Alley Battle, Blood Shadow Gate!

Yu Hang was utterly bewildered.

Fighting sounds?

How had he not heard them?

It was very quiet here, wasn't it?

He even rubbed his ears, wondering whether Zhou An was hearing things.

"Old Zhou, has work been too stressful lately? How about I splurge and treat you to some relaxation at the pleasure houses?" Yu Hang teased.

Zhou An pointed at the alley ahead. "We've been there before. This alley is very deep. If a fight breaks out at the far end and they try their best to conceal it, the sound will be hard to carry out."

"How can you hear it?" Yu Hang asked.

Zhou An raised his thumb and pointed it at himself. "I have qi."

Yu Hang's expression immediately turned as though he had eaten shit.

All that high-spirited boasting from before wilted like an eggplant struck by frost.

He had nearly forgotten that Zhou An had already stepped into the ranks of a Third-Rate Expert.

Qi was something countless people dreamed of obtaining.

What he could not hear, a Third-Rate Expert might not necessarily fail to hear.

"Should we go to the yamen?" Yu Hang asked.

Zhou An shook his head. "By the time we get to the yamen, it'll be too late."

The sounds of battle were urgent. The fight probably would not last much longer.

If they went to the yamen now and came back afterward, they might not even find a single hair.

Zhou An strongly suspected that the people involved were from the Beast Cult.

As far as Zhou An was concerned, the Beast Cult posed a major threat.

He had encountered the Beast Cult several times himself. Though he had always uprooted them completely and concealed everything well.

Still, the matter had remained a thorn in his side.

To be honest, no matter how well something was handled, what wall in this world did not have cracks for the wind to pass through?

If he was discovered one day and the Beast Cult decided to play some underhanded tricks on him, he would be the only one to suffer.

"You go to the Demon Suppression Division. I'll keep watch here," Zhou An said.

Yu Hang immediately grew anxious upon hearing that. "No way. As your brother, how can I let you stay here alone?"

The two had grown up together and now worked at the yamen together.

Yu Hang felt that, whether by sentiment or reason, he could not leave Zhou An here alone.

Zhou An said, "You don't trust the mysterious expert's abilities? If you stay here, I'll only be held back."

Yu Hang froze, then quickly understood and guessed what Zhou An was thinking.

"You want to wipe them out completely!"

Zhou An nodded. A cold light surfaced in his eyes as he said, "If you want to live well in this world, you have to act cleanly and decisively. Those who don't provoke me, I'll treat them kindly. Those who do, I'll leave none standing!"

Yu Hang's expression became complicated. He felt that his childhood friend seemed to be growing every day.

Compared with Zhou An, he always felt himself falling far short.

Now that Zhou An had said this, Yu Hang understood his intention as well.

"I understand. I'll hurry back as fast as I can. Don't act rashly. Keeping yourself safe is the most important thing!"

Staying here would only cause trouble for Zhou An.

Yu Hang said no more and quickly left the alley.

Zhou An drew the long saber at his waist and walked into the alley.

Yu Hang instinctively looked back and saw Zhou An's retreating figure.

Moonlight spilled down, and the long saber gleamed like snow.

In the cold night, Zhou An's presence was like ice.

Yu Hang could not help shivering before lowering his head and continuing on his way.

The alley was shrouded in darkness.

Scattered moonlight fell from the sky, adding a faint trace of warmth.

With the long saber in hand, Zhou An approached step by step.

The deeper he went into the alley, the clearer the sounds of battle became.

There was a corner not far ahead.

The corner was dark, but Zhou An did not rush over.

He stopped at its edge and poked his head out.

Qi flowed through his body. Even in the dark alley, he could still see clearly.

Deep in the alley, flashes of blades and swords filled the scene.

Five people dressed in different styles and wielding different weapons were attacking another person together.

"It's them?"

Zhou An's gaze narrowed slightly.

One of the five wielded a particularly strange weapon: a pair of bright silver hooks.

Zhou An recognized those weapons. Their owner was one of the five martial artists Zhou An had encountered while eating breakfast that morning.

"I didn't expect to meet them again so soon, and they really are five experts." Zhou An watched the battle and thought to himself.

The five worked together with exquisite coordination, seamlessly alternating between attack and defense. The techniques in their hands flowed with perfect smoothness.

The person surrounded by them was dressed in black with his face covered. His features could not be seen, and even his hair was wrapped in black cloth.

The black-clad masked man held an ordinary long saber. Every swing of it forced back one of his enemies.

However, the black-clad masked man was unable to break through the five men's encirclement for the time being. Whether attacking or defending, the five were tightly linked to one another.

Whenever the black-clad masked man swung his saber, the man holding the pair of curved hooks became like an impenetrable wall.

The curved hooks were wielded to their fullest potential, each time precisely catching the weakest point of the long saber.

"What a splendid fight." Zhou An watched secretly from the side.

As the saying went, the mantis stalked the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind it.

This was not the time to rush out immediately.

He would wait until the battle reached a conclusion, then cast his net like a fisherman.

As for whether people from the Demon Suppression Division might arrive while he waited, he would welcome that.

Then he would not need to act himself. Naturally, the Demon Suppression Division would deal with them.

The reason he had come was that he feared this intelligence, already within his grasp, might slip away.

If the Demon Suppression Division could not arrive in time, he would act first and see whether he could pry out some information.

Then he would kill these people.

He would pass the information he obtained to the Demon Suppression Division in another way, without exposing himself.

He would use the Demon Suppression Division's hand to remove this danger from his heart.

If the Demon Suppression Division arrived first and could obtain the information directly, why not let them?

With that in mind, Zhou An waited patiently.

The battle remained deadlocked. At this moment, the man with the curved hooks spoke.

"If you hand over the Blood Shadow Gate's item, we'll spare your life. We're all from the same sect, so why fight to the death?"

The moment the man spoke, he revealed crucial information.

Blood Shadow Gate?

Upon hearing this, how could Zhou An fail to understand what was happening before him?

Both sides of the battle should have been members of the Blood Shadow Gate.

The one fighting five alone seemed to have taken something important from the Blood Shadow Gate and was being hunted down.

Thinking of the Blood Shadow Gate corpse he had found earlier, Zhou An spotted the missing piece.

That corpse should have been killed by the man holding the long saber.

He had likely come to reclaim the Blood Shadow Gate's item, only to be killed instead.

After sorting through this information, Zhou An felt his thoughts become clear.

Just then, the black-clad masked man being besieged spoke as well.

"You five little brats dare attack this old man? This old man is an Elder of the Blood Shadow Gate. Can you bear the crime of defying your superior?"

His voice was hoarse and full of disdain.

Hearing that voice, Zhou An was slightly surprised.

Aside from being surprised that the other party was actually an Elder, he also found the voice somewhat familiar.