The Treacherous Jianghu

The slightly plump man inside the carriage seemed to force himself to calm down a little, carefully crawling out of the carriage.

He had heard of the Thirteen Bandits of Yan, knowing them to be a group of highly skilled and utterly ruthless criminals. When dealing with such thugs, an ordinary person was best not to be too stubborn.

"Xiang, Xiang the Hero! That Blue Jade is really just a heirloom jade pendant from my family. What miraculous properties could it have? Do you want money or jewels? I can give you both, I guarantee you'll be satisfied, how about it?"

As Wei Wuwei spoke, he took out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his forehead. Even in the dim light, the panic written all over his face was plain to see. Glancing at the two guards, already bleeding from wounds and with blades at their necks, his expression worsened.

Seven fierce bandits surrounded the carriage, while Xiang Feng only stared expressionlessly at this beardless, overweight man.

"Money is certainly good. How about this: five thousand taels for the three of your lives? As for the Blue Jade, whether it's truly miraculous or just overrated, I'm taking it no matter what!"

As he spoke, Xiang Feng stepped forward one pace at a time toward Wei Wuwei.

"Xiang, Xiang the Hero! I really... I, although I am already the head of the Wei Family, I was only appointed by the Old Master! The Blue Jade won't be passed to me until next month on the fifteenth, after the family banquet... It really isn't on me!"

Xiang Feng let out a cold smile.

"Hmph. So you want to die?"

In truth, whether the Blue Jade was on Wei Wuwei or not, these three were already dead. But Wei Wuwei still had some use for now, tied to another item.

Watching the approaching thug, Wei Wuwei trembled in fear, frantically reaching for his collar.

"No, no, no, no! Let's talk this out, let's talk this out! The Blue Jade is on me, on me!"

As he spoke, his pudgy hand fumbled with a red rope around his neck, pulling a deep blue jade pendant out from his collar.

"Here... This, this is it..."

Blue jade pendants were rare to begin with, and this one seemed extraordinary the moment it was seen, standing out even in the twilight gloom.

Xiang Feng couldn't help but show a hint of delight. Watching the slightly trembling fat hand extend toward him, he instinctively reached out to take the pendant.

But the moment he touched the jade, Wei Wuwei, who had been drenched in cold sweat and scared to death, suddenly flicked three silver needles from the fingertips of his right hand. With lightning speed, "puff, puff, puff," the three needles struck Xiang Feng's chest in a triangular pattern.

In the same instant, his left hand gathered force and slammed a vicious palm strike into Xiang Feng's chest, exploding a layer of airwaves.

"Boom!"

Without even holding onto his Goose Feather Saber, Xiang Feng was sent flying two zhang away, his body stiff as it crashed to the ground.

"Eldest Brother!"

"Eldest Brother!"

As the other bandits cried out in alarm, Wei Wuwei had completely shed his earlier cowardice. Fierce as if he had become a different person, while the others were still stunned, he charged like a galloping stallion toward the bandits holding the two guards at knifepoint.

"Get lost!"

Dodging the two instinctive slashes from the bandits, he unleashed surging palm force left and right.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

The two bandits were sent flying, bodies bent backward. In the same moment, this seemingly overweight man chased after them at a terrifying speed, landing two more palm strikes while they were still in midair before they hit the ground.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

"Pfft..."

"Pfft..."

Two formidable bandits sprayed blood, flying three zhang away and crashing into the nearby woods, their lives snuffed out.

"Seventh! Eighth!"

"Bastard!"

"This beast is venomous!"

The change happened in the blink of an eye. Before the others could even react, the leader of the Thirteen Bandits was severely wounded, and two bandits were dead.

"Ugh... heh... ugh..."

Xiang Feng struggled to stand up but couldn't muster any strength. A strong nausea and numbness and itching overwhelmed him—clearly the three needles were coated with a potent poison.

"Wei, Wei Wuwei... you... you can... heh..."

The poison acted with terrifying speed, and combined with that palm strike penetrating his internal organs, even as Xiang Feng forced his True Qi, he couldn't form a complete sentence.

"Can use martial arts?"

Wei Wuwei turned to look at him.

"Surprised? Annoyed? Unwilling? Hehehehe, I just love seeing that expression on your face!"

Wei Wuwei's laugh was almost smug. Though he seemed arrogantly to let the remaining bandits gather around Xiang Feng and feed him a pill, he was actually recovering his Qi himself, slowly closing in on the wary bandits.

The two injured guards, though equally shocked, had regrouped and come to stand by Wei Wuwei's side.

"Without you, Xiang Feng, the remaining four bandits are no match for me. Now I'll give you a chance to live: tell me who told you about my Wei Family's heirloom Blue Jade. Is it the same person who told you about the Fan Family's Sword Intent Scroll?"

"Heh... cough... And if I tell you, you'll let us go?"

Xiang Feng replied mockingly, while circulating his Qi to dissolve the medicinal power.

"I, Wei Wuwei, am nothing like you scum of the martial world. I act with honor and always keep my word!"

Having witnessed Wei Wuwei's shameless act of playing weak, using poisoned needles, and chasing down his foe with a fatal palm strike—a series of utterly unscrupulous moves—Xiang Feng and the other bandits would be hard-pressed to believe a single word from his mouth now.

The sudden turn of events ahead left Ji Yuan stunned as well. He never expected this man surnamed Wei to be a wolf in sheep's clothing. Honor, his foot! Truly, the martial world was treacherous!

Wei Wuwei, for his part, felt a hearty and uninhibited release. Having played the ordinary man for so long, the more he suppressed himself, the more satisfying the explosion. Seeing Xiang Feng trying to stall for time, he wasted no more words. His body shifted from stillness to motion, both hands carrying a fierce palm wind.

"Follow me and cripple the other four bandits first, then we'll interrogate Xiang Feng!"

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

With their replies, the two guards joined Wei Wuwei in charging at the several bandits of Yan.

Just then, "Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh"—three sounds of breaking air rang out.

Forcing Wei Wuwei and the three to dodge the hidden weapons, two figures in dark blue night-robes leaped out from the woods on the other side, stepping lightly over bushes and branches before landing softly before Wei Wuwei and the others.

Seeing this display of lightness skill, Wei Wuwei's pupils contracted, and tension gripped him instantly. There were two more experts of unknown depth—and why hadn't they joined the siege from the start?

"Last time we lost the Sword Intent Scroll, and now we've fallen into Wei Wuwei's hands again. The Thirteen Bandits of Yan are worse than useless. If we hadn't followed, you'd probably be caught in Wei Wuwei's grip!"

"Finish this quickly. We have our own matters to attend to!"

One of them finished speaking and struck out with a ghostly step, pointing a finger at Wei Wuwei, while the other attacked the two guards.

Wei Wuwei retreated frantically but couldn't evade the sharp edge. He had no choice but to swing his palm to meet it, finger and palm clashing.

A "pfft" sound, like puncturing a water bag.

Biting back the pain, he kicked off hard with his leg, flipping his slightly plump body backward through the air to escape. His peripheral vision caught sight of his right palm, already pierced through.

'Mother, I'm not getting out of this today!'

The thought had barely risen when, upon landing, Wei Wuwei suddenly noticed the man's eerie steps had already reached him. He kept retreating in short, frantic steps with the momentum of his backward jump, but the man clung like a shadow, another finger pointing straight at his eye—nowhere to dodge!