Qinghe Sword Sect is the Best in the World

Chapter 4: The Qinghe Sword Sect is the Best in the World

The firewood crackled and popped, and the wolf meat in the pot emitted a pungent, gamey stench.

Beast meat is rarely palatable, and wolf meat is notoriously tough and stringy; if it isn't bled properly, the rank odor can hit you like a physical blow.

However, to those starving to the point of collapse, this acrid smell was an irresistible temptation.

Chen Ye ladled out the meat broth and distributed it to the family of three, not forgetting to caution, "Don't gorge yourselves after such a long fast. Drink some broth first, then eat the shredded meat."

They thanked him profusely, too desperate to care about the scalding heat, and gulped the liquid down as soon as they held the bowls. They were truly famished; once finished, they even licked their broken bowls clean, still craving more.

After downing most of a bowl and feeding a few mouthfuls to their child, the family of three finally seemed to be pulled back from the gates of death, regaining a glimmer of vitality.

Chen Ye observed them calmly. Although the three were covered in grime, it was clear to anyone with a discerning eye that they were not ordinary peasants.

The man was dressed in the attire of a scholar; though his long robes were torn in several places, the fabric was clearly of high quality. The woman, despite her farm-wife disguise, had skin that was fair and smooth, not at all like someone who had spent her life laboring in the fields.

How could people like this end up in such a wretched, abandoned temple, fleeing like refugees?

Sensing Chen Ye's gaze, the man finally summoned his courage, bowed to Chen Ye, and said sincerely, "I will never forget the kindness of this meal. I shall certainly repay you handsomely in the future."

"You are too kind. We are but strangers who met by chance; it was only a pot of broth." Chen Ye's eyes held a flicker of curiosity as he asked, "Judging by your appearance, you don't look like refugees. How did you end up in these deep mountains?"

In the eyes of mortals, climbing these mountains was no easy feat. These days, mountain paths were carved out one footstep at a time; even in broad daylight, they were treacherous, and a single misstep could cost a person their life.

Unless they were woodcutters or hunters, ordinary people rarely ventured into such desolate wilderness.

The man hesitated for a moment before explaining, "My name is Zhao Hezhou, and we are a family of three from Cui County. Recently, the county magistrate suddenly issued an order to conscript three thousand children under the age of ten to be sent to the Qinghe Sword Sect for cultivation. My child has only just turned one, yet he was not spared. How could we, as parents, bear to be separated from our own flesh and blood? But the magistrate insisted on forcibly seizing my son, so we had no choice but to flee under the cover of night and run until we reached this place."

"The Qinghe Sword Sect? That is no ordinary immortal sect." Chen Ye's brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this.

He had heard the name of the Qinghe Sword Sect far too often. The current leader of the righteous path was the sect master of the Qinghe Sword Sect. Previously, when those eighteen demon lords turned on each other and thirteen died, two of the remaining five had fallen under that very sect master's blade.

It was rumored that a sword mark left by the Qinghe sect master still remained on that battlefield, a gash that had sliced through eight hundred miles of sky and had not healed even after hundreds of years.

Chen Ye's master, Mo Ci, had also been beaten to the brink of death multiple times after encountering juniors from the Qinghe Sword Sect, forcing him to frequently possess others, which ultimately exhausted his lifespan prematurely. Among those in the demonic path, whenever they encountered cultivators from the Qinghe Sword Sect, they would flee without a second thought, regardless of whether they could win or not. How could anyone be more formidable than the Sword Venerable? He was notoriously protective of his own; when those two demon lords merely killed a junior from the Qinghe Sword Sect, he had hunted them down to their very doorstep, fighting until the heavens collapsed and the earth shattered.

Precisely because of this, the Qinghe Sword Sect was extremely strict in selecting disciples, and their numbers were sparse; it was said that even counting those who had already perished, there were fewer than a hundred in total.

Zhao Hezhou looked surprised when he heard Chen Ye say this: "Could this truly be a stroke of immortal fate? Could it be that my wife and I were wrong?"

Chen Ye glanced at Zhao Hezhou, thinking to himself: How can this man be so indecisive? He wavers the moment someone says something.

Zhao Hezhou's wife was sharper; hearing the change in her husband's tone, she quickly reminded him, "Even if it were an immortal fate, don't you know the character of that magistrate? If it were truly a good thing, would he be so eager to hand it over to the people of the entire county?"

Reminded by his wife, Zhao Hezhou nodded repeatedly: "True. That magistrate is insatiably greedy. He has been in office for three years and has scraped the land bare. How could he possibly hand over an immortal opportunity to the common folk for nothing?"

Chen Ye did not offer an opinion, though he also felt that the matter was likely a scam. No immortal sect recruited disciples this way, especially not the Qinghe Sword Sect, which was known for its rigor. What could a magistrate want with these young boys and girls? It was likely that someone from a demonic sect was impersonating the Qinghe Sword Sect to carry out their own agenda, and the ignorant commoners were either being deceived or coerced.

Chen Ye couldn't help but shake his head and sigh; there were truly people who didn't fear death, daring to impersonate the name of the Qinghe Sword Sect. Fortunately, Cui County was a hundred miles away, so he hoped it wouldn't implicate him.

The family of three was exhausted and hungry; after eating, they fell into a deep sleep on the pile of straw. Chen Ye took advantage of the night to quietly slip out of the ruined temple.

When Zhao Hezhou woke up, he found that the ruined temple now contained two lively wild boars and several wicker birdcages, with birds chirping inside.

Chen Ye was busy stuffing Wolf Blood Pills into the mouths of these animals.

The Wolf Blood Pill couldn't only be harmful to humans; it wouldn't make sense for the boars to be fine while humans suffered. Chen Ye intended to test it today.

To distinguish the differences in dosage, Chen Ye had specifically caught a two-hundred-pound wild boar and a tiny bird to test them separately, to see if the toxicity that damaged the soul was related to body size.

For this, he had even created a detailed table, recording the control groups for different times and dosages, waiting to see when the Wolf Blood Pill would take effect.

Zhao Hezhou didn't understand the situation and assumed these boars and birds were food Chen Ye had caught, feeling both surprised and impressed. He thought to himself: Could I have encountered a master? Otherwise, how could such a frail youth capture two wild boars alive? Even if they were dead, I might not be able to carry them.

At the thought of this, his stomach growled again. The meat broth from last night had pulled them back from the brink of death, but after starving for so many days, how could one meal fill them up?

However, Zhao Hezhou had fled in a panic and was penniless. He had already eaten a pot of the man's broth last night; if he asked for more today, he would seem far too greedy. But if he didn't eat, how long could his wife and child hold out?

He was just taking things one step at a time, and after leaving this ruined temple, the family of three had no idea where to go.

Struggling with himself, Zhao Hezhou just couldn't bring himself to ask.

Chen Ye, however, was keenly perceptive and had long noticed his embarrassment, so he took the initiative to say, "I heard Mr. Zhao speak with elegance yesterday; you must be a literate man. I wonder if you could do me a favor?"

Zhao Hezhou quickly replied, "Please, just give the order, brave sir. Our family of three owes our lives to you. If there is anything you need, I will do it without hesitation."

"Good. Then let's have breakfast first. This task is time-consuming and laborious, so Mr. Zhao should eat his fill and build up some strength." Chen Ye pointed to the iron pot nearby, which was already filled with stewed meat and wild vegetables, smelling much better than yesterday's bland broth.

Zhao Hezhou no longer stood on ceremony; he ladled out a bowl and ate ravenously. As he ate, his eyes gradually turned red, and he couldn't help but shed tears.

Chen Ye pretended not to notice, and only after Zhao Hezhou finished did he take out several pieces of cloth with writing on them and hand them to him.

"I have fed these boars and birds with medicine to test a prescription. But I have business to attend to today and cannot watch the effects of the medicine at all times. I would like to trouble Mr. Zhao to keep an eye on them. If there are any abnormalities, please be sure to record them carefully—the time of onset, the adverse symptoms—don't miss a single detail."

Zhao Hezhou quickly took the cloth and said, "Rest assured, I will record everything carefully and will not miss a single thing."

"Then I leave it to you, Mr. Zhao."

Chen Ye picked up his white banner and walked quickly out of the ruined temple. His supply of blood pills was running low, and he needed to go hunt more prey today.

Just a hundred paces away, Mo Ci's voice echoed from within the Ten Thousand Soul Banner: "Disciple, you kept these three by your side—is it because you want to use them to test your medicine?"