Boss! It’s an emergency!

“What the hell? Why’s there so little?!”

A large man shouted this with wide eyes.

A small middle-aged man on the other side of this man sweated profusely as he bowed multiple times.

“W-we weren’t able to turn in a good amount of money this month. Please forgive us.”

The large man pulled back his sleeves. A tattoo of a large black snake could be seen on his bare arm.

“See this? I’m an official member of the Black Snake Gang. I’m not like those common bullies who just extort cash from you.”

“R-really? I-I’m so sorry for being unable to recognize you.”

“Right, you should be. So if you are sorry, why aren’t you showing it through your actions? Do you know what happens if you just use words to apologize?”

“What happens?”

“This happens.”

The large man punched. The old man rolled on the floor crying in pain.

The nearby merchants all turned to look at the commotion. The large man straightened his back and shouted at all of them.

“What, you see anything bad going on? Ah? You wanna get beat up too?”

The merchants quickly got back to their work. The large man turned back to the older man with a grin on his face.

“Stand up, now. I’ll count one punch as one coin. Since you’re missing fifteen coins, it’d be fifteen punches.”

The older man stood up immediately and retorted to the larger man’s statement.

“Since I already got hit once, wouldn’t it be fourteen hits?”

“You’re good at math, aren’t you? I don’t like people who are good at math. Two more hits.”

The large man grabbed the older man with his left hand. He balled up his right hand, and prepared to strike. But then, a moment before he actually punched the man, a sharp yell came out from behind him.

“Stop it!”

The man turned. There was a woman who seemed to be around forty standing before him. She wasn’t particularly pretty, but her looks suggested that she might’ve been quite a looker back in the days. The man frowned.

“What do you want?”

“What in the world do you think you’re doing in broad daylight?!”

The large man let go of the man in his hand, and looked over the woman. He almost resembled a butcher sizing up a pig before killing it. The woman didn’t at all seem intimidated by this. The man smirked.

“Hah! Look at this! You’ve lived a fine life, haven’t you? You really don’t know how the world works?”

A merchant shouted urgently at the man.

“S-stop! Do you even know who she is?”

The gang member gave a big nod.

“Of course I do. She’s a fearless idiot.”

The merchant immediately tried to respond.

“T-this person is..”

But before he managed to say anything, the woman took a small pouch out of her pocket.

“Take this. This should be about two coins.”

The gang member looked over the pouch and the woman’s face and snatched the pouch away from her.

“Fine. I’ll just end it here. It’s good to be nice, lady, but being too nice can bring you a lot of trouble. Be careful next time on the streets.”

He pushed the woman’s shoulder lightly, causing her to lose her balance and fall. Everyone on the street gave a collective gasp.

How strange, the gang member thought. Well, whatever. It probably didn’t matter much.

“Let’s not let something like this happen next month, alright? Hahahaha!”

The gang member snuck away the cash into his pockets as he walked away.

When the man disappeared, all the merchants on the street came to check up on the woman.

“M-Mrs. Nam, are you alright?”

The woman they addressed to be Mrs. Nam stood up, and smiled brightly.

“I’m fine.”

“You aren’t h-hurt anywhere..?”

The woman shook her head.

“No. Ah?”

She pulled up her sleeves. There was a small scratch mark on her arm.

“Looks like I scraped my skin when I fell.”

All the merchants around her collectively frowned.

In the midst of the crowd, someone whispered.

“Fuck.”

***

Mrs. Nam immediately headed for the kitchen after coming back home. She needed to prepare dinner for her son out in the fields.

Even though she became unable to shop for groceries today, her son was sure to enjoy the food.

Once the sun began to set, her son walked back home with the hoe on his shoulder. He sat down in front of the meal that Mrs. Nam prepared for him.

“It’s even tastier than usual, mother.”

Just as she thought.

Mrs. Nam’s face broke out into a wide smile. But at some point while eating, her son’s chopsticks stopped in midair.

“Mother, you’re hurt?”

“Ah? This? Someone pushed me at the market, so I scraped myself a little.”

The boy’s eyes narrowed.

“Someone.. pushed you?”

The son carefully put down his chopsticks and stood up. Mrs. Nam’s eyes widened like little coins in confusion.

“What is it, son? Aren’t you going to eat some more?”

Her son smiled softly.

“I forgot something back at the fields. I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Oh, really? Come back quick.”

“Right. I won’t take long.”

***

No one in the Martial Realm considered those of the Dark Way (黑道) as true martial artists.

They were people who extorted money from street vendors, lent money with huge interest rates, and kidnapped women to sell them as slaves. How could such trash even be considered to be martial artists?

But there was just one person in the Dark Way who the Martial World recognized to an extent. It was the leader of the Black Snake Gang, Noh Wongil.

This wasn’t just because he controlled the night world of Canglixian, one of the biggest grain producers in the area.

This wasn’t just because he had morals, unlike most of those in the Dark Path.

It wasn’t because he was a moderately powerful expert, either.

It was because he had kept his spot as the leader of the Black Snake Gang for over fifteen years already. An impressive feat indeed, considering how most other gangs changed hands almost yearly.

One could only guess how this was the case here. Maybe it was because Noh Wongil had a certain charismatic charm about him?

In any case, the man was someone who was actually well-respected in the martial realm. Because of this, the people who visited the gang on this day treated the man with utter respect.

The group believed that Noh Wongil would accept their request kindly, but the man’s reaction was completely different from what they expected.

“I cannot!”

The guests’ faces immediately turned savage. Some even put their hands on their sword hilt in rage.

But when one of them raised her hand, everyone calmed immediately.

Noh Wongil’s eyes became transfixed at the woman who raised her hand. The woman seemed to be someone just over twenty. Her beauty was something that could earn her a spot at the top three of all the women Noh Wongil slept with in his life.

Like most who claimed to be a hero, Noh Wongil was someone who liked women greatly. He was someone who was willing to do anything he could to sleep with a beautiful woman he saw.

But not this one.

This one was dangerous.

“Sir, do you know who we are?”

Noh Wongil nodded slowly.

“I do. You are heroes of one of the biggest groups in the Verdant Forest (綠林), the Tiger Phantom Bandits (虎鬼砦).”

The woman responded.

“Then you should know who I am?”

“Of course I do. You’re the sub leader of the Tiger Phantom Bandits, as well as a member of the famed Five Verdant Pythons (綠林五蟒). The Flying Twin Sword, Jin Yanhui.”

The woman nodded.

“Correct. Then you should know my personality quite well, yes?”

“Yes. I-I’ve heard a lot about it.”

Noh Wongil’s voice crawled back into his throat. It was said that Jin Yanhui hated the people of the Dark Path to an unusual extent. It was even said that she destroyed up to ten different gangs in the past.

Jin Yanhui sighed.

“To think you’d act like this.. It’s quite annoying. We’re just trying to find a single person here.”

“I’d be fine with helping you if you were looking for someone anywhere else. But I can’t help you with the Southern area no matter what.”

“Why?”

“That place.. Anywhere but that place..”

Jin Yanhui sighed once again.

“Hah, I suppose I’ll have to talk it over again next time with a new leader of the Black Snake Gang.”

Noh Wongil had been the leader of the gang for two decades. Of course, the woman was making a threat here. One she could very easily accomplish.

But Noh Wongil refused to budge.

“Go ahead. No matter who you set as a leader here, they will all say the same thing. A no is a no.”

Jin Yanhui narrowed her eyes. But soon enough, she flashed a smile at Noh Wongil.

“Understood. We’ll be leaving then.”

The five martial artists behind her all widened their eyes.

“Miss, this is..”

Jin Yanhui put her finger on her mouth to silence them.

“I’ll be leaving, then.”

Noh Wongil responded politely.

“I hope you have a safe trip. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like I can follow you outside.”

Jin Yanhui turned to leave, and the five martial artists shot a deadly look at Noh Wongil as they exited.

Noh Wongil didn’t flinch. It was to be expected of one of the three greats in the Dark Path. Right at that moment, though.. A single man ran into the guest room in great panic.

“S, s, s, sir! It’s an emergency!”

Noh Wongil frowned.

“What are you doing? I told you not to come in before I told you to. Don’t you know I have important guests here?”

The man spoke hurriedly.

“The newbie! The newbie!”

“Stop it with this! Get out of here this instant!”

“The newbie touched Mrs. Nam!”

At this precise moment, Noh Wongil’s eyes widened almost inhumanly. After a moment, Noh Wongil’s lips parted.

“M-Mrs. Nam?”

“Yes! Mrs. Nam!”

“T, t, that Mrs. Nam?”

“Yes! That Mrs. Nam! What do we do?”

“W, w, we’re fucked! Everyone! Run! Run!”

***

Jin Yanhui, who was just walking out the gates of the Black Snake Gang, stopped to look back. The gang members were all running somewhere in a hurry.

“What’s this?”

How did these people get so agitated all of the sudden? Even Noh Wongil looked agitated. He was acting almost like a madman.

One of the martial artists chipped in.

“As expected as those of the Dark Path. Tsk tsk. Miss, why’d you just walk out like that? I know how these people work better than anyone. Break a few limbs, kill a few people, and they’d come crawling to us asking for forgiveness. Just give me the order and I’ll take care of it this instant.”

Jin Yanhui shook her head.

“It’s fine, I know how they work as well. I just didn’t want to cause any trouble here. I had heard recently that the Martial Alliance and the Five Demon Churches began to take notice of what was going on. We can’t let them know what’s going on.”

The five martial artists bowed in understanding.

Jin Yanhui turned to these five.

“We’re already here. Just a little more work, and everything will be finished. I’m planning on visiting the Black Snake Gang after all this ends. Why don’t you five accompany me then? I think we’ll have quite the time here.”

Jin Yanhui grinned savagely. The five others smiled similarly as well.

“Now, let’s go finish this damn mission.”

Jin Yanhui walked out of the gang. As she walked, she noticed someone walking towards her from the other side of the road. The darkness of the night made it hard to tell who it was, but Jin Yanhui wasn’t affected by the darkness at all.

‘A boy?’

The person seemed to be around fifteen years old.

“Oh? He’s quite handsome.”

The five martial artists behind her turned to look at the boy as well.

The boy was indeed quite handsome. His clothes were dirtied, as if he just dug himself out of a pit full of dust, but that wasn’t enough to hide his features. In fact, cleaning him up a bit would make him look just like a young lord from a noble household.

The two quickly neared each other, and they soon stood right in front of each other. Jin Yanhui broke out into a smile.

“Even handsomer up close, huh.”

The five experts all frowned. The reason why Jin Yanhui was able to become the sub leader of the Tiger Ghost Gang was because of her unrivaled intellect. But she had a flaw. She liked handsome boys far too much.

If the situation wasn’t like this, the woman would probably have tried to kidnap the boy home.

Jin Yanhui licked her lips and lamented the fact that she didn’t have the time to spare for the boy.

By this time, the boy had nearly passed her.

Jin Yanhui decided to turn around to look at the boy.

“Excuse me, young lad?”

The boy stopped moving.

“What is it?”

Jin Yanhui smiled brightly.

“What is your name?”

The boy scanned Jin Yanhui with his eyes briefly, then smirked. He didn’t say anything, and kept walking.

Jin Yanhui’s face stiffened on the spot. The five experts turned red from trying to restrain their laughter.

Jin Yanhui smiled awkwardly.

“Yet another reason to come back to Canglixian, huh.”

Her eyes began to shine like that of a poisonous snake. That face disappeared in almost an instant, though, and the five experts followed behind closely.

The boy who passed by Jin Yanhui kept walking forward, and eventually reached the gates of the Black Snake Gang.