When Su Qing woke up and looked outside, it was already dark.
The Puppet had lit the bonfire.
"How many days have passed?"
Su Qing asked the Puppet.
The Puppet shook its head.
"So I was out cold."
"At least I slept well."
A smile touched Su Qing's lips. Tonight was the first night of his revenge.
After entering the South Outer City District, Su Qing draped his washed servant clothes inside out over his body to hide the pattern.
He wore them draped haphazardly.
The outer city also had a slave market.
The sight of it disgusted Su Qing.
The traffickers there were particularly vile.
At night, however, it was already closed.
But Su Qing figured there was no harm in going in to help himself to some of their valuables.
He passed by several traffickers' shops.
Su Qing took a number of blades, killed the few guards inside, and looted some silver.
Su Qing felt not a shred of guilt.
That was because he had once been one of the people in those cages, a fact he hated with every fiber of his being.
After stealing ten long sabers,
Su Qing left.
'I'll synthesize nine of the long sabers and see if it's successful.'
'If not, a normal blade will have to do.'
Su Qing had to get his revenge.
Back in the outskirts,
the area seemed desolate, but there were no Demon Fiends in sight.
'Synthesize.'
He synthesized nine ordinary sabers.
[Synthesis Failed]
"Fuck!"
Su Qing couldn't help but shout.
"Is my luck really this bad?"
Su Qing was discouraged, but at least he had kept one saber as a backup.
He hadn't expected the synthesis to fail. Other than a slight increase in his synthesis experience, he got nothing.
'Forget it. I remember that family,' he thought.
'Even a crappy little blade is enough to cut him down.'
「The next day.」
Su Qing arrived at the city gate.
"It's an extra ten cash to bring a saber inside," a soldier said.
Su Qing didn't bother with bribery or anything; he just paid the extra ten cash.
Yesterday, he had taken several fist-sized chunks of silver and strings of cash from those traffickers.
Su Qing had no idea about the prices in this world.
Once inside the city,
Su Qing began to wander around.
He didn't really know the way, only what the place looked like.
So, as he walked, he eventually spotted the slave market.
Or rather, the slave market.
The County City was quite large, but he covered ground quickly.
At the slave market, Su Qing had already locked onto his target.
The guy was here, just as he expected.
'Seems like we're bound by fate.'
Su Qing had also learned the name of this County City: Kexiang County.
'Killing someone on the street is easy, and so is escaping. Ancient times aren't like the modern era, with cameras everywhere.'
Since this trafficker was here, the five thugs who had escorted him before were also here.
They were all part of the same crew.
Su Qing silently walked inside.
"Esteemed master, what kind of slave are you looking to buy?"
The trafficker greeted him cheerfully.
With a cold expression, Su Qing assessed his own combat strength.
"I want…"
As Su Qing spoke, the saber in his hand became a cold gleam of light. Its speed was beyond what any ordinary person could imagine. The moment after Su Qing struck,
cracks instantly appeared in the bluestone tiles on the ground.
A loud sound echoed at the same time.
Before the five thugs could even react, the saber in Su Qing's hand struck five times in quick succession. Even though he had never practiced any Saber Technique,
faced with such immense strength, their bodies were as fragile as paper.
Heads flew, but Su Qing showed little reaction.
He then proceeded to "clean out" everyone else in the place.
This was happening in the Inner City.
The incident had been going on for a little while,
but the Government Office constables had yet to arrive. They couldn't possibly be that fast.
Blood pooled on the floor, and its foul stench displeased Su Qing.
He quickly left the scene.
Many of the traffickers outside saw the six-foot-tall Su Qing with his blood-soaked long saber.
They all scrambled to run away and slam their doors shut.
"Hmph."
Su Qing snorted coldly and sped away.
「Not long after.」
Five constables appeared at the scene.
"Is this a shop belonging to the Murong Family?"
The constable leading them was nearly two meters tall, and his uniform, embroidered with white clouds, gave him an imposing presence.
"Yes, Chief Wei. Someone just reported that everyone in the Murong Family's trafficker shop has been killed."
"I can see that."
Wei Niu couldn't help but frown at the scene. The traffickers Su Qing had killed were all decapitated, their heads and bodies separated. The ground around the wounds was washed in blood.
"You lot, go in and see if there are any survivors."
"Right… Chief Wei, isn't that a bit too dangerous?" one of the constables asked.
Seeing this, Wei Niu barked, "If you're so afraid of death, why did you join the Government Office to be a constable?"
Saying this, Wei Niu led by example and went inside to investigate.
The other constables followed him in.
Wei Niu examined a few corpses. "All decapitated in a single strike. The culprit is very strong."
"The slaves haven't been freed. Looks like a revenge killing."
"So, Chief Constable, what do we do?"
"What do we do? Notify the Murong Family, tell them we'll do our best to investigate. Collect the bodies and return to the Government Office."
"Right."
The constables nodded quickly and hurried out, heading for the Government Office.
Collecting bodies required proper equipment from the office. They had to be wrapped in straw mats, at least. Dragging them back as they were would be completely improper.
"Who holds such a grudge against traffickers?" Wei Niu wondered. He was relieved the killer had already left; otherwise, Wei Niu felt he would have been no match for them.
However, Wei Niu suddenly noticed the cracked bluestone tile next to the head trafficker's body. His eyes widened.
"This is?"
'What kind of person could shatter a bluestone tile on the ground? Wei Niu himself would probably need a hammer to do that.'
'But this was clearly made by a stomp.'
...
Su Qing went to the busiest part of the riverside to clean the spattered blood from his body and wash the drying blood from his saber.
His loose hair had also been spattered with some blood.
He had no choice but to wash it all out.
After cleaning himself up, Su Qing used a few long blades of grass to tie back his long hair.
Even though it was daytime and people were around, Su Qing didn't care at all.
'I still need to synthesize the evolved Cyan Snake Posture. I wonder if I can get it to the Third Layer. Even the most basic Third Layer would probably double its effect.'
As Su Qing washed, he thought silently about his Cyan Snake Posture.
Speaking of the Cyan Snake Posture, Su Qing really had the Wang Family to thank. If Wang Li hadn't demonstrated it in front of him, Su Qing probably would never have had the chance to obtain this Martial Arts technique.
'I need to make money. I can't just focus on training. I should read some books, see the world, and collect a few more Martial Arts techniques while I'm at it.'
Su Qing straightened his tattered clothes.
'The silver I collected should last me for a while.'
'It's time to rent a small courtyard house and buy the ingredients for the Great Replenishing Pill.'
Unfortunately, being a stranger in a strange land, it took Su Qing a long time to find a brokerage.
The brokerage sold everything.
Houses were for sale, not for rent.
Su Qing fell silent for a moment.
A house with a courtyard in the Inner City cost over a hundred taels of silver, and he didn't have nearly that much.
After talking with the brokerage for a long time,
Su Qing left without having found a single house to his liking.
He needed to buy some clothes that fit.
He had no desire to wear the Wang Family servant uniform anymore.
...