Kill Them (5K)

The atmosphere in the room froze instantly.

Shen Momo fell silent at once, her body trembling uncontrollably.

Beside her, Madam Zheng's face turned pale, terror filling her eyes as her voice tightened.

"Eldest son, this..."

The smile vanished from Shen Xiuhan's face, and a chill flashed through his eyes.

Seriously...

Would this never end?!

He placed the shivering Shen Momo into his mother's arms and said quietly:

"Mother, watch over Momo. I'll deal with what's outside."

"Eldest son, be careful..."

Madam Zheng held her daughter, her voice trembling.

Shen Xiuhan gave her a reassuring look, then abruptly rose and pushed open the door.

Outside the fenced courtyard.

Four or five burly men in close-fitting clothes stood there, dressed in black short outfits. Their knotted muscles bulged, short blades and daggers hung at their waists, and they looked at him with fierce eyes.

Shen Xiuhan's gaze was like a blade as it swiftly swept across their faces.

The four in front were all unfamiliar faces. He had never seen them before.

Only the tall man standing at the back, a thin twig clenched between his teeth and legs as thick as pillars, made Shen Xiuhan's eyes narrow.

It was actually him!

When Shen Xiuhan had caught the Silver-striped Fish and gone to sell it at the fish market, this was the man who had collected his stall fee.

Isn't this man from the Golden Dragon Gang... Why is he calling himself part of the Turbulent Wave Gang now?

Shen Xiuhan remembered him clearly.

On the day he sold fish, the wooden tag at the man's waist had clearly borne the character "Gao."

Yet now, hanging from his waist was a completely different wooden tag, engraved with the character "Liu."

Even his surname and identity had changed...

Could these people be Golden Dragon Gang members in disguise?

Before Shen Xiuhan could think further, one of the men outside impatiently slapped the door and shouted gruffly:

"Kid, what are you standing around for? You going to make your uncles stand outside drinking the northwest wind?"

They had the advantage in numbers, and he did not know whether they had any Bright Force experts among them... To keep them from taking Madam Zheng and Shen Momo hostage, he had to handle this carefully.

Shen Xiuhan piled panic onto his face, hurriedly pulled open the courtyard gate, bent at the waist, and smiled obsequiously.

"Esteemed sirs, it is so late. May I ask what brings you here?"

"What brings us here?"

The scar-faced man at the front sneered and stepped into the courtyard.

The others followed in without ceremony, surrounding Shen Xiuhan in the middle.

The scar-faced man folded his arms and looked down at him as he said gruffly:

"Kid, keep your eyes open!"

"From now on, Little Path Bay is no longer under the Golden Dragon Gang's control. It is being taken over by our Turbulent Wave Gang. Hand over this spring's regular payment to us brothers today."

"This spring's... regular payment?"

Shen Xiuhan pretended to be stunned, panic appearing on his face as he rubbed his hands and smiled apologetically.

"Esteemed sirs... It is not yet time to pay the regular fee. My family has not saved up any spare money. Could you perhaps show mercy and grant us a few more days..."

Every quarter, the Golden Dragon Gang collected protection money from the wards of the outer city.

Five qian per household, or five hundred copper coins.

That came to two taels of silver a year, enough to equal more than half a year's food for an ordinary tenant farmer.

This was why poor families in the outer city worked without rest every day, yet still lived without enough to eat, even forced to sell their sons and daughters.

"No money?"

The scar-faced man smiled.

That smile looked especially savage on his scar-crossed face.

He tilted his head, his gaze passing over Shen Xiuhan and landing on the thatched cottage behind him, where a dim yellow lamp glowed. His tone was loaded with meaning.

"If I remember correctly... you have a little sister inside, don't you? If you really cannot pay, you can use her to settle the debt at a brothel for secret prostitutes. Your uncle here can make that decision..."

Shen Xiuhan's smile froze.

He lowered his eyes and fell silent.

After a moment, as though resigned to his fate, he took four strings of cash from his robes and handed them over.

This was the money he had earned by selling the Azure Awl Chicken feathers during the day.

"There are only four hundred copper coins. I am still short one qian. I will definitely gather it and make up the difference as soon as possible..."

The scar-faced man's eyes lit up. He snatched the money away and weighed it twice in his palm.

"Tsk, tsk. Who would have thought? You poor mud-legged bastard are actually quite rich!"

He stuffed the money into his clothes, and his expression changed in an instant. With a swish, he drew the short blade at his waist and roared sharply:

"But your uncle doesn't believe you!"

"Get inside and bring out all the money you have hidden. I'm warning you, don't force me to search the place myself, or else..."

"Forget it!"

The man outside, who had kept silent with the twig between his teeth, suddenly spoke coldly.

"Young—cough, Chief Liu, that kid had four qian in his clothes just now. There must be plenty more money hidden inside his house!"

"I said, forget it."

"...Yes!"

The scar-faced man was clearly unwilling.

But the tall man outside carried an imposing air, so he could only grit his teeth and obediently step back.

Chief Liu spat out the twig and stared at Shen Xiuhan as he said unhurriedly:

"Within three days, bring the remaining money to the Turbulent Wave Gang hall. If you are late, bear the consequences yourself."

With that, he turned and strode away.

Seeing their leader had spoken, the gang members could only glare viciously at Shen Xiuhan a few times before following him out of the courtyard.

"Count yourself lucky, kid!"

Before leaving, the scar-faced man turned back and spat fiercely, snorted, and followed after them with his head down.

Watching their retreating backs, Shen Xiuhan slowly clenched his fists.

After they had gone far away, Shen Xiuhan turned and entered the house, quietly giving a few instructions.

Then he swiftly left the courtyard gate and silently tailed them.

"Damn it, they moved away!"

"Fuck their mothers, they got lucky!"

Under the night sky, several men kicked apart Chen An's courtyard gate, went inside and searched around, then quickly emerged cursing, their faces full of bad luck.

They then changed direction and headed toward East Creek Ward.

On the way, the scar-faced man slowed down, moved closer to Chief Liu, and asked in a low voice:

"Young Gang Leader, that kid had four qian on him just now. There must be money hidden in his house. Why let him off so easily?"

Chief Liu...

More precisely, the Young Gang Leader of the Golden Dragon Gang, replied indifferently:

"We borrowed the Turbulent Wave Gang's skin to scrape together a windfall and muddy the waters along the way. That is already a fine thing. There is no need to lose the big for the small... After three days, when that kid brings the remaining regular payment to the Turbulent Wave Gang, what do you think their reaction will be?"

The scar-faced man thought with his head lowered for a while, then shook his head and said in a muffled voice:

"This subordinate does not know... This subordinate only feels that Young Gang Leader may have collected quite a bit less money just now!"

At that, the Young Gang Leader's mouth twitched speechlessly. He suddenly stopped, turned his head to look the scar-faced man over, and asked without warning:

"Scar, how many years have you worked for the Golden Dragon Gang?"

The scar-faced man froze, then immediately thumped his chest and declared his loyalty.

"In reply to Young Gang Leader, exactly four years!"

"From the first day the Golden Dragon Gang planted its banner in Longcloud County, the old gang leader took me under his command. These years, I have followed you through fire and water, Young Gang Leader!"

"Four years. That is quite some time..."

The Young Gang Leader's lips curved into an inscrutable smile, and his voice became distant.

"But what if I told you that the Golden Dragon Gang did not first raise its staff four years ago? Ten years ago, my father established this gang's name in Stonepool County, Guangwu Prefecture. Of course, it was not called the Golden Dragon Gang then..."

The scar-faced man was utterly confused. "Th-this matter, this subordinate has truly never heard of before..."

"Of course you did not know."

The Young Gang Leader chuckled softly.

"Because... apart from my father and me, everyone who knew about it back then is already dead."

What did he mean?

The scar-faced man narrowed his eyes slightly, one hand instinctively moving to the short blade at his waist.

But the Young Gang Leader acted as though he had not seen it.

With an easy smile on his lips and his hands clasped behind his back, he spoke slowly, as if recounting a romantic affair.

"Back in Stonepool County, I set my sights on the daughter of a local wealthy household, a young lady who had just come of age. That figure, that face, tsk, tsk... So I abducted her and forcibly took her body."

He paused and licked his lips, as though savoring some glorious deed.

"Afterward, I took her intimate bellyband and extorted a ransom from her father."

"During the process, I heard that she had an elder brother in the Star-Picking Sect of Cangzhou. He was even a personal disciple, with cultivation at the Peak Hidden Force... So I might as well go all the way. I took the money and killed them to settle the matter!"

"To completely erase every trace and ensure not a whisper leaked out..."

The Young Gang Leader looked at the four gang members ahead, who had sensed something wrong, stopped, and turned around in alarm and uncertainty. The corner of his mouth lifted.

"That night, my father took me with him, and we personally slit the throats of all thirty-six old brothers in the gang, one by one... Then we took the funds and fled overnight to Longcloud County... Only then did the Golden Dragon Gang come to be."

Even the wind around them seemed to have stopped.

The flesh on the scar-faced man's face twitched, and bead-sized drops of sweat seeped from his forehead.

No matter how stupid he was, he understood the hidden meaning behind this old tale!

"Young... Young Gang Leader..."

The scar-faced man swallowed and subconsciously took a step back, his voice shaking.

"Why... why are you telling me this? This subordinate has been utterly loyal to you and the old gang leader, with absolutely no second thoughts!"

The four men ahead also caught on, fumbling in panic for the hilts of their weapons.

"Loyalty? In this world, only the loyalty of the dead is truly reassuring."

The Young Gang Leader turned to look at them, his eyes like a venomous snake eyeing its prey.

"Besides... I gave you a chance just now. If you had been a clever man, I would not have minded sparing your life. After all, cultivating a loyal and useful dog takes quite a bit of effort."

"Unfortunately, just as my father said, you are greedy and lecherous, stupid as a pig, with no value worth cultivating. Keeping you alive... would only affect my family's great plans!"

The scar-faced man's face shifted between green and white. Gritting his teeth, he said, "Young Gang Leader, we can discuss this properly. We will leave overnight and never return to Longcloud County. No, never return to South Township Prefecture..."

"Too late!"

The Young Gang Leader grinned savagely, his blood and qi surging around him. "If you must blame someone, blame the Turbulent Wave Gang..."

"That Zheng Dadao is definitely no rebel soldier. His origins are mysterious, his methods reach the heavens, and there is nothing simple about the forces behind him."

"As it happens, we have made enough money in Longcloud County. We are only waiting for that place to open up... then we will change territories and live freely and happily."

"But since we are leaving, the rules from back then naturally cannot be broken..."

As his words fell, the Young Gang Leader's previously lazy body suddenly erupted into motion. Like a hungry wolf pouncing on prey, he closed in on Scar in the blink of an eye!

"Gao Nian, you..."

Scar was instantly terrified out of his wits.

He had just tried to draw his blade when an explosive boom thundered beside his ear!

Gao Nian's right leg rose like an iron whip, the top of his foot taut as it carried violent blood and qi and lashed viciously toward Scar's temple!

Crack, crack...

Scar's head was kicked sharply to the left. Fine cracking sounds came from his neck as it bent at a grotesque angle.

Blood snaked from his nostrils, eyes, ears, and the corners of his mouth.

Before he could even scream, Scar fell straight to the ground and died on the spot.

"Fuck their mothers!"

"Gao Nian wants to kill us to silence us! We're dead either way—brothers, fight!"

The remaining four men's eyes split wide with rage.

Despair turned into the savage fury of trapped beasts.

Roaring, they drew their daggers and short blades and charged at Gao Nian!

"Ants dare shake the heavens?"

Gao Nian sneered. His blood and qi surged, and instead of retreating, he advanced. With a twist of his waist and hips, his legs lashed out in succession like a wildly spinning windmill!

Bang! Bang!

The two gang members who rushed forward were like men struck head-on by galloping warhorses.

Their chests caved inward, and their bodies flew back four or five steps like sacks. They spat blood and shattered organs from their mouths, twitched twice, and fell silent.

The remaining two men saw this and were so frightened that their livers and gallbladders seemed to split. Cold sweat instantly drenched their backs, as though they had fallen into the freezing pits of the Nine Netherworlds.

How was this a fight?

It was plainly a one-sided slaughter!

The gap between ordinary people and Bright Force martial artists was as vast as heaven and earth!

The two exchanged terrified looks, then shouted in unison:

"Split up and run!"

"Run?"

Gao Nian burst into laughter, his blood and qi surging into his lower body like a rising tide:

"What a pack of idiots. You wasted all those years in my Golden Dragon Gang for nothing!"

The Gao family's inherited stance art, the Twenty-Four Collapsing Mountain Legs, was fierce and forceful, specializing in offense.

Its stance training tempered the great tendons in the legs until they became incomparably supple and resilient, making it equally adept at pursuit and killing.

Let alone splitting up and running—today, even if these two grew wings, they were fated to be unable to escape death!

However, just then—

A ghostly gray figure shot soundlessly out of the shadows, accompanied by a loud shout:

"What wild brute dares cause trouble on the Turbulent Wave Gang's turf?!"

Hearing this, the two Golden Dragon Gang members felt as though they had heard heavenly music, and were overjoyed.

In the instant they escaped death, they squeezed out every last ounce of strength and plunged into the dark alleyways without looking back.

The gray figure paid them no mind. With a piercing howl that tore through the air, it charged straight at Gao Nian's face!

"Get lost!"

Startled and enraged, Gao Nian immediately met it with a heavy kick!

Fist and leg collided, blood and qi crashing together!

In the span of a breath, the two exchanged three moves!

Dull impacts of flesh against flesh echoed through the air, stirring up a ring of gale-force dust.

The gray figure abruptly spread both arms like wings, its body tracing a nimble arc through the air like a circling eagle spreading its wings before landing lightly and steadily.

Meanwhile, Gao Nian's foot plowed a footprint over an inch deep into the packed earthen road.

His chest rose and fell as he suppressed the churning blood and qi within him. Staring at the masked man as though facing a great enemy, he gritted his teeth and shouted:

"Who are you?"

"My father is Gao Fu of the Golden Dragon Gang. He entered Hidden Force years ago. Does Your Excellency truly intend to fight my Golden Dragon Gang to the death?!"

Though Gao Nian spoke fiercely, his heart had already grown exceptionally grave.

This man's blood and qi are thin, as though he has only just entered the Blood Tempering Realm, yet that strange method of exerting force lets him clash head-on with me, someone at Blood Tempering Great Accomplishment, without falling behind...

I cannot be careless!

The gray figure snorted coldly and deliberately said in a hoarse, rough voice:

"I stand by my name wherever I go, and I sit by it wherever I stay. I am Shen Erdao, second-in-command of the Turbulent Wave Gang! I'm here to beat the stuffing out of you Golden Dragon Gang trash!"

"You..."

Gao Nian nearly laughed from anger.

But before he could waste more breath, the gray figure had already crouched low.

Then, carrying incomparably fierce blood and qi, it charged at him close to the ground like a death god come to claim lives!

So fast!

Gao Nian's eyelid twitched as he twisted his body, pretending to flee for his life.

The instant the gray figure closed in, his left leg shot upward like a venomous dragon emerging from its lair, delivering a vicious backward kick without warning with the force of his twisting waist!

Twenty-Four Collapsing Mountain Legs · Returning Wind Leg

This move was sinister and vicious, specifically targeting vital points.

If an ordinary Blood Tempering martial artist were struck at such close range, they would either die or be crippled.

Yet the gray figure twisted and flashed strangely in midair, like a nimble swimming fish, gracefully evading it by the narrowest of margins!

"Movement technique!"

Gao Nian's eyes widened, and his scalp went numb.

Though he cried out in shock, the changes in his leg techniques did not slow in the slightest.

After missing with one strike, he smoothly raised his knee and sank his waist. His legs turned into a sky full of afterimages, unleashing waves of sharp whistles as they delivered a storm of chained kicks at the gray figure's face and chest!

Twenty-Four Collapsing Mountain Legs · Shadowless Leg

But the gray figure's body swayed left and right, rose and fell, never allowing Gao Nian to even brush the corner of its clothes!

Aside from that method of exerting force, this man also possesses a movement technique. No, I have to retreat!

Alarm bells blared in Gao Nian's heart.

With a loud roar, he thrust out his long leg like a great spear, hoping to force his opponent back half a step so he could seize the chance to escape.

Twenty-Four Collapsing Mountain Legs · Spear-Thrusting Leg

But unexpectedly, a sharp gleam suddenly burst from the eyes of the gray figure, which had been dodging all along!

Its right hand abruptly formed a claw, its fingertips drawing five streaks of gray light as they shot straight for Gao Nian's right leg!

Like a nine-heavens eagle tearing apart its prey alive.

The five fingers of that large hand hooked like talons, brutally plunging into the flesh of Gao Nian's thigh. Then, wrapped in violent blood and qi, they slashed viciously downward!

"Aaaah!!"

Gao Nian let out a miserable scream.

Five horrifying bloody gashes, deep enough to expose bone and with flesh turned outward, had been torn into his right leg. Blood sprayed from the wounds!

This is bad!

Gao Nian was horrified!

With his thigh badly injured, eighty percent of his strength was gone. Escaping would be difficult now!

Casting aside all concern for his dignity, Gao Nian decisively rasped out a plea:

"Your Excellency... no! Brother, spare my life! As long as you let me go, my Golden Dragon Gang will offer you one hundred taels of silver with both hands..."

But the gray figure gave him no chance at all. Its left hand became an afterimage as it shot straight for the vital point of Gao Nian's throat!

Gao Nian's expression changed wildly as he said quickly:

"Brother, spare my life!"

"I have a great opportunity to tell you about. In Longcloud County, there is a blessed..."

But the gray figure ignored him completely. The wind from its claw made Gao Nian's back go numb!

"You go too far!"

Gao Nian roared, pouring all the blood and qi in his body into his right fist. Roaring, he threw an upward punch at the gray figure's chest!

A dull thud rang out.

He had hit it!

Wild joy surged in Gao Nian's heart.

But in the next instant, the joy on his face froze, transforming into endless despair.

After taking his punch, the gray figure remained as motionless as an iron tower, completely unharmed!

The opponent had clearly only just entered the Blood Tempering Realm, yet his body was like that of a Bone Tempering Realm martial artist—indestructible!

A large hand like iron pincers ripped through the night wind and clamped around his neck!

Gao Nian's eyes bulged outward, blood spilling from his mouth. Feeling the hand around his throat tighten without end, he forced out three broken words:

"Body... tempering... art?"

Beneath the mask, Shen Xiuhan's expression remained indifferent.

He exerted force with one arm, slowly lifting Gao Nian over his head as though he were a chick.

Then, his right hand changed from claw to fist. Blood and qi surged toward his knuckles like a heavy hammer, smashing violently into Gao Nian's chest!

"Thud!"

Like striking a broken drum.

The residual shockwave of blood and qi that passed through his body exploded into a cloud of blood from Gao Nian's back!

Every rib in his chest shattered, and his heart was instantly crushed by the force.

The next moment, Gao Nian's body crumpled limply to the ground.

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