You Kill the Man, I Take the Blame

"What a pity. Such a great video of a counterkill can't be uploaded online for now."

Chen Jue adjusted the recorder on his chest and looked down at the dead man's head, his eyes still wide in death.

Until the day he died, Du Kui never knew he had been killed by the very person he had intended to kill.

Chen Jue found Du Kui's severed forearm and pulled a golden ring from the index finger of his right hand.

He covered the ring with Five Elements true qi, found a gap, and slowly threaded his qi into it.

A space roughly one foot square abruptly appeared within Chen Jue's true qi perception.

"Now that's more like it..."

When Chen Jue had seen Du Kui switch combat weapons as if performing a magic trick, he had known Du Kui must have a storage item on him.

Such things were rare among common folk. They came from the nine great holy lands of the Great Ming Divine Dynasty, and even the cheapest storage item cost a million treasure notes. They were luxury goods through and through.

His heart raced, his hands trembled.

Chen Jue took one look into the storage space and nearly blacked out.

Inside the shoebox-sized storage space, aside from a Golden Melon Hammer and a thick bundle of silver needles, there was only a mid-grade martial skill manual, Steam Flying Needles, and a phone.

"Damn, what a pauper. Got excited for nothing..."

Chen Jue took out the phone, unlocked it with Du Kui's fingerprint, and donated every last bit of the balance in the man's online accounts to charity.

Haha, do good deeds and ask not what lies ahead.

Though Chen had killed without blinking, he was an utterly genuine good man.

Chen Jue turned back and searched Ding Ze's corpse. As the Rat Gang's Third Boss, this bastard was far poorer than Du Kui.

He had no storage item, only a sturdy cloth pouch hanging from his waist. Chen Jue opened it and found that, aside from half a torn letter, there were only twenty-five blood-stained copper coins inside.

"Crimson Repentance Coins..."

This was not the first time Chen Jue had encountered these copper coins with reddish patterns.

Before, he had not recognized them and had assumed they were antiques bought by scions of powerful clans to put on airs.

Only later did he learn that they were sinister objects created by the Room Fire Cult through human sacrifices. They could be used to communicate with the star demons in the heavens and exchange for mysterious stellar power.

Chen Jue tossed the cloth pouch into his storage ring, sheathed his blade, vanished into the rainy night, and hurried back the way he had come.

When he returned to the depths of Wutong Alley, he found that the young man whose finger bones had been shattered had already ended his own life, hanging from a crossbeam.

Chen Jue let out a breath of relief. Without looking at the obvious horror inside the house, he turned and left.

The rain poured down in sheets, its thunderous roar like a river bursting through its banks, washing away every trace of the battle.

Chen Jue walked slowly through the rain-soaked night, and a ferocious obsession rose within him.

As long as he lived, he would never allow anyone to harm his family!

Whoever crossed that line would be cut down root and branch, leaving no future trouble behind!

"Ah Jue..."

At the mouth of the alley, He Yuanshan dropped down from a rooftop and looked at his nephew with a complicated expression.

Since he knew no lightness skill, he had not actually watched the entire battle.

Yet what he had seen was already shocking enough. Chen Jue had completely suppressed Du Kui, a sixth-level true qi martial artist, beating him like Chang Wei beating Laifu.

At some unknown point, the youth who needed him to wear a uniform and protect him just so he could finish martial high school properly had grown into a man capable of holding up heaven and earth.

"When did you become this formidable?" He Yuanshan could not help asking.

"Haha, Uncle, I've always been strong. You just never noticed."

"Think about it. When have I ever suffered a loss in a fight?"

Chen Jue had built himself the persona of a genius with astonishing comprehension, and he had long prepared all sorts of explanations.

"..." He Yuanshan thought back carefully and realized that, indeed, Chen Jue had never suffered a loss when it came to fighting.

It seemed they had been too close in everyday life, causing them to overlook many details.

"How are your injuries?"

"I'm fine. Just minor wounds. A couple days of rest and I'll be good."

"By the way, Uncle, do you know about Crimson Repentance Coins?"

"The Room Fire Cult's evil objects? Those things rarely appear in the Western District... What, are there still criminals keeping an eye on Tangtang?"

"Not that. I only found that the Rat Gang—or rather, the Qi family—has ties to the Room Fire Cult as well."

The rain roared like a waterfall, scattering their conversation.

Not far away, inspectors who had received a report were sheltering beneath the eaves from the rain.

Judging by their manner, they were in no hurry to clean up the scene, nor did they care whether the evidence would be washed away by such a torrential downpour.

Wandering martial artists fighting one another had existed since ancient times.

The fact that they had waited until late at night to start trouble meant they were already giving the authorities plenty of face.

If the local authorities kept hounding them and tried to investigate everything to the bitter end, that would make the local government seem rather impolite.

The next day, news that Du Kui and Ding Ze had been cut down in an alley appeared in the outer city tabloids.

When Chen Jue saw the news, he nearly lost his composure.

Their director, Wu Yue, had actually brazenly taken responsibility for the affair in the newspapers, claiming that Du and Ding had attempted to rebuild the Rat Gang and continue harming the people.

Having no other choice, he had personally killed the two fiends, bringing benefit to the two major districts of Kaiyang Community and Sun City.

The comment section erupted with applause and lavish praise.

But before long, someone pointed the finger at the two Qi family martial artists who had gone to the outer city to carry out a mission that day.

After digging deeper, someone had actually "investigated" traces of the Qi family's ties to the Rat Gang.

Especially since the Qi family's new medicine was apparently using poor outer-city residents as human test subjects!

For a time, the Qi family's reputation suffered, sales of its new medicine were halved, and its stock price plummeted.

It was not enough to damage their bones and sinews, but it was still exceedingly unpleasant.

Seeing this, no matter how dark-minded Chen Jue was, he had to admire Wu Yue.

This director was truly someone worth dealing with. To consolidate his absolute authority over the two communities, he would step on any landmine and carry any pot of blame.

Inside a basement in Kaiyang Community, Fei Bin was being cursed bloody by the Qi family's one-way contact.

From the tone of the conversation, they were already considering abandoning the two men, finding other hardened outlaws of the martial world, and establishing a new gang.

Fei Bin ended the call and smashed the phone face-down against the marble table. Flames rose in his eyes.

"Wu Yue! Very good! I wasn't even looking to cause you trouble, yet you struck first and dug into me hard!"

"Boss! Wu Yue killed Third and Fourth. We can't leave this vengeance unavenged!" Dong Ling stepped forward and said.

"When a tiger doesn't show its might, people really think it's a sick cat!"

"Contact Li Huai from the neighboring Blood Wolf Gang. Tell him I want to see him. He can choose the location."

The fury in Fei Bin's eyes blazed. The Room Fire God Idol he kept close to his body sensed his anger and slowly emitted a faint blood-red glow, which seeped into his body.

"Boss, isn't this a little inappropriate? Letting him choose the location—what if he..." Though Dong Ling was seething with rage, the string called reason in his heart had not yet snapped.

"What is there to fear? With the idol's help these past few days, I've already broken through to the late Spirit-Planting stage!"

"When we meet, he had better know what's good for him. If he doesn't, I'll send him straight to the grave!"

As he spoke, Fei Bin displayed the flame true qi in his palm.

The qi resembled a candle flame, orange-red with a trace of blood within it. It swayed unsteadily, casting Fei Bin's figure into a twisted, grotesque shape, making him look like a monster.