Surrounded on All Sides, Ninth-Rank Killing Intent

Seeing this, Su Xinghe instantly understood that the other side had accomplices.

The Brokerage Guild was probably their main target tonight. These ordinary gang members guarding the warehouse had merely been unlucky souls caught in the crossfire.

Then who were the enemy?

The lack of firearms meant it was not the county yamen.

The Lu Family could be ruled out as well.

If it had been either of those two, they would not have needed a sneak attack to deal with a minor force like theirs.

That left only other gangs.

He thought of the Qian Family Trading Company from some time ago.

One chance in ten was not the same as certain death.

He still had a way out. He needed to escape this place of trouble as quickly as possible.

He could not go to the Brokerage Guild backyard.

In his haste,

Su Xinghe pushed off the ground with his toes and swept sideways, preparing to change his direction of escape.

But that brief pause immediately closed the distance between them. As the biting wind and cold gleam descended, he could even smell the faint rusty tang carried by the sword tip at the end of his nose.

In his desperation, he could only raise a hand and flip up the long table beside him as a shield.

At that moment, Su Xinghe cursed the Lu Family's damned rules countless times in his heart.

A man like him, who walked the underworld, was actually forbidden from carrying a weapon within the city.

Otherwise, how could he have ended up in such a miserable state?

"Crash~"

The cold gleam struck the long table Su Xinghe had flung up. The sharp sword tip pierced through the tabletop as easily as cutting tofu.

There was no explosion of inner force or true qi, nor did wood splinters fly everywhere.

Su Xinghe secretly counted himself lucky.

His opponent was not a Dark Force expert, at most a Bright Force Martial Warrior who had tempered her skin, flesh, and bones.

A ninth-rank Bright Force martial artist possessed the strength of a thousand jin, with skin like oxhide that blades could scarcely harm. But without the explosive inner force of an eighth-rank martial artist, his hope of escape grew a little greater.

The ponytailed girl wore a cold expression, frost filling the space beneath her long eyelashes.

Her high leather boot whipped up in an instant, viciously kicking the obstructing long table before her. Her ponytail fluttered as she lightly leaped over the obstacle beneath her feet.

In midair, her longsword swung again, shooting straight toward the back of Su Xinghe's neck.

What greeted her was a handful of quicklime mixed with chili powder.

Suspended in the air with nowhere to borrow force from, the ponytailed girl's icy, pretty face instantly turned into that of a great tabby cat.

Sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy sensations immediately surged up all at once.

Snot and tears streamed down uncontrollably.

Qingmei had been born into nobility. Though she was a maid, the people she usually encountered were all high-ranking and refined gentlemen. When had she ever seen such a despicable trick?

She hurriedly covered her nose and mouth, the sword in her hand dancing into an afterimage.

Su Xinghe knew that, with his current Internal Strengthening cultivation, he could not injure a ninth-rank body-tempering martial artist with nothing but his fists unless he had a sharp weapon. Even if she was merely a lower ninth-rank still tempering her skin and flesh, he was no match for her.

He could only bring out the "concealed weapons" he carried with him to delay her pursuit.

And there was more than one shot.

He grabbed one with every step, covering three steps in two.

Under the agitation of her Sword Qi and fierce wind, half the hall began to rain chili-lime powder.

Sure enough, the shriek of the sword tearing through the air behind him was no longer like thorns pressed against his back.

With just one more breath, the main doors would be within reach.

Just as he swept past Liuzi, who was still unconscious and snoring, he saw shadows moving outside the window and flashes of blades.

Su Xinghe's heart sank. These people had actually split their forces and laid an ambush in the back alley.

Though they were most likely not martial artists, he was only at Internal Strengthening and could not withstand an assault from so many people. If they delayed him, killing a few of them would not be worth it.

Lowering himself beside the window, Su Xinghe casually yanked Liuzi off the stool.

"Wake up!"

Six would never wake again.

There was a bottomless gash across his neck. His blood had long since drained away, leaving only a horrifying crimson hole.

This unlucky young man had likely been the first to die.

Leaving the corpse behind, Su Xinghe swiftly recalled the layout of the alleys outside the warehouse.

The back alley exit was no longer an option. His gaze swept toward the room beside the minor leader's quarters. It was a small storage room for weapons, perhaps his final path to survival.

After all, the Brokerage Guild had Martial Warriors too. Even the old gang leader was a Dark Force expert. So long as he stalled for a while, Martial Warriors from the county yamen and the Lu Family would arrive.

After confirming the direction and distance, he scattered several more handfuls of chili-lime powder. Then he held his breath, shut his eyes, turned around, and charged back into the mist.

What greeted him was a bench whistling through the air.

Qingmei had already cleaned her eyes by then. Though she did not dare rashly rush into the poisonous fog, her attacks had not stopped.

"What thief dares launch a night raid on our Old Soldiers Broker's Office!"

An aged roar resounded through the night sky.

"It's the old gang leader!"

Su Xinghe took a blow from the bench and was knocked into the unconscious crowd. Hearing this, he could not help but relax.

In truth, less than three breaths had passed since he shouted his warning.

"We're saved!"

"Cough! Cough cough..."

The sound came from behind him. It was a Great River Gang disciple who had been unconscious just moments ago. Perhaps stimulated by the chili powder Su Xinghe had scattered, he suddenly woke up.

"Cough cough..."

"Cough cough cough!"

"Which son of a bitch is messing with me? Just wait... Ah!"

Coughs rang out one after another throughout the warehouse hall, accompanied by painful cries.

"Enemy attack! Get up and fight!"

At this point, Su Xinghe could no longer care about exposing his position.

He hid beneath a table, moving toward the weapon storage room while calling out to remind the disciples who had already awakened.

Qingmei realized that benches could not hurt this hateful fellow, so she raised her voice and shouted as well:

"Stop guarding outside! Get in here and kill them!"

Still dissatisfied, she added another line.

"Leave no one alive!"

Originally, with her status, she did not need to take part in this encirclement. She merely needed to direct things from the rear.

But to ensure nothing went wrong, after learning that the warehouse contained only a group of ordinary people, she had taken it upon herself to oversee the scene and seal off the Brokerage Guild's retreat.

As for drugging ordinary people, that had been to coordinate with the Eighth Rank ambush in the front courtyard.

One had to know that the century-old Brokerage Guild had more than one Eighth Rank martial artist.

Moreover, there was the Martial Affairs Bureau within the city, along with all the major powers.

What could originally have been completed in secret now had to become a frontal assault.

Heavy, dense footsteps immediately sounded outside the back alley.

Hiding in the darkness, Su Xinghe instead quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

Clearly, everyone outside listened to this ponytailed girl.

That meant there was only one Martial Warrior on the other side in the backyard. As long as he got hold of a spear, he still had a way to live.

Hearing such a commotion, the Great River Gang disciples in the warehouse instantly sobered up as well.

This was no dream. Their home had been raided!

There had been more than a dozen people drinking and playing cards at the base tonight. Together with those originally on guard, there were over twenty in all.

After being awakened by the chili powder, these people ran about in panic through the dust-filled hall like headless flies.

The cleverer ones had already quietly felt their way toward the entrance of the weapon storage room.

Seeing this, Su Xinghe inwardly thought, An opportunity.

With a flash, he was about to rush over with them when a familiar cold gleam suddenly appeared before his eyes.

"Fuck!"

"With so many people here, why do you keep targeting me?!"

In his haste, he could only dodge aside and crash into the resting room of a minor leader.

Sure enough,

The moment he entered, he saw the minor leader Li Tieban lying on the bed, along with the three-foot steel saber hanging at the head of the bed.

Only this time, Li Tieban's life had not been tough enough.

He had not gone very peacefully, his eyes still wide in death.

Bang!

Before the door behind him could be fully shut, it shattered and collapsed beneath tremendous force.

Sword Qi howled through the dust, charging straight for Su Xinghe's back.

He hurriedly leaped, landing atop Li Tieban's bed.

With the saber in hand, he swung it backhandedly in a slashing block.

Clang~

The blade edge collided with the sword's spine, sparks scattering beneath the tremendous force.

Fortunately, after smashing through the hall door and reaching the bedside, her sword momentum had already run its course. Taking her at ease while she was spent, he only barely managed to block it.

But what he blocked was merely the sharp edge of the sword tip.

A massive impact was still wrapped within it.

As the sword edge skimmed past his shoulder and sliced through the air,

Su Xinghe felt an incomparably immense force travel from the saber hilt through his arm and into his shoulder.

His entire body was flung away by that tremendous force, crashing heavily into the wall behind him.

So strong!

This was Su Xinghe's first head-on clash with a ranked martial artist.

She truly deserved to be a ninth-rank martial artist. Her strength was absolutely more than twice his.

Under normal circumstances, he would certainly have avoided her. But since his retreat had already been cut off, he could only fight to the death.

And the confidence behind this desperate fight came from the long list of proficient Jianghu martial arts on his Fate Panel, as well as the qi-blood flame he had only condensed last night.

The instant he was sent flying, he had already planned his next move.

As he flew backward, Su Xinghe curled his body into a ball to dissipate the force.

Because the wall behind him was not the load-bearing brick wall facing the back alley, but a wooden partition separating this room from the small weapon storage room next door.