Wuxia: Starting Off With 60 Years of Inner Strength

With each exchange, men fell dead on the spot.

In just a few moments, more than ten bodies littered the ground.

Jiang Ran, meanwhile, leaned to the side, casually eating and drinking as if it were no concern of his.

Gu Xizhi, however, could no longer watch. This was clearly a massacre of the weak by the strong.

He couldn’t help but take a step forward, his longsword poised to strike.

But at that very moment, a sharp aura enveloped his entire being.

It stopped Gu Xizhi from taking even a single step.

Jiang Ran’s voice drifted over leisurely:

”What do you intend to do, senior?”

”...They are no match for you. Why must you slaughter them all?”

Gu Xizhi sighed.

”As the saying goes, ’Leave a way out in all things, so you may meet again on good terms.’ Don’t let the situation become irreversible.”

”You must be joking, senior.”

Jiang Ran smiled.

”After tonight, the Blood Saber Hall and I are locked in a blood feud.

”Even if we meet in the future, we will inevitably be enemies.

”If I don’t kill them now, should I wait for them to regroup with the rest of the Blood Saber Hall and come back to fight me to the death?

”By then, killing them won’t be as simple as it is today.”

”But...”

Gu Xizhi gritted his teeth and said,

”If you slaughter them so ruthlessly, how are you any different from the Blood Saber Hall?”

”There is no difference.”

Jiang Ran said, as if it were a matter of course,

”Why should there be a difference? If a gentleman treats me with sincerity, I will naturally treat him with sincerity.

”If an enemy treats me with evil, I will naturally repay him with evil.

”Are you suggesting, senior, that I should repay malice with kindness?

”Let’s not even get into the old question: ’If you repay grievance with virtue, with what do you repay virtue?’ As for this business of offering a warm face to a cold shoulder, whoever wants to do it can go right ahead. Just leave me out of it.

”Based on what they did tonight, they could die a hundred times over and it still wouldn’t be an injustice!”

Gu Xizhi was rendered speechless by Jiang Ran’s retort.

He wanted to intervene, but Jiang Ran’s aura had him locked down, and he dared not make a single reckless move.

First, Jiang Ran’s martial arts were so profound that Gu Xizhi felt an indescribable sense of danger from him.

It was as if a single move would unleash a thundering storm.

Second, his trip was ultimately to borrow a zither, not to make an enemy of Jiang Ran.

He couldn’t approve of Jiang Ran’s methods—using his strength to bully the weak and slaughtering them to the last man. But it wasn’t necessary to make an enemy of him over it.

In the end, he sighed, closed his eyes, and refused to watch any longer.

Scholar Jingtan, however, looked at Jiang Ran with a different expression in his eyes.

After the last man was beaten to death by a single punch from Luo Qingyi, Scholar Jingtan finally spoke:

”Now that the external enemies are gone, you...”

Before he could finish, he saw Tang Huayi had already darted over to the surrounding corpses and started looting them.

”This...”

Scholar Jingtan was stunned.

’Gu Xizhi couldn’t bear to witness the one-sided slaughter.’

’He himself could accept it...’

’But he found it hard to accept them looting the bodies after the killing, stealing from the dead.’

’Jiang Ran was going to hold a tea tasting and zither appreciation gathering.’

’Scholar Jingtan had long heard of his name.’

’He knew Jiang Ran had a heroic reputation; that in the battle at the Cangzhou Heroic Assembly, he had slain several bandits from Feiyun Stronghold and saved many people.’

’He also made a living as a bounty hunter, capturing and killing many crooked and evil individuals.’

’But looking at him now, he felt that Jiang Ran himself didn’t seem to be from any righteous or prestigious sect... he seemed capable of anything.’

He turned to look at the others.

The Grand Master had, at some point, already scrambled up a tree.

After killing her share, Luo Qingyi returned to the bonfire to doze off.

Ruan Yuqing, for her part, took out a cotton cloth and carefully wiped the blood from her sword blade.

Watching them act as if nothing had happened, Scholar Jingtan momentarily forgot what he had been about to say...

Tang Huayi was quick and nimble, and she soon gathered all the collected valuables in one place.

She pulled Ruan Yuqing and Luo Qingyi over and started to divide the spoils.

Jiang Ran pursed his lips.

”Leave Chen Zixuan’s share for me. I killed him.”

”Tch...”

Tang Huayi reluctantly tossed a stack of silver notes to the side.

”Worthy of a deputy Hall Master from one of the Thirteen Gangs. He was carrying several hundred taels worth of silver notes just for a trip out.”

”Several hundred taels!?”

Scholar Jingtan was taken aback.

Tang Huayi waved her hand dismissively.

”No need to be so surprised. After all, the man was arrogant and thought no one would dare provoke the Blood Saber Hall, so his silver notes would be safe with him.

”He obviously never expected to meet a violent death out in the martial world.

”And it wasn’t just him. Even these Blood Saber Hall disciples were carrying a lot of money.

”It seems the Thirteen Gangs are really profitable.”

Ruan Yuqing shook her head gently. ”Compared to them, our Five Great Sword Sects are nowhere near as wealthy. Our assets are quite limited.”

”You can’t compare the two.”

Jiang Ran came over with his wine gourd, sat down, and casually picked up the silver notes, stuffing them into his bag.

’Chen Zixuan didn’t have a bounty on his head, so killing him was rather pointless. Still, with these silver notes, it wasn’t a complete waste of time.’

Tang Huayi eyed the bag, knowing it contained an astonishing amount of silver.

’Her eyes darted about as she began to calculate her chances of success if she tried to sneak some of those silver notes out when Jiang Ran wasn’t paying attention.’

Jiang Ran took a sip of wine and said,

”Sects are primarily for passing down martial arts, so they often hide away in the deep mountains to avoid the noisy world.

”Some are self-sufficient, while others have some assets in the cities to provide for their food, clothing, and shelter.

”But gangs rise from the streets and marketplaces, using martial arts and money to gather power.

”Their very foundations are different from the start... Their fights are often about money, so naturally, they’re much wealthier than the Five Great Sword Sects.”