During the second watch of the night, a dark figure slipped out of the Bai Shi Workshop and sped into the distance.
Xu Yang soon arrived at the Sanhe Gang's hall.
He didn't make a move right away.
If Qian Ming wasn't here, killing common gang members would be pointless. The primary target was still Qian Ming.
He covered his nose and mouth with a cloth he had prepared, clutched the dagger he had taken from Li Hu's body, and crept silently toward the courtyard wall. The sounds of a drinking game reached his ears.
'They're actually drinking!'
Drinking was good. After drinking, they would sleep like the dead. He might be able to wipe them all out in one fell swoop without much effort.
It seemed Li Hu's unexplained disappearance hadn't put them on alert.
After listening a bit longer, he confirmed Qian Ming was there.
The man shouted so loudly during the game that he could be heard from over ten meters away, even from outside the courtyard.
By the third watch, the sounds of the drinking game from inside the hall gradually faded.
Xu Yang lay in wait, knowing he just needed to hold on a little longer. Once they were all asleep, he could make his move.
Suddenly, the hall's main gate opened, and a drunken figure stumbled out, barely able to stand.
It was Qian Ming.
Just as he was about to fall, two underlings who appeared to be sober ran over to support him.
"Master Qian, it's too late. It's not safe to go home. Why don't you wait until tomorrow?"
one of them, a man with a long scar on his face, advised.
Master Qian was fine in all aspects, except that whenever he drank, he'd insist on going home, no matter where he was.
"Yeah, Master Qian. We still don't know who took out Li Hu. It's safer to stay at the hall," the other man chimed in.
"How can you compare that loser Li Hu to me?"
Qian Ming spat as he spoke. "Back when we fought the Sishui Gang, I took a saber and made a dozen of them scream and howl! In this area, who the fuck would dare touch me, Qian Ming?"
He threw his arms around the two men, completely ignoring their advice, and continued stumbling in the direction of Dashu Village.
"But Master Qian, the brothers are all drunk. We're the only two who are sober. If an enemy shows up, we're afraid they'll wipe everyone out."
The two underlings were helpless and had no choice but to use the men back at the hall as an excuse.
"Either you find me a woman, or you take me home."
Qian Ming couldn't care less about any of that. All he wanted was to go home and hold his young wife.
Xu Yang held his breath, deciding not to act immediately. He would wait until they were further away.
Both men were armed with sabers; taking them on wouldn't be a quick affair.
He waited until the three of them were a good distance away, then emerged from the darkness and began circling around to get ahead of them.
Under the cover of night, Xu Yang hid in the roadside bushes. As Qian Ming and his two men passed by, he exploded into action.
He used the very same move Zhou Yang had displayed that day, the Bear King's Probing Claw, but the effect was completely different.
The scar-faced man sensed the attack instantly, but his neck was caught in the drunken Qian Ming's grip, trapping him.
He tried to draw his saber, but Qian Ming's body was pressing against it, preventing him from pulling it out in time.
In that moment, Xu Yang's fingers clamped onto his throat. With a sudden burst of force...
"CRACK!"
The sound of his larynx shattering echoed under the immense power. The scar-faced man was in so much pain he nearly passed out. He no longer cared about the drunk Qian Ming; in his struggle, he shoved him away.
But in that instant, Xu Yang executed his calculated follow-up. The cold steel of the dagger plunged into his chest.
"Scarface, you fucking looking to die?"
Qian Ming, still oblivious to the situation, started cursing.
"Master Qian, it's an assassin!"
the other man screamed, simultaneously struggling to push away Qian Ming, who was practically hanging off him.
"PFFT!"
Blood sprayed. Without even looking at the result, Xu Yang took a step forward and sank his dagger into the man's back.
His struggle with Qian Ming came to an abrupt halt, a look of terror spreading across his face.
'I've been stabbed!'
Xu Yang yanked the dagger downward with terrifying force, slicing through flesh and bone, exposing glistening red viscera.
"AHHH..."
The scream lasted but a moment before Qian Ming's last underling collapsed limply to the ground.
Qian Ming finally realized what was happening and threw a punch at Xu Yang's face. But he could barely stand, let alone muster the strength to hit anyone.
Xu Yang simply sidestepped, and Qian Ming's own momentum sent him stumbling to the ground.
"Who are you? I'm Qian Ming!" Qian Ming shouted. How could anyone in this area dare to attack him?
Xu Yang didn't say a word. He certainly wasn't going to give Qian Ming a chance to get up. He strode forward, pinned Qian Ming's head with one hand, and drove the dagger straight into his neck.
"GASP... GASP..."
His windpipe was severed, producing a wheezing, gurgling sound as bloody foam sputtered onto the ground.
Qian Ming convulsed, his hands clawing uselessly at the dirt.
Xu Yang's expression was icy. This was his second time killing, and he was already getting used to it.
He pulled out the dagger and stabbed him again for good measure. Qian Ming went still.
The other two men weren't quite dead yet, their bodies still twitching, but they weren't going to survive.
Xu Yang didn't bother with a finishing blow. He rolled Qian Ming's body over, found his money pouch, and tucked it away without checking the amount before moving to the next body.
By the time he finished looting the corpses, the men were pretty much dead.
Looking at the claw marks on the scar-faced man's throat, he raised his foot and stomped down hard, not stopping until he had crushed the man's neck and obliterated any trace of the Bear King's Probing Claw.
He picked up a saber from the ground and then quickly departed.
This time, he couldn't be bothered to destroy the bodies; there simply wasn't enough time.
Returning to the hall, he found the gate still open. It meant no one inside was sober; they were completely unaware that Qian Ming and his two men had left.
He hid outside and listened for a while. Confirming there were no sounds other than snoring, Xu Yang swallowed the antidote for the Muscle Relaxing Powder.
He waited a moment to ensure the antidote was taking effect, then slipped through the open gate.
The courtyard was empty, save for some overturned stools and bowls. Snoring emanated from the rooms on either side.
Several of the rooms had their doors wide open.
For these rooms, Xu Yang entered and scattered a handful of Muscle Relaxing Powder, not in any rush to start killing.
After dosing all the rooms with open doors, he began to "call the roll," covering each man's mouth before piercing his throat with the dagger.
About ten minutes later, not a single living soul remained.
Using blood, he wrote two words on the wall: "Si Shui." Then, Xu Yang walked out carrying a large sack.
Inside was the protection money the hall had collected over the past few days. It was all copper coins, probably five or six thousand of them, along with some bits of silver.
Combined with what he'd looted from the dead, his haul for the night should be around ten taels of silver.
'Crime really does pay,' Xu Yang thought. 'But I can't take this many copper coins home for now.'
He found a hidden spot to stash the money before finally returning home.
The next day, just as dawn was breaking, someone discovered the bodies of Qian Ming and his men on the road. The person ran in a panic to the Sanhe Gang's hall to report it, only to be so terrified by the scene inside that they collapsed to the ground.
Before long, news that the Sanhe Gang's hall had been wiped out spread through all the nearby villages.