Hurry, Let's Report This to the Authorities

"Let you go?"

A smile appeared on Feng Chen's face.

The mask covered most of his face, leaving only a pair of slightly curved eyes exposed, yet it made the two men on the ground feel a chill seeping out through the cracks in their bones.

He stepped forward and looked at Wang Tianping and Wang Tianfan. "Tell me: what is the cultivation of the strongest person in your Wang Clan Martial Hall, and how many experts do you have? Tell me truthfully, and for the sake of the force behind you, I might consider letting you go."

Wang Tianping and Wang Tianfan exchanged a glance.

There was no color left in their faces. The searing pain from their severed wrists made their lips tremble uncontrollably, but at those words, a glimmer of hope for survival lit up in their fading eyes.

They nodded again and again, as though they had seized a lifeline.

"Alright, no problem. We'll talk, we'll talk."

Wang Tianping used all his strength to prop himself up, panting heavily as he said urgently, "The strongest Martial Artist in our Wang Clan Martial Hall is a supreme expert at Body Tempering, Fourth Heaven."

"Body Tempering, Fourth Heaven is already at the very pinnacle of all Green Mountain Town. The leaders of the various gangs and factions in town are more or less at that realm."

"The Black Tiger Gang's leader and the Zhao Clan Martial Academy's master are both at Body Tempering, Fourth Heaven. Our hall master—my eldest uncle—is also at Body Tempering, Fourth Heaven!"

After catching his breath, he hurriedly continued, afraid Feng Chen would change his mind if he spoke too slowly. "And my father, my father is a great expert at Body Tempering, Third Heaven. He is second only to the hall master in the martial hall, and even in town, he is someone who walks sideways."

"Senior, let us go. Really, if you let us go, you'll avoid a great deal of trouble. If you kill us, my father will definitely investigate this to the bitter end. Within a hundred miles of Green Mountain Town, you won't be able to hide."

"But as long as you let us go, we won't say a single word when we return to town. We'll treat tonight as though it never happened."

Beside him, Wang Tianfan nodded desperately as well, his voice broken and intermittent. "That's right, that's right. My uncle is also an expert at Body Tempering, Third Heaven. Senior, the force behind us runs deep, and our family is powerful. You truly aren't someone who can afford to provoke us. Let us go, and this debt will be wiped clean with one stroke."

"The strongest is at Body Tempering, Fourth Heaven, and your fathers are at Body Tempering, Third Heaven..."

Feng Chen repeated the words thoughtfully. Tilting his head slightly, he seemed to be weighing things seriously. "Then it seems your backgrounds do run deep, and your families are indeed powerful. You truly aren't easy to provoke."

A smile appeared on Wang Tianping's ashen face.

Amid the blood and cold sweat covering his face, that smile looked especially twisted, but it was indeed the smile of someone who had survived a calamity.

He desperately tried to sit up, bracing himself with his severed wrist, and repeatedly said, "Senior, it's good that you understand. Don't worry, I, Wang Tianping, swear to heaven that no third person will ever know about tonight—"

Before he could finish.

Feng Chen spoke!

"But if I let you go, you'll definitely still come looking for trouble with me. So it's better to kill you."

As the words fell, the long blade in his hand came down without the slightest pause.

He had never intended to spare the two of them.

The only reason he had asked those questions was to find out, before acting, what kind of force stood behind them, what experts they had, and how deeply they were connected.

Now that he had finished asking, he knew everything he needed to know. The Wang Clan Martial Hall's strongest expert was at Body Tempering, Fourth Heaven, while the two men's fathers were at Body Tempering, Third Heaven.

This information would prove useful in the days ahead.

Two swift slashes, clean and decisive.

Wang Tianping and Wang Tianfan did not even have time to let out their final screams before their heads were severed. Like Liu Teng's before them, they rolled twice across the ground before each stopping at the edge of a pool of blood.

The shock and disbelief from that final instant still lingered on both faces!

He had clearly agreed to let them go, so why had he suddenly attacked again?

Wang Tianping's eyes stared fixedly in Feng Chen's direction, his mouth slightly open as though he wanted to say something in his final moment. His lips twitched twice before freezing completely.

The expression frozen on his face was a mix of resentment, unwillingness, and the fury of being deceived. Whatever it was, it had been forever fixed in those pupils that were gradually losing their light.

Feng Chen looked over the three headless corpses and the bloody ground, shook the blood from his long blade, then crouched and swiftly searched the three bodies.

He was already thoroughly practiced at it. In just a few motions, he searched all three from head to toe.

After feeling around, he found roughly fifty taels of silver in total.

Liu Teng had carried twenty taels, while the remaining thirty were all on the two Wang Family brothers!

As direct descendants of a martial hall, they naturally carried far more silver when going out than ordinary Martial Artists.

He also found a fist technique manual tucked inside the robes of Wang Tianfan and Wang Tianping, one book each.

The two books were identical. Their covers were made of durable kraft paper, and several inked words were written neatly upon them: Great King Fist.

Feng Chen held one and flipped through several pages. It contained both illustrations and text. Its moves were broad and forceful, its fist intent domineering and fierce. It should have been an orthodox fist technique taught internally by the Wang Clan Martial Hall, completely unlike the incomplete manuals he had bought from the little bookstore before.

Judging from the table of contents on the title page, this fist technique could be cultivated alongside a body-tempering method all the way to Body Tempering, Third Heaven. It was also a foundational technique for the early stages of the Body Tempering Realm. It was not particularly profound, but it was a decent supplement for him right now.

Feng Chen stored both manuals in his Spatial Ring. After carefully checking the three men once more and confirming they had no valuables left on them, he stood up. Without sparing the corpses another glance, he turned and quickly left the room.

Liu Dagang's residence had already been searched earlier. The banknotes and loose silver hidden at the bottom of his chest had long since gone into Feng Chen's pocket. There was nothing left in the residence now, only corpse after corpse waiting to be collected.

Following the route he had taken in, he climbed over the side wall and left without alerting the Liu Clan members still keeping watch in the courtyard.

The moonlight remained bright. White mourning banners drifted lonely in the night wind, while the ashes of burned paper money had piled into a small mound in the brazier.

After leaving Liu Dagang's courtyard, he took a few steps into the little path shrouded in darkness and headed toward his own home.

Only after quite some time did the Liu Clan members in the courtyard dare to slowly feel their way toward the rear room.

In truth, they had heard the commotion earlier!

The clash of blades, the huge crash of the door being shattered, and those few dying wails.

Those living in the rear side rooms had heard it all clearly, yet no one dared enter.

Though everyone present were farmers, they were not fools. If Young Master Liu Teng and the two young masters of the Wang Family could keep the situation under control, they would come out themselves and would not need anyone's help;

If they could not keep it under control, then anyone else coming in would be useless. Going inside would only mean delivering themselves to death.

The only thing they could do was wait quietly outside!

Wait for Liu Teng and the others to come out, or wait until it was over before going in.

But after waiting this long, there was no movement at all inside.

There was no Liu Teng cursing, no Wang Family young masters shouting, and even the sound of footsteps had vanished. Only the night wind passed through the shattered wooden door, producing a low, mournful howl.

Liu Ma and the other Liu Clan members vaguely felt that something was wrong. The feeling was like a basin of icy water dumped over their heads, chilling them all the way down their spines to their heels.

Liu Ma swallowed and gathered his courage as he felt his way toward the rear room.

He cautiously poked his head inside first. At a single glance, his entire body froze in place as though struck by lightning.

The room was covered in blood. The walls, the bedframe, the floor—everywhere was covered in large patches of dark-red blood. The thick stench of blood nearly made him stagger back a step.

Liu Teng lay beside the bed, his head separated from his body, his eyes still open.

Wang Tianping and Wang Tianfan lay near the doorway, their heads likewise separated from their bodies. Their four severed hands were scattered beside them, and the blood on the floor had already congealed into a sticky mass.

"They're dead... they're all dead..."

One Liu Clan member behind Liu Ma went weak in the legs and collapsed straight to the ground, his eyes wider than bronze bells!

Pointing at the three headless corpses inside, his voice rose into a shrill crack. "Quick, report this to the authorities! Let's report this to the authorities!"