Zhang Tie sat quietly in the sitting room of the detached courtyard, drinking tea. By now, he had removed his hood, revealing a face young beyond belief.
He had saved that middle-aged man who had been thrown out of the inn merely because he happened upon him and acted on impulse. But more importantly, it was because of what the man had said in his madness—"Everyone under heaven is nothing but a swarm of flies scrambling for filth. I've fallen to this state for the sake of the people, so what meaning is there in it? If you want to poison the world, then go ahead and poison it. If you want to kill me, then come and kill me! Aren't you capable of reaching everywhere? Aren't you planning to turn all of Great Xia's medicinal herbs into invisible poisons that kill without spilling blood? Come kill me! Come kill me..."
That had been the middle-aged man's crazed outcry. Few who heard those words would have believed he was telling the truth, but Zhang Tie, who had mastered the Soul-Seizing Forbidden Art, could clearly sense that although the man had been despairing and frantic at the time, his mind had not been muddled, nor had he been babbling nonsense. What he said had been the outpouring of someone who had completely given up on himself.
—Turn all of Great Xia's medicinal herbs into invisible poisons that kill without spilling blood!
That sentence alone had piqued Zhang Tie's interest.
At Zhang Tie's request, more than ten inn attendants entered the bathhouse of the detached courtyard, each carrying a huge pile of clothes, shoes, socks, and the like for the man to choose from. After the dozen or so attendants had run back and forth twice, more attendants pushed dining carts into