As Long as I Get to See Rivers of Blood, Even Getting Caught in the Crossfire Is Worth It! (Please Keep Reading)

After the doctor who had helped fight the fire last night discovered the bodies in the Ghost Hand Apothecary, he went looking for help before dawn.

Sun Sheng, the apothecary's most capable manager, was dead. He could only find someone even more capable.

And it had to be one of their own—someone they could trust!

Fortunately, there were more than eighteen Ghost Hand Apothecaries, and Ghosthand himself owned every one of them. They were branches of the same tree.

Just after dawn, the doctor returned with help.

He had brought Zhao Situ, Ghosthand's first disciple!

Someone at the apothecary recognized him at a glance!

Gu Qingfeng, a rookie who knew nothing, merely thought Zhao Situ's center-parted hair—half white, half black—was striking.

As Ghosthand's first disciple, Zhao Situ naturally held the highest seniority among his disciples.

But the Ghosthand Lineage was not a loving family of fellow disciples. They competed with one another.

Those with greater talent, better-performing apothecaries, or a stronger knack for pleasing their master earned more favor.

For that reason, Zhao Situ and Sun Sheng had never been particularly close.

But now that Sun Sheng was dead, everything had changed.

However fiercely they competed as fellow disciples, that was their own affair. Now someone had killed one of theirs, slapping the Ghost Hand Apothecary—and the entire Ghosthand Lineage—in the face!

So Zhao Situ arrived brimming with murderous intent.

Zhao Situ entered the apothecary, swept his gaze over the test subjects, and asked, "Did any of you see anyone suspicious last night?"

Gu Qingfeng stood there like an insignificant lackey and shook his head along with the rest.

"Useless!"

Zhao Situ was already seething. He wanted to kill a few test subjects to vent his anger, but then he remembered he would have to pay for them and held back.

Investigating the murders came first!

With his intellect, he would surely uncover the killer in no time!

Zhao Situ led his people into the shopfront where the murders had happened.

The four bodies still lay where they had fallen. No one had dared touch them.

Zhao Situ immediately began examining them, his "brilliant" mind racing.

"The murder weapon was a hand blade. Someone in our trade?"

He studied the hand-blade wounds on their necks and analyzed them carefully.

Then he noticed the body of his junior disciple, Sun Sheng.

Sun Sheng's right hand was clenched into a fist, as though he held something.

Zhao Situ hurriedly pried it open, but found nothing unusual.

The next instant, his pupils contracted sharply.

On the floor beneath that hand, he had spotted several strokes.

They formed an incomplete character: "Jiang."

His junior disciple must have spent his last strength writing that incomplete character before he died, concealing it beneath his sleeve.

It was the clue he had left behind!

"Jiang!"

"The Jiangzhong Sect!"

On the way here, Zhao Situ had asked the doctor whether the apothecary had recently made any enemies. Naturally, the doctor had mentioned its feud and blade contest with the Jiangzhong Sect. Zhao Situ felt he had uncovered the truth in a flash!

Damn, I'm brilliant!

No wonder Master often makes me eat medicinal dishes to nourish my brain. He wants me to focus on my strengths!

Once I, Zhao Situ, put my mind to it, there's nothing I can't figure out!

At that moment, Zhao Situ felt like a legendary detective had possessed him. He had seen through everything!

"Fuck your mother! You've gone too far!"

"I've been too busy to bother with you, and now the old dogs of the Jiangzhong Sect dare climb onto the Ghosthand Lineage's head and run wild!"

"Everyone, follow me! We'll kill every last one of them!"

The doctor who had sought help had told him that Jiang Zhongtang had once made a vicious threat: every one of Ghosthand's eighteen apothecaries would die out!

Now his junior disciple and three subordinates really had been killed. Zhao Situ resolved to repay tooth for tooth!

In an instant, Zhao Situ led his people streaming out.

Gu Qingfeng, the man behind it all, watched in stunned silence.

He had planted the clue to point suspicion elsewhere.

But this was his first time doing anything like it. He had no knack for it and had simply cobbled something together. The clue was crude.

Halfway through, he had even regretted not adding more details. That would have muddied the waters more effectively.

That was right: he had only meant to muddy the waters a little. He had never expected to actually shift the blame.

Who knew Zhao Situ would believe it???

If so, the Ghosthand first disciple's intelligence was frighteningly high!

Watching Zhao Situ march off with such murderous intent, anyone with half a brain knew a fight was coming!

A huge fight!

Plenty of people had already gathered to watch the excitement. The sharp-eyed spectators hurried after him, afraid all the good spots would be taken.

If the fight really sent blood flowing in rivers, then as long as they got a satisfying view, even getting caught in the crossfire would be worth it!

Gu Qingfeng hurried back into the apothecary to serve himself some rice.

The place had been in chaos all night. No one had noticed him take some meat and rice from inside and cook a pot of braised rice.

The apothecary provided lodging but no breakfast, so he had to help himself.

Bowl in hand, Gu Qingfeng hurried after them, eating as he went.

Other spectators munched snacks while they watched the show. He ate a meal!

They were spectators, and so was he, even if he was busy eating.

Only one street separated Jiang Zhongtang from the Ghost Hand Apothecary.

Jiang Zhongtang believed its business had slumped because the Ghost Hand Apothecary kept intercepting all the "newcomers" before they could reach them. It was targeting them, so relations between the two establishments were poor.

At that moment, Wang Shanshan, head of the Jiangzhong Sect's branch, was in the accounts office dealing with Elder Yuan from headquarters.

Elder Yuan had been sent by headquarters to audit the accounts!

News of the Ghost Hand Apothecary's fire last night had cheered Wang Shanshan for a while. The apothecary must have suffered heavy losses, and whether it could reopen anytime soon was another question.

But before he could savor that wonderful feeling for long, he had run into a headache.

Wang Shanshan might be pure as ice and jade, upright and incorruptible, but even he feared an audit.

As the saying went, there was no account that could not be balanced, and no account that did not fear scrutiny.

He was certain he was pure as ice and jade. At most, he had embezzled a little. An ordinary audit would find nothing wrong, but Elder Yuan might insist on digging deeper.

And Elder Yuan was precisely the sort of man who loved to dig deeper.

An audit had previously brought Elder Yuan down. Virtually exiled, he had become a marginal figure in the Jiangzhong Sect.

But who could have expected Sect Leader Jiang to come back to life? He had imitated Shennong by tasting every poisonous herb, poisoning himself to the brink of death. Rumor had it that even his organs had rotted. Yet he had recovered as though reborn, and his power had grown stronger still.

As Sect Leader Jiang's trusted confidant, Elder Yuan had made a forceful return!

Wang Shanshan, a fence-sitter, had not actually taken part in the power struggle between the two sect leaders and the nine elders.

As a doctor with a healer's heart, he had always looked down on that sort of dog-eat-dog nonsense!

Whenever he embezzled a little money, he only used it to buy children from traffickers for experiments to improve his medical skills.

He truly loved healing the sick!

But failure to take a firm side meant failure to show absolute loyalty.

This time, Elder Yuan had probably come to audit the accounts to settle scores with him, the Jiangzhong Sect's pure-as-ice-and-jade miracle doctor.

Wang Shanshan felt miserable. He was just about to explain the accounts in front of him when a tremendous commotion suddenly erupted outside.

"Murder!"

"Sha ri lang!"