While the third blacker was walking normally, then his phone started ringing. He opened his pocket and saw who was calling. He got shocked. This was his little brother.
He picked the call.
He said, "Yeah, what?"
His little brother said, "Come back to house right now."
The third blacker said, "Why?"
The little brother said, "I said come back."
Then cut the call.
With a frustrated expression, the third blacker began to walk with an annoyed expression.
After a while of walking, he saw a guy wearing a mask.
When he took off the mask, it was Yutishi.
The third blacker blinked and he said, "Is that the popular guy named Yutishi?"
Yutishi said, "Yes, this is Yutishi."
"And as you defeated the deadly travelers, I guess you defeated them. The news is spreading. So, my goal was to defeat the deadly travelers, but my goal became to fight you."
The third blacker said, "Hey, this is not what you are thinking for. I need to go to my house. Don't disturb me."
Yutishi said, "Oh, you want to go to your house? So I will leave then."
Then he started walking away slowly.
Then he turned around and looked back at the third blacker and loudly said, "Absolutely not. You think I will leave?"
He took out his two swords and he was prepared to fight.
He slowly said again, "Third blacker, ha! Third? What is about that third? Means he was the third weakest."
Ha!
The third blacker said, "You really pissed me off."
He grabbed his baseball bat from the ground and said, "This will be your last words, you shitty ass. Because you pissed me off."
The third blacker jumped up and dropped a powerful swing.
Yutishi just smiled and blocked that attack with his two swords.
But his swords became soft to that powerful baseball bat.
Then his swords dropped into the ground, both ones.
Then after the baseball bat charged, it swung down directly at Yutishi.
He was sent flying.
He crashed into a building.
He coughed blood out.
This was a lot amount of blood what he just coughed.
He smiled and said, "That's why you are strong. You are strong, isn't you? Of course I will piss you off. Forgot about your little brother?"
The third blacker said, "You will remember. You make me remember it."
Now you will pay.
Yutishi combined two swords into one and slid in the sky.
Then that sword was with extreme power.
When it was about to drop, the third blacker blocked it with his bat.
Then Yutishi said, "When I was a little kid, my dream was to become a swordman. When I finally became one, my brother became my enemy. He was using an axe, not a sword. That's why it pissed me off. When we finally came into battle, my brother bullied me like I was nothing and defeated me. When we had the rematch, this time I defeated him. After defeating him, I was becoming popular for being a swordsman. I laughed at everyone and said I was nothing compared to the gods. They laughed at me and said, You have potential. When I came back to my house, I saw my father and mother's grave. I cried and cried and cried. Then my goal was to become like my father, the strongest swordsman. Before, it was not that goal. It was just to become a swordsman, a good one. But I want to become the swordsman, the best one. After that, I became so strong, no one could stand in my way. Then I got interested on the deadly travelers. When I saw someone named the third blacker defeated them, I got interested and searched for you in the entire world. When I finally found you, I didn't knew you are in the east, not in the west—"
Then the third blacker cut his words and swung his bat, making him lie and dropped to a building.
He coughed blood out again.
He jumped up, this time in a high speed.
The third blacker's head got sliced, but before Yutishi could celebrate, the third blacker regenerated his head and said, "You are really pissing me off."
Then he tightened his hand and swung it aggressively.
Yutishi dodged it when the ground exploded.
Nineteen meters was exploded because of just one swing, not multiple.
Yutishi took the opportunity, and he laughed, he cut the head again and sliced the head into half.
Even the head being cut in half, first nothing happened for a moment, but the third blacker regenerated.
Yutishi sliced to a building and sat on it.
He was charging a slice the whole time.
He came and tried to slice the third blacker, but the third blacker said, "You really are pissing me even more off."
With gathering a lot of energy, he swung his bat, making him crash into several buildings.
When he checked him out, he was injured at all places and he was not stopped bleeding.
The third blacker goes into tension mode and says, "Damn it, if I kill this guy, the public will go against me."
Then a call comes again.
He opens the call.
He already knows it is his little brother.
Little brother says, "Come to house fast."
He says, "I will, I was in a battle."
The little brother says, "Are you in a battle?"
When he was about to scream at the third blacker, the third blacker cut the call and moved forward, coming back to his house.
The third blacker kept moving, but his eyes were not fully on the road anymore.
They were on the battle behind him.
On Yutishi.
On the noise.
On the wound.
The call from his little brother still sat in his mind like a command he did not want to obey, but also could not ignore.
Yutishi rose from the broken ground behind him, sword in hand, blood still running down his face.
He wiped it once with the back of his wrist and smiled again.
The third blacker glanced back.
"You are still following?" he asked.
Yutishi lifted his sword slightly.
"You are still trying to leave?"
The third blacker's jaw tightened.
"My brother wants me home."
Yutishi answered, "Then go home."
The third blacker's stare sharpened.
Then Yutishi continued, "But I am not letting you walk away from me like this."
That line hit the third blacker harder than the earlier cuts.
Because it was not fear.
It was not rage.
It was control.
Yutishi had already read the weak point.
The call had distracted the third blacker.
Now the third blacker knew it too.
He stopped walking.
The bat lowered.
Yutishi's smile widened slightly.
"There it is."
The third blacker's face became cold.
"You talk too much."
Yutishi said, "And you think too much about your brother."
That was the wrong line to say if the goal was peace.
The third blacker's hand tightened around the bat.
Then he moved.
The bat swung hard.
Yutishi blocked it with both swords.
The impact pushed him back half a step, then another.
The third blacker stepped in immediately.
No wasted motion now.
No extra pause.
The phone call had ended the small distraction, and now the third blacker was pushing all of that frustration into the next attack.
Yutishi slid sideways and cut across the bat arm.
A line of blood opened there.
The third blacker saw it and grinned.
"So you can still move."
Yutishi answered, "Of course."
He twisted the swords together again, then separated them at the last moment and came down from the side.
The third blacker shifted the bat to block.
The air cracked.
Then Yutishi kicked low and forced the third blacker's balance to break just enough for the sword tip to slip forward.
The third blacker leaned back and avoided a clean cut, but the blade still sliced across the chest.
He clicked his tongue.
The third blacker stepped away and looked down at the wound.
Then he looked back up.
"You are really annoying."
Yutishi wiped the blood from his mouth.
"You are really slow when your brother calls."
The third blacker's face changed.
That was enough.
He rushed forward with the bat again, now clearly trying to end the exchange before the thought of home could pull at him again.
Yutishi met him with both swords, then turned the bat line aside instead of blocking head-on.
The force slid off.
Yutishi stepped in and cut across the shoulder.
Then the side.
Then the wrist.
The third blacker's breathing changed.
The rhythm was getting disturbed.
Yutishi saw it and kept pressing.
Not to finish.
To keep the pressure alive.
To keep the third blacker from settling back into the same speed.
The third blacker swung.
Yutishi dodged.
Another swing.
He dodged again.
Then the third blacker realized something.
The speed was still his.
The force was still his.
But Yutishi was making it feel wrong.
Making it feel delayed.
Making it feel slower than it was.
That made the third blacker angry.
"Who the hell are you?" he muttered.
Yutishi smiled with blood on his teeth.
"A swordsman."
Then he moved in again.
The bat came down.
The swords crossed.
The street shook.
And the fight kept going, because neither side was ready to end it yet.The third blacker said, "I don't want to fight again."
Then he started walking away with an annoyed expression.
Yutishi said, "Wait, where are you going? Did you know—"
Then a powerful strike came.
He blocked it with his sword.
"I'll kill you."
The third blacker kept ignoring him completely and kept moving forward.
Soon enough, he reached his house.
His little brother said, "Why so late? I called you two times in the morning. Now it is night."
The third blacker said, "I apologize. Please don't cry."
His little brother started crying again and again.
He said, "Calm down. Nothing is wrong."
His little brother said, "Nothing is wrong? You came so late. That makes me care about you."
The third blacker touched his shoulder and said, "If we are together, nothing will happen."
His little brother wiped the tears from his face and said, "Really?"
Then someone came down from the stage and said, "The third blacker never lies."
His little brother started dancing and moving.
He repeated it again and again.
"If we are together, nothing will happen. If we are together, nothing will happen."
The third blacker looked at that guy and said, "Brother, you make him too excited."
That guy said, "Too excited? That is what he deserves, bigger brother."
The third blacker smiled and said, "Don't call me bigger brother if you are my actual bigger brother."
The bigger brother smiled.
"Well, you are stronger than all of us combined, so you are our bigger brother. I will call you that."
The third blacker slowly walked up the staircase, went to his room, and rested.
He slept peacefully.
When everyone was sleeping in the third blacker's house, Gu Yanshu was walking.
Then someone appeared near him.
He called himself the Lord of Crimes.
Gu Yanshu remembered him from the newspaper.
So this was real.
He smiled and said, "Lord of Crimes in a newspaper. Good enough, but I don't need to fight. I will call the police."
The Lord of Crimes smiled.
"I think you don't even have a telephone."
Gu Yanshu looked at him.
"Yes, you are sure right."
Then he took out his cell phone.
"You know I can call the police."
The Lord of Crimes said, "Police won't work on me. Call it if you can."
Gu Yanshu stared at him for one second.
Then he lowered the phone slightly and looked at the Lord of Crimes more carefully.
He was not standing like a normal criminal.
He was standing like someone who already knew the road, the exits, the blind spots, and the angle of every witness.
That was the real problem.
Not the name.
Not the newspaper.
The confidence.
Gu Yanshu did not press the phone button yet.
He only watched.
The Lord of Crimes smiled again.
"You are thinking too much."
Gu Yanshu answered, "Of course I am."
The Lord of Crimes tilted his head.
"Then think about this. If you call the police, what do you think will happen first? Will they come fast enough? Or will you become the one standing here alone first?"
Gu Yanshu's eyes stayed calm.
He had seen this kind of move before.
Not the exact person.
But the same type of pressure.
A man speaking like the outcome already belonged to him.
That meant the Lord of Crimes was trying to control the shape of the moment before it even started.
Gu Yanshu slowly moved one step to the side.
The Lord of Crimes noticed it.
"Good," he said. "You understand spacing."
Gu Yanshu did not answer.
The phone was still in his hand.
The screen was lit.
But he had not called yet.
The Lord of Crimes took one step closer.
Gu Yanshu saw the angle of the shoulders.
Saw the weight shift in the feet.
Saw the way the hands stayed loose.
This man was not planning to rush.
He was planning to force Gu Yanshu to make the first mistake.
That meant the phone call was already part of the trap.
Gu Yanshu looked at the screen once more.
Then he put the phone back down.
The Lord of Crimes smiled wider.
"There it is."
Gu Yanshu said, "You want me to call."
The Lord of Crimes did not deny it.
"That would be better."
Gu Yanshu nodded slowly.
Then he took one more step back.
Not away from the danger.
Away from the center line.
The Lord of Crimes' eyes narrowed.
That was not the response he wanted.
He moved first now.
Gu Yanshu shifted his body and let the strike pass by inches.
No wasted motion.
No panic.
The Lord of Crimes' smile faded just a little.
Then Gu Yanshu moved the phone in his hand and pressed the screen.
The call went through.
The Lord of Crimes paused for one breath.
Gu Yanshu looked straight at him.
"You said police won't work on you."
The Lord of Crimes said nothing.
Gu Yanshu's voice stayed even.
"Then I am not calling them for you."
A faint sound came through the phone as it connected.
The Lord of Crimes' expression changed.
Because now he understood.
Gu Yanshu was not calling for help.
He was calling for a trace.
A record.
A signal.
That small second of hesitation was enough for Gu Yanshu to move again.
He stepped sideways, then forward, then cut low toward the Lord of Crimes' line of movement.
The Lord of Crimes jumped back.
Now the spacing was broken.
Gu Yanshu kept the phone connected in one hand and the blade ready in the other.
The Lord of Crimes stared at him for a long second.
Then he laughed.
"You are not as simple as you look."
Gu Yanshu answered, "Neither are you."
The Lord of Crimes' grin deepened.
"Good. Then this will be interesting."
And the night around them went quiet again, as if the city itself was waiting to see who would move first.Gu Yanshu stopped walking for one breath.
He did not turn around immediately.
He only felt it.
A gaze.
Not from the dragon.
Not from Kuou Shen Yin.
Something else.
He kept his face forward and lowered his voice.
"Someone is watching."
The dragon looked up.
"Not my brother?"
Gu Yanshu shook his head once.
"No."
He had already killed the Lord of Crimes.
The body was there.
That was real.
If the Lord of Crimes could not regenerate like the blackers, then this was not him.
That meant the watcher was someone else.
Gu Yanshu's eyes narrowed.
If it was not the dragon brother, and it was not the Lord of Crimes, then there were only two kinds of possibilities left.
A new enemy.
Or someone connected to the Lord of Crimes' bigger brother.
He looked at the dark edge of the street.
Still nothing.
But the feeling did not disappear.
The dragon frowned.
"Then who is it?"
Gu Yanshu did not answer right away.
He shifted his footing slightly and let the blade rest lower in his hand.
That was the problem with a hidden eye.
If the enemy wanted to wait, then he had to be careful with every word, every movement, every direction.
He said quietly, "It is not the dragon brother."
The dragon blinked.
"Then who?"
Gu Yanshu stared into the dark again.
"If Lord of Crimes had a bigger brother, then this could be him."
The dragon's expression changed.
"So the revenge comes later."
Gu Yanshu nodded once.
"Yes."
That made the air feel worse.
Because if the bigger brother was watching from somewhere, then the death of Lord of Crimes was not the end of anything.
It was only the trigger.
Gu Yanshu kept walking.
Not fast.
Not slow.
The dragon followed close beside him.
Then Gu Yanshu noticed something again.
A small shift in the distance.
Not a person moving openly.
A presence moving behind cover.
He stopped.
The dragon stopped too.
Gu Yanshu whispered, "There."
The dragon looked.
Nothing obvious.
But now the dragon could feel it too.
Someone really was watching them.
Not from the front.
From the side.
Gu Yanshu did not chase.
Not yet.
If the watcher wanted to stay hidden, then chasing would only make it easier to escape.
And if this was connected to the bigger brother, then the real goal was probably information.
Not a clean attack.
He stepped forward again and kept his voice low.
"Do not look directly."
The dragon nodded.
"Then what do we do?"
Gu Yanshu answered, "We keep walking."
The dragon hesitated.
"Even if someone is following?"
"Yes."
He did not want to give the watcher a clean reaction.
If they turned, if they panicked, if they raised their guard too hard, then the hidden person would know the exact shape of their fear.
So they walked.
Gu Yanshu adjusted his pace just enough to look normal.
But inside his mind, the pattern was already forming.
If the Lord of Crimes had a bigger brother, then that meant the family chain was still active.
The larger one would not rush in just because the smaller one died.
He would first measure the field.
Watch the result.
Wait for the right opening.
That meant the watcher was probably not here to fight yet.
He was here to record.
Gu Yanshu's grip tightened slightly.
That was more annoying than a direct strike.
A direct strike could be met.
A watcher could spread the story.
The dragon leaned a little closer.
"Can you tell where he is?"
Gu Yanshu said, "Not exactly."
Then he paused.
"ولكن"
He stopped himself and looked to the side.
There.
A shadow line between two broken structures.
Very faint.
Someone had just shifted weight and hidden it again.
Gu Yanshu saw enough.
He did not point.
He only said, "He is close enough to hear us."
The dragon's eyes widened slightly.
That meant the watcher had heard the conversation already.
That meant the decision to keep walking had been the right one.
Gu Yanshu spoke more quietly.
"If he is the bigger brother, then he is waiting for the feeling of revenge to get heavy."
The dragon looked at him.
"You mean he wants to attack after he gets angry enough?"
Gu Yanshu nodded.
"Yes."
That was the problem.
A brother watching the death of another brother would not always strike immediately.
Sometimes the anger would need time to settle into action.
And if this man was stronger than Lord of Crimes, then his patience could be worse than his power.
Gu Yanshu kept moving.
One step.
Then another.
The watcher stayed hidden.
That confirmed it.
He was not ready yet.
Gu Yanshu looked at the dragon and said, "Keep acting normal."
The dragon swallowed once and nodded.
They moved forward like nothing had happened.
But Gu Yanshu knew better.
The battle had not ended.
It had only shifted shape again.
The dead body of Lord of Crimes would draw the bigger brother in later.
The watcher was proof of that.
And once the bigger brother decided the time was right, the next fight would start.
Gu Yanshu did not slow down.
He did not look back.
He just kept walking, already preparing for the next shadow behind them.