No one had expected that Yang Hu, who was ordinarily so respectful toward the gang leader and so capable in handling affairs, would suddenly strike at such a critical moment with such a vicious stab in the back.
After a brief, deathly silence, cries of shock erupted throughout the main hall. Several fiercely loyal hall masters and protectors instinctively surged forward, wanting to support the gravely wounded Ma Changhai.
“Gang Leader!”
“Gang Leader! How are you…”
“Yang Hu, you traitor! I’ll slaughter you!”
“None of you come any closer!!”
Ma Changhai abruptly raised a hand and shouted fiercely, stopping everyone from approaching. One hand clamped tightly over the wound in his abdomen that was still seeping blood, his face pale from the agony and blood loss. Yet his eyes were shot through with red, filled with shock and fury—and deeper still, an indescribable vigilance and suspicion.
Yang Hu’s betrayal, the precise attack on his family, and his father’s tragic death rapidly linked together in his mind.
None of this was a coincidence. At this moment, he no longer dared to easily trust the seemingly concerned faces around him, terrified that in the next instant, another cold blade would be driven into his back.
“Well done.”
Outside the main hall, Chen Sheng sat astride his horse, quite satisfied with Yang Hu’s perfectly timed backstab.
For today’s scheme, he had truly racked his brains. Not only did he need to suppress the Seven Stars Gang, he also had to ensure he could pry precise information about the “Earthcore Spiritual Milk” out of Ma Changhai’s mouth.
To that end, he had instructed Yang Hu to secretly seize Ma Changhai’s wife and children as leverage—as for the death of his father, that had been Yang Hu acting on his own to vent a personal grudge.
At this moment, Ma Changhai’s weak point was firmly held in Yang Hu’s hand.
Granted, with Chen Sheng’s current cultivation at the Bone Forging realm and the many trump cards he possessed, he was confident his strength was by no means inferior to Ma Changhai’s. His chances of victory should be above seventy percent.
But in all his actions, he had always sought stability. He would not tolerate the slightest accident. Weakening his opponent was the same as increasing his own odds.
The ten Wind-Piercing Crossbows poised to fire were the first measure; Yang Hu’s precise backstab was the second; and the true strength he himself had kept hidden was the third!
“Charge in! Kill anyone who stubbornly resists!”
Chen Sheng hesitated no longer. With a forward sweep of the horsewhip in his hand, he gave the order in an icy voice.
“Kill—!”
Receiving the order, Yan Ming’s eyes flashed with a fierce light. He roared sharply and took the lead, commanding the wolfish, tiger-like soldiers as they thundered through the gates of the main hall. In an instant, their deafening battle cries drowned the entire Seven Stars Gang headquarters.
“Those who surrender will not be killed! Throw down your weapons and kneel, and your lives will be spared!”
At the same time, Yang Hu also roared aloud. His figure moved like lightning as he turned and charged at his former “colleagues.”
Several hall masters and leaders who had long since colluded with him immediately tore off their disguises as well, their blades hacking without hesitation at the completely unguarded companions beside them.
Attacked from within and without, beset on both sides!
In an instant, the entire Seven Stars Gang headquarters was plunged into utter chaos and internecine slaughter. Screams, furious curses, the clash of weapons, and dying wails wove together into one, as the stench of blood spread rapidly.
Chen Sheng’s gaze was like a torch, already locked onto the staggering figure in the crowd.
With a light tap of his toes on the stirrup, his body leapt up like a great roc spreading its wings, pouncing through the air toward Ma Changhai, who was trying to organize resistance!
“You little bastard! I’ll slaughter you!!”
Seeing Chen Sheng personally come to kill him, and thinking of his old father’s tragic death and his abducted family, Ma Changhai’s eyes instantly turned blood-red. He fell completely into madness.
Forcibly drawing up a mouthful of true qi, ignoring the wound in his abdomen that was gushing blood, he gripped his nine-ringed broadsaber with both hands and charged forward. The saber wind howled, heavy and ferocious, carrying a resolve to perish together as it cleaved straight at Chen Sheng’s face.
A trace of hope still remained in his heart—if he could take this military commander hostage, perhaps there would still be a chance of survival!
However, in the end, he had overestimated his own strength while gravely wounded—and underestimated Chen Sheng’s terror even more!
Facing this life-or-death strike from a man like a maddened tiger, Chen Sheng’s expression was cold. Only a disdainful snort escaped his nose.
“Zheng—!”
The treasured saber “Shehan” at his waist abruptly left its sheath, transforming into a cold, dazzling white streak that arrived later yet struck first.
“Clang!!”
An ear-piercing collision of metal exploded! Sparks scattered in all directions!
Chen Sheng’s figure sank only slightly before he received that heavy, powerful blow as steadily as a mountain. The tremendous recoil caused Ma Changhai’s wound to split open further. Blood sprayed out, and his face paled another shade.
Without waiting for Ma Changhai to change moves, Chen Sheng flicked his wrist, and his saber force suddenly became incomparably fierce. The vicious techniques of the Three Ultimate Demon-Subduing Saber came easily to his hand, saber light pouring down like a waterfall, unbroken and unending!
“Chila!”
“Qiang!”
In just three to five exchanges, Chen Sheng had completely reversed the situation, forcing Ma Changhai, who had seemed to hold the initiative, into desperate straits, unable to cope.
Though part of this was because Ma Changhai was gravely wounded and his mind was already in disarray, the precision, ruthlessness, and domineering strength Chen Sheng displayed still made the hearts of all who witnessed it tremble.
Ma Changhai himself was even more horrified. He now understood completely that the previous rumors of Chen Sheng slaying Gao Qiheng with a single saber strike had not been false.
The desire to survive instantly overwhelmed the fire of vengeance. Ma Changhai feinted with his saber, then turned to flee toward the rear hall.
“You want to leave? Too late!”
How could Chen Sheng give him the chance? His footwork shifted, and he closed in instantly like a shadow. Saber light flashed, striking cleverly against Ma Changhai’s wrist.
With a clang, the nine-ringed broadsaber fell from his hand to the ground!
Immediately afterward, Chen Sheng’s gaze sharpened like an eagle’s, instantly locking onto the long saber still embedded in Ma Changhai’s abdomen, constantly churning the wound as he moved—that was Yang Hu’s “masterpiece.”
Because of the agony and fear, Ma Changhai had never dared to pull it out. And this had become his greatest flaw!
Chen Sheng strode forward several steps, then abruptly leapt into the air. A fierce whip kick, like a heavy hammer, smashed hard against the exposed end of the saber hilt.
“Pff—!”
A tearing pain that seemed to reach into his very marrow forced a broken, inhuman scream from Ma Changhai’s throat!
Driven by that tremendous force, the long saber carried his body flying backward. With a loud bang, it actually nailed him alive to a thick wooden door!
“You… cough, cough…”
Ma Changhai was in such agony it pierced his heart. Just as he was about to curse, an ice-cold blade had already come to rest lightly against his Adam’s apple. A few strands of hair, severed by the saber qi, drifted slowly down.
In that instant, Ma Changhai’s soul nearly left his body. Cold sweat soaked through his heavy clothes. He no longer dared to make the slightest rash movement, and could only glare fixedly at Chen Sheng, who was close at hand, with eyes filled with hatred and fear.
Chen Sheng tapped his bloodless cheek with the back of his saber, neither lightly nor heavily. His voice was icy, as though it came from the depths of the Nine Netherworlds:
“If you want that delicate wife and young son of yours to live, then you will obediently lower your head for this official.”
Hearing the words “wife and son,” Ma Changhai’s entire body shook violently, all color draining from his face.
He stared fixedly into Chen Sheng’s emotionless eyes. After weighing his options for only a moment, he finally seemed to have had every bone in his spine pulled out of him, and his once-proud head drooped in defeat.
…
At the same time, the battle inside the Seven Stars Gang headquarters was already nearing its end.
With “their own people” such as Yang Hu turning traitor in the heat of battle from within, and well-equipped, murderous soldiers encircling and suppressing them from without, the Seven Stars Gang members—already leaderless and with morale collapsed—completely lost the will to resist.
More and more people threw down the weapons in their hands and knelt on the ground, pale-faced, begging for mercy.
…
The earth-shaking commotion at the Seven Stars Gang headquarters had long since spread as if on wings, swiftly reaching the ears of every faction in Changshan County.
The ones who reacted most violently were naturally the Gao clan.
The Seven Stars Gang was the “white glove” the Gao family had poured vast resources into and painstakingly managed for many years. It was an important claw they used to seize profits and exert influence in the city’s north and even across all of Changshan County.
If the Seven Stars Gang were uprooted, what the Gao family lost would not merely be face, but immense, tangible benefits and a capable arm.
Direct armed confrontation with the authorities was a grave taboo. Gao Yuanfeng, the head of the Gao clan, urgently contacted the Huang and Yang families on one hand, attempting to jointly pressure the government office; on the other, he immediately rushed in person to the county yamen to request an audience with County Magistrate Lin Shou, hoping to use the authority of this parent official to stop the slaughter.
At the same time, he ordered his third brother, Gao Yuanhe, to immediately lead the private soldiers and guards maintained by the Gao family to rush to the city’s north at top speed. No matter what, they had to find a way to preserve the Seven Stars Gang’s core members—at the very least… they had to save Ma Changhai!
County Magistrate Lin Shou, upon receiving the news, was likewise deeply shocked.
Under Gao Yuanfeng’s repeated urging, he immediately ordered the soldiers of the West City Martial Camp who obeyed him to proceed to the city’s north to “maintain order” and attempt to intervene. After that, he was about to personally head to the scene together with Gao Yuanfeng.
However, he had just stepped out of the county yamen’s second hall when a figure leisurely blocked the way before the door.
It was none other than the county commandant, Wu Kuang.
A half-smile hung on his face. His gaze swept over Lin Shou and Gao Yuanfeng, and his tone was unhurried:
“County Magistrate Lin, Clan Head Gao, leaving in such haste… where might you be going?”
Lin Shou’s face was so dark it seemed about to drip water. He questioned sharply:
“County Commandant Wu, just what does that Chen Sheng intend to do? In broad daylight, beneath the clear heavens, he dares to mobilize troops within the city and wantonly slaughter the common people. Does he have any respect for the law at all?!”
Hearing this, the smile on Wu Kuang’s face instantly vanished, replaced by a murderous solemnity and awe-inspiring righteousness. He gave a cold snort, his voice suddenly rising:
“Slaughtering common people? County Magistrate Lin, those words are mistaken. For many years, the Seven Stars Gang has committed countless evils in Changshan—bullying the market, colluding with river bandits, inciting refugees, and murdering innocents. Their crimes are too numerous to record.
“What’s more, conclusive evidence shows that recently, they even dared to conspire in rebellion and bring chaos to the countryside. Commander Chen is suppressing bandits and eliminating evil, cleansing the locality. He is exercising the duties granted to him by the imperial court and removing harm for the people. What fault is there in that?!”
“So Chen Sheng’s action was approved by County Commandant Wu?”
Gao Yuanfeng asked in a grave voice.
Wu Kuang abruptly turned his head. His knife-sharp gaze stabbed straight at Gao Yuanfeng, his tone icy and carrying undisguised pressure:
“Clan Head Gao, do you have an objection to that?”