The Soft Persimmon

Yellow Snake County, inner city. Huang Family.

Smash!

An exquisite ceramic teacup was hurled viciously to the floor, shattering into eight pieces.

The man in the expensive thin long robe had his beard bristling, fury blazing in his eyes. "In all the outer counties of Yellow Snake County, who doesn't know that the Flower Snake Gang was a force cultivated by my Huang Family?

Yet despite that, it was wiped out a month ago, and the murderer still hasn't been caught. What the hell are you all good for?"

Several more ceramic bowls smashed against the floor in succession, and the atmosphere in the room grew suffocating. The Huang Family martial artists lowered their heads in silence, not daring to answer him directly.

"Seventh Master, that bastard was too thorough. He didn't leave behind a single trace, so the brothers had nowhere to begin!"

"And he struck at night. None of the villagers nearby saw what he looked like."

Huang Qi could not be bothered listening to this group's excuses. He only wanted to know who had massacred the Huang Family's people.

This force had been the Huang Family's first step in laying out their influence in the outer counties, and it had been an immensely important step. Through gangs, they would draw in other powers and seize control of the local area.

As long as they were willing to throw money at it, they could bring more gangs under their banner and gradually fuse them into a colossal entity!

But just after they had painstakingly uprooted the Clear Snake Gang controlled by the other families, the Flower Snake Gang suffered an unprecedented blow.

At that moment, a man dressed in a red constable's uniform walked in.

Huang Qi's expression changed. He hurried forward to greet him. "Constable Li, we've finally been waiting for you. Have you found any clues?"

Constable Li sat down without ceremony. At a glance from Huang Qi, the pretty maid with the oval face swiftly served him fragrant tea.

"Finding the murderer will be difficult, but investigating step by step and narrowing down the scope will not be.

Over these past days, I thoroughly investigated the grudges the Flower Snake Gang had made. They rarely offended martial arts halls, so it can be proven that this was not some martial arts hall attacking them in a fit of rage.

Among the civilian women they violated, there was one family whose daughter had not yet been defiled before Hua Hai and his son were met with retaliation."

"Oh? Which family... Could mere commoners really possess such ability?" Huang Qi was somewhat dissatisfied with this line of investigation.

Constable Li shook his head, his eyes filled with the contempt of an expert for a layman. "Commoners actually have the most complicated connections. Some of them have hidden cards.

Those are what they call distant relatives—relatives even they themselves might not know about.

But once the scandal is exposed, those relatives will step forward. The one I found was the Duan Family."

"The Duan Family? Never heard of them!"

"They are merely commoners running a small shop.

But their family has two martial artists. One of them has already reached Dark Force and was even accepted as a personal disciple by the master of the Scale Python Martial Academy.

The other is not much to speak of. As far as I know, his innate physique is merely mid-grade B, and his blood and vitality are badly depleted. He was nearly turned away at the gates when he entered the Broken Mountain Martial Arts Hall.

Though he luckily broke through to Bright Force a few months ago, neither the Duan Family nor the Broken Mountain Martial Arts Hall would pour resources into him.

Besides, they do not have that kind of financial power."

Even if Huang Qi had been a fool, he could hear the two meanings behind Constable Li's words.

The first was that the Duan Family had a Dark Force expert, someone he could not afford to offend.

The second was that if he truly could not swallow this insult, he could take revenge on the Duan Family's other descendant. There might even be a chance of success.

"Hmph! My Huang Family is a great clan of the inner county.

If we can swallow even this, won't people be shitting on our necks from now on?

I cannot afford to offend that Dark Force martial artist or the Scale Python Martial Academy, but this little Bright Force martial artist? Cripple his innate physique and sever the tendons in his hands and feet.

That should be within the bounds of what all parties can accept.

When squeezing persimmons, pick the soft ones." Huang Qi waved a hand. Three Bright Force martial artists understood at once and left with reward silver.

"I'll have to trouble Constable Li to clean things up afterward." Huang Qi handed over a silver note.

"Easy enough, easy enough!"

Duan Xuan had tried his luck at the martial arts hall for two or three days, but he had not encountered Master Chen Feng, nor had he seen the two senior sisters of Dark Force practicing new moves of the Broken Mountain Fist.

Left with no choice, he could only stabilize his blood and vitality again and again, strengthening his foundation.

After packing his things, Duan Xuan planned to spend some time at the medicinal garden.

Ever since the people of Wolf Stronghold had been wiped out and the Golden Leopard Gang had taken control of Snakehead Ravine, Benevolent Harmony Hall's medicinal garden had become completely safe.

Thus, Duan Xuan did not need to go every day. Going every few days to tend it a little was enough.

The main reason he was going today was to further hone his hunting skills.

Following the gravel streets of the outer county out of the city, the bustle of the marketplace gradually thinned. The vendors calling out their wares had labored all day and now stood on either side of the road, waiting for customers as fate allowed.

Suddenly, Duan Xuan sensed three pairs of malicious eyes watching him from both sides of the street.

Once a martial artist reached Dark Force, they could conceal their force, and likewise conceal their perception.

Yet Duan Xuan had detected their traces, which clearly meant they were not Dark Force martial artists!

With that thought, Duan Xuan turned directly into a rarely traveled alley.

Just as he was about to stride forward, a figure suddenly sprang out from the corner ahead and, without a word, unleashed a barrage of whip kicks.

The narrow space only allowed one person to attack at a time. The other side had planned this long ago. They had been waiting for Duan Xuan to walk into this place himself, intending to use the cramped space to take him down in one stroke.

But Duan Xuan had sensed the ambushers lurking in the shadows beforehand. He broke into a run, silently gathering force in his hand.

The instant he saw his enemy, he threw a punch.

"I'm dying of laughter. There isn't the slightest fluctuation of force—you're not even a Bright Force martial artist!" the thug mocked.

Yet at the instant fist and foot collided, Duan Xuan stuck to his opponent's attack and withdrew at once, flipping backward through the air to evade the long knife stabbing at his back from behind.

Having missed, the thug hurriedly retreated behind his companion. After all, if a Bright Force martial artist let someone touch his back, he was finished.

"Big brother, how are you? This guy's fists don't seem to have any force fluctuations. Big brother?"

The man turned his head and saw that the kicking thug was rigidly frozen in his kicking posture, his mouth agape and eyes bulging wide. Yet he could neither make a sound nor move.

He lightly reached out and poked him. The next moment, a string of crisp cracks erupted from the man's body like thunder.

He was dead!

Only then did the thug who had missed his strike realize, "Dark... Dark Force... He, he's a Dark Force expert!"

Dark Force did not cling to the surface, but hid within one's force and attacked the organs within.

Its shattering methods could be seen with the naked eye and felt within the body.

He turned to kneel and beg for mercy, but before his knees touched the ground, Duan Xuan seized his skull.

The Broken Mountain Fist turned the fist into a wedge and smashed down fiercely. With a wet splat, the thug's head was pounded into a mess of pulp.

"What's this second brat babbling about?" The last thug roared and leaped down from the wall.

The two curved blades in his hands scraped out sparks as they hacked viciously toward the back of Duan Xuan's head.

Duan Xuan shifted his steps, activating Frost Wolf Vanishing-Step in an instant.

With his realm bolstering it, his speed rose another level. Both curved blades missed at once and crashed against the ground with a clang.

"You've got some skill!" the bladesman snorted. Holding a blade in each hand, he charged again. In this narrow passage, the two blades swept horizontally from left and right, enough to slash through the entire area. Whether the enemy dodged, leaped, or fled, there would not be the slightest chance to escape.

Under normal circumstances, a martial artist who had just entered Dark Force would have an unstable foundation and would not have trained their fist techniques to the utmost.

Facing a Bright Force expert armed with weapons, they would indeed be wary.

But Duan Xuan's Broken Mountain Fist had already reached Minor Mastery, less than three hundred points away from completion. Against Dark Force martial artists of the same stage, he was only stronger, never weaker!

Moreover, Duan Xuan had grown through slaughter and battle.

Would he fear blades and swords?

Watching the man's blade-light flash with savage ferocity, Duan Xuan merely narrowed his eyes.

He gathered all the strength in his body.

Just as the man thought Duan Xuan had been frightened senseless by standing still, and slashed out with the strongest blow he had gathered—

Duan Xuan moved as well. With a flick of his wrist, a sleeve arrow shot forth.

It aimed straight at the man's head...

"You..."

Whoosh!

The sleeve arrow slipped through an opening and struck the man between the brows, piercing straight through his head.

"No martial virtue!"

With a thud, the three assassins toppled one after another.

"My lord, times have changed..." Duan Xuan searched the three bodies and was delighted to find three small packets of broken silver.

After disposing of the corpses and erasing all traces, he climbed over a wall and left through another alley.