A Bountiful Haul, Burning the Ledger

After confirming that Xu Ying was no longer capable of resisting, Zhao Ya turned to deal with the others in the room.

With Zhao Ya's current strength, dealing with these martial world thugs was effortless.

In mere moments, Zhao Ya had cleanly and decisively dealt with every last one of them.

But he was not finished. Zhao Ya took out his short blade and slashed at the wounds on every corpse.

He did this to conceal the traces left by the Meteoric Iron Saber.

Though the possibility was slim, if someone noticed something unusual about the wounds on these bodies, it would pose a major hidden danger to him.

Only after finishing all this did Zhao Ya rise and walk over to Xu Ying.

Having lost too much blood, Xu Ying's face was deathly pale, and even his lips had lost all color.

He could only stare at the black-clad man before him in terror, unable to even beg for mercy.

Because Xu Ying knew perfectly well that there was no way he would escape today. This man in black would definitely take his life.

After all, he had patiently gone back to strike even corpses again. That showed just how calm and ruthless he was.

Xu Ying had misunderstood what Zhao Ya had just done, thinking he was making sure no one had survived by finishing them off.

Zhao Ya paid no attention to Xu Ying's gaze. He used the short blade to lift the sleeve around Xu Ying's severed hand, revealing a hand crossbow hidden inside.

Zhao Ya reached out, picked it up, and examined it in his hand.

The hand crossbow was made entirely of metal, silver-white in color, compact and exquisitely crafted. It was clearly no ordinary item.

Zhao Ya could barely put it down.

What Zhao Ya lacked most right now was a means of attacking from a distance.

Though this hand crossbow could not completely make up for that weakness, it was still an excellent tool for preserving his life.

Zhao Ya carefully placed it into his deerskin pouch, then put on gloves and pulled the crossbow bolts from the two unlucky men.

Just as expected.

The tips of both bolts were a dangerous bluish-gray, clearly coated in poison.

Zhao Ya wrapped them in two layers of oilcloth before daring to place them in his pouch.

After handling all that, Zhao Ya returned to Xu Ying and was surprised to find that he was still alive. Xu Ying stared at him with incomparably venomous eyes, his lips trembling nonstop.

Zhao Ya said nothing. He simply used his short blade to cut open Xu Ying's clothes.

Zhao Ya knew that a man like Xu Ying would certainly keep valuable items on his person.

Because he trusted no one.

Sure enough.

A small bundle was hidden inside Xu Ying's robe. Zhao Ya opened it with his gloved hand, and his eyes immediately lit up.

Inside was a thick stack of banknotes, each worth fifty taels of silver.

Altogether, there were seven or eight hundred taels.

Beneath the banknotes was a ledger.

Zhao Ya flipped it open casually. Inside were records of the Double Victory Gang's usurious loan dealings.

On the eighteenth day of the third month, Tong Family Pharmacy on Three-Li Street in the eastern district borrowed eighteen taels of silver. They had now repaid thirty-five taels, but still owed twenty-eight taels. The Tong family could no longer repay the debt. The pharmacy was sold cheaply, and the wife and daughter were sent to a brothel to sell their bodies to repay the debt. One month later, both mother and daughter died.

On the twenty-third day of the fourth month, the Li family's oil mill in the northern district...

The ledger contained not only promissory notes, but also detailed accounts of the causes and consequences, as well as how each case had ultimately been handled.

Zhao Ya had no idea why Xu Ying had recorded these matters in such detail.

But any single one of these entries was enough to get Xu Ying killed twice over.

And there was a whole thick volume of records like this.

Zhao Ya crouched down and looked at Xu Ying, who was barely clinging to life.

"Did you do all of this?"

"That's right!" Xu Ying already knew that he had no chance of surviving, so he answered quite readily.

"I kept these records so those debt-dodgers could see what happens when they offend my Double Victory Gang."

As he said this, color actually returned to Xu Ying's face. He glared viciously at Zhao Ya.

"You're no different. Don't think this ends just because you killed me. Sooner or later, someone will come for you in my place. Just wait."

"You mean the patron you've been lavishly paying tribute to?" Zhao Ya said indifferently.

Xu Ying's eyes flew wide open. He clearly had not expected Zhao Ya to say such a thing.

"It wasn't hard to guess. Judging by the earnings from your gambling house and the dirty money from your usurious loans, your savings should amount to far more than this. So most of your Double Victory Gang's income must have been handed over to that patron of yours, right?"

"Heh, good that you know. Let me tell you, the patron behind my Double Victory Gang is someone you can't afford to offend."

Zhao Ya nodded. "I believe that. But the question is... why would I go offend him?"

"Now that you and all your men are dead, there will be no trail to follow. No matter how powerful your patron may be, he won't be able to trace this back to me."

"And you don't truly believe your patron would make such a big fuss over you, do you?"

At this, Zhao Ya gave a cold laugh.

"After all... in your patron's eyes, you may be nothing more than a dog."

Xu Ying's gaze gradually dimmed, and the faint flush on his face swiftly faded away, just like his life.

Yet even so, he continued to stare unwillingly at Zhao Ya, as though trying to see through the black cloth covering his face.

Naturally, Zhao Ya would not leave behind any hidden danger. He swept his blade horizontally.

Xu Ying's throat was cut open in an instant, but because he had already lost too much blood, little blood flowed out.

Xu Ying breathed his last.

Zhao Ya carefully checked everything once more. After confirming there were no oversights, he left through the rear window and returned home by the same route.

It was nearly dawn when he got home. Zhao Ya simply gave up on sleeping and took stock of what he had gained from this trip.

His greatest gain was naturally that thick stack of banknotes. The silver was enough to support his cultivation for some time.

Zhao Ya properly put away the banknotes, then tossed the ledger filled with promissory notes into a fire and burned it.

Afterward, Zhao Ya put on his gloves again and carefully took out the hand crossbow. He loaded the two bolts, aimed at a broken door panel, and pulled the trigger.

With two crisp clicks, the bolts pierced straight through the door panel, their tips protruding more than an inch out the other side.

Zhao Ya was quite satisfied with its power.

Even without considering the poison on the tips, its force alone was enough to take a life.

The only drawback was that loading the hand crossbow was rather troublesome, but it was still excellent for saving his life at a critical moment.

Zhao Ya put the hand crossbow away.

By then, it was light outside. When Tang Zuier got up and saw Zhao Ya looking so energetic, she could not help but ask in surprise.

"Brother Zhao Ya, why are you up so early today?"

"Mm, there's something going on at the escort agency today, so I need to get there a little earlier." Zhao Ya casually made up an excuse.

Tang Zuier naturally did not suspect a thing and immediately began preparing breakfast.

After breakfast, Zhao Ya headed to the escort agency.

"Morning, Brother Zhao!"

"Good morning, Brother Zhao!"

From the moment he entered the escort agency's gates, greetings never stopped.

Everyone who saw Zhao Ya greeted him.

Zhao Ya responded to them all with a smile, unable to stop himself from feeling a little wistful.

He had never been this popular before.