Chapter 52: Skin Refining Outer Gang, Untouched by Wind and Rain, The World is Bleak and Leaves No Way to Live, Lin Zhenhai’s Invitation
Chapter 52: Chapter 52: Skin Refining Outer Gang, Untouched by Wind and Rain, The World is Bleak and Leaves No Way to Live, Lin Zhenhai’s Invitation
West Anning Street, the Tiger and Leopard Hall!
A sprawling, four-courtyard mansion with stone walls and blue tiles stood with a solemn air, its grounds filled with rows upon rows of weapon racks.
The Three Great Gangs.
These were the three great powers that had forced their way into the county seat, formed by the combined might of manors and mountain towns from along the five-hundred-li mountain roads.
While the Fire Kiln made its name and fortune through iron refining and weapon forging, the Chai Market dealt in coal and firewood, and the Cattle and Sheep Market monopolized the meat trade...
Then...
The Lion Hall, the Tiger and Leopard Hall, and the Eagle Falcon Gang.
They were the ones who made their living off that five-hundred-li mountain road, feeding a massive number of people!
Loan sharking, running protection rackets, and collecting rent within the city... these were just side hustles.
Their real wealth came from the various rare treasures and mountain goods found in the wilds.
Where would ordinary hunters and woodcutters dare to venture so deep?
Only the highly skilled Martial Artists from the Sword Manors and mountain towns could obtain the great medicines that nourished Qi and Blood, battle tigers and leopards, and serve as the ’Mountain Patrol’.
It was said,
That back in the day, "Tomb Tiger" Yang Daohan of the Tiger and Leopard Hall.
Had scoured the mountains and forests, exhausted his manpower, and followed clues to track down a genuine ’Earth Treasure’.
He then presented it directly to a major figure in the Prefecture City, which was how he established his current foothold in Anning and rose to prominence.
The common mountain folk lived off the land and scraped by in poverty, but for a Dragon Head who established a manor or a mountain town, a single big score could keep them fed for years.
On this day.
On Zhongyong Street, outside the Tiger and Leopard Hall.
A rare, long line of gang members, packed three layers deep both inside and out, craned their necks to see within. Mixed among them were factions from the ’Lion Hall’ and the ’Eagle Falcon Gang’.
Every one of them had an excited glint in their eyes, as if they were witnessing something truly incredible.
Just a few years ago, the relationship between the ’Three Great Gangs’ was average at best. Some of their members often clashed outside the county; drawing blades over a single disagreement was a common occurrence.
But for some unknown reason, their relationship had grown closer and closer in recent years, as if they were three strands twisted into a single rope, united as one.
Inside the Tiger and Leopard Hall.
"Lu Chengfeng, Xuu Manor, Wei Dinchang?"
"Heh!"
"Three businessmen who think that just because they’ve latched onto a ’Qi Cultivation Grandmaster,’ they can found their own sect?"
"In the past, we might have let it slide."
"But now, we’ve obtained a ’Secret Technique,’ become sworn brothers, and tempered our Outer Gangs. We’ve risen in power, untouchable, and have long since become a unified force!"
"From the mountain roads to the county seat, we call the shots."
"It’s only because our leader is low-key and doesn’t want to stir up trouble that we’ve kept quiet."
"And yet, while we’ve been lying low, some idiots who can’t think straight actually came looking for trouble?"
"They’re just asking for humiliation."
Dressed in black, "Cangying" Xu Xin, the Dragon Head of the Eagle Falcon Gang, looked toward the gate, crossed his arms, and sneered.
He was blind in one eye, while the other was like a hawk’s, piercingly cold.
"Our Skin Refining skills are still lacking and our ’Outer Gangs’ are incomplete. We can’t project our Force, so we can only make that Xuu Manor and Wei Dinchang suffer a small loss."
"But..."
"Yang the Seventh, on the other hand, inherited the Boss’s mantle. His Outer Gang Cultivation is the real deal. Even in the Prefecture City, he could break into the ’profession’ and make a name for himself. How could these country bumpkins even begin to imagine that?"
"Lu Chengfeng was the most skilled Martial Artist of the three."
"And yet, didn’t he get his tendons torn and bones dislocated by the ’Tiger and Leopard Hand’ after just a few moves? He’s practically a cripple now!"
"If we didn’t have to show some face to the higher-ups and avoid spilling blood for now, otherwise... TSK TSK..."
His hair like a lion’s mane and a pair of jade-green eyes, "Mad Lion" Zhang Liechen leaned on his saber, sitting with his legs wide in a commanding posture as he grinned.
"They’re just grasshoppers after autumn. They won’t be hopping for long."
"We can let Xuu Manor and Wei Dinchang be for now. If we were to swallow up the Fire Kiln, Chai Market, and Cattle and Sheep Market—businesses that make up half of Anning’s commerce—all at once, it would cause too much of a commotion."
"If we startle the instructors of the ’Fist, Spear, Saber, and Sword’ halls, and make them—and the person behind them—too sensitive, that would be bad."
"Besides, I heard the representative sent by that ’Qi Cultivation Grandmaster’ from the Wind and Cloud Association hasn’t arrived yet. To avoid tipping our hand, we have to let them live a little longer."
"But it makes no sense for them to come knocking and for us not to take any spoils, right?"
"Lu Chengfeng..."
"His Fire Kiln business is quite substantial."
"Mad Lion" Zhang Liechen and "Cangying" Xu Xin sat on the left and right.
And in the center, upon a grand, carved, yellow-wood Grandmaster’s Chair... sat the master of the Tiger and Leopard Hall, "Tomb Tiger" Yang Daohan.
He slowly began to speak, his eyes sweeping from left to right. With a gentle smile, his wide sleeves and grand robes gave him the refined air of a scholar.
"Our Three Great Gangs have been cooped up in the west side of the city for too long."
"It’s time to get our brothers some spoils."
"But before that..."
Yang Daohan beckoned with his hand.
Zhang Shiyao, one arm wrapped in bandages, walked over without a sound.
"Dragon Head!"
The seventh seat of the Tiger and Leopard Hall.
The title sounded intimidating, but in front of the seemingly gentle and refined Dragon Head of the Tiger and Leopard Hall, he was like a little chick pecking at grain.
"The Wind and Cloud Association’s Medicine Hall Master, Ji Xiu. A former servant at the Lin Residence, started as a groom..."
"Sixteen years old, with the nascent form of Golden Muscle and Jade Veins, and he bruised half your arm with a single palm strike?"
"It was my incompetence. I..."
Hearing the Dragon Head recount the details as if counting his own treasures, Zhang Shiyao shivered, his face flushing with shame as he hesitated to speak.
But Tomb Tiger Yang Daohan cut him off with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"A fine prospect."
He suddenly exclaimed in admiration.
"The Boss said he has a soft spot for these poor boys from humble origins who know what hardship is."
"Yang Yan."
"Where is Yang Yan?"
His gaze swept the room. When no one answered, Yang Daohan’s brow furrowed. His ’refined and gentle’ demeanor vanished in an instant, his eyes sharpening with the predatory gaze of a hawk and a wolf.
It sent a chill down one’s spine. Upon hearing the question, Zhang Shiyao trembled even more.
"Dragon Head, Brother Yan... he... he..."
Yang Daohan’s brow tightened.
"When those three big families came knocking just now, didn’t I see him beat Lu Chengfeng’s star disciple’s face crooked with a single punch?"
Zhang Shiyao mumbled helplessly under his breath.
"Brother Yan... he said he expended too much energy just now and needed to blow off some steam, so he went to the home of a laborer we’ve loaned money to... to find... to find the man’s wife."
Yang Daohan flew into a rage.
"That little bastard! Does he think just because he’s forged his Iron Bones and is impervious to blades that he can do whatever he damn well pleases?"
"Drag him back here for me! And tell him to go ’politely’ invite that Ji Xiu over!"
"Yes!"
...
Mottled earthen walls, a dim oil lamp.
Yang Yan pulled up his pants, let out a satisfied breath, lit a rolled-up weed cigarette, and squinted his eyes.
He looked at the commoner in front of him, who was bent over like a dog, his back hunched and his demeanor timid and weak.
Then he turned his head to look at the pretty woman. After he had his way with her a few times, she seemed to have suffered a mental breakdown. Now she was hanging from a hemp rope she’d tied herself, a complete mess.
"Does your wife have any family?"
The man trembled as he remained bowed, mumbling.
"She... she’s from a poor family in a shabby alley under the Fire Kiln’s Boss. She just has a younger brother who does odd jobs and a few sisters. No background to speak of."
"Master Yan, she was the only wife I had. I spent a full two taels of silver to marry her. She was the prettiest of all her sisters. You..."
The Young Head of the Tiger and Leopard Hall clutched his cigarette. Hearing this, he nodded in satisfaction, took a long drag, and then kicked the man.
"Useless trash."
"Your wife is dead, and you’re still thinking about getting ’more money’ for her?"
"No wonder your wife was too ashamed to live."
"It’s all your fault!"
He flicked the smoldering cigarette butt onto the man’s face and sneered.
"But..."
"Your woman... was nice and soft."
"Consider your debt paid."
He licked his lips, a little regretfully.
At these words, the man, who had been cowering, suddenly had a flash of joy on his face.
"Brother Yan, Brother Yan!"
Just then, someone shouted from outside, making him frown.
"What is it?"
"The Dragon Head wants to see you!"
Hearing this, Yang Yan cleaned his ear, looking annoyed.
"Didn’t I just finish beating up that pretty boy from the Fire Kiln?"
"What does the old man want now."
He muttered to himself as he left with his men in scattered groups.
Only the man was left, staring blankly at his wife’s bruised and purpled body. His face was a mixture of grief and joy. Finally, he covered his face and began to sob.
"Ayuan, I’ve failed you... I’ve failed your family..."
"But... but I truly had no other choice..."
...
The Fire Kiln, Lu Manor.
"Manor Master Lu, I’ve applied the Seventh-Grade Medicinal Powder for you. For the rest, you’ll just have to recuperate."
"At least..."
"It will take two or three months."
"During this time, you... you’ll probably have to use a cane, and you absolutely cannot exert your Qi and Blood."
Looking at Lu Chengfeng on the bed—his major tendons torn, his Qi and Blood depleted, a complete contrast to his former vibrant self.
Huang Xuan sighed and shook his head.
Ji Xiu, meanwhile, felt a chill in his heart.
On his way here, he had seen many Wind and Cloud Assembly Members from the Fire Kiln with grim faces. Worse, some Guests were already leaving with their bags packed.
It gave him a bad premonition.
But it wasn’t until he saw Manor Master Lu—his face gaunt and spiritless, a stark contrast to the man who once walked with the stride of a dragon and the presence of a tiger—that he understood.
He finally understood why.
The great tree...
Had fallen.
When disaster strikes, don’t the birds all fly their separate ways?
He looked at the siblings, Lu Yu and Lu Hongyu, who stood by the bed with heavy expressions, saying nothing.
Ji Xiu shook his head and sighed to himself.
The Lu Family had been good to him.
But the Tiger and Leopard Hall... they had even managed to crush Manor Master Lu himself.
As someone who had merely reached the Perfection of Tendons and Ligaments, there was nothing he could do to help.
He offered some words of comfort to Lu Hongyu and her brother and a few consoling phrases to Manor Master Lu.
Then, Ji Xiu quietly departed.
The sun was setting, and a bone-chilling cold filled the air. It seemed late autumn was about to give way to winter.
Just as he returned to his own ’small blue-brick courtyard’...
Hong River came over with a frown.
"Hall Master, the boss over at the Lin Residence, Lin Zhenhai, has sent someone to invite you to a banquet."
The Lin Residence.
Lin Zhenhai?
Ji Xiu raised an eyebrow. He knew exactly what this was about.
The poachers had arrived.