22: Chapter 22 The Night of Murder

That evening, Ye Xuan and Ye Yi were filled with indignation.

But Ye Jing remained silent, only telling them to go and rest.

Late at night, when everything was silent.

Inside his room, Ye Jing felt around and produced his hunting knife. Since he could enter the mountains to hunt, he could naturally kill people.

Ye Jing put on dark clothing and wrapped his head and face, leaving only his eyes exposed.

He lightly flipped out of the window. The moonlight hung directly overhead, bright and shimmering.

He shuttled nimbly through the shadows, his footsteps light and continuous, and soon arrived near Niu Gui's house.

Niu Gui's house was a well-built earthen brick house in Liu Village. The paper windows were slightly ajar, and a lamp was still lit. Shadows moved inside, and the aroma of wine and meat wafted out.

It seemed Niu Gui had not yet gone to sleep. Ye Jing put away his hunting knife and crouched by the window, peeking at the activity inside.

He saw the pot-bellied Niu Gui holding a woman in his arms. The woman let out a complaining sound: "All you talk about is being rich, but you don't have a single coin in your pocket!"

The woman looked young, seemingly a lover Niu Gui had found from somewhere.

"A woman's narrow view!" Niu Gui slapped the woman's buttocks, his wine-drenched breath full of pride.

"Once that old thing Ye Jing dies tomorrow, those two mu of fertile fields will be mine! When the time comes, I'll sell the fields to Wealthy Man Zhang along with his house. That'll be at least thirty taels of silver, enough for you to live in luxury! Why worry about money?"

The woman giggled and snuggled into Niu Gui's arms: "Stop bragging. I just heard you tell an old gambler to kill him, and he didn't even succeed! That eighty-year-old man is very strong. Aren't you afraid you won't be able to handle him again?"

Niu Gui took another swig of wine. He grew angry at the mention of that useless Huang Silang, his expression full of ruthlessness: "What's there to worry about? This old man goes up the mountain to hunt every day, so I've arranged for five brothers to wait at the mountain pass.

When he comes out, they'll finish him with one strike. No matter how powerful he is, he's not a Martial Artist; he won't be able to withstand five people ganging up on him. Once he's dead, I'll dump the body in the mountains. No one will ever know!"

When Ye Jing is dead, I'll also charge his family with the felony of private land occupation and have the whole family exiled!"

The woman giggled: "Master Niu, you're truly ruthless! People are all afraid of you!"

Niu Gui pulled the woman close: "I have even more ruthless sides! You just haven't seen them yet."

Niu Gui spoke smugly and immediately pulled the woman into a bout of passion.

Indulging in the moment of pleasure, he even sighed with regret: "It's just a pity about his granddaughter. She's quite pretty. If I sold her as a 'Thin Horse,' I might have earned a lot of silver!"

Outside the window, Ye Jing's body surged with fury as he listened.

Damn it!

Son of a bitch!

Ye Jing roared in his heart.

It seemed his guess was correct; it was this Niu Gui pulling the strings behind the scenes!

Ye Jing calmed his breath and lay in wait, biding his time.

After about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, Niu Gui fell asleep, snoring loudly.

The woman got up and walked out of the house, intending to fetch water to clean herself.

Seeing the woman leave the house, Ye Jing immediately made his move.

Just as the woman reached the courtyard, she felt a gust of cold wind. Before she could scream, her mouth was firmly covered, and a sharp hunting knife slashed across her neck with force.

However, Ye Jing's strength was still somewhat insufficient, causing the woman to let out muffled cries.

Ye Jing steeled his heart, immediately kicked the woman down, and plunged the knife into her chest.

In an instant.

The woman's eyes bulged, blood gushed from her throat, and she could not let out a sound no matter how hard she tried.

She fell to the ground and died.

"Who's there?!" The woman's whimpering cries woke Niu Gui.

Ye Jing immediately rushed forward with his knife. Seeing the blade approaching, Niu Gui broke into a cold sweat.

"You little thief! You dare touch Master Niu!" After all, Niu Gui was a rogue who had been around for many years. Seeing someone trying to kill him, he flew into a rage, scrambled off the bed, and threw a stool at Ye Jing.

Ye Jing dodged easily, and the hunting knife in his hand swung toward Niu Gui's neck.

Niu Gui, whose body had been hollowed out by wine and lust, could not dodge. The blade plunged directly into his neck.

Niu Gui's raised arm instantly froze in mid-air. His eyes bulged, and bloody foam leaked from his mouth as he made "wu wu" sounds.

Ye Jing kicked Niu Gui over. His fat body hit the ground with a dull thud. Blood continued to seep from the hole in his throat, quickly forming a small pool of dark red on the floor.

Ye Jing took a step forward, stepped on Niu Gui's twitching wrist, and brought the hunting knife down again, precisely slicing his throat to completely extinguish his last breath.

Having killed two people in a row, Ye Jing took a breath. He wiped the blood-stained hunting knife on Niu Gui's clothes to clean it.

In his past, after coming to this world, he had traveled far and wide, encountered bandits, and killed people.

Killing again, his face was calm, feeling only a sense of relief from resolving a hidden threat.

Ye Jing was not afraid of the officials tracing it back to him. After all, no one would ever imagine that an old man like him would use a knife to kill.

Seeing that it was still peaceful outside, he was in no hurry to leave. Instead, he searched Niu Gui's clothes, but after a long time, he only found one tael of broken silver.

Ye Jing felt that Niu Gui, having sold so much land over the years and being a loan shark, shouldn't have only this much.

So he began searching Niu Gui's house. In this room, besides chairs, cabinets, and such, there was only the bed.

After searching for a while, Ye Jing found a hidden compartment under Niu Gui's bed and reached out to open it.

Inside was a large money bag. It felt very heavy in his hand, containing at least several dozen taels of silver. Beneath it were some banknotes and several land deeds.

Among them was a promissory note that clearly stated: Borrowed five taels of silver, monthly interest of three hundred wen, signed by Huang Silang.

Seeing this promissory note, Ye Jing understood everything perfectly.

He unceremoniously took the banknotes and silver but did not take the land deeds.

land deeds were troublesome items. Ye Jing couldn't possibly use them. If the villagers found out, Niu Gui's death would naturally be linked to him.

After taking the money, Ye Jing closed the hidden compartment and intentionally messed up the items in Niu Gui's house to create the illusion of a murder for robbery.

After doing all this, he quickly left Niu Gui's house.

Upon returning home, Ye Jing immediately disposed of his blood-stained clothes and went to bed to rest.

The next day.

"This is bad! Murder!"

Just as dawn broke, a piercing scream shattered the peace of Liu Village.

A woman sat on the ground in terror, letting out continuous cries of fear.

Her scream caused the surrounding villagers who had just woken up to gather around.

The tragedy before them made them all gasp in fear.

In the courtyard, a woman had her throat slit and chest stabbed, lying dead in the house. A man was also dead inside the room.

Two people had died at once.

When Village Chief Qian Wang heard that someone had died in Liu Village, he rushed over to look. Seeing that the dead person was actually Niu Gui, he was so terrified he almost collapsed to the ground.

"Heavens! Someone's dead!"

"Isn't this Niu Gui's house? Who did he offend?"

"Who cares who he offended! He deserved it! He did so many evil things before; a hoodlum like him is no loss!"

Although some villagers were afraid, they had no sympathy for Niu Gui. They only cursed him, saying it was good he died. Niu Gui had been a loan shark and had tricked people into selling their land, committing many evil deeds.

The world is cleaner with someone like him dead!

Qian Wang's face was grim. Now that Niu Gui was dead, what would happen to the three taels of silver he owed him?

Furthermore, with a death in the village, he, as the Village Chief, would be reprimanded by the government. Not to mention Niu Gui's brother-in-law, who was an official runner; he would certainly not let him off easily.

This was truly a lot of trouble for him!

"What happened here?" At this moment, Ye Jing's voice rang out from the crowd.

Qian Wang looked at the old man and hurriedly stepped forward with a compensatory smile: "Elder Ye, why are you here?"

Ye Jing sighed: "Early this morning, I heard someone in the village shouting about a murder, so I thought I'd come and see. This... isn't this Niu Gui?!"

While speaking, Ye Jing looked up at the dead Niu Gui in the room and suddenly let out a cry of shock.

This made Qian Wang even more irritable. He said: "Elder Ye, there's a lot of Blood Qi here. Don't let it affect you. You should head back first!"

Ye Jing was trembling uncontrollably. His appearance of being terrified of blood caused the surrounding villagers to quickly support him, fearing he might be scared into some ailment.

At this time, the person Qian Wang had called to help inspect Niu Gui's house walked over and quietly handed over a promissory note.

Qian Wang saw the name "Huang Silang" written on the note at a glance. He then looked at the terrified Ye Jing, and a plan immediately formed in his mind.