Black Tiger Saber Technique (Part 1)

"An illusion? Or not an illusion?"

Lu Sheng narrowed his eyes and forced the thought down.

"It's nothing." He straightened up and answered calmly.

"Young Master... Lord Xu, such good people, such good officials—how could this...?"

Tears brimmed in Xiao Qiao's eyes as she looked ready to start crying again.

Lu Sheng silently gazed at the Xu Family's corpses strewn across the ground.

Every corpse was a bluish gray, with a ligature mark around the neck.

After taking a few looks, the Prefect hurried away, handing the matter entirely over to the Head Constable of the Criminal Division in charge of the case.

Several other yamen officials responsible for investigating the case were also discussing it with the head constable nearby.

"Young Master, the master asks you to go over," a servant ran up and quietly told Lu Sheng.

As he spoke, he cast a regretful glance at the Xu Family corpses on the ground.

"I'll go right away." Lu Sheng looked at the servant. "You're not afraid?"

"Of course I am." The servant was only eighteen or nineteen, yet his bearing and expression carried a maturity far beyond his age.

"But this humble one fled here from Great Glory Country in the east. There's a famine raging there now, with corpses littering the ground everywhere. Some families even exchanged children to eat them. I've seen plenty of such miserable scenes... sigh."

He sighed, then immediately realized that the man before him was not one of his usual friends to chat with, and hurriedly lowered his head.

"You've seen plenty? Are there many similar incidents in Great Glory Country to the east as well?"

Lu Sheng asked casually.

The servant fell silent for a moment.

"Quite a few."

Lu Sheng's heart tightened.

Yet his feet did not stop. Before long, he arrived before his father in this life, Lu Fang.

Lu Fang, courtesy name Quan'an, sobriquet Gold Yuan Old Man.

Lu Quan'an's wealth was famous throughout Nine Links City. The impending marriage alliance between the Lu Family and Xu Family had long spread across the entire city; even people from nearby Purple Splendor City to the west had come bearing congratulatory gifts.

Such a much-discussed affair had now turned into this.

Lu Quan'an's expression was exceedingly grim, his eyes thick with exhaustion and worry.

"Tell Constable Zhao properly about what happened yesterday."

He stepped aside, making room for a bearded man who approached from the side.

Lu Sheng's mind still echoed with the words Xu Daoran had spoken yesterday. He felt that the Water Ghost case was surely connected to the Xu Family's deaths.

So he recounted, detail by detail, his conversation with Xu Daoran yesterday.

He did not hide anything.

Head Constable Zhao's brows were tightly furrowed, but he showed no sign of having found any leads.

Seeing that there was nothing more to ask, Lu Sheng took his leave as well.

Before he left, the yamen men began collecting the bodies.

Lu Sheng stood to one side and watched for a while. When he saw Xu Daoran being lifted directly onto a stretcher, he sighed, stepped closer, found a constable, and asked, "Brother, are there any surviving members of the Xu Family?"

He thought that if any Xu Family survivors remained alive, he would look after them on their behalf. Perhaps he could even learn something useful from them.

"No. They're all gone. Even the entire family of their maternal relatives was implicated. Maybe there are a few distant relatives over in Purple Splendor City."

The constable shook his head and spoke softly.

Lu Sheng quietly slipped him a small piece of broken silver, then took Xiao Qiao and followed his family into the carriage.

The carriages returned home one after another.

But the Xu Family's tragic fate continued to replay in everyone's minds.

As the family head, Lu Fang, Lu Quan'an, gathered everyone for a family meeting and announced that the engagement with the Xu Family was hereby canceled. He told the womenfolk to comfort Yi Yi more, then returned to his room alone in despondency to rest.

The younger members of the family all headed out, either to the taverns in the city, the brothels, or the music halls. Frightened as they were, this was how they usually numbed themselves.

The womenfolk, meanwhile, went in groups to the nearby Red Lotus Temple to burn incense and worship Buddha, praying for safety and protection.

Best of all would be to obtain a Spirit Talisman from Red Lotus Taoist Priest, to protect the household from invasion by evil forces.

The entire Lu Family was steeped in panic.

Lu Sheng did not go out to carouse.

He took Xiao Qiao and made his way to the family's large study where its books were stored.

The study was utterly quiet.

He pushed open the door and entered. Inside, a plump woman was dusting and wiping down the bookshelves.

Vermilion bookshelves, furniture, and the dim light outside the window cast the room in a somewhat gloomy air.

Lu Sheng entered, walked around the round wooden screen painted with flowers and birds blocking the doorway, and breathed in the faint scent of wood in the study.

"You can leave first. I'll read for a while and rest."

He gave the instruction.

"Yes."

Xiao Qiao answered obediently, then led the plump cleaning woman out.

Lu Sheng stood alone in the study, looking at the rows upon rows of bookshelves before him, and let out a soft sigh.

He began searching through the shelves one by one.

Before long, he found record books such as local county gazetteers.

He took all those volumes out and began reading through them one by one.

By the hazy light from outside the window, he quickly finished reading an entire volume.

'Great Song 72nd Year: A man appeared in the outskirts of Nine Links City. In a mad frenzy, he wielded a blade and killed twelve people in succession before being surrounded and slain by the yamen constables.'

'Great Song 85th Year: In the bustling district of Nine Links City, a man's head suddenly separated from his body in the street. Cause of death unknown.'

'Great Song 91st Year: Travelers vanished from a ruined temple outside the city. After the number reached fifteen, the case remained unsolved to this day.'

'Great Song 95th Year: The master of a Nine Links City pleasure house vanished. His limbs were found in four different locations outside the city. He had been dead only four days, yet his corpse had already rotted down to white bones.'

'Great Song 116th Year: The cries of a child were heard outside the city at night. Everyone who went to investigate vanished. After continuing for three days, the crying ceased on its own.'

As he read through these records of incidents, great and small, Lu Sheng grew more alarmed and increasingly uneasy.

In a world like this, a world where danger lurked at every step, it was no easy thing for its people not to break down and go mad, but to continue living properly.

He opened another volume.

This one was even more outrageous than the last.

'Great Song 119th Year: A blizzard struck Nine Links City. In one location, it was said that the Dragon King had manifested, and the snowfall stopped within three days. Three days later, the blizzard that had stretched on for dozens of days abruptly ceased.'

'Great Song 128th Year: Fog appeared on the main road leading toward Purple Splendor City. Those who entered lost their sense of direction and would inexplicably appear on the shore of the White Ice Ocean dozens of li away. Ten days later, the fog vanished.'

By this point, Lu Sheng could almost be certain that this world was not as simple as he had imagined. Demons, monsters, ghosts, and spirits might truly exist.

At the very least, at his current social standing, he could not possibly see any method capable of influencing the weather.

He shifted his chair, picked up the flint, and lit the candlestick on the table.

The bright yellow candlelight cast his face into flickering shadow.

"If this world truly is as dangerous as I suspect, then what do I need to protect myself? What can I use to protect myself?"

He asked himself that question.

After thinking by the table for a while, Lu Sheng slowly rose, blew out the candle, and returned the books on the table to their original places one by one.

Then he pushed open the door and left.

"Young Master, are you done reading?"

Xiao Qiao had been leaning against the doorway and dozing off. Lu Sheng's sudden appearance startled her, but she quickly recovered.

"Mm. Do you know where Uncle Zhao is right now?"

Lu Sheng asked casually.

There were many elderly people surnamed Zhao in the Lu Estate, but only one person was truly called Uncle Zhao by everyone.

That was Zhao Dahu, whom Lu Fang called Uncle Zhao—the Lu Family's foremost expert and most formidable martial instructor.

"Um, Uncle Zhao is usually at the training ground at this time, tempering his body and training the household guards." Xiao Qiao was on good terms with the other servants, so her information was fairly well-informed.

"Let's go find him."

After thinking it over carefully for quite some time, Lu Sheng knew that Uncle Zhao was likely the person most accessible to him—and the key to possibly gaining the strength to protect himself.

Following the paths through the estate, Lu Sheng soon passed through two residential quarters and arrived at the far rear of the manor.

On a large Training Ground, an elderly man with grizzled hair was leading more than a dozen household guards through fist-and-kick drills.

The early morning sunlight spilled down, gradually washing away some of the grim events he had heard about that morning.

Martial instructor Zhao Dahu wore close-fitting training clothes—a black top and gray trousers—with a broad-backed saber, which never left his side, strapped across his back.

Lu Sheng waited at the side and watched.

After Zhao Dahu had trained the guards for a while, he had them pair off and spar on their own.

He himself walked toward Lu Sheng. He had noticed Lu Sheng long ago.

"Young Master, what brings you to the Training Ground today? Is there something this old man can help you with?"

Zhao Dahu's standing in the estate was almost on par with the master's.

There were several other martial instructors as well, all of them holding considerable status. Compared to the young masters and young ladies, they mostly interacted as equals.

Lu Sheng glanced at the servants still practicing their fist and foot techniques nearby.

"Uncle Zhao, I want to learn martial arts."

The moment those words left his mouth, the smile on Zhao Dahu's face froze.

"Brother Sheng, you're not joking with this old man, are you?"

"I'm not joking." Lu Sheng shook his head.

He had considered it for quite some time. Right now, the easiest way to gain the ability to protect himself was to first learn martial arts from the instructors in his own household.

Uncle Zhao, Zhao Dahu, possessed saber skills that only a scant few people in all of Nine Links City could surpass.

Zhao Dahu studied Lu Sheng seriously, then shook his head.

"If Brother Sheng truly wants to learn martial arts, it's not as though this old man can't pass on what little skill he has. It's just... you're already too old. Your bones have set, and many movements simply can't be practiced properly.

"If the movements of this skill aren't performed properly, its power will be greatly diminished."

"That's fine. Uncle Zhao, just teach me."

Lu Sheng did not merely want to find some means of self-defense. He also wanted to verify and test something.

Zhao Dahu pondered for a while.

Then he readily agreed.

"Very well. I have no descendants, and I've spent so many years in the Lu Family living quite comfortably. Old Man has treated us very well too. By reason and by custom, if you learn my skills, you ought to perform the ceremony of taking a master.

"But given my relationship with the Lu Family, we'll forgo that. Just don't pass it on to outsiders."

Zhao Dahu waved a hand.

As the Young Master, Lu Sheng would sooner or later take over all the Lu Estate's businesses and properties.

Zhao Dahu also had the intention of drawing closer to him.

"However, Brother Sheng, there's something I must make clear to you first."

"Please, go ahead," Lu Sheng said earnestly.

Zhao Dahu stroked the beard on his chin and said gravely, "I know that the Xu Family massacre this morning frightened you, and that you want to learn martial arts to protect yourself.

"But let me tell you plainly: even the strongest Martial World Expert cannot deal with those strange, uncanny things."

"...I understand."

Lu Sheng nodded.

"I just... don't feel at ease. It's enough to do what I can."

"It's good that Brother Sheng understands." Zhao Dahu thought for a moment, then pulled a small booklet from his robes. The booklet was wrapped layer upon layer in yellow cloth.

He carefully and slowly unwrapped it, revealing the small booklet inside.

Several large characters were written across its cover.

'Black Tiger Saber Technique.'