Chapter 8 Why Bother Being a Hero? (1/2)

Shen Qingsan thought of his nephew's death and felt hatred welling up in him. 'What an unexpected misfortune', he thought.

There was a saying in the State Capital of Qing, 'There is nothing that the Shen family cannot find out in the state capital.'

Although the statement was slightly over-exaggerated, it was not entirely untrue. The statement described how influential the Shen family was; it was to the extent that state officials would have to let the Shen family have their way.

To outsiders, the two young masters of Shen family died from a fatal sickness.

Many mourned for their young deaths.

However, Old Master Shen was not convinced. He searched for the most experienced coroner in the State Capital of Qing to investigate their true cause of death.

The coroner was skilled, and he did notice something odd.

The two young masters did not die from sickness. Someone killed them with internal strength by injuring their meridians, which explained why they vomited blood before dying.

According to the coroner, the killer was not very experienced. An expert of this killing technique could kill with just one tap. As the victim would only die after days or even weeks of the attack, the killer would be long gone by then.

Someone of that caliber would not be just any Tom, Dick, or Harry. They had a unique way of doing things, and they belonged to an exclusive circle called 'Jianghu'.

Jianghu was all-encompassing.

Jianghu was also secretive and exclusive.

The coroner thought that the killer would be a martial art expert; not top-notch, but of decent capabilities.

Whatever traces left behind by the killer would be gone by now.

However, as long as the killer was still a mortal in this realm, the Shen family would be able to do something about it.

The Shen family managed to trace the root back to an incident that took place one fine day. The two young masters had an argument with a rich outsider in green coat.

Due to the reputation of Shen family, the man had to give up his spot, a private room in the restaurant. But before he left, he gave them a shove.

That was the shove that brought forth the young masters' death.

When the Shen family managed to get their hand on the information, they filtered through suspicious points and managed to narrow down their suspect list to one candidate. With the help of Green Bamboo Sect, they managed to confirm the identity of the killer.

The Green Bamboo Sect exerted considerable influence in Jianghu, though, their forte was that of the labor market. They controlled the hard labor taskforce of the state capital.

If the Shen family were to be the light, the Green Bamboo Sect would be the shadow; both coexisted without tension.

Despite being in Jianghu, the Green Bamboo Sect wanted mainly money and were generally not in conflict with the Shen family.

In Jianghu, the polar opposite would be people like the man in green – those who searched for a vigorous and adrenaline-filled lifestyle.

They were the 'Robinhood' of Jianghu; they stole from the rich to give back to the poor. Besides gaining reputation, they could benefit from having some extra cash as well.

It was risky, but they were skilled enough for the job. Besides, there was usually not much resistance from those who were robbed, as they were only there for the money, not to kill.

As they were skilled, people like the man in green were usually aggressive and untamed; they would not hesitate to kill out of anger.

That was precisely why they had a lot of enemies within or outside of Jianghu.

Those were kind of people that the two young masters had run into.

Experts in Jianghu were often mysterious. They could easily take on a hundred men and still managed to emerge unharmed.

The man in green could do anything that he wanted with his impressive skills. Even after killing the two young masters of the Shen family, he could escape and stay alive. As long as it was nothing as serious as plotting a rebellion or murdering a state official, he could basically do anything and everything.