Early the next morning, Li Pingsheng went to the Library Pavilion.
He needed to find some information about the Black Mist Forest.
The bookshelves were covered in dust.
Li Pingsheng activated his Martial Wisdom specialty.
The books' titles, thicknesses, materials, and smells all turned into information, and he sifted through it at incredible speed.
In the time it took to burn a stick of incense, he had "read" nearly ten thousand books.
At last, his gaze settled on an old booklet at the bottom of a shelf in the corner: Records of Outer City Oddities.
Li Pingsheng walked over, pulled out the booklet, and flipped through it until he stopped at the page that mentioned the Black Mist Forest.
The pocket inside this page was thicker than those in the others. From within it, he drew a tattered beast-hide map, folded up.
Li Pingsheng quickly unfolded it. Lines sketched out the rough outline of a forest, and one spot had been marked with a red dot of vermilion.
In the bottom-right corner was a signature: Lu Qingshan??
Found it.
Li Pingsheng was just about to put the tattered map away when a voice came from the stairwell:
"Well, if it isn't Senior Brother Li from our Azure Cloud Martial Hall?"
Li Pingsheng looked up. Zhou Kuang and several lackeys were blocking the stairwell.
Zhou Kuang was Zhao Ming's cousin.
He walked up to Li Pingsheng and snatched the Records of Outer City Oddities from him.
"I heard Senior Brother Li's become a cripple. What're you doing in the Library Pavilion?"
"Trying to find some miracle cure in a book?"
The lackeys around them all laughed.
"Brother Zhou's right. A cripple's still a cripple, no matter how many books he reads!"
"He even took a patrol mission in the Outer City. At this rate, he probably won't live to see the big exam."
Li Pingsheng didn't say a word. He just looked at him.
That look really pissed Zhou Kuang off.
He let go, and the Records of Outer City Oddities fell to the ground.
Zhou Kuang planted his foot on the booklet and ground it hard against the floor.
"What're you looking at? Got a problem?"
Zhou Kuang beckoned to Li Pingsheng with a finger. "Go on, try touching me. I'll have you carried out of here today."
The other disciples saw what was happening and scattered, pointing and whispering.
"Li Pingsheng's really a tiger fallen on flat ground, bullied by dogs."
"His qi and blood are terribly weak now. I heard he can't even withstand Zhou Kuang's puny pressure."
"What a shame. That punch he threw before..."
Their idle chatter drifted into Li Pingsheng's ears.
Seeing this, Zhou Kuang looked even more smug.
He was about to stomp the book to pieces.
Just as Zhou Kuang raised his foot, Li Pingsheng shouted and lunged forward.
The move looked completely untrained.
Zhou Kuang's laughter cut off the next instant.
A sharp numbness shot through the tendon on the outside of his ankle. Half his body went numb.
"Thud!"
Zhou Kuang pitched forward and hit the ground face-first, his front teeth flying out amid a spray of blood and spit.
As Li Pingsheng fell, he slipped the tattered map beneath the booklet into his sleeve just as his body hit the ground.
The whole thing happened in an instant, deft and discreet.
Everyone saw only Li Pingsheng take a tumble and Zhou Kuang slip and fall, too.
"What happened? Did Zhou Kuang slip?"
The watching disciples looked at one another.
In the corner, an old, white-haired servant's eyes narrowed. He stared hard at Li Pingsheng as he got up from the ground, his expression full of confusion.
For a moment there, he thought he'd seen Li Pingsheng's body move, leaving an afterimage behind.
"What's all the racket? No shouting in the Library Pavilion!"
Leaning on his broom, the old servant came forward and scolded them.
Covering his mouth, Zhou Kuang got up and pointed at Li Pingsheng. "You... you set me up?!"
"Zhou Kuang, you tripped because you weren't watching where you were going. Who else can you blame?" said the old servant. "Make another sound, and I'll tell the Hall Master!"
Zhou Kuang was terrified of the Hall Master. He glared venomously at Li Pingsheng, knowing he'd lost face badly today.
"You've got guts! Just you wait!"
He tossed out a threat, then ran off with his lackeys.
The commotion died down.
Li Pingsheng bent to pick up the Records of Outer City Oddities, then walked over to the old servant. He revealed a corner of the tattered map from his sleeve and pointed to the signature.
"Old sir, can I ask if you know someone named Lu Qingshan?"
The old servant's gaze fell on the three characters for "Lu Qingshan." The wrinkles on his face shifted, and his eyes grew complicated as he sighed.
"Lu Qingshan... Now there's a name worth remembering."
"Five years ago, he was a True Disciple, too. The Hall Master said he was a once-in-a-century genius, with a chance of reaching the Grandmaster realm before he turned thirty."
Regret filled the old servant's voice. "What a shame. He went alone into the Black Mist Forest to find medicine for his younger sister. When he came out, the forest's poisonous miasma had ruined every meridian in his body. All his cultivation was gone."
"After that, the number-one genius became a sweeper in the Servant Courtyard."
A sweeper??
Li Pingsheng's heart gave a jolt.
After bidding farewell to the old servant, he followed the directions to the Servant Courtyard, in the most remote part of the martial hall.
It was a world apart from where the True Disciples lived. The air reeked sourly, and the buildings were all dilapidated.
Li Pingsheng found Lu Qingshan beneath a courtyard wall.
He was holding a broom, mechanically sweeping the fallen leaves.
His movements were slow, his hands trembled without pause, and his eyes were vacant. He seemed utterly lifeless.
Li Pingsheng walked up to him.
The other man didn't react. He kept sweeping.
Li Pingsheng said, "I found your map."
The sweeping stopped.
Lu Qingshan slowly raised his head, his pupils shifting toward Li Pingsheng.
The next instant!
Lu Qingshan's gaze changed, and the broom in his hands shot straight at him.
There was no qi-and-blood fluctuation, just the pure force of his body and a martial technique.
The broom split into three afterimages, sealing off Li Pingsheng's upper, middle, and lower routes as it thrust toward his vital points. It was a killing move!
Facing this deadly attack, Li Pingsheng's eyes narrowed.
What a fast strike.
At a thought, he activated the Breath Concealment Art, suppressing the fluctuations of qi and blood throughout his body and concealing his aura. At the same time, his Wind Treading talent activated. He shifted slightly where he stood, dodging every attack.
Then he joined his fingers like a sword, gathering the force of Thunderclap Explosion at his fingertips and turning it into a hidden strike that snapped precisely against the broom head.
"Crack!"
A soft sound rang out.
Lu Qingshan watched as the broom turned to powder.
A hidden force traveled through the dust, shaking Lu Qingshan back three steps before he managed to steady himself.
He stared hard at Li Pingsheng, two sharp gleams bursting from his vacant eyes.
"Ha... Hahahaha!!"
He burst into laughter.
"Good! So much for ruined meridians! So much for feeble qi and blood!"
"Your refined qi and blood! Your return-to-the-basics comprehension! Your hidden force, unleashed and withdrawn at will!"
"You're not crippled at all!"
"That pack of fools at the martial hall, that old relic Pei Guang, and those scum from the Zhao Family... You've got them all dancing in the palm of your hand! Hahahaha!!"
His laughter held both fierce satisfaction and sorrow.
Li Pingsheng simply looked at him, neither admitting nor denying it.
Once Lu Qingshan had laughed his fill, the madness faded from his eyes, replaced by the kindling flames of revenge and hope.
He stared at Li Pingsheng and spoke, each word deliberate.
"The route I took five years ago is the one marked on the map. A second-rank monster has claimed it now. If you go there, you'll be throwing your life away."
"But..."
"Since you're such a freak of nature, and you've fooled everyone, I'll tell you about another route—one I bought with a pair of ruined hands and five years of scraping by. A route where you're 'absolutely certain to survive'!"
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