Chapter 664: A dark, windy night

The night hung low, with the occasional sound of a dog barking drifting from the darkness.

Three thugs, arms draped over each other's shoulders, swaggered into the back alley of the Hou residence.

The short, stocky man in the lead chewed on a reed stalk, shoved his hand into his open collar, and kept scratching at the grime on his skin. "That... that new girl at the Cui Cui Xitang, her chest is soft as can be. Just... one more puff of the 'longevity paste' and I'll be set, nice and comfy."

However, the thinner, tattooed thug behind him looked hesitant. "Big Brother, have you heard? Yan Laosan and his lot had a relapse at the docks today; they died not long after they got back. Their bodies are still soaking in the river."

"Several have died in the last two months. Maybe we should stop smoking..."

*Slap! *

Before he could finish, the stocky man slapped him across the face, cursing, "I... I say, was your head kicked by a donkey? Once you stop this stuff, it's worse than dying. I'm not suffering that misery!"

With that, he gave the thin man a hard shove and continued walking forward.

The scarred thug then wrapped an arm around the thin man, half-mocking, half-comforting him. "Brother, don't think about that nonsense. When we drank the blood wine and joined the gang, we already put our heads on the chopping block."

"We're going to die sooner or later anyway, so we might as well enjoy ourselves while we can!"

This sounded like self-abandonment, but in reality, it was true.

These thugs in Jinmen might not have had high-level martial arts, but they were each more troublesome than the last.

A martial artist's body was usually as precious as oil, but they didn't care in the slightest.

Drawing life-and-death lots, armed brawls, jumping into boiling oil, branding themselves with red-hot iron to establish authority... such shocking events occurred one after another. For the sake of face and profit, they would disregard everything.

In any case, they lived by one principle: never back down.

Even if someone gouged out their eyes and trampled them into the dirt, they would have to pick them up and swallow them without changing their expression.

They lived for today, not tomorrow; if they didn't indulge in time, they felt they were losing out.

Just like today, when news spread that the Wang family wanted to escape, their boss was too busy to deal with it and told them to go issue a warning, so the three of them took the opportunity to extort a sum.

If they spent the silver sparingly, it would be enough to cover a family of three for a year.

Yet, they were itching to blow it all tonight, not even wanting to pay back their gambling debts...

They hadn't walked far before rows of bright red lanterns appeared ahead.

This area of the Hou residence alley had originally been a gathering place for wealthy families, but many years ago, a monster appeared in Jinmen who was skilled in fire arts and evasion. Every night, he would infiltrate these wealthy mansions, and no one knew how many young women and wives he had ruined.

Later, when the incident came to light, experts from the Mystic Sect set a trap to surround him.

With no way up to heaven and no path into the earth, the monster set a massive fire, burning down several households in succession, causing heavy casualties. It was considered a major Mystic Sect case in Tianjin Wei back then.

Since then, the Hou residence alley had fallen into decline.

The poor couldn't afford to live there, and the rich found it inauspicious. Only the madams of the brothels took a liking to the place, buying up the properties one after another. As lanterns were hung, business became increasingly booming.

One of them was a three-courtyard residence converted into a storefront.

Reed fluff was stuffed into the cracks of the blue brick walls, and two strings of silk lanterns hung from the eaves. The candlelight shone through the oil paper with the words "Cui Cui Xitang," illuminating the oily mole on the face of the doorman.

As the three of them swayed toward the entrance, the doorman immediately nodded and bowed to welcome them.

"Master Wu, it's been a while since you've visited."

"Less... less chatter!"

The stocky man patted the doorman on the shoulder. "Call over all the new... new girls. Bring the best wine and food... serve it all up."

As he spoke, he patted his chest. "This master... has plenty of money!"

The doorman was all flattery, bowing and gesturing. "It just so happens to be the season for crab. Master Wu, please, come inside!"

"Good, good... Hahaha..."

Led by the doorman, the three of them stepped over the lantern-lit threshold.

Meanwhile, in a dark alley in the distance, Li Yan slowly stepped out.

After clarifying the situation at the Wang residence, he had immediately begun tracking them.

Although these three thugs had a head start, they couldn't escape his pursuit.

But what annoyed Li Yan was that he had intended to follow them to find the person behind them, yet he hadn't expected these three idiots to take the money and come here to indulge themselves first!

Killing intent flickered in Li Yan's eyes as he quickly vanished into the darkness.

Infiltrating this brothel didn't require any evasion arts.

With a burst of internal energy in his feet, his figure shot out like a sharp arrow, yet he remained completely silent. In two steps, he reached the base of the brothel wall, leaped into the air, stepped onto the courtyard wall, and quickly reached the roof beams.

When he had taken refuge with Zhao Wanfang in Chang'an, Li Yan had become quite familiar with such brothels.

If categorized by nature, there were "official-run" and "civilian-run" establishments.

The official-run ones were the famous "Jiaofangsi."

But these were limited in number; the civilian-run ones were far more numerous and had a strict hierarchy.

The first tier was called "Qingyin Xiaoban" or "Shuyu," focusing on "selling art." The women inside were not only beautiful but also required to be proficient in zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting. They entertained scholars and wealthy merchants, and the venues were extremely luxurious.

Often, these were places where the powerful and wealthy held banquets and negotiated business.

The women who are capable inside have extensive connections and even help pull strings and build bridges, and they even trade in intelligence, such as the Jin Yanmen where Zhao Wanfang is located.

The next tier featured both art courtesans and sex courtesans, with guests mostly being small merchants and scholars.

The worst tier, needless to say, was often opened in densely populated areas near the docks. The places were crude, and the women were often old, faded, or ill, entertaining porters and laborers. They were called "Dingpeng."

The one before him was considered third-tier.

The place was large, gathering people from all walks of life, and it looked somewhat chaotic.

In the center of the front courtyard, cypress wood gambling tables were set up. The candles were bright, and a crowd of men chewed on pancakes while placing bets. The scent of scallions mixed with the sour smell of sweat, accompanied by various shouts, drifted straight up to the second floor.

Whenever a gambler won money, it always drew compliments from the women in their arms.

As for the middle courtyard, it was relatively private.

The east, west, south, and north wing rooms were turned into small individual chambers, with peach-red silk curtains hanging at the entrances. Through the propped-open windows, one could see wine and food on the tables inside, as well as opium couches.

As for the backyard, it was where the girls washed and slept.

Densely packed clotheslines were set up, draped with all sorts of clothes and bedding.

Li Yan lowered his body and walked across the roof, then took a deep breath and looked at the second floor of the middle courtyard.

He saw that in the "Heaven-grade" chamber at the very end of the second floor, the decorations were significantly more luxurious. Wool blankets were spread on the floor, but beneath the blankets, half a section of reed mat was exposed.

A spring palace painting hung on the wall, appearing exceptionally suggestive under the candlelight.

Pine wood shavings burned in a copper brazier, the smoke curling so much that the paper-cut "Fortune and Treasure" on the rafters had curled at the edges.

On the opium couch, the stocky man had already collapsed, his eyes slightly narrowed, the sparks from his copper opium pipe flickering on and off.

And in the other rooms, almost everyone was smoking the "longevity paste."

After seeing this, Li Yan's killing intent could no longer be concealed.

He had now completely confirmed that the Jinghai Gang was definitely colluding with "Jianmu."

Moreover, this force was not small.

That foreign merchant Mendes, who had the aura of an evil ghost on him, and the Jinmen naval forces might all be involved.

Using brothels and gambling dens to spread opium.

The officials in Jinmen were likely involved too!

Because of the influence of his past life, he detested this substance deeply.

He hadn't expected that after changing worlds, the poison of opium had still spread to the Divine Land!

Seeing the stocky man smoking until he was floating in ecstasy, Li Yan hesitated no longer and leaped down.

Inside the chamber, a prostitute in peach-red satin had just brought a fruit platter when she suddenly saw a black shadow flip in from outside the window. Terrified, she wanted to scream, but everything went black before her eyes, and she fainted.

After knocking out the prostitute, Li Yan looked at the stocky man.

The stocky man was quite alert; although his head was dizzy, he still reached out to touch his blade.

But just as he tried to turn over, he suddenly stiffened, unable to move.

He only felt the world before his eyes gradually turning black, as if his consciousness were sinking into the deep sea, surrounded by darkness and deathly silence.

This feeling was practically the same as being dead.

The stocky man was usually fierce; when fighting with others, he would even use a knife to gouge flesh from his own leg and swallow it without changing his expression. He often had the saying, "At worst, I'll be a hero again in twenty years," on his lips.

But this feeling truly made him panic.

And Li Yan stood coldly to the side.

He had already used the Soul-Snatching Rope to suppress this person's soul. The reason he was using a sledgehammer to crack a nut was, first, he didn't want to cause too much of a commotion, and second, he needed to use this method to force a confession.

After about a few breaths, Li Yan retracted the Soul-Snatching Rope.

The stocky man slowly woke up, his eyes full of terror.

This short period of time felt like a whole day to him.

"You... who are you?"

The stocky man's forehead was sweating as he gritted his teeth and asked.

"Less nonsense. I ask, you answer!"

Li Yan asked in a deep voice, "Who ordered the harm to Wu Qu of Cangzhou?"

"Brother, I... I don't know..."

The stocky man didn't dare to admit it, but before he could finish, everything turned pitch black before his eyes again.

Li Yan didn't waste words and directly used the Soul-Snatching Rope.

After going back and forth a few times, the man finally broke down. "I'll talk... I'll talk!"

"It was Jian Sanye who told me to do it!"

Facing this terrifying technique, the stocky man's stuttering even improved significantly.

Li Yan narrowed his eyes. "Who is Jian Sanye?"

The stocky man gritted his teeth. "Jinghai Gang, Yu Wenhai. He burns the third stick of incense, and everyone in the gang calls him Jian Sanye. This... this hero, this matter has nothing to do with me."

"No nonsense!"

Li Yan reprimanded him again and continued to ask.

Finally, he clarified the sequence of events from the man's mouth.

A sorcerer surnamed Zhou had come to Jinmen from out of town a few years ago. Using the Wang family's yin-affliction layout, he lured and captured living yin-messengers. At first, he was very careful, but later, after the Huangquan organization collapsed, he became increasingly brazen.

Subsequently, the Jinghai Gang somehow learned of this.

They first controlled the sorcerer surnamed Zhou, then lured Wu Qu's friend. Through cruel torture and threats, they finally made him talk, luring Wu Qu from Cangzhou.

And that sorcerer surnamed Zhou was silenced afterward.

All of this was instigated by the Jinghai Gang's third-in-command, Yu Wenhai.

The three thugs helped as assistants, which was why they knew the process.

As for who actually did the deed, they didn't know.

"Why did Yu Wenhai do this?"

Li Yan asked in a deep voice again.

"This... this, how would I know?"

Seemingly seeing that Li Yan hadn't killed him, the stocky man's stubbornness flared up again.

But before he could finish, he saw Li Yan raise his hand and gently press it on his forehead.

*Boom! *

With a burst of force, the man's head instantly exploded, and his body fell heavily to the ground.

"Big Brother, what happened?"

This sound immediately drew the other two thugs.

They ran over from the next room, but just as they reached the door, a cold glint pierced through the wooden door and directly into the scarred man's forehead, instantly extinguishing his consciousness.

The thin man was startled and turned to run.

But hearing a *crack* behind him, Li Yan had already burst through the door. With a "shrinking the ground into an inch" movement, his blade flashed, and the thin man's head flew high into the air, falling into the middle courtyard.

"Murder!"

The prostitutes who had come out to watch the excitement screamed.

Li Yan ignored them, covered half his face with a black cloth, leaped out in two or three steps, kicked open another room door, and with a flash of his blade, the opium smoker inside, who was just putting on his pants, had his head sliced off.

The death of Wu Qu and the rampant spread of opium ignited a fierce fire in Li Yan's heart.

He couldn't be bothered to care if these smokers were innocent; he lifted his foot, kicked doors, and killed his way through room after room.

Blood splattered, and candlelight flickered.

The falling candles ignited one private room after another.

Amidst the fire and thick smoke, screams, pleas for mercy, and the sound of blades piercing flesh rang out incessantly.

"Murder!"

The terrified cries became increasingly chaotic.

In a brothel, there were bound to be hired thugs.

But these burly men, running over with clubs, were likewise dispatched by Li Yan like slaughtering chickens, one blade per person. The remaining ones were so scared they wet themselves, fleeing outside along with the patrons and prostitutes.

Suddenly, a roar came from the distance:

"What kind of petty thief dares to come and cause trouble in my place!"

A sturdy figure leaped up from another brothel, using "flying over eaves and walking on walls" skills, and in two leaps, arrived in the middle courtyard.

The newcomer was a one-eyed sturdy man, dressed in brocade, wearing tiger-head boots, with a green-scaled cowhide crotch guard around his waist. He had a full beard, a tiger-like back and bear-like waist, and two fists as large as sand pots.

*Thud! *

When he landed, the reed fluff in the brick cracks flew everywhere.

Seeing the corpses all over the courtyard, the one-eyed man was instantly enraged.

"You little bastard, Grandpa will crack your skull open!"

Before he could finish, he had already lunged forward, his heels grinding into the ground, producing a sound like tearing silk.

The boots on his feet were actually torn apart by his force, and his whole body whistled forward.

And on the ground behind him, a whirlwind actually rose, wrapped in dust and smoke.

"Duli Tongbei?"

Looking at the starting stance, Li Yan immediately identified the roots.

Jinmen gathered people from all walks of life, and there were naturally many martial artists.

Duli Town by the South Canal and Xiaonanhe Village in the Xiqing District were both famous for having many martial arts practitioners.

This Duli Tongbei originated precisely from Duli Town.

Legend has it that it was formed by two Grand Ancestor Fist masters, a monk and a Daoist, who traveled here and integrated the Grand Ancestor Sect's fist techniques with local Tongbei Fist, Shaolin Fist, and other techniques; its characteristic is the "Grand Ancestor Fist Tongbei Power."

Force is generated from the soles of the feet, passes through the waist and back, and penetrates to the arms, forming a spiral penetrating force.

It had a significant reputation in the martial world, with many practitioners in the north.

What the man used was precisely the "Dengdi Spiral Force" of Duli Tongbei.

Seeing the opponent attack, Li Yan directly raised his blade.

"Take this!"

The man suddenly grinned and changed his move, spinning to avoid the blade tip, using a "Lotus Leaf Flipping Back Leg" move, kicking toward Li Yan's heart. Before the wind reached him, a fishy stench already drifted from the cloth shoe sole.

The man's shoes had actually been tampered with, containing poisonous sharp blades.

Not only that, when Li Yan dodged to the side, the man spun and stood firm, his back muscles surging like waves, and his right arm whipped out with a *crack*, unleashing a "Tongbei Single Chopping Hand," the edge of his palm cutting straight toward Li Yan's throat with the sound of an air explosion.

By the looks of it, he had already stepped into the Hua Jin layer.

Stepping into Hua Jin meant one could be the master of a sect in the martial world; no wonder he was so arrogant, daring to step forward when trouble arose.

However, Li Yan had long been prepared, changing his move with the momentum, and the Duanchen Blade slashed diagonally.

His blade technique now had a structure of its own.

Merging the Guanzhong Fast Blade technique, it was even more "arriving later but striking first."

It looked light and airy, but in reality, the force was heavy as a thousand jun.

*Puff! *

Accompanied by a scream, the man's leg was directly severed.

Blood splattered, and the man roared as he fell heavily.

Li Yan was just about to finish him off, but his heart stirred, and he retreated violently.

He saw three men standing on the wall opposite, holding firelocks, simultaneously pulling the triggers.

*Boom, boom, boom! *

Three flashes of fire erupted, and the blue brick ground in front of Li Yan was blasted into a bowl-sized crater.

"Beat him to death!"

The man had escaped death and roared the order to fire.

*Puff! *

Before the words died away, a Soul-Severing Flying Blade suddenly flew out from Li Yan, who was retreating, piercing through the man's brow, circling in the air, and falling back into the leather pouch at his waist.

*Bang, bang, bang! *

The sound of firelocks rang out incessantly, but Li Yan had already vanished into the darkness.

Behind him, in the brothel, there was a burst of clamor and panic.

"Master Lu is dead! Quick... quick, go report to the Gang Leader!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 665 =====