Entering the City

Chu Ning did not wait for her reply. His five fingers had already clamped onto her shoulder.

"You dare—" Xie Mingli shouted angrily, but in the next instant, Chu Ning slammed her back onto the ground.

"Enough nonsense. Is your life more important, or your pride?" Chu Ning said in a low voice, his eyes sharp as thunderbolts.

"You—" Xie Mingli gritted her teeth, a trace of shame and fury showing in her eyes, but she ultimately closed her mouth.

"Bear with it." He tore open the woman's lapel. Beneath it, she wore only a white Ice Silkworm Silk undershirt.

Yet her skin, originally smooth as jade, was now covered in black lightning patterns. The Yin Sha Thunder Poison had already invaded her blood vessels, and every inch of her skin showed an eerie, dusky blackness.

Chu Ning's fingertips followed the course of the lightning patterns, striking thirteen major acupoints in rapid succession.

"You..." Xie Mingli forced herself to stay conscious, her face stiffening.

Chu Ning said sternly, "Don't overthink it. I'm saving you. Otherwise, you'll be dead in an instant!"

Blood beads sprayed from Xie Mingli's bitten lips, but the moment they touched the back of his hand, they evaporated into Blood Mist. The ghost face suddenly opened its fangs, shooting an arrow of purple-black poison toward Chu Ning's face.

"Watch out!" she asked, forcing herself to maintain her last shred of composure.

Chu Ning simply reached out and pressed his hand against the lightning patterns on her shoulder.

"Boom!"

In an instant, blazing Thunderous Force surged from his palm into Xie Mingli's body, sweeping along her meridians and violently colliding with that frigid thunder poison.

"Ah—!"

Her whole body convulsed violently. Her five fingers dug into the ground, her knuckles whitening from the force, nearly clawing bloody marks into the earth.

"Bear with it," Chu Ning reminded her in a low voice.

Xie Mingli panted, her voice slightly hoarse. "This young lady... when... ever needed your reminder..."

The Thunderous Force in Chu Ning's hand grew even more violent, scouring her meridians like a raging storm and forcibly driving out the Yin Sha Thunder Poison.

The Thunderous Force poured entirely into the ghost face's seven orifices. Its shrieks shook loose stones from the rock walls.

Amid the stench of charred flesh, the purple-black poisonous blood was forcibly refined into wisps of green smoke.

The thunder poison suddenly lashed back, climbing madly along Chu Ning's wrist. Purple-black lightning, like venomous snakes, burrowed into his palm and shot straight toward his sea of consciousness.

Chu Ning's gaze turned icy. He forcibly poured his true qi into his palm, fully circulating the Thunderclap Saber Art within his body as violent Thunderous Force swept through him.

"Boom!" The two currents of lightning collided violently within their meridians, and the air around Chu Ning crackled with explosive sizzling.

Lightning flashed madly between the two of them, and for a moment, the entire cavern was filled with an intense aura of thunder.

"Pfft!"

Xie Mingli suddenly spat out a mouthful of pitch-black filth-ridden blood, her entire body collapsing onto the ground as though utterly drained.

Meanwhile, the black lightning patterns around her collarbone finally began to fade.

The thunder poison... had been forced out of her body.

Xie Mingli panted heavily, her entire body limp, but she could clearly feel that the agonizing pain which had just been corroding her meridians had vanished.

She raised her head and looked at Chu Ning with a complicated expression.

"Who... exactly are you?"

Chu Ning sat cross-legged, recovering the true qi he had expended. At her words, he smiled faintly. "Just an ordinary disciple of Thunderclap Martial Hall."

Xie Mingli fell silent. She knew very well that the man before her was absolutely no ordinary person.

His Thunderous Force was overbearing beyond compare, far beyond what an ordinary martial artist could control.

Her eyes flickered as she slowly said, "Young master is no ordinary 'martial hall disciple.' If I'm not mistaken, you should be... a contestant representing Thunderclap Martial Hall in the Azure Cloud Arena, right?"

Chu Ning's expression did not change. He still smiled faintly. "Oh? Why do you say that?"

Xie Mingli stared at him, her tone certain. "An ordinary disciple doesn't possess your strength."

Chu Ning chuckled without replying.

"Young master truly is no ordinary man." Xie Mingli lightly straightened her lapel and said coldly, "You saved me. I owe you a favor."

Chu Ning smiled. "Think nothing of it, think nothing of it."

Things... were becoming more and more interesting.

The two of them straightened their robes, left the cavern, and hurried toward the prefectural city.

The next day, at daybreak, the towering city walls in the distance finally came into view.

The prefectural city—Qingzhou Prefecture.

"Eleven... twelve."

As Xie Mingli's carriage rolled over the blue bricks beside the moat, Chu Ning was counting the bodies.

The corpses hung with wooden plaques reading "vagrant rioters" had taken on a bluish-gray hue beneath the bright winter sun, while fresh beads of blood still clung to the tips of the guards' spears.

As the carriage passed, one bead of blood happened to drip onto the eye of the black bird carved into the carriage shaft, staining its gilt pupil crimson.

"What are you counting, young master?" Xie Mingli's fingertips brushed over Ice Soul Cold Marrow, the pendant giving off threads of icy coolness beneath her touch.

Chu Ning lowered the Xiangfei bamboo blind and crushed the blood staining his fingertip. "Under Marquis Wu's Estate, even the water in the moat is redder than elsewhere."

"You mean the execution of those rioters?"

The carriage suddenly screeched to a halt. Outside, the sound of iron chains dragging across the ground rang out.

Thirty-six shackled prisoners were being driven aside to clear the way.

"Move! You startled a noble of Marquis Wu's Estate. We'll throw you into the moat to feed the fish!"

The guard's reprimand was stopped by a raised hand from Xie Mingli.

The instant she lifted the brocade curtain, the prisoners suddenly dropped to their knees in unison, their foreheads pounding against the bluestone slabs with loud thuds.

"Let's go." As Xie Mingli lowered the curtain, Chu Ning saw the prisoners crawling along on all fours, terrified of disturbing the noble person in the carriage.

The carriage entered Vermilion Bird Street, and the din, wrapped in the stench of blood, seeped in through the cracks in the window.

On the broad bluestone road, crowds streamed back and forth. Vendors' cries, the sound of horse hooves, and children's laughter intertwined, reflecting a scene of bustling prosperity.

Wine houses and teahouses lined the street, their tall buildings adorned with carved beams and painted rafters. The passing guests wore luxurious clothes, their faces full of arrogant pride. There were also many wandering martial heroes, swords hanging from their waists as they strode along with their heads held high.

The prosperity of the prefectural city was worlds apart from Qingyang County.

Just as Chu Ning gazed toward the street, his eyes fell upon an inconspicuous corner.

There, a ragged old man hunched over as he knelt before a wine house, his murky eyes filled with supplication. In front of him lay a battered bowl containing only a few copper coins. Beside him, a thin child curled up in the cold wind, his face pale and his lips cracked.

Well-dressed passersby walked past them from time to time, yet not one was willing to spare even a little charity.

Suddenly, a young master in fine clothes walked out of the wine house, followed by several servants, a contemptuous smile on his face. He glanced at the begging old man, slightly furrowed his brows, and said with disgust, "Filthy. Someone, drive this old thing away. Don't ruin this young master's mood!"

As soon as his words fell, a servant stepped forward and kicked over the old man's broken bowl, sending the copper coins scattering across the ground.

The old man tremblingly reached out to gather them, only to be shoved violently to the ground. Seeing this, the thin child rushed over in terror, trying to shield the old man, but a servant kicked him away. He crashed onto the cold bluestone ground, a thread of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.

Seeing this, Chu Ning's fist tightened slightly, and a chill flashed through his eyes.

Xie Mingli noticed the change in him and said softly, "Young master, why lose your temper over this?"

Chu Ning said coldly, "They only want to live."

Xie Mingli brushed back the hair over her forehead, her tone calm. "They were born this way. This is simply their fate."