Awakening, Part 1 (Thanks to Twitching Night for the League Leader)

Several days later.

Crash.

With a muffled bang, Shao Quanhu swept everything off the table and onto the floor.

Several blue porcelain bottles engraved with cloud patterns shattered to pieces, exquisite shards scattering everywhere.

Cough, cough, cough. Shao Quanhu panted violently and coughed, a flush rising on her face once more.

Her husband, Chen He, and Lao Ding had been disappeared for days.

No matter what she did, she could not contact them. They were nowhere to be found in the city, nor outside it, and places farther away were simply impossible to search.

It made her suspect that the three of them had run off with her money.

After all, Chen Zhihan had never been all that passionate about revenge.

He had been furious over his son's death, but he was unwilling to stake his entire self on it, to gamble everything on vengeance.

Within the silent Shao Family estate.

Apart from a few relatively loyal household servants, everyone else had secretly scattered and fled.

The Rice Gang was declining by the day, and its reputation had spread throughout the entire County Town.

At a time like this, unless the Shao Family was willing to offer more money, no one was willing to risk their lives.

Looking at the increasingly brilliant sunlight outside, Shao Quanhu felt no warmth. Instead, waves of chill continually rose from deep within her heart.

"So, you all think I'm as good as dead?"

She gave a low laugh.

"You want to bring down my Shao Family? All you people hiding in the shadows, listen to me! It won't be that easy!"

So what if the Rice Gang's forces and experts had been greatly depleted?

How had her Shao Family risen in the first place? Did someone really think it had relied on that spineless Chen Zhihan and the Chen Family?

Back then, it had been only after the Shao Family had risen that the Chen Family had voluntarily joined with her.

"Someone, prepare the carriage!"

Shao Quanhu suddenly shouted.

"Yes."

Before long, a small horse-drawn carriage stopped before the Shao Family gates.

Everyone in the household who could flee had fled. There was not even a single guard or thug left.

Dressed in a gray-black cloak that concealed her face and body, Shao Quanhu slowly boarded the carriage with the support of her sole remaining Personal Maidservant.

She still had one final trump card.

How had the Shao Family risen back then? She was a woman with not even the strength to truss a chicken, so why had so many experts been willing to obey her?

The reason was that she had someone behind her! Back then, she had accidentally saved a Strongman. He had promised her that, within reasonable limits, he would grant her three requests.

She had already used the first two requests. That was how the Shao Family had gained its current wealth and glory.

Originally, she had thought she might never need to use this final request.

But now... seated inside the carriage.

Shao Quanhu's Hands clenched tighter and tighter.

"Zhang Xuan... I've fallen to this state because of you. You beat my son to death and destroyed my family..."

Her face was pale. She shut her Eyes tightly, gritted her teeth, and even began to tremble.

"You think I have no way left? No!"

She still had one final move. She would find the Strongman she had once saved—the reclusive Black List Expert—and use her final request, her final favor.

Once it was done, he would leave Huaxin County and travel far away.

That had been his promise. If not for this final request, an expert of that caliber would never have stayed here for so many years for nothing. After all, those who could make it onto the Black List and avoid capture year after year were Strongmen who had survived being surrounded and hunted by Ninth Grade Masters, yet still roamed free.

Such people were generally acknowledged to be stronger than the Ninth Grade level.

The Great Ling Territory was vast beyond measure, yet the Black List contained only thirty people in total.

Even the weakest among them was a terrifying killing machine.

"Just wait, Zhang Xuan. This time, I'll leave no one in your entire family alive—not even chickens or dogs!!" Shao Quanhu closed her Eyes, her Hands clenched into an impossibly tight fist.

The carriage continued toward the outskirts through the streets at noon.

There were fewer and fewer pedestrians on either side, while shops gradually all stood closed.

Some houses and residences were even completely empty. Now and then, broken windows hung crookedly outside, with no one living within.

Several crows cawed harshly from the rooftops.

Several black shapes darted past the wheels. It was impossible to tell whether they were rats or something else.

Before long.

The carriage stopped in front of a pharmacy.

The pharmacy had neither a signboard bearing its name nor a hanging wooden placard. Only a wooden rack stood alone in the open space outside its entrance.

Many half-dried medicinal herbs had been laid out on the rack to dry in the sun.

The shop was empty. Its doors were open, yet not a soul could be seen.

"Wait for me here." Shao Quanhu pushed open the carriage door and slowly climbed down.

Her Maidservant tried to support her, but she pushed her away.

"Long Er, you stay here as well."

"Yes."

Shao Quanhu raised her head to look at the sky. The sunlight was painfully bright.

Step by step, she slowly approached the pharmacy and stood beneath the shadow of the eaves before its doorway.

She coughed twice.

"I am Shao Quanhu. This is my third uninvited visit. I ask that you..."

Clang.

A light sound suddenly seemed to drift in slowly from afar.

Instinctively, Shao Quanhu turned to the right toward the sound.

In an instant, a Shadow flashed. A brilliant sheet of Silver Light bloomed before her Eyes like flowers opening.

Ssh! Blood sprayed, and a head flew high into the air.

The Shadow streaked past where Shao Quanhu stood like a giant python or venomous snake, then slipped into the shadowed alleyway.

"I..." Shao Quanhu felt herself flying. Everything around her rapidly blurred and swam out of focus.

She opened her mouth, wanting to say something more, but she no longer had the strength to move.

The last thing that surfaced in her mind was her son Chen Wuyou's radiant smile.

"Mother, I've prepared a gift for your birthday."

"What is it? Can you tell me in advance?"

"That won't do. If I tell you beforehand, it won't be a surprise. I put so much thought into preparing it."

"Wuyou..."

Shao Quanhu's mind finally froze upon that blurred face.

Everything went completely dark.

... In the alleyway.

Zhang Rongfang lightly flicked the blood from the Wish Wheel. After taking one final glance toward the pharmacy, he swiftly departed.

From afar, all that could be seen was his Masked Black Clothes and his strong back rapidly merging into the shadows.

As though he had never appeared.

... Inside the Nameless Pharmacy.

Behind the once-empty counter, a person had somehow abruptly appeared.

He was a Strong Man with Whiskers.

He looked like an ordinary farmer working the fields outside, entirely unremarkable.

Even his Eyes were merely ordinary, murky, and yellowed.

Aah!!! Only then did the terrified screams of the Maidservant and carriage driver reach them from beside the carriage.

The Strong Man's expression was calm as he walked out of the pharmacy and stopped before Shao Quanhu's headless corpse.

"It seems your third request will never have the chance to leave your lips."

"In that case, it is time for me to leave as well."

A faint breeze swept past.

In the blink of an eye, the Strong Man had vanished from before the corpse without a trace.

... Inside Qinghe Temple.

Beneath the imposing three-eyed Statue.

Zhang Rongfang quietly knelt on the ground and recited scriptures.

His Eyes were slightly closed, his Hands folded before him. Then he bowed until his forehead touched the backs of his Hands.

The tranquil chanting within the Daoist Temple and the faint scent of Incense Sticks gradually calmed the slight turbulence in his heart.

One question after another in his heart found its answer amid that calm.

Why do people in this world get hurt?

Because there are people who harm others.

Why do those people harm me?

Because some people in this world are evil by nature.

Evil brings harm. Harm brings hatred. Generation after generation, they remain tangled beyond resolution.

Therefore...

Therefore, if one wishes to avoid harm, one must eradicate evil!

"Eradicate evil completely!" Zhang Rongfang slowly spoke.

"Only then is it the supreme path."

He took three incense sticks, lit them, and gently inserted them into the incense burner.

After Worshipping God and reciting scriptures.

His heart returned to tranquility, and he rose to his feet.

The Daoist Temple was empty at this moment, with only him inside. Everyone else was absent, likely either sleeping or out having fun.

Leaving the shrine hall, Zhang Rongfang considered his future goal.

How could he create an absolutely safe place that he wanted?

Relying on himself alone would be difficult.

There was too much evil in this world. Two fists could not fend off four Hands. Too often, there were too many things that needed protection, leaving him unable to be everywhere at once.

So the only way... is to climb higher!

He suddenly understood his Previous Body's Elder Sister a little better.

In an era like this, their Barbarian Confucian status, without the protection of force, made them fish on someone else's chopping block, to be butchered at will.

Even he was struggling to survive.

Not to mention Zhang Rongyu, an ordinary and frail woman.

In a society like this, someone as beautiful as her could only have lived with greater hardship and suffering.

Though he had never met his Previous Body's Elder Sister and felt no attachment to her.

The Daoist Registry this body had received, along with the money sent earlier—these were all gifts she had earned through her own efforts.

Since I have received another's kindness, I will repay it someday. Zhang Rongfang silently made his resolve.

Returning to his room.

His Eyes immediately fell upon the Round Wheel, Leaving Injury, hanging on the wall.

In truth, he did not know any wheel techniques at all, and the Wheel of Wishes Art had not even reached the beginner level. When he had used it before, he had merely relied on speed to sweep it through.

Simply using high speed to drive the Wish Wheel's blade edge already made it a brutally effective weapon of murder.

He had personally experienced the sharpness of that blade.

Next, I'll honestly accumulate attributes, then wait for the evaluation and enter the Assembled Sages Institute.

For someone of his Barbarian Confucian status, the best way to climb higher was naturally to use the Daoist Registry and take the path of the Assembled Sages Institute.

As one of the two great Daoist Sects under heaven, the Great Dao Sect had always been suppressed by the True One Sect within the Assembled Sages Institute.

Under such circumstances, if he could display sufficient talent, he should be able to quickly gain attention.

What a pity. I had originally planned to endure slowly over time, but in this world, if you do not control power and rise to a high position, someone will always think you weak and come to humiliate and harm you.

Only by rising to a high position can I gain more resources and more protection.

"Then let's first set a small goal: consume all of Qinghe Temple's resources."

Zhang Rongfang had always had an idea.

First, he would obtain all the contents of the Returning Spring Purifying Time Talisman Classic, then stack every Martial Arts technique he could obtain through cultivation.

He wondered how strong he would become.

With that, he gathered his thoughts and began practicing the Vitality Talisman, move by move.

Several days later.

The County Office announced that Shao Quanhu, leader of the Rice Gang, had been killed in the street.

After a cursory investigation, Qinghe Temple suppressed the case.

Officials at every level of the County Office were busy seizing the Shao Family's property. Under pressure from Qinghe Temple, no one had any intention of genuinely investigating the case.