"Careful!" The moment he thought this, Manager Liao shouted.
But before he could finish, a chilling flash of blade light streaked beneath the moon.
Though he had once been a residence guard, twenty years of scraping out a living had worn down his body. Manager Liao had the will but not the strength; he barely twisted aside by an inch. With a "pfft," the blade cleaved down from his shoulder, and Manager Liao, who had just risen, was cut off mid-sentence.
"Second Uncle!" Liao Ping had just emerged from the shop when he saw this. His eyes instantly reddened. "Kill them! Quickly, kill the thieves!"
The residence guards drew their blades one after another. The shop hands had once mixed in the underworld too, and all grabbed weapons. Their reactions were not slow, but the men who had come prepared shook their right arms in unison.
The objects they had been holding, wrapped in cloth sleeves, now flashed with cold light as their arms swept and jolted—long blades.
The man remained expressionless as he led his people in a furious charge.
"Kill!" Several sounds like cloth tearing rang out amid flashes of cold light. Every flicker was accompanied by a spray of blood.
"Ah!" Before they could even form ranks, the blades swept through them. Amid the occasional clang beneath the faint starlight and moonlight, a severed arm flew out, and Liao Ping screamed.
But his scream had barely left his throat when, with a "pfft," a long blade slanted into his waist, then suddenly withdrew, bringing up a fountain of blood. Liao Ping's eyes bulged wide. Blood choked off his scream as he toppled over.
In barely a minute, all seven or eight people present had fallen. The thick stench of blood instantly spread through the air, enough to