In the Shadows of the City (2)

'a bunch of bastards proactively asking to be beheaded!' Long Ming thought, a distorted smile emerged on his face, just as a huge amount of anger and murderous intent began to be expelled from his being. The bandits unconsciously tensed up, as if they were prey before a predator.

"What I hate most about walking through the underworld is knowing that I can't react when I see cruel things happening. Because if you're still alive, it's because there are those who allow it. But the story is different when you proactively show your necks; because then you don't It's an attack against these bigwigs, but rather an innocent self-defense," Long Ming spoke with a sadistic smile on his face. Before the bandits could understand his words, he quickly ran towards them, covering the entire distance between them in half a second.

Soon after, he pierced the jugular of one of those men with his hands, piercing his entire neck like a spear and causing a torrent of blood to gush from the wound.

"WHA-"

Before any of the bandits could express their surprise or regret, he reached another bandit and punched his ribs, breaking them and puncturing his lungs in succession. At this moment, one of the bandits tried to stab him with a knife, but Long Ming nonchalantly grabbed his wrist and pierced his elbow with his other hand, tearing off his entire forearm.

"you must be feeling so unlucky~", Long Ming sneered as he looked at the look of pure horror of the man who had his forearm chopped off. Everyone was even more terrified by this mockery, but Long Ming didn't care about their reactions and, in one swift movement, took the knife that was in the cut hand and stabbed it into the man's eye.

"argh!!", he began to scream for long seconds before losing consciousness and inevitably dying.

"Damn!" one of those men shouted, rushing towards Long Ming. In a tenth of a second he covered the several meters between them and tried to stab him.

'a cultivator?', Long Ming thought, upon noticing his speed, however, he naturally dodged his attack. The man seemed not to have minded his dodge and resumed his attack again, using several cuts and thrusts with a clear attempt to kill Long Ming.

Despite this, Long Ming felt no difficulty in dodging his cuts, using only basic footwork, and occasionally rotating his body. After a few seconds, the man made a desperate lunge, using all his strength to advance towards Long Ming.

'I got you!', the man thought when he noticed Long Ming's lack of reaction, however, at this exact moment, Long Ming used his hands to redirect the direction of the knife and pierced the man's chest with his knife.

"Knives are a terrible choice of weapon if you want to attack. In addition to being easy to dodge, their low range ends up making them harmless to anyone who is not intimidated by their blade", Long Ming said nonchalantly as he took the knife back and turned around to the other bandits. They all seemed extremely terrified and paralyzed, unable to move any part of their bodies, whether to defend themselves, flee or beg for their lives.

As he walked nonchalantly towards those men, one of them finally reacted and tried to run away. However, Long Ming nimbly threw that knife and hit the man in the back of the head. At this moment there were only two men left, one of them, in utmost desperation, ran towards Long Ming and tried to stab him.

Long Ming took a simple step to the side, dodging his desperate attack, and pierced his neck with his hand. Then, he turned his gaze to the last survivor who, at this moment, was prostrate on the ground and saying "please don't kill me" over and over again.

"Not kill you? Why should I spare you when you guys got together to try and kill me?" Long Ming said coldly as he approached the man.

"I-I-I can tell you anything you want! Including about our boss. He is a cultivator at the half-step stage of the Qi Gathering realm! and is sponsored by a tycoon, to do all the heinous jobs possible. Including trafficking of people and prostitution!", the man spoke desperately, revealing all of his former boss's biggest secrets.

Long Ming became interested in this man's boss, mainly because of the services he performed. There were many things that Long Ming hated, especially when it involved the underworld of society, but those things that he hated most of all was human trafficking, therefore, he decided to meet this man's boss. As for his cultivation level, Long Ming was not truly worried. Either because he didn't have much attachment to his own life, or because he was confident in compensating for the difference in cultivation through his ability.

'Indeed, it is only in a moment of desperation that we discover what people are like', Long Ming thought as he noticed the contrasting actions of the last bandits. The first tried to escape, the second tried to attack him and now, the third, acted like an obedient dog to gain his forgiveness.

"Old man, you can come back from here, right?" Long Ming turned towards Gao Ting, who was standing in the same place watching all this. Gao Ting didn't seem disturbed or bothered by the whole scene, after all, he had seen many similar scenes, and he already knew that Long Ming was someone who was ruthless (sometimes).

"sigh, just don't die kid. I know you won't listen to me anyway", he said after thinking for a while and said goodbye, heading back to the residence.

"Show me the way to your boss," Long Ming spoke next, looking at the bandit who was still prostrate on the ground. The bandit looked at Long Ming with eyes filled with tears, and quickly stood up.

"please follow me young master," he said as he ran to a specific corner of that neighborhood. Long Ming followed him calmly, unconcerned with whether he was being tricked or not. Either way, this bandit's fate would still be the same.

In several minutes, they made several turns through the streets of that neighborhood which, incredible as it may seem, was really huge and finally arrived at a large house, with a large stone wall and a beautiful wooden gate. On the way there, Long Ming met several people, who looked at him with astonishment and horror, but he tried to ignore these looks.

There were no guards protecting the gate, so Long Ming calmly approached it and observed it silently.

"So, young master. Can I go?" that bandit approached Long Ming and asked anxiously.

"Of course," said Long Ming, but despite his speech, he casually pierced the man's neck with his hand. Then, Long Ming returned to looking at the gate and closed his eyes, intending to resonate with nature.

After twenty seconds, he reopened his eyes which, this time, had a golden color with small reddish lines, reflecting his killer instinct.

Then he punched the gate, opening it and, after grabbing the bandit's lifeless body, he threw it inside the gate.

"wha—", a man tried to say something, but was knocked out after being hit by that lifeless body. Then Long Ming withdrew his twinblade from the spatial ring and entered the courtyard of that residence, aggressively running towards another guard.

The guard tried to attack him, but was instantly decapitated by Long Ming who was watching the entrance to the only building in that place. After a few seconds, a man came out of that building and looked with shock at the three bodies on the ground, as well as Long Ming's bloodied clothes.

"What the hell are you doing, you bastard?! Do you think I will forgive you after killing my men?", that man said. He was a middle-aged man with a gray beard and thinning hair, at the moment he was wearing a simple blue outfit, and on his waist was a sword. Long Ming closed his eyes as he observed that man's face, becoming even more irritated when he noticed some resemblance to Hu Tao.

"Are you Zhi Hua, the group leader Yu Qingting?" Long Ming questioned. On the way there, he interrogated that man, discovering several things, including that he was a member of the YU Qingting group. This was a group formally affiliated with the Hong Xing music venue, at first it was a simple music venue, which held several parties on the weekends; however, it is actually also a place where people kidnapped from the city streets are sold, mainly for sexual services. And the Yu Qingting group's main function was to get these people to be sold.

"And what are you? Do you happen to believe that you are a vigilante who will save the poor and defenseless?", the man sneered, as he drew his sword and ran towards Long Ming.

The twenty meter distance between the two was quickly reduced in a second as Zhi Hua performed a diagonal slash towards Long Ming.

'really, he is at the half-step stage', Long Ming analyzed coldly as he noticed the Qi from inside Zhi Hua's body being mobilized from within, further boosting his physical capabilities and making that blow deadly.

Long Ming hurriedly contorted his body, dodging the blow, and counterattacked, redirecting all the Qi in the surroundings to support him. Zhi Hua took two steps back, dodging his blade, however, to his complete astonishment, a tear appeared on his clothes.

"?!", Zhi Hua was shocked by this and, with wide eyes, spoke, "are you a Foundation Establishment realm cultivator?"

"it's too late to be desperate~", Long Ming sneered, taking advantage of his misunderstanding. His voice seemed to echo throughout the place, and even the air vibrated as if in response. It was a consequence of the resonance, but there was no way for Zhi Hua to know and therefore he was even more scared.

Long Ming then tried to redirect the surrounding Qi into his body, and thrust it towards Zhi Hua. In a tenth of a second, Zhi Hua entered the range of his blade and therefore, Long Ming began attacking him with countless strikes in succession.

Diagonal slashes from the right, then from the left, horizontal, vertical, and even full swings with his blade, Long Ming performed countless slashes every tenth of a second, completely overwhelming Zhi Hua. Despite this, Zhi Hua still managed to defend herself and always tried to counterattack when she had the chance.

'tsc' Long Ming was irritated by this, because in a battle of resistance he would logically lose when he no longer has the resonance bonuses. Then he tried to be even more aggressive, using his footwork to circle around Zhi Hua and attack from the sides, focusing on his blind spots.

He began to circle him nimbly, using quick and unpredictable movements, as well as abrupt changes and rhythm, so that Zhi Hua could not predict his next movements.

Despite this, Zhi Hua seemed unaffected and continued defending, using his footwork to accurately avoid each strike from Long Ming and occasionally counterattacking. In this way, they continued to fight, and without them realizing it, ten seconds had already passed.

Ten seconds was an extremely short period of time, but to both of them, ten seconds felt like an eternity. Long Ming became even more anxious every moment to end the fight as soon as possible, and Zhi Hua felt even more nervous when he felt his life almost draining away after each blow. Both understood that keeping the fight going any longer seemed like a bad idea, although for completely different and conflicting reasons.

So, when Long Ming tried to attack him with a vertical slash, Zhi Hua decided to bet his life on a single move. Long Ming's blade traveled towards his shoulder, but Zhi Hua ignored this as he mobilized all of his efforts and even his Qi to specific parts of the body and then performed a simple, yet extremely fast and deadly, vertical slash towards his shoulder. from the middle of Long Ming's head.

The two felt like they were facing death, and Long Ming, instinctively, mobilized all the Qi in the environment to his feet and took an even faster step as far as possible. In half a second, Long Ming traveled more than fifteen meters, and a deep gash nearly half a meter deep appeared at the exact spot where he was standing.

"tsc, that was close", the two thought simultaneously, noticing that this simple exchange of movement almost decided the end of that fight.