Chapter 23

“Huh!”

Su Changkong took a deep breath, finally calming his boiling blood.

“This is the jianghu, survival of the fittest! It’s kill or be killed! We rely on our fists to do the talking!”

Looking at the several corpses on the ground, Su Changkong silently reflected.

Black Iron Manor had done nothing wrong, kept to itself, yet it had been repeatedly squeezed and plundered by the Black Cavalry Gang and Yan Fei. No matter how much rage and unwillingness filled their hearts, they could only swallow it down.

But Su Changkong was powerful, and that was the reason he had the courage to stand out!

“The silver notes the Manor Lord just gave are still on these men.”

After wiping the blood off his knife on Yan Fei’s corpse, Su Changkong skillfully started to search the bodies of Yan Fei and his disciples.

Mo Tie had taken out a silver note worth a hundred taels in the hope of settling things peacefully. Su Changkong, of course, was going to pocket the money, considering it as a reward for lending Mo Tie a hand in dealing with this trouble.

From the bodies of Yan Fei and his disciples, Su Changkong obtained over three hundred taels of silver, a considerable sum of money.

“Hm? What’s this?”

Su Changkong suddenly showed a hint of surprise as he found a sheepskin parchment in Yan Fei’s money bag.

Su Changkong decided to leave without examining it closely and to look at it later. Tucking it into his chest, he no longer paid attention to the bodies on the ground and turned to leave.

“What’s that noise?”

At this moment, over a hundred meters away from the dilapidated temple, Mo Tie and his companions looked in the direction of the temple with faces full of shock and suspicion.

Mo Tie and the others had planned to return to Black Iron Manor, but with Yang Chao exhausted and injured, and several of them also wounded, they had decided to stop and rest for a while to tend to their wounds.

But before long, a series of noisy collisions and roars had come from the direction of the temple, carrying far in the wind and snow.

“What’s going on? Could it be that those three have turned on each other?”

Yang Chao said with some uncertainty. Just after they left the temple, it seemed that a fierce battle had erupted inside!

“Hmm? Someone’s coming out!”

With sharp eyes, Yang Chao saw a figure appearing at the temple doorway under the moonlit snow.

In the blur of the distance, it could roughly be seen that the figure was dressed in black!

And that person in black seemed to notice their gaze, looking up towards where Mo Tie and the others were. In the vague distance, they could see that the person’s face was covered with an ape mask!

Afterward, the man in the black mask no longer paid them any attention and walked directly to the other side, disappearing into the snowstorm.

“Could it be… The one who fought with the old man surnamed Yan and his disciples was him?”

The people from Black Iron Manor speculated in their hearts, wondering about the identity of the man in the black mask. Was he the source of the noise just now?

“Let’s go back and check,” Mo Tie hesitated for a moment before standing up and speaking.

“Right.” Everyone exchanged looks, unable to contain their curiosity and concern about what had happened in the temple.

Carefully, they made their way back to the temple. A pungent smell of blood wafted towards them, and they immediately saw a bisected corpse spread out on the snow in front of the temple doors, with its innards spilled all over the ground.

“Ugh!”

Upon seeing this gruesome scene, someone’s stomach churned, retching, almost throwing up.

“It’s… it’s that old man surnamed Yan!”

Mo Tie, meanwhile, had a sudden shock of recognition. This body was none other than the old man surnamed Yan who had threatened them earlier!

“Could it be… the other two are also…”

“`

Mo Tie promptly entered the great hall and saw the corpulent man inside the hall, as well as the corpses of the men in green who had exhibited considerable strength, injured them, but were now dismembered.

“Dead! All three scoundrels are dead!”

Mo Tie and the others were somewhat skeptical of the scene before their eyes, the Yan Fei trio who threatened them with immense ferocity just moments ago, were now miserably dead in the decrepit temple, their bodies mutilated!

“Was it the man in the black mask who did this? He killed them all!”

“To chop a person in half with one strike, how much strength would that take?”

Mo Tie and the others felt an immense shock, recalling the man in black mask who appeared at the temple doorway like a phantom and disappeared just as quickly, it wasn’t hard to guess that the confrontation had been between the man in the black mask and the Yan Fei master and disciples.

No sooner had Mo Tie and his party left, the man in the black mask arrived at the temple, fought a great battle with the Yan Fei trio, and chopped them all to death.

“Good riddance! They got what they deserved!”

Yang Chao trembled with excitement.

The three disciples of Yan Fei had kidnapped him and Li Erlang, and had cruelly murdered Li Erlang; what goes around comes around, and now the likes of Yan Fei had met their gruesome end here!

“They’re dead… the threat is gone!” Mo Tie also felt somewhat incredulous, these three villains had extorted him, putting years of his effort at risk, and now all his worries were gone!

“Why would that masked man kill them?”

“Don’t know… maybe it was a case of thieves falling out? All the valuables on these three men are gone.”

The people from Black Iron Manor were all curious as to why the masked man would kill Yan Fei and the others, and some thought that a conflict must have erupted between them.

But regardless, for Black Iron Manor, this was undoubtedly great news!

“Let’s leave now, go back and rest well. Don’t tell anyone else about what happened tonight,” Mo Tie said, his expression significantly more relaxed.

Being targeted by a gang of extremely vicious bandits was indeed a stroke of bad luck, but fortunately, in an unexpected turn of events, a mysterious masked man had a confrontation with Yan Fei and the others and chopped them to death, resolving the crisis!

“Yeah… let’s go back. It’s a pity though… Li Erlang can’t be brought back to life…”

“Sigh, we should take care of his family in his stead!”

Mo Tie and his group began to feel more at ease, there were sighs for Li Erlang’s death, but the group didn’t linger any longer and quickly left the desolate temple, heading back to Black Iron Manor.

Naturally, Mo Tie and the others had no idea that the death of Yan Fei and his disciples was no coincidence, but a deliberate act by Su Changkong, who had followed them and finished them off!

By this time, Su Changkong had already returned to Black Iron Manor ahead of Mo Tie and his party.

Although he had been unexpectedly seen by Mo Tie and the others before leaving, Su Changkong didn’t mind. He had used Turtle Breath Shrinkage to reduce his height by more than half a foot, and with the mask on, recognizing him would be impossible.

Quietly returning to his quarters, Su Changkong put away his mask and clothes, then stretched lazily.

Having dealt with Yan Fei and his disciples tonight, he considered it a repayment of the kindness Mo Tie had shown him when he took him in.

It wasn’t long before Su Changkong returned that Mo Tie and the others safely made their way back to Black Iron Manor; as daylight broke the next day, it was as if nothing had happened, everything proceeded as usual, the world does not stop turning for the loss of anyone.

“Let’s see what’s on this sheepskin, could it be a Martial Arts Secret Manual?”

In the evening, after a day’s work, Su Changkong returned to his room and took out a sheepskin, the very one he had found on Yan Fei’s body the previous day. It could be a Martial Arts Secret Manual, but that wasn’t certain.

However, Su Changkong was wrong; it was not a Martial Arts Secret Manual, but a prescription!

“A prescription? Vital Qi Spread?”

As he unfolded the sheepskin, Su Changkong’s expression shifted subtly.

The sheepskin contained a prescription named Vital Qi Spread, and Su Changkong looked at it carefully, his eyes growing brighter and brighter.

“Vital Qi Spread can enhance energy and circulate blood, benefiting Martial Artists in cultivating their sense of Qi and practicing Inner Strength greatly!”

Similar to Body Strengthening Soup, Vital Qi Spread was a pill medicine beneficial to Martial Artists!