"Ah! The Golden Saber Sect is finished!"
"Huh? Brother Miao, your news is far too old. Several days have passed since the seventh-day mourning rites for Old Master Wang, the 'Golden Saber,' and you only just heard? 'River-Overlord Dragon' Zhu Gui died with him..."
"I mean the Golden Saber Sect was wiped out yesterday. That young master of the Wang Family was hacked to death outside a gambling house too..."
"Tsk! What a god of slaughter!"
Salt Spring County in Linjiang Prefecture took its name from the many salt springs and salt wells within its borders.
The county also flourished thanks to the salt trade. Every day, hundreds of salt boats, large and small, gathered at its docks, their masts a forest.
Salt merchants filled the city like clouds. Not only did merchants from Ming Province gather here, but trading associations from provinces and prefectures north and south also swarmed in, establishing guild halls throughout the city.
More than a hundred thousand people in the county depended on the salt trade for their livelihood, spanning every occupation: salt workers, salt boilers, peddlers and porters, escort guards, accountants, servants, even gang members.
The immense wealth brought by the salt trade also caused taverns, brothels, gambling houses, teahouses, and pawnshops to spring up in clusters like bamboo shoots after rain.
Over the past few days, martial wanderers had poured in from every direction, taking rooms in the city's inns and restaurants. Every so often, an argument or an old private grudge would erupt into a vicious fight, blades drawn against one another.
Several deadly fights broke out every day, leaving martial artists dead or wounded.
In Golden Market Ward stood a two-story restaurant.
The restaurant was already packed with guests, many of them martial artists carrying sabers and swords. Boisterous shouts rose