The office door shut behind him, locking that twisted sophistry—and those three faces—away in the gloom.
Sunlight from the courtyard rushed at him, so bright it made his eyes swim.
Ye Qingxuan narrowed his eyes slightly and took a moment to adjust. The surrounding din, the footsteps of constables coming and going, and the hawkers' cries drifting from the distant market all flooded back into his ears. In the room just now, those sounds had seemed muffled beneath a thick layer of cotton. Now, they were exceptionally clear.
He stood at the foot of the stone steps, his back straight as a spear.
That heaven-shaking achievement had been carved up like a side of pork, bones stripped and flesh shaved away, then devoured clean. Only a few scraps and dregs remained, tossed at his feet as a reward for "providing clues."
Witnesses, physical evidence, records, and documents.
Chief Constable Zhang, Tan Zhenglong, and Zhang Lingxiao had woven an airtight net. And Ye Qingxuan was the moth that had flown headfirst into it.
Where had he gone wrong?
He had gone wrong in being, in everyone's eyes, nothing more than an ordinary youth who "knew nothing of martial arts." How could a temporary constable who had not even touched the threshold of the Body Tempering Realm have killed a notorious bandit at the second level of Body Tempering?
The matter simply did not add up.
His glib arguments were riddled with holes in the eyes of an old hand like Tan Zhenglong. Yet he had foolishly hoped to seek justice with a single identification token.
Justice?
In this muddy world, whoever had the harder fist and the greater backing was justice.
He set off toward the courtyard gate. Quite a few constables still stood scattered around the yard in groups of three or four, pointing at him and whispering among themselves. Their gazes held admiration, envy, and disdain.
He ignored them completely, maintaining an unhurried pace.
"Qingxuan!"
Wei Datong's voice came from the side. He and Xiong Tiezhu hurried over.
"You brat, not bad!" Wei Datong threw an arm around his shoulders and shook him vigorously, his face glowing. "What did I tell you? Good people have Heaven's protection! Providing clues is still a great achievement! Five taels of silver! And a merit record! Your appointment becoming permanent is practically certain now!"
Xiong Tiezhu smiled foolishly beside him and nodded repeatedly. "That's right, Qingxuan. Impressive."
Wei Datong's arm pulled Ye Qingxuan's face into a stiff curve.
Five taels of silver.
The thirty-tael bounty had been reduced to five taels by the time it reached him.
Following Wei Datong's words, he nodded. "Just luck."
"What luck? That's ability!" Wei Datong sprayed saliva as he spoke. "When you collect the reward, you have to treat us! Li Ji's sauced bones in the Southern District—I've been craving them for ages!"
"Definitely." Ye Qingxuan answered him, but his chest churned. He changed the subject, pulled open his collar, and exposed the patch of bluish-purple bruising on his chest.
Under the sunlight, the bruise looked even darker, shocking to behold.
"Hiss—" Wei Datong sucked in a breath and leaned closer for a careful look. "That was done by that Mottled Fish? Good heavens, if it had been any heavier, you'd have lost your life. No wonder Young Master Zhang and the others could kill the enemy with one strike. So the murderer was already at the end of his rope."
Ye Qingxuan neither confirmed nor denied it. He merely closed his collar.
This injury had originally been the "ironclad evidence" supporting his achievement. Now, it had become collateral proof of Chief Constable Zhang and the others' "heroism."
How bitterly ironic.
"Don't get it wet for the next few days," Wei Datong nagged. "Go to the apothecary later and buy some ointment to improve circulation and disperse stasis. Don't let it leave you with a hidden ailment."
"Got it, Big Brother Wei." A thread of warmth passed through Ye Qingxuan's heart.
The Fengtian Division was not entirely populated by men like Tan Zhenglong.
After parting from Wei Datong and Xiong Tiezhu, Ye Qingxuan did not immediately return home. He turned into the liveliest market in the Southern District and threaded his way through the crowd.
The cries of vendors selling steamed flatbreads, the children chasing and roughhousing, the women haggling and quarrelling—this rich bustle of ordinary life diluted the chill he had brought from the Fengtian Division.
He stopped and looked at everything before him.
That raging fury and that grievance born of humiliation had not vanished. They had merely sunk down, settling in the deepest part of his heart, crushed beneath a massive stone called "Ye Caiwei."
If he acted on impulse now, seeking out Tan Zhenglong and Zhang Lingxiao and fighting them to the death—
The fish would die.
The net would merely be replaced with a new one.
And what about Nannan? Where would she go? Would she be sent back into the hands of that man-eating Duan Tianbao?
He could not afford to lose.
A gentleman's revenge could wait ten years.
A self-mocking smile tugged at Ye Qingxuan's lips. He was no gentleman, merely a nobody from the streets struggling to survive.
Ten years was too long.
Two months at most.
He turned around and walked home with steady steps.
When he pushed open the courtyard gate, the fragrance of food drifted out.
"Brother, you're back!"
Nine-year-old Ye Caiwei was standing on tiptoe, busy at the stove. Hearing the door open, she quickly turned around, her little face full of delight.
A pot of vegetable porridge simmered inside the pot. In a small dish beside it lay a golden fried egg. She had saved it especially for her brother.
Ye Qingxuan stood at the doorway, looking at that slight figure inside and the pure joy on her face. All the humiliation and injustice he had suffered during the day seemed to steam away with the heat from the pot of porridge.
He walked over, lifted his little sister from behind, and rested his chin in the hollow of her small shoulder.
"Brother, you're hurting me." Ye Caiwei wriggled.
Ye Qingxuan released her and smoothed her slightly disheveled hair.
"Nannan, what do you want to eat tonight? I'll take you out for a meal."
"I'm not going," Ye Caiwei said, shaking her head without a moment's hesitation. "Eating out is expensive, and it's not as good as the vegetable porridge at home. Brother, go rest. The porridge will be ready soon."
Ye Caiwei shook her head without a second thought. "No. Eating outside is expensive. The vegetable porridge at home tastes better anyway. Brother, go rest. The porridge will be ready soon."
Ye Qingxuan said no more. He simply went to the well in the courtyard, drew up a bucket of water, stripped to the waist, and poured it over himself from head to toe.
The icy well water made him completely calm down.
Fury was the most useless thing in the world. It only burned oneself; it could not warm anyone else.
True strength was an iceberg hidden beneath the water—silent and unmoving, yet capable of sinking a giant ship.
After dinner, Ye Qingxuan coaxed his little sister to sleep and returned to his room.
He did not light a lamp. He merely sat cross-legged in the darkness.
That humiliation and unwillingness surged up again like a tide. Chief Constable Zhang's sanctimonious face, Zhang Lingxiao's arrogant sneer, and Tan Zhenglong's ugly display of righteous indignation flashed before his eyes in turn.
He reached out and picked up the sharp-cornered stone that had accompanied him through countless days and nights.
He closed his eyes, and the circulation route of the Indestructible Vajra Body surfaced in his mind.
He pressed the sharp-cornered stone against his skin and slowly, forcefully, began scraping and grinding.
"Scritch—"
His flesh split open, and a searing pain spread through him.
He did not stop.
He poured all the resentment and unwillingness from the day into the stone in his hand.
Every scrape was like carving a bloody mark into his heart.
Why?
Because I have no authority or backing?
Because my voice carries no weight?
Then I'll use this flesh and bone, these two fists, to fight for power and influence! To win the right to speak!
The pain grew more intense, seeping from his skin into his muscles, then drilling from his muscles into his marrow.
His body trembled faintly. Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and his teeth clacked from how tightly he clenched them.
Yet the scene in his mind underwent a strange change.
The golden little figure representing the Indestructible Vajra Body no longer merely performed its techniques mechanically. It seemed to suffer the same pain of having its bones scraped clean. Bloodstains appeared across its golden skin, then rapidly healed.
[Tempering the body with a mysterious stone, honing the mortal heart, Merit +5.] [Heartbound Depression, using the body as a furnace, Merit +5.] [Resentment and Injustice, turned into kindling, Merit +5.] ...
The number of Merit points began jumping wildly at a speed never seen before.
Ye Qingxuan had completely forgotten his physical pain. His mind was entirely immersed in this self-inflicted torture and sublimation.
He seemed to see the dark mass of depression in his chest being squeezed and refined bit by bit with every scrape, ultimately transforming into an incomparably pure energy that surged toward his limbs and organs.
Martial cultivation tempered the body, but it also tempered the heart.
Today's humiliation and today's pain were the finest whetstone!
Who knew how long had passed? The sharp-cornered stone in his hand had been ground down by a layer of stone powder, becoming smooth and rounded.
In his mind, the golden little figure representing the Indestructible Vajra Body suddenly stopped moving.
All the bloodstains on its body vanished in an instant. From head to toe, it flowed with a dense, perfectly rounded dark-gold radiance—not dazzling, yet indestructible.
[Merit perfected. The Heavenly Mechanism stirred!]
Boom!
A wave of heat far more immense than the one released when he broke through to the second level of Body Tempering surged forth from the Heavenly Machine Codex!
The heat was no longer merely strengthening his sinews, bones, skin, and flesh. It was more like a warm current that cleansed his internal organs and washed through his mind and spirit.
The pent-up frustration, fury, and helplessness of the day seemed to be completely rinsed away by that warm current.
Not forgotten, but seen through.
He opened his eyes. In his sight, the dark room revealed every tiny detail.
He could hear the old locust tree's falling leaves in the courtyard, his little sister's steady breathing in the next room, and even the ceaseless rush of blood through his own body.
His heart had never been so calm.
He summoned the panel.
[Name: Ye Qingxuan] [Realm: Body Tempering Level Two (Flesh Tempering)] [Martial Art: Indestructible Vajra Body (Realm: Mastery, Measure: Five Inches, Merit: 0/200)]
Mastery!
The Indestructible Vajra Body had actually advanced from the initial stage to the realm of mastery in a single night!
He lowered his head and looked at his body. His skin remained an ordinary color, but when he pressed it with his hand, it was tough as bull hide. The muscles beneath contained an even heavier, more concentrated strength.
He rose and casually threw a punch.
The wind of his fist made no sound, yet it punched a visible depression into the air before him.
This was true power.
Ye Qingxuan walked to the window and pushed it open.
A full moon hung high in the night sky. Its cool, clear light spilled across him, yet could no longer bring him even the slightest chill.
He looked at that full moon.
Zhang Lingxiao. Tan Zhenglong. Chief Constable Zhang.
Those three names slowly passed through his heart.
When they met again, he would smile as he repaid them twice over for everything he had suffered today.
Before you continue