Departure

Great Deer Kingdom, Li Prefecture, Feng County.

Inside a ramshackle roadside tavern.

"Ha ha! That hit the spot!" Ba Kui shouted, draining the rice wine in his cup in one gulp.

That was right—rice again.

When all was said and done, rice was the cheapest and most plentiful thing around. With Spirit Rice in endless supply, naturally rice was used for brewing as well.

As Li Qi drank the stuff, he kept feeling that it was less like baijiu and more like sweet rice cake wine...

It barely had any alcoholic taste, but it was sweet and rather good.

It counted as a beverage, not liquor.

Perhaps brewing strong liquor or distilled spirits consumed too much fuel, so they had chosen this low-alcohol fermented wine?

After all, fuel was far more expensive than rice.

Could rice perhaps be used as fuel?

Would it even burn?

Li Qi let his thoughts wander as he picked up a bite of side dish and savored it with relish.

It was nothing remarkable, merely pickled sour radish stir-fried with minced meat. Yet such an ordinary dish tasted incomparably delicious to Li Qi, and he ate with immense satisfaction.

"Brother Ba Kui, what business are you planning to do in Lianxia Gorge this time?" Li Qi did not drink much. Instead, he lingered over the sour radish in his mouth.

Why had he never thought sour radish tasted so good before? The salty flavor was simply wonderful.

After constantly eating plain white rice, his mouth had practically faded into a bird's beak from blandness. Whenever he had the chance to eat something strongly flavored, Li Qi treasured the opportunity.

"We're helping someone deliver a batch of goods. They say... it's some kind of gemstones, but they probably aren't worth much. I heard those gemstones cost tens of thousands of coins for a tiny piece, and the pretty ones go for dozens of gold per little grain—scary expensive. But the ones we're carrying are one block per person, and even the smallest weighs three or four hundred jin! Altogether, they weigh five or six thousand jin. What gemstone could there possibly be that much of?" Ba Kui said with a grin.

"Still, Lianxia Gorge isn't far this time. What do you do, Brother Li Qi? You came out alone right after spring began, with nothing but a bundle of luggage. You don't look like a merchant. Did someone entrust you with delivering a message?" Ba Kui asked.

As he spoke, he also picked up a piece of sour radish and put it into his mouth to savor.

Besides the minced meat with sour radish, there was also a plate of preserved vegetables with steamed pork belly and a basket of steamed rice cakes. Those were the dishes and staple food of their feast.

It could hardly be called lavish, but to Li Qi, it was absolutely rare delicacies. It probably was not cheap for Ba Kui either. It was clear that this burly man could not be called a good person, but he was certainly a forthright one.

The part about not being a good person was easy to understand. Li Qi reckoned Ba Kui had done no small amount of killing and robbing.

As for being forthright, it was just like this: Li Qi had shared life and death with him and fought demons alongside him. So, even though they barely knew each other, Ba Kui treated Li Qi as a friend and was utterly sincere.

"It's not exactly a glorious reason. I offended someone back home and fled to escape disaster." Li Qi did not hide it, though he twisted some details. "That bastard went too far, always trying to seize my household's property. I killed him, so I ran."

"Wonderful! I like men like you! Whoever dares bully us deserves a knife shoved into him! No one gets to look down on real men! Let's have one!" Ba Kui seemed especially fond of such stories. He raised his wine cup and wanted to toast Li Qi.

Li Qi clinked cups with him and took a sip.

Then he saw Ba Kui praising him while drawing the woodcutter's blade at his waist and brandishing it with swagger.

Almost instantly, Li Qi felt a sharp pain stab through his eyes!

Qi!

There was a glaring qi within Ba Kui's woodcutter's blade.

It was red and incredibly vicious. Li Qi could even feel every hair on his body standing on end, as though a knife were tentatively scraping across his face.

"Brother Ba Kui, that blade of yours?" He forcibly endured the chill rushing at his face and asked as though nothing were wrong.

That night, when he and Ba Kui had fought the Wild Dog demon together, he had seen a faint red glow on this thing. At the time, however, he had not cared, convinced that it could not pierce his thick hide.

After all, the thick hide brought by the Ox-Strength Technique was practically impervious to blades and spears.

But only now could he sense the sharpness of that woodcutter's blade.

What kind of qi was that?!

Was it an enchanted artifact like his willow branch? Had some kind of qi been infused into the blade, giving it a particular quality?

His willow branch had been infused with Earthly Deity divine qi. What was this one?

"What's wrong with my blade?" Ba Kui found it somewhat strange. Why did Li Qi look so... weak?

As if he were afraid of something.

"How many things has your blade chopped?" Li Qi finally calmed down and asked in a deliberately casual tone.

"Ha ha! You've asked the right man. This blade is what puts food on my table. Up mountains and down mountains, chopping firewood and beasts, I rely on this fellow for everything. Strange thing is, other people's blades grow dull after only a few uses, but mine only gets sharper the more I use it. I've killed who knows how many pigs and rabbits with it. Felling trees, slicing meat—there's nothing it can't do." He rapped the blade with a bang, bang, bang and spoke proudly.

Then he leaned closer with a mysterious air. "It's tasted plenty of human blood too."

Then he sat back down. "Even the shamaness in my hometown said this blade of mine is no longer an ordinary woodcutter's blade. There's Killing Intent inside it. Even ghosts back away when they see it. I've traveled north and south relying on this!"

As Li Qi listened to his boastful talk, he looked thoughtfully at the blade.

So this kind of qi was called Killing Intent?

Judging from the description, it did not seem to come from any ritual or cultivation. The source of Killing Intent... should be killing living things.

Killing people, killing wild beasts, killing things that were alive.

Perhaps it was not limited to killing living things either. Things already dead might count too—killing ghosts, zombies, and the like.

In any case, Li Qi remembered the source of this qi.

Perhaps he could get some himself and increase his strength.

After all, it did not look terribly difficult. Setting aside killing people, killing more pigs should not be a problem, right?

With that thought in mind, they finished eating and drinking. Neither man got drunk. After all, both had bodies trained through cultivation techniques and would not be felled by mere rice wine, though their bellies were stuffed round.

Rice cakes with preserved vegetables and sour radish, along with some minced meat or the fatty pork belly, left both burly men eating to their hearts' content.

"Well then, Brother Li Qi, if fate allows, we'll meet again. I'll be off first!" Ba Kui called out, slung his basket onto his back, paid the bill, and prepared to head for Lianxia Gorge.

Li Qi watched him leave, then turned around himself and headed toward the inn.

As he walked, his pace grew faster and faster. Walking became a jog, then a run!

It was already noon. Shen Shuibi should be awake by now.

Then it was time to set out and find Lady Luofu!

Li Qi clenched his fists, quickened his steps, and picked up speed.

If he found her, perhaps there would be some extra money in it!

New techniques, new strength—only then could he truly rise.