Young Master and Magistrate

Just then, the Zhou Family's retainers and servants finally arrived, charging at Xu Yi like madmen.

Xu Yi showed no fear. His long blade flashed as he rushed to meet them head-on.

This was a feast of slaughter. Two years of inhuman torment had earned him strength beyond imagination.

The blood-deep hatred accumulated over generations had turned his heart cold as iron, his killing intent soaring to the heavens.

After several slashes, Xu Yi decisively cast aside his blade. His fists and body were the weapons he knew best—and the sharpest ones.

Every part of his body became a killing weapon. With strength that no one could withstand and footwork light as drifting smoke, none beneath Xu Yi's hands could last a single exchange.

Before even half an incense stick had burned, countless corpses lay beneath Xu Yi's feet, bones piled like mountains, blood flowing until it could float shields.

His shocking killing intent finally crushed their heaven-high frenzy. No one knew who cried out first, but the besieging crowd suddenly scattered like a receding tide.

Xu Yi did not pursue them. Instead, he turned into the rear courtyard and seized a fleeing maidservant.

Half an incense stick later, the sprawling Zhou Family estate seemed to have turned into an oil shop, tung oil and lamp oil scents drifting everywhere.

Then Xu Yi plunged straight into Old Master Zhou's study.

The Zhou Family was enormously wealthy, unrivaled in the region. Naturally, Xu Yi had no intention of returning empty-handed after entering a treasure mountain.

Since obtaining more than ten Crimson Gold Coins from Elder Feng's waist pouch, ordinary worldly wealth had no longer caught his eye.

Thus, he did not bother searching the Zhou Family's many storehouses, entering only Old Master Zhou's study.

Xu Yi firmly believed that the old man would never trust anyone else to guard his most precious possessions.

Old Master Zhou's study was vast, seven or eight zhang in both length and width—so spacious one could practically ride a horse through it. It was decorated with antique elegance. Sandalwood burned slowly in a seven-treasure incense burner carved with gold and silver atop a golden-thread nanmu desk, giving the entire room a refined, pleasant fragrance.

But Xu Yi had no interest in appreciating it. After turning over chests and rummaging through cabinets, he gathered a pile of costly writing supplies, calligraphy, and paintings. With his discerning eye, he knew that any one of those paintings, sold for money, would feed an ordinary household for half a lifetime.

But Xu Yi's ambitions no longer lay there. After scanning the room for a moment, a thought struck him, and he suddenly threw a punch.

Boom! Boom! Boom...

After dozens of punches, not a single wall in the study remained intact. All had been smashed into holes more than a foot deep.

Looking around, Xu Yi indeed discovered a crimson wooden box, a foot square, in the left wall. The hidden compartment mechanisms around it had all been shattered.

When he opened the wooden box, a blaze of red light spilled out. Xu Yi's eyes widened stiffly. Inside were two Crimson Gold Cakes, each the size of a flatbread yet exceptionally thick.

He took one out and weighed it. Each Crimson Gold Cake weighed a full hundred taels.

Xu Yi suppressed the surging excitement in his heart and stuffed both cakes into his waist pouch. Then, at the bottom of the box, an envelope sealed with wax appeared.

Xu Yi opened the envelope, drew out the letter, and skimmed it at a glance. In moments, he had finished reading.

It turned out to be a private letter from Old Master Zhou to Zhou Daogan. There was nothing particularly extraordinary in it. Aside from greetings, it asked Zhou Daogan to put in a word with Lingxiao Pavilion and increase the Zhou Family's share from a certain mine vein.

The letter was filled with trivialities, but Xu Yi had gleaned useful information from it.

These two Crimson Gold Cakes were anything but ordinary. They were the tribute gold the Zhou Family offered Lingxiao Pavilion once every three years.

"The Zhou Family only accumulates enough for these two Crimson Gold Cakes every three years. Naturally, they are priceless. Zhou Daogan, old thief, I don't care whether it's Lingxiao Pavilion or not—this windfall is mine!"

Xu Yi's heart swelled with heroic fervor. At the thought of the old thief receiving the news and flying into helpless rage, pleasure surged through him like a tide.

He casually set the letter alight using the candle flame on the desk, then stepped outside and tossed it onto a window lattice already drenched in tung oil. In an instant, flames roared up.

The wild wind howled and blazing fire rose into the sky. In less than half an incense stick's time, the Zhou Family estate, with its countless grand halls, became a sea of fire.

As Xu Yi set fires in a frenzy, a mounted party wound its way from the west and had reached a point more than ten li from Zhou Family Village.

At its head rode a Young Master in White, fair-skinned and handsome, his features five parts similar to Young Master Zhou's. The treasured sword at his waist was studded with multicolored gems, while the white steed beneath him stood more than half a head taller than the other horses. Not a single strand of its coat was of another color.

The sky was high and the clouds white. The surging Nielong River rolled on, white fish chasing the waves. Huiyin Mountain stood lush and verdant, the heavenly wind sweeping through its forests as layers of green swayed and gusts of pure air drifted over. The Young Master in White was suddenly seized by poetic inspiration and chanted, "Morning after morning beneath emerald hills, night after night beside the gray river's bend. Once more, from afar, I long for you; clear wine brims with fragrant green."

"Fine poem, fine poem! An exquisite poem!"

Magistrate Wu, riding half a horse's length behind the Young Master in White, clapped in praise. "Brother Zhou, not only are you striking in appearance, your talent surpasses all others. More rare still, at such a young age your Martial Arts cultivation has reached the Body Tempering Peak. You are truly worthy of being Venerable Daogan's heir!"

"Uncle, you flatter me. I once heard my father say that when he studied in Guang'an in his youth, he formed a society with Guang'an's outstanding men. Uncle, your poetry and scholarship were peerless, and you were the foremost talent in that society. Yet in merely twenty years, you have become the honored magistrate of an entire county. You truly possess talent bestowed by heaven."

The white-clothed youth answered brightly and with perfect courtesy, making Magistrate Wu stroke his beard with a smile and repeatedly speak modestly.

By this point, the white-clothed youth's identity was clear. He was Zhou Daogan's Second Young Master, Zhou Shirong.

This time, he had left Lingxiao Pavilion and returned to Guang'an for two reasons. First, he represented Zhou Daogan in returning home to visit relatives. Second, the three-year term had arrived, and the profits the Zhou Family had gained from several mine veins were due to be handed over to Lingxiao Pavilion.

The journey from the Zhou Family's old residence to Lingxiao Pavilion was long, and the two Gold Cakes were immensely valuable. Zhou Daogan did not dare take risks, so he sent Zhou Shirong down to personally escort them.

As for Magistrate Wu, he had been a friend Zhou Daogan met years ago, when Zhou Daogan had only begun cultivating Martial Arts, had not yet entered Lingxiao Pavilion, and was traveling through Guang'an.

In the present age, Martial Arts flourished. Not only were sects numerous and great clans countless, but the royal authority accumulated by the Great Yue Royal Court over thousands of years was likewise not to be offended.

Back then, when Zhou Daogan had only just begun Martial Arts cultivation and had not yet caught the eye of any famed great sect, all he wanted was to pass the civil examinations and safeguard the kingly way.

Thus, he and a group of so-called like-minded fellows spent their days feasting and roaming in pleasure. Over time, they formed a society called the Mingwang Society, taking its name from the broad reach of royal law.

Magistrate Wu joined the Mingwang Society at that time. Yet though they belonged to the same society, Zhou Daogan was accomplished in both letters and arms, unmatched in Martial Arts, and shone with boundless brilliance within it. Magistrate Wu, by contrast, surpassed his martial skill greatly in Literary Fame, but in this world where only martial strength reigned supreme, he could not help seeming dim beside Zhou Daogan.

With such a connection between them, when Zhou Shirong came down to Guang'an this time, he naturally had to notify Magistrate Wu.

One had to know that although Lingxiao Pavilion was merely one of the Three Great Sects within Guang'an's territory, its authority was already firmly established.

And although Magistrate Wu was only a seventh-rank official and his cultivation no more than the Body Tempering Peak, he still served in the government and represented royal authority.

Zhou Shirong knew well that once one truly went into the local regions, Magistrate Wu's name carried far more weight than his own identity as a Lingxiao Pavilion Inner Sect Disciple.

Sure enough, when Zhou Shirong went to visit Magistrate Wu, Magistrate Wu was delighted and personally accompanied the party to the Zhou Family's old residence.

With Magistrate Wu backing them, their journey had naturally been smooth as a favorable wind, completely unhindered.

As Zhou Shirong and Magistrate Wu were praising one another and laughing merrily, a plume of thick smoke rose in the northwest. Zhou Shirong hurriedly cut off his words, lightly patted his horse's back, and shot into the air, rising a full three zhang high. He looked into the distance from midair, and in a flash his face turned iron-blue.

The instant Zhou Shirong leaped into the air, Magistrate Wu had already spotted the column of smoke. His heart dropped sharply, and he knew disaster had struck.

The Zhou Family was a prominent local clan, and because of Zhou Daogan, Magistrate Wu had always treated them with courtesy and visited their estate many times. Seeing a few li away a sea of raging flames and black smoke blotting out the sky, how could he not know that the Zhou Family was burning?

Put another way, if any other household were on fire, it could never create such a spectacle.