Chapter 15: Draw the blade and Kill Instantly

Night hung low. After hesitating briefly, Ren Qing followed the severed head with light footsteps.

He was not worried about exposing himself to the Hundred-Eyed One, because the human eyes inside the snails and fish bellies were all dead objects, merely being affected by some techniques.

Otherwise, when Ren Qing had made contact earlier, he would have already received the information flow from the Hundred-Eyed One.

The main reason was that considerable commotion came from the eastern city district, and large numbers of constables had already begun blocking streets, giving him faint concerns.

Not wanting to lose the trail of the Hundred-Eyed One, Ren Qing simply maintained a distance of several hundred meters from the head, relying on his Double Pupil's ability to follow silently behind it.

Plop.

The head fell into a rainwater drainage ditch and continued moving toward the southern district, not quickly but extremely covertly.

Ren Qing gripped the short knife at his waist as his pupils rotated independently. The reason for using a knife was simply that it felt convenient to handle.

Compared to other districts, the southern city was more chaotic, with over half of the dead bodies coming from gang fights. Although the yamen had attempted reforms, the situation hadn't improved at all, instead, it had intensified.

Yet this also created the southern district's nighttime prosperity, with brothels on nearly every street and the scent of perfume permeating the air.

Gambling dens were even more numerous, inevitably controlled by gangs amidst the squalor.

The place Ren Qing followed the head to was very close to residential areas, so the closed doors and windows didn't attract attention.

When the head's speed slowed down, he accordingly adjusted his pace.

They saw the head roll into a dilapidated City God temple. Ren Qing hid in a grove, secretly observing through the grass.

After a short while, a man entered the temple furtively while constantly looking around.

The Hundred-Eyed One?

No...

Ren Qing faintly guessed the truth. He continued waiting patiently, taking out pig eyes to swallow. The heat could maintain rapid circulation of blood and qi throughout his body.

After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea passed, the man exited the temple, wrapping the head in linen cloth and cradling it in his arms as he prepared to head toward residential areas.

By moonlight, Ren Qing clearly saw the man's appearance. He appeared about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, with knife scars covering his exposed skin and extremely fierce-looking eyes.

Carrying the linen bundle, he hadn't walked far when a figure appeared in the distance.

Shrouded in shadows cast by trees, the figure's face was indistinguishable, but it exuded a terrifying aura.

The man immediately stopped walking, staring with uncertain expression before instinctively drawing the machete at his waist.

"I am Lu Ping of the River Mud Gang. May I ask which hero stands before me?"

Ren Qing said coldly: "Yamen business. I have questions for you."

Hearing this, Lu Ping retreated several steps in succession, sensing something bad in his heart.

"Sir, might you be a Restraint Officer?"

Ren Qing didn't reply, continuing to stare unblinkingly as he slowly approached.

"Sir, I have committed no crimes, and the River Mud Gang recently..."

"What is that in your hands?"

"I didn't kill them!"

Lu Ping's face turned deathly pale, his whole body shuddering as he dropped the head to the ground. Under the terrifying threat posed by Ren Qing, he could no longer restrain himself as his skin squirmed while several extra eyes appeared on his forehead.

Ren Qing recalled the Blindless Method found at the bookstore, that clearly wasn't a coincidence. The Hundred-Eyed One was deliberately spreading the technique around.

The Hundred-Eyed One controlled some cultivators to collect human eyes for himself, while the rest were merely disposable pawns to divert the Restraint Officers' attention.

It's quite possible the Hundred-Eyed One had never appeared personally from start to finish, using some techniques to stir up trouble and muddy the waters throughout the entire city.

Of those headless cases that appeared, at least a significant portion were committed by practitioners of the Blindless Method, in the end truth and falsehood was hopelessly tangled.

Thus, even with Restraint Officers getting involved, the Hundred-Eyed One could easily escape.

Ren Qing opened his mouth to ask: "How do you deliver the human eyes to him?"

Lu Ping's expression darkened, if only he'd never touched that technique manual, getting himself deeply involved and targeted by Restraint Officers.

"I don't know. I just come here every three days, place the human eyes on the windowsill, and birds naturally come to take them away."

Lu Ping pointed at the extra eyes on his forehead and said: "If I don't do this, my body's mutation will spiral completely out of control."

Ren Qing nodded slightly.

It seemed that to conceal its identity, the Hundred-Eyed One hadn't placed informants in Sanxiang City, making Butcher Zhang's situation easier to resolve.

Ren Qing continued approaching, and Lu Ping quickly said: "I've been relatively restrained, those other guys..."

Before he could finish speaking, seeing Ren Qing clearly revealed in the moonlight, he immediately shut his mouth, his expression turning extremely unpleasant.

He had thought it was a Restraint Officer that even the big shots of the River Mud Gang feared, but unexpectedly it was just a yamen runner, and from the looks of it, not even a constable.

"Since when do yamen runners have such broad authority?"

Ren Qing quickened his pace, his Double Pupils already locking onto Lu Ping.

"My apologies, but I'll be borrowing your life." 

Lu Ping revealed a ferocious smile. He drew his machete and charged forward, he was just a mere yamen runner, how could he possibly defeat me?

The machete swung downward from above.

Ren Qing dodged sideways as if foreseeing the attack, drawing his short knife to slash at Lu Ping.

Lu Ping reached out to grab it as the contact between his palm and the blade produced a metallic clanging sound.

Ren Qing took advantage of the momentum to withdraw his short knife, noticing that Lu Ping's palm had grown several eyeballs which were unexpectedly tough.

Just at this moment, the commotion from approaching constables suddenly drew near.

Lu Ping felt the urge to retreat: "Let's each go our own way, pretend we never met..."

Before he could finish, Ren Qing's short knife stabbed between his ribs at an uncanny angle.

Lu Ping felt intense pain erupting from within his body, his breathing becoming rapid, it was obviously the result of severe lung damage.

In his panic, his machete swings grew increasingly erratic.

Ren Qing appeared extremely calm. Although Restraint Officers were likely nearby, finishing off the enemy was still achievable.

He sheathed his knife.

His Double Pupils rotated faster, making the flow of time seem to slow down extremely.

He gripped the hilt and under his gaze, Lu Ping was riddled with openings, countless killing methods flashing through his mind.

Ren Qing chose the simplest one.

Draw the knife.

Lu Ping remained frozen in a fleeing posture, but a thin line still appeared on his neck from which blood seeped out.

His head fell to the ground and rolled several times, still wearing an expression of disbelief.

Ren Qing glanced at the short knife in his hand, the blade edge had curled. Touching anything hard would likely break it.

This knife was left by his predecessor's elder brother, so the material was quite ordinary. He would have to find an opportunity to replace it with a new weapon.

Ren Qing immediately got up and left the temple. Hiding in the grass to observe from afar, he noticed two Restraint Officers quickly approaching along the rooftops.

One of them was Miss Bai whom he'd seen at the prison, jarringly normal in appearance when put against the rest of the painting style.

The other had long arms and legs, covering several meters with each step.

Their target was precisely Wang Bingquan's severed head.

The long-limbed Restraint Officer opened his mouth and spat out a spider-silk-like net to snatch the head and leave, while only Miss Bai calmly glanced in Ren Qing's direction.

Only after the two had left did Ren Qing emerge from his hiding place.