Free Web NovelChapter 334: Chapter 288: The Expert
Looking at the tender and sticky soy-braised chicken legs stewing in the iron pot, Yang Xiao controlled himself and just ordered two, after all, ordering six chicken legs at once was too conspicuous, and he didn’t want to leave any memorable impression on the people of Xia Shi Town.
In line with Yang Xiao’s request, the owner paired up a few dishes, and then ladled a generous spoonful of braised pork sauce on the rice before handing him the lunch box, "Young man, hold steady, take care, it’s hot."
Having paid, Yang Xiao found a place to sit down near the roadside. It wasn’t like the big cities here, with less strict regulation—fast food stores had a few small low tables outside, each with several colored plastic chairs nearby, where people could sit down to eat.
From where Yang Xiao was sitting, he could clearly see the entrance to the noodle shop, and there were quite a few people eating nearby. A group sat just behind him.
"Sigh, they come every day, when will it ever end?" A man in a plaid shirt behind him took his gaze away from the noodle shop and let out a sigh, obviously feeling pity for the noodle shop’s owner.
"What can be done? They don’t hit or curse anyone, and they do pay for their food. Every time, they just order two bowls of noodles, then sit down to eat and drink their own stuff. Calling the police is useless." The man’s companion sighed, "The police at most can shoo them away. They leave today and come back tomorrow. Even if the police detain them, they’ll just send someone else. It’s a battle of endurance."
"Shush—" A third person quickly stopped the topic of his companions with a gesture, sweeping a quick look toward the noodle shop with a very low voice, "Don’t talk nonsense, are you capable of taking on Lord Huang San’s people? Be careful of bringing disaster with your words."
"Let’s just eat, eat quickly and leave, out of sight, out of mind." None of them discussed it anymore and just lowered their heads to their meals.
As time ticked by, the sun set, and the fast food shop owner thoughtfully lit a few light bulbs to illuminate the place for the diners.
When the diners gradually left and business had slowed down, two members from the Liehu Gang got up. They arrogantly shouted into the noodle shop that they’d grace the place with their presence again tomorrow before they packed up their own folding table, picked up their stuff, and left.
After the two left, Yang Xiao also stood up, lowered the brim of his hat, and slowly followed them, guessing that with so much gear, they couldn’t have walked far—they must have parked their car nearby.
Sure enough, as Yang Xiao had thought, they hadn’t walked far when they turned into an underground parking lot. Yang Xiao knew the opportunity had come.
Looking around and not spotting any surveillance cameras, Yang Xiao reached into his backpack and pulled out the Soul-Capturing Mirror. Then, he took out the Silver Dust Whisk and approached the two men.
Once he was close enough, with a thought, the two who had just put the folding table into the trunk and hadn’t gotten into the car yet, were pulled into the Mirror World by Yang Xiao.
The Mirror World, although seemingly identical to the real world, was much gloomier and colder, easy to distinguish. The two men were baffled for a moment until they finally noticed Yang Xiao slowly approaching, and the skinny one, with a panicked expression, exclaimed, "You... who are you?"
"Where’s Huang Sanbing?" Yang Xiao directly asked.
Although the two weren’t very bright, they could tell from Yang Xiao’s demeanor that he meant trouble. The skinny one pulled out a switchblade from his pocket, and the burlier one quickly opened the trunk, took out a heavy Mountain Splitter Blade from a black tennis bag.
But in the next second, he was hit by a crushing blow from Yang Xiao. With a sweep of the Dust Whisk, the man disintegrated in mid-air, his body splattering into a messy pile of disgusting human tissue on the car, the ground, and the walls.
The remaining skinny man had never seen such a scene before; his fingers trembled violently, and he could no longer hold his switchblade steady, which fell to the ground.
Yang Xiao sneered, walked towards the skinny man, and threateningly raised the Dust Whisk in his hand. To his surprise, the skinny man suddenly convulsed, fell to the ground, frothed at the mouth, and rolled his eyes back.
In a short time, the man lay still. Yang Xiao was at a loss. He approached the skinny man cautiously and kicked him hard twice, but there was no response. Squatting down, Yang Xiao checked for a pulse on the man’s neck and realized he had died.
"Damn... scared to death?!" It was beyond Yang Xiao’s comprehension. Weren’t these gang members supposed to have some guts?
Yang Xiao had originally intended to intimidate the skinny man by making an example of the now sprawled bulky man, since, based on his observations, all the dirty and strenuous tasks had been done by this bulky man who was now stretched out, and the two seemed to have a superior-subordinate relationship. But who could have predicted that the man would die of fright before he even started with him?
"Useless trash!" Yang Xiao kicked the skinny man hard again, just then noticing that the man’s pants were completely wet, with a puddle of revolting urine underneath him.
When Yang Xiao turned back to face the horror that had become of the bulky man, he took a deep breath; though not for the first time he had seen such a thing, it still felt too brutal. The most terrifying thing about the Magic Artifact Dust Whisk was not that it could kill a man, but that it could turn a living person into such a ghastly sight.
The body of the bulky man who was not dead, with half of his head hanging from a wall, was still shaking from time to time. The eye socket had completely shattered, and the eyeballs were nowhere to be found. Yang Xiao went forward, suppressing his revulsion, and with the pointed end of the Dust Whisk, poked through the unidentified mucous covering the man’s mouth. Finally, the man’s head could breathe freely, making wheezing sounds like an old bellows.
The head seemed to scream at something it saw, uttering unintelligible roars. Yang Xiao quickly found the two eyeballs embedded in the rotten flesh on the car door and the ground.
The eyeballs were still moving, which meant they should still be usable. Experiencing the view of one’s own body from two different directions, splayed open, was something only a handful of people in the world could ever have the opportunity to feel.
Yang Xiao lifted his foot and stepped on a piece of flesh, which he couldn’t identify, and the man’s entire spread of flesh and organs trembled with it.
Good, he could feel pain. Yang Xiao got straight to the point, "I can’t be bothered with your nonsense. Tell me where Huang Sanbing will show up tonight, and I’ll put an end to your suffering; otherwise, you can just rot here by yourself."
In order to make it clearer to the man about the situation he was in, Yang Xiao lifted up the piece of flesh that was stuck to an eyeball, turned it in a full circle, allowing the man to have a clear view of his dismembered body.
The man was much stronger than the skinny man who had died of fright despite having a ruined vocal cords, he spoke indistinctly, but Yang Xiao listened and guessed, understanding the gist of it. Huang Sanbing would be going to a KTV he had newly invested in called The Grand World, which wasn’t officially open yet. Tonight was its trial run, and almost all the adult entertainment in Xia Shi Town was monopolized by the Liehu Gang.
"How many people will be with him?" Yang Xiao pressed. "Aside from Huang Sanbing himself, are there any other skilled fighters hiding within?"
After all, having been attacked before, Yang Xiao figured Huang Sanbing would’ve heightened his vigilance, maybe even surrounding himself with skilled bodyguards.
But the severed head shook desperately, the garbled words repeating that Huang Sanbing was very confident in his own abilities and quite stingy. Apart from a few free underlings from the gang, he didn’t spend money to hire outsiders.
Not expecting much, Yang Xiao still inquired about the Magic Artifact in the form of a wooden stick, as expected, the man had no idea.
Once he had confirmed he’d asked everything necessary, Yang Xiao found the Mountain Splitter Blade among the flesh and aimed it at the shattered half of the man’s head, "Forget this life, be a good person in the next one." freёweɓnovel.com
After dealing with the two men, Yang Xiao returned from the Mirror World and saw the black SUV, wiped clean, with its doors and trunk open. For a moment, even he was somewhat disoriented; in the Mirror World, the same vehicle was covered with twisted flesh and blue veins, a grotesque monster composed of machinery and flesh.
"Evil Cultivators really must be eradicated; their Magic Artifacts are too terrifying," Yang Xiao thought to himself, putting away his horsetail whisk and the Soul-Capturing Mirror, and after making sure he left no trace, he lowered the brim of his hat and quickly left.
Arriving early at The Grand World KTV to lie in ambush, the night air was a bit chilly as Yang Xiao hid in a wind-sheltered corner, eating mutton skewers, when several rugged black SUVs arrived at the corner and stopped in front of the KTV’s main entrance.
Shortly, people started to get off the cars, led by a bald man in a leather coat with a burly physique. The colorful glass door of KTV was pushed open, and several women dressed in low-cut outfits with black stockings and heavy makeup hurried out to greet them, crowding around the bald man as they entered.
This bald man was Huang Sanbing, but Yang Xiao did not plan to make his move in the KTV; it was too crowded and too many eyes were watching. He had his sights on the three SUVs that were driven away.
After they parked in the underground garage, leaving only a blonde youngster to guard the cars while the remaining two hurried towards the elevator, apparently having made arrangements with some girls.
The garage was brand new, clearly newly renovated, and some leftover building materials were still piled in the corner, covered with a waterproof plastic film.
After confirming that no surveillance cameras had been installed in the garage, Yang Xiao found a secluded corner to hide, resting while waiting for Huang Sanbing to have his fill and come down to the car to go home.
The wait lasted until well after midnight. Around 2 am, Yang Xiao was getting sleepy when laughter and uncoordinated footsteps came from the direction of the elevator, signaling that someone was drunk.
The spot where Yang Xiao was hiding was about twenty meters away from where the cars were parked, and since no lights had been installed there yet, it was completely dark and shielded by a pile of construction materials. Unless one came over specifically, it would be impossible to notice someone hiding there from the outside.
Huang Sanbing was drunk; a woman with wavy curls and a hot figure was supporting him, Huang Sanbing’s right hand roamed inappropriately over the woman’s body while his underlings occasionally burst into laughter behind.
Huang Sanbing leaned against his most luxurious SUV, pulling the lady into his arms and impatiently waving off his underlings with a lewd smile on his fleshy face. Getting the hint, the underlings quickly got into the other vehicles and drove off.
Yang Xiao watched all this from hiding, his heart pounding with excitement, thinking that luck must be on his side. The opportunity was perfect, as Huang Sanbing was alone, and Yang Xiao would also get a free show.
Of course, an upright man like Yang Xiao had no interest in such activities, but he thought of depleting Huang Sanbing’s physical and mental energy as much as possible, so he could wait.
He would wait for the moment when Huang Sanbing was most engrossed and suddenly strike, giving him a surprise.
The situation was evolving exactly in Yang Xiao’s favor as the drunken Huang Sanbing pushed the woman against the car door; but in the next second, he raised his hand and chopped at the woman’s neck with a blade, causing her to collapse, unconscious. Huang Sanbing opened the car door and tossed the woman inside.
He then turned around, the drunken lecherous look vanished from his face, his tiger-like eyes boring straight into Yang Xiao’s hiding spot. With a sneer, he said, "Which brother from the roads out there has been lying in wait for me this long? Come on out and let’s meet!"
