Chapter 93: Then Let Us Kill Them Together

"Cough, cough, cough!"

A fit of coughing broke out.

"To stand high above all living beings..."

By then, the old man let out a long sigh, his voice tinged with desolation. "I may never live to see that day. I hope you will. For now, our strength is still far too small. If not for a third party stirring the waters this time, if not for someone deliberately keeping watch as the Jia family fell, then even if we could defeat the Jia family, it would never have been this easy."

After all, unlike those vast and ancient factions of the uncanny, the Nether Alliance was only a recently formed organization. The anomalies of Lingnan Domain had not fared well under the Jia family's suppression, which had lasted for centuries.

"What exactly happened with the Faceless One and the White-Robed One? Why have all the soul jades shattered?" The old man collected himself and asked.

"Could it be the court?" someone in the shadows asked.

"It shouldn't be. Everything we're doing now is still within the bounds of the rules. If the court wanted to act, it wouldn't sit by and watch us swallow the Jia family whole," the old man said, shaking his head.

"Still, we can't let down our guard. Once the matter reaches a certain point, the court will surely intervene. But that will be enough to carve out room for our growth. By then, we'll have enough bargaining chips. And our goal is far more than this. Set the wolf against the tiger, heh..."

"As for the one who killed the Faceless One and the White-Robed One, I imagine the court is more anxious than we are. They won't allow anyone beyond their control to appear. Of course, this is also an understanding between us and the noble houses. No matter who killed them, that person must die."

The old man's gaze was sharp as he said coldly, "From beginning to end, no one has ever considered the feelings of ordinary people."

After all, in their eyes, humans were nothing more than food.

Heh. True enough. Who would care how food felt?

...

After the Six Doors began keeping him in their sights, Ning Xiu's path of hunting monsters and spirits became even more difficult.

At any moment, those imperial hounds could catch his scent and come after him.

Besides, he did not believe they could fail to understand such a simple truth as a lion using its full strength even against a rabbit. The Six Doors would not be foolish enough to send their men one by one, simply to feed him experience.

The two men he had encountered last time were clearly scouts.

At the same time, the Nether Alliance had also been silent for too long. With so much time having passed, the war between them and the Jia family should have already reached its conclusion.

Lingnan Prefecture, Great Prosperity Gambling House.

This was a property of the Bamboo Grove Society, and its owner was one of the society's elders. It had been shut down for a time, but in recent days, as ghostly anomalies were slaughtered one after another by an unknown figure, it had come back to life.

Night fell. The dim alley was utterly silent.

Only the Great Prosperity Gambling House blazed with light.

From within came a steady stream of crisp, pleasant sounds, the clash of silver coins.

In many people's eyes, it was perhaps the most beautiful sound in the world.

Just then, a carriage slowly rolled out of the darkness.

Perhaps calling it a carriage was not quite right, for it had no horse. This vehicle, moved by no visible force at all, crept forward on its own. Its wheels rolled over the blue stone road without making the slightest sound.

Everything about it was eerily strange.

The horseless carriage came to a stop before the Great Prosperity Gambling House.

At the same time, before the mansions of all the senior figures in the four great gangs whose hands were stained with ghost blood, the very same carriage had also pulled up.

The curtain was lifted, and a little girl stepped down from the carriage.

She wore a red dress. Glancing up at the gambling house sign, she walked inside.

A place like a gambling den or a brothel was clearly no place for a child, much less a little girl, so no one bothered to stop her.

"May I ask if Stone Three is here?"

In the noisy center of the gambling house, the little girl stood amid the crowd and spoke in a voice that was soft and childlike.

It was not loud, yet somehow it drowned out every other sound in the room.

Gamblers, croupiers, and enforcers all turned at once to stare at her, their faces darkening.

Stone Three was the name of the Bamboo Grove Society elder.

Faced with so many hostile gazes, a martial artist of ordinary caliber would likely have found it hard to endure. Yet the slight little girl seemed not to notice them at all.

"Where is Stone Three?" she asked again.

"Where did this brat come from? This isn't a place for you. Get lost and go back home before some uncle beats you so badly you wet your pants!"

On someone else's turf, boldly shouting the boss's name was hardly a way to earn kindness.

One burly man was just about to step forward and throw the red-clad girl out.

But a companion at his side beat him to it.

"Haha, Baldy, leave this little girl to me. Since she dares to scream and shout on our turf and even call out Elder Stone's name, I'll teach her a proper lesson tonight on the elder's behalf."

With that, he walked toward the little girl wearing a lewd grin, reaching out to seize her by the shoulder.

The next instant, the whole world suddenly turned upside down in his eyes.

His face was still frozen in shock when he saw his own body.

Thump, thump, thump.

The severed head hit the floor, bounced twice, and finally rolled to the feet of the bald man from earlier.

Only then did bright red blood burst forth like a fountain.

Too late by half a beat.

Screams erupted, and the entire gambling house descended into chaos.

Many gamblers were so terrified by what they saw that they cried out and fled outside, and among them were more than a few who took advantage of the panic to snatch silver coins from the tables on the way out.

Inside the gambling house, the Bamboo Grove Society's men all changed color.

It was not that they had never suspected the little girl might be unusual, but they had not sensed the slightest trace of martial training from her.

Yet they had not even seen how the girl had moved. That was what truly filled them with fear.

"Where is Stone Three?" the red-clad girl asked for the third time.

Only now did no one dare ignore her.

"Who the hell are you, and how dare you come here to make trouble for the Bamboo Grove Society!" the bald man barked.

The red-clad girl did not answer. Instead, she lowered her head and looked at the brilliant red embroidered shoes on her feet, as though pondering some problem.

"If I can't find him, then I'll just kill them all."

Clang, clang, clang.

Suddenly, the gambling house rang with the shriek of metal against metal. Everyone stared at the weapons at their waists, faces filled with utter disbelief.

One sword and one blade after another abruptly broke free of their owners' control, snapped from their sheaths, and began to dance through the air on their own.

Rays of sword light flared into being.

The gambling house erupted with miserable screams.

In the face of such a bizarre attack, these Bamboo Grove Society disciples had no time to react at all.

In the blink of an eye, the entire gambling house was strewn with corpses, and then a clatter of crashing metal followed.

Long blades and sharp swords fell in a heap to the floor.