Chapter 142: Are They All Dead?

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Not a single person within the Blood Banner headquarters realized that their leader had completely transformed from a living being into a mere lifeless mass. Only the Blood Banner members, who were diligently working in the nearby houses, occasionally wondered during their breaks why the sounds from the leader’s small building had ceased so abruptly this time. Could it be...?

Such a foul thought barely had time to take root before those members in the nearby houses were visited by the specter of death.

No member of the Blood Banner had ever imagined such a thing could happen—their leader, despite the heavy protection around him, had been silently assassinated without a single soul outside the incident being alerted. From the moment the assassin entered the headquarters until the killing was complete, no alarms had been raised.

Had anyone warned the Blood Banner members beforehand, they would have scoffed at such nonsense, even whipping the rumor-monger as a lesson for speaking recklessly.

But now, this grim event was unfolding in silence, and worse, it was spreading.

One by one, the single-story houses within the Blood Banner’s headquarters fell silent, radiating outwards from the two-story small building at the center.

Qin Anyi, to ensure the efficiency of his operation, chose his targets based solely on one consideration: proximity—no more than about twenty minutes away. Within this short span, nearly half the houses in the Blood Banner fortress had been emptied of any living presence.

Yet the remaining members were oblivious to the true situation. The few who sensed something amiss merely laughed at their companions’ endurance before turning their attentions back to their women, as if this brought them some twisted sense of accomplishment.

During this time, the most restless was Kong Sha.

Kong Sha lay quietly behind a small earthen mound, watching with wide eyes as Qin Anyi entered the Blood Banner headquarters and then vanished from sight in the blink of an eye.

He tensed his body, ready to charge out at the first sign of chaos in the village.

But he waited over twenty minutes.

His muscles ached with the strain, yet the entire Blood Banner village remained as still and silent as a maiden before her wedding.

Something was wrong.

What on earth was Qin Anyi doing? If the operation had begun, it couldn’t be this quiet. Whether it succeeded or failed, there should be turmoil inside by now.

Could he still be lurking in wait? That didn’t seem right either.

The longer the wait dragged on, the more disadvantageous it became. Their strides were swift—surely fast enough to leave behind anyone dispatched from the Su Pan village to sound an alarm. Yet, given the time elapsed, those messengers could arrive at any moment. If they did, it would be too late.

Qin Anyi must have considered this risk.

So what was really going on?

Kong Sha lay on edge behind the mound, growing increasingly anxious as time passed. But he remained steadfast in his memory of Qin Anyi’s orders—not to act rashly without signs of disorder in the village.

After another twenty minutes, Kong Sha suddenly spotted a villager running from a different direction than the path he and Qin Anyi had taken. The villager sprinted straight to the Blood Banner’s lair, where eight sentries stopped him. Gasping for breath, the man bent over and began urgently speaking.

His speed was remarkable—nearly forty minutes of rest had fully restored his stamina. The eight sentries, already distracted and further drawn by the presence of the Su Pan village’s martial artists, only noticed Kong Sha’s approach when he was nearly upon them.

But it was too late.

Though Kong Sha’s fists and feet weren’t yet a match for Qin Anyi, they were still deadly.

“Do you mean... they... are all dead?” Kong Sha found it hard to believe the conclusion he had drawn.

“That’s right. All of them are dead.”

“Did you kill them?”

“There are only two of us alive here now—me and you. If it wasn’t you, then naturally it was me.”

“........”