pain—heart-wrenching pain!
Those hundred men were his true core. They had spent years honing their strength. Even if they could not each fight ten men, they could at least hold their own against three or five ordinary opponents.
Losing so many was more than a grievous blow. It was like having an arm and a leg severed.
Once word spread, other forces would likely swoop into that weakness immediately, intent on swallowing his Longjiang Gang whole.
Hong Yuan did not know whether Subtlety could accomplish it.
For him, however, it had been easy. His [Clear Eyes Through the Nether] talent and powerful perception, which revealed every minute detail within thirty feet, made this supposed ambush a joke.
Had they lit their torches, sneaking in would have taken him some effort.
Instead, they had wanted an ambush, a surprise attack, and left everything pitch-black. That made this entirely Hong Yuan's home ground. He had easily slipped behind one group after another, harvesting lives with a sweep of his saber.
Everything had happened silently in the dark.
"The night is long, and I still have plenty to do. If you have no more questions, Gang Leader Li, I'll send you on your way. Don't keep your brothers waiting!"
Hong Yuan flicked the blade. Its clear, crisp ring seemed to sound a signal.
"Loose!"
Li Jiao shouted fiercely, murderous intent spilling from his eyes. "Kill him!"
There was no need to worry about others taking advantage of the Longjiang Gang afterward. If they failed to kill this Flying Yaksha now, what afterward would there be?
Powerful bolts hissed through the air and reached him again in the blink of an eye.
Hong Yuan swept his saber diagonally upward, splitting a bolt with a sharp hiss. Before its head could fall, he struck it with the flat of his blade, sending it flying through a crossbowman's throat.
The saber light turned, seemingly enveloping Hong Yuan. He flashed to the side of two crossbowmen, and the remaining bolts instantly missed.
His curved saber swept around. With a crisp sound like tearing silk, two heads flew skyward, and Hong Yuan vanished again.
A biting gust struck their faces.
Li Jiao and Cao Gang felt a chill across their skin. A dark figure was already upon them, his saber cleaving downward.
"You think I'm afraid of you?"
A pair of water-parting daggers abruptly appeared in Li Jiao's hands. They tore through the air with astonishing speed and a piercing whistle, striking the saber in a shower of sparks.
Amid those flickering sparks, Li Jiao's expression changed.
His opponent's strength was considerable, and his saber work was fast.
Yet he was nowhere near as formidable as the supreme expert Li Jiao had imagined, one capable of silently killing a hundred skilled fighters!
Cao Gang moved as well. His footwork was exceedingly strange, his body suddenly darting forward like a snake.
His long, deathly pale hands emerged from his sleeves, changing rapidly between palm and finger strikes. They hissed through the air like two venomous snakes flicking their tongues.
One hand coiled toward Hong Yuan's neck like a constricting snake; the other became a serpent's jaws, stabbing savagely toward the point between his brows.
Oh?!
Hong Yuan was slightly surprised. He had fought many experts already, but martial skills with force transformations as ingenious as Cao Gang's remained few and far between.
Cao Gang's hands resembled nimble serpents, shifting through wondrous postures as they pursued Hong Yuan's dodging figure. Force gathered and released unpredictably through his fingers and palms.
This was the hallmark of the "receive-and-release-at-will" level.
At the first level of force transformation, once force reached the fingers or palms, there was no taking it back, whether the martial artist wanted to or not.
Like floodwaters spilling through opened gates, it could only be unleashed.
At the level of "balancing hardness and softness, receive-and-release-at-will," however, force could be gathered in the fingers and palms and held ready, like a powerful bow drawn taut, released at will only upon touching the enemy.
Seeing the Flying Yaksha struggle under Cao Gang's pursuit, only occasionally striking back with his saber, Li Jiao lunged in with his water-parting daggers and joined the attack.
He sneered repeatedly. "You almost bluffed me, you scoundrel. Your martial skills are nothing special. What foul trick did you use to murder my men?"
"Let me guess. Poison? Or sorcery?"
As Li Jiao spoke, his hands moved faster. His daggers struck ceaselessly with sinister, scorpionlike precision, hissing through the air.
The three exchanged blows at astonishing speed. Weapons whistled through the courtyard, and blue bricks shattered beneath their feet, sending stone fragments flying toward the five remaining crossbowmen.
Those five raised their crossbows, lowered them, then raised them again. They were watching by wavering torchlight, and the three combatants moved so fast that they dared not loose their bolts!
Fighting together, Li Jiao and Cao Gang found the battle exhilarating—the most satisfying fight of their lives.
Though this was their first time joining forces, their coordination improved with every exchange, as if they were brothers sharing one mind.
They had completely suppressed their opponent.
A savage smile spread over Li Jiao's face. His daggers became blurs, striking at vital points across Hong Yuan's chest. "How much longer can you hold out? Three moves? Ten? Flying Yaksha? Tonight, I'll turn you into a dead yaksha!"
Their martial styles are rather similar. Both specialize in strange, deceptive transformations, but Li Jiao leans toward hard force, while the other favors soft force...
Hmm, so force can be used like that too. I've learned something. I've learned something!
In Li Jiao and Cao Gang's eyes, Hong Yuan was failing to cover every angle, almost trapped in a hopeless position and about to be captured or killed. Yet he still had the leisure to ponder.
The more experts Hong Yuan fought, the faster his combat experience grew. Previously, he could only rely on his formidable martial skills to pressure opponents into displaying everything they knew.
Now he could subtly guide them into revealing a lifetime's martial knowledge—an altogether more refined approach.
"That should do."
Hong Yuan sighed.
"What? Want to admit defeat now? Too late! You killed so many of my men. Death is your only way out!" Li Jiao advanced like the wind.
"No. I just mean I've seen pretty much all your martial skills!"
Hong Yuan's dodging figure abruptly stopped. His saber twisted in his hand, then shot upward, becoming a ribbon of light that slashed through the air toward the advancing Li Jiao.
A chill filled Li Jiao's eyes, shock crossing his face. Without even time to think, he crossed his daggers before his chest to block.
Slash!
In an instant, the saber light slipped through the gap and sheared off both Li Jiao's wrists. Another thrust and sweep sent his head soaring.
Cao Gang had been advancing alongside Li Jiao, but now his expression changed in horror, and he froze.
Hong Yuan's saber stroke had not yet spent itself. Riding its remaining momentum, he spun, force surging beneath his feet as he shot nearly ten feet into the air.
A moment later, he hung upside down, head below his feet. Abandoning his saber, he spread and closed the fingers of his left hand into a palm strike and plunged like a meteor!
Vajra Palm!
Since leaving Wushan County and fighting experts of every kind, he had blended many martial artists' techniques into this culmination of his current mastery over hard-force transformations.
Of course, to Hong Yuan, it was only the embryonic form of a palm technique. As his martial skills advanced, he would continue absorbing their essence to enrich and perfect it.
The palm descended too quickly. Cao Gang's eyes nearly split at the corners. His hands were only halfway raised when the strike crashed into the crown of his head.
Bang!
As his brains burst, the ground beneath Cao Gang shuddered violently. Large blue bricks were crushed outright, his feet sank three inches into the ground, and his leg bones shattered.
Pressing against Cao Gang's shattered skull, Hong Yuan vaulted upward again. His legs swept like a whirlwind, kicking away the falling daggers and Li Jiao's head.
The daggers pierced two crossbowmen's chests like arrows, while Li Jiao's head smashed another crossbowman's skull!
The two remaining crossbowmen shook with terror. One wet himself instantly and collapsed onto his backside. The other let out a yell and fled like a madman.
Hong Yuan darted forward and appeared ahead of the fleeing crossbowman in an instant.
Without looking back, he gently extended a finger behind him. Still running, the crossbowman delivered his own forehead to that fingertip.
A light touch, a soft pop. The crossbowman ran another few steps before pitching headfirst to the ground, never to make another sound.
Hong Yuan leaped away and vanished into the darkness.
He left the final crossbowman alone. Someone had to survive to spread his name.
To open the [Taisui Blessed Land], he could not take the path of lying low.
As for his current identity as the "Flying Yaksha," Hong Yuan had not concealed it particularly thoroughly. Sooner or later, it would be exposed.
He had not lied to Li Jiao. He truly had plenty to do tonight, and now he was heading to the next fight.
The next day.
Morning light broke through the dawn.
While word was still spreading through a few neighborhoods in Linjiang Prefectural City, the news that two major gangs had been destroyed overnight had already thundered into the hands of the city's most prestigious and powerful clans: the Wei Family, Xiang Family, Guo Family, Yang Family, and others.
Besides the Longjiang Gang, the other destroyed organization was the Long River Society. It was slightly weaker overall, but its leader's martial skills surpassed even Li Jiao's.
The great clans brought in the survivors for careful questioning and sent men to investigate both gangs' headquarters. Despite their immense power and abundance of experts, even they felt their hearts pound with unease.
Absolutely ruthless!
The "Flying Yaksha" had already killed plenty of people before this, including several skilled fighters who had committed all manner of evil. His name had already spread throughout the Prefectural City.
The great clans had long since noticed this expert who had appeared out of nowhere. Seeing the uproar he caused, they had even considered capturing him or bringing him into their service.
But once this incident occurred, the great clans all lowered their banners and silenced their drums.
None of his previous victims had possessed influence or martial prowess to rival the Longjiang Gang or the Long River Society, nor had any of those incidents caused such a tremendous stir.
Two gangs attacked in a single night, three experts at receive-and-release-at-will slain—including two gang leaders—and hundreds of thugs sent to the grave with them!
Such martial prowess, such a record—even the great Lineages had to regard him with dread and alarm.
The information uncovered by the great clans soon spread.
There was simply no way to conceal it.
Besides the clans conducting their investigations, every remaining gang feared for its own safety. The smaller gangs burrowed deeper into hiding like rats, while the larger gangs pulled back their forces, their leaders summoning their subordinates to form tight protective cordons around them.
Soon, the entire Prefectural City was in an uproar.
The name Flying Yaksha spread through every street and alley, known to one and all.
Meanwhile, Hong Yuan ate breakfast at a grand restaurant in the Prefectural City, then visited a nearby brothel to wash and change before returning to Black Iron Town feeling fresh and clean.
He lit a stick of incense, a superior blend he had purchased in the Prefectural City. Its effects were slightly better even than those of Ten Thousand Miles Cloud Travel. Amid its rich fragrance, Hong Yuan sank into contemplation, digesting what he had gained over the course of the night.
After last night's attacks, I'll have to slow down. Even several experts at the second level of Form Transformation attacking together probably wouldn't pose much of a threat to me. There's little left to gain from going after them!
I need to find a Subtlety grandmaster to test my skills against... Of course, that'll have to wait until the business at Lanyue Garden is settled and I've killed Wei Zhenzhu.
Amid the lingering curls of incense, Hong Yuan entered meditation and returned to his primal essence. He remained there until a girl as lovely as a flower came calling—none other than Xu Qingjing.
"Young Master Hong, my two uncles would like to see you. Your Life-Taking Throat-Locking Spear has been forged."
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