Revenge

So, that vicious woman had spent the previous night at her adulterer's house.

When she returned the next morning, she ran into Ye Ying.

Then a venomous plan sprang into her mind: use Ye Ying to trade for money.

Because she loved gambling and led a promiscuous private life, she had slept with quite a few members of the Gale Gang and knew the gang very well.

That was precisely why she knew who in the Gale Gang was looking for Ye Ying.

So after meeting her, she pretended to casually reveal that Zhao Tong was dead, putting Ye Ying at ease.

Then she fabricated another lie, saying something had happened at Ye Ying's home and that she had better go take a look herself.

Ye Ying believed her.

Thus, the moment she stepped into Green Bamboo Alley, Sun Yuan and his men, who had been waiting for a long time, seized her.

Sun Yuan was Zhao Tong's brother-in-law.

And for selling Ye Ying, that vicious woman received only one tael of silver; the other tael went toward repaying the gambling debt she owed Gale Casino.

After that, Chen Xun stopped wasting time and rushed toward Sun Yuan's residence.

Chen Xun had gotten the location from that vicious woman's mouth. She had slept with Sun Yuan several times, so naturally she knew where he lived.

"It's here."

Chen Xun stood outside a house, his gaze icy cold.

There were no lights or sounds inside the house.

Chen Xun snapped the lock with one twist and pushed the door open.

The instant he entered, Chen Xun caught the scent of blood.

After taking out a Fire Starter and lighting a candle from his Inventory Space, he saw the scene before him and his body suddenly froze.

A corpse lay on the floor.

Chen Xun found the clothes on the corpse extremely familiar.

He took a deep breath and slowly approached.

In the candlelight, a familiar, pallid face appeared before Chen Xun.

"Sister Ye!"

Chen Xun's voice was heavy with grief.

That was right. The corpse on the floor was Ye Ying.

He had never imagined that in merely a few days, they would be separated by the boundary between yin and yang.

Ye Ying's clothes were disheveled, and there was a hole in her forehead. A large pool of blood on the ground had flowed from there.

"I'm sorry. I came too late."

"But don't worry. I'll make the murderer who killed you accompany you to the grave very soon."

Standing before Ye Ying's corpse, Chen Xun swore solemnly, his eyes fierce.

At that moment, a string of footsteps sounded, rapidly drawing closer.

Chen Xun immediately became alert.

"You two, thank you. You helped me clean up the corpse in my house this time. Next time, I'll treat you to a drink."

"It's a small matter. Brother Sun Yuan, no need to be so polite."

The three carried lanterns as they talked and walked, soon arriving before Sun Yuan's house.

"So it's you, Sun Yuan. You came at just the right time."

Hearing their conversation, a glint of cold light flashed through Chen Xun's eyes.

"Th-this... where's my door lock? Why is the door open by itself?"

The thought had only just crossed Sun Yuan's mind.

When a violent figure charged out from his house.

Two sharp cracks rang out, and the heads of the two men beside him exploded instantly.

Sun Yuan himself was dragged into the room by a tremendous force, and the door slammed shut behind him.

"Y-you, who are you?"

Sun Yuan asked, trembling.

Chen Xun did not waste words on him. He pulled out a handful of silver needles and stabbed them consecutively into Acupoints all over Sun Yuan's body.

The next moment, Sun Yuan discovered that he could neither move nor speak.

By the candlelight nearby, Sun Yuan finally saw Chen Xun's face clearly, and his pupils contracted.

But he could not make even the slightest sound. Even if he wanted to beg for mercy, he could not.

After sealing Sun Yuan's voice and ability to move, Chen Xun began to torture him.

The torture was simple: cutting.

He began with Sun Yuan's right hand. First came the fingers, all five cut off one by one; then came the arm, sliced apart in several cuts.

And throughout the process, Chen Xun amplified his pain. By the time one arm had been cut apart, Sun Yuan had fainted from pain several times already.

"Tell me, how did Ye Ying die?"

Only then did Chen Xun release Sun Yuan's Mute Acupoint and begin questioning him.

"I didn't kill her. She smashed herself to death."

Sun Yuan replied in a hoarse voice, his eyes lifeless.

"Explain everything clearly."

Sun Yuan then told the whole story in detail.

It began with him bringing Ye Ying back after capturing her.

After catching Ye Ying, he took her straight to his home.

He had not wanted too many people to know about it, because he wanted to obtain that painting from Ye Ying. He had already made inquiries and learned that it was worth several hundred taels of silver. If he got it, he would be rich.

Unfortunately, Ye Ying's mouth was tightly sealed, and he had gotten no useful information at first.

In a fit of rage and humiliation, he looked at Ye Ying's pretty face and gave rise to lustful thoughts.

Unfortunately, Ye Ying resisted to the death. In the end, she found an opportunity to ram herself into the wall and kill herself.

After Ye Ying died, Sun Yuan's legs went weak from fright.

He sat there blankly for a long while. Only after night had fully fallen did he hurriedly close the door and seek someone to dispose of the corpse.

Afterward, he encountered Chen Xun.

Chen Xun fell silent for a long time after hearing this.

"Tell me the information on the people who originally wanted to bribe you."

He would kill Sun Yuan, and he would not let those people off either.

Everything had begun because of those people.

After obtaining the information he wanted, Chen Xun continued torturing Sun Yuan until the man was tortured to death alive.

"That was too easy for you."

Chen Xun washed the blood from his hands, carried Ye Ying's corpse on his back, and left.

Carrying the corpse, Chen Xun did not go far.

He placed the body in Ye Ying's home, then continued on his path of revenge for Ye Ying.

Based on the information Sun Yuan had provided, he found those chief culprits one by one.

From their mouths, Chen Xun learned that Ye Ying's late husband had also been murdered by men they arranged.

And that painting was even more valuable than Chen Xun had imagined.

According to one of them, the painting had been made by Recluse Qingshan, the Master Painter from a hundred years ago. It had been the last painting of his life, his final masterpiece, and its significance made it even more valuable.

Even the most ordinary painting left behind by Recluse Qingshan could now sell for more than a hundred taels of silver.

Not to mention such a final masterpiece; it could possibly sell for several thousand taels of silver.

That was why they had gone so mad over it.

In the end, Chen Xun killed them all, looted their possessions, and left.

While looting their belongings, Chen Xun unexpectedly discovered a rather useful item.

[Cloud-Seeking Hand Bronze Cauldron (Blue)]

[Attribute: Cloud-Seeking Hand cultivation bonus (Green)]

[Attribute: Cloud-Seeking Hand Major Accomplishment (Blue)]

[Attribute: Appraisal (Blue)]

[This is a bronze cauldron that ended the career of a famous thief]

Appraisal: Able to perceive an item's value.

The [Appraisal] attribute was quite a formidable ability in certain situations.

As for the martial art known as [Cloud-Seeking Hand], one look told him it was specifically used for stealing things.

Early the next morning, Chen Xun rented a carriage and left the city.

Outside the city was a Cemetery specifically used to bury the townspeople who had died.

Those without money to be buried in the Cemetery would be thrown by the authorities into the more distant Mass Grave, where wild beasts would gnaw on them.

There were people specially assigned to watch over the Cemetery. Chen Xun carried Ye Ying's corpse down from the carriage, avoided their gaze, and successfully slipped inside.

After searching for a long while, Chen Xun finally found the grave of Ye Ying's late husband.

"Sister Ye, I don't know how else to arrange your body, so I'll bury you together with your husband."

Chen Xun spoke to Ye Ying's corpse.

Then he took digging tools from his Inventory Space and began to bury the two together.

After Chen Xun left, the Cemetery's guards did not notice anything unusual.

"Brother, where's Sister Ye?"

Chen Qingqing looked behind Chen Xun and asked in disappointment.

Chen Xun did not tell his sister the truth. He silently stroked Chen Qingqing's head, then slowly said, "Sister Ye went back to her parents' home."

"Her father is seriously ill. He sent word for her to return."

Ye Ying had said that her parents' home was not in Cloudflow County, but in the neighboring county.

Traveling back and forth was extremely inconvenient, so although she had married into Cloudflow County several years ago, she had only returned twice.

"So that's what happened. I hope Sister Ye's father gets better soon."

Chen Qingqing believed it very easily.

She even clasped her hands together and prayed for Ye Ying's father.

Seeing this, Chen Xun could not help but sigh.

The next day, the corpses of Sun Yuan and the other two were discovered, immediately alarming the Gale Gang.

"Who did this? Who dares run wild on Gale Gang territory? Search! Find that person for me!"

The Gale Gang's leader roared.

But no matter how they searched, they could not find a trace of the killer, and the matter gradually fell by the wayside.

Then there was the corpse of that vicious woman in Green Bamboo Alley. When her husband woke up, he was terrified and hurriedly reported it to the authorities.

The authorities sent people over and conducted a cursory investigation. Not only did they find no clues, they even took the dead woman's husband away.

When Chen Xun's neighbor was questioned by the constables, he did not dare reveal Chen Xun's existence at all and sweated nervously the entire time.

Fortunately, the constables did not think much of it, allowing the neighbor to muddle through.

Finally, after the corpses of those merchants Chen Xun had killed were discovered, the authorities also stepped in to investigate.

But Chen Xun's methods had been clean and decisive, and on the surface the two sides had no connection whatsoever. The authorities could find no clues and could only let the matter drop in the end.

There were so many Martial Artists in this world, and cases like this were numerous. The culprit was almost never found.

Therefore, wealthy households would hire several Martial Artists as guards, afraid that powerful figures from the martial world would come knocking and slaughter them like chickens and dogs.