Chapter 89: One Big Bite

The bandit fort at Black Water Beach, located over thirty miles south of Willow Lake City, was keeping a very low profile these days. The great leader, along with several guardians, reportedly didn’t even dare stay in the city. Instead, they had all retreated back to their mountain stronghold, turtled up, and watched the changing situation. Kidnappings for ransom, ambushing traveling merchants, secretly extorting protection money from shops – all such activities had temporarily stopped. Only the begging operations on the city streets were still toiling away on the front lines.

Now, everyone sensed something wrong with the winds blowing through Willow Lake City. A dark cloud hung over the city, growing heavier by the day.

Qi Refiners, rogue cultivators, demonic cultivators – it seemed their numbers had suddenly multiplied. Everyone was wide-eyed, straining their ears, keeping watch on every move and gesture of anyone in Willow Lake City, searching for a rare object. Such brazen, overreaching behavior was considered utterly audacious in the eyes of the Jianghu folks. While the Devouring Sea Gang was vast and powerful, they inevitably clashed with these rogue practitioners several times. The frustrating thing was, despite these fights, the Devouring Sea Gang, supposed rulers of this turf, hadn’t managed to gain the upper hand…

What mattered most when mixing in the Jianghu?

Face!

Taking a step back for greater blessings? That would never happen in the Jianghu. Taking a step back meant losing face.

Lose face, and you lose your reputation. Lose your reputation, and you lose all the benefits.

Who knew how many bloody fights you’d need to wage just to earn back that sliver of face you lost by stepping back?

This was a truth even the lowest-ranking gang members grasped. Yet, Chao, the great leader whom all the fierce bandits and ruthless outlaws of Willow Lake City revered as a god, was uncharacteristically acting low-key and forbearing at this very moment. In those clashes with the foreign rogue cultiators and demonic practitioners that had drifted into the city, he hadn’t exerted any real strength, just barely holding his ground. He himself remained holed up inside the Black Water Fort all day, not even showing his face.

At first, some gang members still said that the great leader surely had his own plans; everyone just needed to endure this period. But as time dragged on day after day, the members couldn’t contain their agitation anymore. If the great leader himself chose not to deal with those wandering Jianghu cultivators, so be it, but why wouldn’t he even let the lower ranks conduct their usual business? Enduring others’ provocations, they could still grit their teeth and bear it for a while. But being forbidden from working? How could anyone stand that?

Just as this restless tension neared its breaking point, a startling piece of news suddenly spread.

The Fang Family of Willow Lake planned to transport a shipment of valuable ‘red goods’ in a few days?

The Fang Family was the undisputed top wealthy household in Willow Lake City, naturally a fat lamb in the eyes of many vicious cutthroats and ferocious brigands. When the grand family’s eldest son was still alive, naturally no one dared touch the Fang Family’s goods. Anyone who tried would immediately earn the wrath of the Academy and the City Governor’s faction. Someone might inquire about the Fang Family one day and find their head already hanging on Willow Lake’s south gate wall early the next morning…

But now, the Fang Family was clearly different!

Back when the eldest son of the Fang Family had just passed, many eyes had already turned towards them. Naturally, no one dared truly try to kill a family member, but their diverse businesses were just sitting there, tempting those watching them. Snatching a piece of it surely wouldn’t carry the same catastrophic consequences as before, right?

The reason the Fang Family remained unscathed for this long was purely because the Devouring Sea Gang had tasted bitter defeat at the Fang Family’s hands earlier.

If even the mighty Devouring Sea Gang couldn’t get their way against the Fangs, others naturally had to weigh their options carefully.

However, lessons are easily forgotten, and greed only brews stronger over time…

Now, months later, many set greedy eyes upon the Fang Family again. They weren’t stupid. Each time, they suppressed their greed, but quickly it surged back stronger. They wanted to sink their teeth into the Fang Family immediately, yet didn’t dare take the first bite, fearing misfortune. Yet, they also didn’t want to be last, afraid they wouldn’t even get the leftovers…

Therefore, once this rumor spread, all the career-driven ferocious bandits and hardened outlaws within Willow Lake City became extremely restless.

……

“Go!”

In a refined and opulent study, the Second Young Master Fang handed a seemingly plain yet clearly valuable-looking wooden box to Xiao Qingliu and asked with a smile, “You’re practiced at this sort of thing, right? Know what to do?”

Xiao Qingliu grinned broadly. “I’d dare to stuff it right under Lao Chao’s pillow…”

“Don’t be reckless!”

Fang Cun lightly tapped Xiao Qingliu’s head with the box. “Why risk delivering it yourself? Make them come take it!”

Xiao Qingliu took the box, tucked it inside his robe, and chuckled, “I was just afraid of delaying your plan, Young Master. From what I can see lately, Lao Chao probably realized he slipped up before. The whole Devouring Sea Gang has tucked in its tail. Ever since that encounter with the Academy disciples on Willow Lake that day, Lao Chao hasn’t even returned to his mansion in the city. He’s holed up in his mountain fort!

“Even the previous activities like robbing traveling traders or secretly collecting those ‘small taxes’ have all stopped. He’d rather spend his own money buying wine and meat for his brothers in the fort. The common folk in Willow Lake City are even starting to say those bandits are turning over a new leaf…”

……

“Lao Chao isn’t dumb. He saw what happened to the demons up in the mountains!”

Fang Cun listened to Xiao Qingliu and didn’t seem particularly surprised. He just smiled faintly. “All the City Governor and the Academy care about right now is finding that Human Elixir. Lao Chao is cautious. He knows he shouldn’t get tangled up in this. Better to hole up in his fort than risk giving someone a handle on him. His approach isn’t exactly wrong… Too bad he never had a real say in how this whole affair played out from the very beginning…”

“Forbidding a fish that sees tasty bait? That’s just cruel…”

……

“The Young Master always speaks such wisdom,” Xiao Qingliu pretended to ponder the words earnestly before praising sincerely. “I’ll handle this right away!”

“Hold on…”

Fang Cun stopped him with a smile. “Always consider the worst-case scenario. What’s the plan if something goes wrong?”

Xiao Qingliu grinned. “I got it. Junk brush!”

He darted out before finishing.

Fang Cun felt a bead of cold sweat form on his forehead as he sighed inwardly. He felt quite helpless. “That perfectly good phrase comes out sounding like an insult…”

……

News of the Fang Family transporting red goods spread. The gang outlaws of Willow Lake City, who had endured for so long, found their patience fraying further.

The fierce reputation of the Devouring Sea Gang’s chief wasn’t insignificant; his rule over his men wasn’t lax.

Yet, precisely under such strict orders, members throughout the Devouring Sea Gang – those truly core members and the usual hangers-on – were all stirred into an inner itch. Clearly, everyone was parroting the great leader’s edict, but their hands, their feet, their mouths, and their knives seemed to be developing minds of their own…

“You hear? The Fangs recently have a shipment of ‘red goods’ worth at least tens of thousands of silver taels coming in…”

“Heard it ages ago. But messing with the Fang Family’s stuff… good idea?”

“Ha! The Fang Family now isn’t the Fang Family of before. Even if some backer is secretly supporting their big businesses, wouldn’t a piece of fat just delivered to your doorstep demand a nip? This shipment? Practically served on a platter. Not too big, not too small. Rob it. Wouldn’t make much of a dent to the Fangs. Even if some protector is shadowing them, surely they wouldn’t kick up a city-wide fuss over mere tens of thousands of taels? And for us? Snatching this shipment is perfect for probing what backing the Fangs actually have!”

“But the great leader… he said recently, no hunting…”

“He only told us lower ranks not to cause too much noise, not to tangle with those foreign scum. If even the great leader goes straight up lawful, how are the hundreds at the south city fort supposed to eat? Drink the northwest wind?”

“Right! Meals lately have been scarce. Used to get four dishes, now only two…”

“But the chief’s orders aren’t something to mess around with…”

“Ha! The city’s crawling with more than just our Devouring Sea Gang now. How many outsiders have slipped in? Even if we leave the Fangs’ stuff alone, can you guarantee others will? If someone else takes a bite, guess who gets blamed? Probably us, the Devouring Sea Gang. Odds are they devour the big piece of fat themselves, dump the blame on us, and laugh behind their hands about how the Devouring Sea Gang is full of cowards who deserved it…”

“That sounds about right…”

“Forget ‘sounds about right,’ hear this? That second son of the Fangs – the arrogance! Saying no one dares touch their goods…”

“Really?”

“Not only that, he publicly mocked our great leader for being a turtle hiding in its shell!”

“Is that true?”

“Not only called the great leader a cowardly turtle, but he also said he’d rip our Devouring Sea Gang out by its roots someday!”

“Mother’s! He’s gone too far…”

“Just a while back, we took a nasty fall at the Twelve Continuous Docks. When else to settle that score but now?”

“The great leader…”

“We bring money into the fort. Would the great leader really turn his back on us?”

“So… do him?”

“We must do him!”

……

The rumors gained momentum, gripping hearts, and finally stirred a shift. Countless hearts hardened secretively with resolve.

Countless hooks were surreptitiously cast, spread across every major and minor crossroads within Willow Lake City.

The city, shadowed by brooding dark clouds for endless days, acquired an extra layer of cunning and oppressive tension…

……

“Willow Lake City’s set to get lively again…”

In the study, Fang Cun let out a light sigh after arranging everything. He beckoned, “Bring it here!”

At a small table to the side, the fox girl Xiao Qingling, seated obediently on a low stool shelling sunflower seeds, brought a plate of freshly shelled seeds over to Fang Cun. Her eyes looked pitiful as she held it high above her head for his convenience.

Fang Cun picked a few seeds and placed them in his mouth. Looking towards the nightly scene outside the window, he chuckled softly. “One big bite was the most delicious way!”