Killing Intent

Whether in his past life or this one.

Lu Wu-bing had only heard stories of villages and cities being massacred.

He had never witnessed one with his own eyes.

After coming to this world, his experiences over these past days had taught him that in this era, whether prosperous or chaotic, life for the common people at the bottom was always unbearably bitter.

He had thought he was already accustomed to bloodshed.

Yet when he truly saw the swathes of corpses strewn everywhere, he still felt intense discomfort in his heart.

Far and near, the miserable deaths of old people, children, men, and women, from the village entrance to its end, formed a savage tableau.

It left a breath of foul anger trapped in his chest, impossible to spit out no matter how he tried.

At that moment, he felt an unprecedented sense of kinship with the sword in his hand.

A true man should raise a three-foot sword and sweep away all injustice under heaven.

What was the purpose of learning martial arts and practicing the sword? Lu Wu-bing had originally believed it was to preserve his own peaceful days, and to keep his family and friends safe from the bullying of others.

Now, he had one more reason.

In this world, there were always countless beasts unfit to live.

When he encountered them, he could not stand by with his hands tucked in his sleeves.

Though he was still not strong enough, nor powerful enough to awe all four directions.

That day would eventually come.

"Swish, swish, swish..."

At that moment, Lu Wu-bing's heart was cold as ice.

He lunged forward in a single stride, his sword light streaking like silk.

He slaughtered the remaining mountain bandits.

Then he gave another sword thrust to the throats of the bandits groaning on the ground.

Only the icy hilt in his hand could quench the fury in his heart.

He finally understood why Senior Sister Xiaolan had used the Rainstorm Pear Blossom Needle without a word.

She did not want those mountain bandits to remain alive in this world for even one more second.

"Grand Elder... San Niang, Xiao Hu..."

Gu Dashi threw down the steel fork in his hand and flung himself over corpse after corpse, tears streaming down his face.

A man as sturdy as mountain rock wept like a child.

He collapsed as limply as a heap of rotten mud.

Faint cries and wails came from all around. They belonged to the surviving villagers.

Of a village of over three hundred people, only seven or eight remained alive.

Nearly half of them were severely injured, and it was clear they would not live much longer.

"No matter how much you cry, they won't come back to life."

Though the words were cruel, Lu Wu-bing felt he had to say them. "Rather than waste time like this, why not tell me which force these mountain bandits belong to, and where they are based?"

"Mountain bandits, right, mountain bandits... Chaoyang Stronghold. It was that dog whelp Chen San-yang of Chaoyang Stronghold. I hate it! We never should have taken in those brothers. Who would have thought we were raising two vicious wolves?"

Gu Dashi began pounding his chest and stamping his feet again. Only after great difficulty did he calm down a little. He turned and entered a small thatched courtyard that had not been burned down, then brought out a small silk bundle.

His eyes were vacant. Slowly opening the silk cloth to reveal the item inside, he held it up with both hands and knocked his head to the ground before Lu Wu-bing.

"Young hero, your life-saving grace cannot be repaid. This medicinal ingredient is what Chaoyang Stronghold coveted.

A few days ago, after news leaked that I had dug up mountain ginseng, the bandits came.

I said long ago that even if Chen San-yang came from Gu Family Village, we could not harbor the slightest luck. That man was a starving wolf that could never be fed. Sooner or later, he would set his sights on the village, but the Grand Elder and the others never believed me..."

Gu Dashi's mind had been shaken beyond measure. His words were confused and disordered, without any clear focus.

Still, Lu Wu-bing understood.

A few days ago, Gu Dashi, a hunter, had found a precious wild ginseng plant in the mountains.

He knew that wealth should not be flaunted.

He merely hid at home, suppressing his excitement as he secretly drank a few mouthfuls of spirits. He thought that as long as he found a way to sell the mountain ginseng, not only could his wife's illness be cured.

The extra silver could also be used to properly raise his son, Er Gou.

Perhaps because the liquor had gone to his head, Gu Dashi told his wife about it. The two happily discussed how they would live good days in the future, never realizing that their five-year-old son, Er Gou, had overheard them.

What followed was an incredibly melodramatic story.

And also a painfully tragic one.

Who could have imagined that a child's innocent words could become a swift blade that killed?

Nor could anyone have imagined that the Three Heroes of Chaoyang would turn their butcher's blades upon the village where they had grown up.

In the past, these mountain bandits had robbed grain everywhere, ravaged and plundered other villages, and violated respectable women. Some people in Gu Family Village had even continued to count themselves fortunate.

They always believed that while those men were vicious, rabbits did not eat grass around their own burrows. The bandits would ultimately retain some sentiment for their old home.

Thus, the village Grand Elder would send grain to the stronghold every few days, hoping to build good relations...

Yet they had never expected that temporary safety did not mean eternal safety.

The wild rabbit beside the tiger had not been eaten... only because the tiger was full and did not think that little scrap of meat worth eating.

"I know that you two young heroes do not seek repayment, but after receiving such immense kindness, Gu cannot rest easy without repaying it.

Please do not refuse. This mountain ginseng is extremely old, and it will be of enormous help in cultivating internal energy. It is just what you need."

"If Gu were twenty years younger, I might still use it to try and defy heaven to change my fate. But now, it is useless to me."

Seeing that Lu Wu-bing refused to accept it, Gu Dashi looked troubled. He went back and forth over the same few words, until finally, pressed to desperation, he said, "Chaoyang Stronghold lies in dangerous terrain, and they have seventy or eighty stronghold guards under them. The chief, Chen San-yang, somehow learned a body-tempering martial art. His Coiling Dragon Staff is extraordinarily exquisite.

The second chief, Soul-Reaping Spear Ge Zhong, is said to have come from the Northern Army. His spearwork is incomparably fierce...

There is little hope of attacking that stronghold.

Gu only hopes that, when your cultivation reaches great accomplishment someday, you will return and execute these powerful bandits..."

"The days are short and the nights are long. I cannot wait that long."

Lu Wu-bing was finally moved.

This man clearly wished he could immediately charge up the mountain and fight to the death, yet he handed the mountain ginseng to someone he had only met once, all to gamble on a hope of avenging this blood feud one day.

"Senior Sister, a treasured sword's edge comes from grinding. I always feel that one's swordsmanship realm improves faster after experiencing real combat and slaughter. How about..."

"How could I be left out of this? It would have been one thing if we had not encountered such vicious bandits.

But now that we have, if we simply ignore them, then if Father learns of it, he will surely think his daughter is utterly useless and has disgraced his name."

Ouyang Lan spoke with absolute determination.

When the Eastern Sea Sword Sect had set its sights on the Lu family, she had watched from the side and repeatedly wanted to act.

But because certain matters were involved and the implications ran deep, she could only watch helplessly, at most giving warnings and covert assistance.

From this, one could see that the hot blood in her heart had not cooled, and that she still possessed some heroic, chivalrous spirit.

The two exchanged a glance, their hearts in perfect accord.

They no longer refused, and accepted the mountain ginseng...

Ouyang Lan was even more familiar with such mountain treasures than Lu Wu-bing, the young master from the Hall of Returning Spring.

After merely examining it twice, she concluded that it was a fine specimen over three hundred years old.

"Junior Brother, do you know? Apart from accumulating cultivation through years of arduous practice, there is another shortcut to cultivating internal energy: consuming all manner of qi-replenishing substances.

A mountain ginseng like this, if placed in the martial world, might not stir up bloody storms, but people would at least fight until their heads were broken and blood flowed.

You have only just begun practicing Dripping Water Force, and you need great nourishment to save time spent nurturing qi."

At this point, Ouyang Lan sighed again. "It is a pity that although Dripping Water Force is upright, balanced, and peaceful in cultivation, its progress is slow. The qi channels it opens cannot withstand such immense medicinal power either.

If you switched to cultivating the Celestial River Orthodox Method, your internal energy cultivation speed could become several times faster."

In truth, Lu Wu-bing's progress in cultivating internal energy had already left Ouyang Lan dumbstruck.

But the more it was so, the more she felt that allowing such a cultivation genius to practice only the basic Celestial Star internal art was an insult to him.

She longed to witness the day her junior brother soared into the sky in one leap and rose straight into the clouds.

When she thought that she had personally discovered such a figure, and had helped him enter the Celestial Star Sect, she felt incomparably honored.

History would ultimately remember all of this.

The fame of Heroine Ouyang would also become great because of it.

Holding the three-hundred-year-old wild ginseng, Ouyang Lan wore an odd expression that was almost a smile but not quite.

It left Lu Wu-bing utterly baffled.

He thought that perhaps his senior sister had been affected by the tragic scene earlier.

He reached out and waved a hand before her face. "Senior Sister, since I cannot fully absorb the power of this mountain ginseng, and you cultivate the Celestial River Orthodox Method, shouldn't you be the one to use it?"