Chapter 18: Blame Successfully Shifted
10:10 p.m.
Uncle Hua had just washed up and was about to go to bed when violent pounding rattled his door.
Outside, voices barked:
"Open up! Zhongyi Hall search! Cooperate if you know what's good for you!"
Uncle Hua didn't dare delay. He ran to open the door, practically tucking his tail between his legs.
A vicious-looking Kuranta brute stood outside, face full of meat and menace.
The man sized Uncle Hua up, then pushed past him slightly to scan the room.
"You live alone?"
"Yes—alone. Nobody else here." Uncle Hua smiled carefully and stepped aside to prove it.
Disappointment flashed in the Kuranta's eyes.
But they'd searched too long for too little. One more dead end didn't matter.
He was about to toss out a casual question for leads when his horse ears twitched—he caught a gathering whistle from outside.
He turned and left without another word.
Uncle Hua slammed the door shut and leaned against the wall, clutching his pounding heart.
"Casimirian damn it… these scum never sleep. Another gang war?"
He didn't realize he'd just walked past death.
Outside, Texas stood in the shadows with half a cigarette between her lips—silent, predatory, a wolf in stillness.
Chen Xiu had told her: if nothing happened by 10:30, she could pull back.
Judging by what she'd just seen, Zhongyi Hall's movements had changed—something had shifted.
So Chen Xiu… actually pulled it off?
How did he make Zhongyi Hall change targets?
That morning, when Chen Xiu said he'd been hunted, Texas had already prepared to shoulder him and carve a bloody path out of the slums.
And now it seemed… over.
Texas exhaled smoke, eyes half-lidded, the whole crisis unreal to her.
No fighting. No violence.
It left her with nowhere to "use her strength."
But strangely… it felt good.
If she truly wanted to break from her family and her past, she couldn't keep solving everything with brute force.
She'd escaped the mire for now—but her past would catch up eventually. She'd always known that.
Which meant Chen Xiu was worth learning from.
Her tail swayed once.
Her trust in her partner deepened.
…
Outside Grey Tail Hall, the two factions faced each other.
Grey Tail Hall vs. Zhongyi Hall.
Tension was thick enough to cut. Pan Hu stood at the very front of his men with arms crossed.
He shouted about smashing Grey Tail Hall, but he wasn't stupid. He knew exactly how heavy the Rat King's name was.
Since Lungmen's founding, slum powers had risen and fallen in chaos. Grey Tail Hall alone remained standing. Lin "Rat King" Ge Rui was a thunderclap across the underworld.
If Zhongyi Hall wanted to grow larger and stronger, they had to bring down Grey Tail Hall.
His Big Brother and Second Brother had said it a thousand times.
And lately, Big Brother had emphasized they needed an excuse to drag Grey Tail Hall's attention away—those rats heard too much, too fast. Zhongyi Hall couldn't let Grey Tail Hall sniff out the secret deals tied to Shengjunbao's inn circuit.
So this was the perfect pretext: a provocation, a pressure test, and maybe more.
Lin Yuxia walked through the parted ranks and stopped in front of Pan Hu.
Facing a Feline brute several sizes larger, the Zalak girl stood tall, hands on hips, refusing to yield a fraction of presence.
"Pan Hu," she snapped, "you brought men to blockade Grey Tail Hall at night. Are you trying to start a war?"
Grey Tail Hall's men answered with a unified roar to bolster her.
Zhongyi Hall's side was far noisier—more like a weaponized street market. They cursed, taunted, and yelled insults that started and ended with family registries.
Pan Hu let them go for a moment, then lifted a hand to silence them.
"Little girl," he said, "I've got no interest bullying kids whose fur isn't even grown in. Call your old man out. He can talk to me."
"You want to see the Rat King?" Lin Yuxia sneered.
With a flick of her wrist, she condensed a glass-like blade of Originium Arts and pointed it at Pan Hu's throat.
"You're not qualified."
"Bold!" Pan Hu bellowed. "Then let me test your weight! Let's see how much of the Rat King's real skill you inherited!"
He swung, fist crashing toward the blade, his arm turning an ominous dark as his Arts awakened—metal control.
Lin Yuxia's eyes sharpened. She withdrew and slipped his punch, then stepped in and thrust, aiming for the vulnerable underarm.
Pan Hu twisted to block—if that strike landed, his arm would be ruined.
He knocked the blade aside and surged forward, trying to crush the distance and turn it into a body clash.
Lin Yuxia knew she'd lose any direct contest of strength. Worse, with Pan Hu's metal-control Arts, hard-contact against her glass blade was a losing trade.
To win, she needed trickery.
She slashed horizontally at his wrist.
A shriek of metal rang out—her glass blade shattered.
"YES!"
"Third Boss is mighty! Third Boss is mighty!"
Zhongyi Hall's men erupted in a frenzy, faces red as they screamed praise.
Pan Hu grinned—
Then the broken blade exploded midair, spraying a storm of glass shards.
Pan Hu crossed his arms to shield his face—and in that instant Lin Yuxia drove a kick into him, forcing him back several steps.
Now Grey Tail Hall's men roared.
Pan Hu and Lin Yuxia reset, facing each other.
The first exchange had been a probe.
If neither side backed down, the second round would be blood.
Elsewhere, Chen Xiu checked the time.
If nothing went wrong, Zhongyi Hall and Grey Tail Hall had already collided.
He wasn't worried Grey Tail Hall would lose—Wei Yenwu was behind them, and Pan Hu likely couldn't even get past the Rat King. That old monster could withstand a full sandstorm Catastrophe a decade later.
"Click—click…"
Footsteps approached.
Ch'en Hui-chieh returned at a jog to Chen Xiu's shack and held out a blue pouch embroidered with a dragon head.
"This is the thirty-thousand bounty. Check it."
Chen Xiu opened it briefly. The thickness looked right.
"A-Jie… this is your money, isn't it?" he asked. "Is this really worth it, just for a case?"
"Worth it." Ch'en's answer was steel. "Justice has to be guarded by someone."
Chen Xiu paused, then stood.
"Come on. I'll take you to the suspicious place now."
Ch'en's eyes lit up. "Really? But the thing I promised you—"
"It's fine." Chen Xiu smiled. "I believe you'll honor it. Right, A-Jie?"
.....
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