Chapter 2

  Not long after, the young woman walked back with a tray, placed a bottle of vodka in front of Tang Yin, and then looked at him deeply again before slowly walking away.

  He opened the lid, Tang Yin poured a full cup, and with just one toss of his head, the wine in the cup was drained.

  High-concentration liquor went down his throat, as if countless knives were slashing back and forth inside him. He closed his eyes, his fingers rapidly tapping on the table. After a while, he slowly opened his eyes, and in that instant, it seemed like two rays of light shot out from his eyes, but only for a very short moment, flashing by in an instant.

  Tang Yin let out a long sigh, pushed the wine bottle and cup forward, then took out his wallet, pulled out several 100-yuan bills, placed them neatly on the table, stood up, and walked towards the back door of the dance hall.

  Although he knew he shouldn't head in this direction, his legs seemed to move of their own accord.

  The ballroom is resplendent and luxurious, decorated with gold and jade, while the alley behind it is a different scene, dark, damp, dirty and chaotic. Just one wall away, yet it's like heaven on one side and hell on the other.

  As soon as he went out the back door, a foul smell of rotting garbage hit him in the face, and Tang Yin couldn't help but wrinkle his brow.

  At this time, a low and weak groan came from the depths of the alley. The voice was very low and faint, ordinary people wouldn't hear it, but it didn't escape Tang Yin's ears.

  He turned around and walked deep into the alley.

  The narrow alley was dark and gloomy, black to the point of being frightening. In the dead of night, there was an unspeakable terror, as if walking deeper into it was like walking closer to the mouth of a giant monster.

  About ten meters away, a group of people were crouching at the corner of the alley wall. The four bald men put the unconscious woman on the ground, her clothes had been stripped clean, and the four men surrounded her, molesting her, occasionally bursting into laughter and whispering to each other.

  Suddenly, they heard footsteps behind them. The four of them were startled and quickly lifted their heads to look back.

  At first, from a distance, they hadn't seen Tang Yin's appearance clearly. When he walked closer, the four bald men finally got a good look and let out a collective sigh of relief - it was that weak-looking pretty boy from the dance hall.

  Good things had just begun when they were interrupted by a bald man who stood up straight, with a fierce expression on his face, his eyes gleaming with ferocity, glaring at Tang Yin like a wolf that had been robbed of its food, as if he might pounce and take a vicious bite out of him at any moment.

  Tang Yin's heart was also conflicted at this time, hanging his head and walking past the four bald men and the woman without stopping, but instead slowly passing by.

  "Hah!"

  Some people in the crowd burst out laughing, and Tang Yin's indifference was seen as cowardice in their eyes, which also became a catalyst for their recklessness. Someone coldly said: "You're smart, dare to cause trouble, I'll kill you with one knife!"

  "Haha! Old Three, don't scare him, look at his naive appearance, he might still be a student!"

  "What kind of student! Damn it, I think he's a bastard..."

  Several bald men shouted insults at each other, their voices growing louder and their language more and more unpleasant.

  When he heard the word "bastard", Tang Yin, who had already walked away, suddenly stopped in his tracks. Bastard! It had been many years since he last heard those two words. He was an orphan, adopted and raised in a remote mountain village in Northeast China. When he was young, many people used these two words to scold him, but now, those people no longer existed.

  He stood in the alley, with his back to the bald man, half-turned his head and asked with a smile: "What did you just say?"

  "What did you say?" A bald-headed man burst out laughing and shouted loudly: "You're a damn fool, a son of a bitch!"

  Tang Yin let out a breath, looking like he wasn't angry, but rather as if he had finally relaxed.

  He slowly turned around and walked towards the four bald men.

  The four men were taken aback at first, then countered Tang Yin with a sharp edge, standing in front of him in a fan shape. The bald-headed man who led the way sneered: "You little brat, what do you want to do? Are you looking for trouble?"

  Before he finished speaking, a dazzling flash of lightning suddenly burst out from the dark alley, and all that could be heard was a loud crack. When they looked again at the bald-headed man, his round and shiny head had actually fallen off from his neck and landed on the ground, rolling far away with a gurgling sound. Then, with a splashing sound, a jet of scalding hot blood shot out from his severed neck, like a red fountain, eerie and ghostly in the darkness of night.

  "Ah——"

  The other three bald men could hardly believe their eyes, and they slowly raised their hands to touch the blood on their faces, then looked at the headless body still standing in place without falling down, and let out a chilling scream together.

  At some point, Tang Yin had an extra crescent-shaped curved knife in his hand. The blade was narrow and semi-circular, resembling a sickle at first glance. Only that it was a deadly scythe that could hook away people's souls.

  He drew his sword from which part of his body, and how he made the move, none of the three bald men, including the dead one, saw clearly. All they saw was a sudden flash of light that appeared out of nowhere.

  Plop!

  A bald man's legs went soft, and he knelt down on the ground, his face deathly pale, without a hint of blood color. His body was shaking like a leaf, and he looked up at Tang Yin with a trembling head, saying in a shaky voice: "B...big brother, w...we..."

  Tang Yin didn't even give him a chance to speak, the crescent moon knife in his hand only slightly shook, and the sharp blade had already deeply pierced the bald man's neck. It was still a fatal blow, the bald man didn't make a sound, and fell dead to the ground.

  "My goodness..."

  The thugs at most just participated in a fight, when have they ever seen such a scene, and where did they encounter such a fierce and vicious person. The other two bald men were scared out of their wits, both screaming loudly, turned around and ran away.

  The two of them swung their legs and used all their might to escape, but in Tang Yin's eyes, it was almost as slow as a turtle crawling. His figure flashed, and with just one arrow step, he dodged behind the two men. With a swift slash of his knife, accompanied by two dull thuds, both men were stabbed through the back of their hearts. Their bodies, still sprinting forward, took a few more steps before crashing to the ground, dead.

  Quick! Tang Yin's knife is more than just a single word "quick".

  The person who raised him, that is, his master once said that martial arts are about killing, and when you make a move, you can't show mercy, the goal is to kill your opponent. To achieve this, you must have speed. There's no style in the world that can defeat an opponent slowly, including Tai Chi.

  And strength determines speed. So, when Tang Yin was only eight years old, even in the icy snow, he had to take a large axe that was almost as long as his height and go deep into the mountains to cut down trees that were thicker than his body. If he couldn't meet his master's requirements, after returning, he could only go with his master's hunting dogs to fight for food.

  When he was fifteen, he finally didn't have to use a big axe to chop down trees, his master gave him a big chopping knife; when he was eighteen, the chopping knife was replaced by a vegetable knife; when he was twenty, he killed his master in a fair and square duel with real talent.

  In his childhood, he never understood what happiness was. During that time, he had already endured all the hardships that ordinary people could not finish in several lifetimes, so later on, no matter how bitter or difficult the situation, he could persevere and get through it with gritted teeth.

  This is Tang Yin.

  A man who would be respected, worshiped, feared and hated by countless people a day later.

  When the girl came to, she was lying in a hospital bed. She asked the nurse why she was there, and the nurse told her that it was a man who had brought her in. She asked what kind of man he was. The nurse's expression turned vague for a moment before she smiled and said: "He's a very handsome and cheerful young man!"