Ambush

When the villagers of Huangyang Village heard the name Iron Brush Old Man, they became indignant. The Iron Brush Old Man had asked for shelter for the night, and they, worried he might die out in the cold, had kindly taken him in. They never expected that this old man would use the lives of four children from their village to refine oil for his Life-Extending Lamp!

Seeing the commotion below, the bearded Imperial Guard behind Zhao Yue let out a "hmph." The sound wasn't loud, but amplified by his Divine Embryo's power, it made all the villagers' eardrums buzz.

The slight indignation they had felt moments before vanished with that single sound.

Zhao Yue swept his gaze across the crowd, quite satisfied. "Who will explain?" he asked.

No one spoke from below.

Chen Shi had saved Liu Fugui and avenged the three children of the village. Although the villagers didn't understand the laws of the Great Ming, they knew the difference between kindness and enmity. Chen Shi had been kind to the village; how could they betray him?

"Not talking? Loyal? Country folk are truly endearingly naive."

Zhao Yue couldn't help but chuckle. "You think he was kind to you, so you don't want to reveal him? Ignorant. No matter how great the kindness, can it outweigh the King's Law? You ignorant fools! If you don't reveal who struck the blow, you're all accomplices and will be thrown into prison!"

His voice suddenly turned stern. "In prison, you'll be lucky to escape with your skin intact!"

Still, no one moved.

Zhao Yue slowly stood up, walked through the kneeling villagers, and approached Liu Fugui. He examined the child and chuckled, "Little one, the wounds on your lips, eyes, and nose look like they were made by hooks. Your vital energy was siphoned, likely to refine oil for a Life-Extending Lamp. You must have suffered greatly. Do you remember who saved you?"

Liu Fugui knelt on the ground, not daring to move, but he stiffened his neck and said, "I won't tell!"

Fugui's mother quickly pulled the child into her arms, her eyes darting fearfully at Zhao Yue before she hastily looked away.

Zhao Yue understood immediately.

"Everyone, the Iron Brush Old Man using children to refine oil for his Life-Extending Lamp is one matter. He is guilty, and the law will deal with him. The person you invited to kill him is another matter. Using private vengeance is against the laws of the Great Ming. My Zhao family seeking revenge for the Iron Brush Old Man and Steward Zhao is a third matter. You are country folk and don't understand these distinctions."

Zhao Yue stood amidst the crowd, surveyed them, and held up three fingers. "I'll count to three. If no one confesses, don't blame me for using torture. One!"

He lowered one finger, and a group of Imperial Guards surrounded the villagers.

"Two!"

Zhao Yue lowered his second finger, but still, no one revealed the killer of the Iron Brush Old Man.

He sighed and lowered his third finger. "Three! Helian Zheng, administer the torture to these unruly peasants!"

Helian Zheng, the bearded Imperial Guard, was about to give the order when a burly man suddenly stood up from the crowd, blocking Zhao Yue. It was Sanwang.

Sanwang spread his arms and bellowed, "Don't lay a hand on them! Are you people reasonable? Your Zhao family's Iron Brush Old Man killed three children from our village to refine lamp oil. Your Zhao family is in the wrong! Since ancient times, a life for a life..."

Helian Zheng swung his Three-Eyed Firearm and struck Sanwang's forehead with a "dong." He snarled, "Disrespecting an official, you're asking for death!"

The Three-Eyed Firearm, forged from fine iron, weighed over ten pounds, comparable to a heavy hammer. The blow to Sanwang's forehead made him dazed, his face covered in blood. He swayed but did not fall.

The Imperial Guards all exclaimed in surprise, praising, "Country folk have hard skulls! He didn't die from that blow!"

Helian Zheng realized his blow had been fatal, but the villager, though clearly dead, refused to fall, which embarrassed him. He immediately swung the firearm down again with force.

"Dong!"

Sanwang's skull cracked, his knees buckled, and he collapsed to the ground.

Zhao Yue took a step back to avoid getting brain matter on his clothes.

He stepped over Sanwang's corpse and walked out of the crowd. Behind him, the sounds of whipping and screams immediately followed.

Zhao Yue didn't look back, his gaze fixed sternly on the temple in the ruins at the center of Huangyang Village.

He represented the law of the Great Ming, his authority inviolable. Even the village god of Huangyang Village dared not resist, only watching its people being bullied.

After a long while, Helian Zheng and several blood-splattered Imperial Guards, their bodies also stained with blood, returned to his side with smiles. They bowed and said, "My lord, one woman couldn't bear the torture and confessed!"

Zhao Yue clasped his hands behind his back and said calmly, "No one who kills my Zhao family can escape justice. Who was the person they hired?"

Helian Zheng replied, "A young Talisman Master named Chen Shi, residing in Huangpo Village. He also has a grandfather at home who is also a Talisman Master."

"A young Talisman Master?"

Zhao Yue was greatly surprised and asked doubtfully, "The Iron Brush Old Man and Steward Zhao Ming were not weak. How could this young Talisman Master kill them?"

Night.

A gust of cold wind blew, and a bloody figure drifted unsteadily within it, arriving outside Huangpo Village. However, the Godmother of Huangpo Village waved her branches, blocking its entry.

"I want to see Master Chen! I want to see Master Chen!"

The ghost wailed in the wind, begging the Godmother to let it in. The young woman on the ancient tree remained unmoved.

"Let him in," Grandpa appeared in the moonlight, his voice cold.

The woman on the ancient tree's gaze was cold, and her voice held a hint of sternness. "If he comes in and harms someone, who will be responsible? I protect the village and will not allow any external evil to invade!"

"If you don't let him in, I'll dig up your roots," Grandpa said calmly.

The woman snorted and no longer blocked the way.

A gust of cold wind blew, carrying a heavy scent of blood, and swept into the Chen family courtyard, heading straight for Chen Shi's bedroom.

Grandpa let out a soft "hmm." He had initially thought the wronged spirit was coming for him, but it was looking for Chen Shi.

Chen Shi, in his sleep, suddenly saw Sanwang from Huangyang Village approaching him, his hair disheveled, his face bloody. Sanwang cried out, "Benefactor, flee quickly! They are coming to kill you! I tried to stop them, but I couldn't. I can only come to warn you! You must leave quickly—"

Before he could finish, a long tongue suddenly shot out from the darkness, wrapping around Sanwang's neck with a swish and dragging him into the darkness.

Chen Shi was startled and woke up from his dream. He looked around, his heart filled with confusion.

"This dream felt so real, as if Sanwang had actually visited. How strange..."

He lay back down, unable to sleep for a while. He recalled the slender tongue wrapped around Sanwang's neck and couldn't help but laugh, "Indeed, dreams have everything, they don't make sense."

Not long after, he fell asleep again.

Chen Shi woke up early in the morning, washed up, ate breakfast, and went out to visit his godmother. He then sought guidance on ancient texts from Scholar Zhu before heading towards Gangzi Village.

He still had to go to the Mountain Lord Temple today. Although he had replaced his true blood, he had not yet refined his Five Viscera True Essence, so he couldn't be considered to have a Saintly Embryo body. Cultivating in the Mountain Lord Temple was much faster than cultivating at home.

As Chen Shi walked along the road, he saw two people wearing bamboo hats by the roadside, fishing. One on the left and one on the right, they stared intently at the water's surface.

"There are no fish in this water," he kindly warned them.

"None of your business?" one of the fishermen, with a bad temper, snapped at him.

Chen Shi ignored him and continued forward. He then saw someone catching cicadas in a tree, standing on a high branch with a net in hand. Below the tree, another person craned their neck, looking up, as if afraid the person in the tree would fall.

Just then, he heard one of the fishermen exclaim joyfully, "Got one!"

Chen Shi looked back, surprised, "Are there really fish? Didn't I catch all the fish in this ditch?"

He had been too hungry recently and had searched everywhere for food. Not to mention fish, he had even caught every single loach in the ditch.

As Chen Shi turned his head, his body suddenly tensed. Then, it felt as if a mountain-like heavy object was pressing down on him, making his bones creak!

"Got one!"

He heard the cicada catcher's laughter from above him. The person standing below the tree also laughed, "I got one too!"

Chen Shi's heart leaped. He looked down at himself and saw golden light entwining him, as thick as a finger, covered in scales. It wrapped around him more than ten times, binding his limbs and preventing him from exerting any force.

He looked up and saw a golden, mountain-like phantom hovering above his head, pressing down on his Tianling point, making his bones creak!

Behind him, a large shield with a turtle shell pattern, also formed from golden light, sealed the back of his head, intending to block his spiritual nexus and prevent him from channeling his cultivation.

One of the fishermen had a talisman floating before him, quietly burning. The power of the talisman erupted, and golden light shot out from the paper, like a golden python dancing.

The cicada catcher in the tree also had a burning talisman before him, shaped like a mountain range.

Before the person under the tree, a talisman depicting a shield pattern floated, also burning.

"Spirit Snake Talisman! Mountain Moving Talisman! Sealing Talisman!" Chen Shi recognized the three talismans.

He had learned these three talismans from his Grandpa, but they were combat talismans, and his Grandpa rarely drew them. They usually sold talismans for warding off evil and averting disaster.

"Is this brat the one who killed Iron Brush Old Man and Steward Zhao?"

The other fisherman dropped his fishing rod, took off his bamboo hat, and came directly before Chen Shi, scrutinizing him. He wondered, "I thought he'd have three heads and six arms, but he's just a child. Iron Brush Old Man was an experienced veteran, how could he have died by his hand?"

He couldn't help but shake his head, "Third Young Master was too cautious, having us disguise ourselves and ambush him here."

Chen Shi panicked, "My crimes have been discovered. They are government officials, here to arrest and behead me... Wait, I still have two Jia Ma Talismans! I can escape!"

Just as he thought this, the fisherman before him fumbled all over his body and found the two Jia Ma Talismans, tucking them into his robes.

"Is this brat a Talisman Master?"

The fisherman became even more puzzled. "Don't Talisman Masters usually have dozens or hundreds of talismans on them? He only has two Jia Ma Talismans. Could he be the real killer of Iron Brush Old Man? Iron Brush Old Man was extremely powerful, no weaker than me. How could he have been killed by him?"

The other three were all Imperial Guards from the Zhao family, and they chimed in, "Among Talisman Masters, Fu Shank ranks even higher than Iron Brush Old Man. With Fu Shank's intervention, it should be a piece of cake."

Fu Shank was pleased by the compliment and chuckled, "I can establish myself in the Great Ming's Xuan Ying Mansion through my skills, not like that flatterer Iron Brush Old Man."

Just as he finished speaking, a sound like a mountain torrent crashing came from his ear, a sound from within Chen Shi, as if a flood was raging inside him.

Fu Shank's eyes widened. The Chen Shi before him, small in stature, rapidly grew taller, stretching the golden spirit snake coiled around him tighter and tighter, widening the gaps between its scales!

"Not good!"

Fu Shank's expression changed drastically. With a bang, the golden spirit snake formed by the Spirit Snake Talisman was snapped into pieces by Chen Shi, scattering like red cinnabar.

"He broke my Spirit Snake Talisman! Such strength! Is this kid a human-shaped Malevolent Spirit?"

Fu Shank remained calm in the face of danger. He took a step back, and as he did, a gentle breeze rose from beneath his feet, lifting his body and sliding him back more than ten feet.

At the same time, a protective talisman flew out from his left sleeve, and divine power erupted from it!

Another talisman flew out from his right sleeve, which he held in his hand – it was a Strength Talisman.

His reaction was swift. The Jia Ma Talisman beneath his feet, the Six Ding Six Jia Protective Talisman from his left sleeve, and the Strength Talisman in his right hand were enough to give him the strength for close-quarters combat for a short period!

The moment his various talismans unleashed their divine power, Chen Shi lifted his foot, turned, and stomped down heavily. He was only three feet away from Fu Shank. As he turned, he swung his right hand backward.

The strike was as fast as lightning, landing on Fu Shank's throat bone.

Fu Shank's throat bone shattered. Chen Shi's palm strike, like the heavy back of a blade, hit the fourth cervical vertebra, causing it to jump backward from the spine!

A large lump immediately protruded from Fu Shank's back neck. He then lost control of his body, watching helplessly as Chen Shi abruptly stopped and then crashed backward.

He charged, stopped, and retreated, as if without any inertia, unbelievably fast.

"He's bearing a golden mountain and is still this fast?"

Fu Shank was horrified. His body fell uncontrollably, exhaling more than inhaling, clearly unable to live.

He died even faster than Iron Brush Old Man!