Chapter 366 - 349: Seven Kills

Chapter 366: Chapter 349: Seven Kills

Inside the ruined temple.

The Xinyi Bang’s Gang Leader laughed maniacally. "Still trying to bite back when you’re at death’s door? Don’t worry, not a single one of you is getting away tonight. You’re all going to die!"

Peng Anmin prepared to make his last stand.

At that tense, life-or-death moment, the unexpected happened.

Of the three who had been staying out of it, the gray-robed, middle-aged man in the lead suddenly moved.

His movements didn’t look fast; they even seemed somewhat casual.

He simply took a light step forward.

The next instant, like a phantom, he materialized out of thin air between them and the Xinyi Bang’s Gang Leader and his men.

The two sides were now only a few feet apart.

No one saw how he got there.

Then, Peng Anmin witnessed a scene he would never forget for the rest of his life—one that made his very Divine Soul tremble.

In the empty space above the gray-robed man’s head, a ball of golden light suddenly blossomed without any warning.

There was no deafening sound, but it was as if a thunderclap had been set off inside Peng Anmin’s mind.

A Dragon’s Roar and Tiger’s Howl boomed directly in the depths of his soul.

Peng Anmin felt as if his very soul was about to be shattered by the sound.

His vision blackened and the world spun. It felt as if warm liquid was seeping from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. His consciousness was like a flickering candle in the wind, about to be extinguished.

He desperately tried to steady his Heart Spirit, but it was like a mantis trying to stop a chariot—utterly useless.

The surrounding gang members with weaker Cultivation didn’t even have time to scream. Their bodies all trembled at once, then blood sprayed violently from their seven orifices as their breathing ceased instantly.

Although the three Gang Leaders were still on their feet, they were swaying unsteadily.

And then...

Endless darkness swallowed all his senses.

His memory ended abruptly there.

Peng Anmin shuddered violently, wrenching himself free from the memory.

He tried to move his fingers. Thankfully, control over his body seemed to have returned. It was just incredibly sore and weak, as if he were recovering from a major illness.

He struggled to prop up his upper body with his arms, but even this simple action made his vision go black. He had to take several gasping breaths before he recovered.

His body was cold and stiff, the chill from the stone floor seeping into his bones.

He instinctively tried to circulate his Inner Breath, wanting to mobilize his qi and blood to dispel the chill and ease the pain.

However, when he tried to guide his Inner Qi, he was horrified to discover that all his meridians and Acupoints had been sealed.

Acupoint stimulation?

Peng Anmin gave a bitter smile to himself.

After a few failed attempts, he gave up and struggled to his feet.

Inside the ruined temple, three other people were lying scattered about besides him.

They were the Gang Leaders of the Xinyi Bang, the Sanhe Bang, and the Chaotian Bang.

He staggered over, checked their breathing, and felt for a pulse on their necks.

Still alive.

’It seems that gray-robed man didn’t kill us last night,’ he thought. ’He just incapacitated all of us, myself included.’

Peng Anmin’s heart settled slightly, but his confusion and fear grew even stronger.

’What on earth does he want?’

He took a deep breath and, enduring the soreness racking his body and the discomfort in his Divine Soul, he supported himself against the wall and shuffled step by step toward the temple entrance.

The morning sun was just rising, and the golden dawn light was a bit dazzling, forcing him to squint.

The air was thick with the nauseating stench of blood.

The open ground in front of the temple was littered with corpses.

Severed limbs lay everywhere, blood pooled on the ground, and the barren earth was stained a dark red.

Aside from those who had clearly died from swords and blades, a significant number of them had no external wounds. They just lay there, stiff, with dried bloodstains in their seven orifices.

These were the people who had been killed instantly by that terrifying Divine Soul roar last night.

A deeper chill filled Peng Anmin’s heart. Last night, the gray-robed, masked man hadn’t even truly attacked, yet hundreds of gang members from the three gangs—men who had run rampant in Nanjiang and been a huge headache for the Court—were annihilated, turned to dust.

’What kind of Realm is this?’

’A Grandmaster shouldn’t be capable of this, right?’

’Just who are they?’

’Going to all this trouble... What’s their goal?’

’Could it really just be for those two thousand boxes of Opium?’

Peng Anmin’s mind was a tangled mess.

As his Heart Spirit reeled, he suddenly caught sight of someone sitting on the edge of the temple’s dilapidated roof.

He snapped his head up, and his heart skipped a beat.

On the highest, still-intact ridge of the ruined temple’s roof, a gray figure sat cross-legged. With his back to the rising sun, he was performing a Breathing Technique to regulate his breath.

It was the masked, gray-robed, middle-aged man from last night.

Peng Anmin felt his scalp tingle with fear.

His first thought was... run.

However, the moment that thought arose, it was replaced by despair.

’Run? Where could I run?’

’With his divinely unpredictable methods, I’d probably die a silent death before I even made it out the temple gate.’

’Since he spared my life and the lives of the other three Gang Leaders, it must mean we’re still useful.’

’Trying to escape now would only provoke him and hasten my own death. There’s no benefit to it.’

’Since I can’t run, I’ll just wait. What’s meant to be will be. At least... the sun feels nice and warm,’

he thought with self-deprecation.

Having come to this realization, Peng Anmin sighed in resignation. He actually copied the man on the roof, sitting down cross-legged on the dusty stone steps.

Time passed bit by bit. The winter sun climbed higher, dispelling the morning chill and warming one’s body quite pleasantly.

Peng Anmin just sat there, silently circulating his Inner Breath, trying to break through his sealed acupoints, but to no effect.

It wasn’t until the sun was high in the sky, close to Noon, that the sound of clopping hooves and two people bickering could be heard.

"...Old Bao, I’m not trying to criticize you, but look at these horses from the Court! They’re all fine steeds, more than fifty of them. That’s over ten thousand silver! How long would it take us to save that much? Then look at these few sorry nags and dozen or so mules we’re selling. It’s only a thousand-some silver, not even enough to buy a decent meal."

"Those are the Court’s military horses. They all have the Official Family’s brand on their rumps. You want to take them out and sell them? What horse trader would dare buy them? The moment you sell, the Government Office will track you down using the horses."

"We just sell ’em cheap! Let the buyer figure out how to grind off or burn off the brand. Are we really just going to watch this huge windfall slip through our fingers?"

"I’d advise you to let it go. Some money, you need to be alive to spend it, even if you were alive to earn it."

The two argued back and forth, their voices drawing closer.

Soon, Peng Anmin saw the two men who had been with the gray-robed, masked man last night appear on horseback.

The two of them had clearly also seen Peng Anmin sitting at the temple entrance.

The shifty-eyed man’s eyes lit up, and he hollered from a distance, "Hey, brother over there! If you’re awake, don’t just sit there. Come give us a hand and get these chickens ready."

Peng Anmin suppressed the unease in his heart, silently stood up, and walked toward the two men.

He kept his head down and didn’t say a word. He took the chickens, accepted the proffered dagger, and squatted to the side, beginning to expertly bleed, pluck, and gut them.

His movements were deft and he remained silent.

In the clearing before the ruined temple, a bonfire CRACKLED.

The chicken meat gradually turned a crispy golden-brown. Fat dripped into the fire with a SIZZLE, and a rich, meaty aroma wafted through the air.

The shifty-eyed man wiped his mouth with a greasy hand and shouted toward the roof, "Master, the chicken’s about done! Come on down and have a taste while it’s fresh. It’ll get tough if it gets cold."

On the roof, the gray figure slowly exhaled a long breath, which condensed in the cold air into a white ribbon dozens of feet long that lingered without dispersing.

He opened his eyes, and his figure floated down from the roof like a feather, landing without stirring a speck of dust.

The three were, of course, Chen Li, Bai San, and Gossip.

After settling the transfer and disposal of the Sun Family’s assets, the matter of the Liyang auction came to a close.

Chen Li had returned home, but his heart was not at ease.

Although Zhao Yuanhong had promised to deflect blame for the deaths of Zhou Bo’an and the others onto the remnants of the Opium case, it was ultimately just his word. Furthermore, it was an eighteen-year-old cold case, and whether it would be believed by the Court’s upper echelons was far too uncertain.

Entrusting the Chen Family’s safety entirely to Zhao Yuanhong’s single-handed scheme of misdirection was tantamount to walking a tightrope over a cliff.

The Court wasn’t run by fools. With several Court officials dead in quick succession, they would not be so easily deceived.

He needed to add more fuel to the fire, to bring Opium back to the attention of the Jiangzhou Government Office, muddy the waters, and steer the Court’s investigation away from the Chen Family.

Thus, Chen Li found Gossip and questioned him in detail.

Gossip informed him that the Opium trade had been massive during the Pig Emperor’s era, but he wasn’t clear on its true origins either.

However, the gangs responsible for transport and distribution were all controlled by the Seven Kills Association and were likely closely tied to them.

As for the true source, one would have to find the Seven Kills Association to learn more.

The Seven Kills Association?

Chen Li immediately recalled the Seven Kills Ancestor mentioned by the Kao Mountain Sect disciple during his first trip to Hidden Emperor Castle, and he pressed for details. Only then did he learn that the Seven Kills Association had been founded by the Seven Kills Ancestor more than thirty years ago.

It was entrenched in Jiangzhou, specializing in smuggling, assassination, and plunder. Its influence was deep and tangled, and its methods were secretive and ruthless.

The Court had tried to encircle and annihilate them many times but had never even figured out where their lair was.

After briefly settling things in Lingxi, Chen Li quietly left home with Bai San and Gossip.

Using a secret channel known to Gossip, they put out the word that they were looking to buy a large quantity of Opium and successfully lured in the Xinyi Bang.

Chen Li’s original plan was simple and direct.

He would make contact with and control the Xinyi Bang’s Gang Leader, torture him for inside information about the Seven Kills Association, follow the clues to find the association’s higher-ups—ideally, finding the Seven Kills Ancestor himself—and figure out the source of the Opium.

At that point, whether he chose to kill with a borrowed knife or divert the disaster elsewhere, he could arrange things at his leisure.

He never would have expected that what was supposed to be a covert investigation would, through a strange twist of fate, turn into a brutal, chaotic battle involving multiple factions.

Chen Li walked over to the bonfire, and Bai San eagerly handed him a perfectly roasted, plump chicken.

Tearing off a leg, he began to chew it slowly and deliberately. His gaze fell upon Peng Anmin, and he asked, "Are you one of the Court’s men?"

Peng Anmin’s hand, which was turning a roasting chicken, froze for a second. He forced a bitter smile and answered cautiously, "Yes... and no."

Bai San, who was standing to the side, rolled his eyes. "It’s either yes or no. What’s this ’yes and no’ supposed to mean? Are you trying to talk in riddles with us?"

Chided by Bai San, Peng Anmin looked a bit embarrassed. He hesitated for a moment before asking in return, "If I may be so bold, senior, which esteemed expert might you be?"

"You don’t need to know."

Chen Li replied coolly, "If you are one of the Court’s men, then for now, our objectives are the same."

The bonfire continued to CRACKLE.

The atmosphere in front of the ruined temple grew somewhat stagnant.

Peng Anmin kept his head down, unconsciously poking the fire in front of him with a twig. Sparks flew up, only to be quickly extinguished.

After a moment, he took a deep breath and began to speak slowly. "Since you’ve asked, senior, I dare not hide it. It’s just that... my identity is a long story."