First Kill!

Once they had confirmed the unwelcome guest was gone.

Only then did Madam Zheng tremble out from behind the door, her face full of despair and panic:

"Eldest, we can't afford to provoke such a fiendish ruffian! What, what are we going to do?"

"Mother, don't panic."

Shen Xiuhan turned around. His expression had already returned to calm as he stepped forward and comforted her softly:

"Tomorrow morning, I'll go to the Martial Arts School and prepare a generous gift. I'll ask the senior brothers from the inner court to step in and plead with the Golden Dragon Gang. Those lowly ruffians won't dare refuse the face of an inner-court senior brother."

Although Madam Zheng was still filled with worry, she had no other choice after hearing this. All she could do was pray that the Martial Arts School's reputation could truly suppress those fiends.

The night was deep and still, and all sounds had fallen silent.

A crescent moon hung high in the sky.

Shen Xiuhan lay flat on the wooden bed, his eyes tightly shut and his breathing long and even, as though he had already fallen asleep.

Midnight had just passed.

Within the Sea of Consciousness, a streak of golden light tore through the darkness.

[Today's intelligence has been refreshed!]

[Intelligence ①: Ma Xianyang, the third disciple of the inner court of the Through-the-Back Martial Hall, has been stuck at the Blood Tempering peak for a long time and urgently needs a Treasure Fish to break through. He is familiar with the habits of all kinds of Treasure Fish. Silver-backed Fish have always appeared in the depths of Cloudwater Lake and rarely swim in the shallows.]

[Yet you had neither boat nor net and still managed to capture one. Ma Xianyang has therefore concluded that you may possess some secret method for locating Treasure Fish in shallow water. If you refuse to hand over this method, he will slaughter your entire family to eliminate future trouble!]

[Current location: Inner City, Ma Residence.]

[Intelligence ②: Yu Zhe, a member of the Golden Dragon Gang, possesses no qi and blood and comes from the outer court of the Through-the-Back Martial Hall. He has been assigned by Ma Xianyang to conduct surveillance.]

[Current location: The gambling den on Locust Tree Street in the Inner City. He is currently drinking and playing dice and is expected to return drunk during the Chou hour to the home of a familiar prostitute in East Creek Ward.]

[Intelligence ③: Tian Erhu, a member of the Golden Dragon Gang, possesses no qi and blood and also comes from the outer court of the Through-the-Back Martial Hall. He has been assigned by Ma Xianyang together with Yu Zhe.]

[Current location: Lodging in Wild Shrine Ward in the Outer City, the fifth house from east to west on Two Fortunes Street.]

In the darkness, Shen Xiuhan's eyes snapped open.

Ma Xianyang's baseless deduction had been wildly wrong in process, yet by some twist of fate, it had accidentally hit the mark on his hidden trump card!

What Ma Xianyang had set his sights on was not the fish at all.

It was the nonexistent "secret method for finding Treasure Fish" on Shen Xiuhan!

But...

I can't afford to provoke Ma Xianyang for now...

Two ants who haven't even knocked on the qi-and-blood profound gate dare to bark and leap about in front of me?!

They're truly tired of living!

Shen Xiuhan held his breath and tilted his head, listening closely to the sounds inside the room.

At the other end of the bed, Madam Zheng was giving off faint snores, while Shen Momo lay curled in her arms, breathing softly and evenly.

After confirming that the mother and daughter were both fast asleep, Shen Xiuhan silently lifted the corner of the quilt.

He put on an inconspicuous gray hemp robe and tied his sleeves and trouser legs tight.

"Squeak..."

The wooden door let out an extremely soft groan before being quietly closed again.

Shen Xiuhan first made a trip to the kitchen, then silently vaulted over the fence and melted into the night, racing toward Locust Tree Street.

With the moon hidden and the wind high, it was the perfect time for murder!

Locust Tree Street.

"Master Yu, your luck is blazing hot tonight! You're leaving already? Why not shake a few more rounds and sweep the whole table?"

"Get lost! Lord Yu has proper business to handle tomorrow. I'll come again another day!"

Yu Zhe lifted the wind-blocking curtain and stepped out of the gambling den. After the night wind blew over him, he not only failed to feel cold, but instead felt heat spreading through his entire body.

He weighed the money pouch in his arms, unable to suppress the smugness on his face.

He had practically been blessed by the gods that evening. In the short two hours since he entered, he had already won nearly two taels of silver!

Adding the three taels Senior Brother Ma had rewarded him with when he returned from that peasant's house earlier...

"Damn it, I've finally scraped enough together."

Yu Zhe muttered a curse under his breath.

With this money, he could finally buy another Blood Origin Pill!

His bone structure was terribly poor. He had sold everything he could and scraped together enough tuition to enter the Through-the-Back Martial Hall, where he had struggled for half a year, yet he had never even touched the edge of qi and blood.

Once the deadline arrived, he had no money to renew his tuition and was quickly swept out the door.

Fortunately, he was quick-witted and had ingratiated himself with Ma Xianyang. After doing plenty of dirty, rotten work for him, he had been taught several loose-hand martial techniques.

Relying on those crude tricks, Yu Zhe had finally made a name for himself in the Golden Dragon Gang.

But he knew very well that in Longcloud County, the Golden Dragon Gang was nothing worth mentioning.

The Golden Dragon Gang was merely a dog working for the White Family, holding the fish stalls and dock territory in West Market for its master. Every month, it also had to hand over half its regular earnings without fail.

As long as the money was paid on time, the White Family did not care whether you were the Golden Dragon Gang or the Black Dragon Gang.

Take recent events, for example. The Through-the-Back Martial Hall had fallen out with the White Family, and the Golden Dragon Gang's income from the fish market had also been targeted by the "Turbulent Wave Gang," a group formed from discharged veterans.

The leader of the Turbulent Wave Gang, Zheng Dadao, was no easy man to provoke.

He was peerless with both fists and blades, and his Killing Intent was extraordinarily heavy.

After several fierce clashes, the Golden Dragon Gang had already lost three or four capable fighters!

But what about their master, the White Family?

They had simply hung themselves high above it all, turning a blind eye!

Because they had never regarded the people of the Golden Dragon Gang as their own.

In this world, only "martial artists" who had knocked open the Blood Gate could be considered people!

If you failed to become a martial artist, then even if you commanded a hundred or more thugs, you were still nothing but livestock that could be discarded at any time!

But with bones like mine, how easy is it to break through the Blood Tempering threshold? I can only pile on the medicinal pills by force!

Yu Zhe clenched his fists.

A Blood Origin Pill from the Through-the-Back Martial Hall cost a full five taels of silver!

Over the past two years, he had gritted his teeth and bought three pills to swallow, but aside from gaining a bit more brute strength, his qi and blood remained a stagnant pool.

He had nearly fallen into complete despair.

Who would have thought that Heaven itself would force an earth-shaking opportunity into his lap?

A peasant from the Outer City actually knew how to capture Treasure Fish.

Ma Xianyang's words rose again in Yu Zhe's mind:

"Silver-backed Treasure Fish have always dived deep to the bottom of Cloudwater Lake, and under normal circumstances they're extremely difficult to find... I pried the information out of his childhood friend. He had neither boat nor net, so he must have caught the Treasure Fish in the shallows. How difficult is that? That's why I guessed... he may possess some unorthodox secret method for finding fish!"

"Heh heh..."

"A peasant is still a peasant. He doesn't even understand the principle that possessing a priceless treasure invites disaster. Senior Brother Ma has him wrapped around his finger!"

Walking through the alley, Yu Zhe's lips split into a greedy smile.

The act earlier that evening had been a "throwing out a stone to find the way" scheme deliberately arranged by Ma Xianyang!

First, he had pretended to pressure Shen Xiuhan, making him hand over another Treasure Fish to "settle the grudge."

If Shen Xiuhan had truly buckled under the pressure and caught another Treasure Fish to offer up...

Then the existence of the secret method would be completely confirmed!

At that point, he and Tian Erhu would tie up the entire family.

They could casually chop off two fingers from his widowed mother. Yu Zhe refused to believe that the boy would dare let the secret method rot in his belly.

Once the secret method was in hand, Yu Zhe would also be able to fish up Treasure Fish without end...

The Blood Tempering Realm?

I'll reach it in no time!

"Hahahaha!"

At the thought of his triumph, Yu Zhe could not help laughing aloud.

He licked his cracked lips, and a lecherous glint flashed through his eyes:

"And that little sister of his... Tsk, she hasn't fully blossomed yet, but she's already so delicate and pretty..."

"Whoosh..."

A gust of night wind swept past and poured down through his collar, making Yu Zhe shudder. More than half of the fire of desire in his chest was extinguished.

He instinctively hunched his neck and looked around. Everything around him was pitch-black; he could not see his hand before his face.

In the distance, someone's dog barked twice before falling silent again.

Yu Zhe felt inexplicably uneasy, but then he shook his head and sneered:

"I've done so many filthy things that I'm seeing ghosts even while walking at night... I'm truly getting worse with age!"

He exhaled, strode toward the home of his lover, and began humming a tuneless little song:

"Lang's surname is Qi, sister's surname is Qi, even the maid brought as dowry is named Qi; a Qi girl marries into the Qi family, and at midnight they turn over, Qi against Qi..."

Still humming?

I've come to collect you!

A fierce gust of wind suddenly slashed in from behind without warning!

Yu Zhe's body stiffened, every hair on him standing straight up.

"Not good!"