Inside the ruined temple.
Su Mu's body was perfectly still. His eyes darted toward the source of the sound.
It was a blur in the darkness, impossible to make anything out clearly.
'Are those the guys who were spying on me all day?'
'What do they want?'
All sorts of thoughts flashed through Su Mu's mind. From the noises in the dark, he had already pinpointed who was making them.
He had noticed a few vagrants secretly tailing him for the past few days, but he hadn't paid them any mind. He never imagined they would actually try to make a move on him.
The next moment, Su Mu flattened himself against the ground and slid backward without a sound.
Ever since he'd achieved a basic mastery of his saber technique, his physical condition had improved to a certain degree.
He wouldn't call himself strong, but he was at least agile.
"The kid should be fast asleep. Get ready to move!"
A low voice drifted in on the night wind that blew through the hall.
From the sound of it, Su Mu recognized the speaker as a man named Feng Debao, a beggar who often bullied the other vagrants living in the ruined temple.
"Boss, does the kid really have that much money on him?"
Another hushed voice spoke from the darkness. "What if he doesn't? Killing him would be a huge risk. Wouldn't it be a waste?"
"I already asked around at the Chai Bang. This kid earns at least fifteen cents a day from them. From what I've seen, he barely spends any of it. He must have saved up at least three or four hundred cents by now—that's more than we make in a whole month of begging!"
Feng Debao's voice continued, "Kill him, and we can take it easy this month. Besides, no Official is going to care if one vagrant dies."
"True enough. We'll just dump his body outside the city. Who's going to care how he died?" a third voice added.
Su Mu heard them clearly. The other two voices belonged to the beggars who always hung around Feng Debao: Cheng Ermao and Jiang Liangtian.
The trio's conversation sent a surge of fury through Su Mu.
He knew the world was cruel, but he never thought someone would rob and murder another person for a mere 300 cents!
They were complete animals!
He trembled with rage, but he knew he had to stay calm.
He had only just reached a basic level with his Submerging Wave Saber Technique. He wasn't confident he could win in a one-on-three fight.
Clutching the hatchet in his hand, Su Mu stayed on the balls of his feet and continued to back away silently. Once he reached the corner, he crept along the wall, circling around behind Feng Debao and his men.
The night was pitch-black, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. From a distance, only blurry silhouettes were visible.
Feng Debao and his two lackeys thought Su Mu was still in the pile of straw. They rose to their feet at the same time and crept forward.
They were completely unaware of the figure huddled against the wall, quietly shuffling into position.
The ruined temple wasn't large to begin with, and the three of them quickly reached the spot where Su Mu had been sleeping.
They exchanged a look, a vicious glint appearing in their eyes.
"Now!" Feng Debao whispered.
The three of them pounced on the pile of straw almost simultaneously.
THUD!
They hit nothing but air, tumbling into the straw in a tangled heap.
'He's not here?!'
'The kid was sleeping right here before dark. How could he be gone?'
Feng Debao and his men scrambled to their feet in a panic.
'Now's my chance!'
Clutching his hatchet, Su Mu shot forward, swinging the blade in a Hidden Wave Assault.
In the darkness, Su Mu couldn't see the three men clearly. He could only rely on his memory, aiming for the tallest of them, Feng Debao.
He poured every ounce of his strength into this strike, holding nothing back.
RIP...
The sound of tearing silk filled the air.
Su Mu's momentum carried him forward. He tumbled to the ground and melted back into the darkness.
"Who's there?!"
Cheng Ermao and Jiang Liangtian had only seen a black shadow flash past, and they cried out in terror.
They instinctively turned to look at their leader.
But Feng Debao was standing frozen in place.
"Bo—"
Cheng Ermao gave Feng Debao's shoulder a push.
From the side of Feng Debao's neck, blood shot out like a fountain.
The spray of blood hit Cheng Ermao square in the face, choking the rest of the word "Boss" in his throat.
A scream echoed through the ruined temple.
The other inhabitants were jolted awake by the terrified screams of Cheng Ermao and Jiang Liangtian.
They were all survivors of a recent demon massacre, already as jumpy as startled birds. Thinking another demon attack had broken out, they scrambled to their feet and fled outside in a mindless panic.
'A perfect opportunity!'
A savage light flared in Su Mu's eyes.
'These three animals would rob and murder someone for a few hundred cents. Not one of them can be left alive!'
Unable to see the state of Feng Debao's corpse, Su Mu felt none of the nervousness that should have come with his first kill.
He sprang up and swung the hatchet again, the motion as practiced as if he had done it a thousand times.
The hatchet swept upward, slashing across Cheng Ermao's groin, slicing open his belly, and splitting his chest.
Cheng Ermao's screams cut off abruptly as blood flowed from him like a stream...
Su Mu panted slightly. Killing two men in a row had taken a toll on his stamina.
But this was no time to rest.
Jiang Liangtian was already scrambling on all fours toward the temple exit.
"You're not getting away!"
Su Mu took a deep breath, closed the distance to Jiang Liangtian in a few quick strides, and stomped on his back.
SQUELCH.
The hatchet chopped down on the back of Jiang Liangtian's neck.
This wasn't a technique, just a simple hack.
Even if the blow didn't kill him, the rusty hatchet would surely give him tetanus.
But apparently, Jiang Liangtian's body wouldn't need to trouble tetanus. When Su Mu pulled the hatchet free, the man's head flopped to one side, nearly severed from his body. There was no way he could have survived.
Driven by a wave of violent energy, Su Mu quickly searched Jiang Liangtian's body, stuffing whatever he found into his robes without looking.
Then he returned to the bodies of Feng Debao and Cheng Ermao and repeated the process twice more.
Once he was done, Su Mu fled the ruined temple under the cover of darkness.
......
Su Mu ducked into an alley. After making sure no one was around, he collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath.
He scrubbed his hands vigorously on his clothes, but the sticky feeling refused to go away.
Only then did the after-effects of the killing hit him. His stomach churned, and after dry-heaving for a while, his frayed nerves finally began to calm.
His first time killing someone—and he'd killed three men at once.
But once he got over the mental block, it didn't seem too hard to accept.
Su Mu was a little surprised at how quickly he had calmed down. Taking three human lives hadn't troubled him as much as he'd expected.
'The temple is full of people. It's hard to say if anyone saw me kill Feng Debao and his men.'
As he grew calmer, Su Mu began to reflect. 'Even though three dead beggars are no big deal in times like these, if someone reports it, the constables in the city would have no problem arresting a murderer like me just to pad their arrest records.'
'I can't go back to the temple. I should probably stay away from the South Street area altogether.'
'It's a shame I haven't saved enough to change my residency registration. If I had, I could find a proper place to live. As it is now, without registration, I don't even have the right to rent a room.'
Su Mu sighed to himself.
Suddenly, he slapped his forehead.
'How could I have forgotten?'
He pulled out a jumble of miscellaneous items from his robes—everything he had just looted from the bodies of Feng Debao and his men.
As any experienced killer knows, you always have to loot the bodies. You never know what kind of great haul you might find.
......
Back in the ruined temple, several constables in gray Official Uniforms were examining the three bodies.
"They were hacked to death with a blade. This wasn't the work of demons."
The constable who spoke looked visibly relieved.
As long as it wasn't demons, a few dead beggars were no big deal.
"Tsk tsk. The killer was decisive and clean. Must be someone who's practiced with a blade."
Another constable rolled the bodies over. "Tsk, tsk," he said. "These three probably pissed off some gang and got themselves taken out."
If demons were involved, they might have had to investigate. But for a gang fight, they couldn't be bothered to meddle.
'It'd be better if all these gang members just died. Wuling City would be a lot cleaner.'
"You lot, take these bodies and dump them in the pauper's field outside the city. If a plague breaks out here, none of you will be able to afford a doctor," they casually told the onlooking vagrants, then left, yawning.
Once they were sure it wasn't demons, the crowd of vagrants also breathed a sigh of relief.
As for Feng Debao and his men, no one felt any sympathy for them. They just considered their deaths an unlucky nuisance.
Especially the poor souls who were ordered to carry the corpses.
......
Su Mu had no idea what happened back at the temple. He was staring at the items in front of him, his face alight with a pleasant surprise.