Hong Fan's hands trembled with anger. He no longer wanted to waste words with Wu Shuangren:
"I'll ask one last time. Where is Wei Laohei?"
Beside him, Luo You stepped forward, fixing Wu Shuangren with an icy killing intent.
Wu Shuangren raised the bundle in his hand. "The two thugs who persecuted Butcher Zhang's family the day before yesterday were later stopped by a constable who arrived at the scene. One of them actually attacked and gravely wounded the constable. Utterly deranged, with no regard for the law!"
"The reason I was late today was that I went to arrest the thug... I never expected that when I went to apprehend him, he would dare resist and try to kill me."
As he spoke, Wu Shuangren flung the bundle toward Hong Fan.
Smack!
The bundle hit the floor, rolled twice, and came undone, revealing the severed head inside.
"I have executed him on the spot!"
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38 Double Kill
The bloodied head was exposed before everyone, drawing a chorus of gasps.
The people around it instinctively backed away, but one figure rushed forward like a ghost and lifted the head from the floor with both hands.
Luo You.
The martial artist, whose skin was as fair as a woman's, had bloodshot eyes. His hands, which could steadily lift a stone lock weighing hundreds of jin, trembled slightly.
He and Wei Laohei were not related by blood, but both had been selected by the Mist Hidden Temple as children. They had trained in martial arts at the temple, grown up together, and endured all manner of torment and trials beyond the imagination of ordinary people. They had long been as close as brothers.
Luo You's hands, already faintly bluish, now turned completely blue-black. All ten fingers swelled thicker, as though engorged with blood!
"I have established that, besides the deceased Wei Laohei, you also went to Butcher Zhang's home the day before yesterday."
Wu Shuangren's voice rang out again. Looking at Luo You, he said, word by word, "Will you surrender, or will you resist arrest like your accomplice?"
Luo You set down the head and rose to face Wu Shuangren again. His mouth split into a smile uglier than a grimace of grief. "That's right, I was there that day too..."
"Luo You!"
Hong Fan barked, cutting him off.
At the sight of Wei Laohei's head, his mind had gone blank for a moment.
What shocked him most was not that Wu Shuangren had managed to kill Wei Laohei, but-
How had he dared?!
He had already brought all of Bo County to heel. What gave a seventeen-year-old youth, a mere head constable, the right?
Only when Wu Shuangren spoke again did Hong Fan come to his senses.
The situation had slipped out of his control. He had to tread carefully.
But... the situation was not the only thing beyond his control. There was Luo You as well.
Luo You could not hear a word Hong Fan was saying. Right now, he had eyes only for Wu Shuangren!
"Very good. You admitted it yourself. Will you surrender now?"
"I!"
"Resist!"
"Arrest!"
At the word "I," Luo You had already rushed up to Wu Shuangren like a ghost.
At "resist," his right hand formed a claw and raked toward Wu Shuangren's face with a bloody wind!
Wu Shuangren turned sideways to evade, and as his opponent uttered the final word, "arrest," he drew his saber and slashed upward.
Swish-
Bang!
The blade sliced through the hem of Luo You's clothes. His right hand struck a pillar of the restaurant, gouging five deep claw marks into it and sending wood chips flying.
The two were locked in combat in the blink of an eye, and the people around them hurriedly moved aside.
Luo You's long hair hung loose, his expression was savage, and his hands were blue-black. Moving with astonishing speed, he truly looked like a fiend come to claim a life!
Shadows of his opponent's claws completely enveloped Wu Shuangren's upper body, like a black cloth thrown over him. It seemed he would be torn to pieces at any moment!
Yet he merely turned, stepped, and leaned back... shifting about within a small area and occasionally striking with his saber, he calmly broke Luo You's offensive.
"County Commandant Xu, make Wu Shuangren stop at once!"
Hong Fan's face was livid as he turned to Xu Jing beside him.
In terms of both status and martial skill, Xu Jing was the only person present who could stop Wu Shuangren.
Wu Dongrong and Liao Yu, not far away, did not go forward to help Wu Shuangren. Instead, they kept their eyes fixed on Xu Jing.
Xu Jing seemed to notice. He glanced at the two men first, then turned to Hong Fan and said:
"Young Master Hong must have heard him just now. Your subordinate admitted with his own mouth to the crime he committed the day before yesterday. Wu Shuangren is apprehending him to bring him to justice. Why would I stop him?"
"You!"
Hong Fan's eyes widened in fury. He turned to the county magistrate, He Zhixu, and lowered his voice. "Lord He, have you thought this through? Do you really intend to make an enemy of the Mist Hidden Temple?!"
The situation was urgent, and he could no longer concern himself with appearances.
He Zhixu had not actually figured out what was happening either.
Today was clearly supposed to be the day Hong Fan helped Wu Shuangren rise to power. How had the two suddenly fallen out?
To the point of drawing blades against each other?
He Zhixu pondered for a moment, then said to Hong Fan, "Young Master Hong, why don't you first have your subordinate stop? There may be some misunderstanding here. We can all sit down and clear things up."
Hong Fan gritted his teeth and rushed to a window, looking down.
When he entered Bo County, he had brought more than a dozen attendants in addition to the two experts, Wei Laohei and Luo You.
Those attendants were not qualified to sit at the table and eat today, so they were all standing guard outside the building.
Hong Fan had intended to summon them all upstairs and first seize control of the situation by force.
But when he leaned out the window and looked down, a chill ran through him from head to toe-
Dozens of saber-wielding constables had surrounded Moxian Tower, keeping his attendants outside.
They were ready to flip the table long ago!
Hong Fan went pale, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead as he forced himself to calm down.
The city was different from the countryside.
In broad daylight, with so many eyes watching, if he had his men openly fight the authorities, there would be no room left to maneuver!
"Luo You, stop!"
After weighing the pros and cons, Hong Fan chose to stop Luo You.
But Luo You had gone completely mad with fighting and would not listen at all.
Hong Fan was filled with hatred!
Luo You attacked without defending, willing even to trade injury for injury, his speed increasing as the fight went on.
Yet the pressure he put on Wu Shuangren was actually less than Wei Laohei's.
The strength of an Internal Skill had some connection to one's innate physique. Thus, the stone locks lifted in the martial examinations were not a fixed weight, but were determined according to the martial artist's own body weight.
Wei Laohei had a stronger innate physique, while Luo You had an innate deficiency. Their body weights differed by nearly a factor of two, so naturally there was also a great disparity in the strength their Internal Skills could unleash.
The enhancement granted by [Match for One Person] improved "technique" first, then "stats." So against an opponent like Luo You, whose strength was not outstanding but whose moves were superior, Wu Shuangren had an easier time fighting.
Luo You suddenly darted to one side, seized a wooden table laden with bowls, chopsticks, and tea in one hand, and hurled it at Wu Shuangren.
Clatter-
Bowls and chopsticks flew through the air, tea spilled out, and the wooden table hurtled toward Wu Shuangren with a rush of wind!
Wu Shuangren swung his saber and split the flying table down the middle.
In the instant his view was blocked, Luo You had concealed himself behind the table. When it split open, he thrust both hands forward and seized Wu Shuangren's saber!
His claw technique was a hard-body martial art similar to the Iron Cloth Shirt, except that it was concentrated on one part of the body rather than the whole. This made his hands even harder, allowing them to meet blades head-on.
Wu Shuangren had just split the table, and the force and speed of his blade had inevitably decreased. It was the perfect opportunity!
Luo You exerted force with both hands, intending to snap the saber outright and leave Wu Shuangren without a weapon.
He could tell that most of his opponent's martial skill lay in the saber. Without it, he could butcher the man and avenge Laohei!
But just as Luo You seized the saber, Wu Shuangren released its hilt.
He stepped forward, leaned in, and held his hand flat like a blade, chopping Luo You across the throat!
Only then did the bowls, chopsticks, and teapot that had flown out hit the floor.
The sound of porcelain bowls shattering mingled with the sound of bones breaking.
Luo You's eyes widened, and the strength abruptly left his hands.
Wu Shuangren brought his right hand down in the same motion and slammed his palm heavily into Luo You's chest.
Luo You flew backward, and Wu Shuangren seized the chance to pull his saber from his hands, drawing a spray of blood.
Bang!
Luo You crashed hard into a pillar, making the entire floor of the second story shake.
Clutching his throat, he slid down the pillar into a sitting position. His body twitched, and blood poured ceaselessly from his mouth.
"Urgh... kill... kill..."
After a dozen breaths or so, the expert trained by the Mist Hidden Temple breathed his last!
39 Glory
"..."
Moxian Tower's second floor fell deathly silent.
Those who knew nothing of martial arts had been frightened by the force Wu Shuangren displayed in killing a man on the spot.
Those who knew martial arts were even more astonished by Wu Shuangren's strength!
The ghostly footwork, blinding speed, and powerful claws Luo You had just displayed made the martial artists present feel their scalps tingle and their hearts grow cold just watching.
Probably none of the so-called three great experts of Bo County could have matched Luo You!
Yet such a powerful man had been killed by Wu Shuangren so easily?
Even more chilling was that Wu Shuangren had already killed one man first, meaning he had slain two great experts in quick succession!
Hong Fan looked at Luo You, dead and slumped on the floor. Rather than feeling grief or regret over his death, his face was full of resentment.
Luo You had disobeyed orders and put him on the back foot!
Now he had no one left at his side whom he could use.
"Young Master Hong."
Wu Shuangren looked at Hong Fan. "Both of these men were your subordinates. Did you know what they had done?"
Before today, if Wu Shuangren had dared question Hong Fan like this, Hong Fan could have simply had someone slap him!
But now there was Wei Laohei's head, followed by Luo You, who had just breathed his last.
Faced with Wu Shuangren's questioning, Hong Fan's expression stiffened, and he scarcely dared meet the other man's eyes.
He forced himself to remain calm. "Naturally... I knew nothing!"
"Oh?"
Wu Shuangren did not dwell on the question, but continued, "Then... not long ago, Mo Family Village was massacred by a gang of mounted bandits. Did that have anything to do with you, Young Master Hong?"