One Body Was Missing

Since Qi Shan had said she could fight as she pleased, Shen Tang saw no reason to hold back.

Her momentum surged like a rainbow. The "Kind Mother Sword" in her hand flashed in a flurry of strikes, its blade glinting so densely that not even the slightest gap showed. Though the man in black wielded a spear and had the advantage of reach, her suffocating rhythm of attacks drove him back again and again, leaving him scrambling to defend himself.

Thud—

Her sword plunged into the wall behind the man in black.

While Shen Tang was pulling her sword free, the man in black roared, abandoned his spear, gathered a gray glow around his fist, and punched toward her chest. The gray light came with a faint burst of sound.

Shen Tang didn't hesitate for even an instant. She raised her hand to meet the blow.

To her surprise, her target suddenly vanished into thin air!

Unable to pull back in time, she smashed a huge hole in the wall with her fist.

Shen Tang: "???"

Wait—

Where was he?

Qi Shan reminded her with a faint smile.

"Young Master Shen, don't let your attention wander while facing an enemy."

"Did you just move him?"

Before Qi Shan could answer, the man in black's expression darkened until it looked as if water might drip from it. "A military formation Word Spirit—'Steal the Peach'?"

To strengthen themselves and avoid being swallowed up by their rivals, the Vassal Lords had enthusiastically employed strategists skilled in military formations, tactics, and Word Spirits. Over two hundred years, those unscrupulous men had found every possible way to exploit Word Spirits, making them an essential skill for anyone hoping to enter officialdom or pave the way for a career in it.

But cultivating a Literary Heart was far more difficult than cultivating a Martial Spirit.

For one thing, mastering a Word Spirit was hard, and even after mastering one, its practical effects remained uncertain. For another, each person's Word Spirit worked a little differently. The situation on the battlefield could change in an instant, demanding that strategies shift with it. One careless mistake could bring the whole board crashing down.

"I didn't expect to find someone who knows his stuff in this backwater."

Qi Shan tacitly confirmed the man in black's guess.

The man let out a deep, cold laugh.

"Then all the more reason to leave none of you alive!"

Clang!

Another deafening crash!

Qi Shan neither dodged nor flinched as the spear came within a hair's breadth of his face. A smile played at his lips as he watched the man in black, whose veins stood out across his forehead from straining every muscle. The spearhead was only two feet from Qi Shan. A little closer, and it might have taken his life.

But that tiny distance had become an impassable chasm.

The spear could not advance another inch.

Shen Tang, who had borne the brunt of it all: "..."

She cursed eloquently in her head, then ground out through clenched teeth, "Qi Yuanliang, have you had enough? You just stand there like a fool and don't even try to dodge?"

Of course Qi Shan wasn't worried.

Whether she liked it or not, Young Master Shen would keep him safe. With that guarantee, he could relax and feel perfectly at ease—sometimes even helping Shen Tang shoulder some of the pressure.

All in all, he was still watching from the sidelines.

When they clashed again, Shen Tang could tell the man in black had changed. It wasn't just his strength or speed; even his presence had fallen far short of before. Despite herself, her palm went numb and her chest tightened, as though the man had undergone a complete transformation in a matter of moments.

Just then, Qi Shan helpfully explained.

"Don't be surprised by the change. This is the most common trump card a martial artist has. He's forcing every last bit of potential out of the Martial Spirit in his Dantian, giving himself an enormous temporary boost. A Fourth-Class Bugeng can match a Fifth-Rank Grand Master this way. Once the effect wears off, he'll be weak and helpless, ripe for the taking. Just hold on a little longer."

Shen Tang: "..."

Wasn't this a last-ditch, life-or-death move?

"Why didn't you warn me sooner?"

The man in black was charging at her with murderous intent. If she'd underestimated him without knowing what was going on, he could have killed her in one blow!

Qi Shan studied Shen Tang with an amused smile. "I saw Young Master Shen grow stronger in the face of a stronger opponent, fighting with such ease. I was afraid that speaking up would distract you."

A mere Fourth-Class Bugeng wasn't worth his notice, much less his concern. He was far more curious about this mysterious Young Master Shen.

She was fascinating!

She clearly had a Literary Heart, yet she could roll up her sleeves and trade blows with a brawler without falling behind. She could handle a Fourth-Class Bugeng, and even withstand someone who had used a secret technique to temporarily raise his Martial Spirit to the level of a Fifth-Rank Grand Master.

It was utterly unreasonable.

Could she fight even stronger opponents?

A young master who bore the National Seal, possessed an unusual Literary Heart, and could match any Fifth-Rank Grand Master in a head-on fight—and who was closely connected to the Gong Clan, a family that had been stripped of its title and wiped out. All this stoked his irrepressible urge to investigate and uncover the truth.

After a hundred moves, the man in black's strength plummeted. Shen Tang drove her sword clean through him and pinned him to the wall, leaving him unable to move.

"We caught him alive."

"No," Qi Shan said. "He's already dead."

Shen Tang paused as she lowered her sword.

"Dead? How could he be dead...?"

Her gaze shifted to the man in black. His head hung low, and dark, foul blood trickled from his mouth.

He really was dead!

"He wasn't a bandit. He was an assassin," Qi Shan said. "His mission failed, so death was his only option. Killing himself meant a quick end. If he'd lived, who knows what might have happened to him?"

Judging by this, his earlier assumption had been wrong.

The man in black and the Second-Class Shangzao from before weren't working together.

The latter was probably the real bandit, intending to rob and kill—only for the man in black to get there first, and for the bandit to have the bad luck of running into the two of them.

"An assassin? Who was he trying to kill? Could it have been A Yan?"

Qi Shan's interest had waned. "Perhaps."

"Why kill a child with a congenital brain disease, a helpless little fool?"

"Young Master Shen hasn't seen much of the world, so of course you don't know how dangerous it can be. How can you be sure his brain disease is real? Perhaps the child is cunning, hiding his true nature at such a young age and pretending to be a fool to protect himself from harm... There are plenty of examples of people biding their time."

"But..."

"Earlier, Young Master Shen offered him three pieces of candy, and he refused to eat them until you ate one first. How can you be sure he wasn't testing you and making you taste them for poison?"

Shen Tang: "..."

She wasn't so sure anymore. "But he's six at most..."

"If circumstances force it, even a two-year-old—or a one-year-old—will use cunning to protect themselves," Qi Shan said.

Shen Tang: "..."

If a six-year-old could be that calculating, how was an introverted shut-in like her supposed to get by?

She said, "If that's true, then A Yan's background must be complicated."

They'd sent a Fourth-Class Bugeng assassin to kill a child.

Quite the grand treatment!

Reason told Qi Shan that he should leave things there. Whether A Yan was dead or alive had nothing to do with him; he should get away before he ended up mired in trouble. But Young Master Shen and he weren't on the same wavelength. She still wanted to gather the bodies of the dead in this house.

One by one, they found the bodies and dragged them into the main hall.

Judging by their body temperatures, Shen Tang figured they had died not long after A Yan disappeared, around the time the village head of Qian Family Village had called people to look for him.

"Ah, eleven lives, snuffed out just like that..."

Qi Shan's expression was blank. "Human life is the cheapest thing in the world. It's like that now, and it'll be like that in the future."

Shen Tang shook her head. "That's not right. If things were stable and the law upheld, anyone who killed without cause would have to pay with their life."

Her words made Qi Shan laugh.

"In all the lands beneath heaven, there has never been a time when things were truly stable."

There never would be, either.

Qi Shan's words left Shen Tang speechless. She couldn't help grumbling, "Mister Qi, you're so capable. Have you never thought of serving someone and bringing peace to this chaotic world? All you ever do is make cynical remarks..."

Qi Shan smiled without answering.

Shen Tang was about to fetch firewood to take care of the bodies when a thought suddenly made her stop. Her eyes turned toward the corpses' hands.

She looked over them one by one.

"Something's not right."

"What's wrong?" Qi Shan asked.

"One body is missing."

"Do you mean A Yan? He might still be alive..."

"I don't mean A Yan," Shen Tang said. "I mean someone else."

There was one more person missing!

_(:з"∠)_ I made so many changes to this chapter that I ended up making the same face as a painful reaction meme.

Can you guess who's missing? There were clues earlier.

By the way, let me give my friend Bao Bao Zi a little plug. If you're interested, check out her new book, "The Useless One Strikes Back Starting Today." Even today's useless one is working hard to fight back.

And one more thing: I was lucky enough to take part in Honor of Kings' Wonderful Pen Project. A story about Gongsun Li, written by me, will go live on August 2. I hope you'll come read it! You can add it to your collection in advance.

P.S. Gongsun Li fans, please go easy on me!