Yan Liqiang didn't have to wait too long at the top of the tree. In just a flash, light flooded the courtyard in front of him. Countless Shatu people started yelling and shouting.
He squinted his eyes and observed the situation inside the Shatu people's big courtyard through the gaps among the lush leaves of the tree. Everything was going according to plan. Soon after that, a bearded and strong-looking Shatu man in his fifties came out from one of the rooms inside the courtyard with his clothes draped over his shoulder.
That Shatu man seemed to have been woken up by someone from his sleep. The moment he roared, everyone else in the courtyard suddenly went silent.
When that Shatu man who came out saw the blaze over at the warehouse in the distance, his countenance instantly contorted. After yelling in his gibberish-sounding Shatu language for a while, that person led a big group of Shatu people in the courtyard carrying water buckets and other tools to put out the fire without even getting properly dressed. They charged towards the warehouse that was on fire in the distance.
With this, apart from the five or six Shatu people who remained in the entire courtyard to stand guard, most of the other Shatu people rushed toward the warehouse.
The Shatu man in his fifties from earlier was the leader of the Shatu people in Pingxi City. His name was Aligujin. 99 percent of the Chinese people in Pingxi City would find this name to be unfamiliar because most of them thought that the Shatu people in Pingxi City had no leader. They were under the misconception that they were all from their respective caravans in the Shatu Seven Tribes and weren't subordinates to each other.
A few decades ago, when the population of Shatu people in Pingxi City wasn't as high today, they were indeed like that. The Shatu people in the city were from their respective caravans of the Shatu Seven Tribes.
The Shatu people from the Dark Razor Tribe of the Shatu Seven Tribes were the most influential ones in Pingxi City since they had the highest number of people. In the end, they treated Pingxi City like their home ground and all the Shatu people who came to Pingxi City lived under the rule of the Dark Razor Tribe.
This was a pact and compromise made internally among the Shatu people, unbeknownst to outsiders. This Aligujin was an aristocrat of the Dark Razor Tribe of the Shatu Seven Tribes.
The Shatu people in Pingxi City formed a very detached community. It was impossible for any Chinese in the city to step inside their social circle. Not only that, the Shatu people also put in effort to maintain the secrecy of their internal affairs. Therefore, the understanding and impression that ordinary people in Pingxi City had ofn those Shatu people still remained the same as more than a decade ago.
Pingxi City's Prefectural Governor, Ye Tiancheng, knew a little about the situation regarding the Shatu people within the city because the wealthy Ye Clan of Gan Province was involved in many shady businesses and illegal dealings with the Shatu Seven Tribes. And Aligujin just so happened to be the person in Pingxi City that facilitated the talks between the Shatu Seven Tribes and Ye Tiancheng.
If it weren't for those secrets he discovered while roaming around Pingxi City as a soul, Yan Liqiang wouldn't possibly have known about the internal affairs of the Shatu people.
He also finally understood one thing in regards to the Ye Clan and Ye Tiancheng — the most dangerous entity to a nation and its people were not those fiendish and sinister enemies who openly carried out their evil deeds, but those corrupt officials and the filthy rich influential clans hiding within the country. They held great responsibilities in their hands, yet they sold their countries and their people out for selfish reasons. These corrupt officials and so-called wealthy and influential clans were the abscess and cancer cells of the country. So long as they weren't removed, they'd completely devour the life of the country and push its people into the fire pits of eternal damnation sooner or later.
When Yan Liqiang saw Aligujin rushing in the direction of the warehouse with a group of Shatu people in tow and figured that they had probably arrived there by now, he finally moved. He slid down the tree like an agile cat and bolted a few dozen meters across the street at lightning speed. Arriving at the courtyard's wall, he immediately flipped over to the other side like a huge bird.
When Yan Liqiang was still in midair, his hand had already made its way to his waist. The instant his body flipped over, he released four darts in succession from his hand. The four guards in the courtyard Yan Liqiang's darts pierced their throats and they collapsed to the ground before they could even make any noises.
Without stopping for even a moment, Yan Liqiang bolted inside the manor.
He passed through a corridor. Around the corner at the end of that corridor, the murmured voices and footsteps of two Shatu people rang out from twenty meters away.
Yan Liqiang grabbed two flying needles and flung them out from his hand. After traveling over a distance of twenty meters, the two flying needles made an odd curve around the corner. The conversation between the two Shatu people instantly ceased...
When Yan Liqiang launched the two flying needles, he continued charging forward without stopping. By the time he went around the corner, the bodies of the two Shatu guards had stiffened up as they rigidly fell flat on their faces. It turned out that the two flying needles Yan Liqiang shot out had pierced into the area between their chests and abdomen.
He quickly pulled out the two flying needles from their bodies and then sliced their throats with the blade of his shortsword, instantly ending the lives of those two Shatu guards.
There was a house not too far ahead of this corridor. Yan Liqiang rushed towards the house, pushed open the door, and barged into the room without a second thought.
He found himself in place which looked like a lounge with a bedroom further inside the house.
When Yan Liqiang went in, a sexy Shatu woman was seated in front of her dressing table, clad in a thin layer of pajamas. When she heard the sound of her door being pushed open, she turned around and found herself staring at Yan Liqiang...
Before the terror in the eyes of this Shatu woman could turn into a scream, Yan Liqiang charged towards her and gave her neck a chop with his palm, instantly knocking her out in front of her dressing table.
Yan Liqiang reached his hand beneath the bed in this bedroom and fumbled around before he finally found a switch. He pressed on it as hard as he could and opened a secret compartment beneath the bed.
He pulled open the secret compartment and found a wooden box that was about two feet long and a foot wide. He opened the wooden box to reveal a dazzling sight before his eyes.
Inside the wooden box was a bunch of various pearls, jewels, and thick stacks of silver notes. Yan Liqiang emptied the contents of the box into the sack he carried on his back without any hesitation.
After he was done with that, he knocked the bottom of the wooden box and fumbled around with it for a moment before he pulled open yet another compartment at the bottom part of the wooden box.
Inside that compartment was a black porcelain bottle about the size of a palm sealed with wax, a book wrapped with silk cloth, two translucent crystals about the size of pigeon eggs that were glowed with a strange luster, and a metal cylinder about half a foot long...
Yan Liqiang didn't know what they were either, but he figured that anything stored inside the hidden compartment of this wooden box was definitely more valuable than the pearls, jewels, and silver notes stored in the compartment above. Without thinking, he packed all these items inside his backpack too.
In just less than two minutes, Yan Liqiang managed to empty out everything that was hidden inside the secret compartment under the bed.
He gave the room a final scan before he quickly left the room with his sack. Half a minute later, Yan Liqiang had already flipped over to the other side of this big manor's wall again and was back outside.
"HU LENG…!?" A group of about ten Shatu people holding various tools to put out the fire and lanterns just came out from the corner nearby. They seemed like they were on their way to put out the fire. When Yan Liqiang flipped over the courtyard wall, he coincidentally bumped into this group of Shatu people.
'Hu leng' meant 'who' in the Shatu language.
To answer that Shatu man, Yan Liqiang let loose an arrow.
The arrow went through the Shatu man's open mouth and pierced through the back of his head. The impact sent the Shatu man flying backwards.
The Shatu people beside him started yelling. Some of them pulled out the scimitars they carried around and charged towards Yan Liqiang.
Yan Liqiang stood unmoving on the street. Using the fastest speed possible, he drew his bow and released about two to three arrows every second. In just five to six seconds, he shot everyone dead in the group on the main street. Not even one of them managed to escape. The formidability of archery was undoubtedly revealed at this moment.
The commotion on the main street immediately caused more clamor in the surroundings. Before the appearance of more Shatu people, Yan Liqiang's silhouette had already blended into the darkness long ago as he bolted towards the Nine Dragons Bridge like a black shadow.
When Yan Liqiang was close to the Nine Dragons Bridge, he heard the gallops of rhinodrake steeds behind him. Some Shatu people had already come to their senses and were giving chase on their steeds, coming at him from all directions.
Yan Liqiang crossed the river and arrived at the eastern part of the Nine Dragons Bridge. He climbed up the roof of a house and after waiting in silence for a moment, he saw a group of Shatu people chasing him all the way here on their rhinodrake steeds.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
In the darkness, the longbow in Yan Liqiang's hand was like the harbinger of death. Before any Shatu man could even ride past the Nine Dragons Bridge, all of them were already in a complete mess as Yan Liqiang shot everyone off their steeds.
After Yan Liqiang shot all the remaining twenty arrows in his quiver and ended the lives of over twenty Shatu people, he threw away his longbow and quiver. With a different voice, he laughed loudly on the roof. His voice resounded in all directions. "Grandchildren of the Shatu, your grandfather, I, King Cobra, am here! Come chase me if you don't want your life, hahahaha!"
Upon hearing his words and the pile of corpses ahead of them, none of the Shatu people at the back dared to charge past the Nine Dragons Bridge.
Yan Liqiang leaped off the roof and disappeared into the dark alley behind the Nine Dragons Bridge like a shadow. In less than two minutes, he found himself somewhere around the small building that he was renting. After ensuring that no one was around, he hopped over the fence and landed in his courtyard.
He went into the building, closed his windows, changed his clothes, and took off his mask. Yan Liqiang almost couldn't hold his own laughter back...
He put away the black backpack in his room and climbed onto his bed...
In just a short while, he heard the military horses in the city gallop towards the Nine Dragons Bridge.
It seemed like things would get lively again...