Wiping Them Out in One Fell Swoop

Xu Qing lowered his stance, straightened his clothes, pushed open the door, and walked out.

Three men stood beyond the courtyard wall.

Song Ba led them, his face ferocious, an old scar running from his brow ridge to the corner of his mouth. He Jiu stood beside him. The third man had his arms folded and his head cocked to one side, wearing a roguish smirk and radiating a flippant, contemptuous air.

At the sight of He Jiu, Xu Qing's gaze shifted slightly.

He Jiu had always kept his identity hidden. In secret, he ran errands for the Leviathan Gang, while outwardly keeping his hands clean. Now that he stood openly beside Song Ba, there was no need to guess what the Leviathan Gang had planned for tonight.

"Let's go." Xu Qing's voice was calm, his face utterly expressionless.

The three men clearly had not expected him to cooperate so readily. They exchanged glances, then turned and led the way.

Song Ba walked in front, while He Jiu and the smirking man flanked Xu Qing from either side, hemming him in.

Xu Qing said nothing more and simply followed in silence. The night wind blew in from the river, pouring into his collar with an icy chill.

The Leviathan Gang's den lay at the eastern end of the bay, in the former residence of Old Zhou, once a wealthy household. It was a three-courtyard estate with gray tiles and blue bricks, flowers still carved above the gate. Yet most of the paint had peeled away, exposing the grayish-white wood beneath.

Two men carrying sabers stood at the entrance. Seeing Song Ba bring someone over, they pushed open the gates from far away.

The sight inside the courtyard was exactly as Xu Qing had expected.

The doors to the main hall stood wide open, light blazing within. Hong Tianhu sat in a grand armchair, with five or six men standing behind him.

More than ten men stood in the courtyard as well. Some leaned against the corridor pillars, while others squatted on the steps, all holding weapons. Sabers, clubs, and iron chains gleamed coldly under the moonlight.

Xu Qing walked in and stopped in the middle of the courtyard.

Behind him, the gatekeepers came inside as well. The gates closed behind Xu Qing with a creak, and the bolt dropped into place, dull and heavy as a coffin lid being shut.

Hong Tianhu rose from his grand armchair.

He had a somewhat well-fed build and wore a half-worn silk robe. Judging by appearances alone, he did not look like a vicious gang leader; he even seemed somewhat amiable. But his eyes were different—like two blunt knives scraping over a person's flesh.

He walked to the doorway and looked Xu Qing up and down, his gaze scraping from Xu Qing's face to his feet, then from his feet back to his face, making two full passes.

"Xu Qing, were Liu San and the others killed by you?" Hong Tianhu suddenly asked. His voice was deep, carrying the oppressive weight of someone in power.

Xu Qing looked at him without speaking.

The courtyard was so quiet that even the wind brushing past the eaves could be heard.

"Even if you don't say it, I know it was you." Hong Tianhu took two steps forward, his tone certain. "The timing and motive both fit."

"You're just a fisherman's boy. Instead of settling down to fish, you dared to kill people." He shook his head and stared straight into Xu Qing's eyes, as though trying to dig some answer out of them. "Just because you learned martial arts? You'd only trained for a few days back then. What could you possibly have achieved?"

The corner of his mouth curled into a disdainful smile. "If I gave you a few more days to train, and you really gained some skill, would you even dare kill me?"

His smile abruptly vanished, and his voice turned icy. "I gave it some thought—"

His gaze became frost-cold in an instant. "I'd better not give you that chance."

He waved a hand.

The men in the courtyard closed in. Their footsteps thudded across the blue-brick ground. Blade-light flashed beneath the moon, then dimmed again.

Xu Qing watched them, and his heart suddenly became very calm. It was not numbness, nor was it resignation. It was the calm of someone standing high above, looking down upon ants.

He remembered Liu San's kick into his second uncle. He remembered his second uncle clutching his chest and coughing, his waxen face forcing out a smile. He remembered his second aunt's reddened eyes, the words she wanted to say but swallowed back. He remembered Xiuer saying, "Brother, when you grow up, catch all those bad people so they can't bully anyone anymore!"

He also remembered Old Zhou's eyes, like dried-up wells. He remembered Chen Laosi's broken leg. He remembered the despair and wailing of Chen Laosi's family...

In this world, for those at the bottom, standing upright was the original sin!

But Xu Qing would insist on living on his feet!

The first man lunged at him. A short saber stabbed straight for his throat, fast and vicious.

Xu Qing twisted aside and drove a fist into the man's chest. Ten layers of force stacked atop one another. The man did not even manage a groan before he flew backward and crashed into a corridor pillar with a thud, then slid down and lay still.

The courtyard erupted.

The remaining men surged forward together, saber-light and club-shadows crashing down over him in a storm.

Instead of retreating, Xu Qing advanced. He stepped into the middle of the crowd and threw punch after punch. Crashing Fist, Cannon Fist, Splitting Fist, Drilling Fist, Crossing Fist—every move was the Five Elements Fist, every move fatal. He spared no one and wasted no motion.

Every punch landed solidly on flesh. The crack of breaking bones rose and fell through the courtyard like dry branches being snapped one after another. Screams, the crunch of shattered bones, and the dull thumps of bodies striking the ground mingled together, echoing through the night wind.

A thick stench of blood filled the courtyard, mingling with the chill of the early winter night and burrowing into people's nostrils until it made them retch.

In the time it took to draw a dozen breaths, the courtyard was carpeted with bodies.

They lay sprawled in every direction, each in a different pose. Some curled up, some lay on their backs, some on their sides, some face-down... Yet they all shared one thing in common: not a single one made another sound.

Hong Tianhu stood at the entrance of the main hall, his face twisted by fear. His hands trembled, clenching into fists and then loosening again, clenching and loosening, loosening and clenching. The terror in his eyes ran deeper than the waters of Blackwater Bay.

He had seen through it.

Xu Qing had reached Manifest Force.

Not the raw, unpracticed kind that had only just crossed the threshold, but solid, steady Manifest Force—Manifest Force that could kill with a single punch. Every strike hit a vital point, with not a fraction too much force and not a fraction too little.

Hong Tianhu's pupils shrank again and again. His legs went weak, and he nearly dropped to his knees. Only by gripping the doorframe did he manage to stay upright.

Just over twenty days, from nothing to Manifest Force. He had lived more than half a lifetime and had never seen anything like it.

He regretted it. He should not have been so eager to summon Xu Qing here.

He too had reached Manifest Force. It had taken him more than half a year to break through back then, but wine and women had long hollowed out his body. He knew perfectly well that he was no match for Xu Qing. He could not take even one punch.

Xu Qing walked toward him.

His steps were neither hurried nor slow. One by one, they fell on the blue bricks like they were stepping on Hong Tianhu's chest, crushing the breath out of him.

Moonlight lit half of Xu Qing's face while leaving the other half in shadow. Blood dripped from his hands, drop by drop, falling onto the blue-brick ground and gleaming a dark red beneath the moon.

"Don't... don't kill me..." Hong Tianhu's voice cracked, shrill and hoarse, as though someone had seized him by the throat. "I'll tell you... I'll tell you something... spare my life..."

Xu Qing looked at him without speaking.

"Your parents... it's about your parents!" Terror had shattered Hong Tianhu's courage. He tumbled over the threshold and crawled down onto the ground, kneeling and knocking his head against the bricks like a pounding pestle. "Your father and mother... your family's covered boat... it wasn't overturned by the wind..."

Xu Qing stopped.

Under the moonlight, his face was like a stone carving, without the slightest expression. His brows did not move, his eyes did not blink, his lips remained pressed tight, and even his breathing seemed to have stopped.

But his eyes had changed. Like a well that had been dry for a long time, suddenly struck by a stone—no splash could be seen, yet echoes could be heard from its depths.

Hong Tianhu swallowed. Beads of sweat pattered down his face as his voice came out hurried and broken. "Five years ago, the county magistrate's third son, Lin Mu, took people out on the lake. I... I was serving as an attendant on the boat then. The third young master's boat was large, yours was small. Your covered boat was blocking the way... The third young master thought it was in the way and ordered them to ram it... It was rammed over... It wasn't an accident caused by the wind..."

His voice grew lower and lower.

"The person behind the Leviathan Gang... is the third young master..." Hong Tianhu sprawled on the ground, his forehead pressed against the cold bricks. The bloodstains on them smeared across his brow, turning it red. "The tribute silver every year eventually went to his residence... I was only an errand-runner, doing things for him... Please spare me... I've told you everything..."

Xu Qing lowered his head and looked at him for a long time. So long that Hong Tianhu thought he was hesitating, thought his heart had softened, thought he might still have a way to live.

Five years ago, Xu Qing's parents had gone out to fish and never returned.

Later, people from the yamen came and said there had been an accident. The boat had capsized, and the people had drowned. His second uncle had gone to identify the bodies, and when he returned, his eyes had been red for the entire night.

Xu Qing had still been young then. He did not understand what an "accident" meant.

Now he understood.

An accident was not a natural disaster. It was a man-made calamity. Someone had thought they were blocking the way and could not be bothered to go around, so they kicked them aside. Some weeds were blocking the road; one only needed to step on them. Who would care how many blades of grass were crushed beneath their feet?

"Who else knows I came here tonight?" Xu Qing crouched down, his voice very soft.

Hong Tianhu froze for a moment. Before his mind could catch up, his mouth had already moved. "No one, no one... Only the people in this courtyard, they... they were all..." He glanced at the corpses covering the ground, and his voice caught in his throat.

"Does Lin Mu know about me?" Xu Qing looked at Hong Tianhu and asked again, his voice still just as soft.

"He doesn't... he doesn't." Hong Tianhu shook his head frantically, shaking it like a rattle-drum as the fat on his neck quivered. "The third young master only cares about money. He does not concern himself with anything else. We subordinates wouldn't dare report every little matter to him... He's never even heard your name, really, I swear—"

His voice broke off.

Xu Qing raised his hand and brought down a fist.

Ten layers of force. Crashing Fist. Straight into the center of his brow.

Hong Tianhu's pleas ended abruptly!