Wiped out in one fell swoop

During the second watch, a dark shadow slipped out of White Stone Ward and raced into the distance.

Xu Yang soon reached the Three Harmonies Gang's local hall.

He did not strike immediately.

If Qian Ming was not here, killing ordinary gang members would be pointless. His main target was still Qian Ming.

He covered his mouth and nose with the cloth he had prepared, gripped the dagger he had taken from Li Hu, and crept toward the courtyard wall. The sounds of a drinking game reached his ears.

"They're actually drinking!"

Drinking was good. Once they were drunk, they would sleep like the dead. He might be able to wipe them all out in one fell swoop without much effort.

It seemed Li Hu's unexplained disappearance had not put these men on their guard.

After listening a little longer, he confirmed that Qian Ming was there.

The fellow shouted so loudly during the drinking game that Xu Yang could hear him from over a dozen meters away, outside the courtyard.

By the third watch, the shouting inside the hall gradually died away.

Xu Yang lay hidden in the darkness, knowing he only had to wait a little longer. Once they were all asleep, he could act.

Suddenly, the hall's main gate opened, and a drunken figure staggered out, barely able to stand.

It was Qian Ming.

Just as he was about to fall, two apparently sober subordinates hurried over to support him.

"Master Qian, it's too late to go home safely. Why not wait until tomorrow?"

One of them, a man with a knife scar across his face, tried to persuade him.

Master Qian was fine in every other respect, but once he drank, he would clamor to go home no matter where he was.

"That's right, Master Qian. We still don't know who killed Li Hu. You'll be safer staying at the hall," the other man urged.

"How could that useless Li Hu compare to me?"

Spittle flew as Qian Ming spoke. "Back when we fought the Four Rivers Gang, I took a saber and hacked over a dozen of them until they wailed like ghosts and howled like wolves. Around here, who the fuck would dare touch me, Qian Ming?"

He draped his arms around the two men and kept walking toward Big Tree Village, refusing to listen.

"But Master Qian, all the brothers are drunk. We're the only two who are sober. If an enemy sneaks in, they might wipe everyone out in one fell swoop."

Helpless, the two subordinates could only appeal to him using the men still inside the hall.

"Find me a woman, then. Otherwise, take me home."

Qian Ming did not care about any of that. All he wanted now was to go home and hold his young wife.

Xu Yang held his breath and did not attack immediately. He would wait until they were farther away.

Both men carried blades. He would not be able to finish the fight in an instant.

Only after the three had gone far enough did he emerge from the darkness and take a detour to get ahead of them.

Under cover of night, Xu Yang hid in the grass beside the road. As Qian Ming and his two men passed, he suddenly sprang out and attacked.

He used the very same Bear King Claw that Zhou Yang had demonstrated earlier that day, but the result was different.

Scarface noticed the attack immediately, but the drunken Qian Ming had an arm around his neck, leaving him unable to advance or retreat.

He tried to draw his blade, but Qian Ming's body pressed against it, preventing him from pulling it free in time.

By then, Xu Yang's five fingers had clamped onto his throat and suddenly tightened.

Crack!

Under that tremendous force, his throat shattered with an audible crack. Scarface nearly fainted from the pain. No longer caring about the drunken Qian Ming, he struggled and shoved him away.

But at that moment, Xu Yang unleashed the next move in his calculated sequence. The icy dagger had already sunk into Scarface's chest.

"Scarface, do you fucking want to die?"

Qian Ming still had not realized what was happening and began cursing.

"Master Qian, there's a knife attacker!"

The other man screamed while struggling to push away Qian Ming, who was practically hanging off him.

Shhk!

Blood sprayed out. Without checking the result, Xu Yang strode forward and drove his dagger into the other man's back.

The man abruptly stopped wrestling with Qian Ming, terror rising across his face.

He had been stabbed!

Xu Yang pulled downward hard. Under his terrifying strength, flesh and bone alike were sliced apart, exposing bright red organs.

"Ah..."

The scream lasted only an instant before Qian Ming's last subordinate collapsed limply.

Qian Ming finally reacted and threw a punch at Xu Yang's face. But he could barely stand, so where would he find the strength to hit anyone?

Xu Yang merely shifted sideways, and Qian Ming's own momentum sent him sprawling.

"Who are you? I'm Qian Ming!" Qian Ming shouted. Someone in this area actually dared attack him?

Xu Yang said nothing, much less gave Qian Ming a chance to get up. He strode forward, pinned Qian Ming's head with one hand, and drove the dagger straight into his neck.

"Hhh... hhh..."

His windpipe ruptured, making a sound like escaping air as bloody froth sputtered onto the ground.

Qian Ming convulsed, both hands clawing incessantly at the dirt.

Xu Yang's expression was cold. This was his second time killing, and he had grown considerably more accustomed to it.

He pulled out the dagger and stabbed him once more. Qian Ming stopped moving altogether.

The other two had not quite died yet. Their bodies were still twitching, but neither would survive.

Xu Yang did not rush to finish them off. He rolled Qian Ming over, searched him, and found his money pouch. Without checking how much it held, he put it away and moved to the next man.

By the time he finished searching the bodies, they were all but dead.

Looking at the claw marks on Scarface's neck, he raised his foot and stomped down hard. He did not stop until he had crushed the neck away from the head, concealing the marks left by Bear King Claw.

He picked up a blade from the ground, then quickly left.

This time, he could not be bothered to destroy the bodies and erase the evidence. Mainly, there was not enough time.

When he returned to the hall, the main gate was still open. That meant no one inside was sober, and they had no idea Qian Ming and his two men had left.

He hid outside and listened for a while. After confirming there was nothing but snoring, Xu Yang swallowed the antidote to Muscle-Softening Powder in one gulp.

He waited a little, then slipped through the open gate once he was sure the antidote had begun to take effect.

The courtyard was empty, with only overturned stools, bowls, and chopsticks scattered about. Snores came from the rooms on several sides.

Some of the rooms had not even had their doors shut; they stood wide open.

For rooms like these, Xu Yang went inside and scattered a handful of Muscle-Softening Powder, in no hurry to kill anyone.

Once he had scattered Muscle-Softening Powder in every room with an open door, he began dealing with the men one by one, first covering their mouths, then driving his blade through their throats.

A little over ten minutes later, not a single person remained alive.

He used blood to write the two large characters for "Four Rivers" on the wall,

Then Xu Yang walked out carrying a large sack.

Inside were the residence fees the hall had collected over the past few days, all in copper coins. There were probably five or six thousand of them, along with some pieces of silver.

Including what he had taken from the dead, tonight's haul should amount to roughly ten taels of silver.

"Murder and arson really do earn you a belt of gold. But I can't take this many copper coins home just yet."

He found a secluded spot to hide the money, then returned home.

The next day, while the sky was still dim with dawn, someone discovered Qian Ming and his two men dead on the road. He rushed frantically to the Three Harmonies Gang's hall to report it, only to collapse to the ground in terror at the sight inside.

Before long, news that the Three Harmonies Gang's local hall had been wiped out in one fell swoop spread throughout the nearby villages.