August 20th, the weather turned gloomy.

In front of Jiangning's "Million Soldiers Arena," a sea of people gathered. Lin Zongwu, clad in a wide kasaya, had already stepped onto the stage. On the "High Heavenly King" side, however, instead of the grotesque figures typical of the Green Forest men, a team of neatly dressed soldiers emerged.

One by one, these soldiers ascended the stage, engaging Lin Zongwu in a duel using fighting methods that seemed stiff and clumsy to the Green Foresters. Lin Zongwu severely injured the first soldier, who was then carried off the stage, and the second soldier immediately followed. After the second soldier was seriously injured, the third soldier stepped up...

The atmosphere was solemn and oppressive, lacking the fervor of the "Five Directions Arena" day. These soldiers went up one by one, fighting fiercely, and then being carried down, each appearing ready to die for the cause. Lin Zongwu, on the other hand, fell silent after his initial pronouncements, engaging in combat with the soldiers who came onto the stage one after another.

After three or five soldiers had fought, many of the onlookers began to understand the cleverness and horror of Gao Chang's approach. Some praised it in private, while others criticized Lin Zongwu for his unfair advantage and bullying. However, when the fight reached the tenth or fifteenth soldier, a sense of respect for both sides of the battle began to emerge from the silence below the stage.

Lin Zongwu's massive figure stood there. Although he was known as the world's greatest martial artist, he was, after all, getting older. With the soldiers coming up one after another, the first few could be accused of taking advantage of the weak. However, as one soldier after another stepped up, fought, and fell—and the time he spent fighting each of them was almost fixed, often letting the opponent make a move, then breaking the enemy with one palm after the audience understood the routine demonstration—this constant cycle made him appear like Mount Tai. High and unattainable, majestic and unyielding.

Lin Zongwu had spent half his life preaching and traveling, encountering many situations. Aside from certain unspeakable scoundrels who would humiliate him by producing two copper coins during a peak duel, he would not care about other situations. Although Gao Chang's methods were good, they could not escape the realm of martial conflict, ultimately remaining within his domain.

Neither side spoke. If you want to come up "ready to die," then come on up.

The massive figure stood before the stage, a pair of fleshy palms dealing with young soldiers wielding various weapons. From several to over a dozen, after continuously defeating twenty soldiers, the spectators below the stage felt a sense of awe. Lin Zongwu, however, showed no signs of fatigue. Each time he knocked someone down, he would simply stand with his hands behind his back, silently watching as the wounded were carried away.

He made no further gesture. Gao Chang could only send one soldier after another up to be beaten.

Twenty-one, twenty-two... twenty-five, twenty-six... This continued until thirty. When the thirtieth soldier was knocked to the ground, Lin Zongwu finally turned and stepped off the stage, his deep voice saying, "From now on, I allow you to set up the arena."

Gao Chang's subordinates, who were in charge of overseeing the "Million Soldiers Arena," had initially been somewhat complacent, but by this point, they were covered in cold sweat. Hearing these words, they finally breathed a long sigh of relief.

A frenzy of cheers erupted below the stage. Some praised Gao Chang's response as truly remarkable, far stronger than the initially reckless Zhou Shang. More praised Lin Zongwu's extraordinary martial arts, and this response did not diminish the domineering and majestic presence of the "World's Number One."

Amidst such jubilation, news spread that Lin Zongwu would be setting foot on Shi Baofeng's "Tianbao Platform" in a few days.

……

……

"Something's going to happen... something's going to happen..."

In the afternoon, the gloomy sky seemed to press down on the city.

On the streets and alleys of Jiangning City, rumors spread for a while, and then some stall owners began to pack up and close their doors in the gloomy weather.

Xue Jin, who had been begging for half a day near the Su family's old residence without attracting much attention, also muttered to himself as he sensed an unusual atmosphere and hurried towards "home." He picked up firewood along the way and returned to the bridge hole near the Wuhu Inn, feeling a little more at ease.

"Something's going to happen... something's going to happen..."

He shrank under the dim bridge hole, sitting beside Yue Niang, and whispered. The sky outside the bridge hole was dim and seemed about to darken.

In the lobby of the Wuhu Inn, groups of Green Foresters returned from outside, sitting here and talking quietly about what had happened in the morning. Some offered a few words of advice to the usually amiable owner. The owner, who carried the banner of "King of Fairness" He Wen, had already reinforced the doors and windows to prevent something bad from happening.

In a small room on the corner of the second floor of the inn, Ning Ji was guiding a little monk who was lying on the table to practice writing. The little monk held a writing brush and crookedly wrote the seven characters "Qitian Xiaosheng Sun Wukong" on the paper. The handwriting was very ugly.

"Master... only taught me to read, practiced... practiced less..."

When the two of them went out to do justice earlier, the little monk blushed because of this. His literacy level was barely enough to read and write his own name. Thus, he was embarrassed in front of his newly recognized big brother. Ning Ji originally thought he had caught a coolie who could write, but later found out that he had to help the other party write a name, which was heart-wrenching, so he couldn't help but say things like, "Moral, intellectual, physical, and aesthetic education should be developed in a balanced way..." which the little monk didn't understand.

It is worth mentioning that in the two days since they met, they had taken down two small places under "King Yama" Zhou Shang's name. The first time they were not very skilled and left after fighting. This morning, they finally left their names on the wall, namely "Martial Arts Alliance Leader Long Aotian" and "Qitian Xiaosheng Sun Wukong," adding the words "visited here" at the end, which was very chic. It was their first truly successful collaboration.

The two worked at night, returned during the day, and slept soundly on one bed, missing Lin Zongwu's arena fight in the morning. After waking up, the little monk was forced to practice writing. Fortunately, although his writing was poor, his attitude was sincere, which made the Alliance Leader, who was new to teaching, very gratified.

"It's always good to read more books!"

He adopted the attitude his maternal aunt taught him back then, walking around the little monk who was burying his head in practicing writing, imparting knowledge earnestly.

"Your master's vision is still a bit shallow..."

"This character is written wrong, haha..."

The little monk nodded repeatedly.

This is called passing on the torch.

After teaching seriously for a while and having his fill, Ning Ji went to the lobby to eavesdrop on various news. Near dusk, he bought some cheap kitchen scraps from the back kitchen and sent them to the bridge hole by the small river.

"Cripple, why are you back so early?"

"S-s-s-something's going to happen, something's going to happen..."

Xue Jin thanked him while kneeling, and looked up at the young man who had been bringing him food these past few days, wanting to say something.

"Something's going to happen, why don't you leave?"

"Leave..." Xue Jin's lips trembled. He was silent for a moment before looking back at the figure in the bridge hole. "Can't... leave..."

"Then you have to hide well."

Ning Ji didn't say anything more, smiled, got up, and took the empty bowl back to the innkeeper.

Not long after, night fell on this day. Two young men ate dinner and chatted softly in the darkness. After waiting for more than an hour, they put on night clothes, covered their faces and bald heads, and sneaked out of the inn.

On this night, before midnight, the infighting in the city had already begun.

As the whistle and gongs of the "Dragon Sage" enforcement team rang out, the thugs under "King of Equality" Shi Baofeng and "King Yama" Zhou Shang almost simultaneously moved out, rushing towards the territory of "King of Reincarnation" Xu Zhaonan. This time, Xu Zhaonan was prepared. Two days earlier, a large number of fanatical believers entering the city shouted "Divine Power Protects the Body" and "Light Blesses the World" to counterattack the opponent.

In such an atmosphere, several commanders from Gao Chang's side, who had been beaten by Lin Zongwu thirty times during the day, also took action in the city, beating both Xu Zhaonan and Zhou Shang. "Dragon Sage" Fu Pingbo took the lead in trying to suppress these most destructive soldiers, and the situation in the city had become a chaotic mess.

The five parties of the Fairness Party all moved at this moment.

Two black figures with high lightness skills ran in the dark of this noisy city, and they could see a lot of disgusting things that they couldn't see on weekdays.

They could see some forces gathering and plotting in the dark, and then going out to kill and set fires.

They also saw the brothers fighting each other because of the uneven distribution of spoils after a looting.

They could see the members of the "King of Fairness" enforcement team, who maintained order, being dragged into an alley and beaten to death with sticks after being isolated.

They also saw the women and children who were imprisoned in the dark yard with scant clothing.

Some people who knelt down and begged for mercy were stuffed into sacks, and others threw the sacks into the river while laughing.

Some people were even thrown directly into the fire...

In this city, it was not only people like Xue Jin who were suffering a tragic fate. When order disappeared, similar situations were everywhere as long as you observed carefully. The two young men felt angry, but beyond anger, some emotions could be suppressed.

"Amitabha, this poor monk has never seen so many tragedies along the way south... This may be the scene of the hell realm..." The little monk recognized the things he saw in this way, thinking that this might be the reason why his master asked him to come to Jiangning to see. Compared with this, some of the things he saw in Jin State back then seemed insignificant.

"Humph! The Fairness Party is not a good thing!" Ning Ji maintained his consistent view, "The worst is Zhou Shang! I must kill him."

According to the peeping in the past three nights, the worst and most brutal of the five parties of the Fairness Party was indeed Zhou Shang's side. Their methods of killing people were the most ruthless and bloody. Many of them were not only killing the enemy, but had already begun to enjoy the pleasure of brutality and abuse.

As for the proposition of how to find Wei Xuwen, after the observation of the previous two days, Ning Ji already had a simple plan.

On this night, after a simple investigation, the two targeted a warehouse next to a small dock in the west of the city and launched an attack.

This warehouse now belonged to a small leader under "King Yama" Zhou Shang. After the big infighting began at night, this warehouse still left more than ten people to defend it. According to Ning Ji's observation, the other party's small leader was still staying in the warehouse, which meant that

some important materials were indeed stored here.

At midnight, two figures landed in the courtyard behind the warehouse.

The chaos of the infighting did not last long in this warehouse. When someone in the firelight discovered the two figures' surprise attack, six of the Green Forest men responsible for defending the vicinity of the warehouse had already been killed. Then the figure, like a flea, rushed into the firelight in the night. Often, a wave or a poke of the arm would take a life. The torches in some people's hands were knocked flying across the sky. Before they landed, someone else fell to the ground in a hysterical roar, with blood spurting from their throat, waist, or thigh.

In such an action, Ning Ji did not suppress his skills, and almost did everything he could to start the massacre. As a partner, the little monk usually seemed weak, but when carrying out the action of "killing bad guys," he held a small dagger and almost stabbed to seal the throat with every knife. This was a combat method tailored for his age by his master. Ning Ji highly agreed with it, because when he was two years younger, the fighting style Hong Yi designed for him was basically the same.

When the small leader guarding this side rushed out of the room waving a long knife, he was almost disarmed and stabbed with the knife at the first meeting, letting the long knife pierce his belly and intestines and nail him to the wall.

The courtyard was a bloody mess. Someone was wriggling and groaning underground. The black-clothed man who was slightly shorter ran into the warehouse and killed the remaining two lackeys here. The black-clothed man who was relatively taller walked to the small leader and reached out to touch his body.

"Hey, your master's design of this set of fighting methods has something to it..."

The small leader felt that his chest was being touched by the other party. The undisguised croaking voice did not know what it was saying.

"A-Amitabha..."

The younger black-clothed man came out, looking left and right, looking for survivors. The tone of his voice was unexpectedly extremely naive.

"Y-you..." The small leader opened his mouth with difficulty.

"Do you know your boss, 'Heavenly Killer' Wei Xuwen?" The young man who was touching him asked.

"You... I..."

"We want to find him, do you know where he is?"

"I... fuck..." Blood flowed from his mouth.

"Forget it." The young man shook his head, took some silver from him, put it in his arms, and took out fireworks and other things used for warning. "If this thing is released, someone will come over, right... You left a lot of blood, Wukong, torch."

The small leader was nailed to the wall and felt very weak. He then saw the little monk who said Amitabha take the torch. The young man took out a... big writing brush from his body.

Even though he felt that he was about to die, the small leader still looked at them absurdly as they put the writing brush to his mouth and knife edge, dipped in thick blood, and then the little monk held up the torch, letting the other party write on the wall next to him. After the young man finished writing, he changed to the little monk to write. He didn't know what they were writing...

"Martial Arts Alliance Leader Long Aotian, Qitian Xiaosheng Sun Wukong - Visited Here."

After writing this line, Long Aotian thought for a while and wrote his purpose at the back. He wrote the two characters "Heavenly Killer" and let the little monk copy them. So later, the words on the wall became:

"Martial Arts Alliance Leader Long Aotian, Qitian Xiaosheng Sun Wukong - Visited Here. Heavenly Killer, kill kill kill!"

They then searched the warehouse, let go of the eight scantily clad women who had been locked inside for who knows how long, and then scraped and arranged, before taking out the fireworks they had searched from a pile of dead people and setting them off one by one.

There were many scenes of infighting in the city on this night, and fireworks flares often rose, but when a bunch of them were suddenly set off here, the people who had previously belonged to this warehouse still rushed back first. Seeing the seriousness of the situation, they hurriedly called people again. Then fifty or sixty swordsmen came over, guarded by a man on a tall horse. Everyone entered the warehouse together and saw the scene of corpses all over the floor and the information written on the wall.

The handwriting on the wall was obviously written by two people.

The two handwritings were different, one crooked and the other childish and soft. It looked very ridiculous to write here in a grand manner, but the handwriting was written in blood. Their small leader here was pierced in the abdomen with a knife and nailed to the wall next to the handwriting. And many corpses in the surrounding courtyard were all sealed with a knife. This made the whole scene even have a bit of a strange atmosphere.

After the leader riding the tall horse went in and looked, he ordered his men to patrol around.

In the darkness by the river bay not far from here, two figures were lying on the river embankment, secretly watching all this. In the grass not far from them, there was even a wooden bucket containing black powder that had been stolen in a hurry.

"See, I told you, if a boss dies, the one above him will come over."

Long Aotian was very proud, imparting life experience to the little brother beside him: "We also wrote the name of the Heavenly Killer on the wall, these bosses will of course report them one by one. Whether we follow him or catch him next, we can find some information."

"Brother Long is so amazing, I can't think of it." The little monk admired sincerely, staring in the darkness,

observing the quality of the figure on the tall horse, "This person looks okay in martial arts."

"Well, I just don't know what level he is... There are a bit too many people, but it doesn't matter. I'll follow them back later, and watch me blow up this bunch of bastards, and catch him in the chaos..."

"Yeah, yeah." The little monk nodded repeatedly, and after a moment, "Brother Long, h-he's coming towards us, what should we do?"

"Oh?" Long Aotian, who was turning back to confirm the quality of the explosives in the wooden bucket, turned his head.

Both figures were watching the tall horse coming over arrogantly.

"Brother, there are not many people around him..." The little monk shook the boss's shoulder.

"I know..."

"Do you want to do it?"

"Everyone comes out to walk the world, you have to be calm..."

"Oh, good..."

Both of them were calm.

After a moment...

"Well, there's a flaw..."

"This person has a big flaw..."

The two martial arts rookies in the dark were conflicted for a while.

……

Not long after, on the river bay in the darkness not far from the warehouse, Yama's subordinates on horseback were patrolling. A lasso flew out from the side and directly wrapped around his body. Two small black shadows dragged the lasso and suddenly rushed out of the darkness, rushing forward.

You will be dragged to the ground with a bang from below, and then the whole person slides forward. The frightened warhorse neighed loudly and ran wildly. Several of his subordinates could not catch up, watching the warhorse run forward. Among the two black shadows pulling the rope, the taller one flipped onto the horse while running and cheered: "Caught him."

The smaller one also shouted: "Caught him!"

The warhorse galloped forward. The "King Yama" underling who was caught was thrown off the river bank for a moment, and then dragged up with a bang for a moment. He was dragged into the night in the distance. The shouts of killing broke out here, and a large group of people tried to catch up...

……

At the same time, Wei Xuwen, a big villain who did not know that he was being targeted by a pair of martial arts rookies, was promoting a major event on the other end of the city.

On this night, the "King Yama" party's surprise attack on the "King of Reincarnation" side, which he launched again, was huge, but for him, these huge performances had never been related to the success or failure of the matter.

He sat in the dark attic, watching the thin figure in the dilapidated courtyard below. The figure's name was Miao Zheng. He fell into his hands one night a few days ago. Now, he has figured out how to use him.

Miao Zheng's only two remaining family members - his younger brother and son - were now in the attic, in the same space as Wei Xuwen. Wei Xuwen's attitude had been very kind from beginning to end.

"Don't worry, if he does things well, you can all live well."

After a while, the thing he wanted to do appeared.

A black figure appeared on the street outside and gradually walked towards here. Through the gap in the dilapidated courtyard, Miao Zheng in the courtyard could also see this scene happening. His body trembled slightly.

"Didn't you say... that the one coming would be a woman?"

In the attic, Wei Xuwen asked in a low voice.

Seeming to be afraid of being affected by the meeting, the figure in the darkness made a sound from a distance: "I am An Xifu, here on behalf of Si Yi to see you."

Wei Xuwen in the attic brightened his eyes. He clasped his hands together gently and said in a low voice, "Good."

Flares and fireworks rose in the distance of the city, and various killings were continuing. In the darkness around this street, dozens or hundreds of figures, like silent malice, had already rushed towards here.

An Xifu moved forward slowly, darkness, about to gather...

"Ah..." A shout.

Miao Zheng shouted out.

In an instant, in that dimness, An Xifu's figure retreated like a black crow. Wei Xuwen in the attic scolded and waved his hand, and brushed out the long knife from the waist of the guard next to him. On the long street, far and near, the ambushers pushed away the cover and rushed out overwhelmingly...

……

On the other side, the warhorse ran for a while on the dark street.

The little monk behind, while running wildly, called out to the one riding the horse in front, enjoying himself: "Brother, brother, stop, stop..."

Long Aotian turned back from the front: "What's wrong?"

The pursuers behind were not far behind. He was preparing to find a quiet place to interrogate the prisoner.

The little monk pointed to the person on the ground while running alongside the horse: "H-he was killed!"

"Ah?" Long Aotian stopped the horse and jumped down, walking over to take a look. This person was indeed covered in blood, and he didn't know where he had accidentally bumped into a stone.

The two stood by the road, touching their chins, and were silent for a while. The sound of pursuit in the night behind was getting louder and louder.

"What should I do..."

"Who told him to ride a horse..." Long Aotian was sulky, and then waved his hand, "Forget it, then I'll give him back to them."

"What should we do next?"

"Next? We killed their boss at the beginning, this is the boss's boss, um, next the boss's boss's boss might come over, maybe it's Wei Xuwen."

"Should we wait a little longer?"

"That's right, this time we have to be more careful and not act rashly..."

In the darkness, the two summarized their experiences and learned their lessons. Long Aotian kicked the dead man on the ground and sighed, still a little regretful.

Of course, when the pursuers arrived, the two figures had already disappeared.

Wei Xuwen did not come over that night. He only knew about this the next morning.

The whole thing was chaotic and extremely fucked up...