Chapter 9: No Moon Tonight, Time to Kill
"Dad, what are you doing sharpening your knife?"
"Don't think too much, Liangyu and the others have already hidden on the small hill to the west!"
"Your mother is old, so she naturally can't walk, but if you come back tonight, our Li Family will have risen. If you don't come back... your old man wants to take one or two people down with him!"
Men's mouths are hard, especially between father and son. Whatever Li Xuan asked, Li Ping answered.
He never evaded the question or cried endlessly with excessive sentimentality.
"Then use this knife!"
Li Xuan handed the long knife, sharpened to a gleaming white, to Li Ping.
"This knife at home is the sharpest, and it's the smoothest for cutting people. I'm old, I can't use this knife anymore!"
Li Ping took the knife and caressed it. After a long time, he let out two hearty laughs, as if spitting out years of unwillingness and long-accumulated anger.
Li Xuan knelt respectfully on the ground.
Li Ping staggered to his feet, holding onto a chair, straightening his hunched back.
He lightly tapped Li Xuan's head three times with the hilt of the knife.
"I, Li Ping, am illiterate and can't learn the grand speeches of those big families."
"As your father, I will teach you three more things for the last time."
"Firstly, be decisive in your actions, do not hesitate!"
"Secondly, only blood can wash away hatred!"
"Thirdly, no matter what you do, you must not regret it!"
After saying these words, Li Ping handed the hilt of the knife to Li Xuan, then turned and slowly sat down on the chair. At this moment, Li Ping seemed to have been drained of his spirit.
His Aura was gone, and he looked like a decrepit old man.
Behind him, his sister-in-law, Huang Shi, knelt on the ground, bowing deeply to Li Xuan's departing figure.
"Thank you, Uncle, for avenging my husband..."
...
There was no moon tonight, a perfect time for killing!
Several figures in black face masks gathered around Li Xuan from all directions.
"Xuan... Xuan-ge'er, the Sun Family households to the west are all empty, the old people and children are all gone!"
Even with bows, arrows, and axes in hand, the Zhao Family members were still extremely fearful of Li Xuan.
The person who had always dominated them since childhood had left too deep an impression, not to mention that the blood from those three households hadn't even dried yet!
"Should we search the other houses as well!"
Kaoshan Village was a poor, remote place, mostly populated by illiterate farmers, but even commoners had their ways of survival.
"Huddling together for warmth, the Village Head has such great prestige!"
Li Xuan drew his long knife, the sharp blade kicking up a cloud of dust.
"No need to search, go to the Village Head's house!"
Blue bricks and black tiles, a two-fen plot of land for a courtyard, and even a cowshed and woodshed! He didn't expect the Village Head to have gotten so rich after five years!
But with continuous natural disasters and reduced grain output, how did he accumulate this wealth?
"This Village Head's family is very rich! Tonight, mountain bandits attacked the village, and we villagers fought desperately to resist. Sadly, the Village Head's family died at the bandits' hands, and their family property also disappeared without a trace."
"Alas ~ it's a pity that I, Li Xuan, only brought one knife tonight and didn't prepare a cloth bag or anything! This cleaning up task can only be entrusted to you brothers of the Zhao Family!"
As soon as Li Xuan said this, the eyes of the previously fearful crowd lit up.
"Xuan-ge'er is a man of great deeds, so this cleaning up task should naturally be handled by us brothers!"
Li Xuan grinned, kicking open the main door.
He leaned on the door with one hand, turned around, and looked at them, "Then... I'll leave it to you brothers! Don't let a single mountain bandit escape this courtyard!"
With a creak, Li Xuan closed the door and latched it with a stick.
"Oh, everyone's here!"
Li Xuan looked at the figures in the main hall, each holding a knife or stick, their eyes fiercely fixed on him.
Counting them, there were thirty-two people!
Among them were also two burly women.
Thump, thump, thump ~
A black-faced old man with white hair and beard carried a cloth bag and walked to the front of the crowd.
"Xuan-ge'er, everything is our Sun Family's fault. Here are fifty taels of silver, which our Sun Family members pooled together from the bottom of our coffers. Let's consider it tuition money for Liangyu's three children. Can we let this matter rest?"
Li Xuan's eyes lit up, and he said in surprise, "There really are fifty taels!"
The Village Head stroked his beard with a fawning smile.
This Li Xuan was overbearing, even terrifying.
At fifteen, he went up the mountain alone and brought back three wild wolves. At twenty, he used a wooden stick to beat a dozen young men until they ran away, clutching their heads.
If he hadn't been pushed to a dead end, he wouldn't have wanted to fight him to the death!
As for his son, Youcai... as the Clan Chief of the Sun Family, he naturally had to prioritize the bigger picture!
What's more...
"Give it to me, let me see!"
Just as the Village Head was about to step forward, an urgent childish voice suddenly came from behind, "Grandpa!"
Li Xuan looked over. His memory was excellent, and he recognized this as the child who had been the first to sneak away at the village entrance today!
"Good seedling!" Li Xuan praised.
The Village Head handed the cloth bag to a strong woman.
The strong woman took it with trembling hands and walked step by step towards Li Xuan.
"You Sun Family are too cowardly! So many men, yet you let a woman come over! Youtian, Ergou, Mazi... all of you, you might as well wear skirts! Hahahaha ~"
Li Xuan mocked them, making the Sun Family members grit their teeth, but a few faces showed a hint of mockery.
When the strong woman approached and was about to hand over the cloth bag.
Pfft!
Li Xuan's long knife stabbed, piercing through her chest, like puncturing a cloth bag full of sand and stones.
"Why are you trembling? Do you have a guilty conscience? I already agreed, yet you're still afraid, making me unhappy!"
He violently pulled out the long knife, and with a flourish, severed the strong woman's arms!
"Li Xuan! How dare you!"
The Sun Family members were all filled with disbelief. This Li Xuan was so vicious to such an extent!
"Wife!"
One of the men rushed forward, wielding a pitchfork!
Li Xuan flicked his long knife, beheading him with one strike. The large head rolled away with a thud.
Li Xuan no longer probed. He had thought this group of people had some trick that could threaten him? He didn't expect it to be just a bag of poisoned silver... One could only say they had some brains, but not much!
Li Xuan strode closer.
"Come on, all of us together! With so many of us, I don't believe we can't kill him!"
...
Half an hour later.
Li Xuan glanced at the heads in the courtyard, looked at the Village Head, and picked his ear.
"What did you just say?"
The Village Head was already terrified. The next moment, his throat felt sweet, and breathing was a hundred times smoother than usual!
But, why is my head falling down?
Li Xuan kicked away the Village Head's head, then kicked open all the houses one by one.
He really had to thank the Village Head!
If it weren't for him, the Sun Family members wouldn't have gathered together... saving him a lot of trouble.
"Hehehe, look what I found?"
"So you were all hiding here! When your Uncle Xuan finds you, he'll chop each of you into ugly monsters. Uncle's coming..."
"Ah ah ah ah ~"
Li Xuan's intimidation hadn't progressed to the next step when a tender little girl's cry echoed from under the cowshed in the back house.
A cold smile played on Li Xuan's lips. With a few slashes, he cleared away the dry straw. Below was a large wooden board covering something!
"I knew it, why have a cowshed if there are no cows?"
"So it's for hiding your life's treasures!"
Li Xuan pulled open the wooden board and jumped straight into the cellar!
A moment later, Li Xuan emerged, dragging a struggling child covered in bloodstains.
"Huddling together for warmth and using poisoned silver, was that your idea? You deliberately made that sound just now, didn't you? Just to make it seem more real?"
"Uncle, it wasn't me, it really wasn't me!"
"Uncle, I'm just a child, can you let me go? I can be your slave, your tenant, and I even know where my dad's money is hidden... Please..."
With a snap, the child's neck was twisted.
"A normal child at this time should be so scared they can only scream, just like your sister. You're so eloquent... Heh heh! I can't keep you!"
He chopped off the child's head with one strike.
"The entire Sun Family, eighty-three people, old and young, all accounted for, not one missing!"
Li Xuan prepared to leave, knife in hand, but suddenly turned back.
"This child is a bit too smart... A bit like a protagonist in a storybook!"
Li Xuan's eyes turned cold. He picked up his long knife and chopped the Physical Body into a bloody pulp, not stopping until it became a pool of blood...