Beating

"Mom, I'm back, Mom..." Duan Xuan carried two slabs of fine meat and a bolt of light-brown cloth his mother liked best. With Wolf Stronghold destroyed, the Golden Leopard Gang had become considerably more restrained.

The village had grown much more peaceful.

For the first time in a long while, Duan Xuan saw smiles on the villagers' faces.

The door to his home had been reinforced several times, and the places where the roof leaked had all been covered with good wooden boards. At last, the house had a hint of warmth.

But when Duan Xuan reached his doorstep today, he froze. The door stood wide open, and no cooking smoke rose from within.

His mind buzzed as he rapidly ran through whether there were any enemies he had failed to wipe out recently, yet no one came to mind.

His feet pounded the ground, and in just three or five strides, he crossed into the house.

There, he saw his mother weeping quietly on the kang bed.

"Mom, what happened? Did thieves break into the house? When? What did they look like?"

Duan Xuan gave Zhou Fang a quick once-over and spotted a large bump on her right forehead.

Clearly, she had fought someone over something, been violently shoved away, and slammed into the wall.

Seeing her son, Zhou Fang did not burst into sobs. Instead, she slowly steadied herself. "It was Duan Tao.

"They took five taels of silver from our home, and they took our meat too!"

Duan Xuan's gaze instantly turned sharp.

At a glance, he saw that not only were the things his mother had mentioned gone, but even the silver bracelet on her wrist had vanished.

That was something his mother had worn for decades. When Duan Xuan was little, Zhou Fang had told him it had been passed down by her father.

Now, a large patch of her skin had turned red.

"They've gone too far!" Duan Xuan patted Zhou Fang's hand. "Mom, rest well. I'll handle this."

Afraid that his mother would go hungry, Duan Xuan first cooked a meal. Then he handed her all the money he had searched off the three assassins of unknown identity, easing her mind somewhat.

Only then did he stride toward the old district of Snakehead Ravine.

In less than ten minutes, Duan Xuan spotted the backs of Duan Jian and his second aunt, Madam Liu.

The two had their heads lowered. Though they seemed to have robbed someone, their spirits were low.

Yet the string of meat in Duan Jian's hand and the small pouch of broken silver immediately made the fire in Duan Xuan's heart surge skyward.

He took out a more exquisite animal trap from his robes, aimed at Duan Tao's next step, and flung it with perfect precision.

Crack!

The animal trap, capable of easily snapping the leg bones of gang members below Ming Strength, crushed Duan Tao's foot in one bite.

"Ah!" Duan Tao clutched his knee and collapsed. Madam Liu hurried forward to support him, only then noticing that Duan Tao had somehow stepped into an animal trap.

Duan Xuan had already appeared before the two of them. With a dark face, he snatched back the meat, his mother's bracelet, and the broken silver.

Night was drawing in. Standing above them, Duan Xuan's eyes glimmered with a sinister light, frightening Duan Tao so badly that he trembled as he wet himself. Madam Liu lowered her head and wept, not daring to look at Duan Xuan even once.

"Second Uncle, you've gone too far!

"The last time you came to my home to steal, I let you escape disaster. Today, I've broken one of your feet. If you come again, don't blame me for showing no mercy!"

Before his words had even faded, Duan Tao began bawling loudly. "Nephew, please spare me! Just let me take these things back.

"If I don't bring them back, I'll be beaten to death."

Then he raised his head and pointed at his face. Duan Xuan had not realized it before, but one look gave him a fright.

His eye sockets were black and purple, swollen like two duck eggs.

His nose bridge was broken and soft, his mouth split open by a deep gash, with bloody threads still trickling down.

"Nephew, Auntie knows you're the kindest person, that you have the softest heart. Just let us take them away. You don't want to see your Second Uncle beaten to death alive, do you?"

Duan Xuan turned to glance at his second aunt. Madam Liu's face was not as badly injured as his second uncle's.

But through the marks on her neck and arms, he could vaguely see that she too had suffered severe wounds. Especially on her neck and back, where there was a long streak of blood.

Duan Xuan recognized it at once. It was from a whip.

"Was it the Golden Leopard Gang, or some other gang?" Duan Xuan asked.

Duan Tao shook his head heavily. Madam Liu did the same, as though they feared that person greatly and did not dare speak his name.

"Who was it?"

The two shuddered violently. Only then did Duan Tao stammer out, "It... it was Duan Xu!"

"Duan Xu? Did practicing martial arts make him go mad?"

Madam Liu shook her head, tears pouring down her face. "The moment he broke through to Ming Strength, he ordered your Second Uncle, your grandfather, and me around, making us do this and that.

"Later, he told us he was going to break through to Dark Strength and made us gather money. But where were we supposed to get that much money?

"Vitality Blood Pills, Vitality Blood Powder—one pill every five days, one small packet every three days. Each purchase costs ten taels of silver.

"He drove your grandfather to the brink. He borrowed from every neighbor, sold all our goods at dirt-cheap prices, but we still couldn't scrape together enough money!"

"What does that have to do with me? You brought this disaster upon yourselves!" Duan Xuan snorted. "From the moment you bullied my mother and joined forces with Grandpa to refuse to spend money on me, all ties of kinship and righteousness between us were severed.

"Consider the meat from last time a gift from me. But this time, you injured my mother, and I broke his foot. We are even.

"If you come again, I definitely won't spare you."

Duan Xuan picked up the things and turned to leave.

"Duan Xuan, he's going to sell your Little Aunt!

"He's going to sell your Little Aunt to a brothel in the county town.

"Your Little Aunt has treated you so well. Can you really cast that aside?" Madam Liu cried out heart-rendingly. "Your Second Uncle and I were wrong before. We truly were wrong. Please, help us."

"Is he at home now?"

"No. After beating your Second Uncle and me today, he went back to the martial academy.

"Your Little Aunt is safe for now, but Duan Xu will return in half a month..."

"I understand." With that, Duan Xuan did not leave either of them anything. Facing the night wind, he slowly headed home.

Sometimes, he wondered what kind of changes the martial world had truly brought to this world.

Did it make the wicked more wicked, and the weak weaker?

Duan Xu was the apple of the eye of Duan Tao, Madam Liu, and old master Duan Jiantao. Ever since he was little, they had cradled him in their palms, neither willing to beat nor scold him.

Even when the family had suffered through its hardest times years ago, borrowing money everywhere, they had still made sure he ate until he was plump and fat.

It could be said they had never mistreated him in any regard. Yet how had he stirred up such a monstrous mess after practicing martial arts for barely a year?

Duan Xuan suddenly thought of Lin Hu. Putting aside how that brat treated others—

He hurled vicious insults and spoke with barbed mockery. Together with Liu Mingze, he could be said to be steeped in evil to the brim.

If, in one or two years, his martial strength surpassed Chen Feng's, could Mountain-Breaking Stance Academy still continue to grow in peace?

By then, at best, he might berate Chen Feng viciously; at worst, he might sell his two beautiful senior sisters, Chen Jingshu and Chen Jingyun, into a brothel. That was not impossible.

How should he deal with this?

For a time, Duan Xuan found himself troubled. Duan Xu had broken through to Dark Strength a month ago.

He was also the favored final disciple of the Scale Python Martial Academy's master.

If Duan Xuan confronted him head-on, it would be difficult to gain the upper hand.

I'll take things one step at a time. But I will never let Little Aunt suffer any harm! That night, Duan Xuan practiced the Broken Mountain Fist five times and designed several brand-new traps.

But those alone were still insufficient to bridge the gulf in strength and defeat a formidable Dark Strength martial artist.

"Fifteen days. Let me think this through properly..."