"With a force like this, you could have plundered a naval warship, yet you came after me instead... Why?"
"It, it, it was because..."
Hong Ba's lips trembled. Not daring to conceal anything, he spilled the whole story like beans tumbling from a sack: how the Dragon-Seeking Needle had pointed toward a spirit treasure, and how they had laid their ambush. Then he scrambled over to where Yin Wushou had died and, trembling, fished a bloodstained bronze compass from the mangled flesh.
He first wiped the blood off on his own clothes, then raised it above his head with both hands and presented it to Lu Changfeng.
Lu Changfeng reached out and grasped the air, drawing the compass into his hand. He glanced down. The spirit needle still pointed steadily at him. Raising an eyebrow slightly, he put it away, then looked at the ashen-faced Hong Ba.
"Spare me! Spare me!"
Hong Ba knocked his head against the ground like a pestle pounding garlic.
With four casual needles, Lu Changfeng crippled his martial arts, then told him to get lost.
As though granted a royal pardon, Hong Ba was wild with joy. He leaped into the river and vanished.
Qing Dai hesitated. "Sir, are we just letting him go? The Demon Dragon Gang commits every kind of evil. Their reputation is notorious..."
"He's as good as dead."
Lu Changfeng said calmly, "What fate awaits a scoundrel of the martial world who can no longer fight? Consider this a greeting gift to the Canal Gang. Their deputy leader and two elders are dead, without even bones left behind. Outsiders might still have doubts, but adding a Hong Ba stripped of his martial arts will help them make up their minds. The Canal Gang and the Demon Dragon Gang have fought openly