Sound of the Wind (First Update)

Whitebrow ground out his cigarette, irritation churning in his chest.

The old man's task had come too suddenly. The day before yesterday, he had said they had a month to finish it; the next day, he changed his tune and demanded it within two days. Snatching daughters was not kidnapping for ransom. Clever, quick-witted girls from respectable families were the bare minimum, and there were even requirements for their birth dates. Girls born on the night of a full moon were not easy to find. Luckily, plenty of busybodies had children. Otherwise, the next person getting slapped might well have been him. This skin suited him just fine; he did not want to change into another one.

"Brother Whitebrow, we've snatched so many these past few days. When can we kill a few?" one of his lackeys asked with a grin.

"Kill your mother! We're still snatching people today!" Whitebrow cursed. "Last job. Once it's done, we'll play till we drop."

The four lackeys laughed nastily. All of them had their eyes on the "haul" from the past few days. Those girls were locked beneath the club, and only one of them could be chosen by the family head as a "daughter." Naturally, the leftovers would be left to them. A dozen or so men could take turns playing with them all night in every way imaginable. Just thinking about it filled them with anticipation.

Whitebrow produced a black jade token engraved with a crescent moon. When light fell upon it, hazy black smoke rose from its surface and formed an illusory door. Whitebrow led his lackeys through the misty gate. In the blink of an eye, they went from beneath the club to a cramped, filthy alley. The entire street was packed tight with gray old buildings. Overhead hung a dense web of cables and laundry secretly hung out to dry, so suffocating it turned one's stomach.

Whitebrow spat and led the four around half a block before entering a side street. Bangxing Tower's side entrance stood to the left of the lane. Yazi and her daughter Meizi were waiting just inside it. The woman's face was deathly pale, both hands clamped tightly around her daughter's shoulders. The little girl was in some pain from her mother's grip, but she did not appear overly uneasy.

When Whitebrow saw that there was no damned husband or father lurking around, his mood improved considerably. Now that was knowing the times! Did they think their lives were too long, insisting on making the gentlemen beat them first before handing the girl over? He crooked a finger. Yazi bit her own lips until they bled. "Please, don't hurt..."

She tried to say something else, but Whitebrow reached straight for the little girl. Yazi grabbed his hand as though begging for mercy, her eyes brimming with tears. "Brother Whitebrow, I'm begging you..."

Whitebrow looked at her expressionlessly. "What are you doing?"

The lackeys spat disdainfully and went ahead to keep watch at the mouth of the lane. Whitebrow seized the woman by the throat. Yazi trembled like a dead dog, not daring to make a sound. Her daughter seemed frightened now, crying behind them, "Mom! Let go of my mom!" Her cries came one after another, like a death knell that scraped at his nerves...

A terrifying fury surfaced on Whitebrow's face as he lifted the woman high into the air!

Then he heard the wind. So soft, yet so fast, like a paper cutter slicing through freshly printed paper. The wind blew from the end of the side street toward the alley entrance. He instinctively turned his head and saw the man in the green coat slowly sheathing his blade on the main road, while four heads spun through the air and dropped to the ground.

Blood spurted from the headless bodies in towering jets!

Even as the four corpses hit the ground, they twitched from reflexes in their nerves. Blood sprayed across the walls and pavement, while the shrill sound of wind lingered without end, mingled with a child's sobs. The little girl had shut her eyes the moment the wind rose and was pulled into the embrace of her weeping mother. The moment Yazi landed, she grabbed her daughter and ran. Whitebrow could not stop her in the slightest, because his arm had fallen to the ground along with the heads.

Whitebrow covered his neck with his one remaining hand. Blood gushed through the gaps between his fingers, bright red at first, then turning black and foul like petroleum. At last, his lone palm could no longer contain it. The blood shot upward like a ring blade, painting the filthy wall black.

Outside the side street, Chu Hengkong calmly shook the blood from his blade in the pool of gore. In that instant, he had descended from the top floor of the tower and delivered three killing strikes. One cut off Whitebrow's arm, one severed Whitebrow's throat, and the last took all four heads at once. His blade had moved too fast—so fast no one could see either man or slash. Only after everything was over did the wind carry the sound of spraying blood!

Behind Chu Hengkong, Whitebrow's head twisted one hundred and eighty degrees along the cut, held from falling only by a thin strip of skin. Dozens of black veins bulged hideously across that inverted face as a beastlike roar burst from his mouth.

"You tentacle bastard, I'll slaughter you!!!"

The blood inside Whitebrow burst from his body. That black blood tore his body completely apart, transforming it into a bizarre canine-like form. One of his forepaws was a sharp cutting blade, while his other forelimb was a massive bone club, deathly white. Behind him grew a long, slender blood-red tail like that of a snake, its bony tip resembling a scorpion's stinger. It was as though the bodies of several wild beasts had been brutally chopped apart and sewn together in the ugliest possible fashion.

This was Whitebrow's true face: an aberrant monster hidden beneath human skin. He raised his claw-blade in fury, and the enormous weapon, as long as a man was tall, slashed toward Chu Hengkong!

--Most of the New Moon Scion's subordinates are the Fallen, monsters wearing human skin. Their physical strength is not bad, and their survival abilities are especially formidable. Their true forms resemble aberrant beasts. Once battle begins, be sure to see their forms clearly and avoid falling into danger due to changes in their bodies.

Ji Qiufeng's warning flashed through his mind. Chu Hengkong drew his blade again and slashed upward without even turning around. His sword was no special Relic, merely an ordinary single-edged saber, yet it firmly blocked Whitebrow's claw-blade.

Whitebrow refused to believe it and swung harder. Sparks from the friction lit up the night. Their attacks collided three times. Though Whitebrow held the weapon advantage, he gained no upper hand. He could not even make Chu Hengkong turn around. The man's back radiated silent contempt—contempt in every respect, from strength to existence itself.

Whitebrow's rage nearly drove him mad. He changed his downward chop into a horizontal slash, sweeping his claw-blade sideways while his right arm's bone hammer swung out with tremendous force, intending to pound his enemy into pulp in one go. This time, Chu Hengkong lowered his blade and swept it diagonally upward, striking the end of the claw-blade from below and knocking the massive claw away with one blow. He turned with the momentum, gripped his saber in reverse, and met the incoming bone hammer with his fist. The instant hammer and fist collided head-on, the tremendous shockwave shattered every pane of glass along the street!

It was a visually staggering sight. The man throwing the punch was merely tall and lean, while the transformed Whitebrow measured five meters from end to end. The bone hammer on his right arm was thicker than an ordinary tree trunk, enough to smash a vehicle into scrap metal. Yet the monster's hammer failed to budge the man's fist and was instead forced back inch by inch. Unimaginable strength erupted from Chu Hengkong's body, his punch cracking the bone-white shell.

Then a blood-red arc hooked through the air. The scorpion-like tail at Whitebrow's side swept out, stabbing toward Chu Hengkong's ribs. Malicious delight gleamed in his eyes. The claw-blade had temporarily pinned him down, but he still had his tail stinger. This was not a duel between men; monsters had monster ways to win.

But Whitebrow's delight was swallowed by shock. A silver whip struck from behind yet arrived first, coiling tightly around his tail like a noose. It was Chu Hengkong's tentacle!

He had been completely wrong. They both possessed aberrant limbs, but that smug sneak attack was nothing more than a child's trick to Chu Hengkong. Chu Hengkong sank at the waist and stepped sideways, lowering his center of gravity. His left-arm tentacle yanked back hard, flinging Whitebrow's scorpion tail behind him. The move immediately threw Whitebrow off balance. His monstrous canine body was forced upright onto two legs, leaving him unable to retaliate for a moment. Chu Hengkong turned his blade, pivoted, and brought it down, severing the scorpion-like tail at its root!

"Ah----!!!"

That strike truly dealt Whitebrow a grievous blow. His miserable scream woke the nearby residents from their dreams. Trembling with fear, they pulled open their curtains and saw two black shadows flash across the avenue strewn with shattered glass. The tailless monster fled in panic, while the saber-wielding man gave chase.

Whitebrow was truly panicking now. Ever since Maiweia had "rebirthed" him, he had possessed an undying body. He had grown accustomed to the pleasure of bullying men and violating women, leaving behind the pain of bitter battles with enemies. But now those dust-covered memories stirred again. He remembered the footsteps of pursuers behind him when he robbed people on the streets, remembered the seemingly useless yet incomparably heavy blows of police batons. Those vivid memories awakened his fear.

Whitebrow sprang up with both feet, bounding from the sides of buildings in succession, intending to flee straight over the rooftops and return to the club. He had to get back, back beneath the family head's protection. Only inside the club could he survive... But what greeted him after he leaped was a blaze of snowy blade light. Chu Hengkong was far faster than he was. Holding the saber in one hand, the man thrust straight down. The blade pierced Whitebrow's face and nailed the beastlike Fallen to the ground!

Whitebrow knew he could not escape, so he had no choice but to change tactics. He split his giant claw and bone hammer into dozens of sharp fangs, controlling them with black blood as they stabbed toward Chu Hengkong one after another. Chu Hengkong merely swung his blade in silence, making no defense at all, only meeting each attack head-on with his edge. His saber strokes were exceedingly fast, yet every stroke carried the mountain-splitting weight of a cleaver. Each slash shattered Whitebrow's fangs, and every strike drew a cry of pain from Whitebrow.

Whitebrow's entire body turned ice-cold, as though even his heart was about to stop beating. Once his anger faded, he gradually felt fear, because Chu Hengkong had no need to fight this way. The killer was faster and stronger; he could have easily dodged and counterattacked. But he did not. He disdained to evade even once, delivering only unbroken attacks. It was the killer's silent declaration: he would utterly crush Whitebrow's specialty, shattering that unreasonable, tyrannical violence with power that stood above it.

"You have no grudge against me, so why are you trying to kill me like this?!" Whitebrow cried in shock and fury. "When did I ever offend you? Fuck, when did I ever offend you?!"

Cold fury burned in Chu Hengkong's eyes. For the first time in the battle, he spoke, like a funeral bell declaring the end.

"Remember the hatred of the dead!"

Whitebrow's eyes widened. He truly saw them—the illusory figures beneath the broken streetlamp. A little girl in white and a black dog, their bluish-purple faces covered in blood, their eyes fixed with a nail-like stubbornness and hatred!

"Quit fucking bluffing me! Impossible! Impossible!!"

Whitebrow screamed. His terror reached its peak at that moment. He stared blankly at the ghostly figures not far away, allowing Chu Hengkong to slash apart his flesh.

Suddenly, he roared in madness. All the scattered fangs fell, yet fresh fangs grew from his body, which was covered in blade marks. That dying body regenerated once more. Sharp fangs grew densely across Whitebrow's skin, and his entire body opened like a blooming flower, turning into a huge, hideous, blood-filled maw. He threw himself at Chu Hengkong, biting down with the giant mouth formed from his own body.

It was the last counterattack of a cornered beast, reckless and ferocious beyond measure. He had seized the instant when the distance between them closed, intending to use his suddenly transformed body to bite off Chu Hengkong's head!

Chu Hengkong merely raised his saber in silence, gripping its hilt with both his tentacle and hand. He took one step forward. The momentum of that step was vast as a mountain-shaking collision, the strength of every joint in his body perfectly fused into it. His blade came down directly upon the monster's great maw, flashing with snowy light as it sliced through black blood.

It was a slash of consummate savagery, the sound of its swing like the long cry of a hawk. Whitebrow's bite was merely the ferocity of a beast, but Chu Hengkong's slash was the murderous brutality of man—a sword technique created solely to kill, a blade whose very stroke was destined to cut off all life. The giant maw Whitebrow had become was cut diagonally in two. Deep within the ruined body emerged a rotten black heart. Chu Hengkong lowered himself and lunged forward, driving the lowered blade out like a great spear and pinning that black heart completely dead against the wall!

In an instant, black blood spilled across the ground, and Whitebrow's flesh crashed down into its own blood. He could no longer regenerate or transform, because the rotten heart was the Fallen's core of life, the source of that strange black blood.

Whitebrow's face had been cut apart as well. The remaining half was filled with venom and disbelief. His lips moved, delivering his final curse.

"The Maiweia Family... won't... let you go..."

"You're wrong," Chu Hengkong said coldly. "I won't let your family go."

He crushed the monster's face beneath his foot, then sheathed his saber and walked into the light. He knew everyone on the street was watching him, but he did not care. He only smiled at the girl by the tower entrance.

"It's all right now," Chu Hengkong said softly. "Go home and get some sleep."

"Thank you, Inspector!"

Tina bowed through her tears, then carried the little dog into the tower. Chu Hengkong's tentacle extended and curled around a token amid the black blood covering the ground.

They had chosen Whitebrow as their entry point for this operation because every previous attempt to investigate him had yielded nothing, making them suspect that he had some unknown means of coming and going. Chu Hengkong wiped the blood from the token and placed it atop the Silver-Eyed Book. Within moments, he understood its purpose. He had gambled correctly.

He tossed the token behind him, where a leather-gloved hand caught it steadily.

"It's a teleportation Relic. Shine light on it."

Ji Huaishu was naturally present as well. She was responsible for protecting the mother and daughter serving as bait; otherwise, no one would have agreed to such a rash plan. She tried shining her light shield onto the token. Black mist rose from it and formed a door leading into the club.

"Ready?"

"No problem." Chu Hengkong flicked the blood from his blade. "Let's begin."

The two entered the misty gate and stepped into the club.

With the death of Whitebrow, eldest son of the Maiweia Family, the assassination operation officially began.

(Two more updates will follow at eight-thirty. Thanks to this book's third Silver Alliance Leader, Earthbound Spirit!)