Chapter 61

The Axe That Was Trusted Was Splintered.

"Where I came from is not important."

"......"

"The important thing in this world right now is that you don't blink."

His eyes were bloodshot.

After a moment, I saw a tear roll down, and I warned him.

"The Three Great Heroes of Jianghu."

Suddenly, I was the one who visited the Yunwu Association and had a staring contest with the gatekeeper.

"Where did I come from? It's a long story. I was born to my parents, but that's not the question of my origins. Which town did I come from? That's not a regional question either. The question is, from which faction do you hail? That too is quite a long story. So…"

The gatekeeper, losing his patience, swallowed hard and said, "Please spare me."

"Spare you?"

"Yes."

"No. A staring contest is a staring contest, and a competition is a competition, and a slap is a slap."

I slowly anticipated that the outcome would soon be decided, bringing my thumb and index finger to my mouth and blowing hot air into them.

Had he lost his composure, he started babbling nonsense.

"I'll pay the debt."

"I don't need it."

The moment his eyes blinked, I slapped his forehead.

Smack!

The gatekeeper flipped backward and fainted, landing face down on the ground.

"I am victorious."

Having defeated the gatekeeper, I walked along the path lined with round stones, heading inside.

I felt that the main structure had a slightly sinister vibe.

Perhaps many of the followers of the leader, Master Su, were absent, as the interior was quieter than expected.

I paused for a moment by a small pond to watch the fish.

Small fish, whose names I did not know, were swimming around.

Strangely, as I looked down, they gathered at my feet as if asking for food.

When weak, one tends to beg for food from others and often finds themselves trapped in a narrow space.

Suddenly, I thought about Guangsheng's quest for a fish as large as the Great Peng.

It must have been a journey to explore what kind of masters existed in the vast sea, as his own strength and ego were as grand as the Great Peng.

After all, the larger ones would surely stand out during the journey from the west to Zhejiang.

Soon, my interest waned, and I looked around.

The base, shaped like a courtyard, was quite spacious, and I could see small houses, storages, and a crematorium scattered about, the purposes of which were unclear.

I approached the crematorium and asked the man with his back turned, "What are you burning here?"

The large man, who was eating something at a small table, looked me up and down and replied, "Who are you?"

"I'm here to see Master Su."

"Oh, he probably isn't here right now."

I glanced at what the man was eating.

"You're having a meal."

"Yes."

"Is anyone inside? Is the vice leader here?"

"Only guests are inside. The vice leader must have gone out."

I pointed at the large crematorium and asked, "What do you burn here?"

"Corpses. What else would we burn?"

"Do you have corpses to burn?"

The large man chewed his food with a sour expression and replied, "If debts aren't paid, we burn them. It's just a job, so I don't know much."

I sighed as I looked at the man who was earnestly eating.

"It feels a bit wrong to kill someone who's eating."

Only then did he stop eating and glare at me.

I gestured towards his food and said, "Finish your meal."

As I turned to check who the guests were, the man who had stopped eating stood up and walked towards the crematorium.

When I looked back, he was staring at me with an axe in hand.

"You're not a guest, are you?"

He approached me, still gripping the axe.

How many people had he killed to make such a quick judgment about wanting to kill someone? Perhaps he was a bit slow-witted, as he kept repeating the same words while swinging the axe.

"You're not a guest!"

Seeing his stance, I realized he had the strength to slaughter a dozen third-rate heroes with just his external power and strength.

Not wanting to touch him, I aimed for his eyes with my finger technique.

Smack!

As his eyes burst, he screamed, and I kicked him in the abdomen, sending him flying into the entrance of the crematorium.

As he lost his grip on the axe, he tried to hold onto the entrance with both hands to escape, but I rushed over and shoved him inside.

Smack! Smack! Smack!

Even as he screamed, not a single person came out.

I picked up the axe that had fallen to the ground and headed towards the main building.

The closer I got, the louder the music flowing from inside became.

When I opened the door, I found that the interior of the main building was quite spacious.

Even though I had entered, no one was looking at me.

On the central stage, dancers in revealing outfits were awkwardly performing, while various dressed heroes watched below.

Holding the axe in my hand, I walked up to the stage.

Only then did the dancers scream and exit, leaving me as the main attraction.

I set the axe aside and looked at the audience.

Only the area around the stage was lit, while the windows were covered, making the audience area quite dark.

Just then, the music stopped, and silence fell.

I looked around from the stage and said, "Someone light a lamp."

It was strange.

Instead of anyone trying to flee, everyone was pulling out their weapons.

Why was that?

I set the bloodied axe aside and sat cross-legged.

It seemed they mistook me for someone from the Martial Alliance.

Since all the audience rushed at me, it took no time at all to kill them all.

For a moment, I pondered what the Yunwu Association was doing with the bloodied axe in hand.

I had learned nothing since we hadn’t exchanged words.

I didn’t even want to ask the dancers.

Suddenly, when I opened my eyes to ask someone, I found only corpses around me.

I closed my eyes again.

I had no choice but to wait until the vice leader, who had gone out, returned.

Regardless of what happened, those who had their heads cut off were members of the strict Martial Alliance, so I wouldn’t have committed any serious wrongdoing.

With my eyes closed, I listened to the sounds around me, and I could hear footsteps moving quietly.

The sounds did not reach the outskirts.

My martial arts level was neither that of a steel turtle nor that of the Great Peng.

Focusing on my sense of smell, at first, I was overwhelmed by the scent of blood.

As I concentrated, I could distinguish the scent of powder and perfume among the smell of blood.

There were quite a few black assassins spraying poison in mist form, so I had to always distinguish the smells this way.

While my eyes were closed, various thoughts came to mind.

First, the dancers' performance was a mess.

It seemed they had only recently learned to dance.

They were not professional dancers.

And the ones who died from my axe all seemed wealthy.

I concluded that they attacked me without warning because they were likely wealthy martial artists from prominent families.

It was not unusual for the upper class to associate with black assassins.

It was common.

Black assassins would do anything for money, and the upper class, having nowhere to spend their wealth, often became increasingly eccentric.

In this gap, those who suffered and died were only those who earned money through honest work.

Thus, many white assassins from my past life also died at my hands.

Since I had not set a boundary, I could quickly raise my rank in the martial arts world.

These people had to spread their net wide enough to catch me.

Even if I returned to the past, there were things that would inevitably repeat.

But that was fine.

I was continuously growing stronger.

At that moment, I heard several footsteps and opened my eyes again.

The door to the main building opened again, and those who had organized the performance looked inside with bewildered expressions.

Perhaps it was because they were part of a strict organization.

While the riffraff kept their mouths shut, the vice leader spoke to me.

"Who are you?"

As his subordinates cleared the barriers, my vision brightened.

The vice leader was quite a calm man.

His calmness was evident from his expression, and he wasn’t as old as I had expected.

When I remained silent, the vice leader approached the stage and looked up at me.

"Are you a black assassin? You think you can handle the leader?"

He didn’t seem like someone I would have an interesting conversation with, so I answered vaguely, "I came to collect a debt."

"A debt? How much could it possibly be to do something like this…"

"How much can you give?"

The vice leader pondered for a moment and surprisingly replied, "Would three hundred gold coins be enough?"

"Surprisingly, that matches the exact amount the black assassin asked me to collect."

The vice leader smirked slightly and replied, "Ah, so you owe the black assassin. Then, take the three hundred from me and settle your debt cleanly. The black assassin's debt collection is no less than ours."

"You don't have to pay it back."

"Why not?"

I roughly gestured to the situation where I had smashed the black assassin's head.

"Was it four times with the axe? When blood and flesh scatter, one tends to forget about debt collection. You probably won’t even remember who you borrowed from. If you had a debt to the black assassin, you should be grateful to me."

The vice leader fell silent.

I could not predict what the vice leader was thinking, so I advised him kindly.

"Don't run away. I will spare your subordinates, but I will chase only you. Don't give the order for your subordinates to attack first. I will ignore them and just kill you."

"What do you want me to do then? Should I go get the money?"

"Don't do that either. Seeing how empty it is here, your troops must be elsewhere. While you go for the money, it seems your troops will rush in. Just stay here. Let's have a moment of reflection together. Let's mourn the dead. Let's deeply think about how our lives have come to this point. We weren't born as evil beings, so how did we end up like this?"

At that moment, the main door of the building swung open again, and those wielding swords quietly entered.

Even though dozens of subordinates had arrived, the vice leader's expression remained stern.

I said to the vice leader in a serious tone, "You don't want to talk to me? Is this how you're going to act?"

The vice leader suddenly rounded his mouth and let out a deep breath.

As if about to give an attack order, he raised his hand and said to his subordinates, "You all stay outside."

When the vice leader gestured silently, all his subordinates exited.

The vice leader, looking tired as if he had just engaged in a fierce martial arts duel, spoke to me.

"Now that they are gone, calm down. If you have something you want, say it. Let's resolve this through conversation from start to finish. I am willing to cooperate, I might betray you, and I might kneel and beg for my life. Let's talk for now."

I nodded and replied, "Kneel."

The vice leader climbed to the edge of the stage and knelt down.

The vice leader of the Yunwu Association clasped his hands together and prayed fervently.

He was now certain.

He had fallen into the hands of a completely madman.

After talking, he realized this.

Looking into his eyes gave him even greater certainty.

And the state of the guests' corpses confirmed that his suspicions were correct.

Normally, when one is killed with an axe, it is common to sever limbs, but most of the corpses had their skulls split cleanly in half.

Just by looking at the state of the corpses, he could roughly gauge the madman's skill.

The vice leader thought to himself that he should at least survive here.

"If you have something you want, feel free to ask… Fortunately, the leader is absent, so I suppose I can say anything. Of course, I have no interest in money or women, but I would like to know what you want."

I answered the vice leader's question while he knelt.

"When will Master Su come?"

"I think he will come late this evening."

"Can you kill him?"

"Of course, it's difficult for me alone. It’s hard, but if I strike at the same time with my subordinates, I can kill him. Poison, ambush, joint attack. And he will be drinking today, so it should be easier than usual. I can do it. I can kill him… Believe me. If I can't kill him, then you can kill me then. After all, you plan to kill Master Su too. We can just kill everyone then."

"You are a traitor."

I stood up, gripping the axe, and approached the vice leader.

Expecting a counterattack, I moved closer, but the vice leader did not move at all.

I patted the vice leader's head with my left hand and gripped the axe tightly.

"They say Master Su is as strong as a bamboo pole. Can you handle him?"

"That would be a formal duel…"

Without hesitation, I swung the axe down, splitting the vice leader's head in half.

Thinking back, I realized that the entire Yunwu Association was of such poor quality that there were hardly any usable members.

The corpse of the traitor, who was strong against the weak and weak against the strong, was added to the stage.