Evil Star Suppresses the Tiger
The sky began to darken, pressing down on Linshan Town, making it hard to breathe.
After dropping the family of four off from town, they confirmed that the 'tail' trailing behind the truck had quietly retreated back into town.
Ling Zhan no longer accompanied her. She turned around and returned alone to the streets of Linshan Town shrouded in the shadow of the Black Tiger Gang. Her figure was clearly visible in the deepening twilight, like a bright lamp, actively attracting the gazes of those lurking in the darkness.
In the cold air, the faint, lingering smell of blood from the bustling city center during the day, mixed with the scent of dust, stubbornly wafted into my nostrils.
The townspeople hurried by, their eyes darting around; the suppressed anger they dared not express was more biting than the cold wind.
Ling Zhan strolled casually through the streets, her steps steady, but her gaze, sharp as a hawk, swept across every corner and alleyway, confirming the source of the cold, sinister gaze she had encountered during the day and the distribution of its accomplices. She could sense that someone was following her, but no one made a move.
Without causing any trouble for the inn, Ling Zhan's figure faded into the night, disappearing silently into the darkness.
She's not the type to passively wait for death.
The goal is clear.
Following the direction in which Scarface Biao and his gang disappeared, and combining the viewpoint suggested by the suspicious window on the daytime Drunken Immortal Pavilion, she pinpointed the most brightly lit and heavily guarded high-walled compound at the west end of the town—the lair of the Black Tiger Gang.
The Black Tiger Gang's headquarters arrogantly occupied a former landlord's mansion with high walls and a large courtyard at the west end of the town.
The vermilion gate was tightly shut, and the plaque reading "Hall of Gathering Righteousness" hanging above it looked utterly ironic in the pale moonlight. Inside the high walls, the lights were bright, and the faint sounds of crude drinking games, women's screams, and suppressed sobs could be heard; the stench of filth seemed to permeate the walls.
Two guards at the gate, wearing their hats askew, were huddled together, stamping their feet to keep warm, looking listless.
Ling Zhan circled around to the back alley of the mansion, where the shadows provided her with the best cover.
The wall was nearly ten feet high, its blue bricks slippery and wet. She took a few steps back, took a running start, her toes barely touching the cold brick surface before she leaped up with the lightness of a cat, her hands silently landing on the top of the wall. With a nimble vault, she landed in the overgrown backyard inside. Her movements were clean and swift, without making a sound.
The interior structure of the mansion quickly became clear to her through her daytime observations and her current stealth.
The front yard was noisy, a gathering place for low-level thugs; the central courtyard was brightly lit, presumably the core area; the back yard was eerily quiet, with a strange smell of rust and drugs lingering in the air. She avoided the scattered patrolling guards, moving like an intangible wind, close to the shadows along the walls, her sharp gaze sweeping over every window and every corner.
Evidence is the key to bringing down this cancer, and it is also the reliance she has on to avoid bloodshed on this journey.
Deep in the backyard, a faint oil lamp shone through the cracks in the window of a secluded room.
Ling Zhan silently approached, his fingertips gathering power, breaking the latch inside the window, and slid in sideways.
The overwhelming stench of blood, rotting flesh, and mold filled the air, making it hard to breathe.
The scene before me was nauseating: rusty chains and barbed whips hung on the walls; ledgers were piled on a wooden shelf in the corner, and on the papers scattered on the ground, crooked charcoal notes read "Zhang's Rice Shop Monthly Payment of Twenty Taels of Silver," "Widow Li's Land Deed for Debt Settlement," "Wang Ermazi's Severed Finger for Debt Settlement of Ten Taels of Silver"... It was shocking.
A figure huddled in a corner of the hay stirred and let out a faint groan.
The wounds on my wrists and ankles were deep enough to expose bone, with the skin and flesh torn up and the blood black and foul-smelling.
Ling Zhan's eyes grew even colder.
She quickly rummaged through the ledgers and scattered IOUs and land deeds, and put the most important thick books, which recorded the Black Tiger Gang's crimes of extortion, forcing women into prostitution, and setting up private torture chambers, along with some bloodstained IOUs, into her bosom.
Her gaze fell on the dying man. She slipped a small piece of silver and a packet of hemostatic powder into his hand and whispered, "Hold on, the authorities will be here soon." A faint light shone in the man's cloudy eyes.
Having finished collecting the evidence, she slipped out of the torture chamber like a ghost, her target turning to the most imposing room in the central courtyard. The room was brightly lit, filled with the sounds of clinking glasses and the gruff voice of Scarface Biao boasting smugly about how he had "taught a lesson to the ignorant little bastard" and "that clueless pretty boy" during the day.
Ling Zhan lay prone on the roof ridge and lifted a tile.
The room was filled with heat and the smell of alcohol.
Scarface's chest was bare, revealing thick chest hair and a hideous knife scar. His one movable hand was embracing a heavily made-up woman and urging her to drink. The wound on his wrist, which Ling Zhan had crippled during the day, was hastily bandaged, and dark red blood seeped out.
Several men who looked like leaders sat below him. One of them was thin and wiry with sinister eyes and abnormally bluish-black fingers. He was slowly twirling an iron caltrop. This was the evil figure the Black Tiger Gang had invited to oversee things, the "Poison Hand Butcher".
The thugs who had been crippled by Ling Zhan during the day were slumped to one side, groaning and making a fuss, adding to their menacing aura.
Ling Zhan estimated the number of people and their locations inside the room.
His gaze swept over a few timid girls in the corner, pouring drinks, their faces young and frightened.
She silently slid down the roof ridge and circled around to a carved wooden window on the side of the main house for ventilation.
With a flick of his finger, a wisp of wind precisely extinguished the lights in several key locations inside the room.
"Who?!" Chaos erupted inside the room, with shouts and curses rising.
Just as the lights went out and everyone's vision was blocked, Ling Zhan moved!
She didn't break down the door, but rather, as if blending into the darkness itself, slid in through the crack in the suddenly darkened window and landed silently.
"Light the lamp! Damn it..." Scarface's roar was stuck in his throat.
Darkness is the best curtain.
Ling Zhan's figure moved so fast that only a blurry afterimage remained.
She didn't draw her sword; her hands moved with lightning speed.
The joint locks were precise and ruthless; the sound of dislocating tendons and bones was so crisp in the darkness that it made your teeth ache.
"Ugh!"
One of the thugs who rushed toward the lampstand had his wrist twisted and dislocated instantly, and he fell to the ground screaming in pain.
My leg!
Another thug who tried to draw his knife was struck hard on the side of his knee, his leg bone making a terrible cracking sound, and he collapsed with a wail.
"This is a tough one! Let's go, side by side!"
The Poison Hand Butcher reacted the fastest, letting out a fierce shout. His pair of bluish-black hands, with nails gleaming with a ghostly blue sheen, brought with them a pungent, sweet-smelling stench, and went straight for Ling Zhan's face! The force of his fingers was sharp, clearly containing deadly poison.
Ling Zhan dodged to the side, advancing instead of retreating. The instant the poison hit her body, her protective internal energy flowed naturally, instantly repelling and annihilating the poison that had clung to her sleeve. She pressed her way into the Poison Hand Butcher's center. The Poison Hand Butcher only felt a blur before his eyes as a hand like an iron clamp gripped his wrist, and an overwhelming surge of internal force rushed in, instantly dissipating his concentrated poison power.
His entire arm was numb and throbbing with pain, and the bluish-black poison gas was actually forced back!
Immediately afterwards, a heavy elbow strike, like a battering ram, slammed into his scrotum.
"puff!"
The Poison Hand Butcher's eyes bulged out, and he spat out a mouthful of poisonous blood mixed with fragments of internal organs, flying backward—
It crashed into the screen, collapsed to the ground, and could only exhale, not inhale.
"Butcher?!"
Scarface was terrified, now completely sober. He grabbed the boning knife beside him and waved it wildly, yelling, "Come out! If you've got the guts, get out here!"
He was met with a gust of wind from behind.
Ling Zhan appeared behind him as if by teleportation, and his hand chopped precisely at the back of his neck, striking the acupoint on the cervical spine.
Scarface Biao's massive body stiffened abruptly.
The boning knife clattered to the ground, its eyes rolled back, and it collapsed like a piece of rotten wood, completely unconscious.
The remaining rabble had been terrified by this elusive and ruthless method. In the darkness, they could only hear the screams of their comrades and the sound of bones breaking, as if they were in a hellish realm.
Someone tried to run, but as soon as their leg stepped out of the threshold, they tripped and their ankle was crushed.
Someone tried to shout, but their jaw was dislocated the moment they opened their mouth.
Fear spread like a plague. They cried out for their parents, dropped their weapons, and wished they had two more legs. They scrambled and crawled away from the terrifying house.
The entire raid was swift and decisive, taking only a dozen or so breaths.
When Ling Zhan lit a lamp that seemed to extinguish the wind, the flickering light revealed that no one was standing in the vast hall.
Apart from Scarface and Poison Hand Butcher, who were completely unconscious, the other thugs either writhed and howled in agony while clutching their twisted limbs.
Either their joints are dislocated, leaving them paralyzed like mud, their jaws dislocated, and they can't even utter a complete scream.
Only a few girls in the corner huddled together, watching in terror this scene that seemed like the arrival of a demon god.
Ling Zhan didn't even glance at the "trash" rolling on the ground.
She walked straight to Scarface Biao's armchair covered with a tiger skin, kicked it open, and revealed a hidden compartment underneath.
After prying it open, inside were several thicker account books, a stack of house and land deeds, several secret letters exchanged with unknown individuals, and a large bag of gold leaves of excellent quality.
She combined the evidence she had collected with the items in the hidden compartment.
Then he pulled a black wooden token, representing the Black Tiger Gang's identity, from the waist of a guy who looked like a leader on the ground.
They stuffed everything into a large sack that was pulled from the side.
It was heavy, filled with blood and sin.
His gaze swept over the bag of gold leaves.
The image of Shen Yan bitterly complaining about losing money on selling medicinal herbs during the day inexplicably flashed through her mind.
Her gaze lingered on the bag of gold leaves for a moment before she put it away.
After doing all this.
She walked up to the trembling girls, her voice deliberately low and steady.
"Don't be afraid, it's alright now. Take this and go to the front yard to wake up the people who are being held captive."
She handed over a set of keys she had taken from Scarface Biao, saying, "The officials will be here soon, and you will be the witnesses."
Looking into those deep, calm eyes in the dim light, the girls' inexplicable fear strangely subsided.
They took the keys, supported each other, and stumbled out.
Ling Zhan hoisted the heavy sack filled with incriminating evidence and decapitation tokens onto his shoulder, as if dragging a real bag of garbage.
She walked to the courtyard and casually threw the sack on the ground.
Then, she walked toward the low-level thugs in the front yard who had been alerted and were now gathering around her with sticks, knives, and guns, looking on with suspicion and uncertainty.
"If you don't want to end up like those people inside, then get out."
Ling Zhan's voice wasn't loud, but it clearly pierced through the night wind, carrying a chill that seemed to freeze to the bone.
The thugs peered into the open hallway in the central courtyard.
The ground was a mess, as if it had been swept away by a hurricane.
Hearing the suppressed groans coming from inside, and then meeting Ling Zhan's eyes, which seemed to burn with a cold, eerie flame in the darkness, all the ferocity vanished instantly.
Someone shouted, dropped their weapon, and ran away.
Like a domino effect, the dozens of thugs scattered like birds and beasts in an instant.
Ling Zhan picked up the sack and strode towards the county government office in Linshan Town.
The heavy sacks dragged on the ground with a rustling sound that was particularly clear in the quiet of the night.
"Thump! Thump! Thump!"
The dull drumbeats suddenly ripped through the deathly silence of the county government office, like a thunderclap.
The yamen runner on duty rubbed his eyes and opened the side door, grumbling and cursing.
"Who the hell is doing this in the middle of the night...?"
He hadn't finished speaking.
A heavy, thick burlap sack, reeking of blood, was thrown onto the ground in front of him with a thud.
A cloud of dust rose up.
The bag opened, revealing blood-stained ledgers, twisted black wooden tokens, and several letters sealed with wax.
Immediately afterwards, a gaze as cold as a blade fell on his face.
"The Black Tiger Gang leader and the evidence of his crimes are here."
Ling Zhan's voice was completely calm, "The person is inside, not quite dead yet. Arrest those who need to be arrested, interrogate those who need to be interrogated."
The constable was so startled by the sudden appearance of the object and the strong smell of blood that he took two steps back, almost tripping. The lantern light illuminated his instantly pale face. He saw what was in the sack and, in the dim light, caught a glimpse of Ling Zhan's sharply defined face in the shadows. Especially when he met those unfathomable eyes that seemed to hold ice, the rumors of the ruthless star crippling Brother Biao's wrist during the day instantly flooded his mind.
He was so frightened that his legs went weak and his tongue stammered, "You...you are...the...Great...Hero?!"
Ling Zhan said no more and turned to leave.
The black figure quickly disappeared into the deepest darkness before dawn, as if it had never existed.
"Quick! Someone come quick! Something terrible has happened!"
The yamen runners seemed to wake from a dream, and scrambled into the depths of the yamen, their voices trembling.
As dawn broke, the gates of the county government office were suddenly smashed open.
Squads of constables and yamen runners rushed out as if facing a formidable enemy, heading towards the Black Tiger Gang's headquarters in the west of the town.
Soon, even more astonishing news spread like wildfire, instantly igniting the entire newly awakened town of Linshan:
"Have you heard? The Black Tiger Gang... has been wiped out!"
"Good heavens! Scarface Biao, Poison Hand Butcher... they're all done for! They've been dragged into jail like dead dogs!"
"It's that jinx! All alone! All by himself! My goodness..."
"The government hall was piled high with blood-stained ledgers, IOUs, land deeds..."
"And those thugs who are missing limbs! I heard the books are full of our blood and tears!"
"This is truly gratifying! Heaven has eyes! Heaven has eyes!"
An elderly man with white hair and beard watched as the constables carried out of the woodshed in the backyard of the Black Tiger Gang, several inhuman "debtors" were dragged out. Tears streamed down his face, and he knelt down with a thud, kowtowing repeatedly towards the west of the town.
The news spread like wildfire, with more and more details emerging.
Some say the evil star is a night-wandering god descended to earth, some say he is a retired general from the previous dynasty, and some say he kills without blinking an eye, turning the Black Tiger Gang's headquarters into a battlefield of carnage... Fear and ecstasy intertwine, gratitude and awe coexist.
Before the sun rose, the sky over Linshan Town had already changed completely.
The news spread like wildfire, teahouses and taverns were packed, and the sounds of discussion, exclamations, and cheers of relief merged into a massive wave that almost lifted the dusty rooftops of Linshan Town. The long-suppressed fear finally found an outlet, transforming into awe and legends of that mysterious "evil star."
Amidst the clamor, a barely perceptible crack appeared in the window of the private room at Zuixianlou, a room with an excellent location.
A well-maintained but sinister middle-aged face was hidden in the shadows, its sharp, hawk-like eyes fixed on the chaotic and bustling crowd at the entrance of the county government office, or more precisely, on the direction in which Ling Zhan had vanished without a trace.
There was no ecstatic joy in his eyes, only a cold scrutiny of a chess game disrupted and a deep anger at having his authority offended by ants.
Ling Zhan's figure had already disappeared into the morning mist leading to Kaoshan Village.
She quickened her pace and hurried home.
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