Denying oneself

Lu Mian moved like a gliding snake, without making the slightest sound.

His breathing was even like that of a hibernating spirit tortoise, barely perceptible.

Even with men patrolling this Black Snake Gang outpost, none of them could detect his presence.

"Hmm..."

Lu Mian suddenly heard a scream.

His eyes shifted, and he approached the source of the scream.

It came from inside a rectangular building.

Judging by the silhouettes cast on the window, someone seemed to be swinging a whip, repeatedly tormenting another person.

Lu Mian reached a corner and listened to the voices inside.

"Chief Wang, I was wrong!"

"I'll never take any money again!"

A wailing plea for mercy came from the room.

"Hmph!"

"You even dared to steal the gang's money!"

"You must have a death wish!"

A brutal voice rang out from inside!

"Chief Wang... that must be Wang Qiao, one of their three chiefs."

"Looks like I'm in luck tonight."

Lu Mian's gaze cooled slightly.

Inside the room.

A burly, heavily haired man kept swinging a leather whip, lashing the person before him.

The victim had been beaten beyond recognition, his entire body drenched in blood. In the end, Wang Qiao whipped him to death.

Worried the man might be playing dead, Wang Qiao kicked his head hard several times before he was satisfied.

"Useless trash!"

"Remember to behave in your next life!"

Wang Qiao snorted, tossed aside his whip, and pushed the door open to leave.

Whoosh!

The instant he stepped outside, a hand with its five fingers pressed together into the shape of a snake darted silently out of the darkness and stabbed into his temple.

Wang Qiao's vision went black, and he began to collapse.

Lu Mian emerged from the darkness, caught him, and dragged him into the room.

Wang Qiao's corpse appeared uninjured, but the Tortoise-Snake Force had instantly pulped his brain. He was utterly dead.

"Consider your death avenged."

Lu Mian looked at the blood-soaked corpse in the room and spoke flatly.

Then he searched Wang Qiao's body and actually found a banknote worth five hundred taels of silver.

After searching the corpse, Lu Mian did not rush to leave. He picked up a serrated blade from a corner and chopped Wang Qiao's head to pieces.

Since he had used Tortoise-Snake Force, an expert examining Wang Qiao's brain injuries might very well identify it.

As the only Corpse Collector to have entered the Guard Hall, Lu Mian would certainly come under suspicion, so he had to eliminate every clue.

Whoosh...

After removing all the evidence, Lu Mian blew out the candle, locked the door, and left.

Of the three chiefs, only one was dead so far. Two remained.

Lu Mian continued searching the Black Snake Gang outpost.

Before long.

He reached a building with obvious sounds of revelry inside and quietly poked a hole in its window.

He looked inside.

Four or five burly men were drinking and playing finger-guessing games, making quite a racket.

"Brother Zeng, a toast to you!"

"If you hadn't come to reinforce us, we wouldn't have driven off those Iron Jade Gang losers so easily."

A man with a scarred face stood up, raised his wine bowl, and toasted the dark-faced man beside him.

"Hahaha, you're too kind, Brother Pang."

"We're all brothers here. No need to be so polite."

The dark-faced man also stood and clinked bowls with the scarred man.

Lu Mian narrowed his eyes when he saw the pair.

"Zeng Gang, Pang Dongming... I didn't expect to find these two together."

"That saves me plenty of trouble."

Lu Mian made no move. He simply stood outside the building.

In reality, however, he had already begun releasing Plague Miasma, letting it seep through the hole in the window.

The men inside noticed nothing.

With their senses dulled by alcohol, they did not even immediately notice their bodies growing hot and feverish.

An incense stick's worth of time later.

"It's so hot..."

One thug felt his head spinning and slumped straight onto the drinking table.

Zeng Gang and Pang Dongming thought nothing of it, assuming he was merely drunk.

In fact, they too had begun running high fevers. Combined with the alcohol, this severely impaired their judgment.

Thud...

The other underlings in the room collapsed onto the table one after another.

"Hmm..."

Zeng Gang swayed as he tried to stand.

He seemed to sense that something was wrong.

But the instant that thought arose, he dismissed it.

What could possibly be wrong? They were all just drunk!

Pang Dongming was no different. He picked up his wine bowl and chuckled. "Come on, let's keep drinking!"

The two of them really did carry on drinking.

Another half an incense stick later, the fever finally burned through their minds, rendering them unconscious.

Lu Mian slipped quietly through the doorway.

"The combination of No Truth and Plague Miasma really is astonishing."

"It kills without a trace. The victims don't even know how they died."

Looking at the men sprawled over the table, Lu Mian felt a little awed.

When Zeng Gang had realized something was wrong earlier, Lu Mian had activated No Truth.

It exerted an influence over the mind, making Zeng Gang doubt his own judgment and change his mind, deciding that he was overthinking things.

Of course, this also had to do with the fact that he had been drinking. His will was already weakened, less firm than it normally would have been.

Drink ruined things. People had been learning that lesson for countless years.

Lu Mian felt no sympathy for these men. He found a dagger on one of the thugs and slit their throats one by one.

The smell of blood mingled with the smell of liquor inside the room, creating an exceptionally foul odor.

After killing them, Lu Mian followed his usual routine and began searching the bodies.

Zeng Gang and Pang Dongming both had banknotes hidden on them, totaling seventeen hundred taels of silver.

The lesser thugs had only a few dozen taels between them.

Next.

He stripped the other thugs' clothes off and tore them into strips, then hung Zeng Gang's and Pang Dongming's bodies from an old tree outside the room.

With everything done, Lu Mian quietly hid in the shadows.

Before long, several Black Snake Gang thugs entered the courtyard carrying lanterns.

When they saw Zeng Gang's and Pang Dongming's corpses, their throats slit and still dripping blood, they panicked!

"Something terrible's happened!"

"People are dead!"

"Chief Zeng and Chief Pang are dead!"

Soon, the entire Black Snake Gang outpost erupted into commotion. Everyone rushed over and stared helplessly at Zeng Gang's and Pang Dongming's bodies.

"Chief... Chief Wang's dead in the torture room too!"

Someone else shouted in alarm.

"Hurry to the Outer City and get the gang leader!"

Someone finally came to his senses.

Soon, someone ran out of the outpost and hurried toward the Outer City.

In theory, people from the Refugee District were not allowed into the Outer City at night.

But naturally, the Black Snake Gang had its own channels and methods.

Inside a residence in the Outer City.

Yin Qianlang returned reeking of alcohol.

He was around forty, with gaunt cheeks, narrow eyes, and thin lips.

"Boss, we found you another young woman in the Refugee District tonight."

"What a figure. She's a real beauty!"

A lackey came up to greet him with a leering chuckle.

"Good... you know me well."

"Once I've had my fill, you can have a turn."

Yin Qianlang's eyes lit up at those words.

Just as he was eagerly about to go see what the young woman looked like, a series of knocks came from the residence's gate.

"Boss! Boss!"

"Something's happened at the outpost!"

An urgent voice carried inside.

Yin Qianlang's expression changed, and he hurried toward the gate.

When he pushed open the wooden gate, he saw a minor chief standing outside, his face full of anxiety.

"What happened?"

Yin Qianlang asked coldly.

"Boss, Chief Zeng and the other two are all dead!"

"They died inside the outpost!"

The minor chief spoke urgently.

"What!"

Even Yin Qianlang blanched at the news. "What the hell happened?!"

"We don't know either... all we know is that Chief Zeng and the others are dead!"

"No one knew what to do, so we had to come find you in the Outer City!"

The minor chief shook his head.

"Useless!"

Yin Qianlang cursed. Ignoring the minor chief, he pushed off hard and darted toward the city gate on his own.