Chaos and monsters begin with the red dragon's clone.

As dusk fell, fewer pedestrians appeared on the streets of Dongluo Town, and most shops and stalls closed their doors, the daytime hustle and bustle gone. No one wanted to wait until nightfall to encounter villains or ghosts, so they hurried home.

A figure turned from the street into the old alley. He wore a hood, covered his head and face with cloth, and dressed in the most ordinary gray linen clothes. He hurried to a dilapidated courtyard with walls nearly ten feet high.

"Knock knock".

"Who is it?" came a wary woman's voice from behind the door.

"Your man."

The gate creaked open a crack.

A figure quickly squeezed inside. A pretty young woman leaned out and looked around to make sure no one was following her before closing the door. She then threw herself into the man's arms and said coquettishly, "You rascal, you haven't come to see me in so long! The baby in my belly hardly recognizes its father anymore."

Liu Biao tore off the cloth, hugged the woman and kissed her several times before chuckling, "What? Didn't we just come here a few days ago? You know we've made quite a few enemies trying to save money for our son. We can't let anyone find out about you two."

"I don't care, you just have to spend more time with her."

"well…"

Liu Biao led the woman into the inner room, where a table of food had already been prepared. Liu Biao drank wine while chatting with the woman, first mentioning that the Sanlian Gang was at odds with a certain minor leader, and that the newly developed Boiling God Powder had not been able to obtain many quotas for sale. Finally, with a sinister look in his eyes, he brought up the Zhang family's affairs.

"...I was going to find someone to kill him, but I didn't expect that kid to be so clever and decisive. He moved to the Flying Stone Fist Academy the very next day, which made things difficult. But the more he does this, the more uneasy I feel if I don't get rid of him."

The woman suggested, "Since we've already offended them all, why not start with his mother? Get something wrong to her, and lure him away from the boxing academy..."

Liu Biao was taken aback, but his mind cleared instantly. He hugged the woman and kissed her hard on the lips, chuckling, "My wife is the best at planning things, and her method is feasible... Once we've dealt with the Zhang family, I'll get a statue of the Holy Child from the Rebirth Sect. I've heard it's incredibly effective at warding off evil spirits. Our child will be born around the time of the Fog Moon this year, so it's best not to let any evil spirits frighten him."

That night, with a solution to the problem in hand, Liu Biao slept soundly.

Before dawn, while the woman was still fast asleep, he got out of bed, intending to leave when the streets were deserted to avoid being discovered.

"Shanxing, I'm leaving."

"Mmm~ Mmm~"

creak.

Liu Biao opened the door and had just stepped out when he suddenly sensed something. He turned his head and his hair stood on end – in the darkness by the door stood a masked man in black, his clothes soaked with night dew, only the whites of his calm eyes visible, holding a hammer high.

"Liu Biao, farewell." The masked man smiled.

"You are Zhang—" Liu Biao's scalp tingled, and he tried to dodge, but it was too late.

call.

A hammer suddenly loomed large in front of him.

Bang! !

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

The masked man swung a hammer and smashed it repeatedly on Liu Biao's head, red and white spraying out, until his body swayed and fell to the ground, motionless.

He threw down the hammer, rushed into the inner room, knocked the dazed woman unconscious with a thud, and then ransacked the place.

Soon, he rushed out carrying a package.

Then, leaving the courtyard, he moved the tall stool against the wall outside and, while it was still dark, quickly went to another small courtyard not far away in the alley, opened the door, and closed the door.

Zhang Xuncai pulled off his black mask, gasping for breath, feeling tightness in his chest, blood rushing to his head, and his hands trembling uncontrollably.

He had made thorough mental preparations. After receiving the news from his senior brother Zhao Shaoting, he came to this empty courtyard and staked it out for several days. He had simulated everything, including the fact that the door was thick and could not be kicked open, that he had to stay overnight, that he could not use a knife to avoid exposing his identity. And it went as smoothly as he had expected, even simpler, and he made a final decision.

But even after killing someone for the first time, he still trembled all over and couldn't calm down.

"The day after I moved out, a neighbor said they saw a strange face wandering around the area. If I hadn't moved out in time..."

"As they just mentioned in their conversation, the men were hired by Liu Biao..."

"They even tried to harm my mother and lure me away from the boxing academy..."

Zhang Xun tried to distract himself from the scene of Liu Biao's head being smashed to pieces.

He took a deep breath and, with trembling hands, took off his black clothes and changed into them.

Liu Biao had just died, and he had to leave the courtyard unnoticed and appear at the boxing academy on time so that the Sanlian Gang wouldn't suspect him of being the murderer.

"Liu Biao has so many enemies, and that woman named Shanxing never even saw me. She even hit me with a hammer. I can't say I'm not a suspect, but I'm at least not a big one."

He changed into a plain gray linen outfit and stuffed the blood-stained black clothes into his bundle.

Zhang Xun wrapped his head and face in cloth and quietly went out the door.

The alley outside is a wide, horizontal dirt road, its surface uneven and filled with foul-smelling sewage, dotted with sparse red flowers and green grass, stretching into the distance, where houses appear and disappear in the gray-white mist, accompanied by the clanging sounds of basins and buckets.

Occasionally, pedestrians would pass by on the road, each unaware of the other's origin or destination.

As Zhang Xun walked, his hands gradually stopped trembling, his heart gradually calmed down, and even as the feeling of being pricked by thorns disappeared, he gradually developed a sense of exhilaration.

"Murder... doesn't seem like such a big deal..."

The figure strode away and disappeared into the gray fog of the street.

*

*

Turning a corner from the street, you'll see the gate of the Flying Stone Boxing Academy. Opposite the gate is a row of shops facing the street. Our new home is in one of those shops, with a broken bamboo pole used for drying clothes hanging in front of it. My mother, Yao Cuiling, is peering out from inside the shop with a worried expression.

Zhang Xun walked over, pulled off his face mask, and smiled, "Mother, I'm back."

He initially said he was drinking with his senior brother Zhao, but after staying out all night for several days in a row, he couldn't keep it from his mother any longer and could only make her worry.

Seeing that her son was different from a few days ago, Yao Cuiling sensed something was wrong and asked in a trembling voice, "Xiao Xun, you...?"

Zhang Xun nodded and handed her the package: "You don't need to go drinking anymore."

Yao Cuiling felt relieved. She took the package and opened it. She saw a pile of standard coins from Feilian City, including one-coin, ten-coin, and one-hundred-coin coins. There was a large pile of coins scattered around, and at a rough glance, there were tens of thousands of coins. She was both nervous and happy.

"Liu Biao, him?"

"I won't harm anyone anymore."

"Okay, okay!" Yao Cuiling's worried brows immediately disappeared; she was more open-minded about the dead than Zhang Xun.

"Mother, remember to go to work as usual."

"Don't worry, Mom isn't stupid."

A short while later, Zhang Xun came out of the room after changing into his martial arts training clothes. Yao Cuiling had also finished counting the money. She said happily, "Xiao Xun, there are a total of more than 34,000 coins. That should be enough for you to practice martial arts for a while."

Zhang Xun was taken aback. He had thought it would only be ten or twenty thousand coins, but he hadn't expected it to be so much more. He couldn't help but feel a little excited. It was true that murder and arson were the fastest way to make money. Liu Biao had more than one stronghold, and this was probably just a part of his floating wealth. Add to that his other assets, and wow, this is how much money one can make by disregarding conscience and joining a gang!

But that was no longer his concern. Now he finally had the money to buy some exotic beast meat and accelerate the advancement of the Flying Stone Fist Technique.