Jianghu Demolition Squad

Like a Fish Transforming into a Dragon (Part Nine)

As evening fell, the dark clouds gradually parted, revealing a clear moon and scattered stars.

In a secluded corner to the west of the city, where private residences abounded, it was the dead of night. A night watchman patrolling the streets spotted flames engulfing a residence in a small alley. He hurriedly struck his gong to raise the alarm—only managing two hits before a sharp pain erupted in his head, and darkness overtook him as he was knocked unconscious.

Another figure dragged the watchman behind a tree and urgently said to an accomplice, “Quickly go inform the Young Mistress!”

Yu’er and her companions had just left the Hua estate to meet with Lin Ge. They hadn’t gotten far when a shadowy figure hurried towards them, bowing to Liu Xiu and exclaiming, “Young Mistress, someone has made an attempt on Lin Ge’s life!”

The group’s expressions changed instantly, and they hurried toward Lin Ge’s residence.

They arrived to find Lin Ge’s residence ablaze, the main building swallowed whole by fierce flames, waves of heat assaulting them relentlessly.

In front of the courtyard steps, a man kneeled on the ground, leaning on his sword, his brown robe soaked with blood. Beside him was a woman, clutching a child in her arms.

Standing before the man was a figure shrouded in a black cloak, their face obscured by a silver mask, revealing only thin lips and hands, their gender indiscernible.

The figure’s left hand hung by their side, holding a scabbard, while their right hand pressed the tip of a long sword against the man’s throat.

Under the silver moonlight, the sword cast a sinister, dark glow. The breeze carried a faint, disturbing hum from the blade, piercing the heart with its ominous sound, compelling an instinctive desire to kneel in terror.

After observing the fire for a moment, the cloaked figure remarked somberly, “The fire burns brightly.”

The man bit his lip, his voice trembling, “Just kill me, but please, spare my wife and daughter.”

“What right do you have to bargain with me?” The figure moved the sword to the man’s left shoulder and glanced sideways. The child’s tears flowed unchecked, muffled by the woman’s hand, fearful of attracting the figure’s wrath and losing their lives in an instant.

“You, who are steeped in such grave sins, dare to marry and father children? Aren’t you merely cursing them to a life of misfortune?” the man struggled to respond.

The figure then asked, “Do you love your wife? Is your daughter kind and obedient? Do you love her?”

The man, desperate, crawled toward the figure, pleading, “It’s all my fault, I deserve to die, but please, they are innocent. Spare them!”

The figure chuckled darkly, sending shivers down the man’s spine.

“If I kill them, would you then understand the agony of losing everything?”

These words plunged the man into deep despair. Seeing no way to save his family, his eyes reddened with fury, and he lunged forward with his sword in a futile attempt to fight back.

With a swift twist of their sword, the figure ended his life.

The woman burst into tears, clutching her child even tighter.

By the time Yu’er and the others arrived, it was too late.

The first to step into the residence was Jun Sixue. The assailant had already sheathed their sword and with a flick of their wrist, flung the man’s corpse at her. Instinctively catching it, she was momentarily delayed from intercepting the killer.

Following closely behind Jun Sixue was Yu’er. The assassin had already leapt over the courtyard wall to escape. Yu’er caught a glimpse of the fleeing figure, her pupils shrinking with a sudden, strange premonition. She swiftly followed in pursuit.

Behind her, Qi Tianzhu and Tang Linzhi saw Jun Sixue catch the man, who they realized was Lin Ge. Checking his pulse, they found he was dead.

Angered by another lost lead, Tang Linzhi cursed and leaped after the fleeing murderer, followed closely by Qi Tianzhu, who was concerned for Yu’er’s safety.

Jun Sixue pushed the corpse off herself and observed a mother and daughter trembling on the distant steps. She sighed and instructed Jun Jimo and Jun Suyue, who had just arrived, “Take good care of them,” before heading toward the eastern wall where Yu’er and the others had left.

The assassin, with exceptional lightness skills and profound internal energy, fled at an undiminished pace.

Yu’er, closely following, observed the fluid grace of the assassin under the moonlight, her mind swirling with anxiety and unease.

Yu’er’s lightness skills were not inferior; she had practiced them with Hua Lian and later improved under Yang Chun’s guidance. With her diligent practice and deep internal energy, her mastery of lightness skills was now extraordinary.

Yang Chun once boastfully claimed that in terms of speed, he was the fastest in the world, with Hua Lian a close second.

Indeed, the lightness skills of the two were remarkable; if endurance wasn’t considered, Yang Chun’s claim held true.

Thus, with the teachings of these two masters, Yu’er was also among the elite in lightness skills. Catching the assassin should have been straightforward, but her chaotic emotions clouded her focus, causing her to fall behind, and Tang Linzhi caught up to her instead.

Afraid of losing the trail, Tang Linzhi leapt along roofs and walls, encircling the assassin from the side.

“Where do you think you’re running, you little thief!” she shouted, flinging hidden weapons that whistled through the air, blocking the assassin’s path.

The assassin halted momentarily upon reaching a rooftop. Yu’er caught up and landed on the rooftop too.

One stood at one end, the other at the opposite.

Under the moonlit night, the assassin’s cloak fluttered, and their sleeves rustled in the wind.

Yu’er couldn’t help but call out, “Qing Jiu.”

Her voice was soft, but with their profound internal energy, both Tang Linzhi and the assassin heard her clearly. Tang Linzhi, stunned, responded, “Qing Jiu?”

She looked at the cloaked figure, barely visible beyond the size of a palm, struggling to see how Yu’er could identify this person as Qing Jiu.

Realizing her intuition might have been irrational, Yu’er also doubted her own senses.

Soon, Qi Tianzhu and Jun Sixue had caught up. The assassin slowly turned around, and the tiles under their feet crackled.

Yu’er, seeing the shadowed face hidden under a hood and mask, felt a rush of anxiety and impulsively moved two steps closer to the figure.

Jun Sixue, standing behind Yu’er, kept her eyes on the assassin and noticed the person’s hand on the sword hilt, thumb pressing against the scabbard.

Jun Sixue frowned, she drew her sword and moved forward, shouting, “Yu’er, Be careful!”

Yu’er snapped out of her trance as the assassin drew their sword and struck. The blade was nearly upon her head when Jun Sixue’s sword intercepted the attack.

The attacker’s strength was extraordinary, and their sword eerily powerful.

Yu’er sidestepped, giving Jun Sixue room to strike back with fierce sword techniques.

Jun Sixue’s techniques were exquisite, but before she could fully execute them, her sword unexpectedly broke. Shocked and confused about when it had been damaged, she heard Tang Linzhi’s alarmed shout: “Fenghou!”

Qi Tianzhu, previously hesitant to intervene without knowing if the figure was friend or foe, now saw the attack on Yu’er and acted without restraint. Before he could fully engage, he heard Tang Linzhi cry “Fenghou!” and unleashed a powerful palm strike. His formidable palm force swept forward, pinning the attacker in place, nearly immovable.

Over the years, Qi Tianzhu’s skills had greatly advanced, becoming even more formidable.

As Qi Tianzhu unleashed his all-encompassing and inescapable Buddhist palm technique, the assassin dropped the sword sheath from their left hand and kicked it into the air. As the sheath flew, the assassin precisely stabbed their sword back into it. Then, raising their left palm, the assassin met Qi Tianzhu’s strike.

Once their internal energies collided, both were shaken. Qi Tianzhu was knocked back, flying off the roof from the recoil. The assassin was also pushed back but used this momentum to retreat further, turning around and fleeing into the distance.

Tang Linzhi, like a black panther, leapt after the fleeing figure, shouting furiously, “You little bastard, still trying to run? Do you think you can escape?” She was convinced that the person before them was not Qing Jiu, as Qing Jiu would never harm Yu’er. This assassin, wielding the Fenghou Sword, must know the circumstances of Qing Jiu’s disappearance, perhaps even having harmed her to steal the sword.

Fueled by rage, she pursued relentlessly, determined to capture and harshly punish the assassin.

Yu’er turned to Qi Tianzhu and said, “Uncle Qi, Linzhi doesn’t know the way; help her.”

Qi Tianzhu paused, looking at his palms, lost in thought. It was only after Yu’er called out again, “Uncle Qi? What’s wrong?” that he responded, “I’ll explain when I get back. Be careful on your own, they might have accomplices,” and he hurried after Tang Linzhi.

After Qi Tianzhu left, Yu’er sighed inwardly, feeling that she should have been the one to pursue, but at that moment, she felt physically and mentally exhausted.

The assassin’s recent attack had been a close call, and Yu’er had detected a medicinal scent, not the faint fragrance of peach blossoms she had half-expected.

She couldn’t decide if she was disappointed, knowing her hope had been unfounded from the start.

Meanwhile, Tang Linzhi chased the assassin out of the western district and towards the east. Standing on a high point, she drew her bow and aimed in the direction the assassin was running, shouting, “I said, stop running!”

The divine arrow pierced through the air, penetrating the courtyard wall and aiming for the assassin’s shoulder.

Although she was filled with rage, Tang Linzhi still intended to keep the assassin alive for questioning, so she held back her strength.

After releasing the arrow, she swiftly followed it, determined to capture the assassin.

This arrow was not like any ordinary hidden weapon; ordinary people hit by it could only resign themselves to their fate.

The assassin’s ears twitched, hearing the unusual sound of the wind behind them. Their hands clutched their black robe, and just as the force of the wind hit, they slid to the side and miraculously slipped out from under the robe.

Her divine arrow tore through the black robe, but missed the target. Astonishingly, the assassin executed a perfect ‘Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell’ maneuver, evading the hit.

Tang Linzhi pressed the attack closely. She had switched from her bow-sword, Chini, to a dagger for greater precision; Chini was too fierce, and she feared accidentally killing the assassin with it. The dagger allowed for more flexibility.

The assassin deflected a back stab with an elbow, grabbed the falling black robe, and spun it. The robe flared out like a blooming black lotus, descending upon Tang Linzhi as if mimicking village children using red cloth to tease bulls.

The assassin’s movements were clever, almost as if they were intimately familiar with Tang Linzhi’s martial arts. They preempted her every move, effortlessly evading her attacks, and swiftly circled behind her, wrapping the black robe around her upper body.

Blinded, Tang Linzhi felt a kick against her backside, sending her stumbling forward.

Qi Tianzhu arrived just in time to see her flustered state and was surprised. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the person fleeing and recognized from the figure that it was a woman.

He called out, “Sister Linzhi!”

Tang Linzhi shouted back, “Don’t worry about me, don’t let that bastard escape!”

Qi Tianzhu immediately pivoted to pursue. Already a step behind and less proficient in lightness skills than Tang Linzhi, plus the assailant’s deep familiarity with the terrain of Hangzhou, he lost sight of her after a few steps and had to return to find Tang Linzhi.

By the time Qi Tianzhu returned, Tang Linzhi had already shredded the black robe with her dagger. Seeing him return alone, she knew the assassin had escaped.

Apart from her master and Qing Jiu, she had never been so embarrassingly outmatched in a fight.

Now that the assassin had escaped and there was nowhere to vent her frustration, she became infuriated and kicked a nearby wall, instantly cracking it with a web-like pattern.

“Damn it! Damn it!” she exclaimed, venting her anger on the inanimate wall.