Back again

"Clack, clack, clack."

"Third watch! All is well!"

The night watchman's distant bamboo clacks drifted on the wind through street after street.

And so the long night acquired a comma...

In the county court's main hall, Yang Ge, who was still reviewing the county's public accounts, slowly lowered the ledger in his hands. "Only the third watch?"

He looked up through the wide-open doors, one hand settling lightly on the saber at his side. "You really have no patience..."

There was nothing outside the doors, yet a cold, sinister voice rang out. "Hand that girl over to us, and we will turn around and leave. We swear we will not trouble you in the slightest, sir!"

"Word travels fast!"

Yang Ge brought his saber around in front of him and straightened in his seat. "Then why don't you guess why I wasn't the one who went out of town to hunt you down?"

The voice replied, "Though we follow different paths, we still respect you as a true man who keeps his word. Please do not make enemies of us, sir. It would benefit neither you nor anyone else."

"Stop gilding your own faces!"

Yang Ge chuckled. "I may be no great talent, but I have never taken anyone's life. You vicious villains, beasts wearing human faces-do you think you deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as me?"

Unmoved, the voice replied, "Since ancient times, those who accomplished great things have never let trifles constrain them. We acted for-"

"Fuck you!"

Yang Ge's expression changed abruptly, and he burst into curses. "If I went and slaughtered your entire families, would you call that 'not letting trifles constrain me' too?"

The voice faltered for a moment, but soon stubbornly retorted, "That man Geng took bribes, twisted the law, and treated human lives like weeds. He brought this disaster on himself. Even if he had not died at our hands tonight, he would have ended up on the execution ground sooner or later!"

Yang Ge scoffed, then calmed himself and said slowly, "There are plenty of arguments to make, but I doubt you came back to hear me reason with you. We're all men with something between our legs. Let's get to the point!"

"You're only blades. Whether I seize you or not hardly matters. You've done the deed, and even if you didn't finish the whole job, you can still give your master an acceptable account!"

"Leave now, and I'll pretend I never saw you!"

"But if you're dead set on playing loyal hounds and easing your master's worries... then come!"

"Kill me, and whoever you want to murder will be beyond my concern!"

"But as long as I have a single breath left, no one is touching so much as a hair on that girl!"

The voice seemed not to have expected such defiance from Yang Ge. After several moments of silence, it said sinisterly, "Three against one. You have no chance of winning, sir!"

Yang Ge rubbed the saber's hilt. "Even if I can't win, dragging one of you down to the grave with me won't be hard. Guess whether that one might be you?"

The voice replied, "We'll have to fight to find out..."

At those words, Yang Ge sighed heavily inwardly... These men could not be scared off!

Boom.

With a tremendous crash, shattered tiles flew everywhere. A black-clad man descended from above, swinging a gleaming saber down at Yang Ge's head with enough force to cleave Mount Hua.

At the same time, two figures rushed into the hall in low crouches, moving so quickly they resembled two great black rats scurrying on all fours.

Yang Ge had already braced himself mentally, so despite the sudden attack, he did not panic in the slightest.

He seized one leg of the sandalwood desk before him, planted himself in a firm horse stance, and swung it up, smashing it at the descending man like a palm-leaf fan swatting a mosquito.

Crack!

A great hole burst through the heavy, broad desk. Before the descending man could land, he flew off at an angle like a baseball.

Just then, the two black-clad men below reached him.

Yang Ge had no time to draw his saber. He could only swing the desk with its gaping hole at the pair, trying to force them back.

Driven by his tremendous strength, the sandalwood desk, nearly ten feet long, gave off the shrill howl of a heavy weapon tearing through the air.

At that howl, the two charging men felt their scalps prickle, and their carefully planned assault fell apart at once.

One reacted quickly. Just before he could collide with the sandalwood desk, he stamped a foot down and used the force to spring backward.

The other reacted a little too slowly and stupidly swung the scrap of iron in his hands, hacking with all his strength at the oncoming desk.

Clang.

The saber flew away, and its wielder slammed into the sandalwood desk. With a crisp crack of bone, he was sent flying sideways.

After the very first exchange, only one of the three men who had returned was still standing!

Yang Ge lowered the broken desk and glanced around. Unable to contain himself, he wore a look of utter bafflement. "That's it?"

Those three brothers from the Five Ghosts of Yan Yun had practically scared him into PTSD. He had assumed every expert would be as formidable as they were...

"Gulp."

The black-clad man still standing below swallowed hard and forced a smile. "Is it too late for us to leave now?"

Judging by his voice, he was the fellow who had said that "those who accomplished great things never let trifles constrain them"...

Yang Ge tossed aside the desk and slowly drew his saber, a savage expression gradually rising on his face. "What do you think?"

Before the words had faded, he stamped down hard and shot forward like a cannonball leaving its barrel, swinging his saber like an axe in a vertical chop.

Clang!

Unable to dodge, the black-clad man desperately raised his saber across his body to block. The two steel blades struck, their notched edges locking together.

Yang Ge gripped his hilt with both hands and pressed down with all his strength.

Thud.

The black-clad man dropped to one knee, crushing the paving slab beneath it.

Just then, a figure rushed up in a crouch and threw his arms around Yang Ge's waist... It was the man whose steel saber had been knocked away by the sandalwood desk.

Keeping the man before him pinned, Yang Ge hooked his leg around and kicked the man at his side.

Unexpectedly, instead of letting go at the pain, the fellow sank his teeth viciously into Yang Ge's waist.

"Aah..."

Yang Ge cried out in pain and snapped a kick into the chest of the black-clad man pinned beneath his saber, sending him flying thirty or forty feet to slam into the threshold.

Then, freeing one hand, he seized the black-clad man clinging to his waist, forcibly tore him off, and hurled him hard against the floor.

Boom.

Already badly injured, the black-clad man instantly collapsed under that slam, sprawled on the floor like a puddle of mud.

Yang Ge released him and wiped a hand across his waist. It came away covered in blood...

"Very good!"

His eyes reddened with pain. He raised his foot and stamped viciously on the knee of the black-clad man at his feet.

Crack!

"Aah..."

The black-clad man, who had been sprawled like mud a second earlier, suddenly went rigid, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets.

Expressionless, Yang Ge raised his foot and stamped down again on the man's other knee.

The sound of shattering bone rang out with extraordinary clarity in the hall that night.

This time, the black-clad man on the floor lacked even the strength to scream. His eyes rolled back, and he passed out on the spot.

When Yang Ge looked toward the black-clad man by the doors again, he discovered that the fellow was crawling outside on his hands and knees!

"Oh, but you've only just arrived. Stay a little longer..."

Dragging his saber, he strode toward the man. His tall, straight figure slowly loomed over him like a dark cloud.

The negative emotions he had bottled up all night finally erupted.

The dead he had seen tonight.

Outnumbered all those he had seen in his entire life.

He respected every person's life.

But someone who did not respect the lives of others clearly did not deserve to have his own life respected.