Chapter 46: Chapter 46
The atmosphere in the room froze in an instant.
Shen Momo broke off into silence at once, her body trembling beyond her control.
Beside her, Madam Zheng’s face went pale, her eyes wide with fright, her voice tight:
“Dalang, this…”
The smile faded from Shen Xiuhan’s face, and a cold gleam passed across the depths of his eyes.
Truly…
It just wouldn’t end!
Placing the trembling Shen Momo back into her mother’s arms, Shen Xiuhan said in a low voice:
“Ma, look after Momo. I’ll handle whatever’s outside.”
“Dalang, be careful…”
Madam Zheng clutched her daughter, her voice shaking.
Shen Xiuhan gave her a reassuring look, then abruptly stood and pushed the door open.
Outside the bamboo-fenced yard.
Four or five burly, towering men in tight black combat garb — thick, knotted muscles bulging, short blades and daggers tucked at their belts — glared at him with savage eyes.
Shen Xiuhan’s gaze was as sharp as a blade. It swept rapidly over each of their faces.
The first four in front were all unfamiliar faces — ones he had never seen.
Only the tall, broad-shouldered man at the back, a thin twig clamped between his teeth and legs thick as pillars, made Shen Xiuhan’s eyes narrow slightly.
Him, of all people!
Back when Shen Xiuhan had caught silver-striped fish and gone to the fish exchange to sell them — this was the very man who had collected the stall fee.
‘Isn’t this fellow from the Golden Dragon Gang… so why is he calling himself Raging Waves now?’
Shen Xiuhan’s memory of him was very clear.
On the day he sold those fish, the wooden token at the man’s waist had clearly been carved with the character “Gao.”
But now, the wooden token hanging from his belt was of a wholly different style, and the character carved on it had become “Liu.”
Both surname and gang affiliation changed…
Could it be that these men were Golden Dragon Gang posing as something else?
Before Shen Xiuhan could think it through further, the man outside pounded impatiently on the gate, his voice coarse:
“Boy, what’re you dawdling for — you going to leave your uncles out here drinking the northwest wind?”
They had numbers on their side, and he didn’t yet know whether any were Manifest Strength experts. To keep them from using Madam Zheng and Shen Momo as leverage, he had to handle this carefully.
Shen Xiuhan piled a look of terror onto his face, quickly pulled open the courtyard gate, bowed at the waist, and smiled apologetically:
“Venerable masters, so late in the day — dare I ask what brings you here?”
“What brings us?”
The scar-faced man at the head gave a cold sneer and stepped into the yard.
The men behind him followed with no concern for courtesy, ringing Shen Xiuhan in.
Scarface folded his arms across his chest, gave him a sidelong look, and said gruffly:
“Boy, keep your eyes open!”
“From today on, Xiaojing Bay no longer answers to the Golden Dragon Gang. It’s been taken over by our Raging Waves. The spring-season tribute can be handed over to us brothers right now.”
“Spring-season… tribute?”
Shen Xiuhan feigned a blank stare, put on a flustered expression, wrung his hands and smiled apologetically:
“Venerable masters… the day for paying tribute hasn’t come yet. There’s no spare coin saved up at home. Could you gentlemen see your way to showing mercy and granting a few more days…”
Every quarter the Golden Dragon Gang collected “safety money” from every ward of the outer city.
Five qian per household — that is, five hundred wen.
Over a year, that came to two taels of silver, roughly half a year’s food for an ordinary tenant family.
This was precisely why the poor folk of the outer city, toiling without rest day after day, still went through life with bellies half-empty — some even selling sons and daughters.
“No money?”
Scarface smiled.
The smile, spread across the slash of the scar running over his face, looked particularly sinister.
He tilted his head, his gaze slipping past Shen Xiuhan and landing on the thatched hut behind, lit with dim yellow lamplight. His tone grew laden with meaning:
“If this old man remembers right… there’s a little sister in your household, isn’t there? If you really can’t scrape up the coin, handing her over to a covert brothel to pay the debt — your uncle here can arrange that well enough…”
Shen Xiuhan’s smile locked on his face.
He lowered his eyes and fell silent.
After a moment, as if resigning himself to fate, he fished four strings of large coins out of his robe and held them out.
This was the money he had gotten that very day from selling the ‘Azure Spike feathers.’
“This is all — only four hundred wen. The remaining one qian, this small one will scrape together and make up as quickly as possible…”
Scarface’s eyes lit up. He snatched the coins with a swipe of his hand and weighed them in his palm twice:
“Tsk, tsk — wouldn’t have thought it. You scrawny dirt-legged pauper, you’ve actually got some coin on you!”
He stuffed the money into his robe, and his face changed in an instant. With a swish he drew the short blade at his waist and roared:
“But this uncle doesn’t believe you!”
“Get back in the hut and bring out every last coin you’ve got hidden. I’m warning you — don’t make this old man search the place himself, or else…”
“Forget it!”
Outside the gate, the tall man chewing on the twig, who had not said a word all this while, suddenly spoke in a cold voice.
“Yo— ahem, Brother Liu — this kid’s carrying only that much on him. There’s bound to be plenty more stashed at home!”
“I said, forget it.”
“…Yes!”
Scarface was clearly unreconciled.
But the imposing pressure from the tall man outside was formidable; he could only grit his teeth and obediently step back.
That ‘Brother Liu’ spat out his twig and stared at Shen Xiuhan, speaking without hurry:
“Within three days, deliver the rest of the coin to Raging Waves’ gang headquarters. Delay it, and the consequences are on you.”
With that, he turned and strode off.
Seeing their boss had spoken, the several gang members could only throw Shen Xiuhan a few venomous glares before filing out of the courtyard after him.
“Lucky break for you, boy!”
Just as Scarface reached the gate, he turned back, spat fiercely, gave a cold snort, and sullenly followed.
Watching their retreating backs, Shen Xiuhan slowly clenched his fists.
Once they had gone far enough, Shen Xiuhan stepped back into the house and murmured a few instructions.
Then, he slipped out of the courtyard and stole silently after them.
…
“Fuck, they’ve moved out!”
“Fuck their mothers — lucky them!”
Under the veil of night, several men kicked in the gate of Chen An’s home, ransacked the place, and soon came stomping back out, cursing and spitting, their faces black with ill humor.
They then turned and headed toward Dongxi Ward.
On the way, Scarface slowed his pace, sidled up to Brother Liu, and murmured:
“Young Chief, that kid just now only had four qian on him — there’s definitely coin stashed away in that hut. How come you let him off so easily?”
Brother Liu…
More precisely, the Young Chief of the Golden Dragon Gang, said mildly:
“We’re wearing the Raging Waves’ skin to scrape in a windfall and stir up the waters while we’re at it. That’s already a neat piece of work — no need to lose the bigger picture over a little gain… Three days from now, when that kid delivers the rest of the tribute to Raging Waves — how do you think they’ll react?”
Scarface mulled it over for a while, shook his head, and said thickly:
“This subordinate doesn’t know… this subordinate only feels that Young Chief just now likely lost out on quite a few large coins!”
The Young Chief’s mouth twitched speechlessly at that. He abruptly halted, tilted his head, and sized Scarface up. Then, out of nowhere, he said:
“Scarface, how many years have you been working under our Golden Dragon Gang?”
Scarface blinked. Without stopping to think, he pounded his chest and swore his loyalty:
“Answering Young Chief — four full years!”
“From the very first day the Golden Dragon Gang planted its flag in Changyun County, I’ve been taken under the Old Chief’s wing, and all these years I’ve followed you through fire and boiling water, Young Chief!”
“Four years… that is some time.”
The corner of the Young Chief’s mouth curved into a shape of unclear meaning; his voice drifted:
“What if I told you — the Golden Dragon Gang was not founded four years ago. Ten years back, my father already set up this banner, over in Shitan County of Guangwu Commandery. Though of course, back then it wasn’t called Golden Dragon Gang yet…”
Scarface’s head filled with fog. He said blankly: “Thi— this, this is truly the first this subordinate is hearing of it…”
“Of course you wouldn’t know.”
The Young Chief laughed softly:
“Because… apart from me and my father, everyone who knew of this matter back then — is dead and gone, every last one.”
Hm?
What did he mean by that?
Scarface narrowed his eyes slightly, and his hand went instinctively to the short blade at his waist.
The Young Chief paid it no mind.
A composed smile rested at the corner of his mouth; he clasped his hands behind his back and, as if recounting some romantic anecdote, spoke at leisure:
“Back in Shitan County, I took a fancy to the young lady of a wealthy local household — she had just come of age. That figure, that face, tsk, tsk… so I carried her off and took her by force.”
He paused, licking his lips as though savoring the memory of some great feat:
“Later, I used her intimate undergarment to extort a ransom from her father.”
“In the process, word reached me that she had an elder brother at the Zhaixing Sect in Cangzhou — a direct-line disciple, no less, at peak Hidden Strength in cultivation… So I did it thoroughly — took the ransom and killed them all to settle the matter!”
“To wipe out every trace, to let not a breath leak out…”
The Young Chief looked at the four gang members ahead, who had sensed something was wrong and halted in alarm, suspicion and bewilderment writ on their faces as they turned around. The corner of his mouth lifted:
“That very night, my father and I, one by one, cut the throats of the thirty-six old brothers in the gang… Then we took the funds and traveled overnight to Changyun County… And that’s how the Golden Dragon Gang came to be.”
Silence!
Even the wind around them seemed to halt.
The thick muscle of Scarface’s face twitched; cold sweat the size of soybeans beaded on his forehead.
Even as stupid as he was, he grasped the underlying meaning behind this long-buried old tale!
“Yo— Young Chief…”
Scarface swallowed hard, instinctively stepping back a pace, his voice shaking:
“You… why are you telling me this? This subordinate is loyal and devoted to you and the Old Chief, with not a second heart!”
The four men ahead had caught on too. In a flurry they fumbled for the hilts at their waists.
“Loyal? In this world, only the loyalty of dead men can truly set a man’s mind at ease.”
The Young Chief turned his head, his eyes like a venomous snake that had fixed on its prey:
“Besides… I gave you your chance just now… If you’d been clever, I’d have had no problem letting you live. After all, training a loyal, useful dog takes no small effort.”
“A pity. You’re exactly as my father said — greedy and lecherous, dumb as a pig, with no training value at all. Keeping you alive… would only get in the way of my family’s great affairs!”
Scarface’s face cycled through shades of green and white. Gritting his teeth, he said: “Young Chief, let’s talk this through. We’ll scatter this very night, never come back to Changyun County — no, never come back to Nanxiang Commandery—”
“Too late!”
The Young Chief’s grin twisted savagely, his qi-blood surging up through his frame. “If you want to blame someone, blame Raging Waves…”
“That Zheng Dadao is no mere mutineer. His origin is murky, his methods reach to the heavens, and whoever’s behind him is no small matter.”
“As it happens, we’ve scraped enough silver out of Changyun County. We’ve only been waiting for that place to open… and then we can shift to a new territory and live free and easy.”
“But since we’re leaving, the old rules can’t be broken…”
As his voice fell, the Young Chief’s previously slack frame suddenly exploded forward, pouncing like a starving wolf on its prey. In the blink of an eye, he was bearing down on Scarface!
“Gao Nian, you—”
Scarface was instantly terrified beyond measure.
He had just reached to draw his blade when a thunderous roar exploded at his ear!
BANG!
Gao Nian’s right leg whipped up like an iron lash — instep taut, wrapped in violent qi-blood — and lashed savagely into Scarface’s temple!
Bang…
Krr-krk-krk…
Scarface’s head was snapped sideways; a cluster of fine bone-cracking sounds came from his neck, which was kicked into a grotesque angle.
Blood trickled out like little snakes from his nostrils, both eyes, both ears, and the corners of his mouth.
He hadn’t even managed a scream. Scarface fell stiff as a plank to the ground, dead on the spot.
“Fuck their mothers!”
“Gao Nian means to kill us all to silence us — we’re dead either way, brothers, let’s fight!”
The four remaining men’s eyes split with rage.
Despair turned into the savage fury of cornered beasts.
Bellowing, they drew their daggers and short blades, and charged at Gao Nian!
“Ants dare shake the heavens?”
Gao Nian sneered coldly. Qi-blood surged up; rather than retreating, he advanced. With a twist of his waist and hips, both legs lashed out in succession like whirling windmills!
BANG! BANG!
Two of the gang members who had charged in were struck as if by a wildly galloping horse to the chest.
Their ribcages caved inward, bodies flung back like sacks four or five paces, mouths gushing blood and shattered innards. They twitched twice and fell silent.
At this sight, the remaining two men were scared out of their wits — their livers and gallbladders split with fright. Cold sweat instantly soaked the backs of their robes through, as if they had plunged into an icy cellar of the nine-layered hells.
What fight was this?
This was a one-sided slaughter!
The gulf between ordinary men and a Manifest Strength martial artist was as vast as heaven and earth!
The two shared a terrified glance and, with wordless understanding, bellowed together:
“Split up and run!”
“Run?”
Gao Nian let out a laugh, qi-blood surging like a tide into his lower stance:
“A bunch of fools — the years you wasted in my Golden Dragon Gang!”
The Gao family’s inherited stance art, 『Twenty-Four Paths of Mountain-Collapsing Legs』, was fierce and overbearing in its forms, specialized for assault.
A defining feature was that it tempered the great sinews of the legs to extraordinary suppleness — making it equally formidable for pursuit and running down prey.
Let alone splitting up, even had these two sprouted wings, they were fated not to escape the death trap today!
And yet — at that very moment —
A ghost-like grey shadow lunged silently out from the shadows, accompanied by a great shout:
“What madman dares cause trouble on the turf of my Raging Waves?!”
At those words, the two Golden Dragon Gang men felt as though they were hearing the voice of heaven — beyond themselves with joy.
A last desperate surge wrung every ounce of strength from them; without once looking back, they plunged into the dark alleys of the night.
The grey shadow paid the two no mind. With a howling, peerlessly sharp rush of wind-splitting sound, it drove straight for Gao Nian’s face!
“Get out of my way!”
Gao Nian, shocked and furious, at once met it with a heavy kick!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
Fists and legs met; qi-blood crashed upon qi-blood!
In the space of a breath, the two exchanged three rounds!
The dull, heavy sound of flesh striking flesh echoed out, stirring up a ring of edged wind and dust.
The grey shadow’s arms flared open like wings, the figure tracing a light, nimble arc — like a dark eagle beating its wings in a circle — and landed steadily on its feet.
Gao Nian, by contrast, plowed a footprint an inch deep into the rammed earth of the road.
His chest heaved as he suppressed the qi-blood churning inside him, staring at the masked man as though facing a dire foe, and grated through his teeth:
“Who are you?”
“My father is Gao Fu of the Golden Dragon Gang — he stepped into Hidden Strength years ago! Are you truly set on a fight to the death with our Golden Dragon Gang?!”
Though Gao Nian’s words were fierce, his heart had grown extremely heavy.
‘This man’s qi-blood is thin, as though he’s only just entered Blood Tempering. But his strange method of channeling force can stand toe to toe with my Full Mastery of Blood Tempering without falling short…’
‘I cannot take him lightly!’
The grey shadow gave a cold snort and deliberately forced his voice into a hoarse, coarse rasp:
“This old one will not change his name standing nor his surname sitting — second Chief of Raging Waves, Shen Erdao! And what I’m here to beat down is precisely you Golden Dragon Gang scum!”
“You—”
Gao Nian was nearly driven to laugh from sheer anger.
But before he could waste more breath, the grey shadow had already dropped into a crouch.
The next instant, wrapped in peerlessly sharp qi-blood — like a god of death come to collect a soul — it rushed at him low along the ground!
So fast!
Gao Nian’s eyelid twitched. He twisted his body as if to flee.
The moment the grey shadow closed in, his left leg shot up like a venomous dragon from its lair. Drawing on the torque of his twisting waist, it lashed into a savage upward back-kick without warning!
『Twenty-Four Paths of Mountain-Collapsing Legs — Returning-Wind Kick』
This move was vicious and underhanded, aimed purely at vital points.
A common Blood Tempering martial artist caught by such a kick at such close range would have ended up dead or crippled.
But the grey shadow, midair, twisted and slipped in some uncanny way — like an agile fish darting through water — and drifted past in the narrowest of margins!
“Movement art!”
Gao Nian’s eyes bulged wide; his scalp prickled.
Though his voice cried out in shock, the variations of his kicks did not slow a hair.
His first strike having missed, he flowed into a rising knee, a sinking of the waist, both legs transformed into a sky of afterimages. Accompanied by shriek after shriek of wind, a storm of furious, chained kicks poured down toward the grey shadow’s face and chest!
『Twenty-Four Paths of Mountain-Collapsing Legs — Shadowless Kicks』
But the grey shadow swayed left, darted right, rose and sank — Gao Nian could not so much as brush the hem of the man’s robe!
‘On top of his force-channeling method, this man has a movement art as well. No good — I have to pull back!’
Alarms rang in Gao Nian’s heart.
With a great shout, his long leg thrust out like a great spear, trying to force the opponent back half a step so he could seize the moment to break away and flee.
『Twenty-Four Paths of Mountain-Collapsing Legs — Piercing-Spear Leg』
But unexpectedly, a blaze of fierce light suddenly burst from the eyes of the grey shadow that had been dodging all this while!
His right hand snapped into a claw; five streaks of grey light flashed from his fingertips, hooking straight toward Gao Nian’s right leg!
Like a sky-ranging dark eagle tearing its quarry apart alive.
The great hand’s five fingers, like hooks, drove clean into the flesh of Gao Nian’s thigh. Then, wrapped in violent qi-blood, they ripped savagely downward!
“AAARGH!!”
Gao Nian let out a shrill, agonized howl.
On his right thigh, five horrifying gashes had been torn open — deep enough to show bone, the flesh peeled back — and blood spurted from the wounds!
‘Not good!’
Gao Nian was beyond stricken!
With his thigh gravely wounded, eight parts out of ten of his strength were gone — even escaping would be near impossible!
No longer caring about his face, Gao Nian’s voice turned to outright begging:
“Venerable sir — no! Brother, spare this one’s life! If you let me go, our Golden Dragon Gang is willing to present you a hundred taels of fine silver with both hands…”
But the grey shadow gave him no opening. His left hand blurred into an afterimage, driving straight for the vital point at Gao Nian’s throat!
Gao Nian’s face twisted violently. He spoke rapidly:
“Brother, spare my life!”
“I have one great stroke of fortune to offer you — in this Changyun County there is a blessed—”
The grey shadow paid him no heed at all; the wind of the claw made the back of Gao Nian’s neck crawl!
“You push it too far!”
Gao Nian roared, pouring every last thread of qi-blood in his body into his right fist. Howling, he swung up, slamming his fist into the grey shadow’s chest!
Thud!
A muffled sound rang out.
It landed!
Wild joy surged in Gao Nian’s heart.
But the next instant, the joy on his face froze and curdled into endless despair.
The grey shadow, having taken a full-force punch from him, stood as still as an iron pagoda, without the slightest injury!
His opponent had only just entered Blood Tempering, yet his body was indestructible, like a Bone Tempering martial artist’s!
Iron-tong-like fingers tore through the night wind and closed around his throat!
Gao Nian’s eyes bulged; blood brimmed from his mouth. Feeling the grip at his throat tighten and tighten again, he forced out three broken syllables:
“Bo… dy… hardening…?”
Beneath the mask, Shen Xiuhan’s face was expressionless.
Channeling force through one arm, he slowly lifted Gao Nian overhead like a man hoisting a little chicken.
Then, his right hand shifted from claw to fist; qi-blood surged to the fist’s edge, and like a great hammer, it crashed savagely into Gao Nian’s chest!
“Boom!”
As though striking a ruptured drum.
The residual qi-blood, driving clear through the body, exploded into a mist of red on Gao Nian’s back!
The ribs across his chest were snapped to splinters, and his heart was in that instant shattered to powder by the impact.
The next moment, Gao Nian’s body slumped limply to the ground.