21: Chapter 21: A Regretful End

You ignored him and turned to ask the neighbors for information.

It took quite a while before you found a familiar face—Aunt Liu from the alley next door. However, she was old now, sitting at her doorway basking in the sun with a hunched back, her eyes already somewhat cloudy.

You didn't say who you were, only asking her where the Lin family from Yongan Street had gone.

Aunt Liu thought for a long time and sighed.

"The Lin family… that family suffered so much."

"The son didn't return from the war, and no one knows where the daughter ran off to; I heard she committed a crime and was wanted. Only the Lin matriarch was left, but her health was always poor afterward, and she passed away over a dozen years ago. When she left, not a single relative was by her side. It was the neighbors who pooled money to buy a thin coffin and buried her in the mass grave outside the city."

You stood in place, not moving a muscle.

Aunt Liu's cloudy eyes glanced at you: "Are you a relative of the Lin family?"

"No," you said. "Just asking."

You turned and left.

You didn't go to the mass grave; not because you didn't want to, but because you were afraid that if you went, you wouldn't be able to leave.

You still had things left undone.

For the next three days, you inquired about Wei Feisen in the city.

This was not difficult, because everyone in Yunjin City—no, the entire Great Qing—knew who Wei Feisen was.

Under his leadership, the Black Tiger Gang was no longer the local power that only operated in the three southeastern prefectures. Today's Black Tiger Gang had branch halls across the Nine Provinces, with over a hundred thousand members, and was recognized as the number one power in the Martial Forest of Great Qing. As for Wei Feisen himself, he had been titled "Martial King of Suppression" by the Qing Emperor five years ago—a rare case of an outsider being granted a royal title, unique in the Martial Forest.

You listened to people chatting in a teahouse, saying that Wei Feisen had just returned from the capital three days ago with quite the grand display: a hundred cavalrymen clearing the path, and he even brought two guards at the Grandmaster Stage. Recently, he was to preside over an "Elite Assembly" at the Black Tiger Gang's main headquarters in Yunjin City, and elite Disciple members from branch halls everywhere were to attend.

You sat in the corner of the teahouse, holding a cup of tea that had already gone cold, your gaze calm.

Two guards at the Grandmaster Stage.

And you were not even at the Innate Realm now; your Azure Sky Heart Method True Qi was barely maintained at the Post-Heaven Peak, your Meridians were full of cracks, and you would pant for a long time after performing a single set of sword techniques.

You couldn't kill him.

You were very clear on that.

But you went anyway.

On the day of the Elite Assembly, there was a sea of people in front of the Black Tiger Gang's main headquarters. You mingled among the onlookers, standing at the street corner, and waited for an entire morning.

After noon, the sound of horse hooves rang out, and Wei Feisen's carriage appeared at the end of the long street.

It was an ink-black carriage, with ten elite Black Tiger Gang riders guarding each side. An elderly man in grey robes walked in front of and behind the carriage respectively, their pace unhurried, but every step they took was exceptionally steady—Grandmaster Stage.

The curtain of the carriage was lifted, and Wei Feisen stepped down.

You saw him.

More than twenty years had passed. That handsome and dashing young deputy leader of the Black Tiger Gang, who was in his early twenties back then, was now a middle-aged man in his forties. His figure was sturdier than when he was young, he sported a short beard, wore a black and red python robe, and a golden tiger-head medallion hung at his waist. His movements as he stepped down from the carriage were neither rushed nor slow, and his entire body carried a lingering, long-accumulated pressure—an Aura that a common Martial Artist could not possess.

Great Grandmaster.

You judged silently in your heart, at least Great Grandmaster Stage.

His gaze swept casually across the crowd on both sides of the street, not lingering on you for even an instant.

Why would it linger? You were now an old woman with graying hair, a withered face, and a back that couldn't even stand straight. The young girl who had once caused him to meticulously set a trap to force a marriage had vanished without a trace.

He didn't recognize you anymore.

You felt the hilt of that sword from your sleeve, your thumb pressing against the crossguard.

The crowd, the noise, the sunlight—everything retreated into the distance; only one target remained in your world.

You moved.

The True Qi of the Azure Sky Heart Method surged violently through your Meridians, and a tearing, excruciating pain came from the cracks, but you gritted your teeth and forced it to circulate. Using the opening move of the Frost Moon Sword Technique, with all your Internal Energy infused into the tip of the sword, you erupted from the crowd and thrust directly at Wei Feisen's throat.

Fast—this strike of yours was extremely fast, so fast that the commoners beside you didn't even have time to react.

But not fast enough.

When the tip of your sword was still three feet away from Wei Feisen, a withered hand had already clamped onto your wrist.

The grey-robed old man, the guard at the Grandmaster Stage—you hadn't even seen how he moved; you only felt an irresistible force coming from your wrist, and your bone snapped with a "crack."

The sword slipped from your hand.

Immediately after, the palm wind of the second grey-robed old man arrived, striking your chest with one palm.

You heard the sound of your own ribs shattering; it was very crisp, one by one, like snapping sugarcane.

You were sent flying, smashing heavily against the wall on the opposite side of the street, sliding down, collapsing to the ground, with large mouthfuls of blood gushing from your mouth.

Wei Feisen didn't even turn around; he only tilted his head slightly, swept a glance at you with eyes looking at a dead dog, then frowned and waved his hand in disgust.

"Dispose of it."

The grey-robed old man walked up to you, looking down at you from a high position.

You tilted your head back, blood flowing down from the corner of your mouth, onto your chin, and dripping onto the bluestone slab on the ground.

You watched the back of Wei Feisen as he walked into the main headquarters gate, and the scene before your eyes darkened bit by bit.

Ding—

Simulation ended.