1: We are not a black shop!

It was an autumn night, with a full, plate-like moon.

Lu Jiuyuan sat on a bluestone by the main road, his fingers unconsciously caressing the hilt of the sword he leaned on.

This sword was named Guhong Sword. Its blade was slender; though called a sword, it was actually just a four-edged spike, three feet and three inches long.

It was crafted from chrome vanadium steel, four-edged, with a flattened, extremely sharp tip.

This item was now called Guhong Sword because it was the only one of its kind, taking its name from a lone Guhong Sword between heaven and earth. In its original world, it was called an extra-large screwdriver.

“It’s been three years. Do you know how I’ve spent these three years?”

He looked up at the full moon in the sky. It was the fifteenth, very round and bright—truly a good time for killing!

Faint footsteps appeared like a ghost. Lu Jiuyuan narrowed his eyes, seeing a hunched figure slowly approaching from not far away.

It was an old woman with white hair, dressed in coarse cloth, carrying a bamboo basket covered with a thick cloth.

She walked very slowly, tottering, appearing frail and weak.

“Sugar-roasted chestnuts, fragrant and sweet sugar-roasted chestnuts…” a hoarse, aged cry came.

“Elder, how much are these chestnuts?” Lu Jiuyuan asked.

“Fragrant and hot sugar-roasted chestnuts, only ten copper coins a catty!” Granny Xiong’s wrinkled old face smiled like a chrysanthemum.

“Then I’ll take a catty!” Lu Jiuyuan smiled and approached, his Guhong Sword striking out like lightning, reaching an extreme speed.

The moonlight couldn't reflect how fast it truly was, but as the sword pierced into flesh, Granny Xiong’s eyes still held the dawning look of astonishment.

She had only come out on a full moon night to casually poison people for fun. How could she be killed?

Lu Jiuyuan’s sword did not stop. After piercing Granny Xiong’s throat, it also pierced her arms and legs,

finally plunging directly into her heart, pinning her to the ground.

Hot sugar-roasted chestnuts scattered everywhere.

After falling, Granny Xiong’s eyes were wide open, full of confusion. Her gray cloth skirt couldn’t hide her Red Shoes, and the owl embroidered on them still stared with green eyes.

“Red Shoes, right!”

“Gongsun Da Niang, right!”

“Randomly poisoning people, right!”

“I hate trash like you the most! Everyone’s life is already hard enough, and then you trash kill people for pleasure.”

Lu Jiuyuan watched her eyes gradually dim before pulling out his sword. He then pulled out a piece of coarse cloth from his bosom, wiped the blood from the sword tip clean, and threw it onto her face, covering her eyes.

“In your next life, be an animal, not a human. Animals kill for pleasure; it’s their cruel nature, and no one will mind.”

He searched her body and found twelve taels of loose silver and some copper coins.

“You come out to kill people and don’t even bother to bring some money? Just this little bit!

I, Lu, always do things properly. I won’t take your money for nothing; I’ll buy you a straw mat, but no coffin. You don’t deserve one!”

With that, he turned and left. He didn’t care at all about Gongsun Da Niang’s death. As for her being an extremely beautiful woman and her Gongsun Sword Dance being renowned throughout Jianghu, he cared even less.

When he read books in his original world, he always despised those protagonists in fan fiction who, upon encountering this female beast, wouldn’t kill her just because she was pretty. Their morals were dictated by their looks, as if they hadn’t seen a woman in eight lifetimes.

Pretty, so what if she’s pretty? Can she just kill people arbitrarily? Can she randomly kill people for fun? Letting the lower body command the brain, what’s the difference between that and an animal?

If he encountered her and didn’t kill her, his thoughts wouldn’t be clear!

Finding someone to collect the body wasn’t out of pity, but a grand courtesy from the majestic Huaxia! Even after Transmigration, he couldn’t lose his dignity!

Half an hour later, two body collectors arrived. They skillfully rolled the body in a straw mat, took it to the mass grave, made a record in a notebook, then dug a pit and buried it!

These were all pieces of information that could be sold for money.

Lu Jiuyuan familiarly entered a small courtyard, a very ordinary civilian house, with many air-dried wild chickens and rabbits hanging from the eaves.

The only unusual thing was that this house was not in the city, nor in a village, and there were no villagers around.

It stood alone in the suburbs.

There was only one small main house, and in the courtyard was a tree full of pockmarks.

If one looked closely, they would find that these were all stab marks.

Just as he closed the door, his movements froze.

“What a fast sword, swift as wind, quick as lightning. Who would have thought that Lu Jiuyuan, the fast swordsman, would live in a place like this?” A clear, melodious voice came from the rooftop.

It was a woman dressed very lightly, with a beautiful face, flawless white skin, perfectly round wickedness, and a graceful body. Under the bright moon, through her translucent gauze, she seemed to glow.

“Ninth Girl, knowing too much will kill you!” Lu Jiuyuan gently latched the door, not turning back, but saying in a hushed tone.

Ninth Girl didn’t mind Lu Jiuyuan’s threat, but looked at the marks on the tree trunk and the footprints worn into the ground from long-term treading.

“If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I really wouldn’t believe that there’s someone in this world who practices swordsmanship by only practicing a single thrust!

I also can’t believe that footwork can be simplified to just four steps: forward, backward, left, and right.”

Ninth Girl spoke in a lyrical tone, her voice alluring, as if tickling one’s chest.

“If it were just an ordinary person, practicing like this would only be a foolish joke. But you are different; you focus only on this one point, practicing it to the extreme. It’s unbelievably fast.”

Lu Jiuyuan remained silent, because he had a cheat. Without the cheat, he wouldn't do this. Not everyone in the world was A Fei, who could rise to the top of Jianghu with just one thrust and use it to be invincible.

“If that’s all you wanted to say, then you can leave!”

“You’ve closed the main door, are you telling me to leave?” A wisp of light gauze floated past, clinging to the door, carrying a strange yet alluring musky fragrance.

“Help me with a favor, and tonight, I am yours!” Ninth Girl lightly landed on the ground, standing not far from Lu Jiuyuan, seductively saying.

Two cups of tea time passed, and Ninth Girl drew circles on Lu Jiuyuan’s chest: “Brother Lu, how about you help me catch Lu Xiaofeng?”

Bang! Clang! Clang!

Smack!

Bang!

The main door was flung open, and a naked object was thrown out, followed by two taels of silver. The door slammed shut mercilessly with a bang.

Creak, the main door opened, Lu Jiuyuan came out, picked up the two taels of silver, and re-entered the door. Before closing it, he said:

“Paying for prostitution is illegal, so I won’t pay!”

Ninth Girl lay on the ground, her eyes blankly staring at the sky. Beast, he truly was a beast. After using her up, he actually denied it.

Denying it was one thing, asking him to catch Lu Xiaofeng was indeed a bit difficult, but he still wouldn’t pay! Beast!

“That damn bastard! In two thousand years, when has prostitution ever been illegal? It’s freeloading that’s illegal! I’ve been freeloaded again!”

After an incense stick’s worth of time, Ninth Girl’s acupoint on her thigh was unbound. She stood up, striding with bold and arrogant steps, kicked the door down, and entered the room, which was already empty.

“Bastard! Don’t let me catch you next time, or I’ll bite off your oregano!”

“What a bother!” Lu Jiuyuan ambled along, carrying two bundles slung over his shoulder with his Guhong Sword.

Getting involved with the name Lu Xiaofeng meant immense trouble and danger.

A mere night’s pleasure was not worth him stepping into it and becoming an enemy of Lu Xiaofeng.

Everyone dies, but one should die with gusto.

He knew this truth from the moment he, carrying an extra-large screwdriver, charged at a speeding dump truck, and at the same time he was hit, he stabbed the driver to death.

Death was not the end, but a new adventure.

Triple speed—this was his cheat, a very simple cheat. The moment it was activated, his thinking speed, reaction speed, and movement speed all increased threefold, and that was all.

It just consumed too much physical strength and couldn’t be used for long.

But killing took very little time; a single sword, an instant, was enough!

“Some things are like a hornet’s nest; once you poke it, endless trouble follows.”

Two days passed in a flash, and Old Man Gui Sun, that old information peddler, happily earned another hundred taels of silver.

In a secluded restaurant, the waiter served two dishes. Lu Jiuyuan didn’t rush to pick up his chopsticks, but instead pulled out a small cage containing a mouse from his bundle.

He took out silver chopsticks from his sleeve, picked a little from each dish, reached into the cage, pried open the little mouse’s mouth,

and slowly fed it until it finished eating. After a cup of tea’s time, seeing that the little creature was still alive and jumping around, he began to eat.

The world of Gu Long was truly too dangerous, with too many psychopaths who liked to poison and indiscriminately kill innocents. Caution was the best policy, and this was the way of an experienced Jianghu veteran.

His actions made the other Jianghu people in the restaurant nod frequently, learning, learning, this was professionalism!

This person looked young, but he was already an old hand in Jianghu!

Bang!

Seeing this operation, the boss in the back kitchen clanged pots and pans, making a racket while stir-frying, and constantly cursed indirectly:

“Little Sanzi, you good-for-nothing, why are you so troublesome? Don’t you know what ‘a little dirt never hurt’ means? You’re so young, why are you acting like such a big shot!

Food is for people to eat, animals don’t deserve it!”

Lu Jiuyuan ate his dishes and steamed buns, quickly filling himself up halfway in three gulps. He rubbed his stomach, then looked up and said:

“Shopkeeper, what the hell… are you implying something!”

Lu Jiuyuan put down his chopsticks, packed the remaining dry food, and his right hand was already on the hilt of his Guhong Sword.

The air in the restaurant seemed to freeze instantly. Most of the diners left in a rush, leaving only three Jianghu patrons who simultaneously stopped their chopsticks and quietly shifted their positions.

They had the look of people waiting for a show.

The curtain to the back kitchen was suddenly pulled open, and a fat man with a fleshy face walked out, holding a cleaver, his face no longer showing any hint of a friendly demeanor for business:

“You little beast, I’m cursing you! You even test for poison while eating, who do you think you are!

I’ve run this restaurant for sixteen years, and not a single person has died from my food. Who doesn’t know my Butcher Wang’s skill? Who dares to cause trouble in my restaurant?

Your busy performance in broad daylight is smashing my signboard and trampling on my dignity.

I won’t let you off.”

Before he finished speaking, Butcher Wang’s obesity body lunged forward with surprising agility, his cleaver flashing a cold light.

At the same time, the three Jianghu patrons watching the show also made their moves. One waved his hand, throwing three bone-piercing nails; another drew a soft sword; and the last one flipped his palm, shooting a crossbow bolt from his sleeve.

Lu Jiuyuan’s pupils suddenly constricted—triple speed!

The world suddenly slowed down in his eyes. Butcher Wang’s cleaver was still in mid-air, the bone-piercing nails had just left the hand, the soft sword was only one-third drawn, and the crossbow bolt’s trigger had just clicked.

Lu Jiuyuan’s figure had already vanished from the chair. The unsheathed Guhong Sword instantly thrust forward, and a sharp, explosive roar echoed in the air.

“Puff!”

The first sword pierced Butcher Wang’s throat. Before blood could spray out, Lu Jiuyuan had already turned to his second target.

The man using the bone-piercing nails only saw a silver flash before feeling a chill in his chest.

The swordsman barely completed his drawing motion, only to find that he had struck merely an afterimage.

He wanted to turn in horror, but it was already too late.

In less than a breath, Lu Jiuyuan returned to his original seat, as if he had never moved.

The four attackers froze in their attacking poses, then almost simultaneously collapsed to the ground. Each had a small blood hole in their throat or heart.

Lu Jiuyuan sat on the stool. The recent burst of speed made him look slightly fatigued at the moment.

“Waiter, tell me what happened?”

“I don’t know!”

The waiter stared blankly as the battle began and ended. The hot water in his hand hadn’t even been poured yet, and the boss was already dead!

Hearing Lu Yuan’s question, he blurted out: “Our place isn’t a black inn, is it?”