Chapter Twelve – An Unexpected Attack

Magistrate Wu whipped his horse and yelled: “Go and put the fire out!”

But suddenly, Shirong grabbed the halter of Wu’s running horse. The grab was so energetic that the horse was pulled backwards, without a chance to struggle. Everyone was shocked by the unexpected but vigorous movement of Shirong. This was especially true for Wu, whose face turned ghastly pale.

“The fire is already beyond control. Even if we put it out now, there would be nothing left. It’ll be better to let it burn out.” Shirong responded with a chilly tone. His face turned sinister as he continued: “Ma Zhao, go and kill all the people in the vicinity.“

“Yes, Your Excellency!”

Magistrate Wu couldn’t believe his own ears, how could Shirong act so indifferently towards Junior Zhou’s family? They were relatives!

“It seems like there are countless of people moving to and fro, they are most likely trying to put the fire out, rather than looting the mansion. This is my administrative region, how can I allow him to kill these people so imprudently?” Wu thought to himself and vacillated between two choices – either to comply with Shirong’s command or to restrict him from doing so.

Looking at the indecisive Wu, Shirong raised his voice: “What’s the use of these people? It’s their negligence that triggered that fire, plus, at this stage they won’t be able to save the situation. Why shouldn’t we just kill them all?”

“Daoqian is no longer the same person I used to know. He has already become one of the four most distinguished directors of Peak Tower. Now, his son is determined to kill these people, but I’d be able to successfully discourage him from doing so. However, if I did so, Daoqian may breed enmity with me because of it.” Magistrate Wu weighed the pros and cons of his next step. Eventually, he calculated it would bring him no benefits if he went against Shirong.

“Kill them all! Zhao (the head constable), please lead your team and coordinate with Mr. Ma in killing these people!” Wu finally shouted, sternly.

Immediately, the whole group positioned themselves in a battle state and then the noise of clip-clopping and the sound of the unsheathing of swords could be heard throughout the surrounding mountains.

It suddenly struck Wu that Junior Zhou and his father were probably already dead. As a local magistrate, he had been through a dozen of tragedies similar to this one, and he was almost certain that this must’ve been an orchestrated crime, rather than a careless accident.

“I’m afraid your Uncle might already have been killed in the roaring fire…” Wu told Shirong in a euphemism tone.

“Our destiny lies in the hands of the gods. My uncle is already in his fifties and he enjoyed the most part of his life in prosperity. It is not regrettable for him to die at this age. As for my younger cousin, he is the good-for-nothing parasite of my family. He always gets caught up in messy situations and lets his family worry about solving these situations for him. For someone like him, the scum of my family, death is the best choice.” Shirong replied emotionless.

Magistrate Wu was astounded by what Shirong said. He never thought that Shirong’s heart would be as cold as marble towards the misfortune of his uncle’s family.

“Who can be audacious enough to commit such a disgraceful crime against our family? This is bringing shame to my entire family.” Shirong murmured to himself with a distorted expression.

These words confused Wu even more, “You don’t even care about the death of your uncle, then why do you show such hatred towards the murderer?”

“Even the dog from our family is treated with respect. How dare this guy set fire to my uncle’s family’s mansion? I swear to capture him alive and let him pay the price!” Shirong grinded his teeth and said with extreme anger.

Out of sheer bewilderment, Wu didn’t know what to say.

...

A man with plain clothing was running hastily in the west, in a second, he appeared in front of Shirong’s group. He tripped over his own feet and cried: “Your Excellency! You’ve finally arrived! Our master… he… he… he has been…”

Several minutes before, Wu was worried that the raging flames would destroy any and all forms of evidence. However, now a servant from Junior Zhou’s family had successfully escaped from the wild fire and he could probably offer some clue to how this mysterious disaster had happened. Therefore, Wu jumped off his horse and helped the man up, before he urgently inquired: “Who did this? What happened over here?“

“It was me!”, - Boom! -

Without any warning, the man in plain clothing punched Magistrate Wu in his face. Blood spilled all over the place, as Wu’s head had been almost flattened.

No doubt, this man was Xu Yi. After he heard the clip-clopping of the horses, he chased after this sound. To get more information of whom these horse-riders were, Xu Yi then climbed to the top of a tall tree and found out that it was a group of people who were all wielding swords. When he fixed his eyes on the face of the guy in the front, his blood pressure quickly surged. The man who led the group looked strikingly similar to Junior Zhou.

Who could he be?

Xu Yi was well known with his enemy, the Zhou Family. They were split up in two branches, one was led by Junior Zhou’s family, while the other was led by Daoqian.

Although, Xu Yi had never met Shirong, after some analysis, he had come to the conclusion that the man who led this group was the son of the disgraceful Daoqian.

It was justifiable to say that Daoqian was the main trigger of Xu Yi’s revenge plan. It was Daoqian who had plotted the collapse of the Xu Family. Hence, Xu Yi’s hatred towards Daoqian was as deep as the ocean.

Xu Yi, of course, was not a reckless revenger. He knew, that at this stage, if he directly went for Daoqian, it would be like throwing an egg against a rock. But at this moment, his son was right in front of him, which posed a golden opportunity for Xu Yi. If he killed Daoqian’s son, Daoqian would certainly suffer from the death of his son.

Driven by this motive, Xu Yi got down from the tree and went to a secluded place where he made a temporary tomb for his ancestors and lighted three sticks of incenses. He then kneeled down in front of the tomb and untied the two heads (Junior Zhou and his father) as sacrifice for his ancestors. A few minutes later, Xu Yi stood up and kicked the two heads into the flaming fire.

As Xu Yi was on his way to Shirong’s group, he decided not to underestimate Shirong, after all, he was the son of Daoqian. Unknown to the true ability of Shirong, Xu Yi acted rather cautiously. To be honest, he was not quite assured whether he would be able to defeat Shirong or not.

Since no one in the group had met him before, Xu Yi disguised himself as a servant from Junior Zhou’s family. By doing so, on the one hand, he could get close to the group without their suspicion; on the other hand, he could attack them unexpectedly.

Magistrate Wu was killed by Xu Yi almost instantly. Without hesitation, Xu Yi then used up all his strength and threw his fist at Shirong, in an attempt to quickly finish this traitor as well. When his fist flew towards the surface of Shirong’s white clothing, his body suddenly disappeared.

Xu Yi’s backbone was slightly numbed by the shock, he couldn’t believe his eyes – as the speed and strength exerted on his fist just now, was the best he could release. Therefore, he was a little bit discouraged and started to doubt himself. Suddenly, he felt like he was being stabbed by a thousand needles, as a strong force of qi was quickly approaching his back.