“Release my sister!”

The maiden in front of the ruined entrance to the establishment demanded in a clear voice as her fingers were already on the strings of her zither, ready to take action again.

‘A Music Dao Cultivator… interesting’

Wu Long said as he was intrigued by the young woman who was currently seeping with anger and indignation.

“Cui’er!”

Gong Liwei shouted out and rushed out of Wu Long’s hold to jump off the broken floor to the lower one and then to the next one until she landed on the ground and ran to her little sister.

Wu Long chuckled and followed her with a light jump directly to the ground, as Spiritual Qi swirled around him and instead of a hard landing he softly stepped foot on the ground.

“Big sis!”

The maiden was first startled and then overjoyed to see her elder sister safe and seemingly not harmed.

“Why are you here? What about the Profound Music Palace? How did you know where to find me?”

Gong Liwei hugged her little sister and flooded her with questions.

“I think we have some more pressing matters than finding all that out”

Wu Long said as he looked back at the torn building from which hundreds of employees including some of the courtesans poured with nimble trained movements and cold killing intent brimming on them instead of the usual pleasant smiles and bright friendly demeanors.

Old Yen also showed up, his eyes filled with rage.

“Fuck! Are you insane?!?!”

Old Yen shouted with veins bulging on his neck and forehead from strain. That shout resounded throughout the surrounding streets.

“Oh come on, the place was long overdue for renovation anyway”

Wu Long looked at Old Yen with a hint of regret as now any chances of negotiations were totally gone. He knew they were gone when the poisoned wine came, but now they were gone so far and with such speed that not even Wu Long in his prime could have caught up to them.

“Renovation my ass!”

Old Yen gnashed his teeth with rough breathing, but gradually he calmed down and returned to his previous calm demeanor.

“Haa~ years of work gone under the dog’s tail… but oh well, at least I have the reason to openly kill you now”

He said the first part under his nose, and the second part a little louder, as now with this ruckus the establishment was well within their rights to retaliate with fatal force. The fact that the action was started by Gong Liwei’s little sister and not Wu Long could be swept up since they could be now described as one group by the onlookers.

The hundreds of employees and courtesans of the brothel and gambling house ran at the same time, weapons in their hands, as it would not be long before the Imperial Officials would arrive.

“Sister-…”

“Cui’er, sta-…”

As the sisters were starting to take action Wu Long made a hard stomp forward, as if simply taking a slightly harder step to launch himself forward, but Spiritual Qi rushed out of the place he stomped and spread like a fluid, instantly covering the ground in the whole area. A moment later formless waves started circulating through the fluid-like Spiritual Qi, and within moments all of the attacking people found themselves thrust into the air around Wu Long and the sisters.

A sword appeared in Wu Long’s left hand, and a clear sound of it being unsheathed rang out. The sound came while Wu Long was still just holding the sword in its sheath with his left hand and raising it up, and then his figure unnaturally sped up as if people around missed part of the scene and only saw the conclusion as he already held the unsheathed sword in his right hand, pointing it to the ground.

The people in the air all around did not even scream as their bodies started to part into several parts, as the rain of body parts and blood came down to the ground. The Gong sisters watched with round eyes as shivers went through them as Wu Long singlehandedly wiped out every single attacker in the blink of an eye.

Old Yen’s expression froze and started to slowly change as it started to dawn on him that Wu Long was not just a young man who somehow achieved Qi Manifestation Realm and was confident because of that.

Wu Long’s figure then blurred and appeared before Old Yen as he really did use that step forward to launch himself to his current position, as if the previous action was something he did casually on his way.

“You refused to do business with me so I am forced to do it the hard way, I want to know some things, will you cooperate?”

“What’s the use of me telling you anything if you are not going to spare me”

Old Yen said with a wry smile. There were fear and unwillingness deep in his eyes, but he also wanted to keep at least the last dregs of his dignity.

“Hmm, interesting”

Wu Long smiled, as Old Yen truly was someone not that unpleasant to him, even in this demeanor before the threat of death. Hence, Wu Long’s attempt to still negotiate even if he knew that there was a high chance of failure earlier when they talked.

“But you know if you don’t tell me I am going to have to seek out your competitors, and they will profit as you rot in the ground, they will be even grateful to me for removing you”

“You son of a-… haa~ fine, it is my loss after all, what’s the use of not telling you something you will be able to know from others…”

Old Yen looked at Wu Long sternly for some time and then sighed, shaking his head.

“Do you know who poisoned me?”

“Uh… I did?”

“…No… I mean to break my sword”

“Oh, you mean that, sorry, I guess my mind is working slowly a little since I am about to die and all that…”

Wu Long made a circular gesture with his index finger to nudge him to ‘move along’ to the topic.

“Oh! Yes, no I don’t that was not our organization, and the ones to ambush you were also not us, if I had my influence in the Night Market of this Empire intact I might have been able to figure things out given some time, but now…”

“I see, then, do you know any news about Wu Mengqi?”

“The young lady of the Wu house… she has been trying to find you since you were ‘lost’ in the trial lands of the Wu Family, going there for expeditions several times, but it was all unsuccessful, and Prince Nie Changsheng is still trying to court her, though also unsuccessfully. There has not been any news from her lately as she has been cooped up in the Wu Family Mansion for the past few months, though it seems the marriage talks with the Imperial Family are going far smoother lately”

As the name ‘Nie Changsheng’ was said, a cold light appeared in Wu Long’s eyes but it quickly flashed and disappeared, hidden but not extinguished.

“Is there anyone comparable to the Thousand Eyes Information Bureau from the Azure Eagle Continent here on this one?”

“No… there is no one single authority when it comes to information, as the Underworld scene here is more chaotic, with many influences, small like my organization and larger vying for power”

He replied and Wu Long nodded. With such a large market for underhanded means used by noble families and high demand for the services of people like Old Yen and his organization, there was bound to be a large number of organizations to provide those services.

It seemed to Wu Long, that, unlike the Song Imperial Family that kept the law in the Azure Eagle Empire in iron gloves, both in daylight and night, the Nie Family was struggling to get hold of the so-called Night Market, wielding great power only in the open world of daylight.

It made sense to Wu Long since the temperament of the backers of the empires were different, with the Song Family backed by blood relations who would be willing to interfere in all matters, and the Nie Family backed only against threats of similar magnitude, meaning threats from people of the same circle as the backer, leaving the Nie Imperial Family to deal with everything below that themselves.

Since the underworld scene sprang out within the empire and was comprised largely of organizations like Old Yen’s, with no backing of such high figures as the empire’s backers, the Imperial family was left to deal with them themselves. Not to mention it seemed that they were also bound by their own laws, not moving without just cause or evidence.

“Then, what is the situation of the Imperial Family lately?”

“Hmm, there are too many branches and too many princes and princesses, so they are all at each other’s throats. The current empress is trying to keep everything civil but there are fights going on in places her eyes do not reach. Though none of the Imperial Family members are able to openly abuse their power, quite a lot of them use services from organizations like ours”

Old Yen shook his head as he said this. He was about to have boosted his organization’s prestige by successfully assassinating a prince with the hands of Gong Liwei when it all came crashing down.𝘦𝘯.𝘰𝘳𝘨