Imperceptible Changes

The next day, Chen Cheng reported for duty at the Ruyi Ward branch office as usual, then followed Liao San on street patrol. Everything was as normal.

The Flying Eagle Gang's lookouts had vanished without a trace. While patrolling, Chen Cheng happened to run into Zhou Biao once. The fellow led his men far around them, seemingly afraid of clashing with Chen Cheng and the City Guard Office runners. After all, yesterday's grand spectacle had left more than a dozen Flying Eagle Gang members seriously injured; Hou Gui had been killed on the spot, and Zhou Biao had nearly lost an arm and become crippled. How could he dare provoke the City Guard Office runners again?

With no one keeping an eye on him, Chen Cheng felt much more at ease.

Yet when he returned to the Ruyi Ward branch office near noon, he unexpectedly learned some news.

Zhou Xu, an officer from the South District City Guard Headquarters, had brought quite a few men to rebuke Liu Yunfeng for disturbing the people, only to be forcefully refuted by Chief Constable Shen Qingshuang.

It was said that Shen Qingshuang and Zhou Xu had even exchanged blows in the small courtyard because of it. The result was a draw, and Zhou Xu left with his men in a sorry state.

As City Guard Office officials, even if the two had a dispute, they should not have come to blows. After all, internal fighting was forbidden within the City Guard Office, and punishments had always been severe.

However, Shen Qingshuang was the young lady of the Shen Family, one of the four great families of the inner city. Her status was illustrious.

Meanwhile, Zhou Xu came from the Zhou Family of the South District. The Zhou Family had a Bone-Forging Realm expert overseeing it and was one of the foremost great families in the South District, one of Linji City's four outer districts.

Zhou Xu had reached the peak of the Tendon-Transforming Realm at thirty. He was also one of the rare martial geniuses in the South District. Step by step, he had risen from a runner to the position of officer at the South District City Guard Headquarters, with hopes of becoming the next chief of the South District City Guard Headquarters and taking command of the pinnacle of power in the entire South District. His momentum was at its height.

Neither was willing to yield. If they came to blows, likely no one would dare report the matter to the chief of the City Guard Headquarters.

The runners at the Ruyi Ward branch office discussed the matter with great relish in private, treating it like a spectacle to watch over melon seeds. Most naturally supported Shen Qingshuang. No matter what, having a forceful chief constable meant that those serving under her could hold their heads high and walk boldly wherever they went.

If anyone was displeased, it was Constable Zhao Yongfeng. Over the Flying Eagle Gang matter, he had defended the Flying Eagle Gang and obstructed his own City Guard Office colleagues in their work, stirring enormous dissatisfaction among the runners. Even the runners under his command could not help harboring resentment.

Who would like a constable who turned his elbow outward while serving in the City Guard Office? On this point, every runner understood perfectly well.

Liu Yunfeng, on the other hand, had earned widespread praise for standing up for his subordinates. His prestige within the Ruyi Ward branch office rose ever higher. The runners even overlooked how Chief Constable Shen Qingshuang had always targeted him, since Shen Qingshuang had stood up for him in this incident.

Those with sharp eyes had long sniffed out a different scent in the air. They secretly guessed that after this matter, perhaps the chief constable would change her attitude toward Liu Yunfeng.

Zhao Yongfeng had never been one for smiles and always wore a stern expression. Now that all the runners at the Ruyi Ward branch office disliked him, he was little different from a rat crossing the street. He seemed determined to smash the jar once it was broken, making no effort to hide his hostility toward Liu Yunfeng and the runners under him.

As a subordinate Liu Yunfeng had gone to great lengths to protect, Chen Cheng bore the brunt of it. Several times, he had caught Zhao Yongfeng looking at him with eyes full of fury and resentment.

Chen Cheng believed that if given the chance, that fellow would not hesitate to strangle him to death!

But Chen Cheng had always been cautious. How could he give him such an opportunity?

As for Shen Qingshuang, who had previously been full of hostility toward Chen Cheng, though she remained cold as frost and carried an air that kept strangers at bay, there was not the slightest anger in her.

Chen Cheng had even noticed that Xiao Qing, Shen Qingshuang's maid, occasionally looked at him with a faintly friendly smile.

Unknowingly, Chen Cheng's days at the Ruyi Ward branch office seemed to be getting better.

He reported for duty on time every day and got along well with the other runners. After all, during the previous reserve runner assessment, Chen Cheng had displayed martial strength no weaker than that of a full runner. The others had all been convinced, for the strong were respected wherever they went.

Something happened in Locust Tree Alley. Widow Tian took her son and moved the entire household out of the alley. It was said that Zhou Biao had formally taken her as a concubine.

She clearly had no intention of returning. She had even entrusted the house to a broker to sell.

The new residents were a young married couple in their twenties. They kept to themselves, leaving early and returning late, and never greeted the neighboring residents. No one knew where they came from or what trade they practiced.

The days passed one after another.

The Flying Eagle Gang recruited men on a grand scale and clashed with other gangs several times, wiping out two small gangs.

So long as gang conflicts did not involve ordinary people, the City Guard Office had always turned a blind eye. Afterward, they would come out to collect the bodies and clear the scene, and then the matter would be dropped.

Only when gang conflicts became too frequent and their impact too severe would they step in to issue a warning.

Chief Constable Shen Qingshuang spent all day training in the small courtyard. Liu Yunfeng's jurisdiction was peaceful and uneventful, so he did not show himself either. As for Zhao Yongfeng, he had supported the Flying Eagle Gang from the start, so he was even less likely to intervene.

The other four constables knew that Zhou Xu of the South District City Guard Headquarters stood behind the Flying Eagle Gang, so naturally they did not dare touch that bad luck. Every day, they led their runners around doing the bitter work of cleaning up the aftermath.

Thus, the Flying Eagle Gang grew stronger by the day, faintly becoming the largest martial underworld gang in Ruyi Ward.

Locust Tree Alley lay within Liu Yunfeng's jurisdiction, and with a relatively formidable reserve runner like Chen Cheng living there, petty scoundrels rarely dared cause trouble. It was quite peaceful.

The Flying Eagle Gang did not even dare come to the Chen household again to collect protection money. When collecting it from the commoners in the alley, their attitude was extraordinarily good. Even if someone could not pay for the moment, they were allowed to put it on account and pay next time.

In the blink of an eye, the New Year passed peacefully. More than two months went by, and it was the beginning of March.

The cold winter had passed. Spring winds arrived, and all things came back to life.

That day, spring was bright and beautiful, and the blazing sun had just risen.

Chen Cheng was off duty and practiced the Chasing Wind Saber Technique in the courtyard.

The Chasing Wind Saber Technique demanded simplicity, swiftness, precision, and ruthless ferocity.

Chen Cheng's feet moved slowly as he mobilized the force of his blood and qi throughout his body, channeling it to the blade's edge. Then he gradually relaxed, letting his entire body loosen completely from within to without.

His right hand gripping the saber was also relaxed. It looked as though he held it loosely without applying force, yet he had firmly seized control of the hilt.

With a swift twist of his fingers, the long saber suddenly danced, spinning out a flourish. His fingers did not stop, and the flourish grew faster and faster, gradually forming a sheet of saber shadows.

His arm circled, his shoulder moving with it as Chen Cheng's body twisted, turned, and shifted in rapid succession.

Before long, his entire body was shrouded in a sheet of saber shadows. As those shadows flickered, gusts of wind gradually rose around him.

The long saber left no shadow, yet its passage through the wind carried sound!

The saber shadows wheeled up and down, dancing ever faster. The long saber passed from his right hand to his left, but the shadows did not pause for even an instant, smooth as flowing silk and without the slightest obstruction.

The long saber returned to his right hand, and Chen Cheng abruptly stopped. The saber shadows instantly vanished without a trace.

A faint smile appeared on his face. Chen Cheng pointed the long saber diagonally ahead, then suddenly strode forward in a fierce step. In the blink of an eye, he had crossed more than ten feet.

The long saber in his hand slashed out in the simplest manner, swift as a flash of lightning or a spark from flint. The air seemed about to be torn apart, releasing a faint hiss, before the blade stopped steadily in midair.

It was the Wind-Riding Form—simple, swift, and without the slightest wasted motion.

The long saber swept sideways, his body spinning rapidly. With the Wind-Guiding Form, man followed saber...

His body grew faster and faster, saber shadows wheeling up and down. Within the courtyard, only a single figure could be seen darting back and forth like a roaming dragon.

[Chasing Wind Saber Technique cultivation progress increased.]