After filling his stomach again,
Su Xinghe began cultivating the secret art, the Listening to the Tides Art.
He also took the chance to restore the Qi-Blood power he had just expended.
This visualization secret art required the inner landscape of the Spirit Sea, so he could neither let the silver little man in his mind replace him nor activate a cheat-like method such as Dual Engines.
Three minutes later.
"Diligence Makes Up for Dullness, a hundred practices a day."
"Listening to the Tides Art, experience +1."
Just as he was buried in grinding the Listening to the Tides Art experience, a faint whistle of clothes cutting through the air came from the backyard.
Su Xinghe's brows drew together slightly.
He immediately spread out his spiritual perception to investigate.
He heard an exceptionally faint set of footsteps approaching from the row houses, then swiftly vaulting over the wall and leaving.
He raised a hand and snuffed out the candle.
Then he quickly draped himself in a black robe that concealed his tracks.
He leaped down from the street-facing window and followed those hurried footsteps as they receded into the distance.
There were no pedestrians on the streets late at night, only a full moon overhead spilling down a cold silver veil.
Under the hazy moonlight, a petite figure with twin ponytails swinging behind her was running madly ahead with her head lowered.
Her footsteps alternated between hurried and slow, and her silhouette flickered in and out of view.
Along the way, she avoided quite a few Public Security Office patrols.
Gradually, a strange expression appeared on Su Xinghe's face.
He had originally thought she was going after those two hooligans, but now he found her approaching a small courtyard somewhere in Firewood Alley.
"So fierce? She's even more impatient than I am!"
A guess formed in Su Xinghe's heart.
This newlywed younger sister-in-law of his usually did not seem like someone skilled in both letters and martial arts. Perhaps because she had only recently married into the family and was still somewhat unfamiliar with them, she did not speak much at home.
She helped his mother wash clothes and cook, and she could also manage the goods at the shop.
She rarely went out and had never brought anyone home.
She looked like the quiet, well-behaved sort.
After secretly observing her for a while, he had gradually let down his guard.
But now that he saw this,
she was clearly someone who hated evil as though it were a personal enemy and never left revenge for another night.
Sure enough.
That petite silhouette appeared atop a wall, then flashed down into the courtyard.
Two crisp impacts of fists and kicks came from inside.
Still uneasy, Su Xinghe also appeared atop the wall.
A Sky-Patrolling Raven descended from the sky.
He followed it in looking into the courtyard.
Two gang members were already lying on the ground, while dull thuds of fists striking flesh came from the room on the west side.
Yet he could tell that his younger sister-in-law's martial cultivation was quite good. Not once did anyone in that room cry out a warning.
After breaking through to become a martial artist, Su Xinghe's eyesight and hearing had improved considerably. These sounds, crystal clear to his ears, might have required others to listen very carefully before noticing them.
The Black Tiger Gang had no martial artists, so there basically would not be any problems.
Reassured, he lowered his head and looked down.
The two men lying on the ground looked somewhat familiar. After thinking back briefly, he remembered.
They were the very Black Tiger Gang disciples who had appeared outside his home that evening.
Sure enough, retribution had come for them.
Su Xinghe greatly admired this sort of personality.
More than a dozen breaths later, the twin-tailed figure darted out of the room. After sweeping her gaze around, she charged into another room.
After the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the entire courtyard had fallen into dead silence. The twin-tailed figure carried a large bundle in her hand, vaulted over the courtyard wall, and returned the way she had come.
Su Xinghe did not follow her away. He remained quietly crouched on the roof.
Beside him was a half-foot-tall Sky-Patrolling Raven, blankly watching the scene below. Little White Bat in his arms was slightly uneasy, though far braver than before.
He was not worried either.
According to rumors, these ravens possessed little intelligence and only reacted to pedestrians who did not carry the aura of a Travel Pass Talisman.
It had probably seen the two of them running through the streets at night and flown over out of curiosity.
Ten breaths later, a figure slowly groped his way out of the courtyard.
Another ten breaths later, the man was lying on the ground again.
Only this time, he would never rise again.
The full moon slanted westward, and all sounds were still.
The raven on the roof had also vanished.
Su Xinghe stood in the courtyard, slowly sorting through the information he had just obtained.
Fierce Tiger Martial Hall had three Ninth-Rank Martial Warriors. They were the group that had come to cause trouble when the Martial Arts School opened last time.
Of the three Ninth-Rank Martial Warriors, one was at Bone Forging and two were at Body Tempering.
They also had more than a hundred inner and Outer Disciples.
This would be hard to handle...
But did that mean he could simply leave it alone because it was hard to handle?
Lin County was, after all, a place with rules.
Once tonight's incident came to light, Fierce Tiger Martial Hall would likely bring the Black Tiger Gang corpses and Public Security Office constables to the Su Family tomorrow.
Su Xinghe did not believe in coincidences that convenient.
The Black Tiger Gang did not trouble any other household, yet they had sent hooligans to provoke trouble at his family's shop.
They had clearly seen him wearing the Martial Arts School training uniform and knew that the White Ape Martial Academy was nearby, yet they still refused to fulfill their obligation to pay the "peace tax."
He was not some green youngster who understood nothing. Back when he was with the Great River Gang, what sort of situations had he not seen?
This was the Black Tiger Gang provoking them, openly bullying his family, and doing so with particularly clumsy methods.
Three Inner Tempering apprentices might have been enough to bully the Su Family. But behind him, an Outer Disciple, stood the White Ape Martial Academy. Who had given them the nerve to act like this?
He did not even need to use his brain to guess the truth.
There was only one answer: their backer, Fierce Tiger Martial Hall.
At that thought, he felt the urge to go complain to Elder Xie, but he immediately suppressed it.
How would he explain a room full of corpses?
Though he had not killed them.
Still, his younger sister-in-law's hidden identity seemed far from simple.
She was clearly only around twenty, yet judging from her movements, she was already a Grade Martial Artist. Those two Inner Tempering apprentices inside were no pushovers; from the sounds, their punches carried around five hundred pounds of force.
Oh, right.
There was also one in the corner of the courtyard who had tried to run, only for Su Xinghe to crush his skull beneath one foot.
He walked over to that unlucky fellow and fished an exquisite embroidered purse from his robes.
Shaking it open, he found three to five taels of broken silver and five or six copper coins.
An old skill should not be abandoned.
Equipment drop. The trip had not been for nothing.
Smiling, he tucked it into his robes.
His figure shot high into the air and raced toward the northern side of Narcissus Street.
Since he was already here, he might as well play Head-Chopping Bandit for a night.
Su Xinghe considered his martial talent decent, and he also had the cheat of his destiny trait at his side. As long as he worked hard enough in ordinary times, he could soar into the sky in a single bound.
But if someone wanted to offer him resources, he naturally would not miss the opportunity. And this Fierce Tiger Martial Hall before him was precisely the big sucker in his mind, here to deliver money and pills.
As the saying went, poverty at home was no obstacle; take up a blade and earn it yourself.
Clear Lotus Pond in the western part of the city was a small dock along Central River.
Beyond it lay the Clearwater River outside the city, and it was specifically used to transport daily necessities to the vicinity of Tongzi Ward.
With tens of thousands of people in the western city eating, drinking, shitting, and pissing, the consumption was enormous beyond measure.
So even deep into the night, carts and horses still flowed endlessly, and human voices rose in a roaring din.
Beside the Clear Lotus Pond dock stood a Fang Yuan artificial hill spanning several dozen meters. It had been formed from silt piled up during the excavation of the river channel and pond and the construction of the dock.
It could be called a gathering of mountain and water, tranquil amid the bustle.
Such scenery was naturally not something ordinary people could possess.
Unfortunately, this was the western city, with Tongzi Ward right beside it. The rich disdained to come, the poor could not climb high enough, shops would stand idle, and the ground was unsuitable for building towers.
In the end, the half near Central River became property of the dock's Fishermen's Gang. The other half was purchased by Fierce Tiger Martial Hall as a backyard training ground.
Only some pavilions and towers had been built atop it,
for leisure and entertainment.
Tonight, Qi Haifeng, the Fishermen's Gang steward stationed at the Clear Lotus Pond dock, was hosting a banquet in the Moon-Gazing Pavilion atop the artificial hill.
Accompanying him was a Lu Family steward from outside the city, while the guest was their neighboring Descending Mountain Tiger, Lü Chenggong.
One was powerful and high-ranking, one managed a second-rate gang, and one was the master of a third-rate Martial Arts School. Naturally, they were not chatting about household trifles.
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