Tap, tap, tap...
The ferry came ashore, and the five disembarked one after another.
Li Yi walked forward in his cloak, scanning the derelict boats on the lakeshore. Hearing his subordinates complain, he said in a low voice:
"Orders came from above. Just follow them. Why all the nonsense?"
As one of the Twenty-Eight Stars, Li Yi had spent over a decade cultivating his position and had several trusted confidants.
The four cultists accompanying him, however, also had public identities. They had repeatedly vanished without explanation to come and help, only to come up empty-handed several times. Explaining themselves when they returned was bound to be difficult, and now they all had complaints:
"After these past few months, we've practically helped Gold-Chasing Gentleman into the Third Rank. All of us together can't beat him. Even if we corner him, what good will it do?"
Li Yi reassured them. "Incense Masters Fox and Rabbit are both at the Dark Goods Wharf this time. They're formidable figures of the Third Rank. As long as we find a trace and send a signal, they can come to our aid in moments."
The cultists were deeply skeptical, but said nothing more. When they arrived at the shipyard, they looked around and asked:
"Where's Incense Master Leopard? Why is nobody here?"
Li Yi frowned slightly as well. After looking around, he turned his back on the cultists, walked a few steps away, and took out a jade token to tap out a message:
"Where are you?"
Writing soon appeared on the token, which had a grid pattern on both sides:
"Taking a shit. Wait a moment."
?
Li Yi frowned, nearly cursing his mother.
But word that the Yong Capital branch had been wiped out had yet to arrive, so Li Yi suspected nothing and continued:
"I'll keep watch in the alley behind the auction house later. You go with Leopard to Li's Teahouse. There are too many eyes there, so Gold-Chasing Gentleman is least likely to go, but once the goods are in place, don't even blink..."
"Even if he really does come today, we won't be able to keep our eyes on him. Just don't punish us afterward, Incense Master..."
"If not this time, then the next. Stand by the river often enough, and how can you keep your shoes from getting wet..."
Meanwhile, behind a building not far away.
Ye Xingge leaned against the wall, listening to the conversation. Things were going so smoothly that he felt a little uneasy!
After all, judging by their conversation, the transaction site and even the people involved were all at the Dark Goods Wharf. Once he killed these men and went over there, even if he couldn't catch Gold-Chasing Gentleman, he might have a chance to kill Heart Moon Fox.
Then the matter would be settled!
If Gold-Chasing Gentleman and the Return to Origin Cult were so easy to deal with, could they have survived in the jianghu for so many years?
Ye Xingge pondered briefly, then brought the little yellow strip to his lips and asked in a very low voice:
"How far is the Dark Goods Wharf from here?"
Hongyu crouched on the second floor of a derelict boat, her eyes fixed on Tail Fire Tiger among the group. She said quietly:
"A little over ten li. Get on the boat as soon as you finish killing them. Don't let him send a message with his jade talisman, and we'll definitely reach the Dark Goods Wharf before word does."
Ye Xingge nodded slightly, deciding to kill them first and worry about the rest later. He took a small black sphere from his waist and gave its red-phosphorus fuse a slight pull, producing sparks.
Sizzle, sizzle~
A dozen or so meters away.
Li Yi was giving orders when he heard the faint hiss of a fuse. He frowned and quickly looked toward the earthen house nearby.
The four cultists fell silent at once, only to see:
Whoosh~
An inconspicuous sphere sailed over the roof ridge and came above their heads. Then:
Bang~
A muffled bang sounded overhead. Thick black smoke poured toward the ground like a sea of black clouds, turning the area for several zhang around them into a lightless black prison in an instant.
The Heavenly Maiden Scatters Flowers looked the same as a smoke bomb, but smoke bombs made almost no noise and would not draw the attention of people farther away.
The four cultists had barely looked up before the thick smoke engulfed them, throwing them into confusion:
"Who's there..."
"Run..."
At the same time, the hum of a powerful crossbow bolt cutting through the air came from the second floor of the pleasure boat, aimed straight at Li Yi in the middle of the group.
Whoosh-
As one of the Twenty-Eight Stars, Li Yi was clearly a good deal stronger than Winnowing Basket Water Leopard. Hearing that something was wrong, he pulled a cultist beside him over as a shield and ducked behind him, blocking the shot from above.
Pfft-
The bolt pierced the thick smoke and the cultist's chest, its bloodstained tip stopping just short of the space between Li Yi's brows!
A Divine Arm Crossbow?!
Li Yi's hair stood on end. Knowing he had been ambushed by the imperial court, he immediately held the cultist up as a shield and fled for his life toward the town.
But just then.
Clang!
A blade left its sheath, drawing a streak of cold light!
As he threw the smoke bomb, Ye Xingge had already emerged from around the corner with his saber. Seeing a figure burst from the smoke, he stamped forward like a tiger pouncing on its prey. Midway, his saber left its sheath in a half-moon arc and slashed straight at Li Yi's waist.
Clang-
Li Yi had already known someone was behind the house, so his response was not particularly rushed. As the saber flashed toward him, he swept his own blade up with a reverse-handed slash and used the opening to rush forward.
But at the same time, a chilling sound came from behind him!
Rumble-
After his horizontal slash, Ye Xingge had yet to break stride when he raised the short dagger in his left hand and pointed it at the figure running wildly away.
With the slightest movement of his thoughts, the "Ravine-Leaping Tiger Jian" in his hand seemed to unleash a powerful electric current that spread through his limbs and bones!
His muscles and Qi channels were instantly squeezed to their limits, and his body shot forward at several times his usual speed. The force was so great that a tearing pain shot through his muscles and bones, and the Qi channels throughout his body swelled painfully.
Ye Xingge himself sprang explosively forward, becoming an afterimage bearing a cold gleam across the lakeshore. Even his vision blurred for an instant!
Swish-
By the time he could see clearly again, the fleeing Tail Fire Tiger was right in front of him.
The White Tiger dagger in his hand plunged into the man's back, piercing five inches through a lung before stopping at its tiger-head guard!
Pfft-
The burst of speed had been too fast, and it was Ye Xingge's first time using it, so even he had failed to react in time. Realizing the blade had entered flesh, he immediately tried to twist the dagger and shred his opponent's organs.
But as an incense master of Black Dragon Island, Tail Fire Tiger surely had some resources. The moment the dagger pierced his chest and back, his black cloak suddenly ballooned with an explosive bang.
The shock sent even the sand on the ground rippling outward in a ring.
Ye Xingge was blasted back, his dagger drawing a line of blood through the air. Even the black smoke behind him was dispersed by the force, revealing three cultists wildly swinging their sabers.
With his life hanging by a thread and his internal organs gravely injured, Tail Fire Tiger did not fall. Instead, he pushed his speed to the limit and tried to rush toward the distant town.
Whoosh-
But at the same time, the sound of a powerful crossbow bolt cutting through the air came again.
Aboard the battered pleasure boat, Hongyu had already jumped onto the deck. With one foot on the railing, she braced the Divine Arm Crossbow with her knee and left hand and drew the string with her right, calling out a warning:
"The Gang-Shaking Ring. He can't use it a second time so soon. Just kill him."
As her words fell, another bolt a foot and a half long tore through the air, boring a swirling hole through the dispersing black smoke. Li Yi staggered as he raised his saber and knocked it down.
Blasted away, Ye Xingge sprang up as soon as he landed and gave chase at full speed, saber in hand.
Whoosh, whoosh-
Hongyu drew the string with astonishing speed. Bolts skimmed overhead, making little noise as they cut through the air, yet enough to make one's hair stand on end.
With a dagger through his chest, Li Yi was already a dead man. After running only a few zhang, he was struck in the back by a powerful bolt piercing through the smoke. With a muffled "pfft," it punched through his back, its bloodstained tip emerging from his chest.
"Cough-"
Li Yi staggered and fell facedown on the sand, sliding forward several steps. His mouth full of blood, he reached into his robes for his jade token, trying to warn his superiors.
But Ye Xingge was chasing him at full speed. Though his muscles trembled slightly from the Ravine-Leaping Tiger squeezing them to their limits, he still sprinted with all his might and launched himself into a flying leap.
In midair, he spun his saber into a reverse grip. As he landed, the blade plunged into Tail Fire Tiger's left arm, then twisted.
Crack~
Bone and flesh came apart. Before Li Yi's left hand could get a firm grip on the jade token, the entire hand was severed. He immediately let out a scream of agony:
"Ah-!"
But the sound cut off as soon as it left his mouth.
Ye Xingge drove his saber into the back of the man's head, ending his life instantly. He quickly rolled the corpse over, searched along the left hand, and picked up the jade pendant to inspect it.
The Dragon Tail Talisman belonged to the Tail mansion. The token was slightly thicker, with a grid pattern on both sides, and was naturally used to contact those above and below him.
Only after seeing nothing amiss with the token did Ye Xingge breathe a sigh of relief and turn to look behind him.
On the pleasure boat.
Seeing that the target had been dealt with, Hongyu had already swung the Divine Arm Crossbow around and aimed it below:
Click~whoosh-
Click~whoosh-
The three remaining cultists, their vision obscured by smoke and hearing the bolts cut through the air, had independently darted behind piles of debris for cover. Even now, none of them understood what was happening.
Though the lingering smoke obscured her view, Hongyu located them by sound and never missed. Every bolt pierced wooden boards and debris, going straight for a head or neck. After just three shots, the lakeshore fell silent.
After a glance around, Hongyu raised the Divine Arm Crossbow and leaped down from the boat.
"We can't keep this quiet for long. Hurry to the Dark Goods Wharf."
With that, she nimbly leaped aboard a pleasure boat by the lakeshore.
Seeing this, Ye Xingge thought that Great Beauty had more going for her than her reliable boobs; she really did handle things cleanly and efficiently.
He wasted no time either, quickly searching the bodies for their belongings before mangling the dagger wound to keep the Ravine-Leaping Tiger from being exposed.
Once he was finished, Ye Xingge raced to the lakeside, waded into the water and pushed the boat away from shore, then vaulted aboard. In the blink of an eye, they vanished into the night.
Splash, splash~
The ambush that killed the five, from the smoke bomb going off to their departure by boat, had taken no more than a minute.
The smoke bomb and the powerful crossbow had made little noise, and at a distance of five li from Lake Mouth Town, they would normally have been hard to notice.
But people of the jianghu were sensitive to the clash of steel, and Lake Mouth Town, as a central area of the jianghu, had no shortage of experts.
Before the black smoke had dispersed, Hall Master Qian Zhong, who was stationed in Lake Mouth Town, was the first to lead his men to the vicinity.
Seeing five corpses lying on the deathly silent lakeshore, Qian Zhong flew into a rage:
"Who caused trouble here?"
A disciple behind him sniffed, finding the smell acrid and traces of crossbow bolts on the ground. He frowned and said:
"It seems the people from the Heaven-Observing Pavilion were conducting business here. What should we do?"
Forgetful River Mouth was a jianghu marketplace with a strict rule against drawing weapons. Violators had their hands and feet cut off.
But when the authorities were catching criminals and conducting business, it was plainly inappropriate for them to publicly seize officers of the law and cut off their hands and feet. Besides, the Heaven-Observing Pavilion had a First Rank old devil holding the fort; it was no ordinary government office.
Realizing the matter was tricky, Qian Zhong turned and asked:
"Which blind fool let this pack of embroidered-robed lackeys in? Couldn't they recognize a Divine Arm Crossbow?"
"Uh... I don't know. The people from the Heaven-Observing Pavilion are highly skilled. If they slipped in on their own, the men below couldn't have stopped them."
"First see who was killed. If they were wandering bandits with murder cases on their hands, keep the news quiet, find the people who did it, and chase them out. Don't scare all the island's guests away."
Several disciples obeyed, hurried to the corpse at the front, and removed its mask to take a look. Then their bodies jolted:
"Incense Master Li?!"
Qian Zhong had been considering how to handle the matter. Hearing this, his eyes flickered, and he hurried over to examine the body.
He found that the corpse, struck by several blades, really was the incense master in charge of the money house at the Dark Goods Wharf-and one of his own subordinates. He went red with rage on the spot:
"Damn it, they've gone too far..."
"Exactly. Killing our people on Black Dragon Island's turf..."
The men did not understand why Incense Master Li Yi had suddenly gone to the abandoned dockyard wearing a mask, only to be slaughtered by people from the imperial court.
But Incense Master Li had worked diligently, serving the gang for over twenty years. How could they not know whether he was loyal or treacherous?
Buying and selling stolen goods, lending at exorbitant interest, murdering and robbing, bullying men and taking women by force...
That was all dirty work he had done for the gang!
The authorities had come without a word, killed him, and run. If they didn't settle the matter, how many people would still dare risk their lives for the gang?
Not to mention that a place like the Dark Goods Wharf was a black market to begin with. If one of their own incense masters was killed and they didn't make a peep, would anyone from the jianghu dare come do business there afterward?
Beside himself with fury, Qian Zhong rose and shouted:
"Send word to the sect leader and every hall. Seal off Forgetful River Mouth and search them one by one!"
"Yes!"
Several disciples, also burning with anger, immediately accepted their orders and ran off.
Qian Zhong thought for a moment, then added:
"Don't say the Heaven-Observing Pavilion killed him. Say 'bandits' caused trouble here and killed Incense Master Li."
The disciples naturally understood what he meant.
If they said bandits had killed him, they could find and kill them, then claim they hadn't recognized them and had killed them by mistake. The other side hadn't given advance notice, so it would all be perfectly reasonable. However big the uproar, they would only have to pay a little silver in compensation.
But if they knew full well the killers were officers of the imperial court and still made a great show of hunting them down and killing them in revenge, the matter would not end well.
"Understood. We'll send word right away..."