Trampling Warhawk Hall!
Warhawk Hall.
The past two days had run Yang Wei ragged, folding the remaining Sky Tiger Gang members into Warhawk Hall's ranks, so consumed by the work that he hadn't even found time to enjoy the beauty he'd just claimed for himself.
He'd finally wrapped things up the night before, slept well, and woken refreshed enough to head straight for the tenth floor of Warhawk Hall first thing that morning.
The tenth floor was reserved for "female disciples who'd made mistakes", a euphemism, and everyone knew it.
Right now, that floor held only one prisoner: Zhang Li.
Yang Wei pushed the door open with a low, oily chuckle, eyes fixed on Zhang Li, who hung bound, spread-eagle, by five iron chains.
"Little beauty. Two days now I've had my people bring you the best food and drink, trying to fatten you up a little, and you won't touch any of it. Doesn't it suit your taste?"
His smile curdled into something obscene as he rubbed his hands together and stepped closer.
The disgust in her eyes, like she was looking at something scraped off the bottom of a shoe,e only made him harder.
Zhang Li glared at him with pure venom, snorted, and turned her face away, refusing to look at him again.
"That haughty look. I love it. Though your face has thinned out some not as pretty as it was. Breaks my heart, honestly."
He reached out and trailed a finger along her cheek.
Revulsion twisted her expression, and without warning she snapped her head around and sank her teeth into his finger.
"AAAAAH!"
Yang Wei wasn't fast enough to pull away in time. When he finally wrenched his hand back, deep tooth marks welled with blood along the finger.
"You filthy bitch! You dare bite me?!"
Crack.
He backhanded her across the face, the slap ringing loud through the room.
"Bite you? This lady wishes she could kill you outright, you animal. You eunuch."
Her cheek burned red and throbbed with pain, but fear never touched her; if anything, her hatred for him only sharpened.
Those two words- eunuch- hit exactly where he was rawest.
These past two days hadn't just been about absorbing what remained of the Sky Tiger Gang. He'd also tracked down a pill from a friend, one rumored to restore what he'd lost, a pill that would finally let him feel like a real man again.
He'd tried it the night before, and it worked. This morning, the moment he stepped through the door, its effects were already building, leaving him restless with anticipation.
Because that was the truth of it: Yang Wei, for all his bluster, was impotent.
His family's maids had led him astray as a boy, damaging something in him that never healed, a wound he'd carried ever since. It had twisted something in him over the years, curdled into a bitterness he couldn't stand to see undone in anyone else.
Two days earlier, he'd watched Zhang Yuyang and Zhang Li walking hand in hand, admiring flowers under the moon, trading thoughts on the Dao together like a pair of destined companions.
Jealousy had ignited in him on the spot.
Why? Why did it have to be him, impotent, of all people?
He wanted to see that man broken. And he wanted the woman for himself.
...
Outside Warhawk Hall.
Zhang Lingxiao, Zhan Wuji, and Zhang Yuyang had already located the building. Three large characters, Warhawk Hall, hung above the entrance of the ten-story stone structure.
Zhang Lingxiao, Sword Cultivator, gave it one cold glance and snorted. A flick of his finger sent invisible Sword Qi lancing out from his hand.
The stone plaque bearing the hall's name shattered instantly, fragments raining down and scattering across the ground below.
The noise brought a Warhawk Hall guard rushing out to see what had happened.
He opened his mouth, already halfway into a curse, and then he saw who was standing there. His legs buckled under him, nearly dropping him to the ground.
"Zhang... Zhang Lingxiao, you're the Sword Cultivator, Zhang Lingxiao!"
Terror choked the words as they left him.
"Get lost," Zhang Lingxiao said, and that was all. He walked past the man, Zhang Yuyang and Zhan Wuji falling in behind him, stepping over the shattered remains of the plaque.
The guard never moved a muscle the entire time, frozen in place, dumbstruck.
"They're here for blood. Warhawk Hall's about to end up exactly like the Sky Tiger Gang."
The moment Zhang Lingxiao and the others disappeared inside, the guard tore off his Warhawk Hall insignia and bolted.
This place wasn't safe to be caught in anymore. Not with a Sword Cultivator like Zhang Lingxiao walking through the front door, a man who'd cut down rank after rank of stronger opponents and killed Xing Hu without breaking a sweat.
Hall Master Yang Wei didn't stand a chance against someone like that. Not even close.
...
At the same time.
Top floor of Warhawk Hall.
Malice glinted in Yang Wei's eyes as he leaned in with a threat.
"You'd better start cooperating, you filthy bitch. Otherwise, your dear lover won't just stay crippled. I'll have him dragged out of the sect and torn apart by five horses. Try me."
Zhang Li bit down on her lip, torn apart inside.
Yang Wei's smile turned cruel, thoroughly pleased with himself, and he lifted her chin with one finger again.
"Well, little beauty? Are you going to obey, or are you going to obey?"
Pain flickered across her face.
Her Yuyang's cultivation was already gone; that alone was more than she could bear. She couldn't let this monster take his life too.
"I... I..."
She never finished the sentence.
BANG.
The stone door on the tenth floor exploded inward under a single kick, fragments scattering everywhere.
"Obey this, go obey your own mother, you piece of trash!"
Zhang Lingxiao roared, planted his foot, and closed the distance on Yang Wei like a blade cutting through air.
Bang.
His punch sent Yang Wei flying backward.
Bang.
A second figure arrived a half-step behind, slightly heavier-set, delivering a whip kick that caught Yang Wei mid-flight.
The double impact drove him halfway into the stone wall behind him.
Yang Wei reeled, stunned by how fast everything had turned and whatever the pill had finally managed to restore shrank right back down in an instant.
He spat out a mouthful of stale blood, looked up, and roared.
"You're all f*cking dead!"
He punched himself free of the wall and lunged at Zhan Wuji, the nearer of the two.
Zhan Wuji only snorted in response.
He threw a single punch.
Bang.
Yang Wei went flying again, slamming back into the same crater in the wall.
Blood sprayed from his mouth, soaking down the front of his chest.
"Cough, who... who are you two? I've never even met you before. No grudge between us. Why are you doing this to me?!"
Real fear had finally crept into his voice.
Zhang Lingxiao let out a cold snort.
"You may not know us. But do you know him?"
A figure stepped out slowly from behind the shattered doorway as he spoke.
"Big Brother Zhang Lingxiao... Big Brother Wuji... you came for me!"
"Big Brother Yuyang..."
Zhang Li, still reeling from everything that had just happened, stared at the two of them in open shock. Then her eyes found the familiar face standing in the doorway, and grief-stricken tears finally broke free.