Chen Changhong

He arrived at the village.

Chen Changhong could no longer hold back his feelings. His heart raced homeward as he hurried toward a small courtyard in the southwest.

Compared with the other courtyards nearby, this one was somewhat smaller and more dilapidated.

A wisp of cooking smoke rose faintly from the side of the back yard.

"Grandpa's cooking..."

When Chen Changhong saw the smoke, he felt a sense of relief for no apparent reason.

Even before entering the courtyard,

he straightened his clothes, rolled up his sleeves, and took several deep breaths before pushing open the gate.

"Grandpa! You... you're lighting a fire... what are you cooking?"

As he spoke, Chen Changhong picked up a small bundle of firewood by the entrance.

His voice was still trembling a little.

But as he walked along, he saw a few garments hanging in the courtyard and realized they seemed too large and wide to belong to his grandfather.

"Who are you?"

At the same time, a man tending the fire in the courtyard heard the unfamiliar call and came out from the side. Seeing a handsome young man he didn't recognize, he looked wary and confused.

"And who are you?" When Chen Changhong saw the stranger, an ominous feeling stirred in his heart, and his expression instantly turned cold.

"My name is Chen Changhong. This is my home. Where is my grandfather, Chen Guan?"

Chen Changhong usually seemed sunny and cheerful, but now that his face had darkened, the air around them felt scorching hot.

Even from a distance, one could see the air in the courtyard wavering as if it were distorted.

"You... you..." The man felt the scorching heat and saw the air around Chen Changhong visibly warp. As if he had suddenly realized something, he blurted out in fright,

"Chang Hong! You're Chang Hong, the one who was taken away when we were little! I... I'm the third son of your Uncle Li Er next door!

We used to play by the river together when we were kids..."

The man was flustered, but he didn't know that Chen Changhong had joined a cultivation sect.

Chen Guan had never told the neighbors about it.

But seeing Chen Changhong's supernatural bearing and ethereal, almost immortal aura, so much like the legendary Qi Refiner, anyone could tell that he had gone somewhere extraordinary during the decades since they last saw him.

Somewhere like the fabled Immortal Sect.

"Brother Li?" Hearing Brother Li's words, Chen Changhong paused. The pressure in the air eased a little, but he quickly asked,

"Where is my grandfather? And why are you in my home?"

"Th-this..." When Brother Li heard the question, he suddenly didn't dare answer.

Chen Changhong had been terrifying just moments ago!

But then he thought that staying silent might only make things worse.

He hurriedly said, "Some years ago, people from the county office came... and said..."

As he spoke, he furtively watched Chen Changhong's expression.

"They said... your... your grandfather was murdered..."

When he reached this point, Chen Changhong's face turned deathly pale. Afraid that his childhood friend—who was now an immortal—might take his anger out on him, Brother Li ran away in tears, shouting,

"Spare me, Immortal! We didn't take your house! We just thought we'd wait here for you to come back... so we could tell you..."

"My grandfather..."

Chen Changhong paid no attention to Brother Li or the neighbors peeking over from a distance. Clutching the Life-Extending Pill tightly in his hand, he stood dazed in the courtyard, gazing at his grandfather's thatched cottage for a long, long time.

At that moment, Chen Changhong felt the first bewilderment of his life.

It was the hollow ache of losing the person he cared about most.

He didn't even know why he had risked his life to race across hundreds of thousands of li, or why he had exhausted himself searching for the Life-Extending Pill.

Not until nearly half an hour later

did Chen Changhong gradually come to his senses and turn his gaze toward Ling City.

"The Underworld Bureau... I'll go to Ling City and seek out its Orthodox God. I'll ask the City God to find out... who killed my grandfather...

"I'll find someone to imprison his soul...

"While I'm alive, I'll make him suffer every torment in Avici!

"Before I die, I'll make sure his soul is scattered to the winds and he never enters the cycle of rebirth!"

"Bad news, bad news!"

Meanwhile, in nearby Liuqi County,

the county magistrate, a man in his fifties, couldn't sit still for even a moment after learning that someone who seemed to be a cultivator had appeared in the county.

"Quick, quick, quick! Send a message by God-Speed Pigeon and notify the prefect of this city!"

Little Liuzi Town and the county both fell under Ling City's jurisdiction.

Ling City had a Xiantian minor-stage cultivator stationed there, who could usually handle trouble caused by Rogue Cultivators.

As the county magistrate saw it,

this cultivator would most likely use his arts wherever he pleased and act with utter disregard for the rules.

It was safest to invite an expert to keep him in check.

"This is the middle of nowhere. Why would a cultivator come here?"

The county magistrate was baffled. Still, he sent people to make preparations, straightened his clothes, and set out to find Chen Changhong so he could pay him a personal visit.

When faced with an unexpected expert, caution was necessary, but proper courtesy was essential too.

In his way of conducting official business, the two approaches were a little awkward together, but they didn't conflict.

Of course, more importantly, cultivators generally wouldn't harm an official of the imperial court.

Otherwise, the county magistrate wouldn't have dared approach someone who acted with such utter disregard for the rules.

However,

by the time he had nervously tracked down Chen Changhong and reached the small village at dusk,

Chen Changhong had already left.

The county magistrate and several guards gazed at the empty courtyard, feeling both relieved and disappointed to have missed him.

"A cultivator who can absorb qi and extend his life..."

The county magistrate, already in his twilight years, gazed at the setting sun, longing for such a life.

Two days later.

Little Liuzi Town, late at night.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Shopkeeper Sun!"

On the way back to the Bandit Brother's residence,

Chen Guan and the Bandit Brother sat in the same sedan, drinking tea on opposite sides. The atmosphere between them was warm and friendly.

Anyone who didn't know them would have thought they were close friends.

"Not at all, not at all!" The Bandit Brother was in excellent spirits. "Young Hero Chen has honored me by dining with me and staying at my humble home. Your presence has made my humble abode shine!"

As he spoke, the Bandit Brother bowed slightly and raised his tea to Chen Guan.

"You're too kind, Shopkeeper." Chen Guan smiled and drank with him, peering through a gap in the sedan curtains toward Sun Mansion up ahead.

"I've had nothing to do lately, so I'll be imposing on you for a while, Shopkeeper Sun."

"You're too kind, Young Hero Chen!" Hearing that Chen Guan meant to stay with him, the Bandit Brother could hardly have been happier. "It's my honor that Young Hero Chen is willing to associate with me!

"No amount of gold could buy such an honor!

"How could you possibly be imposing? If anyone's imposing, it's me, for troubling you, Young Hero Chen!"

The Bandit Brother beamed, feeling that his relationship with Young Hero Chen had grown even closer.

At the same time,

the Bandit Brother looked at Chen Guan's youthful face and felt immensely pleased with himself.

"So young, so youthful. He looks like an old hand, but he's still just a kid.

"Now that I, a true old hand, have stepped in..."

The Bandit Brother looked smug as he secretly mimed grabbing someone.

"Naturally, he'll be easy to handle!

"Young Hero Chen,

"you're still too young. You know nothing of the dangers of the martial world or the treachery of the human heart."