White Cloud Manor

Xiang Yuan had left with a hostage in tow, and Sima Qingyan had been remarkably cooperative. With the sword no longer at her throat, she still didn't resist.

After walking three or four miles, Xiang Yuan sheathed his sword, pushed Sima Qingyan away, and turned to leave.

"My sword!"

Sima Qingyan said, her pretty face stern.

"Just now, I could've killed you, but I didn't. That's a debt for saving your life. I could've violated you, but I didn't. That's a debt for protecting your chastity. All told, you owe me two lives. I only took a sword. What more do you want?" Xiang Yuan said righteously.

Steady couldn't come up with things like that, and Cold Blood was even more taciturn. Only Doubi had such a fresh and unconventional air about him.

Sima Qingyan had never met anyone so shameless. Well, aside from Xiao He, she'd never met anyone so shameless. She stood rooted to the spot, too furious to even retort.

"I nearly forgot. You set an ambush, so this sword is my spoils of war. It should've been mine anyway."

Xiang Yuan pressed his advantage and continued, "By that reckoning, besides the sword, you still owe me two great favors. You should remember kindness in your heart and show gratitude through your actions. You're dressed well and look decent enough, so you shouldn't be the sort of beast who repays kindness with treachery, right?"

Sima Qingyan's expression turned strange, as though she'd heard those words somewhere before. A moment's thought brought Xiao He's face to mind.

If he hadn't gotten leverage over her, why would she have sunk so low as to practice the demonic arts of the Yellow Springs Dao?

This moment was exactly like that one. In Sima Qingyan's eyes, Xiang Yuan's image plummeted to rock bottom in an instant. He now belonged in the same category as Xiao He.

She glared at Xiang Yuan in silence, then turned and headed back to the mass grave.

Her steps were light. She clearly still had the strength to fight.

"The Acupoint Opening Stage really is terrifying. I used everything I had and barely beat her... No, I still defeated such a powerful Acupoint Opening expert. I'm the terrifying one."

Xiang Yuan raised an eyebrow, wondering about the relationship between Sima Qingyan and Xiao He. They definitely weren't lovers. Accomplices or superior and subordinate didn't quite fit either. It looked more like a female investigator had been captured and injected with some strange drug.

Please, give me more. It feels like ants are crawling all over me right now. JPG

Xiang Yuan could practically picture it!

Doubi's thoughts ran wild, though he himself didn't find anything odd about it. Seeing that it was already late, he didn't dare linger in the wilderness outside the city. He hurried to Fengxian County at top speed and chose to spend the night at the yamen.

He couldn't go back to Xiao Residence.

Not for a while, at least!

They might be fated to meet, but Xiao He was still wrong to scheme against him. He had to lay down some rules and show some temper, or he'd seem weak and easy to bully, like a lovesick fool.

If they were fated to meet, Xiao He should be the one fawning over him.

Because of his master, Old Daoist Quexin's divinations, Xiang Yuan had high hopes for those destined to meet him. When Xiao He went from being a fool to a mastermind behind the scenes, Xiang Yuan wasn't angry. In fact, he was rather pleased and thought, As it should be.

What irritated him was Xiao He's scheming. Xiao He had played dumb and deceived him for so many days. If he didn't make the rules clear today, there'd surely be more schemes later.

"The next few days should be quieter. It's a good chance to cultivate and break through to the Acupoint Opening Stage..."

"This is the county yamen. I just beat up the young lady, chopped off her hand, took back my lost sword, and even teased her a bit..."

"Won't she bring people to beat me up?"

Xiang Yuan found an empty room in the Third Squad Dormitory and settled in. He focused on three things at once: using Candle Yin Casting God to recover his depleted spiritual energy, using Myriad Forms Body Tempering to dispel the True Qi Sima Qingyan had left in his body, and reviewing the fight to analyze his shortcomings.

He couldn't replenish his depleted blood and qi right away; he could only rely on food. If he wanted a quick fix, he'd need a top-grade pill.

After weighing it all, he realized that his strength and cultivation level were simply insufficient. No matter how many methods he had, he couldn't overcome the difference in realms.

His battle with Sima Qingyan had made him understand the gap between himself and those at the Acupoint Opening Stage. His victory over the Black-Robed Man at Xu Residence had been pure luck.

For now, Xiang Yuan hadn't opened his Ren Meridian, so his strength couldn't reach his limbs and extremities. He had very little Formless True Qi. To use his ultimate techniques, he had to rely on a mind as still as water to command his blade, emulate Liu Jingsheng's intent to command a fierce tiger, or use Lone Star Chasing Moon to strike without looking back.

One was a basic attack, the other an ultimate move. Both consumed spiritual energy and belonged to the realm of martial intent, so they didn't require much True Qi.

Everlasting Killing Intent didn't demand much True Qi either. It didn't depend on a martial artist's cultivation or martial intent, but entirely on their physical constitution. The more blood and qi they had, the more killing intent they could muster. If they couldn't kill their enemy, they killed themselves. It was a desperate technique.

Under normal circumstances, those in the Qi Refining Stage could only bully ordinary people or amuse themselves among others at the same stage.

Xiang Yuan could command his blade with his mind and had reached minor mastery in Lone Star Chasing Moon. Besides his senior uncle having summarized the experience beforehand, he owed it all to his almost cheat-like spiritual energy.

His spiritual energy let him focus on three things at once. It could also borrow another person's martial intent and make it his own. He'd picked up Liu Jingsheng's tiger-like aura and Sima Qingyan's unnamed sword technique after seeing each only once.

Sima Qingyan's technique had a more profound martial intent, and she'd learned it from a master. Xiang Yuan had only managed to imitate it and hadn't fully mastered it. Thinking about it still left him a little regretful.

The side effect was headaches. The more he saw and the deeper he looked, the worse his head hurt.

There were pros and cons. He'd choose the lesser of two evils. The headaches could be overcome.

"A little opening doesn't count as an opening, and keeping it open doesn't count either. I really am a martial arts genius!"

Xiang Yuan basked in his self-satisfaction. Once Steady's spiritual energy had recovered enough, he switched over without hesitation, leaving Doubi's smug state of mind behind.

"There are many shortcomings. I must keep working hard!"

Xiang Yuan composed himself, sat cross-legged, and cultivated the Formless Seal Method. That night, he opened another acupoint along his Ren Meridian.

He kept to himself, appearing only when he needed the latrine or for one of his three meals. The rest of the time, he spent cultivating.

He happened to run into Old Liu once, but only said, "We had a fight." It left Old Liu bewildered in the mess hall. He only calmed down after taking some food home with him.

Three days later, his Ren Meridian was fully open, and he could circulate his strength through his limbs. His strength increased dramatically.

Five days later, his cultivation had stabilized. He'd reached the peak of the Qi Refining Stage, and he could break through to the Acupoint Opening Stage at any moment.

Xiao He didn't show up during those days. Xiang Yuan understood the game: whoever caved first lost.

Of course, he couldn't rule out the possibility that Xiao He was preparing something big—drums beating, firecrackers popping, a sedan chair ready to carry him back to Xiao Residence.

That shameless bastard was certainly capable of it!

With Xiao He nowhere to be seen, Xiang Yuan couldn't possibly go looking for him. He was a stubborn man. Unless Xiao He humbled himself and pleaded again and again—or offered more money—there was no way to settle things peacefully.

"Speaking of money..."

Xiang Yuan had reached the peak of the Qi Refining Stage and lacked two kinds of pills: one to replenish his blood and qi, and another to support him and improve his chances of breaking through to the Acupoint Opening Stage in one go.

External supplements cost money, and pills cost even more—a fortune, at least by his standards.

He could surely get some by going to Xiao He. Wang Wenxu or Xu Jixian could help too, especially Wang Wenxu. Xiang Yuan had already come up with a plan to get the upper hand over him.

But not now. He'd said Xiao He should be the one to fawn over him, so that was what Xiao He had to do. He had to show Xiao He that he, Xiang Yuan, could live freely and thrive without anyone's help.

Xiang Yuan weighed the few bits of silver in his hand. It definitely wasn't enough to live freely. To save face, he had no choice but to sell some belongings.

Clang!

Xiang Yuan drew his sword, a hint of reluctance in his eyes. He loved fine weapons. Ever since he'd acquired this sword, he'd polished it diligently every night. But in the end, they weren't fated to be together.

"So be it. I've already embarked on the path of the blade. This sword may be fine, but it isn't the weapon I'm best suited to."

Oh, sword, you're the key to my fortune!

Xiang Yuan left the yamen and headed straight for East Street, glancing back now and then to see if anyone was following him.

East Street was wealthy. A twenty-zhang commercial road ran north to south, like a dragon's vein, gathering the wealth of the land. Merchants traveling between north and south streamed along it, and carriages filled the road day and night. It was the imperial court's purse.

The road was paved with bluestone, worn smooth by the years and witness to the passage of countless fortunes.

Shops lined both sides of the street, one beside another. Goldsmiths, silk shops, herbal medicine stores, teahouses, taverns—every kind of business could be found there. Each shop was lavishly decorated, competing for attention to catch the eyes of passing martial artists.

With so many people from the martial world about, it was hard to tell who was behind the snack stalls, sundry-goods stalls, and street performances. Any one of them might be an informant for Six Doors—or a killer pretending to be harmless.

Xiang Yuan wore his constable's uniform. On East Street, his black robe didn't carry much authority, but it did spare him plenty of trouble. Many people glanced at him, saw a young constable with a clean-cut face, and looked away.

Xiang Yuan found a large pawnshop, switched to Doubi's mindset, and haggled at length before pawning the sword for 1,500 taels of silver.

Since it was a pawn and he looked young and naïve—easy to fool—the shop gave him the price for stolen goods, shaving off quite a bit.

The pawn ticket stated that if he didn't pay extra to redeem it within thirty days, the sword would belong to the pawnshop.

Whether Sima Qingyan redeemed it was her business. Xiang Yuan didn't give it a thought. He tucked away the banknotes and pawn ticket, and from a distance spotted the banner of White Cloud Manor's shop.

"May the sun and moon in the pot restore health;

May the pills on the shelf save lives."

The couplet was simple and clear. This had to be the place.