Pan Long chased the Heavenly Hand Gang's female expert for a full three or four hours, from night into day and from morning until noon, before he finally exhausted her so completely that she could run no farther.
Then he gave her a Copper Coin.
The woman refused with all sincerity, of course, but Pan Long declared her refusal invalid. In the end, she had no choice but to accept it.
Looking at the corpse, its face frozen in terror and a Copper Coin embedded in its throat, Pan Long smiled with satisfaction.
Only now, after all this fighting, did he feel at peace.
There had been too many Greenwood experts besieging him, and he did not know where they all came from. If he could kill them, fine. If he could not kill them for now, he could let them go.
But he could not let a single one of those Heavenly Hand Gang people escape!
If he did, others would inevitably try to draw him out in the future by attacking people he had saved or helped.
Pan Long absolutely could not tolerate that!
"According to Father, when someone dares threaten you with hostages or the like, you shouldn't just kill him. You should kill his entire family, young and old, leaving no one out, to make an example of them." He sighed as he spoke to himself. "Ah! I know Father has a point, but I really can't do it!"
He had asked around on the road. The Heavenly Hand Gang controlled five or six Mountain Strongholds and merchant associations, dealing in both lawful and unlawful business. All told, they probably numbered more than ten thousand people.
Kill every last member of ten thousand families, young and old? That was far too Insane.
Even killing those ten