Chapter 35: The Black Wind Gang Leader—Dead! (Bonus Chapter, Please Keep Reading)

"Xu Biao, what are you doing over there? Where is the person you were chasing just now?"
Zhao Hai stood beneath the eaves, brandishing a large machete, gazing at Xu Biao’s back with a furrowed brow.
His instincts told him that something was wrong with Xu Biao.
So he didn't rush over, instead holding his machete across his chest, keeping his eyes fixed on Xu Biao while surveying his surroundings for the figure that had flickered past the doors and windows.
Xu Biao, standing in the courtyard and letting the rain soak him, suddenly moved.
He turned around, treading through the puddles, and walked toward Zhao Hai.
His mouth did not open, yet a voice emerged.
"The man is dead!"
Zhao Hai’s unease deepened.
Xu Biao’s face was expressionless, his gaze dull, his movements stiff—he seemed less a living man than a corpse being manipulated like a puppet.
Even the voice was wrong; it wasn’t Xu Biao’s.
"Stop! Don’t come any closer!"
Zhao Hai shouted harshly, "You’re not Xu Biao! What are you?"
"Why am I not Xu Biao? Take a good look—how am I not Xu Biao?"
Xu Biao did not stop. Fresh blood streamed from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, making him look grotesque and terrifying, like a vengeful specter.
Huang Bao, hearing Zhao Hai’s words, stepped out from the house just in time to witness the uncanny scene. He shrieked in terror:
"Ghost! There’s a ghost! It’s the man we killed, come back as a vengeful spirit to claim our lives!"
Screaming, he fled back inside, crying out about the ghost.
Zhao Hai heard Huang Bao, stared at the bizarre Xu Biao, and felt his scalp crawl. Was a ghost really here for revenge?
Had Zhao Hai possessed Shang Lu’s sharp vision, he would have seen a blood-red figure clinging to Xu Biao’s back, controlling his body, making him move as a walking corpse.
Xu Biao was already dead.
Moments before, Xu Biao had rushed out of the house and fallen into the ambush set by Shang Lu and Madam Third.
First, he was stealthily attacked by the invisible Madam Third, his energy center shattered and his vitality drained, then Shang Lu finished him with a single stroke.
Poor Xu Biao, despite his martial prowess, was caught unawares by two cunning foes and never had a chance to fight back.
Huang Bao was not wrong—there was indeed a ghost seeking revenge.
"Someone! Someone!"
Zhao Hai shouted loudly, hoping to summon the gang members outside the side courtyard.
He feared neither Xu Biao nor ghosts, but if Xu Biao had become a vengeful spirit, he felt uncertain.
Even though his men had little strength, their numbers would bolster the yang energy, perhaps enough to drive away the vengeful ghost possessing Xu Biao.
But no matter how loudly Zhao Hai shouted or how frantically Huang Bao screamed, the gang members outside seemed collectively deaf, showing no response.
At that moment, Xu Biao, bleeding eerily from all his orifices, lunged at Zhao Hai.

"So what if you really are a vengeful ghost? When you were alive, I could kill you—dead, I still don’t fear you!"
Zhao Hai’s ferocity was fully unleashed. Roaring, he wielded his wild wind blade technique, slashing at Xu Biao with swift, furious blows.
The wind from the blade scattered the raindrops under the eaves and left Xu Biao’s body battered and blood splattered.
Despite his burly stature, Xu Biao was hacked in half at the waist after several blows.
A ghost isn’t so terrifying after all! Zhao Hai was about to relax when he saw that, even sliced in two, Xu Biao still moved.
Xu Biao’s upper body crashed into Zhao Hai’s chest, arms flung wide, clinging tightly to him.
His lower body locked around Zhao Hai’s legs like a human sandbag.
Terrified, Zhao Hai couldn’t tell whether the moisture soaking his clothes was rain or cold sweat.
He bellowed, trying to shake Xu Biao off.
But Xu Biao, in two pieces, clung to him like two sheets of sticky dog-skin plaster, impossible to shake free.
A frigid chill surged from Xu Biao, piercing Zhao Hai’s energy center below his navel.
"Ah—"
Zhao Hai felt as if sharp ice spikes stabbed deep into his abdomen, the pain excruciating!
Worse still, the strange cold instantly froze his energy center, blocking the flow of his vital channels, trapping his energy and blood before the energy point.
Madam Third’s chilling aura could help Shang Lu break through meridians, but also freeze an enemy’s channels, weakening their power.
Zhao Hai panicked, never having encountered such a situation. He desperately tried to muster his energy to break through the frozen center.
He also bit his tongue, spraying hot blood onto Xu Biao’s face.
He’d once heard from a corpse driver from Chu that the blood from a person’s tongue tip was rich in yang energy, bane to evil spirits and demons.
He had no idea if it was true, but in this moment, he had to try.
Xu Biao was splattered with blood, yet remained powerful, unmoved.
He even spat blood back at Zhao Hai.
Clearly, the tongue-tip blood was useless, at least against Xu Biao now.
Zhao Hai was utterly frightened.
He struggled to escape the side courtyard and seek help, but Xu Biao’s corpse held him fast, slowing his movements.
He heard something behind him and thought it was Huang Bao, crying for help.
But a gust of wind swept toward him from behind.
Zhao Hai tried to dodge, but his legs were trapped by Xu Biao’s lower half, which, though weighing barely a hundred pounds, made him stumble and unable to use his footwork.
He tried to draw his blade, but Xu Biao’s upper half locked his arms tight.
Even as he forced energy to shatter Xu Biao’s arm bones, the grip only tightened.
All Zhao Hai could do was twist his neck to look behind him.
He saw an axe, swinging down with the force to split a mountain.

He recognized the axe—it belonged to Yuan Guilong.
Was his attacker Yuan Guilong?!
Zhao Hai instinctively shouted, "Yuan Guilong? Why are you trying to kill me?!"
"Yuan Guilong" gave no answer, but the axe, heavy as a thousand pounds, struck Zhao Hai’s skull.
In the final moment, Zhao Hai gathered his energy atop his head, hoping to block the blow.
If it really was Yuan Guilong, he might still have a chance to survive.
But the force unleashed by the axe was not that of a bone-refining master—it was of the meridian stage!
The power was not only ferocious but surged in waves, each stronger than the last!
When had Yuan Guilong gained such strength?!
Zhao Hai was stunned. His protective energy collapsed in an instant. It sounded as though thunder exploded in his ears, but it was the sound of his skull being split open.
Agony crashed over him like a tide; he didn’t even manage a scream before his life ended.
Thus perished the Black Wind Gang leader, once infamous in Luoshui County, who had committed countless crimes and considered himself untouchable.
His head was cleaved in two, like a pig’s head on a butcher’s block.
Even in his dying moment, Zhao Hai couldn’t fathom who dared kill him, and actually succeeded.
Was it really Yuan Guilong? But how could he possess the power of the meridian stage?
Nor did he understand how the dead Xu Biao could move. Was it really a vengeful soul claiming his life?
After Zhao Hai’s death, Madam Third departed from Xu Biao’s body.
Xu Biao’s corpse lost its animation and collapsed in the rain, motionless.
Shang Lu, carrying the axe, hurried inside, only to find Huang Bao already dead.
His face was frozen in terror, and his trousers were soaked through—he had died of fright from the "vengeful ghost."
With such cowardice, it was no wonder his cultivation never advanced and he could only serve as a scheming advisor in the shadows.
Shang Lu produced four pairs of boots from his raincoat and quickly stamped them all over the ground.
The boots, muddy and wet, left a chaotic mess of footprints.
Madam Third crawled along and carefully erased Shang Lu’s prints.
Once the scene was staged, Shang Lu packed away the boots.
At last, the gang members outside the courtyard began to react, shouting to ask what was happening, some trying to force open the locked gate.
Shang Lu wasted no time. He hoisted Xu Biao’s two halves and Huang Bao’s corpse onto his shoulder and called to Madam Third:
"Quick, let’s hide these bodies first, then slip back in during the chaos and make a fortune."