Chapter 67: Gather For Justice
A knife wind swept from behind.
The Tall and Thin Man swung his broadsword down.
Chen Shun’an’s figure didn’t move, his whole body’s Qi and Blood Seeds instinctively awakened, dragging blazing tails, forming a bright and shiny Jade Network Connected Robe outside his body.
Dang~
Firelight burst forth, metal fragments bounced away.
The Tall and Thin Man, with Second-rate Early Stage cultivation, stared blankly at his broadsword with a notch chipped out, his eyes revealing terror.
“Jade Network Connected Robe, Second-rate Perfection, this lightness skill… you’re that person from the Black Market?!”
The Tall and Thin Man suddenly recognized Chen Shun’an.
“I’ll fight you to the death!!”
He hadn’t expected Chen Shun’an to be so petty, going to such great lengths to come specifically for revenge.
The Tall and Thin Man roared, his pupils blood-red, his muscles and bones swelling several inches as if tearing apart, emanating a thick bloody stench.
He discarded his broadsword, wrapped his arms around, and charged at Chen Shun’an with a suicidal surge of killing intent!
However, his vision blurred for a moment, only seeing a residual shadow flash by, the space before him empty, and Chen Shun’an’s figure nowhere to be found.
‘Whoosh whoosh whoosh…’
A whirring sound of some blade spinning rapidly came by his ear, like a python flicking its tongue.
The next moment, a strange sense of weightlessness came.
His vision spun rapidly, the world turning upside down.
He saw a column of blood shoot into the sky, a severed head fly horizontally, and a somewhat familiar corpse fall to the ground.
“So, being killed feels like this.”
A realization dawned in the Tall and Thin Man’s mind, and after rolling two circles on the ground, his consciousness sank into eternal silence.
【Wish+5】
“Phew… close-quarters combat is indeed dangerous.”
Four smooth-as-new thin blades that weren’t stained with blood protruded from the edging of the Python Fang Boots.
Chen Shun’an pressed with his toes, and the thin blades all retracted.
The pair of Python Fang Boots returned to being a pair of ordinary thousand-layer-soled cloth shoes.
Seeing this,
Chen Shun’an exhaled a long breath of turbid qi, dispersed his strength, the sharpness in his eyes covered by murkiness, and slightly hunched his shoulders again.
This combat was Chen Shun’an’s first proper fight since stumbling and falling into the well, facing the bloody reality of the Martial World head-on.
Black Market thief bandits who kill and plunder, Guo Lu Society fake heroes…
It could only be said that those who kill will always be killed by killers.
Chen Shun’an naturally felt no soft-heartedness whatsoever.
And if counting from when Chen Shun’an discovered this Tall and Thin Man and his trio, fighting wits from afar, even entering combat state.
Chen Shun’an fought one against four, cross-border counterattack, going all out to barely win.
Chen Shun’an quite liked this kind of ‘thrilling’ combat.
……
He gave a finishing blow to each of the four corpses.
To avoid situations like the heart being on the right side, or cultivating sinister methods to turtle breathing and not die.
Chen Shun’an even more meticulously and thoughtfully cut off the heads of the other three.
Then he cleaned up the scene, erasing all traces of himself.
Looking at those few corpses wrapped in animal skins around the waist, with dark complexions, Chen Shun’an shook his head.
From their attire, they should be mountain folk from the West Mountain area, normally making a living by gathering herbs and picking tea, and occasionally when nobles from the city went to West Mountain to hunt, they would hire them as guides.
And their mountain goods were just a batch of decent-quality mountain tea.
Not tea leaves, but dried purple wisteria, which fancy tea shops disdain to buy, generally used by hard laborers to relieve fatigue.
Altogether worth twenty or thirty liang of silver.
Yet that was already their income for nearly half a year.
Chen Shun’an gathered together the spilled mountain goods and mountain tea.
He also stuffed the over ten liang of broken silver plundered from the Tall and Thin Man and others into the pockets of these mountain folk corpses.
“Guo Lu hanging sign?”
Chen Shun’an’s eyes showed curiosity as he weighed the wooden wedge in his hand.
He didn’t know what texture this wooden wedge was made of, wood-like yet iron-hard; even with Chen Shun’an’s finger strength, applying a bit of force could only leave a shallow white mark.
Someone had used extremely masterful strength to carve words into the wood, with strokes like iron brush and silver hook, the characters exuding a majestic and domineering aura between the lines—
“We Guo Lu Society gather for justice in the Martial World, widely recruiting talents, intending to establish a branch headquarters at Weng Mountain in the Capital City.
All aspiring individuals, regardless of background, as long as they possess a sincere heart and soaring ambitions, may come to this mountain, undergo our gang’s assessment, and plot great affairs together!”
Good grief, setting up a branch headquarters and they came all the way to the Capital City!
Still recruiting people here!
Chen Shun’an secretly marveled at the Guo Lu Society’s audacity.
Daring to rebel right under the Emperor’s feet?!
Chen Shun’an wasn’t optimistic about the Guo Lu Society’s move.
However…
The Guo Lu Society had always been active in the south, so this time entering the capital, was it really just to absorb new blood?
Or was it also for the hibiscus paste fire?
Chen Shun’an suddenly thought of something, his heart skipping a beat, his face flickering between expressions.
He didn’t linger in place too long, pocketed the Guo Lu hanging sign, saw no anomalies on Scholar Ma’s side, then quickly headed toward Banye Ferry Crossing.
He spent half a string of cash to hire a porter in the shack area, entrusting him to go to West Mountain and relay the news of these mountain folk’s violent deaths.
Letting their families come collect the corpses.
It wasn’t that Chen Shun’an was purely kind-hearted, but he shared the same stance as the deceased’s families.
This matter must not be reported to officials.
The value of corpses sometimes exceeds that of living people.
In our great Sacred Dynasty, in many places, litigation sharks, local ruffians, and even local runners are in cahoots; for such murder cases, they draft complaints, extort victims, or even accuse passersby and merchants of see death and not save.
You’re innocent?
How do you prove it? Pay up first.
If you didn’t kill, why report to officials?!
Pay some more.
Why see death and not save?!
Pay even more!
Want to redeem the corpse?
Hand over all the money!
……
Chen Shun’an treaded the waves, red lotuses and green lotus leaves flashing quickly by his side.
With a faint ripple spreading, Chen Shun’an silently landed on the sampan.
Chen Shun’an swept his gaze, sensing no active spirituality in his perception range.
Let alone the whereabouts of that golden scaled perch.
Did I, Chen Mou, use Scholar Ma to chum and still return empty-handed?
Chen Shun’an felt a bit regretful inside, handing over three pan-fried buns and a bowl of sour plum drink wrapped in lotus leaves.
These were bought by Chen Shun’an on the road; especially the pan-fried buns, made with half-lean half-fat meat plus green onions and filling, brushed with oil in the pan and slow-fried on both sides—crispy outside, tender inside.
Not cheap; for ordinary folk, eating one would be a treat, opening their taste for oil!
After all, since asking for help, he naturally couldn’t skimp on Scholar Ma’s food.
Seeing Chen Shun’an, Scholar Ma set down his book, stretched his waist long, then unhurriedly scooped water to drink, wiping his hands and face.
After preparations, with ample respect for the delicacy, Scholar Ma slowly unfolded the lotus leaf.
“Fragrant, truly fragrant… Brother Shun An is quite the gourmand; you even found such authentic pan-fried buns.”
Scholar Ma took a long sniff, saliva production stimulated, his Adam’s apple bobbing repeatedly.
Then he noticed the faint listlessness on Chen Shun’an’s face.
A sly glint passed through Scholar Ma’s eyes, and he slowly pointed at the bamboo fish cage outside the boat,
“A silly grass carp, perhaps finding the water too hot, actually jumped into this fish cage itself. Brother Shun An, isn’t that strange? In ancient times, willing fish take the bait; now, willing ones enter the cage, hahaha…”
Chen Shun’an’s eyes lit up, quickly lifting the fish cage; with the ‘plop plop’ dripping sound, a fat and large grass carp appeared before him.
Chen Shun’an recognized at a glance that this was the grass carp transformed by the golden scaled perch.
For this grass carp also had fine skin and white flesh, with a bulging belly.
The occasional panic flashing in its eyes couldn’t escape Chen Shun’an’s discerning gaze!
“Little goldfish, Chen Mou has wronged you…”
Chen Shun’an quickly bound the grass carp five flowers, threading fish rope through its mouth and knotting it at one end, arching it up.
This grass carp was still playing dumb, staring wide with its pair of dead-white eerie eyes, mouth opening and closing.
Ahba.
Ahbaba…
