Chapter 12 : Chaper 12
Chapter 12: Take a Knife, Slit Your Throat, and Go Reunite with Your Younger Brother
Quite a few people had arrived outside the coal mine. They were the Red River Gang’s reinforcements.
The joy on the faces of the Jinyiwei strongmen vanished at once.
They had only just finished rejoicing over the silver they had been given, and now it seemed they might live long enough to take the money but not long enough to spend it.
Cheng Yu remained seated in his chair without moving an inch, even having someone find him a piece of silk cloth so he could wipe down his saber.
Seeing that their lord showed not the slightest trace of fear, the others gradually steadied themselves as well.
The men outside soon charged in.
They were all bare-chested experts of the Red River Gang, and their level was far above the men who had been managing the coal mine at the start.
They had also captured many of the laborers who had fled and dragged them back tied with ropes.
At the front of the Red River Gang stood a short man with a rat-like mustache. Though small in stature, he was packed with muscle.
One of Cheng Yu’s subordinates gave a start.
“Fang Bo, deputy leader of the Red River Gang—a Second Rank martial artist!”
Cheng Yu raised an eyebrow. He had not expected a decent fish to bite the hook so quickly. At least this trip had not been wasted.
Fang Bo lashed a steel whip hard against a wall, and the earthen wall immediately split and collapsed.
“Which blind court hound dares poke around on Red River Gang territory? Are you tired of living?!”
That furious roar carried Internal Energy with it, making all the unranked martial artists present sway where they stood.
Cheng Yu, meanwhile, did not move at all and continued calmly wiping his saber.
“So it was you, you little bastard, who brought men here!”
Fang Bo instantly identified Cheng Yu as the leader of the Jinyiwei. Everyone else was standing—only he was sitting!
“You yellow-mouthed brat have got a lot of nerve, running onto Red River Gang turf to kill people and stir up trouble. Are you trying to have your name erased from Qinghe County?”
“If you know what’s good for you, kneel down, kowtow, and beg for mercy. Then Fang might leave you an intact corpse!”
Within less than half a day, the Jinyiwei had successively sealed one of the Red River Gang’s great gambling dens and one of its coal mines.
They were coming straight for the gang’s foundations. This was already a blood feud.
If they failed to take these people down completely, then the Red River Gang would lose all face.
“Since when has the Jinyiwei sealing illegal premises on Great Qian soil been called stirring up trouble? This coal mine and that gambling den have both ruined the property and lives of Great Qian’s people. They should have been smashed long ago!”
Cheng Yu’s bearing was no weaker in the slightest. The men under him all echoed his words in unison, their momentum no small thing.
“They should have been smashed!”
“You’ve got some nerve!” Fang Bo flew into a fury.
“The sky over Qinghe County belongs to the Red River Gang. If I say you’re stirring up trouble, then you are! A mere Jinyiwei that dares provoke my Red River Gang has only one road left—and that’s death!”
“As for those paupers, they sold their lives to the Red River Gang. So what if they worked like beasts? If they displease me, I’ll kill them whenever I like!”
With that said,
he lashed out with his whip at a laborer beside him as though killing a chicken to cow the monkeys. The man’s chest was instantly torn into a bloody ruin, and before he could even react, he toppled backward with his face to the sky.
“Ah! Save us!”
“I don’t want to die!”
The laborers were terrified beyond measure. One by one, they cried and screamed in complete panic.
Fang Bo waved his hand, and the Red River Gang members behind him all swung their blades. Heads of laborers rolled one after another across the ground.
“Come on! If you’ve got the guts, arrest me too!”
Today, he was determined to kill people right in front of the Jinyiwei and show Cheng Yu who truly ruled Qinghe County.
Cheng Yu watched the scene with icy eyes and stopped wiping his saber.
“Finished talking? If so, then it’s my turn.”
“All Jinyiwei, empty your quivers. Leave no one alive!” He rose to his feet and pointed his saber at Fang Bo.
“Yes!”
Ten bows and crossbows that had long since been loaded loosed their arrows all at once.
Four or five of the unranked Red River Gang thugs were shot dead on the spot, while even several ranked men had to dodge desperately.
“You want to die!”
Fang Bo had not expected Cheng Yu to open fire without another word. With one swing of his whip, he struck down an arrow flying toward him.
“Brothers, charge! Kill these court dogs! We’ve got the numbers!”
“Kill!”
Once the crossbow bolts were fired, the strings had to be reset. That was more than enough time for them to rush forward and engage in close combat.
But in the next instant, the Jinyiwei all drew a second preloaded crossbow from behind them and unleashed another volley.
The Red River Gang men were already charging forward and had no time to dodge before the arrows struck home. This time, nine of them were shot dead outright.
At the sight of this, Fang Bo’s eyes nearly split with rage.
He had only brought thirty men in total, all of them skilled fighters within the gang, yet half of them had been killed in a single exchange.
He immediately stamped forward and lunged over, whipping up a violent gale with the iron whip in his hand. He was going to personally crush them himself!
“Die, all of you!”
But what greeted him was another rain of arrows. Following Cheng Yu’s arrangements, the Jinyiwei switched to their shortbows and fired.
Though not as accurate as crossbows, every one of them was aiming at Fang Bo, leaving him nowhere to dodge.
Fang Bo whipped his iron lash through the air to knock aside the arrows, all while weaving left and right. His face flushed dark red with strain, and fury burned in his eyes.
As an early Second Rank martial artist, his status within the Red River Gang was extremely high. When had he ever suffered such humiliation in Qinghe County?
He would make these suicidal Jinyiwei pay in blood!
Especially that Banner Captain!
After weathering the hail of arrows, he suddenly pounced forward.
“Shattering Stone Whip!”
But in the very next moment, a saber rang through the air with a fierce humming sound, and a sharp arc of light flashed across the space before him.
The Xiuchun Saber in Cheng Yu’s hand struck straight at Fang Bo.
Fang Bo had only just reacted when he discovered that the blade was already right before his eyes.
How could it be this fast?
With his Second Rank strength, he could not dodge it in time at all!
How could this man possibly be this strong?
Still carrying that disbelief, he watched as Cheng Yu slashed diagonally with one stroke, severing both his head and one of his arms alive.
The Heaven-Tier martial art, the Hundred-Battle Reincarnation Saber Art—even such a simple move from it was already something Fang Bo could never hope to comprehend.
“Ah! We’re finished!!”
“How is this possible?! The deputy leader is dead!”
The surviving Red River Gang members were scared out of their wits. Their powerful deputy leader had been beheaded in a single stroke. Even their gang leader might not be able to do that. How were they supposed to resist?
One by one, they turned and fled in panic.
The Jinyiwei men, too, stared at Cheng Yu in utter disbelief.
Their Banner Captain was actually this strong—killing a Second Rank martial artist with one slash. No wonder he had dared stand against the Red River Gang.
They were overwhelmed with excitement and admiration as they looked at Cheng Yu.
Now even the prospect of retaliation from Red River Gang Leader Sha Yue did not seem nearly so frightening.
“Leave no one alive!”
Cheng Yu’s voice rang out once more. The strongmen, still stunned by their Banner Captain’s terrifying strength, hurriedly came back to themselves and gave chase, slaughtering the remaining Red River Gang men to the last.
The battle ended very quickly.
Not a single Jinyiwei died or was wounded, while the Red River Gang—including the Second Rank martial artist Fang Bo—was completely annihilated!
【The host has slain the leader of an illegal faction and displayed the authority and strength of the Jinyiwei. Reward: Ten Internal Strengthening Pills!】
A small bottle of pills appeared out of nowhere in Cheng Yu’s hand.
According to the description, these Internal Strengthening Pills could regulate the meridians and help martial artists step into the ranks.
“These will do nicely for strengthening my men.”
At the same time, his subordinates finished cleaning up the battlefield and presented the spoils.
“My lord, this is what the brothers stripped from the dead. That fellow surnamed Fang swaggered all over Qinghe on ordinary days. He really did amass a fortune in ill-gotten wealth! We found a full eight hundred taels’ worth of banknotes on him!”
Eight hundred taels!
They would need fifty years of salary to earn that much. It was enough to buy five hundred pigs!
Cheng Yu took the banknotes and tucked them into his robe.
“Let’s prepare to leave.”
“Back to the Banner Office? I’ll go bring your horse over from the entrance, my lord!” someone immediately offered, eager to please.
“No rush in going back yet.” Cheng Yu shook his head calmly.
“We’re the Jinyiwei. Right now, we’ve only finished killing people. The most important step hasn’t even begun yet.”
The others were puzzled.
Cheng Yu smiled faintly. It seemed the Jinyiwei had even forgotten their traditional craft.
“Where does Fang Bo live? I don’t believe a Second Rank martial artist only had eight hundred taels to his name. He dared raise a hand against me, so take his head and let’s raid his house!”
...
Red River Gang headquarters.
Wu Lenggang drank his wine without daring to look at Sha Yue’s increasingly ugly face.
The wine burned his throat, and bitterness filled his heart.
Sha Yue had forcibly kept him here for half the day, making him wait until Deputy Leader Fang returned victorious before allowing him to leave.
The only thing he could do was send the terrified Su Feng back first to take charge of affairs.
By doing this, Sha Yue was not only guarding against the possibility that Wu Lenggang might do something to Fang Bo, but also using it as a way to intimidate him.
Wu Lenggang poured himself another cup.
“Once Fang Bo comes back, this matter won’t have anything to do with me anymore. After that brat dies, I only need to find a way to deal with the authorities’ questions.”
With a Second Rank martial artist making a move, Cheng Yu had absolutely no chance of surviving.
Just then, hurried footsteps rang out from outside the door.
Wu Lenggang immediately lifted his head.
There was news!
By now, Cheng Yu surely had already lost his life.
But what he heard was nothing like what he had imagined.
“Terrible news! Deputy Leader Fang was killed by that Jinyiwei too, and those men even raided his house!”
Wu Lenggang felt as though he had been struck by lightning. His whole body froze, and his wine cup slipped from his hand and shattered on the floor.
Cheng Yu had killed Fang Bo too?
A vicious man like that—if he found out Wu Lenggang had come to the Red River Gang intending to sell him out, then wouldn’t that mean...
“Wu Lenggang, you want to die!”
Hearing the report, Sha Yue instantly roared at Wu Lenggang, his eyes blazing with fury.
“Look at the fine work your Jinyiwei have done! If you wanted to tear all pretense away and openly turn against my Red River Gang, you could have said so directly! Why bother going in circles?!”
In three great strides, he rushed over, seized Wu Lenggang by the collar, and lifted him bodily into the air.
Wu Lenggang instinctively tried to resist, only to be shaken loose by Sha Yue’s monstrous strength. Though he had expected it, the man’s power still frightened him.
Third Rank!
“Gang Leader Sha, calm your anger! This matter has nothing to do with me at all. I truly knew nothing beforehand! He could even kill Deputy Leader Fang—how would I have dared offend him just now?”
“He only arrived in Qinghe County today to take up his post. Who could have known something like this would happen?”
Wu Lenggang’s explanation was so earnest and sincere that it finally suppressed Sha Yue’s anger.
Killing a General Banner Captain just to vent his fury still was not worth it!
At that moment, another voice sounded as another gang member entered.
“Gang Leader, someone asked me to pass on a message.”
“Who?” Sha Yue’s tone was ice-cold. “What message?”
The gang member stammered, “I-it was a young man in black. He told me to ask y-you... whether you missed your younger brother. And if you do, then you can take a knife, slit your throat, and go reunite with him...”
“What?!”
The moment those words fell, Sha Yue’s huge body flashed in front of the gang member, the muscles in his face twitching.
Anyone capable of killing Fang Bo was definitely capable of dealing with the retainer expert who had been protecting Sha He.
“Has your Second Master returned yet?”
“R-reporting to Gang Leader, n-no... He hasn’t come back since going out this morning...”
Bang!
Sha Yue exploded into motion, seizing the gang member by the head and smashing him into the floor until blood streamed everywhere.
“Second Brother!”
Sha Yue let out a long howl, his entire body trembling with rage. His ferocious eyes turned toward Wu Lenggang.
“What’s the name of that Banner Captain?”
“Cheng Yu!”
“Cheng Yu! You killed my second brother—I’ll make sure you die without even a burial place!” Sha Yue ground out Cheng Yu’s name through gritted teeth.
Wu Lenggang had not expected Cheng Yu to be so ruthless as to send someone here just to humiliate Sha Yue to his face.
A trace of delight rose in his heart. This way, he no longer had to worry about Sha Yue taking his anger out on him.
He quickly took the initiative and said, “Gang Leader Sha, this wretch Cheng Yu arrived only today and has already thrown Qinghe County into chaos, ruining the relationship between my Jinyiwei and the Red River Gang. As a General Banner Captain of the Jinyiwei, I naturally cannot stand by and do nothing!”
“You’ll kill him for me?” Sha Yue asked coldly.
Me?
Wu Lenggang thought of Fang Bo, whose strength had been roughly on par with his own, dying at Cheng Yu’s hands. His whole body trembled.
“I can bring him to you, Gang Leader Sha, and let you deal with him however you wish. I guarantee that no blame from above will fall upon your household!”