Red Lotus

Early morning.

The mist had dispersed, and the morning sun had just risen, spreading warm sunlight across the world. Yet the bailiffs in the Hong Family courtyard felt no warmth at all. Instead, they felt strands of icy chill surge into their bodies through the soles of their feet, chilling them all over.

On the open ground around them lay thirty-four bodies, densely arrayed, each in a different state at the moment of death.

Some had been eating, some had been naked, some had had their bottoms sticking up...

"Constable, we've finished the count!

"Of the seventy-two people in the Hong Residence, apart from the cooks, kitchen hands, and other servants, all thirty-two important members are dead. Not one survived...

"Every one of them was killed with a single blow. The killer was ruthless and experienced..."

As he listened to his subordinate's report, Constable Chen's brows gradually knotted together.

In all his years on duty, he had encountered entire households being slaughtered before. But this was the first time he had seen a household like the Hong Family, guarded by so many martial artists, wiped out.

Especially since...

The Eldest Master of the Hong Family had countless ties to the Hong Family in the Inner City.

If that brutal-tempered head of the Hong Family learned that this branch had been wiped out, what would he do?

Constable Chen dared not imagine.

Of course, what puzzled him even more was this.

Who exactly was the killer, and why did he harbor such hatred toward the Hong Family?

Apart from the servants, the Hong Family's true core had been swept away. However he looked at it, it seemed like revenge.

He summoned the surviving servants and cooks for questioning one by one. Unfortunately, they had all been fast asleep at the time and had no idea what had happened during the night. Only when they woke early and saw the courtyard full of corpses had they rushed in terror to report it to the County Yamen.

"Heart-Breaking Palm..."

Constable Chen walked over to the Eldest Master of the Hong Family's corpse and stared at the unmistakable palm print on his chest, his brows slightly furrowed.

The Heart-Breaking Palm was hardly a top-tier martial art.

Quite a few people in the two major gangs studied this palm technique.

But those who could reach major accomplishment with it and wield such power were few and far between.

Still, it was a lead, at least.

As for Old Yuan, the Fourth Refinement martial artist beside him...

His corpse had been so badly mangled that it no longer looked human. It was difficult to discern any trace of the technique used.

"Chief, we've found something major!"

A bailiff hurried over, his face deathly pale.

Constable Chen followed him to a patch of grass near the bedroom. Beneath the lifted turf was an iron hatch with a handle. Opening it revealed a sinister passage leading downward.

By now, the sun had risen and its light was growing warmer, yet standing at the entrance to the passage, Constable Chen felt only an intense chill.

In fact...

Before he even went inside, a nauseating mixture of rot, fetid blood, and feces came surging out.

Fighting back his nausea, Constable Chen walked deep into the passage. At the sight before him, his pupils abruptly contracted.

At the bottom of the passage was an enormous dungeon, with a cell on either side.

In the cell on the left lay a dozen or so rotting corpses, giving off an overpowering stench;

In the cell on the right were more than twenty handsome youths and beautiful young women, all naked, each chained to a separate pillar. At the sight of Constable Chen and the others entering, they instinctively backed away, their eyes filled with terror and timidity, their bodies marked by lash wounds.

At this sight, Constable Chen's face turned livid. "Damned animals!"

Lao Xu had left home before dawn and come to Black Glory Ward to purchase some supplies.

After finishing his purchases, he did not head home. Instead, he walked toward the Hong Residence.

This was an old habit of his.

Though he could not kill the Eldest Master of the Hong Family, whenever he came to Black Glory Ward, he would take a look at the Hong Residence and curse its eldest master inwardly with the vilest words he knew.

This time, before he even drew near, he noticed-

A crowd had gathered outside the usually heavily guarded Hong Residence, and he could just make out two bailiffs guarding the entrance.

What happened?!

An instinctive flicker of joy rose in Lao Xu, and he hurried over to join the crowd.

After quite some time listening to the onlookers' conversations, he finally learned the gist of it.

"The Hong Residence was wiped out? The Eldest Master of the Hong Family is dead? How could something this good happen?"

Joy crossed Lao Xu's face, yet he feared it might be false.

The Hong Family had a Fourth Refinement martial artist guarding it, along with more than a dozen Skin Refinement martial artists. Even an ordinary Fourth Refinement martial artist would get nowhere against them.

To crush the Hong Family like rotten wood and dry grass would require someone at least at the Fifth Refinement.

And with the eldest master's cunning, he would never provoke such a figure. How could his entire household have been slaughtered?

Just then.

The bailiffs carried the corpses out of the residence one by one, then covered them with white cloths.

At first, the crowd paid little heed.

Most of those brought out were household servants and the like.

But as more and more bodies were carried out, even Skin Refinement Realm guards appeared among them.

The last two bodies brought out were a headless corpse and a fat, full-bearded gentleman.

At the sight of these two bodies, the onlookers erupted in an uproar!

"The Eldest Master of the Hong Family? He really is dead, and someone shattered his heart with a single palm strike? And that Fourth Refinement guard even had his head knocked clean off! What vicious fiend did this?!"

The crowd was horrified.

"That wound, it's... the Heart-Breaking Palm?!"

Ever since the eldest master's body had been carried out, Lao Xu seemed unable to look away. He stared fixedly at the palm print on the corpse's chest, his expression stunned.

Having practiced the Heart-Breaking Palm for years, he was naturally intimately familiar with its power.

There was no doubt that the eldest master had died to the Heart-Breaking Palm.

Moreover, the killer's Heart-Breaking Palm had at least reached major accomplishment, perhaps even touched perfection.

Otherwise, it could never have possessed such power!

Yet although quite a few people in Black Mountain City practiced the Heart-Breaking Palm, precious few had cultivated it to such a level.

Who could it be?

A young, tall, handsome figure suddenly flashed through Lao Xu's mind.

Then he could not help laughing.

He silently chided himself for entertaining such a wild thought.

Wei Sheng was only at the Second Refinement and had obtained the Heart-Breaking Palm just two days ago. However extraordinary his talent, he could not possibly have trained it to this degree.

Besides, even if he had brought the Heart-Breaking Palm to major accomplishment or perfection, he was still only at the Second Refinement. Any Third Refinement guard could seriously injure him, so how could he slaughter the entire Hong Family, with a Fourth Refinement martial artist guarding it?

Even so.

Looking at the enemy he had dreamed of killing, now dead before his eyes, Lao Xu still found it hard to believe.

He gazed up at the sky, tears slipping from the corners of his eyes, and murmured, "Son, do you see? That villain has finally met his retribution! You can rest in peace now."

Meanwhile.

Across from the Hong Residence, a White-Clad Man stood by the window of a private room on the top floor of the Guest-Welcoming Tower.

A strange green light glimmered in his eyes as he stared fixedly at the crowd outside the Hong Residence below, seemingly searching for someone.

"Damn it! Don't they say killers return to the scene after the crime to admire their handiwork? If he won't show himself now, when will he?!"

The White-Clad Man's face was livid.

Last night, he had returned to the place where he had first encountered the Black-Clad Man.

The result was predictable: the man had long since vanished, leaving not a single trace behind.

After his fruitless search, he had come to the Guest-Welcoming Tower, hoping to identify the killer by his back.

But he had waited from early morning until now, his eyes nearly blurring from staring, without catching sight of that unforgettable figure from behind.

"Think you can evade me like this?"

The White-Clad Man sneered, took out paper and a brush, and wrote a letter.

...The Inner City.

Inside a luxurious mansion occupying several mu of land.

Hong Chengyuan, the head of the Hong Family that monopolized the county's entire Fish Market business, awoke amid a pile of soft, fragrant beauties. Casually pushing away a woman pinned beneath him, he walked barefoot, his hair loose, to the fishpond in the courtyard, grabbed a handful of fish food, and tossed it into the dark depths.

This was Hong Chengyuan's habit.

The first thing he did after rising every day was feed the fish.

Strangely, however, few fish came to compete for the handful of food he scattered. The pond was very quiet.

Hong Chengyuan paid it no mind and simply continued scattering fish food.

Only when Hong Chengyuan set down the fish food did the attendant beside him immediately step forward and bow.

"Master, we've just received word. The eldest master in the Outer City, Hong Chengdu... is dead!"

Hong Chengyuan turned around, his voice betraying neither pleasure nor anger. "Who killed him?"

"We don't know yet. The bailiffs are already investigating..."

At this.

Hong Chengyuan frowned slightly.

He did not actually care whether Hong Chengdu lived or died. It was just that the seemingly worthless eldest master had served as the mouthpiece through which he communicated with that person.

Now, that mouthpiece was suddenly gone.

And he had died just before that person was due to come to Black Mountain City.

Wasn't this far too much of a coincidence?!

I wonder whether that person took that treasure...

While he was still frowning, an attendant hurried over. "Master, there's a letter for you. It suddenly appeared in the gatehouse..."

The envelope was quite ordinary.

Its contents consisted of just one word-

Investigate!!

But in the lower-left corner of the paper, a fingernail-sized White Lotus emblem faintly shimmered in and out of view.

The moment he saw that emblem, Hong Chengyuan's pupils contracted slightly. Power surged from his palm, shattering the letter into fine powder.

"My cousin is dead... the treasure is gone... someone is coming after our Hong Family.

"Very well... I'll see who's eaten a bear's heart and a leopard's gall, daring to touch what belongs to our Hong Family!

"Pass down my orders. Send the guards out of the residence. Find out exactly how the eldest master died within three days...

"No matter who the killer is, I'll make him pay this blood debt in blood!!"

"Achoo!"

In his little courtyard in Black Forest Ward, Wei Sheng sneezed.

"Someone talking about me? No, I probably caught a chill in the wind last night. But what's this?"

Wei Sheng rummaged a blood-red jade token out of the bundle. The token was cold enough to chill him to the bone, and within it, a lifelike Red Lotus was blooming.