Volume Three: The Turmoil at the Black Tortoise Gate Chapter Eighty-Four: Demanding Payment!

After resting in the room for a little while, until his body had fully recovered and steadied itself, Mingyu told Little Stone and the others to hide well and not show themselves. Then he rose and stepped outside.

By then night had fallen. Dark clouds covered the heavens, and no moonlight could be seen overhead.

A bitter wind swept through, and snow began to drift down in sparse flakes. Li Mingyu drew a deep breath. After hearing what Little Stone and the others had suffered, murderous intent surged within him. These beasts in human skin, today old grudges and new were piled together; it was time to settle accounts once and for all.

As Little Stone had said, this was indeed an abandoned local temple, a three-courtyard compound. It was not small, but it had long since fallen into ruin.

Mingyu looked around and saw that he was in the last of the courtyards, which these men used as a storehouse for discarded temple idols and odds and ends. Broken statues, collapsed stone lanterns, and a huge incense burner with a chipped corner lay strewn about carelessly here and there.

In the main hall ahead, a few points of lamplight flickered, and faint voices could be heard.

Crouching low and using the complicated terrain for cover, Mingyu approached the hall. He hid himself outside a window and listened closely. Inside, two men were speaking.

Their voices sounded familiar. After a moment, he recognized them: one was the Lifetaking Sword, Ma Boliang. He heard him complain, "It was all agreed that once we handed over the people, they would pay at once. But now what? The people are in their hands, and the main party still hasn't shown up, while the reward money keeps dragging on."

The other voice belonged to the smiling Maitreya, Tong Dekun. In a low voice, he soothed him: "Easy there, Old Ma. With their standing, would they ever short us on the reward? This time we've really kicked over a hornet's nest. Didn't you hear the message sent by that man? He's under the Qin Prince's watchful eye now, unable to move and unable to leave the city. He told us to stay here a few days and lie low until the storm passes."

Ma Boliang gave a cold laugh. "Lying low is one thing, but is the Qin Prince someone to trifle with? If it weren't for the reward being so generous, do you think I'd want to take on a job that could cost me my head? What I'm afraid of is that, under pressure, that man may decide to silence us once and for all. Dead men tell no tales."

"This... surely not..." Tong Dekun's confidence faded as he spoke. What Ma Boliang feared was not without reason. To that man, itinerant fighters were nothing at all, no more than a chamber pot to be used and then tossed aside. Besides, the Qin Prince's reaction had been so fierce that it had taken everyone by surprise.

For a time the two sat facing each other in silence, each growing more uneasy, and suspicion began to breed into phantom fears.

Outside, Mingyu had heard every word clearly. A fierce light burned in his eyes. Good. What a narrow path fate had chosen. I was worrying that after taking the reward you two would vanish without a trace, leaving me with no way to avenge myself. You haven't received the money yet, so you've stayed here all this time? Excellent. Truly excellent.

Today, I will settle the old account of the lime you threw into my eyes, principal and interest together.

Still, he considered the matter further. These two were not easy opponents—vicious and sly both. And since he was empty-handed, he was already at a disadvantage. To meet them head-on would be unwise; he needed a plan.

At that thought, Mingyu looked around for something to use as a weapon. His gaze fell on several broken mountain-god statues in the courtyard, each missing some limb or other, and an idea immediately came to him. Yes. That will do.

Having made up his mind, he slipped quietly back into the yard and selected two of the ruined statues. They were about half a man tall: one had no head, the other had lost an arm. Their colors had faded away, and it was impossible to tell what deities they had once been. But both were solid lumps of packed clay, heavy enough.

With a silent apology, Mingyu took one in each hand, gripping the statues by their feet, and with all his strength lifted them as though they were great hammers. Weighing them in his hands, he judged each to be around a hundred or two hundred pounds. Used as weapons, even with his prodigious strength, he could not swing them many times, but he had never intended to use them that way. He meant to throw them once as oversized concealed missiles.

He returned to the outside of the main hall and set the statues down softly. Wetting his fingertip with saliva, he pierced a small hole in the window paper and carefully observed the scene within.

The hall was quite large. In the center stood a massive clay pedestal, the idol that had once rested upon it now long gone. Although lamps were lit, the light was dim because the huge base blocked much of it. The little demon figures that ought to have stood on either side had been used as seats beneath the men’s backsides. The two sat facing each other, drinking and sighing. Tong Dekun happened to have his back turned toward the window.

After confirming the angle, Li Mingyu lifted the statues again, drew a deep breath, and bellowed with a voice like spring thunder, "Ma Boliang! Tong Dekun! I’ve come to collect my debt!"

The two were already full of suspicion and unease. Hearing the shout all at once, they were startled nearly out of their wits, thinking that man had truly sent assassins to silence them.

Before they could react, Mingyu shouted again from outside, "Take this magic treasure!"

As the words rang out, he swung the statue in his left hand and smashed it through the window, hurling it swiftly into the room. The statue in his right hand followed a beat later.

Then Mingyu’s figure flashed forward. He passed through the broken window and leaped into the main hall.

As for Ma Boliang and Tong Dekun, upon hearing Mingyu shout, they were already flustered and were just rising to respond when, with a whooshing cry, a dark blur came crashing down upon them with a violent wind!

The two hastily dodged to their feet, and with a loud crash the clay idol smashed directly into the pedestal in the room, sending fragments of mud flying and dust scattering everywhere.

Before they could even see clearly what had come in, another eerie howl came with a "whoosh!"

Taken by complete surprise, with the enemy hidden and themselves exposed, the two could only keep dodging and shifting aside. Whether by coincidence or by some hidden decree of fate, this was perhaps retribution for their desecration of the idols: in the chaos, Tong Dekun even tripped over one of the little demon figures on the floor and nearly fell.

By the time they avoided the second black blur, Li Mingyu was already inside the room. Driving power through his legs like a lean hunting leopard, he crossed more than a zhang in an instant, swift as lightning and fierce as thunder. In midair he shouted, "Die!" and drove a Black Tiger Heart-Ripping Blow at Tong Dekun’s throat with full force.

The punch came so fast it was truly like sudden thunder before one could cover one’s ears.

Tong Dekun had just steadied himself after stumbling. His face had only enough time to show horror before Mingyu’s heavy fist struck squarely at his throat.

Tong Dekun did not even have time to scream. His throat bone shattered, his head snapped back at a grotesque angle, and he died on the spot.

Ma Boliang was likewise shocked. Only then did he recognize the intruder as Li Mingyu, and he cried out, "It’s you!" His hand went to the sword at his waist.

Having felled one enemy with a single blow, how could Mingyu allow Ma Boliang the chance to draw? He lashed out with a flying kick.

Ma Boliang had only half-drawn his sword when the kick landed squarely on his wrist.

With a crisp crack, his wrist bones broke. A sharp, stabbing pain shot through him, and he cried out in agony, pulling back to retreat and create distance so he could answer with his left hand instead.

But Li Mingyu pressed in step by step, closing the gap and denying him even a moment to breathe. He rammed an elbow into Ma Boliang’s chest, knocking him off balance and sending him stumbling backward.

Then, with both arms spread wide, Mingyu swung down both palms in a double strike to the ears, slapping Ma Boliang across the face.

His hands followed through and seized Ma Boliang by the jaw, wrenching it downward and aside, dislocating the joint.

Those few blows left Ma Boliang seeing gold lights spin before his eyes, his head swimming, his ears ringing. He wanted to cry out, but with his jaw dislocated, he could only make gurgling sounds in his throat.

"Not done yet," Mingyu said coldly. "Again!"

He moved behind Ma Boliang, seized both of his arms from the rear, and yanked them downward. With another crack, he dislocated both shoulders.

Then he hooked a foot behind Ma Boliang’s legs. His stance broken, Ma Boliang collapsed to the ground.

Mingyu bent, grabbed his ankles, and pinched the Achilles tendons at the heels. With a hard squeeze, while Ma Boliang screamed "Hurk, ah, ah!" in agony, Mingyu severed the tendons in both legs.

By then Ma Boliang had lost more than half his life. His leg tendons were ruined, both arm joints dislocated, and he could only lie on the ground and gasp his last, unable even to beg for mercy with a loud cry.

Li Mingyu hooked up his toe and flipped Ma Boliang’s long sword from the floor into his hand, then sneered, "I’ll let you live a little longer. Once I’ve dealt with those vermin, I’ll come back and question you."