Sponsorship Criteria

The next day.

The moment the villagers of Flower Snake Village woke up, they felt as though they had become much lighter, as if the invisible shoulder pole weighing on them had been gently lifted away.

"Did wolves enter the village last night? That was terrifying."

"I heard it too. That wolf howl probably scared the Flower Snake Gang pissless."

"Go take a look! The Flower Snake Gang has been wiped out!"

"What?"

Word spread from one to ten, then ten to a hundred. The entire village poured out and headed in groups toward the ancestral hall.

When they arrived, every member of the Flower Snake Gang was laid out in neat rows. No one could tell who was who, nor what injuries they had suffered.

"Good! They deserved it!"

"The ancestors have shown their power! Quick, go kowtow to them!"

"Kowtow for what? Get into the stronghold first and grab the silver!"

At those words, everyone cried out in their hearts: this man was a genius.

But when they searched room by room, they discovered that not even a hair's worth of money had been left behind.

Duan Xuan's image as a hero who rid the people of evil instantly plummeted into the dust in the villagers' eyes.

Mm, he was a rotten bastard worse than Chen Ergou's fart.

Before long, news of the Flower Snake Gang's destruction reached the gangs in every village.

Especially the Golden Leopard Gang in Snakehead Ravine. When its leader, Xu Jinbao, heard the news, his powerful hands slapped the tiger-head wooden chair with loud bangs.

"That old bastard threw his weight around, using some big shot from the county town. He threatened me, saying that if he entered our village, he wanted to see who would dare stop him, and that their end would be miserable. And now? Go on, come in! I've thrown the gates wide open for you. Come on!"

His subordinates burst into laughter as well.

The Flower Snake Gang might have been newly established, but it had been bullying the major gangs in the surrounding villages for quite some time.

No one dared offend the big shots in the county town or openly resist.

They could only swallow their anger and let the gang push its luck, inch after inch.

But Xu Jinbao's laughter gradually ceased. The burly man's mind was as sharp and active as a master detective's. "The Duan Family has two Bright Force experts. I heard Duan Xu of the Scale Python Martial Academy already has one foot in Dark Force. Just who wiped out the Flower Snake Gang? Hard to guess! Hua Hai, oh, Hua Hai—you actually wanted to kidnap the sister of two Dark Force martial artists. If you didn't die, who would?"

"Pass down the order. The Flower Snake Gang never entered the territory of my Golden Leopard Gang. If anyone dares let slip a single word, deal with them according to the gang rules!"

"Young Master, the Flower Snake Gang has been wiped out!" Ren Yu and another retainer had personally witnessed Duan Xuan slaughtering them with gleeful abandon. After he left, worried that he might not have cleaned things up thoroughly and left traces behind, the two went there themselves, intending to destroy the corpses and erase the evidence. Instead, they found that Duan Xuan had been too thorough. If they had not known it was the Flower Snake Gang, they would have thought it was a mass graveyard.

A look of disbelief immediately rose on Ren Yun's calm face. "You two must have contributed quite a bit as well, yes? You've worked hard. Go to the back and collect your reward. Elder Zhou, this Brother Duan Xuan truly is..."

Ren Yu did not leave. He honestly reported, "Young Master, we did not make a move. The Flower Snake Gang's two Condensed Force experts, along with thirty-one thugs, were all dealt with by Brother Duan alone. He cleaned up very thoroughly afterward. He seemed especially skilled at using ingenious traps, though he erased all traces of the traps before leaving."

"What? You're saying neither of you helped? How is that possible? No matter how many traps there were, they could not have caused two Condensed Force experts to perish at the same time." Zhou Wei also found it hard to believe that casually delivered statement.

"Ren Yu, recount everything in detail from beginning to end."

After hearing the account, several expressions intertwined across Ren Yun's face.

Fear, delight, disbelief, the joy of finding a priceless treasure.

Zhou Wei, already past sixty, was no less expressive.

He had always considered his younger self fiercely unmatched.

He could take a gang leader's head from the midst of dozens of gang members, then retreat unscathed.

Yet this Duan Xuan had been born a mud-legged commoner, and his innate talent was merely mid-grade B.

But not only had he, just after stepping into Bright Force, exterminated the twelve remaining bandits of Wolf Stronghold—

A month later, he had taken the head of a gang leader who commanded two Bright Force martial artists.

And he had uprooted the rest of their members as well.

What kind of courage and strength did that require?

"If Brother Duan comes to our hall these next few days, remember to be discreet. Help him launder the money from the entire gang and exchange it for Vitality Blood Pills. Then transfer them to him by reasonable means. Do not let that pack of old foxes in the county town set their eyes on him," Ren Yun instructed.

"Young Master, the young lady has returned and requests that you attend a meeting. Elder Zhou is to come as well," a servant reported from the rear gate of Benevolent Harmony Hall.

"Elder Sister is back?"

Ren Yun and Zhou Wei headed happily toward the rear courtyard. The moment they arrived, they saw dozens of people standing there, whispering among themselves.

"Young Master, we have returned!"

"We were wrong before. We should not have gone far from Benevolent Harmony Hall. Young Master, please forgive us!"

Standing before them were precisely the martial artists whom other clansmen had taken away after Benevolent Harmony Hall's defeat. There were Bright Force martial artists among them, as well as Dark Force experts.

More importantly, four distant relatives with fairly substantial family resources had returned with them.

"Please rise quickly. With your return, Benevolent Harmony Hall has the confidence to turn the tables. There is no need for formalities. Ren Yun, quickly arrange accommodations for everyone and treat them well!"

"First Uncle, Sixth Uncle, Third Granduncle, Third Maternal Uncle..." Ren Yun's eyes reddened slightly.

Though fewer than one in ten of the clansmen who had left the family had returned, these four were among those with the strongest foundations and the broadest knowledge. Even in Benevolent Harmony Hall's former heyday, they had possessed considerable authority.

"Yun'er, do not cry. We heard long ago that Benevolent Harmony Hall had fallen on hard times, yet we did not return because we were gathering the resources and connections in our hands. Now the consolidation is complete. Come, let us go see the young lady."

"Those people in Yellow Snake County have bullied Benevolent Harmony Hall for far too long. We returned to reclaim our former position as overlords. Let those old bastards see what the true Benevolent Harmony Hall is!"

"Mm!"

"Although Benevolent Harmony Hall has summoned back all of its people, the situation in Yellow Snake County and the surrounding regions remains far from optimistic."

Ren Yun's elder sister, Ren Wanqing, sat at the head of the long table.

The people around her were all important members of the Ren Family.

She appeared to be only a little over thirty, yet the temples of the noblewoman's hair had already turned white.

A plain purple butterfly dress wrapped around her straight, graceful figure. Her hair was held up with a silver hairpin, without the slightest carved pattern upon it.

Yet this very simplicity held the entire room in check.

After years of running about outside, the alluring color had faded from her fair face, leaving only a faint wash of wind and frost.

And the moment she spoke those words, Ren Yun and the others understood that Benevolent Harmony Hall had severed ties with the other direct branches and partners of the Ren Family. Benevolent Harmony Hall had only the people before them left!

"Though our power may be weak, our backbone cannot be absent. Golden Jade Hall, Fortune-Filled House, and the Treasure Society fear that Benevolent Harmony Hall still has the strength to turn the tables. They targeted us repeatedly on our journey back and laid ambushes along the way. Of the original four Dark Force experts and thirteen Bright Force martial artists, fewer than half remain."

The atmosphere in the room plummeted. In the martial world, martial artists were the guarantee of whether a faction could survive.

Yet even after the Ren Family gathered its own forces across multiple provinces, counties, and prefectures, they had only managed to bring back a dozen or so martial artists.

Golden Jade Hall and the forces beneath it could easily wipe out Benevolent Harmony Hall through force alone!

Turning the tables would be immensely difficult!

The meeting lasted a full two hours. Even after night fell, Ren Yun could still see the bitter look on his sister Ren Wanqing's face.

After everyone else had dispersed, he remained seated, wondering whether he should tell his sister about Duan Xuan.

Duan Xuan was merely a martial artist with great potential, but in his sister's eyes, Bright Force was still only Bright Force—insufficient to shoulder the family's great undertaking.

If he told her, would he only add to her worries?

"Little Brother Yun, why have you not left? Is something the matter?" Ren Wanqing asked wearily.

"For all these years, Elder Sister has held up this family. Seeing you work yourself so hard now, I feel terrible. But there is a promising martial artist worth sponsoring. I do not know whether I should mention him."

Ren Wanqing smiled faintly. "If there is a promising prospect, why would you not dare mention him? Go ahead and tell me."

"This man was born a hunter in Snakehead Ravine. He has trained in martial arts for just over three months, but at present he is only a Bright Force martial artist," Ren Yun said truthfully.

Ren Wanqing's delicate brows lifted slightly. "If he were truly only a Bright Force martial artist, you would not have troubled me over him. That is not your way. Continue."

Ren Yun felt gratified. As expected, his sister was still the understanding sister she had always been. "Though he is only a Bright Force martial artist, I believe he can challenge Dark Force. Furthermore, Brother Duan Xuan has accomplished things that many martial artists could never achieve. Last month, when he had just taken up a post at Benevolent Harmony Hall and had only entered Bright Force a few days earlier, he exterminated a bandit group led by a Bright Force martial artist. Not long ago, he did something that even Elder Zhou called impossible. The Flower Snake Gang, funded by the royal family of the inner city, had two Bright Force martial artists and thirty-one fierce thugs. Yet in a single night, Duan Xuan wiped out their entire household!"

Ren Wanqing's first reaction was that her younger brother had become so frivolous. Could he not see the gravity of the situation?

He was actually making up stories to cheer her up!

But when she turned her head and saw Zhou Wei beside her quietly sipping tea, nodding deeply, Ren Wanqing's pupils suddenly contracted. "Oh?"