Borrowing a Knife

At the crack of dawn, Li Tui had already been standing outside the main house for half an hour.

The itching from the wound on his left shoulder was the sensation of new flesh growing. The warmth of the tumor seeped through the cloth, urging the healing process along. Yet, the hollowed-out exhaustion deep within his body still weighed him down heavily.

A crisp sound of a cup shattering echoed from inside the room. Zhao Yuanchong was in a foul mood this morning.

Li Tui lowered his eyes and went inside, crouching down to clean up the shards. His fingers were steady, but his mind was turning over other thoughts.

The threat from that old thing at the bottom of the well was like a thorn stuck in his throat. Letting him return meant using his body to nurture that tumor. Once it was fattened up, it would be time for the harvest.

He could not wait to die.

He needed a variable, someone capable of stirring up this current dead end.

Zhao Yuanchong? Li Tui shook his head inwardly. This young master had limited strength and was temperamental; drawing him into the scheme would easily lead to a backlash.

Then...

A somber, hard-edged face flashed before Li Tui's eyes: Zhao Hao.

Born of a collateral branch, enduring and ruthless, and more importantly, possessing a Star Fate. Capable of contending with the Greedy Wolf fate of Zhao Yuanchong, this Zhao Hao must certainly be hiding his own methods.

He had to draw him into the game.

But he couldn't just go to him directly. That would be too stupid.

He had to let Zhao Hao "discover" it himself.

The turning point came on the afternoon of the third day.

Li Tui was ordered to go to the Martial Arts Arena to retrieve the wrist guards Zhao Yuanchong had left behind. When he arrived, Zhao Hao was alone in the east corner, practicing punches against a wooden post.

Li Tui did not approach immediately. He stood in the shadows at the edge of the arena, watching for a moment.

Zhao Hao's boxing style was fierce and powerful, each strike causing the wooden post to emit a dull thud. But Li Tui could see it clearly: that force was wrapped in a heavy, stifled frustration, a pent-up energy with nowhere to vent. When finishing a stance, Zhao Hao's brows would unconsciously knit together for a split second; although he relaxed them quickly, that momentary stagnation was like something being stuck at a vital pass.

Was he hitting a bottleneck in his cultivation?

Li Tui withdrew his gaze and walked toward the east side. He didn't look at Zhao Hao, bending down to pick up the wrist guard that had fallen beside the wooden post.

The moment he bent over, his left index finger, shielded by his body, pressed against the spot where the tumor was attached, channeling his internal energy.

A wave of dry heat immediately surged up from beneath his skin.

Deep within the wound on his left shoulder, the heat caused a few short, sharp twitches, loosening the edge of the coarse bandage by a thread.

The dry heat raced along his meridians, and Li Tui's breath faltered. The sliver of internal energy in his dantian was actually triggered, flowing automatically along the path that had been abnormally cleared out, completing half a cycle.

By the time he straightened up and managed to steady his breath, his face was already slightly pale, and sweat was seeping from his temples.

It wasn't from fatigue, but the sense of collapse brought on by the sudden surge of that overly "active" internal energy within his body.

He closed his eyes for a moment, only then managing to regulate his breathing.

Zhao Hao's fist froze in mid-air.

He had seen it clearly. The momentary disorder in Li Tui's breath, and the power revealed by the internal energy flow as he forcibly steadied himself... this was definitely not something a disciple who had just begun to draw energy into his body and was still recovering from injuries should possess.

It was more like the breath of someone who had been at the Tongmai stage for a long time.

He finished his stance, turned around, and pinned his gaze on Li Tui's back.

Li Tui seemed unaware, patting the dust off his sweat towel, and turned to leave.

"Stop."

The voice came from behind, not loud, but like a stone dropped into water.

Li Tui's footsteps faltered. He turned back, his face showing just the right amount of bewilderment: "Young Master Hao?"

Zhao Hao did not speak. He walked over and stopped three feet in front of Li Tui, his gaze like a bone-scraping knife, sweeping from Li Tui's face to his left shoulder, then back to his face.

"Your injury," he began, his voice dry, "is it healed?"

"Thanks to the fine medicine from the estate, it is no longer a major concern," Li Tui said, lowering his eyes.

"No major concern?" Zhao Hao didn't move, his gaze fixed on the bandage that had loosened a thread on his left shoulder. "The wound healed quite fast."

He paused, his voice dropping lower: "That moment just now, did the wound not hurt?"

The question was pointed.

Li Tui was silent for a moment, then replied in a low voice: "It is just still a bit itchy."

"Itchy." Zhao Hao repeated the word, the corners of his mouth twitching. "New flesh growing quickly is a good thing. It's just..."

He took half a step forward, closing the distance, his voice lowered so only the two of them could hear: "I have never seen anyone who was just injured by a demonic creature and poisoned by dark energy, yet able to open up so many acupoints in just a few days."

He stared into Li Tui's eyes: "What exactly did you encounter on that errand to the West Suburbs? Don't try to fob me off with the same lines you use on others."

He had finally asked.

Li Tui raised his eyes, meeting Zhao Hao's gaze. This time, the layer of habitual submissiveness in his eyes faded, revealing the stillness of a deep pool beneath.

"That night... I did indeed stumble upon a strange matter," Li Tui said slowly.

"There is an abandoned well in the southeast corner of the West Suburbs, and the bottom of the well... is not very clean."

"In what way is it not clean?"

"Someone is there." Li Tui paused. "An old man at the Qi Refining stage is raising something in the bottom of a well using a demonic corpse. I was careless and fell victim to his sneak attack."

Qi Refining stage. Demonic corpse. Raising something.

These three phrases struck Zhao Hao's heart like three heavy stones.

His breathing quickened almost imperceptibly, but his face remained cold and rigid. "And what does that have to do with your cultivation progress?"

"I don't know either." Li Tui shook his head, his tone carrying just the right amount of confusion. "After I was poisoned, I circulated my energy to resist it. At first, the pain was unbearable, but after I pushed through it, I felt... much more fluid in my meridians. It was as if something had washed through them."

Washing the meridians.

The knuckles of Zhao Hao's hands, clasped behind his back, tightened slightly.

"That thing at the bottom of the well," his voice deepened, "did you see it clearly?"

"I only caught a glimpse," Li Tui said. "The demonic corpse was covered in a layer of dark red substance that pulsed slightly like a living creature. The old man guarded it very closely, and there were strange patterns carved into the well walls."

Combined, these pieces of information were enough to make Zhao Hao think of many possibilities: spiritual objects, secret treasures, or rare items that could help one break through.

"What else do you know?" Zhao Hao pressed.

"The old man seems to go to the bottom of the well to check on it every night around midnight," Li Tui answered meticulously. "The area around the well is overgrown with weeds, but thirty paces to the southeast, there is an old locust tree."

With things stated to this point, the meaning was clear.

Zhao Hao stared at Li Tui for a long moment, then suddenly tugged at the corner of his mouth. "You want to use my hand to investigate that well."

It wasn't a question; it was a conclusion.

Li Tui lowered his eyes. "I wouldn't dare. It's just that the old man is lurking within the Zhao Family territory, and his intentions are clearly significant. If Young Master Hao feels this matter is worth investigating... I am willing to tell you everything I know."

"Tell me everything?" Zhao Hao sneered. "You 'happened' to show a flaw in front of me today, leading me to ask about the well in the West Suburbs... Wang Yuan, you've gone to such lengths—what is it you seek?"

The question was piercing.

Li Tui raised his head. There was no panic on his face, only a calm, steady stillness. "What I seek is merely to survive."

He paused, his voice softening. "Since that old man could let me return, he can find me at any time. My cultivation is low, and I am powerless to resist him, so I have no choice but to... seek a way to live."

Seek a way to live. And this way to live, as it stood now, was tied to Zhao Hao.

Zhao Hao didn't speak. He paced half a step in place with his hands behind his back, his profile half-lit and half-shadowed in the light.

After a long time, he spoke, his voice colder than before. "You've described it in such detail, how do I know this isn't a trap?"

Li Tui's heart tightened slightly.

Zhao Hao stared at him, his gaze as sharp as a blade. "Three days from now, at the hour of the Rat. You will accompany me to that well."

Li Tui's pupils contracted.

Accompany him?

Zhao Hao didn't trust him. He wanted to drag this "guide" into the water with him—it was both a test and a restraint. If there was truly danger at the bottom of the well, Li Tui would have to bear it with him; if this was a trap, Li Tui would be the first one used as a cushion.

This man is certainly no fool. But that is fine...

Li Tui lowered his eyes, masking the expression in them. "I... will obey."

"It is not a matter of obedience." Zhao Hao stepped forward, the pressure increasing sharply. "It is that you must go. Three days from now at the hour of the Rat, at the west corner gate. If you do not show up, or if you leak even a whisper of this..."

He didn't finish, but the meaning was clear.

Li Tui nodded silently.

Seeing this, Zhao Hao said no more and turned to leave.

Li Tui stood where he was, watching Zhao Hao's back disappear at the end of the Martial Arts Arena.

The tumor in his chest pulsed slowly and heavily, the warmth radiating through his skin, though now it carried a somewhat scorching heat.

Li Tui slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.

Having reached this point, there was no turning back for him now.