The woman in the red dress shot an arrow, flipped off the roof, and slipped away quietly without the slightest pause. She gave no response at all—it was unclear whether she hadn’t heard or simply disdained to answer.

The woman in the red dress had nearly killed him; Evelyn Spencer could never forgive her so easily. But he couldn’t give chase. More than ten skilled gang members, seeing him kill their leader, charged at him together, weapons raised, attacking from all directions.

“Tomato and potato!”

“No way to go seek justice from that little vixen now—I have to deal with this bunch of murderous bastards first.”

“If this were a seasoned web novel author, they’d never write a plot that puts the protagonist in such a bind, just asking to get dissed by the readers!”

Evelyn Spencer used his lightness skill, dodging left and weaving right, evading the siege of the dozen or so gang members.

At first, Evelyn Spencer felt a bit uncertain, but after a few exchanges, his confidence grew. He thought to himself, “So in this world, the gap between first-rate martial arts and third- or fourth-rate skills is this huge. The Hu family swordsmanship is far superior to whatever these gang members are using.”

“Though I’m just a beginner, having trained hard for only a few months, it’s not difficult to kill this group of bandits.”

Just now, forced to the brink of life and death, he’d unlocked his potential and opened his third meridian. Of the three meridians he’d opened, two were extraordinary and one was a main meridian—one ran through his leg, giving him some lightness skill, and one through his arm, making his strikes twice as fast. Both were highly practical for combat. His internal energy flowed through these three meridians, circulating according to the Ziwu meridian method. With every movement, he could feel his energy surging, a vibrant vitality he couldn’t quite describe. He felt invigorated, with no trace of fear.

Evelyn Spencer sidestepped a spear thrust at his face, suddenly closed in, and with one slash felled the martial artist, killing two more in quick succession. His fear of death faded, and as he unleashed the Hu family’s Demon-Subduing Sword Style, he killed yet another with just a few moves.

To these gang members, Evelyn Spencer was no mere novice. They only saw a man in a shop assistant’s uniform with astonishing sword skills and ruthless decisiveness—he’d killed their leader Old Du in a single encounter, and even under their siege, he remained fierce, agile, and unflinching. After losing two more companions, panic set in. Suddenly, someone shouted, and they all turned their horses, trying to escape the town.

If it had been a native young hero, he might have let them flee. But Evelyn Spencer was a transmigrator, deeply aware of the harm caused by “saintly” hypocrisy. These people killed at will, and just to force information about a girl’s whereabouts, they’d threatened to slaughter the whole town. How could he let these bastards escape?

Besides, he’d just barely survived, and with the woman in red long gone, he could only vent his anger on these murderous scoundrels.

Evelyn Spencer leapt onto a riderless black horse and gave chase. In moments, he killed three more. But as this was his first time involved in a martial vendetta, he lacked experience. Seeing the bandits scatter with a howl, he realized he couldn’t kill them all, so he simply picked one at random, caught up, and killed him.

He placed the corpses of those he’d slain on the horses, didn’t linger in the town, and didn’t explain anything to the townsfolk. Leading seven horses and carrying his purchases, he headed straight back to Taiyi Monastery.

Clifford Bolton had been practicing martial arts. Suddenly, he saw his junior brother return, covered in blood, with seven horses and a pile of corpses. Startled, he asked, “Little brother, what happened? How did you end up with so many dead bodies?”

Evelyn Spencer recounted everything that had happened in the town, leaving nothing out.

Hearing how the gang had slaughtered innocents, Clifford Bolton didn’t blame Evelyn Spencer for killing them. Instead, he praised him repeatedly, saying, “Junior brother, as martial artists, it’s our duty to uphold justice and protect the weak. These people killed innocents—they deserved to die. Master won’t blame you for this. Let’s bury them behind the mountain, and keep the horses for work.”

Evelyn Spencer had been a bit worried, fearing his senior would invoke some rule and scold him for killing recklessly, but now he was relieved. He asked, “Senior brother, who was that woman in the red dress? And what gang were those people from?”

Clifford Bolton laughed, “How could we possibly know everything about the martial world?”

“There are tens of millions in the jianghu, but only a few thousand have made a name for themselves.”

Evelyn Spencer still wanted to seek justice from the woman in red, but hearing this, he realized his senior had a point and could only let it go, albeit reluctantly.

Clifford Bolton originally wanted to bury the bodies right away, but Evelyn Spencer insisted they search them first. He gave a roundabout explanation and actually convinced his senior. The two brothers searched the corpses, finding dozens of strings of coins and over a hundred taels of silver. In the Great Lang Kingdom, one string of copper coins was generally equal to one tael of silver. This small fortune was enough to support a well-off family for two or three years. As for the weapons on the seven men, Evelyn Spencer kept them in his own room—not out of greed, but because Clifford Bolton had explicitly said he didn’t want them.

After searching the bodies, the two brothers worked together to bury the seven corpses in a secluded spot behind the mountain. By the time they finished, it was already evening. They exchanged a smile, both feeling that today’s events had been rather thrilling.