Chapter 18: Testing the Blade

As the old saying goes, seeing is believing; you can never truly believe something unless you see it with your own eyes. But this also implies that if you do see it with your own eyes, it certainly can’t be fake.

Shi Yue’s kung fu couldn’t be fake. The shopkeeper and Yellow Hair had seen it firsthand, and they no longer dared to question her strength.

“Well, any other objections?” Shi Yue asked, propping herself up with the sword to suppress her exhaustion.

In the eyes of the shopkeeper and Yellow Hair, however, the pose looked incredibly cool.

“None, none at all… Ah, no, how could we dare to have objections?” The shopkeeper immediately piled on a smile. “Hearing about it a hundred times isn’t as good as seeing it once. Having witnessed the Eldest Miss’s strength with our own eyes, we now know the rumors in the underworld are true! We’ve learned a lot!”

Shi Yue nodded, turning to leave. Yellow Hair waved at her frantically, shouting that he lived nearby in the Bianmin Apartments, Building 1, Unit 4-4. He rattled off a phone number, declaring that if the “Eldest Miss” needed anything, he’d be there at her beck and call.

“Eldest Miss, remember! I live at Bianmin Apartments, Building 1, 4-4! You can come see me anytime. For you, brother here will go through fire and water!”

“…Don’t you have a job?”

“Oh right, there’s a bar downstairs from our apartment. I work there every afternoon. You can find me there too! Eldest Miss, remember to contact me!”

“Come back and see me too,” the shopkeeper added, waving his hand.

Watching Shi Yue walk away, Yellow Hair excitedly patted the shopkeeper on the shoulder. “Hey, do you think there’s a chance the Eldest Miss took a fancy to me? Is it possible? Even a tiny bit?”

“Not even a tiny bit.” The shopkeeper glanced at him.

“Tsk, hard to say. I count as a handsome guy too~”

“You?”

The shopkeeper rolled his eyes, but his gaze soon fell back on Shi Yue’s retreating figure.

“Her martial arts are definitely real. But… would a wealthy young lady be out alone this late at night? And Boss Wang’s daughter… carrying a snakeskin bag herself? …Doesn’t she have an entourage?”

Dark red clouds cast a heavy, gloomy chill over the dazzling neon lights of the street. A Miao dao, along with several small daggers—not the fruit-peeling kind, but actual restricted weapons—plus a few cosplay costumes, were all stuffed into the sack.

Shi Yyue tied the bag tight. Walking along the street, she planned to hail a taxi home. The bleak wind brushed against her face. Thinking about how she would teach those guys who beat her dad a lesson tomorrow, the excitement in her heart overrode the cold on her face.

She was waiting at the bus stop when she suddenly noticed a man and a woman coming out of the KTV entrance next to the station.

The man was the very same male host leader who had been beating his new colleague at the KTV entrance earlier. The woman was quite plump, wearing heavy makeup. She leaned her body close to the man from time to time, acting intimate, before suddenly stuffing a wad of cash into his hand. In short, her every word and action fit Shi Yue’s stereotypical image of a “sugar mommy.”

By the KTV entrance, several male hosts were seeing the pair off—or to be precise, seeing the rich woman off. The male host who had been beaten earlier was among them, wearing a humble smile as he watched them leave. It seemed the rich woman had requested the leader. She held his arm intimately, muttering something, occasionally pecking him on the cheek. The leader had his arm around her waist; they were stuck together like glue, resembling a couple in the heat of passion.

Shi Yue watched silently as the two appeared and then moved away. After a long moment, Shi Yue swallowed hard and quickly followed them.

“I just bought this sword… I have to test if it can really cut people first.”

She wanted to use those two to test her blade. It was that simple.

The two were hugging and holding each other so tightly that they couldn’t even walk properly, swaying like two drunks tied together. Shi Yue followed closely, watching them turn into a small alley. After winding through the path, they finally entered a small hotel that was only two stories high. The little building stood in the urban forest like a tiny mushroom.

Shi Yue watched them head upstairs, still acting intimate. She hesitated no longer. She dropped the snakeskin bag in a corner by the wall, picked up her sword, and climbed up the water pipe next to the hotel.

The building only had two floors and was very small; one peek from the window ledge would reveal everything inside. Shi Yue rubbed her slightly sore shoulder, climbed to the second floor in a few moves, and poked her head up. She immediately saw the leader standing by the bed in the second-floor room. He bent down to give the rich woman a deep kiss, then went into the bathroom to shower. The rich woman sat alone on the edge of the bed, staring at the bathroom, seemingly full of anticipation…

“People who come to a place like this can’t be good people. Just kill them.”

The extreme thought flashed through Shi Yue’s mind. Once the thought occurred, she acted. She carefully pushed the window open a crack and stepped into the room from behind the rich woman as quietly as possible. The woman was still sitting on the bed, watching the leader’s silhouette reflected on the bathroom door as he carefully washed his body.

Then, the rich woman suddenly noticed that the shadow on the floor seemed to have an extra piece. An inexplicable shadow covered her own from behind… and this shadow seemed to be changing, with a long, sharp object suddenly protruding from one side… looked like a sword?!

“Hmm?” The woman made a sound in her nose. Just as she turned her head, she locked eyes with Shi Yue, who had raised the blade.

Shi Yue’s hand rose and the blade fell. Without giving the woman a chance to struggle or cry for help, she slit her throat in one stroke!

Blood instantly sprayed out like a fountain. The rich woman lost all strength and collapsed onto the floor with a splat. She violently reached up to cover her throat, which was bubbling with blood. Her mouth opened involuntarily, trying to make a sound, but only managed a dry, hacking noise. Meanwhile, her other hand reached aimlessly into the void… Shi Yue kicked away the hand reaching toward her and swung the blade again. This time, she cleanly severed the head.

Shi Yue watched the rich woman’s head go thump-thump as it rolled across the floor, stopping right at the bathroom door.

Inside the bathroom, the leader had scrubbed himself clean from top to bottom, inside and out. He glanced toward the door. For a split second, a look of disgust floated across his face, but it vanished instantly. A man’s got to eat. This was his only skill. He thought to himself that he just needed to make the rich woman happy quickly. With the tip he’d get this time, he would definitely vent hard on a few of the “princesses.” He had already decided: this time, he would seek out Little Sister Shen from the Jinluan Club…

Click. The door was pushed open. The human head at the door was pushed forward as well, rolling gurgle-gurgle across the floor. It rolled all the way to Shi Yue’s feet.

Shi Yue stood quietly in front of the door, holding the saber. She had been waiting for the moment the door opened.

“Huh?”

A sound of confusion escaped the leader’s nose. He suspected it might be because he had watched a horror movie online last night. “I should go see a psych—”

Before he could react further, Shi Yue’s sharp blade was already swinging toward him. The leader subconsciously raised his hand. In an instant, the thick scent of blood drilled into his nostrils. By the time he realized what had happened, he found that all five of his fingers had been severed. Blood surged simultaneously from the clean cuts, winding down his palm like red worms.