Dual wielding volcanoes, killing through the west

"Get used to the life of a gutter rat. From now on, you'll have to hide in the dark like you are today."

……

William's face gradually contorted, and his breathing became increasingly labored.

From a high-and-mighty patriarch of a wealthy family to what he is now, literally a gutter rat, who can accept such a transformation?

"what--!!"

He pulled out a fruit knife and stabbed it into Zhang Renfeng's neck!

"when!!"

The tip of the knife shattered.

He himself was also jolted by the recoil and stumbled against the wall, collapsing to the ground. This time, he could never get up again.

“I…I’m not reconciled…I am William Heysen…I made a name for myself in this market when I was 18…”

"I possess...light, warmth, wealth...these are all mine..."

"You...you owe me..."

"Give me back my fortune, my status! Give me back everything I've lost, everything I have..."

"Give me back! Give me back—!!"

He roared out his last breath, then spat out blood, his eyes wide open, and died suddenly, his face frozen in a rather ferocious expression.

----

"Ah, he's dead." Zhang Renfeng looked at everything expressionlessly, truly achieving the goal of "killing someone and destroying their spirit" simultaneously. "How interesting, what do you all say?"

"boom!"

William Heysen's wife also aged considerably overnight. Seemingly without any hesitation, she picked up a revolver, pressed it against her chin, and fired a shot without even pointing the gun at Zhang Renfeng—her thinking was clear: even if she killed Zhang Renfeng, so what? The past was gone forever.

She couldn't accept living like a rat in a world without status, money, or power.

"Ah..." Imond felt as if he had just woken from a dream. Looking at his parents' bodies falling one after another, his eyes were filled with resentment and despair.

“You…I know, I know…” He picked up the revolver from his mother’s hand, pointed it at Zhang Renfeng, his hands trembling slightly, “You’re [Red Center], right? Right!? You just like to mess with rich families like ours…What did we do to offend you!”

……

“If I were Hongzhong, you would already be dead at the martial arts tournament,” Zhang Renfeng said coldly.

"Huh?" Imond was taken aback.

"The Red One is dead."

The light shone on his cold, stern face, casting a terrifying shadow. Zhang Renfeng's voice, too, carried an indescribable sense of oppression.

"I am the White One!"

“Unlike Red Zhong, I didn’t kill your parents… You chose the cemetery yourselves, you fired the guns yourselves, and this place is far from the city center. No one will care about your death; it’ll be like dust being brushed off.”

Zhang Renfeng sneered, "After this, the name of the Haisen family will be worthless."

"Do you still have the courage to continue living in this world where you've been erased from history, without any relatives or friends?"

----

……

……

……

The muscles on Imond's face finally broke down at a certain moment.

"boom!"

He shoved the gun barrel into his mouth, pulled the trigger, and was thrown out in a spray of blood. He collapsed against the wall and slowly went limp.

Volume 1: The War of Takagi

Chapter 641: Here, someone is speaking up for the honest man!

"What do you mean 'your prey'? I was the one who spotted him first. The bullet that killed him came from my gun barrel. How did he become your prey?!" The man in the black hat slammed his fist on the table and roared.

"What a joke! I'd like to ask, if he really was killed by your bullet, how come his body is on my horse?" The cowboy in the white jacket shook his head dismissively and sneered. "Now that I've brought everything here, what's the point of you making this and that? The body is in the mass grave. If you don't believe me, we'll dig it up and see for ourselves."

"You were the one who rode up on horseback, lassoed it, and dragged it away!" The man in the black hat grew even angrier. "My horse wasn't nearby at the time, how could I have caught up with you? You had plenty of time to finish off the corpse with a couple more shots, it's perfectly normal!"

"Haha, you're making it sound so convincing without any evidence," the man in the white jacket sneered. "So, what do you want?"

"How about that?!" the man in the black hat roared. "I'll fucking shoot you dead!"

……

"when!"

Koby pulled out a dagger and stuck it into the table in front of him, and the two men immediately fell silent.

"Please make sure you two understand whose territory this town is," Koby said expressionlessly, his voice low and menacing. "Do you know what happened to those who caused trouble here before?"

The two cowboys, who were just moments before full of energy and eager to start fighting, suddenly became quiet.

This is White Torch, New Austin.

Since the new mayor took office, Kebiin, the assassin from the Hermitage of Xunshan, has been lurking in White Torch Town. In fact, he was one of the first people to have any dealings with Zhang Renfeng, and their deal was actually formed very early on.

Every city has gray income, only varying in scale. As Baiju Town expands and its economy and trade flourish, such gray income will only increase. And behind the flow of this income is the reputation of the Hongzhong Gang.

This is one of the reasons why White Torch Town is seen as a utopia by outsiders—not only do the rich and powerful keep a low profile, but even thugs, gangsters, and unscrupulous gunmen dare not act recklessly in this city.

In other places, their way of intimidating others would undoubtedly be through force, but here, that approach doesn't work.

With Hongzhong around, any force becomes laughable.

Kebiin was one of the Red Center Gang's representatives in this town. He was responsible for adjusting, from a broader perspective, some gray income that couldn't be included in tax calculations and completing its legitimate redistribution. In this process, he would take a cut of the profits.

Over time, he became a benchmark figure in the industry. The black market he managed, originally a place for selling stolen goods, gradually became a place to settle disputes. No matter how big or small the conflict was, if it was sent to him, he would always give a relatively reasonable judgment.

The existence of this black market was tacitly approved by Gordon and Dunn. This world is complex, and there always needs to be an outlet to deal with these less-than-honorable matters. Now, Red Center has bound together the town's legitimate and criminal worlds, and they can completely control everything in a way that is most beneficial to the city's development.

……

"Alright, kid, stop talking nonsense." Koby waved his hand and said in a deep voice, "Whether what you say is true or false, he delivered the goods, so I have no choice but to pay him. He used a lasso to rob your prey, you should have shot him dead then and there, instead of coming after him later."

"What does this mean? It means your marksmanship is just so-so, which is why others dare to treat you like this. If someone dared to do that under my nose, I would definitely shoot them off their horse."

Koby waved his hand. "It's no use saying anything now. Go back and practice the basics. Draw your gun, hip-fire. You decide what you need to practice."

"..." The man in the black hat gritted his teeth, clearly dissatisfied with the decision, but he still nodded to Koby.

That's the point of this place; once you're in, you have to accept their decisions. He resigned himself to his fate, sighed, and turned to leave. Only the man in the white jacket remained, leaning back in his chair with a smug look, whistling as he saw him off, a victor's smile on his face.

“Here’s your money… an expensive belt, a gold ring, and an antique pocket watch.” Koby handed over $80. “You’re quite skilled.”

"Ha, it depends on who you compare it to." The man in the white jacket smirked. "Compared to that kind of trash, it's actually not bad."

"...Then let me ask you, what's your name?"

"Dick Martinson."

“Very good, Mr. Martinson, this will be the last bit of money you make in the black market in all the towns of New Orleans.” With a few strokes, Koby drew his likeness on a piece of paper, tore it off and showed it to him, saying, “I will attach this letter and drawing and send them to Windhaven, Three Horses, Lagras and St. Quintak.”

"I believe that out of consideration for me, no one will accept anything from you again."

Dick's expression froze instantly. He opened his mouth in disbelief, stammered for a moment, and said in a shocked tone, "But...but you can't do this! I didn't do anything wrong!"

“I can’t stand guys who take advantage of others and then act innocent,” Koby said coldly. “This place is different from other places. In this town, there are people who will stand up for honest people.”

His expression shifted several times; clearly, this wasn't the first time something like this had happened. But such treatment was unprecedented. In the vast state of New Orleans, he suddenly found himself without shelter. Dick gritted his teeth, glaring at the assassin before him, seemingly torn between whether to break ties and confront him, while Koby simply watched him calmly.

"..."

The silence gradually festered.

In the end, the man in the white jacket angrily stuffed the money into his bag and got up to leave.

----

"Well done!"

A familiar voice came from the back door.

Koby instinctively gripped the hilt of his dagger, but after realizing who it was, he breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't help but complain, "Couldn't we have used the front door?"

"You're handling things right now, I don't want to disturb you." Zhang Renfeng slowly walked out of the shadows from the back door of the black market, smiling with some satisfaction. "It seems that entrusting this black market to you was really the right choice."

"If it were you, you would definitely do the same."

Koby sighed, stood up, first hung up a "No Service" sign, and closed the front door. Then, he quickly walked to a bookshelf, took out a book, opened the pages, picked up a note, and placed it on the table in front of Zhang Renfeng.

"Here's the list."

Koby said in a deep voice, "We've already killed more than half of the people on the list."

Chapter 642: Settling Old and New scores in one fell swoop

Earlier, when the captain was giving him instructions, he had told him to take care of the more than two hundred Illuminati members in the southern states one by one. And it was to be done discreetly, preferably by having his subordinates do it, creating the impression that Red Center was indeed dead.

Zhang Renfeng did take these words to heart, but he didn't directly assign the task to his subordinates. At the meeting in Sanma Town, almost every member of the Red Central Gang received a mission, except for assassinations—at least not yet.

After much deliberation, he came up with an excellent idea based on his years of experience and wisdom, and after discussing it with Igor, he also got the approval of his strategist.

He outsourced the assassination mission to the Illuminati's archenemy—the Hermitage of Mount Sumeru.

Zhang Renfeng didn't give out the entire list at once, but only a portion to test its effectiveness. He reached an agreement with Kebin and then began to implement it.

The list was delivered to headquarters by Kobyin, an assassin within the Secret Order, who then arranged for assassins to carry it out. However, this organization wasn't as wealthy as the Illuminati, so all expenses incurred during the assassination were reimbursed by the Red Center Gang, essentially making it a case of using company funds for murder.

They exist solely to kill the Illuminati; it's a win-win deal.

He also instructed the assassins to leave a white mahjong tile at each murder scene, so that, at least from the outside, it would appear to be a copycat of the Red Dragon – the Red Dragon only has one person, but the white tiles seem to be scattered throughout many southern prefectures and counties, omnipresent.

Moreover, his killings were more targeted and secretive; he never resorted to exaggerated stunts, like hanging someone from a church ceiling or slicing them five hundred times and then displaying them publicly…none of that. The victims were found dead in secluded corners—perhaps their own beds, carriages, or toilets—their deaths varied. He used whatever was convenient: daggers, bullets, ropes—purely the methods of an assassin.

Southern newspapers and media outlets didn't even dare to report on the existence of the "whiteboard".

Because he is different from Hong Zhong, this is a group, a group with sophisticated methods, that is systematically and according to certain standards executing a group of people—who can guarantee that once this report is published, they won't be the next one?

This is also the ingenuity of the design: anyone can be a blank slate, and Zhang Renfeng is no exception. As long as he, like these assassins, kills in a relatively covert way, or in a way completely different from his previous personal style, he can conceal himself.

Hidden among the trees, no one doubts that the former Red Center is now a member of the White Board.

----

"We'll talk about the second list later. I have something I want to ask you now..."

Zhang Renfeng said in a deep voice, "Do you have any information to share about Ryan Childer?"

Koby paused briefly. He knew the grudge between Zhang Renfeng and Ryan, and naturally knew what his question meant.

"Even for us, the edge of the tall trees is a forbidden zone that we can't easily cross. You know what I mean?"

“The Indian tribes there possess a rather mysterious power. I advise you not to provoke them lightly. Your abilities are indeed very strong…” Koby murmured, “but you probably won’t gain much advantage against the curse.”

Zhang Renfeng looked somewhat disappointed, but he still nodded, stood up, and prepared to leave.

“We have no news of Lane Cheder, but we know that there is currently an active army trying to rescue him and will declare war on the Indian tribes of the Hightree region. The day after Lane Cheder disappeared, this Union army had already assembled its forces and arrived at the edge of the Hightree region, ready to fight at any time.”

……

The Northern Army?

Zhang Renfeng paused, a thought flashing through his mind.

It felt like it had happened a year ago, even though it hadn't been long—he had gone on a killing spree in the sandstorm, making his way to the police station, and when he interrogated Mark Dooling, he had indeed said it. Lane Childer, who had an eldest son, was now serving in the Union Army.

"Could it be..."

“That’s right.” Koby nodded. “Colonel Jaworth Cheddar, his eldest son, is the leader of this army.”

"News from the front is blocked, and the situation is extremely dire. As you know, Tall Tree and White Torch Town are separated by an entire New Elizabeth State, so we can't get much intelligence from the front," Koby said in a deep voice. "Do you want my advice?"

"Don't get involved. You can't beat the army no matter what. You've worked so hard to build up your wealth; don't let it all go to waste."

----