"Are you sure that big fool did all this?"
Back at the House of Red Delights, Leader Zhao stared dumbfounded at A Lan. He had only been gone for a day, yet he had never imagined that fellow would cause such a huge mess.
He had killed all three Black Tiger Gang leaders, including Wang Heihu, along with hundreds of gang members. He had even burned the Black Tiger Gang's headquarters to the ground, throwing all of Chaoyang City into chaos.
He was certainly good at killing people and setting fires!
Was this really the same dull-witted big fool from before?
Was this some kind of joke?
His whole style had changed from before. They were practically two different people!
And how had his strength improved so much?
The Great Rejuvenation Pill could increase one's internal force by sixty years' worth, but that was for people who already possessed internal force. For someone without internal force, who had not even cultivated an internal art, the meridians simply could not store it, and it would dissipate immediately.
Never mind that the fellow had not even opened up his Dantian. At most, the Great Rejuvenation Pill's effect of cleansing the sinews and marrow would have been of some use, but it could not have been this dramatic.
"You've got that wrong, Master Zhao. He's certainly a big fellow, but he's no fool!"
A Lan poured Leader Zhao a cup of fine wine, equally shaken herself.
She had not expected that big fool to be so bold as to take on the Black Tiger Gang outright, much less succeed.
Even Leader Zhao would probably have had trouble doing what he had done. He really was a wildly reckless madman!
"Do you know what started the trouble between him and the Black Tiger Gang?"
Leader Zhao drank the wine in his cup in frustration and asked the question.
"I've already gotten to the bottom of it. A blacksmith named Wu Tai forged a divine sword for Young Master Wang. Wang Heihu wanted to seize the sword and even get his hands on the blacksmith's forging Secret Method, and then they started fighting.
"Young Master Wang killed Wang Heihu and the men he led on the spot with the divine sword. Afterward, Young Master Wang fought his way into the Black Tiger Gang and started that fire. They say he also brought a woman out."
A Lan dared not delay and hurriedly shared the information she had gathered.
Apart from being Leader Zhao's lover, her value lay in gathering intelligence for him in Chaoyang City. Her efforts over the past two years had borne some fruit, and she had even planted a spy in the Black Tiger Gang, which was how she had obtained firsthand information.
"A woman? What kind of woman? Did she have big breasts?"
Leader Zhao immediately seized on the crucial point and instinctively asked about her bust.
After all, in his experience, Wang Hao had very high standards for a woman's bust. For that woman to make him risk fighting his way into the Black Tiger Gang, she had to have something exceptional about her.
At the very least, her bust was sure to be extraordinary!
Those words struck a nerve with A Lan. She still remembered Wang Hao's two earlier assessments of her perfectly clearly.
The first had been bad enough, merely saying her breasts were small, but the second had outright said she had none at all!
For a woman, that was an enormous humiliation!
Noticing A Lan's hostile expression, Leader Zhao finally realized he had misspoken. He smiled, picked up the wine jug, and poured a cup. With an apologetic smile, he said, "I was wrong. I'll drink a cup as punishment to make it up to you!"
With that, he raised the cup and drained the fine wine in one gulp.
Only then did A Lan's expression soften somewhat. She went on in a low voice, "That woman has nothing to do with Young Master Wang. She's the blacksmith's wife, but Wang Heihu abducted her on their wedding night. She was quite unyielding, though, and would rather slash her own face than submit to him. All these years, Wang Heihu had her sent to the kennels to tend the dogs."
"So the blacksmith offered to forge a divine sword as payment and asked that lad to act?"
Understanding dawned on Leader Zhao. From what A Lan had said, he guessed roughly what had happened.
Unfortunately, A Lan's abilities were limited. The intelligence she had gathered was not very detailed, and some things were even wrong or missing, resulting in a misunderstanding.
"This is your indenture. I just bought it back for you. The jade shop in the east of the city will be yours from now on!"
Leader Zhao rose, took a contract from his robes, and held it out to A Lan as he spoke gently.
After all, they had known each other, and there was some affection between them. Helping her within his means was naturally no problem.
"Are you never coming back, Master Zhao?"
A Lan did not take the indenture in front of her. After a moment's silence, she asked sadly.
"The people I've offended this time aren't easy to deal with. I can't stay in Chaoyang City. My world isn't suited to you, so find an honest, decent man to marry!"
Leader Zhao placed the contract on the table and said no more. He sighed, turned, and left the room. Before he had gone far, he heard sobbing behind him.
"You've certainly got an appetite. You're actually in the mood for a barbecue!"
Leader Zhao had gone to great trouble to find Wang Hao by following the subtle signals left along the way. Yet when he arrived, he found the fellow leisurely roasting a huge wild boar and happily savoring fine wine.
"Leader, you're finally here! Did you check the base? Nobody followed you, right?"
At the sight of Leader Zhao, Wang Hao immediately grew nervous and scanned their surroundings warily. He even had Xiao Mengmeng investigate, to make sure that woman Dongfang Bai had not come after him to kill him.
After all, the only one he had managed to fool was that old fellow Dugu Qiubai. He could not be sure about Dongfang Bai, so it was best to be careful.
"Don't worry!"
Leader Zhao shot Wang Hao an annoyed glare, plopped down beside him, and took a swig from the wine gourd Wang Hao had been drinking from.
A full two hours of traveling along mountain paths had worn him out, and the drink was just the thing to quench his thirst.
But the moment he swallowed, his eyes lit up.
"Excellent wine!"
As a martial artist, he immediately sensed the wine's wondrous qualities. It seemed to have been steeped with quite a few precious medicinal herbs. Not only could it increase internal force, it could also nourish the body and treat minor hidden injuries.
This gourd of wine alone was worth ten thousand taels, a rare treasure.
"Of course it's excellent!"
Wang Hao chuckled. This gourd of medicinal wine was one of the things he had obtained from the hidden treasure chamber.
Before Leader Zhao could speak, Wang Hao hurriedly pulled out the treasured sword he had been using as a skewer for slices of pork and eagerly offered it to him. "Leader, this is a gift from your subordinate. Please accept it!"
"What a fine sword!"
Leader Zhao's eyes lit up again at the sight of it, a sharp gleam flashing in them as he practically snatched it into his hands.
As a swordsman, he naturally had a keen eye for treasured swords. This one was an exceptionally rare divine weapon, a whole grade better than even his father's sword.
With this divine sword in hand, he was confident he could fight a Peak Super-First-Rate expert.
But when Leader Zhao looked at the grease on the blade and the blackened traces left by smoke, the corner of his mouth twitched.
"Did you just use this sword to roast meat?"
Leader Zhao stared speechlessly at the big fellow before him, truly at a loss for what to say to this subordinate.
Other people would have wanted to place such a divine weapon on an altar, but this fellow had gone and used it as a barbecue skewer.
Burning a zither for firewood and boiling a crane for dinner-that probably described this fellow!
Sure enough, he was no true swordsman. Even obtaining a divine weapon could not change the way he thought.
"Yeah! I have to say, this sword is insanely sharp. It cuts through meat and bone like tofu."
Wang Hao stuffed the slices of meat he had skewered and roasted with the sword into his mouth, answering as he chewed.
"..."
Leader Zhao was speechless once again.
"Leader, I also have some local specialties here that I prepared for the big shots in our Blood Robe Tower. Sorry for the trouble, but please take them up with you when the time comes, and put in a good word for your subordinate while you're at it."
After swallowing a few pieces of roast meat, Wang Hao deftly opened his bundle and laid out the treasures he had looted from Wang Heihu's treasure chamber one by one. Finally, he picked up an exquisite, lavish treasure box and presented it to Leader Zhao.
"Hiss! A thousand-year-old ginseng?"
At the sight of what was sealed inside the box, even someone of Leader Zhao's composure could not help drawing a sharp breath.
Thousand-year-old ginseng was extremely rare, and its medicinal effects were extraordinarily powerful, especially for martial artists.
Even the Great Ming imperial palace did not have much of such a precious medicinal herb, yet this lad had somehow gotten hold of a root.
"Did you get this from the Black Tiger Gang?"
Leader Zhao drew his gaze away from the thousand-year-old ginseng and gave Wang Hao a strange look. He was beginning to suspect that this fellow had attacked the Black Tiger Gang because of the ginseng.
"Leader, please don't say things like that. These are all local specialties passed down through my Wang family for generations. They have nothing to do with the Black Tiger Gang. I know that accidentally swallowing the Great Rejuvenation Pill caused the organization considerable losses. After painful reflection, I decided to defy my ancestors' instructions and dig open the Wang family's ancestral graves to bring these treasures out for use."
Wang Hao immediately offered this explanation with righteous conviction, refusing to acknowledge any connection between the treasures and the Black Tiger Gang. Only then could he better express his, Wang Hao's, loyalty to the organization.
Look, I, Wang Hao, even dug up my own ancestral graves for the organization and contributed so many treasures. How could you still have the nerve to pursue that bit of bullshit over the Great Rejuvenation Pill?
"..."
Leader Zhao was speechless yet again, black lines covering his forehead. He truly did not know what to say to this fellow who could lie through his teeth with his eyes wide open!
"Was this sword from your family's ancestral graves too?"
Taking a deep breath, Leader Zhao waved the sword in front of Wang Hao, particularly the inscription near the end of the blade.
The four characters "Great Yuan's Prince Cheng" were clearly engraved on it. He knew nothing about this Prince Cheng, but the Great Yuan was a dynasty founded by the Mongol foreigners, and their Great Ming had been established by overthrowing it.
If this sword had been passed down through Wang Hao's family, then the lad's identity and bloodline would need a thorough investigation.
"That's natu-"
Wang Hao was about to agree, but when he saw the four characters on the blade, he hastily changed his tune and declared with righteous indignation, "This is a divine sword I happened to pick up by the river yesterday. I was going to present it to you when you returned, Leader, but that hateful thief Wang Heihu sent men to steal it. Your subordinate had no choice but to attack the Black Tiger Gang and take the divine sword back for you."
"..."
Leader Zhao was speechless once more. He had discovered that this subordinate's skin was probably thicker than the corner of a city wall, and his ability to lie through his teeth was practically heaven-defying.
"So you're saying your rampage through the Black Tiger Gang and the disruption in Chaoyang City are my fault?"
Leader Zhao looked gloomily at the subordinate whose whole style had changed and wondered why the fellow was so different from before.
Could the Great Rejuvenation Pill really be that miraculous?
"Your subordinate wouldn't dare!"
Wang Hao quickly lowered his head, though he had already made his meaning perfectly clear.
That's right, my rampage through the Black Tiger Gang and the disruption in Chaoyang City are your fault!
He had only realized it afterward. Although the Black Tiger Gang was a major power in Chaoyang City, it did not have the ability to obtain so much fierce fire oil, much less under the noses of all those big shots in the capital.
And the Black Tiger Gang's wealth was frighteningly substantial. Wang Heihu's small treasure chamber alone held goods worth no less than a million taels of silver. The gang's total assets had to be worth several million taels.
The Black Tiger Gang could never have amassed so much money on its own, so it had to have a big shot backing it.
Now that he had destroyed the Black Tiger Gang, the big shot behind it would surely set his sights on him. Naturally, he needed a shield.
And this Leader Zhao was just the right person.
"All right. For the sake of this divine sword, I'll shoulder this matter for you!"
With a sigh, Leader Zhao agreed to take it on.
The matter really was troublesome. He also knew who was backing the Black Tiger Gang, and under normal circumstances, even his father might not have been able to settle it by stepping in.
But now that the Black Tiger Gang had been exposed for hiding a large quantity of fierce fire oil, the nature of the matter was entirely different.
Chaoyang City was only a hundred li from the capital and was itself a major military stronghold, one of the capital's principal gateways.
What were they planning, hiding so much strategic material in such a sensitive place, and something as dangerous as fierce fire oil at that?
If the matter were blown up, it would certainly be enough to shake the imperial court, so the other party would never mention it. That made shouldering the matter no burden.
Of course, that was only because it was him. If a little shrimp like Wang Hao took his place, that big shot behind the scenes would certainly play him to death.