The Bounty Board was originally just a Jianghu organization, with many of its bounty hunters being wanted criminals by the imperial court. Later, due to the sudden rise of Misty Villa, the Bounty Board suffered a massive blow. Combined with the imperial court's crackdown, it once teetered on the brink of collapse. Only when the court shifted its focus to Misty Villa did the Bounty Board manage to survive. However, having suffered severe damage and lacking leadership, it had been virtually defunct for years.
In truth, the Bounty Board's resurgence is a recent development, occurring only in the past year or two. Someone unknown recruited many Jianghu assassins with hefty rewards and issued numerous high-value missions, gradually drawing the attention of more reclusive bounty hunters.
Though Sheng Changying was no longer part of Crane Control Institute, he was familiar with their methods of transmitting messages and often intercepted them. With little else to occupy his time, he took pleasure in intercepting messages, so living on the island didn’t leave him uninformed. On the contrary, he was even more aware of the latest Jianghu news.
An Jiu, holding the map Sheng Changying had given her, found her destination without any trouble.
By day, this was a bustling marketplace, so the authorities often posted notices on the most prominent wall—a practice unchanged for over a decade.
An Jiu, her face covered with a black scarf, hid in an alley.
This street wasn’t a night market. As soon as darkness fell, few pedestrians remained, and by nightfall, the street was eerily silent, with only the faint sound of wind whistling through the alleys.
Approaching midnight, a figure wearing a Ghost Mask appeared before the wall, carrying a scroll of notices.
Even without using her mental strength, An Jiu could sense unusual movements around her. Once the figure posted the notice and left, people began to emerge one after another.
An Jiu stepped out as well.
Though over thirty people stood on the street, it was unnervingly quiet, as if no one was there at all. To an ordinary person, the sight would surely seem like an encounter with ghosts.
When they noticed a black silk notice posted on the wall, some of the bounty hunters who were there for the first time gasped in surprise. "A Black Notice has appeared!"
The Bounty Board was divided into three tiers: White Notices, Red Notices, and Black Notices. White Notices involved ordinary personal vendettas, with rewards generally under twenty thousand taels of silver. Red Notices might target officials, wealthy merchants, or notorious bandits—high-risk missions with correspondingly high rewards, usually under one hundred fifty thousand taels of silver. Black Notices, however, only listed the reward amount without detailing the mission. Those bold and capable enough could take them, and the rewards were measured in gold.
Since the Bounty Board had only been reestablished for less than two years, few martial arts masters above the eighth rank participated, and even Red Notices were rare. A Black Notice was practically unheard of.
"This Black Notice has been up for over two months. Three days ago, someone took it," someone murmured. "Now it’s been reposted—likely because that person is dead."
Among the gathered bounty hunters, An Jiu stood out as particularly small and frail, buried in the crowd as she strained to read the notices.
Five white silk notices and one black silk notice hung on the wall, each briefly describing the target and the reward.
The rewards ranged from two hundred taels to one hundred fifty thousand taels, targeting notorious figures wreaking havoc in the region. The white notices listed rewards between two hundred and ten thousand taels, while the black notice offered one hundred fifty thousand taels but provided no details about the target. Sheng Changying hadn’t explained these matters thoroughly, but judging from the reactions of the others, An Jiu knew this Black Notice must be an extremely dangerous mission.An Jiu didn’t want to risk her life. She had her eyes on the bounty worth six thousand taels—the target was the leader of a mountain bandit gang, with Martial Arts around the seventh rank.
She slowly released her Mental Strength. Most of the bounty hunters around her were at the sixth or seventh rank in Martial Arts. There were many ways to kill someone; it didn’t have to be a head-on clash. Any of them could be a competitor for this target.
Following the rules, everyone read the contents of the bounty notice and then instinctively retreated ten paces, waiting for the night watchman’s drum at midnight.
Under the silver moonlight, the atmosphere was as taut as a drawn bowstring in the dead silence.
Time passed bit by bit, and soon, the faint sound of distant drumming reached their ears.
Bang bang! Bang bang!
The moment the night watchman’s drum sounded, the previously statue-like bounty hunters moved as fast as lightning.
An Jiu didn’t rush forward. She stood still, her gaze fixed on the bounty notice she wanted. A few others beside her also remained unmoving.
Charging in now would mean clashing with the crowd—a waste of time and effort. It was better to wait until the initial scramble was nearly over before making a move.
The reason others rushed ahead was that this competition also had a time limit. The night watchman was walking toward them from two li away, stopping intermittently along the way, taking about the time it took to drink two cups of tea. Bounty hunters couldn’t be seen by the night watchman, meaning the notice had to be secured within that time—any struggle afterward would be meaningless.
Some of the bounty hunters who stayed back were there to try their luck, while others were confident in their profound Internal Energy.
An Jiu listened to the drumming while observing the fight before her.
The skirmish quickly split into five groups.
The six-thousand-tael bounty notice was snatched by a burly man wearing a bamboo hat, and six people were now entangled with him, trying to seize it.
An Jiu noticed that while they fought, none of them struck to kill. She guessed this might be an unspoken rule of bounty hunting.
This discovery was bad for her! If killing wasn’t the goal, she wasn’t sure how to fight.
While she was still hesitating, the people beside her moved. Among them was a seventh-rank expert who charged straight for the six-thousand-tael notice, knocking down opponents with a single strike—his speed and ferocity were astonishing, clearly the work of a seasoned veteran.
An Jiu noticed the night watchman had already covered more than half the distance. Only one cup of tea’s worth of time left!
Enough overthinking. If brute force wasn’t reliable, then…
An Jiu dashed forward. In the blink of an eye, the bounty notice was already in the seventh-rank expert’s hands.
“A little girl practicing External Cultivation dares to play at bounty hunting?” The man chuckled lowly, unable to help his underestimation.
An Jiu’s Mental Strength surged with her movement, striking him abruptly. His body stiffened as he realized he was completely immobilized—unable to counterattack! An Jiu snatched the notice, tucked it into her robes, and retreated over a dozen steps in an instant.
This time, her Mental Strength was so intensely focused that it rivaled the power of her usual Startling String technique. Since it didn’t disperse outward, bystanders only saw this: the seventh-rank giant had the notice taken from him in one move, standing motionless as if willingly surrendering it.
After a few moments of blankness, the seventh-rank Martial Arts master snapped back to reality, his eyes filled with shock. Knowing his limits, he didn’t try to reclaim the notice and instead spoke with utmost respect, “My earlier words were disrespectful. I beg your forgiveness, Senior.”
He believed someone with such terrifying Mental Strength couldn’t possibly be a young girl.
An Jiu didn’t waste words. She turned and left.Some of those who had been knocked down earlier were preparing to snatch the bounty again, but upon hearing his words, they hesitated.
"Senior, since you possess such skills, why not take down the Black Bounty yourself?" the seventh-rank Martial Arts Master asked.
The entire place fell silent as all eyes turned to An Jiu.
Earlier, everyone had been focused on seizing the bounty and hadn't noticed anything unusual. Only now, upon hearing this question, did they realize something was amiss—that petite woman who had walked away alone was like air itself. Had they not seen her retreating figure, they wouldn't have detected her presence at all.
This seems like... a Transformation Realm Master. (To be continued...)
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