About twenty years ago, bandits were rampant in the north of Dawu Country. Many bandit gangs grew bigger and bigger, often looting homes in the northern counties.
However, the corrupt government did not seem to want to do anything about it. Perhaps the officials' pockets were too full from the tributes given by the bandit gangs, so they 'lacked the ability' to suppress the bandits.
On the side of righteousness, they were at war with the underground at that time, so the chivalrous heroes were also too busy to care about the bandits.
As the bandit forces grew, the notoriety of some gangs also spread far and wide. Among them, the most notorious was a bandit gang called the 'Killing Gang'.
This gang was almost entirely made up of a group of vicious killers and murderers. Unlike ordinary bandits who just wanted money, these people were even more brutal and cruel. Wherever they went, not only did they loot homes, but they had also slaughtered entire villages more than once.
However, what really made this gang hated by the underground society was that they really enjoyed playing a 'killing game' with the residents of the looted villages or towns.
The bandits would first investigate the population of a village, and after killing all the martial artists, they would let the villagers return.
Of course, this was just the beginning of the game.
Later, the bandits would enter the village as if hunting. But each time they only 'hunted' ten 'prey'.
After catching the prey, their game would begin. Sometimes it could be a brawl, sometimes a race, and sometimes rock paper scissors...
The bandits would stipulate that in each game, there would only be one winner, and only the winner could live, while the other nine people would be killed by the bandits.
When the final winner was determined, this round of the game would end. Then the bandits would enter the village to hunt again. After hunting, the villagers would start the next round of the game...
In such a killing game, because the rules only allowed one person to survive, even friendly neighbors, friends and even relatives would go crazy. Fathers would try their best to defeat their own sons in fights, and wives would try to trip their husbands in races to survive...
Former relatives, friends, neighbors, lovers, all showed the ugliness of human nature in this killing game.
And these killers-turned-bandits wanted to see all this to satisfy their madness.
But could they live just by surviving?
No. When the 'prey' in the village was all hunted, it would be the 'final killing game' for the survivors.
And the people who had abandoned all humanity to survive the previous cruel games no longer seemed to have any reason left. They would start playing the game that the bandits claimed would set them free if they survived, in an even crazier and more brutal manner.
Lost reason, even more crazy, even more brutal.
In the eyes of the bandits, the final killing game would be tens of thousands of times more exciting than the previous ones.
Finally, the only one left alive would ask the bandits if he could leave now.
The bandits would smile, and then chop off his head.
Such were the most notorious bandits in the north twenty years ago - the Killing Gang.
...
...
At night, outside the government office, Xiu Wangchou who had been observing for a whole day did not notice any abnormal movements inside the office, so he was slightly relieved.
After all, he had spent twenty years finding that Lin Gang leader, how could he let the other party get away?
Xiu Wangchou took out a plain-looking letter from his arms.
The letter was ordinary, but contained astonishing secrets.
Because it was a 'petition'.
Wang Hu, the deputy head of the Killing Gang back then, had kept a 'petition' by his side for many years.
In that tragic incident back then, the young Xiu Wangchou only vaguely remembered that the bandit group called the deputy head 'Wang Hu', but had no impression of other bandits.
However, by obtaining this petition from Wang Hu, Xiu Wangchou understood who his real big enemy was over the past twenty years.
Xiu Wangchou looked coldly at the government office, but after all, he was seriously injured and his strength was only 60% of what it used to be. According to the petition, the head of the Killing Gang 'Lin Nu' should have at least intermediate-stage earth rank martial arts skills, stronger than Wang Hu by a bit.
The big enmity of twenty years could not be taken lightly.
So at this moment, Xiu Wangchou chose to endure for the time being. In five or six days, when his strength recovered to about 80%, with his upper-stage earth rank martial arts, he would have the confidence to kill an intermediate stage earth rank expert.
However, there was still one problem now - the matter regarding Zhang San.
In the past twenty years, while cultivating under his teacher's painstaking efforts, Xiu Wangchou had constantly roamed the land to do good deeds and settle grudges.
Xiu Wangchou's master was the junior brother of the former head of Star Sea Sect from twenty years ago, and had always self-identified as the orthodoxy of Star Sea Sect over the years. His teaching to Xiu Wangchou was simple and blunt, as blunt as one sentence - abide by the sect rules!
Of course, not the fallen rules of today's dilapidated Star Sea Sect, but the rules of the number one orthodox sect back then twenty years ago.
Eliminate the wicked! Kill the evil!
Avenge enmity! Repay kindness!
Four must-words summed up the elegance of Star Sea Sect back then.
What pained Xiu Wangchou the most last night while he was unconscious was that he could not avenge the grudge from back then!
He even hated himself for not simply killing that Killing Gang leader earlier, but instead wanting to take revenge with a 'killing game'. If only he knew earlier, he should have killed that bastard in the first place.
But Zhang San saved him.
Apart from his teacher's kindness in teaching him for the past twenty years since he started learning martial arts at the age of twelve, Xiu Wangchou had never owed anyone anything. Not only did Zhang San save his life, but also gave him hope again to personally take revenge.
Xiu Wangchou wanted to repay such kindness.
Therefore, although he had seriously been secretly observing the county office today, Xiu Wangchou was always preoccupied with how to repay Zhang San's kindness.
He always felt that repaying kindness was like a stone pressing in his heart, making him somewhat restless.
...
...
The morning sky today was misty.
Xiu Wangchou came to the door of the bookstore, knocking on the door.
He vaguely sensed that Zhang San was probably a prominent doctor hiding in the bustling city, and had chosen to open a small bookstore instead because in such a world ruled by the underground forces and slack governments, he did not want to attract the prying eyes of others with his medical skills.
Judging from his ability to kill the old master of the Wang family and those wicked servants, Zhang San also had some martial arts skills, but should not be too high.
After all, Zhang San looked a few years younger than Xiu Wangchou, it was impossible for him to master medical skills and cultivate martial arts skills to the same level as Xiu Wangchou's upper-stage earth rank at the same time.
Bearing such assumptions in mind to repay kindness and also to confirm his conjectures, the moment the house door opened and Zhang San's face was revealed...
Xiu Wangchou threw the 'poison powder' he had been gripping for a long time!