Chapter 4: Murder

Inside the dilapidated temple.

Su Mu’s body remained motionless, his gaze shifting toward the direction from which the sound had come.

The darkness was a blur, making it difficult to discern objects.

"Are those the guys who were peeping at me all day? What do they want?"

Various thoughts flashed through Su Mu’s mind. Based on the sounds coming from the darkness, he had already roughly identified who was making the noise.

The next moment.

Su Mu’s figure pressed against the ground, sliding backward silently.

Ever since he had mastered the basics of his blade technique, his physical fitness had improved to a certain degree. He wouldn't call himself strong, but he was certainly agile.

"The kid should be fast asleep by now. Get ready to move!"

A low voice drifted in on the night breeze.

Judging by the voice, Su Mu recognized the speaker as a man named Feng Debao. He made a living by begging and often bullied the refugees living in the dilapidated temple.

"Boss, does this kid really have that much money on him?"

Another low voice came from the darkness. "What if he doesn't? Wouldn't it be a waste to take such a big risk to kill him?"

"I asked around at the Woodcutter Gang. This kid earns at least fifteen wen every day from them. Based on my observations, he barely spends any money. In these past few days, he’s saved at least three or four hundred wen—more than we make begging in a month!"

Feng Debao’s voice replied, "If we kill him, we’ll have an easy month. Besides, no official runner is going to care about the death of a single refugee."

"That’s true. We’ll just dump his corpse outside the city walls later; who’s going to care how he died?" a third voice added.

Su Mu heard clearly; the other two voices belonged to beggars who always hung around Feng Debao, known as Cheng Ermao and Jiang Liangtian.

The trio’s conversation made Su Mu’s eyes widen.

He knew this world was cruel, but he hadn't expected that someone would commit murder for a mere three hundred wen!

They were nothing but animals!

He was trembling with rage, but he knew he had to stay calm.

His Fubo Blade Technique had only just reached the entry level; he had no guarantee of victory against three opponents.

Gripping his wood-chopping knife tightly, Su Mu placed his toes on the ground and continued to retreat silently. He backed all the way to the corner of the wall before slipping along the edge to circle behind the three men.

The night was deep and pitch-black; from a distance, one could only see blurred outlines.

Feng Debao and his companions assumed Su Mu was still in the pile of straw. They stood up simultaneously and crept toward it.

They were completely unaware that a figure, curled up almost into a ball by the wall, was quietly shifting its position.

The temple wasn't very large, and the three men quickly reached the spot where Su Mu had been sleeping.

They exchanged a glance, a fierce, murderous glint flashing in their eyes.

"Do it!" Feng Debao whispered.

The three of them lunged at the straw pile almost at the same time.

*Bang!*

They lunged into empty air, all of them crashing into the straw pile and tumbling into a heap.

Nobody?!

Su Mu had clearly been sleeping here before dark; how could he have disappeared?

Feng Debao and his companions scrambled up in a panic.

"Now is the time!"

Su Mu gripped his knife tightly. With a "Hidden Wave Surprise" strike, his body suddenly lunged forward, the blade swinging out.

In the darkness, Su Mu couldn't see the three men clearly, so he relied on his memory to aim for Feng Debao, the tallest of the three.

He put every ounce of his strength into this strike, not daring to hold anything back.

*Shhh-la...*

The sound of tearing fabric rang out.

Su Mu’s momentum didn't stop; he lunged forward, rolled, and vanished back into the darkness.

"Who?!"

Cheng Ermao and Jiang Liangtian only felt a dark shadow flash by, and they screamed in terror.

They instinctively turned their heads toward their leader.

Only to find Feng Debao standing stiff and motionless.

"Bo—"

Cheng Ermao pushed on Feng Debao’s shoulder.

Blood erupted from the side of Feng Debao’s neck like a fountain.

The blood sprayed all over Cheng Ermao’s face, choking off the rest of the word "Boss."

Screams erupted inside the dilapidated temple.

The other residents were awakened by the terrified cries of Cheng Ermao and Jiang Liangtian. They were all survivors of a recent demon massacre and were already skittish; thinking that another demon disaster had broken out, they scrambled up and fled outside without looking back.

"Good chance!"

A fierce light erupted in Su Mu’s eyes.

These three animals were willing to kill for a few hundred wen—not one of them could be left alive!

Unable to see the state of Feng Debao’s corpse, Su Mu felt no nervousness about killing for the first time.

He sprang up, his knife swinging out again, the movement as fluid as if he had practiced it a thousand times.

The knife swept from bottom to top, slicing across Cheng Ermao’s lower body, cutting open his abdomen and splitting his chest.

Cheng Ermao’s scream cut off abruptly, and blood flowed like a small stream...

Su Mu panted slightly; killing two people in a row had exhausted him.

But now was not the time to rest.

Jiang Liangtian was already scrambling on his hands and feet toward the exit of the temple.

"You aren't escaping!"

Su Mu took a deep breath, covered the distance in two steps, and stomped on Jiang Liangtian’s back.

*Puchi.*

The knife hacked into the back of Jiang Liangtian’s neck.

This wasn't any specific technique; it was just a simple hack.

Even if it didn't kill him, the rusty blade would surely give him tetanus.

However, it was clear that Jiang Liangtian’s constitution didn't need the help of tetanus. When Su Mu pulled the knife out, his head lolled to the side, nearly detached from his body; there was no way he could survive.

Driven by the lingering ferocity in his chest, Su Mu quickly searched Jiang Liangtian’s body, stuffing whatever he found into his clothes without looking.

Then, he returned to the corpses of Feng Debao and Cheng Ermao and repeated the process.

After finishing all this, Su Mu slipped out of the temple into the darkness.

...

Su Mu ducked into an alleyway. Only after confirming there was no one around did he sit down on the ground and gasp for air.

He wiped his hands vigorously on his clothes, but the sticky sensation lingered.

Only then did the aftereffects of killing set in. His stomach churned, and after a bout of dry heaving, his nervous state slowly began to calm down.

It was his first time killing, and he had killed three at once.

But once he crossed that mental hurdle, it didn't seem so hard to accept.

Su Mu was surprised that he could calm down so quickly; three human lives hadn't caused him much distress.

"The temple is crowded and full of eyes. It’s hard to say if anyone saw me kill those three."

After calming down, Su Mu began to reflect. "Although killing three beggars isn't a big deal in this world, if someone reports it, the city runners wouldn't mind catching a murderer like me to meet their quotas. I can't go back to the temple, and it’s best if I leave the South Street area entirely. It’s a pity I haven't saved enough money to change my household registration. If I had, I could find a proper place to settle down. Unlike now—without a registration, I don't even have the qualifications to rent a room."

Su Mu sighed inwardly.

Suddenly, he slapped his forehead.

How could he have forgotten this?

He pulled a pile of scattered items from his chest—everything he had just scavenged from the bodies of the three men.

Any friend who kills often knows that after a kill, you must loot the corpse; you never know what kind of big harvest you might find.

...

Inside the dilapidated temple, several runners dressed in black uniforms were examining the three corpses.

"They were killed by a blade, not by demons."

The expression on the runner’s face relaxed significantly.

As long as it wasn't demons, the death of a few beggars was no big deal.

"Tsk tsk, decisive and clean. The person who did this must have practiced blade techniques." Another runner flipped the bodies over and clicked his tongue. "These three probably offended some gang and got taken out."

If it was a gang vendetta, they would be even less inclined to meddle.

"You lot, dump the bodies in the mass grave outside the city. If an epidemic starts here, you won't be able to afford a doctor," they said casually to the onlookers, then yawned and left.

Once they confirmed it wasn't demons, the refugees breathed a sigh of relief.

As for Feng Debao and his two companions, no one felt any sympathy for them; they only found their deaths to be bad luck. Especially those poor souls who were assigned to carry the bodies.

...

Su Mu didn't know what had happened in the temple afterward. He was looking at the items in front of him, his face full of surprise.

New author, new book—please show your support, thank you everyone~

(End of chapter)