Chapter 284: Chapter 125: I Am No Saint, but I Have a Chivalrous Heart
Inside the wooden cabin, the light was dim. A single oil lamp flickered in a corner, twisting shadows into grotesque, menacing forms.
A man, blind in his left eye, stood in the center of the room. He gripped a blood-stained leather whip, and his face was a knot of brutal muscle.
Yang Jing could tell at a glance that the man’s aura was impure. He was only a Martial Artist who had just reached the first stage, likely an ordinary leader in the River Gang.
Before him, a thick rope hung from a rafter, a young woman bound to its end.
She was thin and frail, her complexion sallow—a clear sign of long-term malnutrition.
Her hands were tied and pulled high above her head, leaving only her toes to barely touch the ground. The simple undergarment she wore had been whipped to shreds. Her exposed skin was a crisscrossing mess of lash marks, a mangled ruin of flesh. Blood dripped from her wounds, pooling on the floor in a small, dark red stain.
There was nothing salacious about the scene, only shocking, gut-wrenching cruelty.
The woman had long since lost the strength to struggle. Her head lolled to one side, as if she had fainted.
But whenever the whip whistled through the air and landed on her body, a faint, agonizing cry would still escape her throat.
Yang Jing’s gaze swept across the room, and his brow instantly furrowed into a knot.
In a corner of the room lay three more bodies—or more accurately, three corpses.
They were all young women, their bodies also covered in lash marks so deep they exposed bone. They were no longer breathing, clearly having been whipped to death.
"Tsk..."
The one-eyed man cracked the whip a few more times, then stopped. He actually stuck out his tongue and licked the woman’s mangled shoulder, a sick look of enjoyment and pleasure on his face, as if savoring some rare delicacy.
He took a deep breath, inhaling the thick scent of blood in the air. A crazed red light flashed in his eye as he muttered to himself, ’The Gang Leader was always going on about rules, never letting me cut loose... Hahaha, well, look now! The entire River Gang is about to be wiped out. Who’s left to control me?’
’I’m going to die anyway, might as well have some fun before I go...’ He hefted the whip in his hand and licked his lips. ’If I’m not dead by tomorrow, I’ll go grab a few more from the refugee camp. They might look filthy, but you clean ’em up a little, and they’re all tender young beauties...’
The shadow of death that had loomed for days had clearly driven this already twisted man completely insane.
Standing outside the window, Yang Jing watched the one-eyed man lash the woman again and again. He listened as her faint cries of pain grew quieter until they were almost inaudible. Her breath was hanging by a thread; she was on the verge of death.
A chill rose from the depths of his heart and spread rapidly through his entire body.
Compared to the killer lurking in the shadows, this scum who reveled in wanton cruelty out of desperation disgusted and enraged him even more.
Yang Jing’s expression darkened, a cold light glinting in his eyes.
He bent down and picked up a sharp, finger-length splinter of wood from the ground.
The next moment, he walked to the cabin door, reached out, and gently pushed open the unlatched wooden door.
CREAK—
The old wooden door let out a grating sound as it swung open, piercingly clear in the dead of night.
The one-eyed man whipped his head around, his savage gaze locking onto the figure in the doorway.
Seeing that the newcomer was a complete stranger—not one of his River Gang brothers, nor anyone who’d come for help—he frowned. His grip on the whip tightened as he growled, "Who are you?"
Before his voice had even faded, he saw Yang Jing’s body remain still, only his right hand flicking upward slightly.
A blur shot through the dim light, too fast for the eye to follow.
PFFT—
With a soft noise, the sharp splinter of wood had precisely pierced his throat.
The savagery on the one-eyed man’s face froze instantly, replaced by utter shock and disbelief.
He instinctively clutched his throat, feeling his life force drain away with the warm blood. His eyes filled with terror and confusion.
Even in death, he couldn’t understand why this stranger who had suddenly burst in would kill him.
CLANG!
The whip dropped to the floor. The one-eyed man’s massive body crashed backward, kicking up a cloud of dust.
He opened his mouth as if to say something but only managed a gurgling, rasping sound. His breathing soon stopped. Blood gushed from the hole in his throat, staining the ground beneath him red.
Yang Jing stood in the doorway, his gaze calm as he looked at the corpse on the ground.
He was no saint to be trifled with, but neither did he stoop to being a villain who bullied the weak.
His past experiences had taught him that only with sufficient strength could he protect himself and those he cared about. Only then could he uphold a sliver of principle in these chaotic times.
’If this had been in the past, when I was just an ordinary Martial Artist and had to be cautious just to protect myself, I might have only been able to suppress my anger and walk away, even when faced with such a tragic scene. Back then, I didn’t have the right, nor the confidence, to meddle in others’ affairs.’
’But now, I am a Huajin Powerhouse. My strength is enough to establish a foothold in Yuhe County.’
’Forget a minor leader at the first stage; I don’t even see the entire River Gang as a threat.’
’With power comes the freedom to choose.’
’I could choose to stand by and do nothing, looking out only for myself. Or I could choose to act—to execute scum like this and save a life that can still be saved.’
’I admit I’m no saint or paragon of virtue. Much of the time, I prioritize my own safety and my family’s, acting with a degree of selfishness.’
’But to stand by and watch such an atrocity unfold without doing anything... that’s a line I can’t cross in my own heart.’
’As long as it doesn’t endanger me in any fundamental way, saving one person and killing one villain is no difficult task for me.’
