I Want a Beating

"What the hell?"

The detective looked completely baffled. After all his years as a middleman, he had never seen anything this bizarre.

"Ahem, I mean this."

Huai Shi coughed twice, pulled a glass bottle from his coat, and set it before him. The bottle was filled to the brim with Tribulation Ash.

This was the simplest way Crow had come up with for him to make money.

As a rare essence, Tribulation Ash was an essential base material in certain alchemical processes. But its applications were too limited, and the material itself was not difficult to find in deeper regions, so it did not fetch much of a price.

"Wait a second."

Once he came to his senses, the detective immediately took out his phone and made a call. "Hello? Uncle, didn't you place an order for border sediment a few days ago? There happens to be a customer here looking to sell some. Why don't you come take a look?"

A few minutes later, the computer screen lit up.

Even stranger, the light on the camera transformed on its own, becoming the phantom of an elderly man. Seemingly somewhat impatient, he walked straight over and instructed the detective to pour out a few grains of Tribulation Ash from the bottle, then toss them into some solution Huai Shi could not name.

Very soon, watching the reaction in the solution, the man's expression eased slightly, and he slowly nodded.

"You rarely see Tribulation Ash this pure in the Present Realm these days. Price it as premium-grade goods. I'll take all of it." The old man rarely showed such a genial expression. He glanced at Huai Shi. "If you have any more Tribulation Ash in the future, contact me. I'll buy it at ten percent above market price."

Then he vanished.

The detective did not waste any more words. He weighed Huai Shi's bottle, and after deducting the weight of the container, there were around three hundred grams.

Normally, a bottle this size filled with iron sand would weigh over a pound, but Tribulation Ash's actual weight was far lighter than it looked.

This was everything Huai Shi had accumulated over the past few days. Gathering any more was beyond his ability. After all, he was not the sort to dwell on the past and wallow in self-pity; he could only refine it by continuously reading death records.

After calculating for a while, the detective looked up and asked, "Based on recent market prices, that comes to eighty-four thousand. I take one-twentieth as a brokerage fee. I'll give you his card later. Next time, I won't be involved—you can contact the buyer directly. Sound good?"

Huai Shi had no objections. Weren't middlemen supposed to make money from the spread?

And earning eighty thousand so easily made him look forward to being an Ascender for the first time.

Before leaving, Huai Shi followed Crow's instructions and spent money on a more precise dry pot, equipment, and materials. The cheap stuff at home was fine for fooling around in a chemistry classroom, but it would be useless when he actually needed it.

The most basic set of tools here alone cost Huai Shi more than nine thousand. If Crow had not repeatedly insisted it was necessary, he would have made do with what he had.

Of the remaining seventy-one thousand, he did not plan to give all of it to Crow. Everything that guy said had to be taken at half value. Even if he only gave him fifty thousand, it would be enough for him to take medicine for half a month.

The remaining twenty-one thousand would last a long time if used for living expenses.

Huai Shi planned to set aside five thousand for daily expenses, then spend some money fixing up Stone Marrow Hall. The glass needed replacing, and the exterior walls needed repainting. Doing the work himself would save quite a bit. With whatever remained, he would get a better set of strings for the cello, buy a few chairs, and tidy up the main hall. There probably would not be much left after that.

As he left carrying the tools, Huai Shi was still immersed in his good mood. Even stray dogs peeing by the roadside looked cute to him.

Liu Dongli watched him standing there foolishly and shook his head helplessly before walking ahead.

But just as Huai Shi was about to say goodbye and head home, he suddenly shuddered.

His footsteps halted, and he whipped around.

On the desolate street, several hurried pedestrians, a few sedans passing by, and a stray cat climbing over a wall gradually moved away...

In that instant, he felt his Death Sense activate on its own. Then a needle-like chill stabbed at the back of his neck.

A wordless intuition surfaced in his heart—someone had developed murderous intent toward him. But immediately afterward, that sense of impending death rapidly faded, as though it had been an illusion.

Only the lingering chill still coiled in his chest.

"What's wrong?"

Liu Dongli noticed something was off about him.

"Nothing." Huai Shi smiled calmly. "Let's leave it here. I'm going home."

"Alright."

Liu Dongli waved. "Remember to come out and eat before you go."

Huai Shi acknowledged him, then turned and left.

That murderous intent had been aimed at him, not anyone else. Old Liu had only just been discharged from the hospital. Why drag him back into this mess?

For once, Huai Shi actually took responsibility.

But... which bastard wanted to kill him?

"Holy shit, I think someone's got their eye on me!"

In the main hall of Stone Marrow Hall, Huai Shi stared at Crow in front of him. "Crowemon, do you have any ideas?"

"No cure. Wait for death. Goodbye."

Crow calmly sent three meme replies in a row, then unhurriedly inspected the things Huai Shi had brought back. As though this were nothing unusual, she said, "What is the point of asking such a simple question? If someone wants to kill you, kill him first. Shouldn't that be how it works?"

"How? By conjuring an axe?"

Huai Shi sighed. He knew his own limits. Even dressed in imperial robes, he would not look like a prince. Even after becoming an Ascender, he could only finish off weakened enemies. A crippled Red Glove could still beat him senseless. If someone jumped out of an alley one day and sprayed him with a PPSh, he would not have any ability to resist.

"That's why I said last night..."

Crow raised her head and smiled happily. "Want to try the Book of Destiny's new feature?"

Though he had a bad feeling about it, Huai Shi nodded helplessly.

The Book of Destiny opened. Crow became a pen and tapped downward.

Huai Shi's vision instantly went black.

When he opened his eyes again, the pungent smell of blood hit him.

In a dark basement littered with corpses, a gaunt man whose lower body had rotted away roared at him. His shell-covered left hand stabbed forward violently.

Huai Shi instinctively took a step back. Before he could even react, he felt the agonizing pain of his body being pierced through.

Then the man raised his deformed, swollen right hand, pressed it against Huai Shi's forehead, and squeezed hard.

Crack!

He died.

Before his pitch-black eyes, a huge blood-red character slowly emerged.

Noob.

What the hell was that?

What was going on?!

Huai Shi leaped out of his chair in agony and glared at Crow. "Other than adding a 'noob' to mock me, isn't this exactly the same as before?!"

"Huh?" Crow asked. "Didn't you notice anything different?"

Huai Shi froze. Then he remembered that in that death record just now, he seemed to... perhaps... maybe... have taken a step backward?

Yes, that was right. He was no longer passively experiencing it as some sort of ghostly observer.

For the first time, he had reacted to death.

"That's the new feature?"

"Yep." Crow nodded. "If you used to be a cloud gamer watching streamer videos, now you've installed software with a certain valve logo and can try playing the game yourself—hmm, now that I put it that way, not being able to freeload does seem like a loss?"

"Enough already."

Huai Shi rolled his eyes. He had no idea where this thing had learned so much nonsense.

"But it seems it's best not to throw you into high difficulty on your first try."

Crow pondered for a moment. "Among the Book of Destiny's records, the Red Glove section is the most complete. How about I find you a beginner tutorial first?

"But before that, raise your left hand. Yes, like that. Point one finger upward and curl the others."

"Like this?"

Huai Shi held up his left hand stupidly, unable to understand the point. "What does this do?"

"You'll know soon enough."

Crow gave a mysterious smile, skillfully took out her phone, snapped a picture, and waved a wing at him. "Have a good trip."

Huai Shi instantly collapsed onto the chair and fell into a deep sleep.

Then she opened Photoshop and skillfully added a line of text beneath the photo she had just taken of Huai Shi:

—I want a beating.

New meme acquired~

Then the beating began.

By the time Huai Shi finally understood what that gesture meant, he was already in an unfamiliar training ground, nearly beaten to death barehanded by a huge, burly man.

The Roman Boxing Technique whose traces he had once seen on the Red Glove was now executed by that unfamiliar opponent with breathtaking mastery.

And when he attacked, there was absolutely no mercy or hesitation.

He was aiming to cripple Huai Shi outright!

The whistle blew, and he launched into a flying kick that nearly snapped Huai Shi's neck. Then he flipped through the air, landed smoothly, and seized him barehanded.

Crack!

Huai Shi's right hand broke.

"What are you standing around for, Number 7944?!"

At the edge of the training ground, the cold man standing with his hands behind his back spoke sternly. "Did everything you learned go into a dog's stomach? Pick up the dagger and kill him! Or it doesn't matter if this death-row prisoner kills you!"

His merciless tone made his attitude perfectly clear.

Either die as worthless trash, or kill this grinning opponent and earn his worth.

Huai Shi took a deep breath. During that brief pause, he bent down, reached out, picked the dagger up from the ground, and gripped it tightly.

Sometimes, he could not help feeling grateful that this scene was only a dream.

That way, he did not need to think too much before picking up a weapon and killing someone. He did not need to care about the law, morality, conscience, or anything else.

Perhaps that was also its most frightening aspect?

Once he became accustomed to all of this, how could he possibly be willing to return to his former ordinary life?

For some reason, though, he found it hard to feel any resistance toward it.

"Come on!"

At the instructor's shrill whistle, Huai Shi charged forward!

Then he died.

In truth, after Huai Shi unleashed a string of ferocious moves and dealt two-point-five damage, he finally managed to slash open the other man's throat.

He won.

But by then, his waist had basically been kicked apart, and three of his limbs were broken.

When he tried to ask the instructor for help, the instructor walked over indifferently and snapped his neck. The final words he heard were:

"You have betrayed the Empire's expectations of you."