After bidding farewell to the auntie, Song Wen arrived outside house number twenty-five.

The house appeared somewhat dilapidated. It seemed indeed that no one had lived there for some time.

Song Wen turned and left Copper Gong Alley.

The auntie said Gou Hang had moved away more than twenty days ago, which should be right around the time Tang Liang had ambushed him.

This was enough to show that Gou Hang was an extremely cautious person. Having guessed that Song Wen might come looking for trouble, he had fled in advance.

Song Wen returned to the main road. When passing by a ready-made clothing shop, his thoughts stirred, and he walked in.

A moment later, he emerged having changed into a set of dark martial attire. He wore a conical bamboo hat with a thin veil draping down around the edges, giving him quite the air of a rogue martial artist wandering the rivers and lakes.

Song Wen made his way to a tavern not far from the entrance of the Heavenly Fiend Gang, taking a seat by the window on the second floor.

The view from this position was excellent, offering a clear line of sight to the main gate of the Heavenly Fiend Gang.

He waited for nearly half a day. It was not until the afternoon that he finally saw Gou Hang emerge from the compound, accompanied by two underlings.

Song Wen did not disturb the three men but rather trailed far behind them.

He followed them from afternoon until nightfall, witnessing firsthand what true scoundrels looked like.

Extorting small street vendors, eating without paying, harassing young wives on the roadside, oppressing beggars...

Had he not seen it with his own eyes, Song Wen could hardly believe someone could commit so many petty, wicked acts in just one short afternoon.

Finally, the three men entered a cheap brothel. Just when Song Wen thought he would have to wait outside for a long time, the three came out in less than a quarter of an hour.

"Fuck, are they tigers? That fast!"

Song Wen couldn't help but curse inwardly. Then, taking advantage of the deepening night, he tailed the three to a civilian house.

The house was somewhat low-roofed and consisted of three rooms. Only the central main room had a proper door for entry and exit. The other two side rooms had no doors leading outside, only windows.

Gou Hang and his two underlings were all solitary bachelors. During this period, the three usually huddled together in this very house.

Song Wen glanced at the sky. It was now past midnight-the perfect hour for murder under a dark moon and high wind.

Song Wen straightened his sleeves, concealing a packet of powder he held in his palm. He stepped forward and knocked firmly on the door.

"Who is it? In the middle of the goddamn night!"

A burly man cursed and yelled as he swung the door open.

"Song...?"

Seeing Song Wen, the burly man looked astonished, completely unable to comprehend why Song Wen would appear at his doorstep so late at night.

However, before he could finish speaking-

Bang!

Song Wen kicked him squarely into the room, sending him crashing onto a table behind.

The commotion quickly drew the attention of the two in the side rooms. Gou Hang and another burly man came rushing out.

Seeing Song Wen's sudden appearance, Gou Hang's face turned pale with alarm.

"Song Wen, how did you find this place?"

Song Wen flung his left hand forward, scattering a cloud of powder through the air straight toward Gou Hang. In an instant, the entire main room was choked with white dust.

This white powder was a mixture of quicklime and caustic soda.

Caught completely off guard, the three were hit instantly.

"Ah... my eyes..."

The three clutched their faces, letting out continuous shrieks of agony. One burly man even had blood leaking from between his fingers.

"Song Wen, you despicable dog! What exactly do you want?" In the chaos, Gou Hang retreated blindly while shouting his stern demand.

Gou Hang still held a sliver of hope. He had never directly clashed with Song Wen before, and he hoped to muddle through by playing dumb.

"What do I want? Of course, to repay Dog Lord for his 'guidance' in recruiting me, and to settle the score for you colluding with Tang Liang to ambush me," Song Wen said, his voice dropping to a freezing register.

"Tang Liang was the one who attacked you! Go find Tang Liang! What does it have to do with me?"

"Don't worry, soon enough, he will definitely meet you down in hell."

"Song Wen, you are a dignified Cultivator, yet you use such lowly tactics like throwing lime! Have you no shame?"

While speaking, Gou Hang had already felt his way into one of the side rooms. The side room had windows both at the front and back. As long as he could leap through the back window, there was still a chance of survival.

"Enough. Talk is cheap, and at least you get to die knowing why. Go to hell."

The only reason Song Wen hadn't struck sooner was that the powder hadn't completely settled; he didn't want to be blinded by his own underhanded trick.

Now, the dust had mostly cleared.

With a sharp dagger already gripped in his hand, Song Wen leaped forward like an eagle spreading its wings, pouncing on the nearest man.

Pfft!

The razor-sharp blade pierced straight into the man's skull.

With a forceful twist, Song Wen didn't even check to see if the man was dead. He ripped the dagger out, took two strides forward, and buried it into the second man's chest.

Then, dagger in hand, he lunged toward Gou Hang at the back of the room.

Just as Song Wen thought victory was assured, he suddenly saw Gou Hang raise his right hand. Through the tearing of his sleeve, a hidden sleeve-arrow device strapped to his wrist came into view.

Staring down the barrel of the sleeve-arrow at point-blank range, Song Wen's soul nearly left his body. He hastily dropped his weight.

Whoosh!

The bolt shot past, grazing the hair on Song Wen's scalp.

Having barely evaded the deadly shot, Song Wen lunged upward and drove the dagger directly into Gou Hang's chest.

Looking at Gou Hang lying on the ground, his breathing gradually fading into nothingness, a surge of lingering fear washed over Song Wen.

Fortunately, he had used the blinding powder first. Otherwise, he might truly have fallen victim to the sleeve-arrow hidden up Gou Hang's sleeve.

This Gou Hang was truly a patient viper, keeping his venomous card hidden until the absolute last moment.

Afterward, Song Wen began absorbing the essence blood of the three men. During the process, he intentionally experimented with his abilities.

He discovered that he had to physically touch a wound to rapidly devour the essence blood. When his hand left the wound, the gathering speed dropped noticeably. If his hand completely lost contact with the corpse, he could still absorb it, but it became excruciatingly slow-so slow it was almost undetectable, as if he were merely drawing in the stray blood qi dispersing into the air.

Furthermore, the blood-devouring process was entirely controllable.

With a single thought, Song Wen could initiate or halt the consumption at will.

A few moments later, the three burly men had been reduced to three desiccated, shriveled husks.

Having devoured the essence blood of three full-grown men, the blood qi within Song Wen's body surged violently, causing every cell in his flesh to tremble.

His mental state shifted from the frantic euphoria he had felt during his very first kill to a heavy, dizzying intoxication from the sheer abundance of energy.

Perhaps because he now had prior experience, his own essence blood and spirit were starting to adapt to these sudden spikes. This time, his mind and body didn't lose control; he merely felt an uncomfortable, overstuffed pressure.

This assassination had been carefully premeditated, so Song Wen was naturally not as unprepared to handle the corpses as he had been the first time.

He dragged the three dry husks onto the bed, then piled flammable clothes, quilts, and bedding on top of them.

Reaching into his shirt, Song Wen pulled out a leather water pouch. Inside was fierce oil-a highly volatile substance quite similar to the gasoline from his previous life.

He doused the dry corpses with the fierce oil, pulled out a fire-starter flint, struck it, and tossed it onto the bed before turning to leave without a backward glance.

In an instant, raging flames erupted within the chamber. Because the house was a simple wooden structure, the entire building was engulfed in a blazing inferno within moments.

The nearby residents were quickly startled awake by the roar of the fire. Yet, as they gathered to watch the spectacular blaze, perhaps because Gou Hang had committed too many heinous, unforgivable acts in his daily life, not a single person stepped forward to help put it out.

The closest neighboring houses were about three zhang away, so these onlookers weren't even worried about the fire spreading to their own homes.