Chapter 61: Chapter 60: I Feel Something, But Not Much

Flower and Grass Building, second floor.

Night had fallen. The sound of stringed instruments drifted through the air, a seductive melody that never ceased.

"Brother Wu, uh... where is that Miss Xue?"

Inside the private room, Jiang Fang had ordered a few side dishes and a jar of fine wine, as if to send Wu Chen off with a farewell feast.

Seeing that Wu Chen was about to make his move, and all alone at that, Jiang Fang finally asked, his voice laced with unease.

After all, they were both people of the Jianghu. She was a ruthless figure with a bounty on her head, and her methods were linked to the Blood Slaughter Sect.

It made no sense that she would stay away just to avoid suspicion simply because the operation was in a brothel.

"It’s just me tonight."

Wu Chen picked up a piece of meat with his chopsticks, stuffed it into his mouth, took a sip of the crisp wine, and mumbled his reply.

Even as he ate, he didn’t forget to flip through the Martial Arts Manual he had acquired from one of Jiang Fang’s subordinates.

He was quite busy.

"This..."

Jiang Fang was in a difficult position. At first, he had just assumed Xue Hongling was resting in her room at the inn. He never expected that they would be setting out without Wu Chen even calling for her.

Only now, hearing the implication in Wu Chen’s words, did he realize that Xue Hongling might not even be in Black Stone City anymore.

’One person...’

Jiang Fang felt a growing disquiet, but then he recalled the rumors from the past two days about the Blood Slaughter Sect carving out the hearts of several gang members.

He had gone to see the corpses himself. Even with his own poor martial skills, he could tell how clean the cuts were.

Such methods must have been the handiwork of these two.

But whether Xue Hongling was in Black Stone City or not, the arrow was already on the bowstring and had to be fired.

He cupped his fists. "Then I will have to trouble Brother Wu tonight!"

Wu Chen didn’t reply, simply eating his meal in silence.

As he finished allocating points to several basic Martial Arts on his panel, a warm current surged through his limbs and torso. The scattered Blood Qi in his body finally settled and calmed.

’It seems basic Martial Arts can no longer satisfy me.’

Wu Chen put down his chopsticks, lost in thought. ’I need more Martial Arts. And they have to be High-Tier Martial Arts.’

In the past, finishing the point allocation for a single basic Martial Art would give him the sensation of a powerful injection of energy.

It was like a great river surging, a palpable sense of overwhelming power.

But now, a full basic Martial Art felt like a clay ox entering the sea.

He felt something, but not much.

He wiped his mouth, stood up, and picked up his ink-black blade before heading downstairs.

Jiang Fang didn’t dare to follow. He could only watch from the second floor, praying that Wu Chen alone could deal with this scourge of Black Stone City.

Passing a screen that partitioned the front hall, he saw two members of the Golden Tooth Gang guarding a wooden door.

"What are you doing here?!"

One of the grunts eyed him warily and barked:

"Leave your weapon outside. That’s the rule."

Wu Chen couldn’t be bothered with small talk. In a single step, he appeared before the two men. He spun the scabbard in his hand and chopped it against their necks.

Without a sound, the two guards went limp. Their bodies slid down the wall and slumped to the floor as if they had fallen asleep.

He had moved so quickly that he hadn’t alerted anyone listening to the music on the first floor.

After dealing with the two guards, Wu Chen took a mask from his waist to cover his face, then reached out and pushed open the heavy wooden door that led to the gambling den.

The gambling den was a cacophony of voices.

Nearly a hundred gamblers were crowded around seven or eight tables, their eyes glued to the covered bowls as they screamed themselves hoarse, shouting "Big!" and "Small!"

When Wu Chen entered, besides two gang members nearby, he didn’t attract anyone else’s attention.

Before the two grunts could approach, he turned and bolted the heavy wooden door from the inside, his fingers gripping the latch.

The latch, forged from refined iron, was like clay in his hands, quickly twisting and deforming.

With a series of CREAKS and GROANS, it became a tangled lump of scrap metal, locking the gambling den’s main door firmly from within.

The approaching gang members noticed something was wrong and shouted:

"What do you think you’re doing? Don’t you know you can’t bring blades into the gambling den?!"

Before the two grunts could get close, a dark glint flashed from Wu Chen’s hand. The scabbard struck both their skulls.

BAM! BAM!

With two dull thuds, their heads shattered like watermelons, exploding in all directions.

"What the—whose wig just fell on my face?!"

"And an eyeball! Whose is... Holy shit!"

"..."

The flying fragments finally triggered a massive commotion. In an instant, no one was paying attention to the dice on the tables anymore; they were all screaming and shouting.

Wu Chen had acted fast, but the Golden Tooth Gang had stationed plenty of men in the gambling den, both to prevent trouble and to protect their leader.

Several Golden Tooth Gang members had already seen Wu Chen kill the men and knew he was here to make trouble.

"We’ve got a troublemaker! Stop him!"

"You dare cause trouble on Golden Tooth Gang turf? You must be tired of living!"

"..."

The four or five Golden Tooth Gang members closest to Wu Chen let out a battle cry and quickly surrounded him, blades drawn.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Facing the men, Wu Chen simply delivered a few groin kicks.

The grunts in front of him didn’t even have time to cry out in pain before they were sent flying backward.

The next few who ran up were also kicked back by Wu Chen, one by one.

The men flew high into the air before crashing down, smashing gambling tables to pieces. Copper coins and silver taels scattered across the floor, clattering noisily.

With no one blocking his path, Wu Chen walked unhurriedly to the gambling den’s back door and, just as before, squeezed the refined iron latch into a lump, sealing it shut.

At the same time, on a red-lacquered reclining chair at the very back of the gambling den...

The large man resting on it—the leader of the Golden Tooth Gang—heard the pleasant sound of dice rolling disappear, replaced by a chaotic din.

His brow furrowed. He suddenly flipped over, and with a swing of his thick arm, he snatched up the large, gold-ringed broadsword from his side.

"Trying to run? Stay right where you are!"

Seeing that only three to five breaths had passed since the commotion started, and the troublemaker was already at the back door, the Golden Tooth Gang leader assumed the intruder was trying to flee after causing a scene.

His rockery-like frame leaped high into the air. Gripping the gold-ringed broadsword with both hands, he raised it over his head and brought it down on Wu Chen with the force of a mountain being split.

Even a stubborn boulder would have been shattered to pieces by such a blow.

Feeling the gale-force wind at his back, Wu Chen twisted his body. He made no move to dodge or evade. Instead, his fingers and palm began to glow crimson.

Red Sand Palm!

CLANG—

A parry! No, that wasn’t it—

Amidst the crisp, clear sound, Wu Chen’s slender fingers had caught the body of the nearly foot-wide blade.

"Die!"

Although the Golden Tooth Gang leader’s mind reeled at the sight, he still summoned every last ounce of his strength, trying to break through the intruder’s technique.

The veins on his thick arms bulged as he began to press down on the hilt, but no matter how much force he exerted, it was useless. He couldn’t push the gold-ringed broadsword down even a fraction of an inch.

Terror finally appeared in the Golden Tooth Gang leader’s eyes.

’This is bad,’ he thought, about to let go and retreat.

But Wu Chen had already sensed his intent to withdraw. With a twist of the two fingers clamping the massive blade, the aura of a ’Wild Bull Shaking the Earth’ and all of his frustration from the day erupted in that single moment.

BOOM!

The Golden Tooth Gang leader’s massive, nearly three-hundred-jin body was sent flying straight back by this brutish force, smashing into the rear wall and slowly sliding toward the ground.

But before he could hit the floor, Wu Chen swung his arm and flung the nearly six-foot-long, one-foot-wide broadsword still held between his fingers. With a WHOOSH, it shot out and pinned the man firmly to the wall, preventing him from sliding down another inch.

"Gurgle! Gurgle!"

Blood foamed at the mouth of the Golden Tooth Gang leader as he hung on the wall. His eyes were wide open; he wasn’t quite dead yet.

He desperately gripped the spine of the blade piercing his chest, trying to pull it out.

But the gold-ringed broadsword was embedded deep in the brick wall behind him. Not only could he not pull it out, but the more he struggled, the faster the crimson blood gushed from the wound in his chest.

Soon, his head lolled to the side, and the life left him.

"Now that was cool."

Wu Chen admired the scene, letting out a sigh of praise. He felt a lot more comfortable.

Then, he turned his gaze to the remaining people in the gambling den and asked:

"What do you all think?"

The thirty or so Golden Tooth Gang members who had been closing in watched as their leader was pinned to the wall by his own broadsword, his limbs still twitching. They stood stunned for several breaths.

CLATTER CLATTER!

How could they have the presence of mind to answer Wu Chen? Their steel blades fell to the floor, all their fighting spirit gone in an instant.

"Run! Run!"

"The leader is dead! Run!"

"..."

The group panicked, swarming toward the gambling den’s other door.

The martial skill of the man before them was beyond their comprehension, leaving them with no thoughts of avenging their leader.

The gamblers were terrified as well and surged toward the exit.

But when everyone reached the door, they found the latch fused shut. No matter how hard they pounded on it, they couldn’t get it open.

For a moment, the figures of the gamblers and the Golden Tooth Gang members were all crammed together.

Fortunately, the Golden Tooth Gang was wealthy enough that even their grunts wore uniform coarse clothing, which made them easy for Wu Chen to identify.

PFFT! PFFT! PFFT!

Without much resistance, he stabbed seven or eight gang members to death.

Seeing that the intruder seemed to be killing only Golden Tooth Gang members, the gamblers instantly stopped crowding the door and consciously moved aside.

"It’s the Blood Slaughter Sect!"

"The Blood Slaughter Sect that wiped out several other gangs!"

"..."

Someone among the gamblers remembered the recent destruction of other gangs and how their members’ hearts had been carved out, and shouted it aloud.

The crowd erupted into a chaotic clamor, clearly fearing the Blood Slaughter Sect like the plague.

Wu Chen nodded to himself. ’Since I’m alone tonight, I definitely don’t have time for any heart-to-hearts.’

He had been worried he would have to guide these people and tell them who killed the Golden Tooth Gang members.

Or even have to write a few words on the wall, like:

"The killer: the Blood Slaughter Sect."

And by doing so, pin tonight’s events on the Blood Slaughter Sect.

But now it seemed that wasn’t necessary at all. The story that the Blood Slaughter Sect was responsible would surely spread quickly.

Soon, there were no living members of the Golden Tooth Gang left in the gambling den. A thick stench of blood filled every corner, making the place feel like a living hell.

Wu Chen turned to look at the hundred or so trembling gamblers.

"Don’t just stand there. Pick up all the money on the floor, pack it up for me, and search these corpses for any Martial Arts Manuals and silver banknotes!"

"Be quick about it. Otherwise, none of you are leaving!"

How could the crowd of gamblers dare to disobey? They all scrambled to pick up the copper plates and silver fragments from the floor and efficiently looted the corpses. Not a single person dared to hide anything for themselves.

Soon, a bundle filled with copper plates and silver fragments was placed before Wu Chen, along with a thick stack of Martial Arts Manuals.

Then, Wu Chen kicked open the back door and rushed off to the next gang’s headquarters.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.