Chapter 62: Poison Blood Palm
It didn’t take too long for Huang Xiaolong and his group to arrive at the Green Hawk Gang’s headquarters.
The Green Hawk Gang's headquarters was located on the south corner of the city so it was a little out of the way, but it covered a large area and was bigger than Huang Xiaolong’s Tianxuan Mansion by a few folds.
In front of the main entrance of the headquarters stood two huge stone hawk statues and both statues were entirely green.
But, what surprised Huang Xiaolong was that there were no Green Hawk Gang members guarding the main entrance when they arrived.
One of three Royal City’s biggest gang had no people guarding the headquarter's entrance! And the surrounding area was too quiet.
“As we go in, everyone be very careful.” Huang Xiaolong reminded those with him.
“Yes, Young Master!” Everyone nodded-- Fei Hou and the rest already noticed the strange silence in the air.
As the group neared the main entrance of the Green Hawk Gang’s headquarters, Huang Xiaolong smelled a faint trace of blood; although it was very faint, but he was sure that it was blood.
As they got closer, they would occasionally come across trails of blood on the stone floor.
But despite that, there were no signs of the Green Hawk Gang’s disciples, causing everyone to feel weird and creeped out.
Huang Xiaolong’s brows furrowed.
Soon, they got to the main hall. An empty main hall to be exact. But, on the golden throne center-piece was a middle-aged man with thick eyebrows wearing a hawk-patterned robe.
Huang Xiaolong’s group exchanged a look amongst themselves.
“He is the Green Hawk Gang leader, Jiang Wei!” blurted out the Marshal Mansion guard, Wang Ning, when he saw the dead middle-aged man on the golden seat.
Huang Xiaolong quickly walked up, followed by the others behind him. Jiang Wei’s corpse was sprawled on the chair and both of his eyes were shut tightly. There wasn’t any breath left in him, but there was no blood or wound on his body that Huang Xiaolong could see.
A thought flashed across his mind, and Huang Xiaolong raised his palm and hit the center of Jiang Wei’s chest and the hawk-patterned robe exploded into pieces. With the robe gone,
Everyone saw on Jiang Wei’s naked chest that there was a muted green palm print. The flesh around the palm print had started to rot and numerous black-green lines spread out from the palm print towards other areas of the body.
“A very powerful poison palm strike!” All around everyone’s faces were shocked.
“This should be the low-grade Earth rank battle skill, Poison Blood Palm!” Fei Hou added.
Poison Blood Palm!
Wang Ning and the three other guards swallowed loudly.
“Thirty years ago, one of our Luo Tong Kingdom’s County Dukes and his entire household from top to bottom all died under this poisonous palm strike.”
Despite making all efforts to catch the killer, it was as if the murderer disappeared into thin air after that incident and has never appeared again since then. I didn’t expect to come across this again now!” said Chen Yu who was another Tenth Order Marshal Mansion guard.
A County Duke was equivalent to a Huaxia province governor-- a County Duke and an entire household and no less than a thousand guards were killed. The level of turmoil caused by that incident could be imagined.
A light flickered in Huang Xiaolong’s pupils and the matter looked more complicated than he had thought. Jiang Wei being dead was beyond his expectation; moreover, he was killed by the Poison Blood Palm.
Could the person who killed Jiang Wei be the same one who ordered him to send disciples to make trouble at the Li Family’s silk store? And is the killer one of the mysterious people that appeared during Li Mu’s birthday celebration banquet?
“Young Master, how should we deal with him?” At this time, Fei Hou pointed at the middle-aged man, the leader of the group who made trouble earlier.
“Please, please, I beg you, don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!” The man looked uneasy, anxiously begging Huang Xiaolong for mercy.
Huang Xiaolong’s sullen voice said, “Let him go.”
Everyone was surprised but no one objected.
But the two Ninth Order Marshal Mansion guards said ‘yes’ respectfully, and released him.
“Thank you, thank you!” The Green Hawk Gang group leader was overjoyed, thanking Huang Xiaolong incessantly before fleeing away in panic.
However, the moment his figure disappeared from view, a loud wail was heard. Everyone was shocked as figures flashed out from the main hall in the next moment and found the middle-aged Green Hawk Gang man crumpled on the floor some distance away. Already dead from the looks of it.
Huang Xiaolong walked to the dead body, and pushed away the clothes from the chest, revealing an imprint of a Poison Blood Palm strike.
Fei Hou, Wang Ning, and Chen Yu immediately scanned the area, looking alerted.
“Fei Hou, go check the surroundings!” said Huang Xiaolong as he stood up.
“Yes, Young Master!” Fei Hou said, and he leaped up to the rooftop, disappearing in a flash. A short while later, Fei Hou returned shaking his head at Huang Xiaolong and respectfully reported, “Young Master, the other party used a type of movement battle skill (similar to qi qong), and it was too fast and your subordinate was unable to catch up. In this subordinate’s opinion, the other party is a peak late-Tenth Order expert!”
A peak late-Tenth Order!
Huang Xiaolong frowned, his usual and clear voice sullen with disappointment, “Let us go back and talk.”
Not long after they left the scene, the news about the Green Hawk Gang’s leader, Jiang Wei, being killed spread with rapid speed in the Royal City, causing an uproar.
The Green Hawk Gang’s leader was a Tenth Order warrior and had more than a thousand subordinates under him, yet he was killed. The topic was discussed in every corner of the city.
Night, the Tianxuan Mansion’s main hall.
Huang Xiaolong was seated down as Fei Hou briefed Marshal Haotian about the details of what happened earlier in the day at the Green Hawk Gang’s headquarter. And hearing it made Marshal Haotian look solemn.
“Haotian, arrange some people to protect Li Lu and Li Cheng.” Huang Xiaolong said.
“Yes Sovereign, rest assured, I will make proper arrangements.” Marshal Haotian answered with due respect, “Subordinate will investigate this matter and capture the person!” Then, he hesitated for a second before continuing “Sovereign, your practice trip to the Silvermoon Forest in two days is too dangerous. Moreover, now that this kind of incident has happened; it would be best to have Fei Hou, Wang Ning, and the others to go with you!”
Despite Marshal Haotian’s persuasion, Huang Xiaolong shook his head. “No need.” If he ran into a Xiantian realm expert, the level of danger would be the same even with Fei Hou and the guards around. And his main purpose was to train-- having them on this trip would be inconvenient.
“As for the Academy, please pass on information to Sun Zhang about my absence.” He planned to train and stay in the Silvermoon Forest for five months; given that it was such a long period, of course, he needed to notify the Academy.
Marshal Haotian nodded and accepted the task.
A while later, Fei Hou and Marshal Haotian left.
Huang Xiaolong returned to his room and took out the cold jade bed. Once again, he sat cross-legged, trying to learn how to summon a single dragon martial spirit.
Time flies and two days came and went.
These past two days, Fei Hou had prepared everything that Huang Xiaolong would need in the coming five months and the sets of new clothes ordered from the Li Family silk shop were personally delivered by Li Cheng.
In the two days’ training, although he still couldn’t summon his martial spirits individually, but he had some headway. He believed he would succeed.
Within these two days, Li Lu came to visit Huang Xiaolong once at Tianxuan Mansion, bringing along Li Cheng. Naturally, she was depressed and sulky when she heard that Huang Xiaolong planned to go away and train in the Silvermoon Forest; however, before she left Tianxuan Mansion, Li Lu turned around and in a serious but resolute tone said to Huang Xiaolong, “Xiaolong, I will also work hard and cultivate to become a qualified wife for you!” After she made her declaration, she kissed Huang Xiaolong on the cheek.
Coming out from his room, Huang Xiaolong thought of the words Li Lu said yesterday and unconsciously, his hand rubbed the spot Li Lu kissed on his left cheek. Smiling bitterly to himself he thought, this girl!
One hour later, Huang Xiaolong had packed everything he needed into the Asura Ring and left Tianxuan Mansion, exiting the Royal City alone and walking towards the Silvermoon Forest.
This trip, although Fei Hou wasn’t with him, he brought the little violet monkey along. With the little guy, he wouldn’t feel dull and bored in the coming five months of hard training.
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See you guys next week Wednesday!
@Stevie-Boy Thanks for always being there with an extra sharp eye.