Send You to Heaven

The day slipped quietly away, yet Qiu San surprisingly never came to pick a fight.

Perhaps Jiang Qinghe had beaten him senseless during the day, and he had yet to recover from it.

Jiang Qinghe briskly put away the last tool, stacked the split firewood neatly, then headed home with noticeably lighter steps.

As he turned into the familiar alley, Jiang Qinghe suddenly stopped.

Using the hazy moonlight, he vaguely saw that his courtyard gate stood open, creaking faintly.

A chill shot up his spine, and Jiang Qinghe's heart sank.

"Could thieves have broken in?"

Beneath the stove lay the nineteen taels of silver that he and his sister had saved copper coin by copper coin, scrimping and scraping.

That was his entire hope of practicing martial arts!

If it had been stolen, years of painstaking effort—his very future—would vanish in an instant.

Jiang Qinghe forcibly suppressed his anxiety and rushed toward his home.

The sight before his eyes as he entered the small courtyard made his heart sink to the bottom.

The inner room's door hung half-open. By the moonlight, he could clearly see overturned tables and chairs, disheveled bedding, and utter chaos inside.

"Well, well! Our mighty and invincible Jiang the Good-for-Nothing has finally returned?"

Qiu San sat imposingly on the only intact stool in the house, his expression arrogant and domineering.

Beside him stood two shop assistants, one on each side, like Heng Ha Er Jiang—the very two who had long followed him in bullying the weak! All three wore smiles like cats toying with mice.

"So, Jiang the Good-for-Nothing? After working all day, your bones must be falling apart, huh?"

Qiu San slowly rose to his feet and kicked aside a broken earthen jar by his foot, producing a shrill cracking sound. The malice in his eyes nearly overflowed.

"Brother Qiu, I'd say Jiang the Good-for-Nothing is exhausted. Why don't us brothers show him some kindness, loosen his muscles, and ease his fatigue?"

The short lackey on the left grinned viciously, gripping a heavy iron shovel that gleamed coldly beneath the moonlight.

"Your little brother has learned a few new moves. I guarantee our Jiang the Good-for-Nothing will feel so good he'll ascend to heaven!"

"Good idea!" Qiu San praised.

"You, then. Go on and serve our Jiang the Good-for-Nothing properly! Remember—"

His voice abruptly rose, each word sharply enunciated. "Make your movements big, and put some force into it! Jiang the Good-for-Nothing likes it that way! Just let yourself go. If the sky falls, I'll hold it up for you!"

As he spoke, he smugly reached into his robes and pulled out a heavy cloth bag, waving it before Jiang Qinghe's eyes.

The mouth of the bag hung slightly open, revealing gleaming silver ingots within!

The smile on his face vanished in an instant, replaced by a savage ferocity.

"You little bastard! You dared to make me lose so much face before the shopkeeper and honored guests! These nineteen taels of silver count as the interest you owe me! As for the rest of the debt..."

His vicious expression fully emerged. "We'll settle it slowly! We have plenty of time!"

Seeing the silver he had painstakingly saved clutched in Qiu San's hand, Jiang Qinghe's eyes instantly turned bloodshot, and a scorching heat surged from his chest to the top of his head.

"Whoosh—!"

A tearing sound split the air.

The short lackey beside Qiu San flashed a vicious grin. Without warning, he raised the iron shovel high and brought it hacking down toward Jiang Qinghe's head.

If that blow landed solidly, it would cause at least a severe concussion.

Jiang Qinghe's pupils contracted sharply, and cold dread filled his heart.

If he became a vegetable in this world that devoured people without even spitting out their bones, all he could do was wait for death.

"You want my life?!"

At that critical instant, Jiang Qinghe instinctively sank and curled his body, slipping low to the side by the narrowest margin.

The icy edge of the iron shovel nearly grazed his hair as it swept past, smashing heavily into the ground.

"Trash! You still dare dodge?!"

When Qiu San saw the attack miss, shame turned to rage. He kicked over the stool beneath him.

"Get him! Beat him to death! If he dies, it's on me!"

Hearing this, the two lackeys on either side swung their iron shovels from left and right, viciously closing in on Jiang Qinghe's waist just as he regained his footing.

Jiang Qinghe threw himself forward, rolled across the ground, and sprang out the door.

The instant he crossed the threshold, the corner of his eye caught a sharply edged stone nearly the size of a fist by the wall.

Without the slightest hesitation, Jiang Qinghe snatched it up.

After the Wood Splitting Skill reached Minor Accomplishment, his physical strength had tripled. At this moment, it erupted in full without reserve!

His arm hurled the stone like an iron arrow loosed from a powerful bow, shooting accurately and flawlessly toward the short lackey's face.

"Pfft—crack!"

A dull impact sounded, accompanied by the crunch of shattered bone.

The short lackey did not even have time to scream before he collapsed like a torn sack, his iron shovel clanging to the ground.

Jiang Qinghe did not pause in the slightest. He rushed forward in a single stride, scooping up the iron shovel from the ground.

The other, taller lackey was clearly stunned by his companion's miserable state. In that brief instant of daze—

Jiang Qinghe swung the shovel in a backhand sweep, the wind howling around it as it smashed hard into the side of his knee.

"Ah—my leg!"

The tall lackey let out a heart-rending scream, clutching his broken right leg as he rolled across the ground.

The searing pain drowned his senses, leaving him completely unable to resist.

The iron shovel in Jiang Qinghe's hand rose again, then slammed down viciously.

The tall lackey's body stiffened abruptly, then crumpled limply to the ground, unconscious.

Qiu San's expression changed, and a ghostly terror flashed through his eyes.

He had thought Jiang Qinghe's resistance during the day was merely an accidental outburst after being suppressed for too long.

He had brought two lackeys over that night, certain that, as usual, he could beat this trash into complete submission.

Jiang Qinghe would endure it silently as he always had, never daring to resist.

Even in his dreams, Qiu San had never imagined that something so easily within his grasp would undergo such a heaven-and-earth reversal in only a few breaths!

That trash who had allowed others to beat and curse him, swallowing every insult and humiliation, now fought with such savage skill that he seemed like a different person.

The beastlike ferocity in Jiang Qinghe's eyes stirred an unfamiliar fear within him.

"Y-you, don't come closer!"

As Qiu San watched Jiang Qinghe approach step by step, a terror he had never felt before instantly seized him, and his legs began trembling beyond his control.

In a panic, he pulled a dagger from his robes and stabbed wildly at Jiang Qinghe.

The heavy iron shovel smashed in with a howl of wind.

The first blow sent Qiu San's dagger flying with a clang!

The second struck heavily against his raised right arm.

With a scream like a pig being slaughtered, Qiu San's right arm bent at a grotesque angle. He dropped to his knees and wailed.

Jiang Qinghe picked up the dagger from the ground and looked at Qiu San's face.

All the scenes of mockery, humiliation, beatings, and abuse from these past days surged into his mind.

Things had already reached the point where either the fish died or the net tore—where there could be no reconciliation until one side was dead.

Since it had come to this, then...

"Pssh—"

The dagger plunged into Qiu San's chest without resistance, and his eyes widened enormously.

Blood continuously poured from his mouth, gurgling in his throat, yet in the end, he could not say a single word.

He futilely stretched out his uninjured left hand, as though trying to grasp something.

But it could only fall limply at last. Then he toppled stiffly to the ground, never moving again.

Jiang Qinghe pulled out the dagger without lingering and walked toward the two unconscious lackeys.

Under the moonlight, several cold flashes glinted across the blade.

The small courtyard returned to silence.