Chapter 22 : Chapter 22
Chapter 22. Sudden Wealth!
“Now that I’ve said everything, can you let me go?” Li Daqiang asked, his body trembling.
Seeing Xu Yuan fall into thought, Li Daqiang seemed to recall something and hurriedly added, “I… I know you are practicing martial arts and need cultivation resources…”
As he spoke, he kicked the maid Xiao Ping, who was still standing there in a daze. “Quick, go fetch my chest!”
Startled back to her senses, Xiao Ping hurried into the inner room. Before long, she returned carrying a small chest.
Li Daqiang opened it, revealing a pile of gleaming silver. With a fawning smile, he said, “Just a small token of respect.”
Xu Yuan cast a casual glance at it, but his heart stirred in surprise. There had to be at least twenty to thirty taels of silver inside. This Li Daqiang had certainly made quite a fortune.
Without showing any reaction, he placed the chest on the table and continued, “One last question—where is Quan Xiong now?”
Hearing this, Li Daqiang looked startled and tried to dissuade him. “You really intend to find him? The Gang Leader is a Two-Meridian Realm martial artist…”
“Just answer me!”
“Yes, yes!” Seeing Xu Yuan’s impatience, he nodded repeatedly and replied, “The Gang Leader lives near the gambling house, but he has gone out to meet friends and is not currently in the Prefecture City.”
“Not in the Prefecture City?” Xu Yuan frowned. This was beyond his expectations. “When will he return?”
“That… I do not know,” Li Daqiang said, shaking his head. He truly had no idea.
Xu Yuan nodded slightly and said nothing more. He casually picked up the chest from the table, opened the door, and left.
After several breaths passed, Li Daqiang cautiously crept to the doorway and peeked outside.
The night was cold and silent. There was no sign of anyone.
“That little bastard—once the Gang Leader returns, I will make sure his entire family is destroyed!”
A vicious expression appeared on Li Daqiang’s face, but it immediately tugged at the wounds on his face, making him grimace in pain.
Just as he was about to turn back inside, a pair of warm, powerful arms suddenly wrapped around his neck, accompanied by a cold voice: “Oh? You want to destroy my entire family?”
Li Daqiang’s body stiffened instantly. In a panic, he stammered, “You… you said you would not kill me!”
Xu Yuan smiled faintly, his tone filled with mockery. “But I have never relied on what I say.”
In the next moment, no matter how Li Daqiang begged for mercy, Xu Yuan tightened his grip. With a crisp crack, he snapped his neck completely.
Li Daqiang’s head drooped limply, and his sturdy body collapsed to the ground with a dull thud.
Inside the room, Xiao Ping witnessed everything. She trembled violently, tears streaming down her face, yet she bit her lips tightly, not daring to make a single sound.
Xu Yuan did not even glance at her. He turned and searched through the room, finding several IOUs and some relatively valuable gold and silver jewelry.
After a moment of thought, he picked out a few pieces of jewelry and tossed them toward Xiao Ping. “As for what happened today—you saw nothing.”
“Take these things and leave as soon as possible. Find somewhere else to survive.”
After Li Daqiang’s death, it would not take much for the Wild Wolf Gang to discover that he was responsible, so there was no need to be overly cautious.
He then wrapped the remaining jewelry in cloth, briefly scanned the IOUs, picked out the one belonging to his elder brother, and without even looking at the others, tossed them into the oil lamp. In moments, they burned to ashes.
These harmful things had no reason to be kept.
In the corner, Xiao Ping stood frozen for a long time. She looked at Xu Yuan in disbelief, then at the jewelry at her feet, and nodded tremblingly.
“You had better leave Yuquan Prefecture City. Li Daqiang’s men will recognize you… and I recognize you as well.”
After leaving those words behind, Xu Yuan bundled everything into a pack, slung it over his shoulder, and stepped out. Within a few breaths, he vanished without a trace.
Returning to the alley where his elder brother lived, Xu Yuan glanced around before hiding in a corner to take stock of his gains.
All the silver and jewelry combined amounted to more than sixty taels of silver!
Xu Yuan could not help but draw in a sharp breath.
Sixty taels of silver!
His elder brother worked for the labor guild, toiling for an entire month to earn merely three mace of silver. As for Xu Yuan himself, his current monthly wage was only one tael.
Moreover, a martial artist’s expenses were considerable. It was difficult to save money, and even if one managed to do so, it would take years.
“As expected, robbing the wicked is the fastest way to make money.”
Holding the heavy wealth in his hands, Xu Yuan’s eyes grew deep. His body still trembled slightly from the tension.
Across both his past and present lives, he had hardly been in any fights, let alone killed someone directly.
“The first time is always the hardest… no, it is because those scoundrels went too far!”
Leaning against the wall, Xu Yuan found it difficult to describe his feelings. Excitement, fear, and exhilaration churned within him, while cold sweat soaked his back.
Taking a deep breath, he forcibly suppressed his discomfort and regained his composure.
In this world, weakness was the original sin. If he had not become a martial artist, then the one lying dead before long would have been himself.
Li Daqiang’s death was nothing more than the consequence of his own actions.
Shaking his head to dispel the chaotic thoughts, Xu Yuan began to reflect on this operation.
“Stance training and basic boxing drills are essentially for strengthening the body. Compared to real combat techniques, they are still lacking. In the end, I relied mostly on instinct.”
He carefully reviewed the details. “Moreover, if my strength had not far exceeded his, I might have been the one to suffer.”
Thinking this through, Xu Yuan returned to his doorstep.
By now, it was deep into the night, and the house was pitch black.
He glanced around before stepping forward and gently knocking on the door.
“Who is it?”
In the next moment, his elder brother’s guarded voice sounded from within. Clearly, he had been waiting and had not yet gone to sleep.
Warmth rose in Xu Yuan’s heart as he replied softly, “It is me.”
“A-Yuan?” The voice turned surprised, and soon a faint light flickered inside.
Xu Zheng opened the door and saw his younger brother standing there unharmed, beads of sweat on his forehead and a bundle slung over his shoulder.
“Why are you back so late? I thought you had returned to the Shangyang Residence,” he said with confusion, then quickly pulled him inside and shut the door.
His sister-in-law, Zhang Shi, was also seated on a chair, looking at him with a searching gaze.
“Brother, Sister-in-law, the matter has been resolved,” Xu Yuan said calmly. He took out the IOU and showed it to them before holding it over the flame of the lamp.
They watched as the paper curled, blackened, and finally turned to ash.
Xu Zheng let out a long breath, and Zhang Shi’s tense expression gradually eased.
But Xu Yuan’s next words caused their hearts to tighten again.
“However, it is not that simple.” Xu Yuan selectively recounted the series of events that had occurred, omitting the details of the actual killing.
Yet how could they fail to sense the danger within his words?
Xu Zheng’s face turned pale as he trembled. “You… you killed Li Daqiang? Then the Wild Wolf Gang…”
“The Wild Wolf Gang likely will not let this go,” Xu Yuan analyzed. “They would not dare cause trouble for me at the Shangyang Residence, but they might vent their anger on you. So you cannot stay here any longer.”
Zhang Shi panicked. “If we cannot stay here, where can we go?”
“The inner city!”
Xu Yuan’s eyes shone brightly as he said firmly, “We move tomorrow morning.”
…