Both sides of Zhongling Street lay deathly silent.
The teahouses, taverns, and brothels had shut their doors and windows tight. The patrons inside were silent as cicadas in winter, yet they could not resist peeking outside.
In one incense-wreathed brothel, several men leaned against a window, holding their breath as they watched the street below.
Among them, a handsome man in a brocade robe stared blankly, scarcely able to believe his eyes.
"Wenlong, it looks like you know this Embroidered Uniform Guard?" his friend asked in a hushed voice.
The man was none other than the Xue Family's eldest young master, Xue Pan!
"His name is Jia Huan, a concubine-born son of Rongguo Mansion. I've met him a few times..."
Xue Pan's throat tightened, his voice hoarse.
Was this really fucking Jia Huan?
Even with his life hanging by a thread, he remained composed, neither retreating nor yielding. His calm was terrifying.
And that miraculous saber stroke had actually split the bald donkey's monk's staff in two.
"Hurry over to Ningrong Street next door and notify the Patrol Office!" Coming to his senses, Xue Pan urged his friend anxiously.
The Xue and Jia families were close. He did not want to see Brother Huan lying dead in the street.
"I don't dare..." his friend said timidly.
"Go! Or from this day on, we'll tear our robes and sever our friendship!" Xue Pan's face was taut with anxiety.
Two fists could hardly fight four hands, let alone Brother Huan taking on five men alone. He was certain to die!
At those words, his friend steeled himself and left.
The evening wind strengthened. After delivering that saber stroke, Jia Huan was already growing impatient:
"I told you to come at me together. What are you waiting for?"
Under the five monks' horrified gazes, Jia Huan used Snow-Treading Without a Trace. His steps were so fast they left afterimages. Though he could not yet come and go without a trace as the legends described, he reached the thick-browed bald donkey in just two breaths.
Dense inner qi gathered in his palm, and he struck downward.
The thick-browed monk's arm was already wounded and his inner qi in disarray. With no time to block or dodge, he trembled, every hair standing on end before the mighty palm strike descending like a massive hammer.
Thump!
The palm struck his bald crown, caving it in instantly. The thick-browed monk's eyeballs burst from their sockets, and he collapsed to the ground, dying with hatred unspent.
"Senior Brother!" the big-eared monk screamed himself hoarse, his eyes bloodshot.
The other three monks charged, their faces contorted with towering rage.
Not a ripple of emotion crossed Jia Huan's face. The road to supreme strength was destined to be piled with bones.
With death closing in, he furiously mobilized the blood and vitality within his body. His bones crackled, his spine sounding even louder, almost like the cry of a crane.
In confined spaces, Cloud Ladder Vertical Leap was ten times more useful than Snow-Treading Without a Trace!
Jia Huan sprang into the air and twisted, easily evading the big-eared monk's sword. He drove a fist straight toward the monk's chest while his left hand formed a claw and snatched away the blade.
Bang!
The big-eared monk's breastbone shattered, and blood poured from all seven orifices.
With a sword in hand, Jia Huan moved as deftly as if he had practiced ten million times. Inner qi surged into his wrist, the sword tip swaying left and right, faster and faster, as it darted toward the fat monk's neck.
The fat monk's pupils contracted sharply, and he turned his head to dodge.
But.
The sword was too fast.
Its tip swept across his neck, leaving a perfectly straight wound. Blood spurted at once, and the fat monk collapsed, clutching his throat.
Within ten breaths, he had killed three men as easily as slaughtering pigs and dogs.
"Saber arts, sword arts, fist arts, palm techniques, and lightness skills-all used with such mastery, without the slightest stiffness. What terrifying talent for martial arts! Could he be a prodigy secretly nurtured by the Embroidered Uniform Guard? He's certain to claim a place on the Martial World Dragon-Tiger Ranking!"
In a roadside teahouse, an elderly man in his eighties murmured in admiration.
In a bookshop farther away, a young woman watched solemnly, engraving that face deep in her memory.
As the seat of Great Qian's power, the Capital could harbor crouching tigers and hidden dragons in any alley. That night, many people of the Jianghu watched silently from Zhongling Street.
"Junior Brother, let's kill him together and avenge them!"
The hook-nosed monk roared at his junior brother, whose eyes blazed with malice, tears streaming down his face.
Then he turned and fled.
Little did he expect.
Jia Huan was faster. After a pursuit of only twenty zhang, he was already behind him.
Boom!
A whipping kick struck heavily, sending the hook-nosed bald donkey flying into a shop's flagpole. Jia Huan raced forward, leaped, and drove a furious kick into his jaw, snapping his neck and ending his life.
The last monk from No-Killing Temple was so terrified his liver and gall seemed ready to burst. He dropped onto his backside, trembling all over, sunk in utter despair.
Expressionless, Jia Huan walked toward him, step by step.
His pace was slow and steady, yet the pressure was overwhelming!
"Brother Huan, magnificent..."
At the brothel window, Xue Pan could barely breathe. His face flushed with excitement, veins bulging on his forehead.
Alone, surrounded by five savage bald donkeys, he had unleashed a slaughter and emerged without a scratch!
Had Xue Pan not witnessed it himself, he would never have believed this bloody spectacle even if someone beat him to death.
So Brother Huan had been hiding his abilities all along?
Rongguo Mansion's most useless concubine-born son?
Quite the opposite-those women of the inner household were ignorant and ridiculous!
Mother and my sister included. You've all been deceived by Brother Huan's outward appearance!
"If only he could become my brother-in-law."
Xue Pan murmured to himself. Once that thought arose, he could no longer extinguish it.
Though his sister Baochai was the Xue Family's legitimate daughter, while Brother Huan was merely a concubine-born son, and objections were certain to arise, Xue Pan felt that Brother Huan was fully worthy of her!
Once he arranged the marriage, he would be Brother Huan's elder brother-in-law. Whenever trouble or danger arose and he needed someone to back him up, Brother Huan would surely step in at once.
I must persuade Mother! Xue Pan made up his mind. It had to be Brother Huan and no one else.
The impact of witnessing such slaughter firsthand could never be erased.
On the silent street, the Embroidered Spring Saber swung down hard.
With one final flash of blood.
Thud!
A head rolled away, joining its four fellow disciples on the road to the Yellow Springs.
Jia Huan strolled over to the corpse, bent down, and wiped the blood from his blade with its monk's robe. He sheathed the Embroidered Spring Saber, then entered the incense-and-candle shop.
When he had first seen the bald donkeys, they had been coming out of there.
Jia Huan rummaged through chests and cupboards, finally finding a bundle in the bottommost coffin. He opened it for a look.
"Now I have money."
There were nearly thirty gold ingots, along with something the size of a bronze mirror wrapped in silk. It turned out to be top-grade jadeite, fine-textured and smoothly rounded!
Its value was beyond estimation. Jadeite of such quality would never circulate on the open market.
Jia Huan tucked the bundle inside his Flying Fish Uniform and secured it with his belt. There was no way he would hand his spoils over to the Office of the Authorities.
Just then, hurried hoofbeats sounded in the distance. Guards from the Patrol Office arrived fully armed, clad in iron armor and carrying bows and crossbows. But at the sight of the five gruesome corpses, they exchanged stunned looks.
"Who committed murder in the street?" Bound to perform his duty, their leader could only shout the question.
Holding his Identification Plaque, Jia Huan emerged from the incense-and-candle shop and said coldly:
"The Embroidered Uniform Guard is investigating a case!"
The leader looked at the murderous youth. Not daring to question the Embroidered Uniform Guard's affairs, he waved for his men to withdraw.
"Wait. Drag the bodies to the Imperial Prison!" Jia Huan ordered.
"Yes!" The guards accepted the order.
Jia Huan set off toward the Imperial Prison first. Onlookers in the shops along the way shuddered despite the absence of cold, not daring to meet his eyes.
"Brother Huan..." Xue Pan waved frantically from the brothel window, but Jia Huan never noticed him.
Arrange the marriage. We must become family! Xue Pan's resolve was firm. Even if he had to shamelessly pester his mother, he would make her agree.
If another family's daughter got to him first, how could I become his elder brother-in-law? How would I swagger around and flaunt my power afterward?
Before you continue