“Fine, fine, fine…”
Nie Changhai took a deep breath, pulled out the dagger, and stabbed it fiercely into his heart again.
“Master Jiang, will you spare the old and young of my Nie family now?” Nie Changhai sprayed bloody foam as he gave a bitter, tragic smile.
“You actually scared me a little, looking like that!”
Jiang Tian laughed heartily, patted his chest, and then gave a meaningful smile. “When did I ever say I would spare the old and young of your Nie family? I’m going to annihilate your entire household—leaving not even a chicken or a dog alive! And you’re going to watch them die, one by one!”
“What? You’re going back on your word!”
Nie Changhai’s eyes were splitting with rage. He glared at Jiang Tian with overwhelming hatred, staggered to his feet, then fell back to the ground.
Hearing this, even Ye Gufeng, Long Wu, and Zhou Zhenghao all turned pale and shivered in unison.
To be honest, although Jiang Tian had been dominant before, he had never been one to slaughter innocents. But today, this was truly too ruthless.
“Oh dear, Jiang Tian! You dared to harm my father! I want revenge! I want to kill you—”
In the crowd, a child of seven or eight suddenly stood up, his face filled with malice and gloom, pointing at Jiang Tian and cursing him out.
“Very good! You’ve got guts! You really are Nie Changhai’s son. Knowing to seek revenge at such a young age—you’ve got a bit of a warlord’s spirit!”
Jiang Tian laughed and praised him. “Uncle originally wanted to let you off, but now I can’t give you that chance, okay?”
Xu Ruocheng frowned her delicate brows, quickly stepped forward, grabbed the child, and slammed him directly onto the ground.
“Jiang Tian, I’ll f—”
The child let out a shrill scream as he hit the ground and managed to curse out half a sentence, but then he couldn’t curse anymore.
Because Xu Ruocheng’s long blade had already chopped down. The child’s head flew off, and he fell to the ground, deader than dead.
“My son—!”
Nie Changhai wailed bitterly, glaring at Jiang Tian with endless hatred. “You… you are a demon!”
This was his youngest son, born from a mistress he kept. The boy had always been adorable, but now he had died a violent death.
“Oh, you know my nickname? Could it be that you’re a long-lost classmate of mine from kindergarten?”
Jiang Tian laughed heartily, then swish, swish, swish shot out several silver needles, hitting the major acupoints of Nie Changhai, Nie Mingyuan, Chen Donglin, and Sun Lingyun.
“These are life-prolonging needles. Even if your hearts are pierced and you lose too much blood, they will keep your spirits up and keep you awake and alive until the very last drop of blood in your bodies drains away.”
Jiang Tian stood up lazily, clasped his hands behind his back, and said with a relaxed smile, “During this process, you’ll endure intense physical torment. And on top of that, you’ll get to fully enjoy the beautiful sight of your wives, mistresses, children, parents, and everyone else being slaughtered, one by one.”
With that, he slowly walked outside and smiled, saying, “Everyone, please enjoy this Carnival-like killing night! This kind of opportunity doesn’t come often!”
“Not a single one left. Kill them all.”
Leaving those cold words behind, he walked away without looking back.
“Not a single one left…”
Even tough guys from the underworld like Long Wu, Zhou Zhenghao, and Bai Choufei all shivered in unison.
That was truly ruthless enough.
Who was Jiang Tian, really?
“Primordial Beginning Celestial Venerable”—that was a title of praise from his peers. Back in the day, he rampaged across the universe, slaughtered countless beings, and stained the stars with blood. More often, he was called “Primordial Beginning Old Demon” and “Starry Sky Butcher.”
You could say that ordinary mortals in this world were nothing more than ants and specks of dust in his eyes. Killing them meant nothing. How could it stir even the slightest ripple in his heart? So what if he wiped out three entire families?
As soon as Jiang Tian left, Xu Ruocheng walked toward the crowd kneeling on the ground, her blade in hand, and said indifferently, “Apart from Nie Mingyuan and the three family heads, let the others die quickly and painlessly.”
Swish!
With a single slash of her blade, Nie Mingyuan’s eighteen-year-old daughter fell into a pool of blood, her neck severed.
“Since Master Jiang has given the order, then let’s get to work!”
Zhou Zhenghao cracked his knuckles, his eyes gleaming with excitement.
“Let’s have a good kill! There are dozens of people here! Haha!” Bai Choufei also pulled out a long blade and moved toward the crowd.
Killing—he had done plenty of it over the years. If you don’t kill, how do you rise through the ranks? How do you get things done?
Looking across five thousand years of Huaxia’s history, for those who truly sit at the top, about seventy or eighty percent of their great ambitions and grand achievements are accomplished through killing.
As the saying goes: Killing one man makes you a criminal; slaughtering ten thousand makes you a hero. Kill millions upon millions, and you become the greatest hero of them all!
Everyone began to move. And throughout the entire Nie family villa, heart-wrenching screams began to echo—the wails of children and women, the helpless cries for mercy.
The killing had begun. Heads rolled, blood flowed like a river. The tide had turned against the three great families. No one could escape.
Outside and inside the Nie family villa, several hundred people had actually surrounded the place.
Xu Ruocheng’s Bajiao Club alone had over a hundred elite fighters from various underworld groups. Then there were the crack troops that Long Wu and Zhou Zhenghao had brought from Jiangbei, and Bai Choufei had brought from the Flying Cloud Society in Lingnan. Together, they had the villa surrounded so tightly that not even a fly could get out.
With so many skilled fighters making their move, it was a one-sided slaughter. They met no real resistance.
It was ironically thanks to Nie Changhai’s plan to flee overnight—the Chen and Sun families had all gathered together—that Jiang Tian and his people were able to wipe them all out in one go.
The slaughter lasted half an hour. Gradually, the screams died down, and the crying grew quieter.
Bai Choufei, drenched in blood, stepped out of a room holding a long blade, laughing heartily. “Damn, I’ve been in the game for so many years, but this is the first time I’ve killed with such wild abandon. This is fucking exhilarating!”
“Doing things for Master Jiang—this is exactly how exhilarating it is!”
Xu Ruocheng’s blade had actually become dull from all the chopping, but her eyes were very excited.
“Ah, well. Who told you to provoke Master Jiang? Rest in peace. Don’t open your eyes.”
“How wonderful it is to believe in Buddha, like I do. Your painful lives are over. When you’re reborn as humans, make sure to remember to believe in Buddha, okay?”
Tang Shaoze twirled his Buddhist prayer beads, pressed his palms together, and chanted scriptures to guide the souls of the dead as he went along, chattering nonstop, his face filled with compassion and devout sincerity.
Throughout this process, although Nie Changhai and the other three had been stabbed many times and were bleeding profusely, their consciousness remained completely clear. They watched in agony as their loved ones fell one by one, leaving this world.
“Miss Ruocheng, what should we do next?”
Ye Gufeng looked at the bodies scattered all over the ground. The pungent smell of blood made him very uncomfortable. He frowned and looked at Xu Ruocheng.
“Mr. Ye, don’t worry. Leave everything to me.” Xu Ruocheng gave a charming smile and clapped her hands.
Then, several burly men came out carrying large gasoline drums and drenched the villa inside and out.
Everyone withdrew from the villa.
Xu Ruocheng lit a woman’s More cigarette and took a drag. Sweeping her gaze across the beautiful estate, she sneered, “Don’t look down on a young man just because he’s poor. Who would have thought that the three great families of Jinling… would meet such a miserable end…”
With that, she flicked the cigarette from her hand. It traced an elegant arc through the air and landed in the gasoline.
WHOOM!
With a loud roar, clusters of flames exploded throughout the beautiful European-style estate, like fireworks in the night sky.
“How beautiful!”
Xu Ruocheng praised, completely captivated.
“AHHH—!”
Suddenly, a figure emerged from the flames. He was completely engulfed in fire, screaming in agony.
“Jiang Tian! I won’t let you go! I will never let you go! I want revenge!”
This person, covered in flames, was Nie Mingyuan.
Everyone looked at Nie Mingyuan in silence, but no one stepped forward to help put out the fire.
They just watched as he rolled and flailed on the ground, engulfed in flames. Gradually, the flames died down. But he also slowly lost consciousness on the lawn.
“He doesn’t seem dead. Should we go over and give him another cut?”
Bai Choufei’s eyes were bloodshot from all the killing. He raised his blade, ready to step forward.
“Forget it. There’s still a lot of unburned gasoline. You might catch fire too.”
Ye Gufeng reached out and stopped him.
“Burned like that, how much longer can he last? Even if you sent him to the hospital right now, no god could save him.” Xu Ruocheng said with a dismissive smile.
And so, they all stood on the hillside outside the villa, smoking and chatting, watching the flames blaze fiercely through the villa and the estate.
Bai Choufei and Tie Minghuang even brought out some duck necks, peanuts, and a small bottle of Erguotou liquor to go with their drinking, chatting and laughing heartily and joyfully.
It wasn’t until another half hour had passed and the villa’s flames had gradually died down that everyone finally went their separate ways.
After burning for that long, there was no way anyone could have survived.
As soon as they left, Dee-doo-dee-doo—Woo-woo-woo…
Police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances came racing over.
“Take it easy, boys…”
The fire chief lit a cigarette and said leisurely, “The higher-ups have instructed: take eight hours to put out the fire.”
“Huh? What’s the deal with that?”
“Chief, it’s already burned this much. There’s not much open flame left. We could put it out in half an hour!”
“Yeah, exactly…”
The young firefighters were all stunned, looking completely confused.
“Why worry so much about it? The higher-ups said so…”
The fire chief pulled out a deck of cards like a magician and smiled. “Come on, come on. Let’s play a few rounds of Fight the Landlord first!”
“Come on! Fight the Landlord! Fight the Landlord!” Everyone seemed to catch on. They took off their helmets and enthusiastically joined in this activity that was beneficial to both body and mind.
In the blink of an eye, the sky began to lighten in the east.
Only then did the firefighters lazily stroll into the estate, put out the remaining flames, and drive their fire trucks back. The whole thing took just ten minutes.
…
The next day, the Jinling morning news reported that a villa on the western outskirts had suddenly caught fire. Five people died at the scene, and several others were injured.
The news segment lasted only five seconds. Apart from that, no further details were released.
But in the early hours of the morning after the fire—
Thud!
A slender, graceful figure stood outside the Nie family villa. The luggage in her hand suddenly fell to the ground.
She stared blankly at the black smoke still rising from the ruined, chaotic mess of the Nie family estate. Her pretty face was filled with shock. Then, crystalline tears welled up in her clear, beautiful eyes.
The once beautiful Nie family, the once beautiful times—now turned into crumbling walls, ruins, blackened earth, vanished without a trace.
“Mom… big brother… Xiao Yuan, Xiao Feng…” The woman’s face was deathly pale, filled with sorrow as she murmured in a trembling voice.
Beside her, a tall, handsome young man quickly grabbed her as she swayed unsteadily. He asked with concern, “Xueman, are you all right…”
After hearing the news, Nie Xueman ended her seclusion and rushed over immediately, flying directly. The whole journey took only a few hours. She rushed straight from the airport to the Nie family home without a moment’s delay. But she was still one step too late. Seeing the Nie family home reduced to ruins and chaos, she couldn’t accept it.
“No! How could this be…”
Nie Xueman charged toward the villa like a woman possessed.
In the ruins, she dug and searched until she finally uncovered a small, charred body.
“No!”
Nie Xueman held the severely carbonized, shrunken body close. Her body trembled, tears streamed down her face, and she let out a heart-wrenching cry to the heavens.
Not far away, her senior brother, who had accompanied her, suddenly called out loudly, “Junior sister! There’s a living person over here!”
