Cutting Down Rivals!

"The Evil Tiger Gang is gone! Someone slaughtered every last one of them last night!"

Zhang Fang was still shaken, her face full of fear. She lowered her voice. "I heard blood ran all through the streets. There were severed hands and feet, and guts too. Just seeing it would give you nightmares!"

"The worst off were the families living near the Evil Tiger Gang. Maybe so many people died yesterday that they attracted Mist Monsters, or maybe those families got caught up in it last night. Either way, a dozen or so people from several households died right in their homes! What a terrible thing!"

Zhang Fang shook her head again and again, her voice full of sorrow and lingering fear.

Thank goodness they lived some distance from the Evil Tiger Gang. Otherwise...

Zhou Chen frowned slightly.

Wang Ming of the Evil Tiger Gang had been skilled at getting along with all sorts of people. He rarely offended anyone and maintained good relations with wealthy families. How had his entire gang been wiped out overnight?

Who had done it?

Zhou Yu had also been ordered to stay home today.

By the time they finished breakfast, a commotion had risen in the street. A dozen or so people in blue, with blue cloth strips wrapped around their arms, came down the street beating copper gongs. The clanging drew people out of every house.

The man at their head shouted as he walked, "The Evil Tiger Gang preyed on its neighbors and oppressed the people. City Lord Tian saw through their crimes and ordered us to wipe them out overnight, ridding the people of this scourge! Let everyone know—"

"So the new city lord did it! Now that's a good deed!"

"Exactly! The Evil Tiger Gang took so much money from us. They finally got what was coming to them! No more monthly payments!"

"City Lord Tian is a good official! Far better than the old city lord!"

Praise rose in waves through the crowd. Someone even clasped his hands toward the city lord's residence on the spot.

The gangs had oppressed them for who knew how long. Now someone had suddenly avenged them. Compared with the old city lord, who had held his post while doing nothing, the new lord's thunderous methods seemed all the more precious, and the people felt all the more grateful to him.

What a fine way to win people over.

Zhou Chen watched people cheering along the street. Ordinary folk would never notice all the twists behind this. They would only think life was about to get easier.

Before long, someone posted a notice.

It ran to more than a thousand words. A literate man stood beside it, reading it aloud word by word to the onlookers.

In essence, it said the new city lord had taken office determined to purge the city of every gang that oppressed the people and restore clear skies to the Outer City.

The crowd nodded along as they listened. Some even applauded.

Zhou Chen, passing by with a bundle on his back, stood at the rear and listened through it once.

How was this cleaning up the gangs? He was plainly using "ridding the people of a scourge" as a pretext to cut down his rivals with righteousness on his side.

Most of the prominent families and wealthy households friendly with the Evil Tiger Gang belonged to the Four-Family Alliance's faction. Destroying the gang sent a message to the alliance and to those still watching from the sidelines: those who followed him would prosper; those who defied him would perish.

It was a pity the Clear River Gang had not been the one wiped out. That would have saved him a lot of trouble.

Then Zhou Chen thought about how the Outer City was growing more chaotic by the day. Sooner or later, the Four-Family Alliance and the new city lord would come to blows, and his family's home stood right on the outermost edge.

Whether either side struck first, or the Heaven-Breaking Sect attacked from outside later, his family would bear the brunt and be the first to suffer.

He was not afraid for himself. If he could not win, he could run. But his parents and younger sister could not.

We have to move!

Ideally, somewhere right beside the Inner City!

The closer to the Inner City, the safer it would be.

But houses in that area started at a hundred taels of silver, at the very least.

Their current house probably would not fetch more than a few taels. With everything going on, property prices had reportedly fallen further, while many people were scrambling to buy homes near the Inner City.

Well, I'll have to save up bit by bit.

Zhou Chen sighed inwardly and turned toward the city gate.

The gate opened once every morning. He could not miss it.

At the gate, he took out his Night Guard Token and handed it over. The Martial Warrior guarding the gate examined it carefully, then nodded once he had confirmed it was genuine. "Wait a moment."

Before long, several more Martial Warriors arrived. Including Zhou Chen, there were about seven or eight of them.

The gate guard counted them, then jerked his chin at the men behind him.

Several guards worked the winch. Thick iron chains rattled, and the heavy gate slowly opened a crack, just wide enough for one person to squeeze through sideways.

"Remember, you must return before the gate closes this afternoon." The gate guard raised his voice, repeating the rules to those about to leave. "Once it closes, it won't open again until tomorrow. If you miss it and spend the night outside, you're on your own."

Zhou Chen and the others nodded. Then he followed them, turning sideways to squeeze through the gap.

Wind rushed into his face outside, carrying a smell utterly unlike anything within the city: a heavy, faintly bloody tang.

He narrowed his eyes and looked ahead. A footpath worn by countless steps led straight to a black forest beneath distant mountains. Beyond it, black mist spread among the peaks, hiding everything from view.

Only the golden sun, like an eye, hung high in the sky. Looking closely, he thought he saw folds forming around the light it cast.

But when he looked harder, they vanished as though they had been an illusion. Nothing remained but thick black mist.

Zhou Chen blinked.

The other Martial Warriors squeezed out behind him one after another. Some wore steady expressions, clearly veterans;

Others were about his age, their faces betraying curiosity and nerves. They gripped their short blades tightly as they spoke to one another in excited whispers.

Zhou Chen followed the group to the edge of Black Flesh Forest. There, everyone exchanged wary glances, lit their lanterns, and scattered without a word.

Outside Black City, people who stumbled upon a lucky find often stabbed one another in the back.

Unless they knew someone well, they would not rashly form a team.

Zhou Chen carried his lantern through Black Flesh Forest, studying the strangely shaped trees. They had no leaves, only bare branches, and truly looked like fleshy spikes growing from the ground. He stepped forward and snapped off a branch. Blood actually seeped from the break, which wriggled faintly. It was deeply unsettling.

"Is this a plant or an animal?"

Zhou Chen squeezed the branch. It was soft and a little springy, but he still could not tell what it was, so he tossed it aside.

Then he blew out his lantern. The moment its light died, faint Black Mist closed around him. A sharp gleam flashed through Zhou Chen's eyes. He wanted to see whether he could accumulate Mist Incense faster outside the city.