Chapter 522: Slaughtering the Qian and Sun Families 2

The fire rose even faster than Cheng Feng had anticipated.

The old Qian Mansion was mostly wood-framed, and having not seen rain for a long time since winter began, the beams and pillars were bone-dry. Flames leaped from the window lattice in Qian Xiu'e's courtyard, spreading along the ceiling of the veranda.

In the blink of an eye, they swallowed the rooms in the northeast corner. Thick smoke billowed and firelight soared into the sky, casting a dark red glow over the entire street.

Leng Feng's whistles rose and fell in the night. Fifty experts from the Hong Sect's Wharf Gang split into three groups, killing their way into the Qian Mansion from the east, west, and north.

They were no Ordinary thugs; they were Martial Artists who had practiced Martial Dao, every one of them a ruthless character who had fought their way through the waterways with real blades and guns, well-versed in killing and looting.

Coupled with the fact that Cheng Feng had cleared out the night-patrolling guards beforehand, the groups moved as if through empty territory.

Not a single person in the Qian Mansion was spared.

Cheng Feng did not stay where he was to watch the fire. His figure moved, weaving rapidly along the veranda.

His five senses were fully open, and the movements of the entire Qian Mansion were spread out in his mind like a web.

Where there were footsteps, where there was breathing, where people were startled from their dreams and hiding in panic—all were within his perception.

"Courting death!" A blade-wind slashed from the side; it was a burly man who looked like a guard leader, wielding a Ghost Head Blade with heavy, fierce momentum.

Cheng Feng only tilted his body slightly, and the blade grazed his shoulder, slashing at empty air.

He reached out backhanded, his five fingers locking onto the opponent's wrist, and with a twist, a "Crack!" sounded as the burly man's wrist bone and the blade handle were both dismantled.

Before a scream could escape, Cheng Feng's other palm had already struck the man's crown. The burly man's body stiffened, his eyeballs bulged, and he fell straight down.

Organ Refining Mid-stage.

Cheng Feng shook the blood from his hand and did not stop his feet. Opponents of this level wouldn't even make the top hundred at the Great Zhou Martial Arts Tournament.

Had it not been for the need to cut weeds and eliminate the roots tonight, he wouldn't have bothered to take action himself.

Qian Xiuming was currently confronting Leng Feng in the middle courtyard.

By the time Cheng Feng arrived, two of Leng Feng's brothers were already on the ground; one had his shoulder pierced by a Sword, and the other had taken a kick to the calf, curled up at the base of the wall and gasping for air.

Qian Xiuming's brocade robe flickered in the firelight, and the Long Sword in his hand flashed with cold light; his Sword Technique was actually a few degrees more seasoned than Qian Xiu'e's.

"A bunch of low-class scum, daring to run wild in the Qian Mansion!" Qian Xiuming forced Leng Feng back with a sword strike and snarled, "Wait until my sister comes over, and I'll have you all chopped into pieces to feed the dogs!"

Leng Feng held his blade horizontally in front of his chest, two sword wounds already on his arm, blood dripping down. Hearing this, he was not afraid, but instead grinned: "Your sister? I'm afraid she won't be able to make it!"

Qian Xiuming's expression changed abruptly. He instinctively turned to look toward Qian Xiu'e's courtyard, and at that very moment, Cheng Feng stepped out from the shadows, closed the distance in one step, and raised his fist to blast at Qian Xiuming's chest.

Qian Xiuming reacted extremely quickly, blocking horizontally with his Long Sword while retreating violently.

Fist and sword collided, a crisp sound like metal striking metal exploded, and Qian Xiuming retreated five steps before barely standing firm; a mouthful of blood surged to his throat, which he forcibly swallowed back down.

"Who exactly are you?" Qian Xiuming stared fixedly at Cheng Feng, his gaze filled with suspicion and shock.

He could clearly feel that the opponent's Blood Qi was unimaginably thick; let alone himself, even if all the experts in the mansion were tied together, they wouldn't be enough for this person to kill.

Cheng Feng approached step by step, his tone flat, "Hong Sect, Wharf Gang, here to collect a debt."

Before the words had faded, his figure had already swept out like a ghost.

Qian Xiuming only felt a blur before his eyes; Cheng Feng was already at his side, a whip kick sweeping toward his lower body.

Qian Xiuming hurriedly crouched to block, but his whole body was swept off the ground, flipped in the air, and crashed heavily onto the stone steps.

Just as he was about to push himself up, Cheng Feng stepped down, landing right on the wrist holding the sword; the sound of bone shattering was exceptionally clear in the night.

Qian Xiuming let out half a scream, and Leng Feng's blade fell, cutting the scream off in his throat forever.

"Leave no survivors." Cheng Feng withdrew his foot and turned to walk toward the back hall.

Leng Feng wiped the blood from his face and signaled to his brothers behind him. Those men pounced on every part of the Qian Mansion like wolves and tigers, killing everyone they encountered.

Blade light flashed amidst the firelight; screams, pleas for mercy, and the sound of objects falling mixed together, like a pot of boiling water, bubbling up in the night of Heimu Prefecture.

Cheng Feng ignored all this. He passed through the back hall like a black wind, dealing with three Organ Refining Early-stage Martial Artists and two guards hiding in the woodshed one by one.

These people couldn't last a single exchange under his hands; he didn't even have the chance to throw a second punch.

In the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, there was not a single living soul left in the Qian Mansion.

The fire had become uncontrollable. Flames swallowed the entire main hall, the roof beams collapsed with a roar, and sparks splashed into the night sky like rain.

The nearby neighbors were awakened, and the sound of gongs and barking dogs rose from all directions. Cheng Feng glanced at the sky and said to Leng Feng, "That's enough, let's go, to the Sun Family."

Leng Feng blew a long whistle and led the brothers who could still move to withdraw from the back gate.

Cheng Feng was the last to leave. He stood by the edge of the fire and looked back at the soaring flames.

From this moment on, the Qian Family was erased from Heimu Prefecture.

All their prestige, calculations, and ambitions, along with those unspeakable connections, were burned to ash by this fire.

The Sun Family was even easier to handle than the Qian Family.

The Sun Family had indeed received word of the fire at the Qian Mansion tonight, and several guards and disciples were in a chaotic rush to head out and help.

They never expected that as soon as they stepped out the main gate, they would be met with a deadly ambush.

The Hong Sect had long since sent people to lie in wait!!

Cheng Feng and Leng Feng's group took advantage of the chaos to vault over the side wall, specifically targeting the Sun Family's Martial Artists.

The Sun Family only had two Organ Refining Early-stage experts in total; one had his neck broken by a palm strike from Cheng Feng, and the other was hacked to death in the courtyard by Leng Feng and his brothers.

As for the rest, some didn't even have time to pick up their blades before they were doused in kerosene, catching fire upon contact and running wildly through the courtyard in agony.

There were many elderly and children in the Sun Family, and Cheng Feng did not kill them all.

He glanced at the women and children huddled in the main room, trembling, and said to Leng Feng in a low voice: "Someone will report this to the authorities at dawn; leave a few who have no martial arts skills, and let them identify the Red Lotus Sect."

Leng Feng understood, whistled, and led his brothers to withdraw quickly.

The fire at the Sun Family burned until the second half of the night before it was extinguished by the neighbors and night watchmen who had rushed over.

By the time the officials arrived, the Qian Mansion was already a scorched earth, and half of the Sun Family's courtyard had burned down, with corpses lying everywhere. Surviving servants cried out, claiming it was a group of men in black, the leader having a Red Lotus mark branded on the back of his hand, calling out "Lotus fire burns the world."

The officials' faces turned green; they sealed the street entrance overnight and detained over a dozen suspicious people from the docks for questioning.

But Cheng Feng had long since returned to his mansion.

He climbed in silently from the back gate, washed the blood and grime from his hands and face by the well in the courtyard, changed out of his smoke-blackened outer garment, stored it in his Storage Ring, and rinsed off once more.

By the time he lay back down in Zhao Wei's room, it was not yet dawn.

Zhao Wei felt him get into bed in a daze, turned over, buried her face in his chest, and fell fast asleep again.

Cheng Feng kept his eyes closed, though sleepiness was not heavy. The color of flames and the sensation of a blade entering flesh still lingered in his mind.

Killing and saving people had long since made no difference to him.

Living in this world, if you do not plunge your blade into someone else's throat first, you are just waiting for others to swallow your home, your woman, and your children all together.

He turned his head, and by the faint light filtering through the window paper, watched Zhao Wei's quiet sleeping face. She slept so deeply, so completely without defense.

Cheng Feng reached out, touched her hair extremely lightly, and then closed his eyes.

It was almost dawn.

The morning in Heimu Prefecture arrived as usual. On the docks, boatmen were unloading cargo as always; in the alleys, peddlers were hawking their wares as always; and the fish porridge stall had already sent up its first pot of steam.

Only today, the entire city was discussing two things.

The first was that the Qian Family and the Sun Family had fallen victim to the "remnants of the Red Lotus Sect" overnight; both families were slaughtered, their residences burned, and the authorities had already issued a bounty for their arrest.

The second was that the Canal Gang at the docks had suddenly come into a fortune of "charity money," sending dozens of bags of rice and flour to the orphanage in North City this morning, and funding the repair of two dilapidated wooden bridges in East City.

The laborers at the docks all said that the Canal Gang was accumulating virtue for the neighbors who had suffered misfortune last night.

Cheng Feng sat in the courtyard, basking in the early winter sun, with a pot of hot tea by his side.

Leng Feng entered from the back door, his face full of exhaustion, yet a smile he could not suppress hung at the corners of his mouth.

"Master Cheng, it is all done," he said, lowering his voice. "The remaining people of the Sun Family insist it was the Red Lotus Sect, and the authorities are already investigating in that direction. Our people have all shown their faces at the docks; there are witnesses."

Cheng Feng nodded and lifted his teacup to take a sip: "Keep a low profile from now on. Just carry on with the cargo as usual."