When the Heart Would Not Be Still, Kill!

In Great Huai Village, Yellow Mausoleum County, though it was already the eleventh day of the first lunar month, heavy snow still drifted through the sky, adorning the entire village like a kingdom of ice and snow.

Unfortunately, no one had the heart to admire such beauty.

The entire Great Huai Village was deathly quiet.

Even when people approached the village from nearby, they hurriedly left, their faces filled with terror.

Ji Qing led his horse, walking step by step into Great Huai Village.

His bamboo hat was already covered in a thick layer of snow.

Even his body was blanketed in snow, the cold biting to the bone.

Yet no cold could compare to the chill in Ji Qing's heart.

This was Great Huai Village.

Once bustling beyond measure, Great Huai Village now stood utterly deserted.

An old man from a neighboring village saw Ji Qing leading his horse toward Great Huai Village and hurriedly shouted, "Hey, young man, you can't go any farther!"

"Why can't I?"

Ji Qing asked.

"Young man, don't you know that's Great Huai Village ahead? Great Huai Village offended a Demon Lord. More than two hundred people in the whole village were poisoned to death. How pitiful! Not even the chickens, ducks, dogs, and the like survived."

"They say that Demon Lord's poison was especially vicious. The yamen even put up notices telling villagers not to enter, lest they be poisoned and die in Great Huai Village as well."

The old man breathed warm air into his hands and kept shifting his feet. He was clearly freezing badly.

"I remember there was a Steward Jin in Great Huai Village. How is his Household?"

Ji Qing asked again.

"You mean Master Jin? Ah, what a sin! Master Jin was such a good man. Whenever there was a bad harvest, he would reduce his tenants' rent. He even paid out of his own pocket to hire Jianghu martial artists for Rat Extermination, repaired bridges and paved roads year after year..."

"His Household was poisoned to death too. Not even the children escaped..."

The old man sighed repeatedly as he spoke.

Steward Jin had enjoyed an excellent reputation in this region. He was a great philanthropist renowned far and wide.

Unfortunately, not a single person in his Household had survived. Like the other villagers of Great Huai Village, they had all been poisoned to death.

Ji Qing's gaze turned even colder.

Without hesitation, he stepped into the boundaries of Great Huai Village.

"Young man, why won't you listen to advice..."

Watching Ji Qing's figure gradually vanish into the distance, the old man could only shake his head.

Ji Qing walked down the familiar road.

At last, he arrived at the Jin Residence.

The once enormous Jin Residence was now bleak and desolate.

There was even an official seal pasted across its gates.

Ji Qing tore open the seal and pushed the door inside.

The courtyard was empty, its ground covered in thick snow.

Steward Jin seemed to appear in Ji Qing's mind, along with Jin Suo'er.

That little girl, about Ji Yao's age, exquisitely adorable as though carved from pink jade.

Ji Qing went to the back mountain as well.

There was a great pit here.

The Government Authorities had burned all the bodies from Great Huai Village into ashes, then buried them all within the pit, making a simple grave mound.

All 281 people lay within this grave mound.

Perhaps in a few decades, no one would know that such a tragedy had ever occurred in Great Huai Village.

But Ji Qing remembered.

He would remember forever!

Ji Qing closed his eyes.

After roaming the Jianghu for a year, he had thought himself cold enough already.

Ji Qing also knew very clearly that he was no "great hero."

His hands, too, were stained with blood.

Whether the Jianghu called him a Demon Lord or a great hero, Ji Qing did not care.

He had never betrayed his own heart!

He killed only those who deserved to die!

Great Huai Village and Ji Qing could only be considered chance acquaintances.

Every wanderer of the Jianghu would pass through many places in a lifetime.

Great Huai Village was not an especially remarkable place.

Nor were Steward Jin and Jin Suo'er especially remarkable people to Ji Qing.

Yet when Ji Qing closed his eyes,

no matter what he did, his heart could not settle.

He could deceive others, but he could not deceive his own heart!

His heart was not still!

His thoughts could not flow freely!

What did Jianghu people do when their hearts would not be still?

The answer was simple and brutal.

When the heart would not be still, kill!

Kill someone, and the heart would be still!

Ji Qing did not linger any longer.

He turned and left.

Evidence?

Reasons?

Motive?

None of that mattered.

That was the Government Authorities' business.

For Ji Qing, he only needed to know one thing.

"Whoever disturbs my heart must die!"

Naturally, Ji Qing knew who had disturbed his heart.

The newly risen eighth on the Villain Ranking, Poison Demon Ouyang Bo!

Anyang City, Listening Wind Tower.

Ji Qing entered a secret chamber and met Shopkeeper Yu.

Ji Qing removed his bamboo hat and shook off the thick snow clinging to it.

Shopkeeper Yu smiled and asked, "Hero Ji left Anyang City on the first day of the first lunar month. After a journey through wind and dust, you have finally returned."

Shopkeeper Yu did not ask what Ji Qing had gone to do.

They were merely partners, not master and subordinate.

Ji Qing raised his head and looked at Shopkeeper Yu, saying in a low voice, "I need detailed information on Poison Demon Ouyang Bo!"

"Poison Demon Ouyang Bo... Not many people buy his intelligence, but..."

"I'll pay."

Ji Qing tossed out a banknote.

Shopkeeper Yu smiled sweetly and quietly put away the banknote. She then took out a thick stack of documents, all intelligence concerning Ouyang Bo.

Ji Qing examined them carefully.

Poison Demon Ouyang Bo was in his forties. No one knew where he had learned his poison arts, but he had begun to make a name for himself in the Jianghu twenty years ago. Back then, however, Ouyang Bo had not been particularly famous.

That changed ten years ago, when Ouyang Bo poisoned all seventy-three members of the Zhao Family to death. He immediately entered the Villain Ranking, though he still ranked near the bottom.

Later, Ouyang Bo successively poisoned more people in the Jianghu, steadily climbing higher on the Villain Ranking.

Until the Great Huai Village tragedy not long ago, Ouyang Bo had suddenly risen to eighth place on the Villain Ranking, becoming a great Demon Lord whose name was known throughout the land!

Ouyang Bo's martial arts were also second-rate. Perhaps he had long since opened his Extraordinary Meridians, and his Internal Force had reached the peak of the second-rate.

In terms of martial arts, Ouyang Bo's poison arts merely made people wary. They did not possess much deterrent power.

But when it came to poisoning, Ouyang Bo was truly terrifying.

No one in the Jianghu wished to provoke Ouyang Bo.

Better offend the King of Hell than the Poison Demon!

That saying referred to Ouyang Bo!

"Hm?"

"There's no Government Authorities bounty? Not even a single tael of reward money?"

Ji Qing read through all the intelligence, yet found no bounty for Ouyang Bo anywhere.

Ouyang Bo had been famous for many years and had long since entered the Villain Ranking.

How could someone guilty of such monstrous crimes have no bounty on his head?

Shopkeeper Yu shook her head. "Hero Ji, you do not understand. It is not that no one wants to offer a bounty, but that no one dares to. Even the Government Authorities do not dare. Ouyang Bo is different from the other Demon Lords on the Villain Ranking. His poison strikes silently and invisibly, capable of creating enormous panic. At the slightest provocation, he wipes out entire households."

"Moreover, if Ouyang Bo wished it, poisoning everyone in an entire city would not be impossible. Under such circumstances, who would dare offer a bounty on Ouyang Bo? The Government Authorities are just as adept at bullying the weak and fearing the strong. If a government bounty enraged Ouyang Bo and made him spread poison everywhere within their jurisdiction, the officials' black gauze hats would likely be impossible to keep."

"So over time, although Poison Demon Ouyang Bo's ranking on the Villain Ranking has climbed step by step and the evils he has committed have grown ever more numerous, there has never been any bounty."

Ji Qing understood.

"No one dares offer a bounty?"

"Then offer one in my name! Whoever provides clues and ultimately captures or kills Ouyang Bo will be rewarded with a thousand gold!"

Boom.

Shopkeeper Yu's expression changed instantly.

"A thousand gold? A thousand taels of gold?"

"Yes!"

A thousand taels of gold.

Even Shopkeeper Yu was moved.

What grudge? What hatred?

Ji Qing was determined to fight Ouyang Bo to the death!