When the assassin saw Zhang Heng, he was terrified. He was supposed to be a master of stealth, yet failed to realize that he was being followed. And he had been followed for a long time, from the laundry shop all the way to the meat shop. And Zhang Heng had waited until the assassin met his handler before showing up.
When the assassin was reminded of the strange feeling he got earlier, he could not help but ask, “Are you… are you also an assassin?”
“Unfortunately, it’s still my turn to ask the questions.” Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows, and he turned around to look at the one-eyed Samaritan. “It appears you are his handler. If so, you should know the person paying you for this service, right? Tell me. Who wants me dead?”
The Samaritan had quickly calmed down after his initial bout of panic. He simply shook his head, and said, “I don’t know what you are talking about; I’m just the boss of this meat shop; I don’t know what the heck assassination is.”
“Really?” Zhang Heng did not rush him after he heard his reply. Instead, he drew the two Persian swords from his waist.
“What are you going to do to me? Arrest me and bring me back to the patrol station?” The one-eyed Samaritan raised his voice, “Do you have any evidence that I am his handler?!”
“Arrest you? I think you just complicate the whole thing. It seems you have no idea how the patrol team works recently.” Zhang Heng said, “I was very careful when I came over here. No one on the street noticed that I entered your meat shop. In other words, no one will know that I kill you here.”
The one-eyed Samaritan was left in shock when he heard what Zhang Heng said. He did not expect Zhang Heng, a patrol team member responsible for maintaining the area’s order, would break the law. To him, Zhang Heng was no longer a law enforcer. Now, he was just a robber.
Immediately, the Samaritan turned around and looked at his assassin to seek help. At that time, the assassin was looking around as well. It seemed he was looking for a viable way to flee from this place as well.
He was just an ordinary assassin. After all, his forte being sneak attacks and assassinations. It wasn’t possible for him to defeat a gladiatorial champion. Fortunately, the burly butcher from the meat shop walked into the backyard. He was the Samaritan’s bodyguard. Selling meat was just his side job. His real job was to ensure the safety of the Samaritan.
Earlier, the Samaritan had deliberately spoken louder. It seemed effective enough to summon his bodyguard to come and rescue him—the butcher rushed over with a sharp knife the moment he spotted Zhang Heng, while the assassin on the other side was caught in a dilemma. He wanted to take advantage of this rare opportunity and run away. However, when he thought about Zhang Heng’s extraordinary tracking ability, he became unsure if he could get away. Besides, he had a good relationship with the one-eyed Samaritan. The latter had been his handler for four or five years, and it would be unethical to betray him at such a critical moment.
Thus, the assassin gritted his teeth and rushed forward to help the butcher attack Zhang Heng. With the butcher in front of him, he could adopt his best combat strategy. He believed that the two of them would stand a chance to defeat Zhang Heng.
While the fight ensued, the Samaritan jumped up from his chair, turned his head, and ran towards the house. Knowing how dangerous his business was and the number of haters he had, he was well prepared to face such life-threatening situations. Not only did he have the butcher as his bodyguard, but he also had a secret tunnel hidden under his bed. It led to the alley outside the shop.
When the Samaritan entered the secret tunnel, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his right foot.
Zhang Heng had nailed his feet to the ground with his Persian sword!
“Where are you going? You haven’t even answered all my questions. Stay for a while, please.”
Zhang Heng then blocked the butcher’s knife with another Persian sword while dodging the assassin’s sneak attack. It resulted in the assassin moving half a beat slower when he stepped back, and Zhang Heng almost slashed his stomach.
When the Samaritan saw the three of them finally fighting together, he wanted to escape again. However, after two attempts, he still failed to pull out the Persian sword stuck in his foot. Instead, the excruciating pain caused him to scream and sweat profusely. On the other hand, the butcher he had high hopes for was losing the battle. He had finally got to experience the true strength of the gladiatorial champion. If it were not for the assassin, he would have already lost the battle. Now, he was stuck in a tough situation, and it was only a matter of time before Zhang Heng beat him to the ground.
At the same time, the assassin who partnered up with the butcher also realized that the situation was worse than he had imagined. Even though the two teamed up against Zhang Heng, they were still no match for him. Now, the assassin couldn’t flee from this place. That was because Zhang Heng did not spend too much of his effort to deal with the butcher. Most of the time, he focussed on dealing with the assassin.
The assassin realized that he could not leave even if he wanted to. No matter where he moved, Zhang Heng would seal his retreat in advance with his sword.
His forehead was covered in sweat. Since he was about to lose the battle, the assassin pulled his trump card. He threw the weapon in his hand to the ground, took a half step back, and raised his hands, saying, “I surrender!”
And Zhang Heng pointed his sword at his nose. The Samaritan, on the other side, almost cried when he heard that. Earlier, he had endured excruciating pain and pulled out the sword stuck in his foot. After the Samaritan heard that the assassin was going to surrender, he could not help but shout, “You should have surrendered a little earlier! If you did that, I wouldn’t have had to pull out the sword in my foot!”
After that, he looked at the butcher and shouted at him, “Stop fighting. We can’t beat him anyway. We will surrender this time.”
The butcher hesitated for a while and finally dropped the sharp knife in his hand.
Zhang Heng did not intend to kill him anymore. He took his other Persian sword from the Samaritan. The latter quickly asked the butcher to get him a cloth to bandage the wound on his foot. The Samaritan had suffered a lot this time. He was carried back to the chair by the butcher and assassin, and he complained nonstop about it.
“So you want to know who hired me to kill you? I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you because I don’t know the person who contacted me. I have never seen him before. I don’t think he is from around here.”
“And?”
“And… that’s it.” The Samaritan looked a little innocent. “We don’t ask questions that do not concern us. I negotiated the price with him and collected his money to execute his order. We didn’t talk much. I don’t even know how he found me. By the way, he even specifically told me to make it look like the gang killed you. From here, you can know that the gangs were not the ones that ordered your death.”
“Don’t force me to stab your left foot,” Zhang Heng warned, “I have a way to check if you are lying. If this is it, why did you attempt to run away just now?”
There was a frustrated look on the Samaritan’s face, and after a moment, he said, “Well, the next thing that I’m about to tell you is just speculation. Although he hid it well, some of his small habits betrayed him. I think he is from the military. I always felt that this is an extremely complicated matter. The last thing I want is to get involved in any political events.”
“So why accept the deal, then?”
“Because the other party paid me too much,” the Samaritan confessed.
“Your hunch is correct. For your safety, you’d better not tell anyone that you’ve told me this,” replied Zhang Heng, indifferent. “Also, find someone to paint how the person looks like and show it to me.”
