When Our Patrol Officer Xu Comes Killing, Your Entire Clan Will Be Ground to Dust

Thirty miles downstream, in the waters of Rocky Shoal.

River-Crossing Flood Dragon's lair was rooted in this stretch of Backwater Bay.

Everyone who sailed the old canal knew that Rocky Shoal was a notorious no-man's land.

It lay at the border of three prefectures, its waterways branching like a spiderweb, with submerged reefs everywhere. The government's canal patrol boats drew too much water to get in at all;

the responsibilities of the various prefectures were muddled, each passing the buck to the next. Documents ordering the bandits' suppression had gone back and forth for over a decade, yet they had not even caught a single hair from a river bandit.

In its early days, this place had been like a fortress city on the water, ramshackle huts crammed shoulder to shoulder and stacked three layers high along the riverbanks.

Later, the authorities tried to dredge and straighten it out, but it was too chaotic and too dangerous, and they simply could not tear it down.

After dragging on for over twenty years, the authorities gave up hope and simply outsourced the river patrol duties to the local Canal Gang.

Later still, River-Crossing Flood Dragon brought a group of men here, drove off the Canal Gang's original forces, and forcibly put down roots in Rocky Shoal.

Strangely enough, after River-Crossing Flood Dragon took over this place, ordinary small bands of river bandits no longer dared raid these waters.

To keep safe, boatmen running night voyages secretly made offerings to him. On the first and fifteenth of every lunar month, they scattered cold wine and tossed sticky rice into the river, worshipping him as half a river god.

Over time, River-Crossing Flood Dragon became something like the Kitchen God or a door guardian at Rocky Shoal. No boat household along the banks dared offend him.

His river bandits used that reputation to openly collect river-protection fees while secretly running smuggling operations, their power snowballing larger and larger.

River-Crossing Flood Dragon's business had always been divided into two sides: one in the light, one in the dark.

On the surface, he ran a canal-shipping brokerage, taking a cut under the banner of "escorting merchant vessels through dangerous shoals." The prices were extortionate, but he truly could keep ships from coming to harm, so ordinary merchants could only hold their noses and accept it.

The business that truly brought in money was all beneath the water.

Salvaging burial goods from Sunk Tombs on the riverbed, trafficking yin artifacts and magical implements, supplying all manner of evil cultivators with materials for gathering Baleful Intent.

More than half of Profound Yin Hall's Baleful Intent-gathering materials in the lower canal region came from him.

The outpost at the Blackstone Slope quarry was merely his outermost distribution point, dedicated to collecting scattered Stone Spirits and Sha Qi.

Great Yin regulated yin artifacts and magical implements with extreme severity. Legitimate sects and official channels were limited, while evil cultivators had enormous demand. With such a gap between supply and demand, smuggling profits rose by multiples.

But these goods could not see the light of day. Local supplies were scarce and could not fill the hole.

So River-Crossing Flood Dragon set his sights on goods from elsewhere. He received imported yin bones and baleful materials from hidden ports downstream, then distributed them throughout the lands via the canal waterways. His stock was plentiful, his prices low, and his operations exceptionally covert.

There had never been a mishap in dozens of past transactions.

Yet this time, two Demon Suppression Bureau constables investigating the trafficking of yin objects along the river had happened upon the exchange of Baleful Intent-gathering materials between him and the remnants of Profound Yin Hall.

At first, River-Crossing Flood Dragon had hesitated.

Detaining people and killing people were two different matters.

But once he learned that the two men served under Xu Jin of Green-Mud Ferry, he had another thought.

He immediately ordered them detained and sent word to Green-Mud Ferry that very day: if they wanted to save the men, they were to exchange a Baleful Gathering Crystal Core for them.

In his calculations, Xu Jin had just wiped out a branch altar of Profound Yin Hall, so he was sure to have plenty of valuable goods in hand. To the Demon Suppression Bureau, a Baleful Gathering Crystal Core was an evil object and useless to keep; most likely, Xu Jin would use it to ransom his men.

Once he had the crystal core, he would toss the men onto the riverbank, leaving no trace for gods or ghosts to find.

He would avenge old grudges and reap benefits besides—a sure profit with no loss.

His sole concern was making too much of a stir and drawing the Demon Suppression Army from the prefecture, so he had specifically instructed his men to detain the captives without laying a hand on them. Once the crystal core arrived, they were to be released.

But he had not expected these two constables to be so hard-boned.

Especially Old Wu, their leader. Imprisoned for half a day, he had cursed for half a day, repeatedly damning him for a "crime worthy of exterminating the clan."

As the agreed time slowly passed and there was not the slightest movement from shore, the anger in River-Crossing Flood Dragon's heart steadily surged.

If this dragged on, and Demon Suppression Bureau reinforcements followed the river here, things would become troublesome.

The River God Festival was fast approaching, and he had yet to gather enough materials for his water puppets to refine Baleful Intent. He truly had no patience left to wait.

Beside an incense table in the depths of Backwater Bay, the oil lamps for the ritual flickered with a dim crimson glow, casting the water alternately into light and shadow.

A vicious, fanged water-palace deity statue sat enshrined upon the table.

River-Crossing Flood Dragon stood bare-chested, a tattoo of a river-churning evil flood dragon covering his back. He stepped through a ritual pattern, formed a water seal with his hands, rolled his eyes white, and muttered an obscure water incantation.

At that moment, a lackey beside him handed over a jet-black fish, its eyes a deathly white.

River-Crossing Flood Dragon took it and swallowed it whole with his head tilted back. His Adam's apple bobbed, and a thread of black blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

He raised a hand and grabbed a bundle of burning incense sticks, then ran their glowing tips over his arm, chest, and shoulder in turn. A sizzling, scorched stench rose, yet he seemed to feel nothing at all.

The next second, the whites faded from his eyes, revealing a pair of blue-green pupils.

The chill around him exploded. Bubbles gurgled up from the water, and more than a dozen phantom water ghosts with swollen faces rose from below, slowly circling the incense table as they gave low, mournful moans.

The two constables tied to wooden stakes felt their hearts sink.

The younger constable's face went pale, his lips trembling too hard for him to speak.

But Old Wu showed no fear whatsoever. He spat out the rag stuffed in his mouth and cursed harshly.

"A pack of crooked-path evil cultivators!"

"Privately detaining public servants of the Demon Suppression Bureau, smuggling yin artifacts and magical implements, colluding with the remnants of Profound Yin Hall! These are crimes worthy of exterminating your clan! When our Patrol Officer Xu comes killing with a great force behind him, everyone in your household—and even these water ghosts you keep in the water—will be ground to dust!"

River-Crossing Flood Dragon withdrew from his Baleful Intent-refining stance, took the cloth handed over by a lackey, and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.

He lit a pouch of dry tobacco, crossed one leg over the other as he sat on a reef, and sized up Old Wu with a sinister gaze.

"Heh. Your mouth is still pretty hard."

River-Crossing Flood Dragon sneered and pointed his smoking pipe toward the water. "That Patrol Officer Xu you keep talking about is probably still hesitating at Green-Mud Ferry right now. Just one Baleful Gathering Crystal Core in exchange for your two lives—do you think he'll agree?"

"Wishful thinking!"

Old Wu's voice only grew louder, his chest held straight. "People of the Demon Suppression Bureau have never exchanged evil objects for captives! I advise you to release us at once and turn yourselves in at the prefectural office. You might even get to keep your corpses whole!"

River-Crossing Flood Dragon froze for a moment.

He had seen stubborn fools before, but never one this stubborn.

They had already fallen this far, yet Old Wu still dared use the law to pressure him.

Still, those words had indeed struck at his concern. He only wanted to exchange the men for the crystal core, avenge old grudges, and make things difficult for Xu Jin. He had never intended to truly kill government constables.

But after waiting this long, there had not been so much as a reply from Xu Jin. If he kept waiting, the ones who arrived might well be a large force from the Demon Suppression Bureau.

The little patience he had left was completely worn away. He abruptly rose to his feet and grabbed a handful of incense ash from the burner.

"Your mouth is hard, is it?"

"Then let's see whether your mouth is harder, or my Water-Baleful Soul Extraction!"

Bolstered by his secret art, the incense ash transformed into dense black needles that glinted with a cold light.