The Heir to the Seven Killers in the City

Chapter 10: Sandbar

The Fire Scorpion Gang’s stronghold wasn’t in downtown Jiangcheng, but in a county south of the city—and not even in the county seat itself, but on a small island near it. Though called an island, it was actually a sandbar formed by the constant accumulation of silt where two rivers converged. To be honest, it wasn’t small—especially the reed marshes on the sandbar,which were particularly beautiful during the reed-flowering season. More than twenty years ago, this was a popular recreational spot for the people of Jiangcheng—especially at dusk, when the setting sun cast its glow over the vast reed beds, turning the flowers crimson; the scenery was truly breathtaking. However, after a series of murdered bodies were discovered on this sandbar, people stopped coming here. It was a serial murder case involving a psychopathic killer that took place over twenty years ago; the victims were all female students. A total of eight female bodies were found on the sandbar, and all eight victims had suffered extremely brutal abuse and assault before their deaths. When the bodies were discovered, it’s said that most of the police officers present couldn’t help but shed tears. Finding the bodies on the sandbar would have been bad enough, but the problem was that the bodies of these eight girls had all been dismembered. To be precise, only parts of their bodies were found at the scene—where could the rest be? That could only be known once the killer was caught. However, this utterly depraved psychopath vanished without a trace after killing the eight girls. To this day, he has not been caught, and the police haven’t even been able to determine the killer’s identity. As a result, no one dares to come to this once-beautiful sandbar anymore. Who the hell wants to be out here enjoying themselves only to stumble upon a human hand or foot? And who can guarantee when that psychopathic killer will strike again? No one can, which is why people no longer come here. Ordinary people may be too scared to come here, but the Fire Scorpion Gang doesn’t care. The members of the Fire Scorpion Gang are basically all people with blood on their hands; they don’t give a damn that people have died here, and they certainly don’t care about some psychopathic killer. Besides, the killer only targets women, and the core members of the Fire Scorpion Gang are all grown men—what the hell do they have to fear? They chose this location because of the Fire Scorpion Gang’s drug trafficking operation. After smuggling drugs from Myanmar back to Jiangcheng, they begin processing them at the drug lab they’ve set up on this sandbar. You have to understand that drugs shipped from Myanmar can’t be sold directly; they must first be diluted and processed before they become the drugs that end up in the hands of addicts. This process is the most profitable part of the drug trade for traffickers. Raw material costing forty yuan per gram, once diluted, sells for over a hundred yuan as the finished product. And just how much is it diluted? You can imagine the profit margins involved. High profits mean high risks. Under Huaxia law, drug trafficking carries the death penalty without exception once a certain weight threshold is reached. This is why drug traffickers are among the most ruthless criminals—they know that capture means certain death. For them, surrender is simply not an option; their only path is to fight to the bitter end. Another source of income for the Fire Scorpion Gang is the trafficking of human organs—a trade that is equally unscrupulous yet extremely lucrative. Their warehouse for storing human organs is also located on this sandbar. Before his death, Brother Rong sold off his entire gang just to die painlessly—a testament to how terrifying Qin Yu’s technique of severing meridians and blocking energy flow truly was. Yet, as he lay dying, Brother Rong uttered one final warning: Qin Yu would never know just how powerful the Fire Scorpion Gang truly was, and that he would be waiting for Qin Yu from beyond the grave. Qin Yu was as fearless as a newborn calf; having even stumbled upon the “Seven Kill Sutra” by sheer luck, he certainly didn’t take the Fire Scorpion Gang seriously. In Qin Yu’s mind, the Fire Scorpion Gang members were nothing more than a bunch of vicious thugs—after all, hadn’t Brother Rong, who was reputed to be the Gang’s deadliest fighter, been killed by him? With this plan in mind, Qin Yu secretly swam to the sandbar where the Fire Scorpion Gang was based on a night with neither stars nor moon. The river water was cold, but Qin Yu’s heart burned with passion. The mere thought that there were at least a dozen bloodthirsty villains on that sandbar—whose blood-stained hands would help him grow stronger—filled him with inexplicable excitement. He didn’t even realize that, after killing two people in quick succession, these villains had ceased to look like human beings in his eyes. He was like a player logged into an online game; in his eyes, those vicious criminals were monsters from a video game—sources of experience points, rather than living, breathing human beings. Qin Yu wasn’t even aware of this shift in his mindset; he was now completely immersed in the exhilaration of defeating monsters and leveling up, just as if he were in an online game. Drenched from head to toe, he climbed out of the water. Following the instructions in the *Seven Slayings Sutra*, Qin Yu channeled the killing intent within his body. His body gradually grew hot, and his soaked clothes quickly dried. He crept silently through the reeds, and before long, he finally spotted the Fire Scorpion Gang’s stronghold—a large courtyard at the center of the sandbar. When Qin Yu saw the courtyard, he couldn’t help but swallow hard; he found it hard to comprehend the Fire Scorpion Gang’s sense of aesthetics. The courtyard was fully equipped with high walls, electric fences, and a massive iron gate. If they’d just added a couple of slogans about “starting over,” it would have been a miniature prison. Living in a place like this day in and day out, wouldn’t these Fire Scorpion Gang thugs feel utterly stifled? But that wasn’t Qin Yu’s concern. What he needed to figure out now was how to sneak in. Looking at this miniature prison, Qin Yu felt completely at a loss—he hadn’t prepared nearly enough for this. Just as Qin Yu was racking his brain trying to figure out how to get into the Fire Scorpion Gang’s hideout, he suddenly heard a rustling sound behind him. His first thought was, “Damn, a snake!” Snakes love places like reed beds. Qin Yu spun around in a hurry, but just as he whipped his body around, his nose bumped into something, and at the same time, his lips touched two soft, fragrant things. A low, sharp gasp rang out right next to Qin Yu’s ear. Rubbing his nose, he stared dumbfounded at the person in front of him. Before him stood a girl, one hand covering her nose and the other her mouth—with pretty short hair and snow-white skin, though her large, lively eyes were now brimming with anger. At first, Qin Yu was stunned by the girl’s sudden appearance, but then he lunged forward to cover her mouth—he was afraid her screams would alert the Fire Scorpion Gang, which would spell trouble. But just as he lunged, the girl’s hands moved unexpectedly, and in an instant, she pinned Qin Yu’s hands behind his back! Qin Yu felt an intense pain as his hands were pinned behind his back. The girl snorted, “Who are you? Are you one of those bastards from the Fire Scorpion Gang?”