Zhou Qingmei gripped her sword hilt. It took her quite a while to understand what had just happened.
Just as the old woman used the [Black Sha Demonic Art] to take their lives,
Fang Shuwen gave her a punch.
The whole process was that simple... so simple that it was like a farce.
The Black Sha True Qi rising around the old woman had been like melting snow beneath a blazing sun under Fang Shuwen's fist, unable to offer the slightest resistance.
She had only just leaped up before she was sent straight back down.
She did not look peaceful, though.
Blood poured from her chest. Fang Shuwen's punch had shattered her heart and punched straight through her body.
The vicious look she had worn while trying to kill them still lingered on her face, along with the disbelief she had felt when the punch pierced her body.
That complex expression was especially terrifying beneath the washing rain.
Even Zhou Qingmei could hardly believe it:
"Dead?
"She died just like that?"
She looked at the old woman in the grave, then at Fang Shuwen beside her, feeling a little dazed.
Having been saved by Fang Shuwen the previous night, Zhou Qingmei knew how skilled the black-robed man was.
Yet Fang Shuwen had beaten him to the brink of death with nothing but a saber.
So Zhou Qingmei had already rated Fang Shuwen as highly as she could.
But now, it seemed this man was utterly unfathomable... far beyond anything she could imagine.
Thinking back, she must have been struck by the [Black Sha Demonic Art] the previous night. That palm strike had felt merely overbearing at first, but later it had suddenly flared up, making her wish she were dead.
Yet after the whole night had passed, she was completely unharmed.
At the time, she had been preoccupied with the Zhou Family and had not given it much thought. Now that she thought about it, if Fang Shuwen had not been there, even if she had not died at the black-robed man's hands, her fate would surely have been miserable.
"Do you think she died too easily?
"Then the next time we run into an opponent, should we torture them before killing them?
"I couldn't tell, but you're quite ruthless."
As Fang Shuwen spoke, he jumped into the pit and examined the corpse. Then he looked up and called out:
"Young miss, lend me your deerskin gloves."
Zhou Qingmei froze.
"What do you want them for?"
As she spoke, she took out the deerskin gloves and tossed them to Fang Shuwen.
Once Fang Shuwen had put them on, he smiled.
"This old hag doesn't look like someone simple. She should be different from that middle-aged man last night.
"Maybe she brought some silver with her when she came out to kill...
"Now that she's dead, how can we not give her a thorough search? We might even make a windfall."
Zhou Qingmei was, after all, from an upright and reputable background. The Pearl Pavilion was already wealthy, and her family possessed a fortune besides, so she had not expected Fang Shuwen to say this.
For some reason, though, not only did she feel no disgust at killing someone and searching the corpse, she even jumped down eagerly:
"Let's search together."
"Be careful. This one doesn't look like she belonged to the righteous path. What if she's carrying poison too?
"I'll search her myself. Keep an eye out."
The two hit it off at once and began rummaging through the old woman's belongings.
Fang Shuwen searched carefully, even pulling off her boots to see if anything was hidden inside, while Zhou Qingmei checked beside him for anything he missed.
Their efforts did yield something.
First was a copy of the [Black Sha Demonic Art].
For some unknown reason, although the old woman's mastery of the art had long since reached an extremely high level, she still carried the manual with her.
Besides that, there were several silver notes.
But they bore the name of a place called the Great Xuan Bank, so obviously they could not be exchanged for silver elsewhere. The amount was considerable, over five hundred taels.
There was also some loose silver and a letter that had already been opened.
The old woman was soaked through, but these things had been well preserved, having suffered little from the rain.
Instead, it was only after they fell into Fang Shuwen's hands that the rain got them wet.
After putting the items away, Fang Shuwen thought for a moment, then jabbed a finger at the old woman's head.
Only then did he jump out of the pit with Zhou Qingmei, smash all the stones the old woman had dug up into the pit, and return to the tree hollow they had occupied earlier.
After all that, neither of them felt sleepy.
They first used their internal Qi to dry their clothes, then dried the silver notes, the envelope, and the other items.
They laid everything out between them, then took out a fire starter and fixed it to the inner wall of the hollow for light.
Zhou Qingmei glanced at the [Black Sha Demonic Art], disgust rising in her eyes.
"A demonic art like this must never be allowed to remain in the world. We'd better destroy it."
"Wait, there's no hurry. Let me have a look first."
"You want to practice it?"
Zhou Qingmei looked at Fang Shuwen in disbelief.
Fang Shuwen shook his head.
"I definitely won't touch an internal art practiced using human blood. I want to see if it has any external techniques."
Although his [Four Seas Dragon Fist] and [Plum Blossom Loose Hands] had yet to reach perfection, the potential of those two martial arts was plain to see.
He would have to wait until this mission was over for the system to reward him with a new martial art, and this mission looked like it would be quite troublesome. Who knew when it would end?
In the meantime, it would be best to find a way to add a few more tricks to his arsenal.
Zhou Qingmei was a little surprised to hear this.
"Your martial arts are already so profound, yet you still need to look for external techniques in this demonic art?"
"Profound martial arts?"
Fang Shuwen's hand paused as he leafed through the book, and he glanced at her.
"It's my internal cultivation that's profound. As for external techniques... you should know the Four Seas Martial Hall's [Four Seas Dragon Fist], right? What do you think of it?"
Zhou Qingmei did not hesitate.
"A low-grade martial art."
"That's what I use, the [Four Seas Dragon Fist]. I'm a disciple of the Four Seas Martial Hall."
Fang Shuwen spoke softly.
"My internal cultivation came from a separate fortunate encounter. As for fist techniques, I only know the [Four Seas Dragon Fist] and [Plum Blossom Loose Hands]."
There was no need to hide such things. As long as Zhou Qingmei survived this time, she could ask Zhou Bancheng and the others and learn his background in full.
Zhou Qingmei stared at him, dumbfounded.
"You're actually a disciple of the Four Seas Martial Hall? Then all that internal cultivation of yours... never mind, never mind. I won't ask."
She had instinctively wanted to get to the bottom of it, but then she remembered they had known each other for less than two days.
For her to pry into his secrets like that would be crossing the line.
She paused, then moved closer to Fang Shuwen.
"It's fine if you want to find external techniques in this [Black Sha Demonic Art]. Anything is fine as long as you don't touch the internal art.
"But from what you've said, your experience with martial arts must be rather shallow. I still need to keep an eye on you, so you don't put a foot wrong.
"You've helped me so much and saved my life twice. I wouldn't want to see you again after some time has passed, only to find you've become a great devil whom everyone in the martial world wants to strike down."
"...All right, let's read it together."
In the tree hollow, the two sat shoulder to shoulder, studying the demonic art notorious throughout the martial world by the faint light of the fire starter.