When Hua Yan awoke, there was a pile of ash in front of him.
He was in the Hour House of Chil Pin, so judging by the context and the memories from last night, this bundle of ash could only belong to one person…
"Hua Yin…"
Tears started to spill from Hua Yan's face as he croaked in a crackling voice.
Since he had lacked the resolve to find some ash, his sister had become nothing more than a pile of ash herself. This would not have happened if he hadn't argued with Frenzy last night. This would not have happened if he had just calmed his heart down! This would not have happened if he had just killed all those that stood in his way without any hesitation!
The 200 or so silvers that he had filched by killing 9 people had caused him a great amount of unsettlement, making him extremely guilty. Now, Hua Yan could only curse himself for feeling that guilt.
Who cared if he killed some kid?! Wasn't his sister also only a kid?! If not to protect her, there would be no reason for Hua Yan to kill people! Why did he forget this!
He was not a saint! He had his own goals to accomplish! He had his own things to do!
Because he had chosen to feel guilty for killing some random strangers, he would have to spend the rest of his life feeling guilty for causing the death of his own flesh and blood! How was this fair!
Things would have been just fine if he had forgotten about those emotions. All Frenzy wanted were results. Since Hua Yan's mentality held him down, however, Frenzy didn't have the confidence that he could accomplish what it wanted him to.
As a result, it gave him a crude awakening. It had killed Hua Yin in front of Hua Yan's eyes!
The girl that was now nothing more than ash had done nothing to deserve this. But, to be frank, it wasn't Hua Yan's fault either! He was forced into it!
He could try to blame Frenzy, but that would get him nowhere. It would just be a waste of time!
Instead of playing the blame game, Hua Yan decided that it was time for some action.
Every moment after he spent after Hua Yin's death caused him endless suffrage. He wanted to bring her back! The longer he delayed things, the longer it would take for him to become strong enough to revive her.
Hua Yan found some nearby cloth and tossed her ashes into it. Wrapping it up, he tried his best to contain as much of the ash that he could. Once he was finished, he slid the ashes into one of his pockets and left the building.
He was going to change his fate now!
Three months ago, when Hua Yan had gotten into an accident with Hua Gwan and killed off four of his men, the guards had arrived.
Not wanting Hua Yin to get caught in the crossfire, he chased her away to this place, because he knew that the guards would not come looking for her here.
Firstly, Hua Yin was not directly involved in the murders, so the clan would not bother spending a lot of manpower to bring her back to the manor to have her punished.
Secondly, Chil Pin was an area in Gin Town where the clansmen of Hua Ding manor didn't have much jurisdiction. This was because Chil Pin was on the other side of town. Furthermore, it was a place that was controlled by another clan. Though this clan was not as big as the whole Hua Clan, it was big enough to suppress one or two of the Main Branches.
Since Chil Pin was a business district of this clan, Hua Clan members would not carelessly enter this area.
Since Hua Yin was just a girl with no cultivation, even if she were part of the Hua Clan, no one really paid any attention to her. She was unimportant, so they ignored her and let her do her own thing.
The Hour House was a place that Hua Yan knew about because he sometimes did collection missions in the nameless forest for the owner here. Since he visited quite frequently, he knew that this was a place that was in dire need for more workers.
It wasn't exactly able to offer the best wages, so people generally avoided it. But, in return for work, they provided free lodging and meals. Additionally, Hua Yan knew that the owner was not a bad person. That was the reason why he had sent Hua Yin here. It would have been a great place for her to go to hide for a while
Though Hua Yan was still worried about her, this had been the best solution at the time.
Now, thinking of those thoughts, Hua Yan really felt like an idiot. He should have just asked Hua Yin to leave the town.
At least then she would still be alive…
Of course, he could have never predicted that this would happen, but he couldn't help but blame everything on himself.
Hua Yan shook his head and stopped thinking about this matter. He needed to make money now.
It was already morning. The appointed time to meet up with the thugs was nearing. Today, Hua Yan was scheduled to join up with Squad 3 to do who knows what.
He wanted to make a good impression while not revealing too many of his secrets. He wanted to learn more about generating extra sources of income from his colleagues. Most importantly, he wanted to find a way to get to the guards.
He needed a channel to find more information about the ashes. Going through a former guard captain, who still had quite the reputation, seemed to be a good idea to Hua Yan. That was what his agenda was for now.
He would make it big under Hua Pan, and get the latter to recommend him to the guards.
Hua Yan soon arrived back in the manor. A few minutes later, he was back at the Raining Tea Pavilion.
There was not a single goon here that didn't recognize him. Even though he had only joined the day before, he was after all someone that could even out-drink an experienced Level 11 Complete Ballooning Stage master. Furthermore, his skills in combat weren't anything to scoff at.
Hua Yan had single-handedly destroyed two Ballooning Stage experts in hand-to-hand combat. One of the thugs he had beaten was even someone in the middle levels of the stage!
This was pretty impressive considering his age! With a matching domineering attitude to go with all of this, Hua Yan could be considered pretty eye-catching! There was no goon that wouldn't respect such a person.
Even if they didn't show it outwardly, they would all be thinking deep down that they wanted to be like him. They all wanted to be someone that was strong, bold and didn't have fear.
In their hearts, this was what Hua Yan was like.
Hence, on his first day on the job, there were even some older members that took the initiative to greet him first. This would not have happened had he been an ordinary recruit. In fact, he might have even gotten bullied on his first day if he was just another ordinary goon.
But, the fact was that some of the older members were afraid of him! They didn't know what would happen if they took anything too far, so they dared not push Hua Yan around.
The only two people that had somewhat sour expressions on their faces at Hua Yan's arrival were Hua Bull, the man Hua Yan had beat in the drinking contest the day before, and Hua Kin, the 5th Level Continuous Ballooning Stage expert.
The reason why they were not looking so happy was obvious enough. They could not keep their heads up in front of their colleagues and had even lost quite a bit of respect as a result.
Even those that were weaker than them no longer treated them as well as they had before. So, of course the two of them would not be happy with Hua Yan.
After all, it was Hua Yan that had caused this!
The two seemed to conveniently forget that it was also their own weakness that had led to this outcome, yet they didn't care. In their minds, they were in the right since they were the older members.
What right did this newbie have to defeat and defame them?!
Settling in, Hua Yan simply ignored them.
It appeared as though Hua Pan was not in today. Instead of the leader, someone else came to talk to Hua Yan today.
From looks alone, Hua Yan could tell that this man was about as strong as Hua Bull. He would easily be able to become a guard captain if he wanted. This man was probably one of the strongest people in the gang, outside of Hua Pan himself.
"I am Hua Sho," the man introduced, "Squads 3, 4 and 5 are under me. Since you are new to the group, I will be leading Squad 3 today to show you around."
Hearing Hua Sho's words, the surrounding gang members were rather shocked.
Usually someone like Hua Sho would not do something as lowly as leading a Protection Fees Collection Squad around. This was something that was not fitting of his status as a powerful expert!
At most, he would choose the location to target and which Squads to send over.
As for the actual dirty work, he rarely got involved, unless it involved some big clients.
His power was no joke. As such, it was rarely necessary for him to display his power within the confines of Hua Ding Manor. The lesser members were enough to do a job like this.
But… seeing as how Hua Sho voluntarily agreed to accompany the Squad 3 today, it seemed as if he was paying special attention to Hua Yan.
In truth, Hua Sho didn't believe that Hua Yan was as special as some of the people made him out to be. Sure, he could do some great things that not many others could, such as defeating someone that was many times more powerful; however, Hua Yan's opponents weren't even the strongest goons. They were just those in the lower-middle ranks.
As such, Hua Sho felt like Hua Yan was a replaceable asset and not someone that was to be monitored closely. It would only end up being a waste of time to keep a track of Hua Yan's movement.
Moreover, while Hua Sho was somewhat curious as to how Hua Yan could outdrink Hua Bull with his little body, he did not think that his curiosity of this trivial matter was worth degrading himself into joining Squad 3 on their daily collection.
No, Hua Sho was only doing this because he was under Hua Pan's orders. Hua Pan couldn't personally accompany Hua Yan during the collection, because that would indeed be way too suspicious and many people would catch on to it.
Hua Pan did not want to alert his enemies of his movements or his intentions, so he would not let someone like Hua Yan who had great secrets on him to be exposed so easily.
This didn't mean that Hua Pan would forego such an excellent opportunity to spy on Hua Yan and learn about all his cards however.
Since he himself couldn't watch Hua Yan all day long, he instead sent one of his most trusted subordinates from back during his guard days.
Hua Sho was precisely this subordinate.
Though Hua Sho felt that this task was below him, he really respected his boss. He would not go against his boss' orders. He would also not do a half-hearted job just because he didn't like the job that he was told to do.
Hua Sho was probably one of the most professional thugs out there. He didn't let his emotions get in the way of his judgements. This made him less wild and rash than the others, but also a more dangerous opponent for anyone that had any strange ideas about opposing him.
Hence, Hua Pan put him in charge of watching Hua Sho. Hua Pan was deeply confident that Hua Sho would bring him good results.
"Alright, let's head off for now," Hua Sho announced, getting about 4 goons to follow him out. Hua Yan also joined them.
And so, the group of 6 left Raining Tea Pavilion, heading to the location where Hua Yan would partake in his first Protection Fees Collection job.