With only one member of the Plum-Breaking Four Bandits still fleeing outside, the gang was no longer a threat. The last bandit, Chou Niang, was quickly captured by Shen Jiangling.
His fight was equally spectacular. A folding fan flipped from his wrist, its surface darting like wings or butterflies—a sight as pleasing as it was beautiful, drawing cheers from the livestream audience. Word had it that a director scouting for an ancient Earth wuxia film had even shown up for inspiration.
Unfortunately, Shen Jiangling’s light and agile grace, his dashing elegance, was overshadowed by Ruan Xuezong’s brutally efficient, no-nonsense dominance. The visual appeal took a serious hit.
Players chimed in: “Zongzong and Push Heart Palm are still the strongest! Clearing BOSSes and dungeons is way faster!” System 007 was undoubtedly thrilled by the praise, but players had their own gripes: skill cooldowns dragged too long, and all those flashy effects slowed down dungeon runs!
The hostage, Wang Sheng—the young master from a wealthy family—was rescued. Each of the Plum-Breaking Four Bandits got a dose of Soft Tendon Powder and was hauled off to the Six Gates. As innocent bystanders caught up in the mess, Ruan Xuezong and the players even got a tour of the Six Gates headquarters.
Ruan Xuezong had questions of his own. He watched as Head Constable Zheng interrogated the Plum-Breaking Four Bandits.
No matter how fiercely Head Constable Zheng blustered, the four bandits stayed mum, tight-lipped as clamped gourds. It was clear they had coordinated their stories and vowed to die together, betraying no one.
People set on dying couldn’t be broken. Neither the events of twenty years ago nor their reasons for stirring up trouble in Jinling City came out.
After two hours of questioning, Head Constable Zheng had zero progress to show for it.
Shen Jiangling sensed the case was getting thorny. These four bandits were slippery as eels. He figured that if Ruan Xuezong hadn’t fed them something to sap their strength, they would have bitten their own tongues right then to seal their brotherhood in death.
“Let me take over.” Ruan Xuezong couldn’t stand watching any longer. He brushed his immaculate sleeves and strode toward the Plum-Breaking Four Bandits, hands clasped behind his back.
The bandits’ faces tightened with vigilance at his approach, like soldiers facing a deadly foe. They exchanged glances, silently reaffirming their oath, then clammed up again.
Ruan Xuezong merely flicked up an eyelid, utterly indifferent.
He stepped past the other three and stopped in front of the group’s sole woman, Chou Niang. “Confess everything from start to finish, and I’ll let you pick one of these three men—the most important to you—to live. Sound fair?”
He pointed to the others: the red-clothed boy Lin Shixuan, the White-Haired Old Man, and the Crane Old Man.
“！！！” Everyone in the room froze in shock, baffled by his ploy. The players spammed “！！！” in chat, yelling, “This is wild! Zongzong’s dropping the ultimate love triangle bomb!”
“Damn, interstellar viewers eat this stuff up!”
Chou Niang’s lips quivered as she glared at her three brothers staring back at her. She bellowed, “You little demon! Don’t even try dividing us! We four siblings swore long ago—we might not share a birthday, but we’ll share a death! No one’s abandoning the rest to save their own skin!”
Rumor had it Chou Niang had been a stunning beauty shaking the Rivers and Lakes twenty-odd years back, straight out of the wanted posters. Back then, a single sharp word from her would rally men to her side. But two decades on the run had worn her down. Time eroded beauty inevitably, turning her roar into impotent fury.
Ruan Xuezong paid no mind to her hysterics, no matter the volume.
“I’ll give you time to mull it over,” he said coolly. “One life saved beats total annihilation. Think back on the years of kindness from these three brothers. Figure out who you’d hate to lose most.”
He waved a hand. Players promptly dragged Chou Niang off to another cell.
Then Ruan Xuezong himself stepped away for half an hour.
That half hour dragged like years for certain souls in the dungeon. They’d sneer viciously one moment, mocking Ruan Xuezong’s low tricks, then fall silent the next, lost in their heads.
The players had sneakily hit record. Witnessing the drama, they bit back squeals of excitement and showered Ruan Xuezong with a million thumbs-up in their minds.
When Ruan Xuezong returned, he spared not a glance for the other three but went straight for their hearts. Memories of old times flooded their brains. They scratched and fidgeted, desperate to learn Chou Niang’s pick. Who had she saved?
“She’s made her choice. One of you four gets to live.” Ruan Xuezong cut the suspense short. He settled into a chair and laid it out plain.
A steaming cup of tea waited before him, brewed fresh by players. Thanks to his relentless coaching, their skills had leveled up—they could staff a teahouse now.
Ruan Xuezong skimmed the foam with the lid and inhaled the delicate, fragrant steam. He didn’t sip, but his breezy poise, utterly at ease, left everyone guessing.
The three bandits blinked. “Impossible!”
Their faces betrayed doubt all the same. One hollered, “Prove it! Tell us who Little Sis—Chou Niang—picked! Brother Xuan or what?”
Evidently, every man there figured he held the top spot in their sister’s heart.
“You think I’ll just spill it?” Ruan Xuezong arched a brow. Sharp as he was, he’d long sniffed out their messy bonds—and had dangled the choice right in front of them all.
The hook sank deep, reeling in Head Constable Zheng, Shen Jiangling, and even the Six Gates officers. They all craned their necks, eyes alight with barely veiled curiosity, faces screaming they had to know.
“Heh, gotta be Big Bro.”
“Nah, maybe Little Xuan. Sis fretted over your health nonstop after that cultivation deviation.”
“Crane Bro, you doted on her most—she picked you for sure.”
Their gazes tangled in complication before they turned to snide jabs. Ruan Xuezong hadn’t come for a squabble of jealous geezers, though. He summoned three players to haul the men off for isolation.
He worked them one at a time, starting with the red-clothed boy Lin Shixuan. “Who do you think Chou Niang chose?”
Lin Shixuan went quiet.
He burned to know, clawing at his scalp like a madman. But from that inn onward, he’d pegged the kid as ruthless—no easy mercies, no clean deaths.
Ruan Xuezong pressed on. “Spill every detail, and at the end, I’ll tell you who mattered most to her—who she picked to spare. Die with the truth. Or…” The words oozed temptation, pure heartstrings from a pint-sized devil.
System 007 saw it that way, at least.
He let the sentence hang, but Lin Shixuan read between the lines: clam up, and if passed over, carry that torment to the grave and beyond.
Ruan Xuezong nodded in approval as the red-clothed boy shuddered and cracked.
Players nearby scribbled furiously, thrilled.
Lin Shixuan laid it out: the kidnapping of the rich heiress, the hijack of Jinling Escort Agency’s imperial shipment. Ransom paid, girl still murdered—Crane Old Man offed her to win Chou Niang’s favor. Commoner lives? Beneath bandit notice.
The shipment was a Jinling official’s tribute to the emperor. Stuck in the provinces till his term ended, he’d outsourced to a trusted agency.
The heist netted cash and infamy: robbing the emperor’s birthday gift sent a message to the entire Rivers and Lakes.
It worked. The official collapsed; Jinling Escort Agency’s rep tanked. The still-youthful emperor flew into a rage. Ruan Xuezong pictured it: “Zhen cares little for some provincial trinket—that’s Zhen’s prerogative. But you river pirates daring to snatch it? Direct slap to the throne.”
The fallout rippled outward: Six Gates planted roots in Jinling City, official jianghu watchdogs born.
The note-taking players gawked. “Holy crap, balls of steel.” The Jianghu Game’s realism hit different.
Rivers and lakes were a complex web—powers rose and fell on a whim. A single sword stroke could shift the tides. Just as when players destroyed Smoky Water Stronghold, allowing the Flood Dragon Gang to monopolize and set their sights on Heart Cleansing Manor. Or like these bandits’ robbery igniting imperial wrath, dooming the agency and giving rise to the Six Gates.
Prime intel for closing old Six Gates files.
Ruan Xuezong quirked a brow. “So why crawl back now? Don’t tell me you’re broke.”
“You’ve been out of the game twenty years—world’s changed. Intel stale. How’d you zero in on rich kid Wang Sheng? Sure, he’s a flashy prick…” Players flashed back to his inn tantrum, nodding vigorously.
“Someone tip you off? Jinling crawls with merchants.”
Lin Shixuan’s pupils contracted. Players clocked it—Zongzong nailed it!
“We needed cash to join the Demonic Sects. That’s all I got—that’s all…”
The others mirrored him, faces twisting with dread.
Same story: a tipster flagged Wang Sheng as prime mutton. The haul? Their ticket into Demonic Sects, proof these old-timers could still whip up storms.
Who knew they’d smash into an iron plate—Ruan Xuezong.
Ruan Xuezong muttered, “Nothing more, huh.”
He turned to leave. The three men lunged verbally. Eyes wild, voices cracking: “Brat—no, Young Master Ruan! You never said who she picked!”
Blood vessels burst in their eyes, faces cracking like rabid beasts clawing the bars. Life and death? Irrelevant now. Just that answer after decades of bonds! Who—Brother Xuan, Crane Old Man, or White-Haired Old Man? They’d grill her on the bridge to the afterlife!
“Brat… Young Master Ruan, you played us? She never chose squat?”
“Nah, she chose.” Amusement flickered behind Ruan Xuezong’s bronze mask, edged with pity. “Twenty years, and you three never knew her. Took her aside, she spilled fast. Then asked to claim the lifeline herself. I said yes.”
The words landed light but shattered them. Stunned rigidity melted to gaping shock, then hollow voids. They collapsed laughing—bitter, broken sounds. As Soft Tendon Powder faded, they ended it in their cells.
“What? All three offed themselves?” Head Constable Zheng bolted over. Sure enough, underlings confirmed: corpses sprawled in the straw.
The cause? Bizarre. Ruan Xuezong’s reveal of Chou Niang’s pick.
“Who’d she save?” Eyes locked as Ruan Xuezong emerged.
He shrugged. “The natural human choice. Herself.”
Enlightenment dawned on the jianghu crowd. Beyond expectation, yet perfectly logical. Gazing at the cooling bodies, hearts twisted anew—human nature’s cruel flux.
Last of the Plum-Breaking Four Bandits or not, Chou Niang faced life in a Six Gates cell. If some guard spilled how her brothers died… who knew her reaction?
Jinling City’s twenty-year cold case cracked wide. Heart Washing Manor scored fat official gold. Ruan Xuezong skimmed his share, then System-a-mailed the rest to every player in the plot—horse funerals, training silvers, first-clear bonuses. Flashy labels, but five taels a head.
Six Gates gates erupted in player cheers. “Zongzong’s so generous!!!”
