Jiang Chen walked out of the teahouse, like a drop of ink dissolving into the deeper darkness.
The rat-whiskered waiter at the door stood frozen, still holding the pot of coarse tea that had long since gone cold. A bead of sweat slid down the contour of his cheek, dripped onto his lapel, and spread into a small, dark stain.
He didn't dare to look back, nor did he dare to look at the golden bounty notice again.
He just felt that the night in the entire Sanhe City had suddenly become colder than ever before.
Jiang Chen didn't go far.
He turned into an alley perpendicular to Blackwater Street.
The alley was called 'First Ray of Sky' because the buildings on both sides were so close together that looking up, one could only see a narrow, elongated strip of night sky, dyed dark red by the lights.
This was a nest of garbage and shadows; puddles of unknown origin always accumulated on the ground, rotten vegetable leaves and broken furniture piled in the corners, and the sour, rancid smell in the air seemed to burrow into one's bones.
A perfect slaughterhouse.
Jiang Chen leaned against a recessed wall, his entire being merging with the shadows.
He closed his eyes.
In the world of the Eye of Insight, three dazzling 'Lines of Greed' were extending from the direction of the teahouse, clearly pointing towards him.
The owners of the lines were three Loose Cultivators who had come together.
Their destiny trajectories were very simple, and very short.
Their end was in this alley.
Jiang Chen didn't move, like a patient fisherman waiting for the fish to swim into his net.
The first to step into the alley was a tall, thin man, carrying a ring-hilted saber. He walked very carefully, on the balls of his feet, making almost no sound.
He fancied himself an experienced hunter.
But in Jiang Chen's 'vision', his every movement, every breath, even the rhythm of his heartbeat, was crystal clear.
He saw that beside this 'Line of Greed', there was also a faint 'Line of Illness' intertwined, the end of which pointed to his lungs—this fellow had an old injury; under strenuous exercise, his right lung would ache as if pricked by needles.
This was his fatal weakness.
The tall, thin man stopped, cautiously scanning his surroundings. He smelled a hint of blood.
Something was wrong.
It was too quiet.
He was about to retreat and warn his companions.
A shadow, like a ghost, fell from the eaves above his head.
There was no sound of wind.
There was no Killing Intent.
It was like a leaf, silently drifting down.
The tall, thin man instinctively raised his saber to block.
But he blocked nothing.
Jiang Chen's target was not his vital points at all.
A fist, carrying astonishing power, solidly struck his right chest.
"Crack!"
The sound of breaking ribs was exceptionally harsh in the dead silent alley.
The tall, thin man's eyes bulged, and he spat out a mouthful of blood. The familiar, piercing pain from his right lung instantly drained all his strength.
He looked at the young man before him in disbelief.
On that face, smeared haphazardly with soot, a pair of eyes shone terrifyingly bright, as if looking at a lifeless stone.
Before he could make any sound, a sharp piece of tile had already slashed across his throat.
Warm blood splattered on the cold wall.
【Absorbed a trace of scattered Life Essence, conversion efficiency is low.】
【It is recommended to prioritize hunting 'Destiny Trajectory' holders.】
The System's prompt confirmed Jiang Chen's guess.
These small fry were only snacks to fill his belly, not true sustenance.
But he didn't care.
He just wanted to verify how strong his body, transformed by Formless Life Essence, truly was.
The result was very satisfying.
He dragged the corpse into deeper darkness, then waited quietly.
Soon, the other two companions sensed something was wrong and encircled him, one in front and one behind.
One was a burly man wielding twin hooks, the other a sinister middle-aged man manipulating two flying daggers.
"Third Brother!"
The burly man roared, seeing the bloodstains on the ground, his eyes instantly turning red.
"Come out! Get out here, you bastard!"
His roar echoed through the alley, startling a few night ravens that were rummaging through garbage.
What answered him was a gust of wind.
A gust of wind... carrying a scent of sorrow and despair.
"Rain of Sorrow Sword Intent."
Jiang Chen didn't even draw his sword; he merely infused a trace of Sword Intent into the surrounding environment.
The damp ground in the alley seemed to become even slipperier.
The moisture in the air seemed to transform into countless tiny needle-like hairs, drilling into their pores, making their limbs feel stiff.
"Playing tricks!"
The burly man roared, his twin hooks dancing with formidable power, as he lunged towards a shadow where he sensed movement.
Meanwhile, the sinister middle-aged man quietly took half a step back, his two flying daggers, silent as they flew, approached from a tricky angle, sealing off all escape routes from that shadow.
Their coordination was flawless.
But in Jiang Chen's Eye of Insight, their coordination was full of holes.
He saw the trajectory of the burly man's lunge, he saw the predicted landing points of the flying daggers.
He could even see that because the ground was too wet, the burly man's left foot, as he exerted force, would slip for one-tenth of a breath.
Now!
Jiang Chen moved.
He didn't retreat; instead, he stepped forward, meeting the burly man's hooked wind.
His body, at an incredible angle, slid past the deadly twin hooks.
Just like Ye Liuyun, when he practiced his sword under the waterfall, his body moved with the current.
The burly man was startled; his foot indeed slipped, and his body stiffened for a moment.
Among masters, a moment means life or death.
That rusty broken sword finally left its sheath.
There was no dazzling sword light.
Only a scarlet flash, quick to the extreme.
Like a bloody lightning bolt, it flashed and vanished in the darkness.
The burly man's head flew into the air.
The cut on his neck was as smooth as a mirror.
Only then did the two flying daggers, attacking from behind, barely arrive.
"Ding! Ding!"
Jiang Chen didn't look back, striking with a backhanded sword, precisely hitting the tips of the two flying daggers.
The immense force made the sinister middle-aged man feel as if he had been struck by lightning. He grunted and stumbled back several steps.
He looked at the young man, who had his back to him and was slowly flicking the blood off his sword, with utter horror.
Monster!
This was definitely a monster!
He didn't hesitate for a moment, turned, and fled.
However, he had only run two steps when his foot suddenly went soft, and he tumbled forward.
He looked down and realized that his ankle had, at some point, been caught by a broken piece of wire.
He remembered that the wire had clearly been in the corner of the wall, three feet away, just moments ago.
Despair instantly enveloped his heart.
He felt that the demon was walking towards him, step by step.
The footsteps were unhurried.
Like the death knell rung by the Grim Reaper.
"Don't... don't kill me! I know I was wrong! I don't want the Mandate of Heaven Kill Order anymore! I'll give you all my money!" he pleaded incoherently.
Jiang Chen walked up to him and crouched down.
"I'm not curious how much money you have."
He asked in a hoarse voice.
"I'm only curious, how many people like you are there in this city?"
Half an hour later.
Jiang Chen walked out of the alley expressionlessly, carrying a few more money bags and a stronger scent of blood.
From the middle-aged man's mouth, he learned that at least over thirty waves of bounty hunters were lurking near Blackwater Street, like sharks smelling blood.
He couldn't kill them all.
Even if he did, it would just be a waste of time, yielding little benefit.
Jiang Chen looked up at the tallest watchtower in Sanhe City.
He could feel that a gaze had been locked on him ever since just now.
That gaze held no greed, no Killing Intent.
Only a kind of... cold interest, like a hunter scrutinizing his prey.
That person's 'Line of Destiny' was a hundred times more complex than those of the three people he had killed, like a spider web entangled with countless black threads.
A tough opponent.
Jiang Chen didn't shy away; instead, he met that gaze and walked directly towards the watchtower.
Since small fish and shrimp couldn't sate him.
Then he would see what the big fish, delivered right to his doorstep, tasted like.