Chapter 1 New Year's Eve, Noon

New Year's Eve, noon.

The streets of Linlu Town were already deserted.

Even the ordinary people of the town knew that today was not a day to go out.

They all wisely kept their doors tightly shut, kept a close eye on their children, secured the livestock in the yard, and prayed that the new year would pass peacefully and quickly.

And those merchants who usually traveled to and from the town were nowhere to be seen today; after all… it was New Year's Eve, and for us Chinese, if you only get one day off a year, this is it.

Of course, not everyone found a place to hide.

Besides the various martial artists, the town's drunks, ruffians, and local bullies had also gathered in hidden alleys and street corners, fueled by curiosity and a bit of alcohol.

After all, it was a rare opportunity… they also wanted to see what kind of show these “martial heroes” would put on.

"Boss, we've scouted all around. Only the Beggar Clan has more men than us. The other sects have no more than ten or so people at most, but…" The man hesitated halfway through his sentence.

"But what?" Tu Ji asked coldly.

"But… although they are few in number, more than half of them are formidable…" This Kuanghu (Raging Tiger) Gang scout's martial arts were mediocre, only his qinggong (light body technique) was passable, but he had the ability to discern who the real experts were, and this ability… made him feel quite uneasy.

"What?" Tu Ji instantly saw through his thoughts and cast a chilling gaze at him. "Are you afraid?"

That look made the scout tremble all over, his heart pounding.

At this moment, only the two of them were standing in this small courtyard facing the street. The rest of the Kuanghu Gang were ambushed in the nearby area.

In other words, if Tu Ji was unhappy and "executed" this scout on the spot, no one would care.

"This… subordinate deserves to die…" The scout knew that none of his thoughts could escape Tu Ji's eyes, so instead of arguing, he simply admitted his mistake.

"Hmph…" Tu Ji smiled. "Compared to them, are you more afraid of them, or more afraid of me?"

This was a difficult question to answer; either answer seemed wrong.

So, the scout didn't dare to answer. He just stood there… breaking out in a cold sweat.

"Actually, the answer to this question… is irrelevant." After a moment, Tu Ji looked at his subordinate with a satisfied expression. "Actually, I'm just like you. I'm also afraid." He paused and said calmly, "I'm afraid of death, afraid of losing, and afraid of not getting the *Jian Wu Cao Ji* (Sword Dance Manuscript) tonight."

Hearing this, the fear on the scout's face faded a little, replaced by a hint of doubt.

"Fear is right; fear can keep you away from danger." Tu Ji continued, "But you can't lose your composure, lose your sense of proportion, or even lose your position because you're afraid…" He emphasized the last two words, "Remember… the more afraid you are, the more clearly you need to know what you should do, and do it well."

"This subordinate understands!" Beads of sweat rolled down the scout's face as he looked at Tu Ji with almost grateful eyes and bowed, "Thank you for your teachings, Boss!"

"Mm… go ahead." Tu Ji said, then turned his back, waved his hand, and signaled the man to go out and scout again.

The scout obeyed and immediately used his qinggong (light body technique) to leave the courtyard in the blink of an eye.

Tu Ji, on the other hand, remained standing, deep in thought.

On the surface, the Kuanghu Gang's leader seemed like a crude man, but in reality, he was as cunning as a fox, as ruthless as a wolf, as venomous as a snake, and as fierce as a tiger…

His attire, speech, image, even his gang's name and his unique martial arts technique… were all deliberate disguises.

He just wanted others to think of him as a crude man, a martial artist, so that they would underestimate him and let their guard down.

Objectively speaking, he had been very successful… Duan Keyi's death was a good example.

In fact, it wasn't just Duan Keyi.

Last night, the Kuanghu Gang ambushed as many as ten experts, and none of them survived. As for how many disciples and followers of those experts died, no one would bother to count.

Such a high success rate was not a coincidence but because Tu Ji only chose "sure" targets.

Before making a move, he not only investigated these people's martial arts, age, physical condition… but even their habits, hobbies, and special quirks were thoroughly investigated.

And for those he couldn't investigate clearly, such as Wang Qiong (who was more thorough than Tu Ji), Leng Yuqiu, and Mian Daoren (who had no sect and acted alone), he would not act rashly.

This was Tu Ji's principle – first make yourself invincible, then wait for the enemy to become vulnerable.

However, this strategy would not work today.

At least… with the Kuanghu Gang's strength, they could not create an "unbeatable" layout here.

Therefore, as Tu Ji himself said… he was very afraid.

But today's situation was worth his worrying about, and it was worth entrusting the part of his strategy that he couldn't control to so-called "fate" and "luck"… to gamble on it.

*Zhi*—

The sound of the door axis turning interrupted Tu Ji's thoughts.

With a hint of surprise, he turned around and looked at the wooden door several meters away.

It was the door of a civilian house.

Although Tu Ji had turned someone else's courtyard into his stronghold, he hadn't gotten the owner's permission; of course… he didn't think the owner of this house would have the guts to come out and reason with him.

But now, the door of the house was opened, and the two people who walked out of it didn't look like ordinary people at all.

"Heh…" Looking at Jian Shao and Bupa (Not Afraid) walking towards him, Tu Ji showed a self-deprecating smile. "I was careless…" he muttered to himself, "Even if I couldn't sense internal energy, I should have gone inside and taken a look…"

When Tu Ji came here this morning, he had considered breaking into the house and killing the residents, but in the end, he was afraid of creating unnecessary trouble, so he just used his internal energy to investigate outside the house. After confirming that there were only two people inside and that there was no internal energy reaction, he concluded that "the people inside were just two ordinary people."

"If I remember correctly…" While speaking, Tu Ji had prepared to face the enemy, but on the surface, he remained calm and looked at Jian Shao and said, "This one should be Young Hero Huangfu…" Then, he looked at Bupa, "And this one… is Lady Chai."

Tu Ji had already bribed the shopkeeper of Kelai Inn, so he knew everything about the inn; with Tu Ji's intelligence, it was not difficult to remember the name of every guest.

"Gang Leader Tu has very good connections…" Bupa replied, "Even though it's our first meeting, it seems like you know us very well."

Her reaction was quick. She almost immediately thought of how the other party had learned her and Jian Shao's names, and then she probed.

"Hmph… I'm just 'well-informed'…" Tu Ji replied with a sneer, "But you… are 'highly skilled'." He paused for a second and added, "Let's not talk about how the two of you were able to retreat unscathed in front of Leng Yuqiu yesterday, nor about how you can conceal your internal energy; what I'm most curious about is… how did you manage to ambush yourselves in this house?"

This question really puzzled Tu Ji because he had only decided this morning to choose this house as a stronghold. To have ambushed in advance, unless they were omniscient.

"There's no ambush or anything." Kuangzong Jianying (Mad Tracker Sword Shadow) replied in a relaxed tone, "It's just that we expected that last night wouldn't be very peaceful, so we decided to leave that inn and find another place to settle down, so as not to be caught up in any unnecessary trouble. So… we just randomly found this house to hide in." He shrugged. "The family took some silver (the money they extorted from Leng Yuqiu was enough for the family to live on for a year), and they left the town very happily, planning to go to the hostess's parents' house for ten days or half a month before coming back."

His words were half true and half false.

"Avoiding getting caught up in trouble" was only one of the reasons why they came here. In fact, their main purpose in coming here was to ambush Sheng Yu Pian (Raw Fish Slice) and Meng Jingchan (Dream of Cicada).

Jianghu (martial world)'s two were no pushovers either. When they entered the town, they naturally noticed the Order duo and those "sound shells."

But… Jian Shao and Bupa could not use Xu Huai Shang's super difficult technique of using his own ability to "hide" in the sound shells. Therefore, the strategy they came up with was to wait for work – the two pretended not to know that they were being monitored, ate, drank, and rested, and chatted with various NPCs in the town to collect information, as if they were playing a single-player RPG game. In the evening, they even found a house to hide in and rest, as if that would solve everything.

All of this was to create the illusion for the monitors that "we don't know we're being monitored." But in reality, they were always on guard against the enemy's movements, ready to counterattack when the other party attacked.

Who knew that Sheng Yu Pian (Raw Fish Slice) would be killed by Xu Huai Shang at night; the sound shell, as a special item generated by Sheng Yu Pian (Raw Fish Slice)'s skill, disappeared with his death.

Jian Shao and Bupa (Not Afraid), who discovered this situation, did not dare to act rashly…

If the two were outside the town, there was nothing to worry about. They could enter the town unscrupulously after realizing that the sound shell had disappeared. But they had entered the town during the day… This meant that at the moment before the sound shell disappeared, their location was still in the enemy's grasp.

Then, they had to consider this possibility – that the enemy deliberately made the sound shell ineffective, creating the illusion that "monitoring has disappeared" to let them reveal their flaws.

Thinking this way, they couldn't move too easily and could only continue to wait.

They waited until the morning, but instead of waiting for Sheng Yu Pian (Raw Fish Slice) and Meng Jingchan (Dream of Cicada), they waited for the Kuanghu Gang to come to scout the area.

Who would have thought that… Tu Ji just happened to choose the courtyard of this house as his hiding and meeting place, and his gang members were all waiting for orders, centered around this place.

Since things had come to this, Jian Shao and Bupa (Not Afraid) simply didn't come out. With their hearing, they could sit in the house and hear every word Tu Ji said in the courtyard; they could use Tu Ji's communication with the various scouts to grasp the situation in the town and quietly observe the development of the situation.

"Oh?" Tu Ji didn't really buy Jian Shao's explanation either. "Then, according to you, your appearance in this house… was just a coincidence?"

"Whether it was a coincidence or not is no longer important," Bupa (Not Afraid) replied.

"Then what is important?" Tu Ji asked directly, without beating around the bush.

"We came out; that's very important," Kuangzong Jianying (Mad Tracker Sword Shadow) said.

Tu Ji thought for a moment, feeling that what the other party said made sense. He couldn't help but wonder in his heart: Why did they come out on their own initiative? If they wanted to eavesdrop, they should have stayed in that house; if they wanted to launch a sneak attack, then they wouldn't have opened the door and shown themselves so openly.

"So, it seems…" Tu Ji's thinking was also very quick, "There's something that made you have to come out?"

"Exactly," Kuangzong Jianying (Mad Tracker Sword Shadow) said.

"Could you… tell Tu about that reason?" Tu Ji asked.

"Of course," Jian Shao didn't mind telling the other party why they came out of the house because even if he didn't say it, the other party would know soon enough.

"Someone has entered the town," Jian Shao first exchanged a look with Bupa (Not Afraid), and then replied.

"What kind of person?" Tu Ji asked.

"I don't know his name," Jian Shao replied.

"Then you should know something else," Tu Ji said.

"Ah…" Jian Shao's expression froze, and he said solemnly, "All I know is… his martial arts are very high, so high that you can't even imagine." He paused and added, "Also… he's carrying the *Jian Wu Cao Ji* (Sword Dance Manuscript)."