Miao Family Ancestral Grave

The Crippled Old Woman was gaunt as a stick, as though a gust of wind could blow her over. The trouser leg below her right knee hung empty. If not for the Black Carbon Cudgel supporting her, she likely could not even walk. Yet when she looked at Ye Tong, there was a gentleness in her eyes that ordinary people would find hard to notice.

"Eat."

Ye Tong mulled over what the Medicine Slave had said earlier, but outwardly remained impassive as he spoke. He could sense the goodwill the Crippled Old Woman held toward him.

The four of them finished the meal quickly, as if none of them liked this somewhat stifling atmosphere.

After eating and soaking in his medicinal bath, Ye Tong headed outside alone. He still had two unfinished matters to deal with. One was to collect the prosthetic limb he had ordered from the blacksmith shop, and the other was to pay the Miao Family a visit.

To curry favor with the Tong Family, the Miao Family head had actually sent experts to his door to kill him. This filled him with fury. Although Tong Siyuan had sent over banknotes again, perhaps paid for by the Miao Family, he had long heard of the Miao Family's way of doing things. None of that Lineage's tribe members were good people. To develop to their present state, they had committed no shortage of murder, robbery, and shameless deeds.

Destroying the Miao Family would be revenge—and could also be considered eliminating harm for the people.

The setting sun dyed the skies, as though the firmament had been set ablaze.

In the shop district of the medicinal herb market, Tong Kaishan emerged from a century-old herb shop with a longsword on his back. Two family servants carrying medicinal herbs followed behind him.

"Hm?"

Tong Kaishan suddenly stopped, for he spotted a familiar figure walking toward the entrance of the herb market. After pondering for a moment, he turned and said, "Take the herbs back. I have something to handle."

"Yes!" The two servants hurriedly answered.

Tong Kaishan walked forward slowly, trailing far behind that familiar back to avoid being discovered. Although he still harbored a trace of resentment toward Ye Tong, his curiosity outweighed it. He always felt that Ye Tong was shrouded in mystery, and he had the urge to peer beneath it.

"A blacksmith shop?"

Tong Kaishan followed him all the way. When he saw Ye Tong enter a blacksmith shop, surprise immediately appeared on his face. After a brief consideration, he did not leave in a hurry. Instead, he turned and entered a teahouse diagonally across the street, choosing a window seat overlooking the road on the second floor. While drinking tea so foul it was hard to swallow, he kept watch on the blacksmith shop's entrance.

Clang, clang...

This was the most beautiful sound in a blacksmith shop. Sparks flying beneath a thousand hammer blows made for the most dazzling sight. Though the smiths who forged ironware day after day worked hard, they still delighted in it.

Upon Ye Tong's arrival, he received treatment fit for an honored guest. A young clerk eagerly led him inside, Duan Daqiang greeted him with heartfelt warmth, and the other blacksmiths offered friendly smiles. Ye Tong was somewhat at a loss.

"Master Tielang, has the item I ordered been forged?"

Tielang tossed aside the heavy hammer in his hand, then wiped his gleaming forehead with a greasy, sweaty palm. Smiling, he said, "It's ready. I'll fetch it right away."

In truth, Ye Tong had not held much hope for this world's forging techniques. After all, Earth's technology demanded extremely high precision in the manufacture and production of objects.

Yet when Tielang returned with the completed, assembled prosthetic limb, even Ye Tong, for all his composure, could not help staring in astonishment. The craftsmanship of the prosthetic before him had clearly exceeded his expectations.

"This was... forged by you?"

"That's right. Are you satisfied?"

"Yes."

After taking it and inspecting it carefully, Ye Tong immediately realized that he had underestimated this world's forging standards. This prosthetic limb in his hands was superior to any he had seen before. The materials in particular were exceptional. He had no idea what Tielang had added to it, but its sturdiness had increased enormously, and many of its components moved with smooth flexibility.

Ye Tong looked up and said, "Master Tielang, I'm beginning to regret this."

Tielang asked, "What do you regret?"

Ye Tong said, "I shouldn't have accepted those ten thousand taels of blue silver. I should have asked for a share of the prosthetic limb profits instead."

Tielang asked in confusion, "What is a share?"

"A share, well..."

Ye Tong gave a dry laugh and explained, "It means taking a cut from the profits earned by selling the prosthetic limbs. With your forging skill, the limbs you make are perfect. Once they go on sale, business will surely boom, and wealth will come rolling in. Even taking only ten percent of the profits then would likely be far more than ten thousand taels of blue silver."

"Heh heh!"

Though Tielang's greatest expertise lay in forging ironware, he had some talent for business as well. Naturally, he understood that Ye Tong was speaking the truth. This world revered martial strength, and there were far too many cultivators who lost arms or legs in battle. Cold Mountain City in particular had countless adventurers entering the Golden Phoenix Mountain Range and the southern barbaric wilderness. Almost every day, cultivators became crippled.

Once word of the prosthetic limbs spread, they would likely be snatched up in a frenzy. When that happened, their blacksmith shop would make a fortune large enough to fill basins and overflow jars. Looking at it that way, he really had taken enormous advantage of Ye Tong.

After considering it for a moment, Tielang said, "Wait here."

With that, Tielang turned and walked toward the room where he usually lived. Before long, he returned to Ye Tong with a sheathed longsword and directly tossed it over. "This sword was forged by my master. It is a divine weapon, and also a magic artifact. Once infused with vital essence, it can unleash formidable power."

Ye Tong stared blankly. "Master Tielang, this is...?"

Tielang said, "I don't like taking advantage of people. As you said, ten thousand taels of blue silver was indeed too little. So I'm giving you this sword. I hope you won't disdain it."

Disdain it?

This was a magic artifact!

A true divine weapon!

After thinking briefly, Ye Tong took a jade bottle from his robes and handed it to Tielang. "I was only joking. We cannot alter what we agreed upon before. However, I truly do lack a weapon that fits my hand right now. There are ten Qi Gathering Pills in this jade bottle, personally refined by me. They can increase vital essence. Consider them an exchange for your sword."

Qi Gathering Pills?

A look of surprise appeared on Tielang's face. He knew how precious medicinal pills were. No one in all of Cold Mountain City was known to be capable of refining pills. Even when pills were sold, they came from the sole shop that carried them, all shipped in from the prefectural city.

Something was wrong!

How could someone below the Foundation Establishment Realm refine pills? Only by constructing the foundational array could one support a pill's formation. He had never heard of an acquired-stage cultivator accomplishing that.

This kid had secrets.

Tielang gave Ye Tong a deep look, then tucked the jade bottle into his robes and nodded without changing expression. He did not pry into Ye Tong's secrets, because everyone had secrets of their own. Ye Tong had them, and so did he.

"Farewell." Ye Tong hung the longsword at his waist, picked up the wooden box containing the prosthetic limb, and headed outside. He would temporarily leave Cold Mountain City tomorrow, and he still had one important matter to attend to.

Second floor of the teahouse.

Tong Kaishan sat by the window. The murky tea in his cup was truly hard to swallow, but he had not come here to taste tea. He was merely putting on a show, while all his attention remained fixed on the blacksmith shop entrance.

"He's out."

Suddenly, Tong Kaishan's heart jolted.

A moment later, Tong Kaishan dropped a tael of blue silver on the table. Too lazy even to ask the proprietor for change, he quietly left the teahouse and once more followed far behind Ye Tong. He discovered that Ye Tong was not heading toward the Precious Medicine Workshop.

Veiled by the night and treading beneath starlight, Ye Tong slowly made his way along the road leading to the Miao Family Ancestral Grave. While refining pills over the past few days, he had asked the Medicine Slave to inquire about its location. Though he could not determine the exact spot, after asking passersby twice, he had finally figured it out.

Behind him, Tong Kaishan stopped an old man pushing a wooden cart. Slipping a tael of blue silver into the man's hand, he asked in a low voice, "Old sir, what did that young fellow ahead ask you?"

The old man looked in surprise at the blue silver in his hand, then turned to look at Ye Tong's back as it was about to disappear around the corner. Only then did a satisfied expression appear on his face. "That young man was quite strange. In the middle of the night, he actually asked me where the Miao Family Ancestral Grave was. But he wasn't as generous as you. He knew to pay silver when asking for directions."

The Miao Family Ancestral Grave?

Tong Kaishan wore an odd expression. What was Ye Tong doing at the Miao Family Ancestral Grave in the middle of the night? Could it be that, because he had killed so many Miao Family members a few days ago, he was going there to kowtow and beg forgiveness?

Tong Kaishan was utterly baffled, but he quietly followed after him.

Miao Family Ancestral Grave.

Nestled against mountains and beside water, the picturesque place was covered in a dense forest of green pines. A straight road extended forward, with dozens of gravestones lining both sides. When Ye Tong arrived, his gaze swept over each marker. After confirming that these were the graves of the Miao Family's ancestors, a ruthless expression appeared on his handsome face.

Use violence to restrain violence; use killing to stop killing.

Ye Tong could tell that the Miao Family graveyard was a treasure land. A small spirit vein nearby flowed into this area through a gap in the mountain pass. If this trend continued, the Miao Family would produce an outstanding figure within three generations at most, someone who would lead them to even greater glory.

"Those who commit many acts of injustice will bring about their own destruction. Your Miao Family acts with ruthless cruelty and has committed no shortage of slaughter over the years. It would have been one thing if you had continued your evil deeds elsewhere, but you provoked me, Ye Tong. Consider yourselves unlucky."

After busying himself for some time, Ye Tong altered the feng shui layout of the Miao Family Ancestral Grave. Even the spirit vein diverted here was easily pulled in another direction by him.

Ruin wealth, draw disaster. Ye Tong was confident that in no more than half a month, the curtain would rise on the Miao Family's decline. Within several months, they would vanish completely from the lands of Cold Mountain City.

After finishing, Ye Tong turned and left the pine forest. As he neared the eastern gate of Cold Mountain City, he suddenly stopped. Without turning his head, he said blandly, "You've followed me all night. You must be tired. Come out."

Hearing Ye Tong's voice, the confusion in Tong Kaishan's heart deepened further. He truly could not make sense of what Ye Tong was up to. Running to the Miao Family Ancestral Grave in the middle of the night to mess around—was he sleepwalking, or simply so full that he had nothing better to do? Yet when Ye Tong's voice sounded from ahead, Tong Kaishan's heart tightened, and he immediately felt the urge to turn and run.

In his eyes, Ye Tong was simply too uncanny.

Ye Tong's voice turned cold as he sneered, "Are you sure you won't come out?"

Tong Kaishan hesitated for a while, but in the end, he gritted his teeth and stepped out from behind. Following up from the rear, he said with a bitter smile, "Sorry. I only happened to run into you."