Chapter 16: Chapter 16
“You’re sure the Gang Leader is finished?”
Li Suifeng asked.
“Not sure. But it’s hardly a secret anymore.” Ye Qingmei shook her head. “Yue Changlong hasn’t shown his face in three years.”
SHFF SHFF!
Mid-conversation, hurried footsteps approached.
Ye Qingmei slipped into the side room without a word, pulling the door shut behind her.
KNOCK KNOCK!
The footsteps halted outside Li Suifeng’s courtyard. A rapping at the gate.
Li Suifeng crossed to the entrance and pulled it open.
Liu Yuan stood on the other side, panic stamped across every feature.
“What happened?”
Li Suifeng frowned. He’d visited the docks that morning. Business had been light, so he’d come home for the afternoon. He hadn’t expected Liu Yuan to show up after nightfall.
Liu Yuan sidled close and dropped his voice:
“Boss Li!”
“I was just leaving the Cuihong Pavilion when I realized my house key was back at the dock. I went to grab it — and the men guarding the dock weren’t ours!”
“They had blood on their clothes. The brothers on watch… something’s happened to them!”
Liu Yuan was trembling as he spoke. He’d clearly been shaken badly.
【Ding!】
【Someone has the audacity to take a dump on the tiger’s head. Kill every last intruder at the docks. Reward: Phantom Steps (maxed).】
Phantom Steps?
A qinggong technique was exactly what he’d been missing.
“Go find Chen Shan. Bring the brothers and meet me at the docks. I want to see who has the balls to pull this on my turf.”
Cold light flickered in Li Suifeng’s eyes.
“Right!”
“Be careful, Boss Li!”
Liu Yuan couldn’t help adding the warning before he left.
Ever since Li Suifeng had taken over the docks, the brothers’ lives had improved considerably. They could even afford to visit Fireworks Alley two or three times a month now. The last thing Liu Yuan wanted was for Boss Li to get himself killed.
“I’m heading to the docks!”
Li Suifeng called into the courtyard, then took off.
“I’m going with you!” Ye Qingmei’s voice carried from inside.
“Don’t bother. Your injuries aren’t healed. I don’t feel like babysitting.”
He was already gone without looking back.
…
Li Suifeng arrived in the vicinity of the docks.
The dock — which should have been shrouded in darkness at this hour — was blazing with torchlight.
Two men wearing Canal Gang uniforms stood guard at the entrance.
A closer look revealed bloodstains on their clothing.
Li Suifeng didn’t tip his hand. The dock had more than one way in. These people clearly weren’t familiar with the layout — two of the smaller paths had been left unblocked.
He slipped through undetected.
What he found was dozens of men in Canal Gang garb hauling sack after sack of goods onto a large riverboat.
Now he understood why they’d risked using the Linshui Docks.
The volume of cargo was enormous — they’d even brought several dozen mules to haul it.
Out in the countryside, a ship this size would have run aground before reaching the bank. And without proper roads, moving this many goods to the riverbank would have been a logistical nightmare.
THUD!
Li Suifeng slammed one foot against the ground and launched himself skyward, arcing toward the ship.
“Who goes there — halt!”
“Trespassing on Canal Gang docks — you’re asking to die!”
The intruders were sharp. Alert.
WHOOSH!
WHOOSH!
WHOOSH!
The instant they spotted Li Suifeng’s silhouette, four or five crossbows fired simultaneously, bolts streaking toward him in midair.
“This is my turf, and you’re asking who I am?”
Li Suifeng’s eyes were ice.
Still airborne, he shot both hands out and snatched every bolt from the air.
“Right back at you!”
A thunderous shout, and the bolts reversed course — each one punching through a crossbowman’s chest with surgical precision.
“He’s a master!”
“Tough target!”
Cries of alarm rippled through the dock.
“What are you panicking for?”
“Keep loading! We’ll deal with him!”
Two saber-wielding men in their thirties barked orders and closed in on Li Suifeng’s landing zone from either side.
They struck almost simultaneously, blades descending the instant his feet touched the ground.
CLANG!
CLANG!
Two crisp rings.
Two bare hands seized two expertly forged sabers — then flicked them casually. Both blades snapped clean in half.
SQUELCH!
A flash of steel.
The broken halves buried themselves in their former wielders’ chests. Neither man even had time to scream before they hit the ground.
“The Twin Blades of West Mountain are down!”
“We can’t stop him!”
The two eighth-rank fighters had clearly held some standing among the group. Their instant deaths left everyone around them too terrified to make a move.
“Kill him!”
“There’s only one of him!”
Someone shouted from the crowd.
Over a dozen men charged Li Suifeng at once.
CRUNCH!
CRUNCH!
Every swing of the Great Tombstone-Crushing Palm claimed a life.
Two breaths. Over a dozen bodies lay scattered across the dock, still and silent.
“Mr. Pu is here!”
“Mr. Pu is a seventh-rank master — this bastard is done for!”
Cheers erupted from the remaining men.
A gaunt, sinister-faced old man leaped from the ship and landed a short distance from Li Suifeng.
“Boy — interfere with the Holy Sect’s business, and you die!”
Mr. Pu raised both hands. His fingers turned a dark blue-black, curling into hooked talons that raked toward Li Suifeng like an eagle’s claws.
“To push Eagle Claw technique this far — I’ll give you that much credit.”
Li Suifeng’s voice was mild.
He raised his own hands and engaged Mr. Pu — Great Tombstone-Crushing Palm against Eagle Claw.
They exchanged several moves.
WHAM!
A palm strike connected. Mr. Pu staggered back several paces.
PFFT!
A spray of blood from his mouth. His blue-black talons trembled visibly.
“How could you possibly have trained external hardening to this degree?”
Disbelief consumed his face.
His Eagle Claw technique — his pride and joy — had left nothing but white scratches on this man’s body.
Meanwhile, his own claws were shaking. The bones were damaged. For the foreseeable future, those hands were useless.
“Red Lotus Sect?”
Li Suifeng swept his gaze across the remaining men.
He already knew the answer. Asking was just confirmation.
“Ha ha ha!”
“Since you know who we are, you should know what happens to people who cross us!”
Mr. Pu laughed boldly.
But beneath the bravado, his mind was racing. He’d been utterly helpless against this man. Sun Yue and Lin En had been killed by a palm-technique expert. Could it have been the same person?
“Looks like you’ve already figured it out.”
Li Suifeng smiled faintly. His foot flicked upward, launching a fallen steel saber into his hand.
CRUNCH!
The saber shattered. The fragments scattered outward like a burst of deadly blossoms, raking across the dock in every direction.
“You—”
SHUNK!
SHUNK!
SHUNK!
In an instant, nearly twenty men were perforated by shrapnel. Li Suifeng’s raw strength was monstrous — many fragments punched clean through one body and into the person behind.
“Run!”
“Go, go, go!”
Someone screamed. The remaining dozen or so scattered in every direction.
SHUNK!
The man at the front of the pack hadn’t made it more than a few steps before he crumpled. A bloody hole had appeared in his back.
SHUNK!
SHUNK!
One after another, they dropped. Terror filled their dying eyes, but under Li Suifeng’s hidden-weapon barrage, not a single one made it a hundred meters.
“Where is Song Xian?” Li Suifeng stood over Mr. Pu, his voice soft.
“Tell me, and I’ll make it quick.”
“Otherwise, you get to sample my methods.”