The Troublesome Ghost of Li Family Fortress

The Troublesome Ghost of Li Family Fortress

Clang! Clang! Clang!

"Blind Old Three is dead!"

The pounding of a bronze gong, accompanied by shouted cries, shattered the peace of Li Family Fortress.

Not everyone had suffered from wolf attacks, but everyone loved a spectacle. Especially in a village—neighbors throwing tantrums and coming to blows could draw a whole crowd of onlookers.

Quite a few people had already picked up their hoes and were preparing to head to the fields. Upon hearing that "Blind Old Three" was dead, they immediately came running over.

"Tsk, tsk, this is 'Blind Old Three'?"

"That's the beast. I've seen it!"

"I thought it was something terrifying. Doesn't have three heads or six arms. Look how badly it scared you all..."

"Prosperity, what bullshit are you spouting? If you had the guts, you'd have caught 'Blind Old Three' instead of standing here making sarcastic remarks after it died."

"I just didn't have the time..."

"My pig... it was scared to death, boohoo..."

Hei Dan's mother came running over. At the sight of Blind Old Three's corpse, the grief she had forced down surged back up, and she sat on the ground, wailing bitterly.

Hei Dan's father, Li Baoquan, also arrived. After asking what had happened, his face turned crimson. He raised his hand and, with a smack, viciously slapped Hei Dan across the face. "You little bastard, who told you to act on your own..."

He seemed utterly enraged. Looking at the surrounding villagers, he gritted his teeth and said, "Brother Hu Zi helped me plenty when he was alive. If anything had happened to Yan Zi, how... how could I ever explain myself?"

"Enough, enough. It's already over."

The people beside him hurriedly tried to calm him down.

But Li Baoquan was still livid and wanted to beat Hei Dan.

Li Yan raised a hand to stop him and gave him an indifferent glance. "I already took payment. One chicken."

"A chicken?"

Li Baoquan froze, lowering his hand. Then he awkwardly rubbed his hands together. "This... look at the mess this has become."

It was no wonder Hei Dan's father acted that way.

Though blade wielders treated a promise worth a thousand gold and words that must be honored as their principles, of those people who dared tie their heads to their belts, which one was truly harmless?

There were those who righted wrongs and upheld justice, but there were even more who killed for money.

And their prices were never cheap.

Of course, Li Yan's father, Li Hu, had been a forthright and generous man. Whenever anyone in the village came begging for help, he would usually slap his chest and agree. As a result, he had often been taken advantage of by people needling him with their words.

But Li Yan's reputation was nowhere near as good.

The reason was simple: their ideas differed.

He had originally been a modern man and had even died once. Why would he still care about clan rites and laws, rulers and subjects? Nor would he let other people's opinions bind him. In everything he did, he only sought to leave his own heart unburdened.

When it was time to act, he would never sheath his blade.

As for money he was owed, they could forget about shorting him even a single fucking coin.

No one was getting the better of him.

It seemed normal to him, but in everyone else's eyes, he was a troublesome ghost.

Who would have thought that this time, he had played the hero as well?

"I knew it, Yan Zi was the one for the job!"

"Just like his father—he'll be a fine hero someday too!"

The surrounding people all gave him thumbs-up, praising him over one another.

Li Yan chuckled but said nothing.

"The Clan Leader is here!"

Just then, someone cried out.

Several people came down the village dirt road, all of them rather old. At their head was a lean elderly man with a goatee and a pair of reading glasses.

Though Li Family Fortress had plenty of outsiders, its only great lineage was the Li family. Thus, every generation's Li Clan Leader also served as the village head.

This generation's Clan Leader was named Li HuaiRen, the village's sole landlord. His family had passed down farming and scholarship through the generations, and he had earned the title of licentiate. He cared greatly about appearances and had a fairly good reputation.

When he approached, he circled Blind Old Three's corpse a few times. After listening to everyone recount what had happened, he stroked his beard and nodded. "Not bad. It is the busy farming season. Now that this scourge has been eliminated, our fellow villagers can tend their fields in peace. A good thing."

"Merit deserves reward. Zhou Juezi, your pig died, so I'll make the decision to buy it. Give it to Li Yan's family as a small token of the village's goodwill."

Li Yan grinned. "That would be wonderful. Many thanks, Clan Leader."

Martial training consumed a great deal of energy. He ate like a bottomless pit, and these past few days his belly had been sorely lacking in grease and meat. A big fat pig would keep them going for quite a while.

That was the benefit of a fearsome reputation.

The village head knew he was troublesome. Usually, he never assigned any corvée labor or hard, dirty work to Li Yan's family, nor did he ever withhold benefits they were due.

Zhou Juezi was even happier. He had been raising that fat pig solely to sell for a good price at New Year's, and he himself could never bear to eat it.

The Clan Leader's decision was simply an unexpected delight.

To avoid any mishap, he immediately wanted to pull Li Yan away to slaughter the pig first. One, the meat would still be fresh if they killed it now. Two, they could use the chance to make the matter a settled fact.

"Look how anxious you are!"

Li Yan teased him, but still called Hei Dan over to help lead the pig away.

After they left, Clan Leader Li HuaiRen also breathed a slight sigh of relief.

An idle villager looked envious and smacked his lips with a grin. "Clan Leader, Yan XiaoGe earned merit by getting rid of the wolf, so of course he deserves a reward. But Blind Old Three's corpse would only go to waste if we throw it out. Why not skin it and eat the meat? It would satisfy our cravings and vent our hatred..."

"You starving ghost!"

Before he could finish, someone cursed him with a dark face. "Blind Old Three ate so many people, and you can still bring yourself to eat it? I say we burn it and be done with it."

Hei Dan's mother began weeping again at those words, while the others sighed and murmured.

Clan Leader Li HuaiRen stroked his beard thoughtfully. "In the old days, there were many wolves in Guanzhong too. Back then, more old soldiers were still alive. Whenever they killed one, they hung it from the crooked-neck tree at the village entrance as a warning. That could keep things peaceful for a while."

"Zhu Zi, take some men and hang Blind Old Three at the village entrance!"

"Yes, Clan Leader!"

Several men immediately stepped forward to drag the wolf carcass away.

"Don't! Absolutely don't!"

At that moment, a timid woman's voice rose from the crowd.

Everyone turned to look. A middle-aged woman stood at the back of the crowd, her face waxy yellow, her hair disheveled, and her whole body reeking so badly that people retreated three feet away from her.

She was Widow Wang from the village.

Speaking of which, Widow Wang was also a pitiful woman.

Her husband had been an outsider. Since childhood, he had stolen chickens and dogs, idled away his days, and never earned any respect in the village. Even Widow Wang herself had been bought as a wife from a human trafficker.

Yet even after starting a family, the man could not settle down. He often went into Chang'an City to carouse with his fair-weather friends, then came home drunk and beat his wife.

Later, while drunk, he got into a brawl and died on the Official Road outside Chang'an City around this time last year, leaving behind only Widow Wang and their four-year-old daughter.

Under normal circumstances, if Widow Wang remarried, the villagers would not have said anything. They might even have welcomed it.

After all, a widow and orphan had a hard life, and there were still several bachelors in the village without prospects.

However, after her husband died, Widow Wang fell seriously ill. When she woke, she became muddleheaded and dazed. She no longer cleaned her home, which became like a pigsty, and she herself stank to high heaven.

Her daughter suffered along with her, pitifully locked in the house all day.

Better to marry an ugly wife than a lazy corpse.

The village's bachelors lost all interest after that, and they secretly mocked her often enough.

No one in the entire village was willing to have dealings with Widow Wang.

Under everyone's gaze, Widow Wang shrank back, yet still murmured, "Blind Old Three's body isn't clean. It carries bad luck. It should be burned, and someone should be invited to perform a ritual..."

"Shut up!"

Before she could finish, Clan Leader Li HuaiRen's expression changed. He sternly rebuked her, "Don't spread your demonic nonsense here. It's one thing for you to burn incense all day, but if you dare believe in the White Lotus Old Mother and bring disaster upon the village, don't blame this old man for being merciless!"

At those words, everyone's faces darkened.

There were many witches and shamans among the common folk, and the City God Temples and Taoist temples in various places all enjoyed thriving incense offerings. On certain important festivals, the imperial court even held grand ceremonies, with Taoists of the Tai Xuan Orthodox Sect personally presiding over the rites.

Yet it showed absolutely no mercy toward certain excessive sacrifices and secret cults.

The most notorious was the Maitreya Sect, which had countless branches under its banner.

Two years ago, the people of one village secretly spread the faith. Once the court learned of it, it directly sent troops to suppress them, setting fires and massacring the village.

More than a thousand people died without a single survivor. Even now, it remained a ghost village.

Widow Wang was usually slovenly and muttered strange things to herself. She also burned incense in her home every day, making her seem exactly like one of those foolish commoners who had joined a cult. Even without finding proof, Li HuaiRen remained deeply wary of her.

For a time, everyone's gazes turned somewhat grim.

Seeing this, Widow Wang did not dare say another word.

Clan Leader Li HuaiRen snorted, ordered Blind Old Three's body dragged away, then hurriedly departed with his people.

As both Clan Leader and village head, he was not so idle. After Xiao Man came Grain in Ear, and the Summer Harvest was imminent. Not only did the village and his own household leave him with a mountain of matters to handle, he also had to deal with the grain inspectors coming from Chang'an City.

Blind Old Three's matter was only a minor episode to him.

With the spectacle over, the crowd scattered like startled birds, heading to the fields to work.

Only Widow Wang remained where she stood, staring blankly at the wolf corpse being dragged away. A flicker of fear crossed her eyes, and she hurried home.

Upon returning to her small courtyard, she immediately slammed the wooden door shut with a bang.

The room was dim and turbid. Widow Wang's gaze changed, and none of her previous timidity remained. She lit three sticks of incense, pressed them to her forehead, then knelt on the ground and repeatedly worshipped toward the Main Hall, murmuring:

"Third Aunt, disaster is coming..."

Zhou Juezi worked swiftly. In less than two hours, the big fat pig had been slaughtered and cleaned.

Li Yan forcibly stuffed several pounds of meat into Hei Dan's hands, then had him run errands and deliver some to familiar neighbors around the village.

After finishing all that, Li Yan finally carried more than half the pig home.

His home stood at the eastern end of Li Family Fortress.

It was a typical Guanzhong farmhouse courtyard. The yard was large, and the packed earth held no vegetables. Instead, stone locks, stone balls, and other such training implements lay scattered about.

Li Family Fortress had originally been a Military Fortress. A few households still preserved their old traditions of farming and martial training, and Li Yan's family was one of them.

The difference was that a wooden plaque hung above his family's gate. On it were four bold, vigorous characters: "Victorious in a Hundred Battles."

An old man squatted beside the threshold.

His hair was snowy white, his body hunched, and his face covered in wrinkled folds like orange peel. His cloudy eyes were lifeless as he held a long smoking pipe, puffing out clouds of smoke.

His right trouser leg hung empty.

He was Li Gui, Li Yan's grandfather in this life.

At the sight, Li Yan grinned. "Grandfather, the Clan Leader rewarded us with a pig. For lunch, do you want noodles with Meat Sauce or oil-splashed noodles?"

Yet Li Gui did not even look at him, merely smoking pipeful after pipeful with a dark expression.

Li Yan chuckled and said nothing more, carrying the pork directly into the courtyard and setting it in the kitchen.

The two of them could not finish half a pig anytime soon. What needed salting had to be salted, and what needed rendering into lard had to be rendered. Processing it would take quite some time.

Li Yan was in no rush. After setting down the pork, he went into the courtyard.

The sun had already risen. He took off his outer clothes, wearing only a sleeveless undershirt that revealed his streamlined, knotted muscles. After warming up and adjusting his breathing, he abruptly drew both fists to his waist, his body standing as straight as a javelin.

Then he raised one palm overhead as if lifting a tripod, slowly lowering it again.

One of the Ten Great Coil Exercises of Red Fist: Overlord Lifts the Tripod.

Guanzhong Red Fist had an immensely ancient heritage and numerous branches. Every village, town, and martial hall possessed its own inheritance and trump cards.

What he practiced was the old Red Fist passed down through his family. In the previous dynasty, a Li family ancestor had received instruction from a military general while serving in the army. It contained many crucial secrets and subtleties.

That general was a figure often mentioned in teahouse storytelling and popular tale-books, known as a match for ten thousand men. Naturally, what he passed down was no ordinary art.

His grandfather, Li Gui, had been a fierce soldier in the army, experienced in fighting for his life amid death.

His father, Li Hu, had been one of the Guanzhong Blade Wielders, making his living in the martial world and traveling far and wide. He had also incorporated many ruthless tricks from the jianghu, adding another measure of ferocity to it.

But no matter what, the Ten Great Coil Exercises of Red Fist were the foundation.

Red Fist emphasized "supporting and reinforcing as the mother, hooking and hanging as the skill, transforming the body as the marvel, and crafty strikes as the method." Its fighting methods changed without end, but without a solid foundation, it was all for nothing.

The Ten Great Coil Exercises were further divided into soft and hard forms. Whether wind or rain, scorching summer or freezing winter, Li Yan had never missed a single day of training.

His method of training, however, differed from ordinary people's.

Everyone who practiced martial arts knew that "a boxer's body is precious as gold." Thus, one had to proceed step by step. Rushing ahead would only leave the body full of ailments.

But Li Yan seemed to have transcended that boundary.

With one palm raised overhead, he stretched his body to its limits, as though he truly held up a massive bronze tripod. Like a bowstring pulled taut, his body actually began making creaking sounds.

At the same time, Li Yan calmed his heart and quieted his breath, focusing his mind.

Within the Dantian in his body, a stone statue slowly floated...

New release schedule during the new-book period: every day at ten, two chapters released together.