Chapter 14: Seeing Blood!

Jiang Ye slightly stretched his neck and wrists, joints emitting a faint, almost inaudible crack.

Within his body, the power concealed deep in bone marrow and organs stirred like a dormant beast awakened, flowing silently.

The drowsy, sluggish gatekeeper who had appeared by day had vanished.

Now standing in the shadows was an aged, fearsome tiger, its years of decline stripped away, claws and lethal intent fully unleashed, ready to hunt.

He did not choose to exit through the main gate.

His gaze swept over the courtyard wall, eight feet high, settling on a corner where half-dead bamboo shadows concealed a gap.

Jiang Ye lightly tapped the ground, his body leaping up like a nimble deer, then executing a fluid somersault as he cleared the high wall of the martial academy and landed silently on the ground.

This leap, this flip, this landing—though seemingly simple and casual—perfectly fused the lightness and speed of the “Deer Form,” the agility and cunning of the “Monkey Form,” and the graceful fluidity of the “Bird Form” from the Five Animal Fist, all effortlessly summoned.

Jiang Ye stood still in the deeper darkness beyond the wall, glancing back briefly at the silhouette of the academy’s wall, now blurred in the night.

He turned away, his gaze fixed on the distance.

There lay the western district, occupied by the Wild Wolf Gang—the hunting ground for his night’s prey.

As for why he targeted the Wild Wolf Gang, it had nothing to do with righteous indignation or defending Lin Xiaohé.

Simply because, over the past two days, the most discussed, most detailed topic among the academy’s outer-disciple students had been the Wild Wolf Gang.

The frightened, contemptuous, or angry whispers of the young disciples had pieced together a clear picture in Jiang Ye’s mind.

The gang’s leader, it was said, was a master who had reached the Dark Force realm, ruthless and rarely seen in person.

Under him were four section chiefs, each commanding a district, all possessing Bright Force cultivation—formidable martial strength within Anxi County.

Jiang Ye’s target tonight was the section chief closest to the academy, overseeing the Zhangxingjie district—Xu Tao.

According to the gossiping disciples, there was a gambling den on Zhangxingjie, wildly profitable, earning gold by the bushel—a key source of income for the Wild Wolf Gang.

Section Chief Xu Tao routinely resided there, living in a small independent courtyard behind the den.

The information was precise, the target clear, the distance perfectly “suitable.”

For a hunter who needed silver, and who needed to conceal himself while testing his claws, no better first prey could be found.

Xu Tao: Bright Force realm.

Perfect—he could use him to test the true weight of his own “Tiger Walk Like Illness.”

He’d been looking for a “human post” to practice on these past two days.

Beneath his black face covering, Jiang Ye’s lips curled into a cold, thin smile.

He moved without hesitation, slipping soundlessly into the labyrinthine alleyways, vanishing into their shadows toward Zhangxingjie.

Zhangxingjie.

“This is it.”

Hidden in the shadows, Jiang Ye stared at the brightly lit gambling den ahead, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Like a crouching tiger, he crept along the shadows, pressed against the courtyard wall, lightly tapped his foot, and scaled the roof like a monkey.

The small courtyard behind the gambling den—lit brightly.

“Master Xu, the net’s been cast tight. That gambling fool Yang is finished.”

A gang member in gray robes, sharp-eyed and shrewd, bowed before the burly man seated on a high-backed chair.

The gray-robed man spoke with flattery: “After tonight, his wife and daughter will both be ours to claim.”

The man addressed as “Master Xu” was none other than Xu Tao, section chief of the Wild Wolf Gang.

He was massive as a bear, his face thick with fat, a dark red, jagged scar slashing from his left temple down to his brow—adding to his ferocity.

He sat with his chest exposed, hairy and thick, idly twirling two polished iron balls in his palm. At the words, he grinned, revealing a mouth full of golden-yellow teeth:

“That yellow-faced bitch of Yang’s? Disgusting. Just hand her over to the slave trader.”

He paused, a lewd glint flashing in his eyes, the scar twisting as he spoke, “But his daughter… I happened to catch a glimpse of her a few days ago. Hmph, quite fetching. Soft as if you could squeeze water from her skin.”

He leaned forward, voice dropping to a nauseating whisper, thick with perverse excitement:

“Send her to me first. Let me personally ‘open her eyes’—after I’ve had my fill, then sell her to the trader.”

The gray-robed man immediately understood, his face twisting into an equally lewd grin as he nodded eagerly: “Heh, to be personally ‘opened’ by Master Xu? That little girl must’ve earned it in a past life! Others would kill for the chance!”

“Do it well, and you’ll be well rewarded.”

Xu Tao leaned back, his expression delighted, as if he’d already tasted that “sweetness.”

“Thank you, Master Xu! Thank you for your favor!”

The gray-robed man bowed repeatedly, then backed away carefully, closing the door softly behind him.

The room fell silent again, save for the faint, rhythmic rubbing of the iron balls in Xu Tao’s palm.

He narrowed his eyes, the image of the girl’s pale, delicate face—filled with terror—growing clearer in his mind. A lustful fire surged within him, making him hot and restless.

“Damn it, that little bitch got me worked up…” Xu Tao spat, tossing the iron balls onto the table with a dull thud.

He slapped his thigh, preparing to rise. “Guess I’ll head to Yihong Courtyard and find Cui’er to cool off tonight…”

The thought had barely formed, his body still half-seated—

Creak.

The door silently pushed inward, opening a narrow slit.

A night breeze slipped through, causing the candle flame to flicker violently, shadows trembling.

“You little—” Xu Tao frowned instinctively, assuming it was the gray-robed man returning, clumsy and inept.

His tone grew impatient as he turned toward the door.

But the next instant—

A martial cultivator’s instinct for danger struck like ice water dumped over his head.

Every hair on Xu Tao’s body stood on end; a chilling dread shot up his spine!

Wrong!

The doorway was empty—no familiar, hunched, timid figure.

Only an impenetrable darkness, thick enough to swallow light, silently oozed in from beyond the crack.

His massive frame tensed instantly like iron; his earlier laziness and lewdness vanished, replaced by razor-sharp alertness and erupting ferocity.

His right hand slid soundlessly toward the hidden short blade at his waist; his left foot stepped half a pace back, center of gravity lowered—he was already in combat stance.

“Who—”

His chest swelled, a low roar ready to burst from his throat, laced with shock and murderous intent.

In that split second—

The shadow hidden within the door’s darkness moved.

No warning. No sound. Not even a discernible starting posture.

As if the thick darkness itself had suddenly condensed, collapsed, then erupted into a shadow laced with the stench of blood, striking faster than the human eye could track!

In Xu Tao’s widening pupils, what rushed toward him was not a man—but a blurred yet terrifyingly real white-browed tiger with slitted eyes!

Fangs bared, breath reeking of death, radiating the savage dominance of the forest king, ready to devour him whole!

“Tiger?!”

Xu Tao’s mind reeled, his scalp nearly exploding.

Even after years of bloodshed, this sudden, horrifying sight caused him a fleeting moment of disorientation.

But only for an instant.

Years of combat experience snapped him back to reality—where was the tiger?!

It was clearly a masked, hunched attacker!

That terrifying illusion was nothing but the terrifying “presence” and mental pressure of his assault!

Yet that moment of hesitation had already decided life or death!

The tiger-like figure had closed the distance to less than three feet, moving so fast it was now nothing but a blur of black.

“Die!”

Xu Tao’s eyes bulged, fury and terror exploding within him—he unleashed his hard-won Bright Force in a desperate surge.

Blood and qi surged, muscles swelled; his stabbing hand became a venomous streak of dark light, tearing through the air with a shrill whistle, aimed straight at the attacker’s heart.

This thrust was cruel, precise, swift—the essence of his entire life of killing, designed to kill in one strike.

Facing this lethal, razor-close thrust, the attacker’s response defied all logic.

The ferocious tiger-like charge suddenly shifted!

Like a monkey twisting its body, or a willow fluff dancing on the wind.

The attacker’s body bent with impossible flexibility and agility, shifting and rotating in the narrowest space.

Hss—

The poisoned dagger scraped past the attacker’s chest, slicing only a small patch of coarse cloth, lifting a few threads—barely grazing skin.

A hair’s breadth separated life from death!

Xu Tao’s full-power, certain-kill thrust had fully committed.

New strength had not yet formed; old strength was spent—the most vulnerable, unguarded moment.

And the attacker waited for precisely this moment!

The body that had just completed its strange twist, still riding the momentum, unleashed its left fist—like a hidden claw beneath the relaxed hide of a sick tiger—suddenly striking out.

No wind howled. No bones cracked.

Only an extreme internal compression, heavy enough to suffocate.

Where the fist struck, the air itself seemed to compress, solidify.

Boom!

A dull, heavy thud exploded in Xu Tao’s ear, not loud but deeply solid.

The last thing he saw were those calm, unrippled eyes above the black cloth.

Instantly, boundless darkness and unspeakable agony swallowed all his consciousness.

Xu Tao’s massive, muscular, scarred head, like a ripe watermelon struck dead center by a sledgehammer, caved inward and twisted under an irresistible, overwhelming force—and

Puff!

Red and white matter mixed with shattered bone erupted in a ghastly splatter beneath the dim lantern light.

The headless, burly body stiffened for a fleeting instant, then collapsed like a mountain toppling, crashing heavily backward to the ground with a deep thud that sent a puff of dust trembling through the air.

“Stronger than I imagined.”

Jiang Ye shook his head slightly, staring at the headless corpse lying on the ground.