Three-Star Mission

In the basement of Star Tower's stronghold, oil lamps cast a dim yellow glow across the four walls.

Cheng Yang sat before an old wooden table polished bright with wear. A stack of case files lay spread before him, and his fingers traced line by line as he flipped from one-star to three-star, then back from three-star to one-star.

He had been sitting there for nearly half an hour. His tea had been refilled twice, and he had gone through more than half the files before his finger stopped on a certain line.

This mission again.

[Three-Star Mission: Assassinate Wei He]

He stared at those four words for two breaths, tapped the edge of the file with his fingertip, then turned the page.

Wei He was indeed badly injured and bedridden now. It was indeed the perfect time to strike.

There was indeed bad blood between them. As for personal grudges, Cheng Yang could not say he felt much sympathy for him.

But Qinglin County's situation was now like a deep pool stirred into murk. If anything happened, they would still need that tall man to hold things up.

Cheng Yang continued flipping through the files, his fingers skimming rapidly over the pages as his eyes swept line after line. What he wanted was an assassination mission involving the Four-Ping Gang.

Even a single name would do—a incense master, or even a core member. He could both weaken the Four-Ping Gang's manpower and earn a batch of points from Star Tower for free.

Killing two birds with one arrow.

After all, Cheng Yang believed the Four-Ping Gang was most likely the mastermind behind the Big-Ears Gang incident.

First, the Four-Ping Gang had appeared from nowhere. In only one year, it had become Qinglin County's largest gang. There was no need to think hard to know that the Four-Ping Gang had to be backed by something.

And that backing might well have been what gave the Four-Ping Gang the confidence to make a move against Wei He...

Moreover, during this bandit-suppression campaign, Wei He had also intended to put himself in danger to lure out the Four-Ping Gang. But clearly, he had been too confident and capsized in the gutter.

Those were all merely Cheng Yang's guesses.

He had no evidence.

Nor did he need any.

The Four-Ping Gang had already been marked down in his heart as an enemy.

Just fucking do it.

He was not some proper army. He did not need evidence to get things done.

After searching through the mission list for ages, Cheng Yang still failed to find a single assassination mission concerning the Four-Ping Gang...

Well... his plan to kill two birds with one arrow had come to nothing.

Since he could not find a mission, he did not lose heart.

Closing the file, he spoke to Old Zhou, who was working an abacus behind the counter. "Old Zhou, does our Star Tower have any intelligence on the Four-Ping Gang? Anything will do."

Old Zhou raised his eyes at him. The abacus beads paused between his fingers as he said slowly, "The Four-Ping Gang's origins are mysterious. The people in our tower are investigating as well. For now, we have nothing worth showing."

"No intelligence... then surely you have informants?"

Old Zhou's gaze lingered on Cheng Yang's face for a moment. The corner of his mouth curled with meaning. "Of course we have informants. But the previous owner of the token in your hand, Night Ghoul, had climbed rather high within the Four-Ping Gang."

Cheng Yang's fingers paused.

He lowered his head and looked at the iron token at his waist, engraved with the words "Night Ghoul," then raised his eyes toward Old Zhou again.

His Third Senior Brother, Yang Zheng—the man he had personally beheaded—had not merely been a hall master of the Four-Ping Gang and a Bronze Badge Assassin of Star Tower.

He had possessed another identity as well. He had been Star Tower's planted eye within the Four-Ping Gang.

And Cheng Yang had pulled that eye out by the roots.

The corner of his mouth twitched. For a moment, he did not know whether he ought to feel guilty or laugh bitterly.

That night, when he killed Yang Zheng, he had done so cleanly and decisively, leaving behind not the slightest future trouble.

And now, fine. The future trouble was gone, but he had also severed his own source of intelligence with a single stroke.

"...Fine." Cheng Yang reopened the file. "Then I won't count on it."

Since he could not find a mission involving the Four-Ping Gang, he no longer clung to the matter.

He could not waste Star Tower as a channel. Points or silver, he would fleece whatever he could. When he flipped to the third stack of files, his finger stopped once more.

[Three-Star Mission: Assassinate Gu Family's Young Master Gu Shaojiu]

[Mission Requirement: Kill him directly without fail, and bring back his head.]

[Mission Reward: Two thousand taels of silver or one thousand points.]

Cheng Yang's gaze lingered on the three characters of Gu Shaojiu for a long time.

He would never forget that name.

The man who had bought Xiaoxue from Magpie Jade House and caused Xiaoxue's death.

Back then, at the Gu Residence, he had been insignificant and powerless. He could do nothing to him.

But things were different now.

The foundation of the Four-Gate Perfection Stance Art supported his body, his Silver Bone had been stabilized, and tomorrow he could break through into Gold Bone.

A wastrel young master of the Gu Family—killing him would be as easy as turning his hand over. The only real difficulty was how to kill someone within the Gu Residence and then retreat unscathed.

A Force Tempering Martial Master was stationed in the Gu Residence. With his current strength, he might not be able to come and go freely in such a place. But tomorrow might be different.

Once Gold Bone was his, he might be able to clash head-on with a Force Tempering Martial Master. Even if he did not confront one directly, killing someone in the Gu Family and escaping would not be entirely impossible. The mission deadline was one month; he was in no hurry to act today.

"I'll take this one." He pushed the file toward Old Zhou.

Old Zhou picked it up and glanced over it. He did not ask further questions, merely making an entry in the ledger. "Three-Star Mission: Assassinate Gu Shaojiu. Deadline: one month. Confirm acceptance."

"Confirmed." Cheng Yang rose to his feet, gathered the files and returned them to their places. When he reached the door, he paused for half a step.

The night wind poured through the crack in the door, carrying the chill of late autumn and stirring the loose strands of hair before his forehead.

He did not turn back. He only left behind a neither loud nor soft sentence drifting in the air. "Gu Shaojiu... if you want to blame someone, blame yourself for provoking too many people... You could have lived a few more days."

The door closed behind him.

The night was thick, and the streets and alleys lay empty.

Cheng Yang walked along the bluestone road.

Though he had not accepted an assassination mission involving the Four-Ping Gang.

That did not mean he intended to let the Four-Ping Gang's people off.

Cheng Yang entered the empty streets and lanes, his pace neither hurried nor slow. The scabbard of his long saber swayed lightly at his waist with every step, occasionally brushing his leg and making faint rustling sounds.

He turned into a narrower alley in the eastern part of the city. Someone lived there, and tonight, he planned to pay him a "visit."

Zhao Tiankuo.

A hall master of the Four-Ping Gang, and Huang Xuan's direct superior.

If the Four-Ping Gang truly was the hidden hand behind this beast tide, then a hall master of Zhao Tiankuo's rank could not possibly know nothing.

Even if he did not know the full picture, he surely knew something.

Killing him would both reduce the Four-Ping Gang's active strength and let Cheng Yang search his body for something useful. It was the best of both worlds.

Not to mention that this man had once threatened Cheng Yang to his face. Cheng Yang's memory was not poor, and that debt had yet to be settled.

Zhao Tiankuo's residence stood at the end of a narrow lane in the eastern city called Willow Leaf Lane.

As for the addresses of those who bore grudges against him, he generally investigated them in advance, so that he could prepare to come calling on some night.