Chapter 14 : Chapter 14
Chapter 14: What Era Is This, and You’re Still Talking About the Jinyiwei’s Dignity?
Counting from the time he left the River-Severing Sect, even if one included the time Cheng Yu had spent traveling from Beixuan City to Qinghe County, it had taken him only a little over ten days to rise from the First Rank to the Third Rank.
That kind of speed had already reached a terrifying level.
On top of that, every martial art he had obtained as a reward was of extremely high grade, not to mention the mysterious and incomparably powerful True Martial Inheritance.
At Cheng Yu’s current level, he already counted as one of the promising young talents of the entire Great Qian Jianghu.
If people of the court were allowed onto Baibao Tower’s Heaven, Earth, and Human Rankings, he would probably have made a name for himself there very soon.
“Chivalry? Can it give me the power to do as I please?”
Feeling the even greater strength that came with entering the Third Rank, Cheng Yu thought of the contempt and humiliation he had suffered at the hands of Cheng Zhenjiang and the others, and he felt even more disdain.
Their mouths were forever full of hypocritical talk about Jianghu chivalry and righteousness, yet they could abandon their own son and even drive him to his death.
Even a tiger would not devour its own cubs, yet some people were more vile than beasts.
He still had not avenged that palm strike, and the River-Severing Sect was still waiting for him to raid it...
Of course, before that, he needed to settle matters in Qinghe County first, one step at a time.
He did not like letting vengeance linger overnight when it could already be taken.
Qinghe County Jinyiwei Guard Station.
After sending Cheng Yu into the trap at Weijia Restaurant, Wu Lenggang hurried back to the station.
He needed to finish acting out the proper scene first, so that when the authorities came asking about Cheng Yu later, he would have an answer ready.
As for the possibility that Cheng Yu might return alive, he had never even considered it.
Sha Yue was a Third Rank martial artist, and he bore a blood feud with Cheng Yu. There was no reason he would let the man walk away alive.
Just as Wu Lenggang was preparing to arrange the night patrol so that someone might “happen” to discover the news that Cheng Yu had died fighting others, he suddenly heard a burst of noisy commotion in the distance, the kind of joyous clamor that sounded like a victorious return.
Wu Lenggang’s heart tightened at once for no reason, and he looked outside.
He tried to reassure himself that he had heard wrong.
How could there be such a sound at a time like this?
Unless Cheng Yu had killed Sha Yue and returned—but that was naturally impossible.
Yet in the very next moment, Wu Lenggang suddenly saw a handsome, cold face he least wanted to see appear before his eyes.
Cheng Yu has come back?!
At that moment, in Wu Lenggang’s eyes, Cheng Yu looked like a soul-reaping demon. Every step he took toward him seemed to be pronouncing his fate.
With his unsheathed Xiuchun Saber in hand, Cheng Yu walked toward Wu Lenggang one step at a time.
“What are you doing bringing a saber into the station? Are you trying to rebel? Put it down at once!”
Wu Lenggang forcefully suppressed the tremor in his voice as he barked at the order.
But inside, he was already terrified beyond words.
Now, he had to pretend he knew nothing. That was his only sliver of hope for survival.
“Wasn’t General Banner Captain Wu the one who invited me to dinner? Why is it that you came back by yourself?”
Cheng Yu’s tone was calm, and not a trace of anger could be heard in it, but the Xiuchun Saber in his hand did not lie.
“I had matters to deal with, so I returned first. Banner Captain Cheng could simply enjoy the meal himself. Nothing went wrong, did it?”
Wu Lenggang forced himself to explain.
Then he lifted a hand to dismiss him. “Enough. It’s late. Go back. I still have some matters to handle.”
Cheng Yu shook his head and kept walking forward. “I’m going on night patrol tonight. You were the one who arranged it.”
“You won’t be patrolling tonight. Go back at once! That’s an order!”
As Cheng Yu drew closer and closer, Wu Lenggang could no longer keep the panic out of his voice and unconsciously raised it.
“It’s fine if I don’t patrol tonight. But there’s still one matter left.” Cheng Yu’s gaze remained placid.
“What matter?”
Wu Lenggang asked, drenched in sweat.
“Killing a thief. Killing the inside traitor who stabbed his own people in the back,” Cheng Yu replied calmly.
The moment those words came out, Wu Lenggang collapsed onto the floor in fright.
Cheng Yu really dared kill him?
“Y-you, what are you doing?! This is the Jinyiwei Guard Station! Are you trying to rebel?!”
“I know perfectly well who colluded with outsiders to harm one of our own. There’s no need to say more.”
Cheng Yu paid no heed at all to the label Wu Lenggang was trying to stick on him.
He had dared set him up. If that was the case, then killing him was killing him!
“It was a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding!” Wu Lenggang scrambled to his feet and tried to run, all while hurriedly explaining, “That Sha Yue lied to me. He said he wanted to discuss matters with you. How would I know he would dare openly make a move against a Banner Captain? It was all his fault. It has nothing to do with me!”
“Do you think I’m an idiot?”
Cheng Yu’s voice turned cold as he walked up to Wu Lenggang and raised his Xiuchun Saber toward him.
“General Banner Captain Wu, you should know very well what crime it is for a Jinyiwei to collude with outsiders and harm a fellow officer, shouldn’t you?”
“Raid the household... exterminate the family...”
Wu Lenggang trembled all over and muttered to himself.
The Jinyiwei were the Emperor’s personal guard. Above all else, they were supposed to be absolutely loyal. Even though they had declined greatly by now, colluding with outsiders was still the greatest of all crimes.
Disloyalty.
If Cheng Yu used that charge to kill him, no one would be able to plead on his behalf.
“You can’t kill me! I’m the General Banner Captain of Qinghe County! You only arrived on your post today, and if you kill me, the people above absolutely won’t let you off easily!”
“That isn’t your concern.”
Cheng Yu remained unmoved. Today, he was determined to kill his superior.
Anyone who dared set him up like this would only become a future calamity if left alive.
Seeing that Cheng Yu’s killing intent had already been set and that there was no longer any way to threaten or stop him,
desperate fury flashed through Wu Lenggang’s eyes.
A newly arrived Banner Captain was actually going to take his life just like this?
Suddenly, both palms shot out with a fierce gust of force, striking viciously toward Cheng Yu’s ribs in a sneak attack.
Cheng Yu seemed not to have reacted at all. He merely held up his saber and neither dodged nor blocked.
Wu Lenggang was overjoyed. He had not expected Cheng Yu to leave himself open to a surprise attack.
“What a naive fool. Once I wound you, I can flee to the ends of the earth. At worst, I’ll stop being this damned Jinyiwei.”
But the moment both palms struck Cheng Yu’s body, Wu Lenggang went completely blank.
It felt as though he had hit a slab of incomparably hard steel. Not only had he failed to shake Cheng Yu in the slightest, the impact instead broke both of his hands on the spot.
“A body-tempering art?! Who exactly are you?”
Protected by the Thirteen Guardians Horizontal Training, Cheng Yu had not suffered even the slightest injury. He smiled.
“The one killing you.”
“Spare me! I was wrong! I was wrong! Grandfather Cheng, I’ll never dare again—”
Crunch!
The Xiuchun Saber sank into Wu Lenggang’s chest. He fell to the ground at once, his face still frozen in the middle of a pleading expression.
Cheng Yu looked at Wu Lenggang indifferently.
“When you wagged your tail and begged before those Jianghu factions, disgracing the Jinyiwei’s name, I imagine you must have looked just like this too.”
Wu Lenggang, not yet fully dead, widened his eyes, revealing an expression of utter disbelief.
“The... the Jinyiwei’s name?”
What era was this? Who was still talking about the dignity of the Jinyiwei?
The fact that the Jinyiwei were not openly mocked by the people of the Jianghu was already good enough. What dignity could they possibly have?
The moment he realized that Cheng Yu had been so proactive because he genuinely wanted to carry out the duties of the Jinyiwei, he was filled with boundless regret.
To think he had been ruined over something this absurd.
He refused to accept it.
Wu Lenggang died with his eyes open.
【The host has executed the corrupt and treacherous elements within the Jinyiwei and set things right. Reward: Twenty Internal Strengthening Pills and five Mystic Cold Power Crossbows!】
Looking at the rewards sent by the system, Cheng Yu nodded.
He really did need to train his subordinates well. Nowadays, everyone looked down on the Jinyiwei. It was truly a blow to their face.
There was no one in the world more concerned with the Jinyiwei’s development and standing than he was.
If one were to ask who most wished for the Jinyiwei to regain their former glory, even the Great Qian Emperor behind the Jinyiwei would not compare to him.
...
The next day, at the great wharf by the Qing River, the atmosphere throughout Red River Gang headquarters was strange.
On ordinary days, noise and commotion never ceased there, but today a strange stillness had settled over the place.
It was said that, on top of the gambling den in the west of the city and the coal mine north of the city being sealed by the Jinyiwei yesterday, an even greater incident had happened last night.
The little underlings did not know the details.
They only knew that by this morning, nearly all of the ranked martial artists in the Red River Gang—including the gang leader himself—had vanished.
“What exactly happened? Surely nothing really happened, right?”
“With the status of our Red River Gang in Qinghe County, how could anything happen? With Gang Leader suppressing everything, who would dare cause trouble?”
“That’s true. I bet Gang Leader has gone to capture that blind Jinyiwei from yesterday. He actually dared touch Red River Gang property. He really must be tired of living!”
The ignorant gang underlings chose to continue believing in Sha Yue.
As the only Third Rank martial artist in Qinghe County, Gang Leader Sha was the pillar that allowed them to run wild there.
As long as Sha Yue remained, the Red River Gang would never fall.
And they could continue acting arrogantly every day, bullying the common people.
Just as the Red River Gang members were comforting themselves, a loud shout rang out.
“The Jinyiwei are seizing the Red River Gang! All unrelated persons are to withdraw! Anyone who blocks us will be killed without mercy!”
The Red River Gang men all turned to look toward the wharf.
What madmen dared to come to their headquarters and shout like that?
More than twenty figures in black Flying Fish Uniforms appeared in a line by the wharf.
Every single one of them had reached the ranked level, and they stood there with powerful crossbows drawn and ready.
From the center of the Jinyiwei formation stepped a tall, upright figure with an imposing aura.
Cheng Yu raised his head and glanced at the Red River Gang’s enormous wharf and towering buildings.
Countless laborers and ships were coming and going.
He nodded faintly. “No wonder Sha Yue was so arrogant. No wonder the Red River Gang used to be the greatest force in Qinghe County. The vital lifeline of the place had fallen into someone else’s hands.”
In the south of the Yangtze, transport depended mainly on water routes. By dominating the wharf, the Red River Gang naturally possessed great strength.
“Who are you people? You actually dare set foot on Red River Gang territory? Get the hell out of here!”
More than a dozen hot-tempered Red River Gang men ran over cursing when they saw the aggressive momentum of Cheng Yu’s group.
But before they could finish speaking, a rain of arrows streaked through the air and pierced their throats.
The other gang members who had been about to rush over to help all froze at once, never expecting the newcomers to be so ruthless.
They hurriedly stopped in place and shouted out their backing instead.
“You dare kill our people? Aren’t you afraid of our gang leader’s wrath?”
Before the last word had even fallen, a round human head was thrown out.
It was Sha Yue’s head.
“G-Gang Leader?”
“How is this possible?!”
The Red River Gang members, who had been acting ferocious only a moment ago, were now so frightened that they nearly wet themselves, unable to believe the sight before them.
Cheng Yu could not be bothered with these people. He simply gave the order to seize the wharf.
“All hands, raid this place. Any member of the Red River Gang who refuses to surrender will be killed without mercy!”
“Yes!”
Black-clad figures scattered everywhere, killing and seizing on a massive scale. The greatest and strongest force Qinghe County had known for many years was now collapsing on the spot.
...
In a secret chamber beneath the main hall of Red River Gang headquarters, Cheng Yu picked up an account book that had been hidden away with extreme care.
The moment he opened it, he saw it was filled entirely with the names of great figures within the prefectural authorities, together with records of benefits exchanged between them.
“No wonder a mere Third Rank martial artist could occupy an entire stretch of river transport and yet no one dealt with him. So he was just the one doing the dirty work.”
The interests behind the Red River Gang were never just Sha Yue alone, but countless hidden figures as well. Naturally, that was why no one had been willing to offend the Red River Gang lightly.
Only a ruthless man like Cheng Yu would pull it up by the roots without hesitation.
He looked through the account book carefully and saw that even the name of Ma Yuan, the Hundred-Household Commander of the Qingjiang Prefecture Jinyiwei, was listed there in plain sight.
“The Jinyiwei have truly rotted to the core. If I don’t give them a proper diagnosis and treatment, then the goal of becoming the Nightmare of the Jianghu will still be very far away.”