Once the Fish

"This damned weather is freezing me to death."

"Quit complaining. Count yourself lucky—we still get to stay outside. Isn't that better than being stuck in the sect making shell casing kits?"

"That shell casing puppet blueprint, seriously—I feel like throwing up every time I see it. Bleurgh—"

Listening to the conversation between the two outside, cold sweat seeped into Lu Li's palm as he tightened his grip on the kitchen cleaver. Their footsteps drew closer and closer. One after the other, they stepped over the threshold and entered the ruined temple.

At that moment, he lunged forward, raising the cleaver high and chopping at the neck of the man in front. But the man twisted aside, evading the strike, then lifted his foot and viciously kicked Lu Li in the abdomen.

Bang!

The kick was heavy and powerful. Lu Li was sent flying, eventually crashing into the wall of a side hall. Agonizing pain tore through his abdomen; he had likely injured his internal organs. Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.

The disciple walked toward him, his face full of contempt.

"Well, well. You were hiding there all sneaky-like. Did you really think I hadn't spotted you?"

As he spoke, the disciple rolled his eyeball. Only then did Lu Li notice that the man's left eye was not a flesh-and-blood eye, but a mechanical sphere glimmering with formation patterns.

"Even with a wall between us, so long as you're alive and still have warmth in your body, you stand out to me like a firefly in the dead of night, kid."

Lu Li said nothing. He tugged at the rein by the wall. The next instant, a sharp whistling sound cut through the air as a firewood cleaver tied to the rein dropped from the beam overhead.

Splat!

The firewood cleaver swung down at tremendous speed. The man had no time to react before the blade sank effortlessly into his chest.

"Argh!"

The man clutched his chest and howled in pain. This was the result of Lu Li secretly studying puppet mechanisms at the schoolhouse these past few days. It was merely a simple contraption made from a beam, rope, and his firewood cleaver—nothing with any complicated mechanism. Its precision and force were both severely limited.

Compared to the other man's mechanical prosthetic eye, Lu Li's setup barely even counted as a mechanism.

Yet such a simple trap had successfully wounded that cultivator. Just as Lu Li had expected, he was only an ordinary man. Azure Sun Hall would not send any true expert merely to collect a debt.

Those so-called low-level cultivators had, at most, undergone puppet-path modifications to certain parts of their bodies. Those parts were different from normal, and the rest of their bodies were relatively stronger as well, but they had not transcended the bounds of mortals.

Therefore, even with nothing but a firewood cleaver, as long as he used it well, he could still hurt these people.

However, that was all. The wound was not deep.

"Good boy. A mere mortal dares wound me? Junior Brother, you take him. I'll deal with this wound. Don't kill him."

The man pulled the firewood cleaver from his chest, took some sort of powder from his pocket, and sprinkled it over the wound. Meanwhile, his companion drew a sword hilt. Spiritual power condensed at its guard into a sharp blade, which slashed down at Lu Li's head.

Lu Li raised his kitchen cleaver and swung it sideways to block.

Clang!

The spiritual-power blade collided with the raw iron kitchen cleaver, bursting into dazzling sparks.

In this world, the smelting techniques accessible to mortals were extremely limited. The weapon in Lu Li's hand was only a rusty kitchen cleaver. The two remained locked for but an instant before, with a crisp crack, the cleaver shattered into four pieces.

"A mayfly trying to shake a tree—overestimating yourself!"

The man sneered. He had intended to take Lu Li's neck, but recalling his senior brother's words, he changed his chop into a thrust and drove the blade into Lu Li's abdominal cavity.

Splat!

To his surprise, the blade carried searing heat. The instant it entered his abdomen, piercing pain and a burning sensation struck together. The blade pierced in through Lu Li's stomach, came out through his lower back, then plunged into the wall behind him, pinning him directly to it.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—

White smoke rose from the wound, accompanied by the scent of cooked meat. Lu Li felt as though the organs in his abdomen had been set ablaze. The overwhelming pain instantly robbed him of the strength to resist.

By then, the disciple who had been cut had finished treating his wound. With a vicious grin, he walked up to Lu Li and punched him in the face again.

"You dare resist? Pah! A mere mortal—who gave you the guts?"

His fists fell like raindrops, striking Lu Li's face, chest, and abdomen. Lu Li felt his consciousness gradually blur, but he still did not make a sound. His gaze flickered as he looked at the broken half of the kitchen cleaver by his feet, then at the firewood cleaver discarded not far away.

"Senior Brother, don't damage him too badly. His organs need to be harvested."

"True enough... Ptooey!"

Senior Brother spat and stopped venting his anger. With a wave of his hand, the mechanical Wood Crow flew in from outside and landed on his shoulder.

"Come on. Scan him."

Having received the command, the glow in Wood Crow's bird eyes shifted from red to white and swept across Lu Li's upper body.

The sensation was strange. Lu Li felt as though he were undergoing an MRI in his previous life, the beam seeing clean through him inside and out. After examining him, Wood Crow spoke in a human voice:

"Arrest target confirmed.

"Name: Lu Li. Age: fifteen. Physical condition: Grade D, low rank. Divine sense strength: Grade D, low rank.

"Spiritual root condition: metal, less than one percent; wood, twenty-seven percent; water, sixteen percent; fire, thirteen percent; earth, forty-four percent. Preliminary assessment: earth-wood spiritual roots."

"Evaluation recorded. This individual's attributes are poor across the board. He possesses no talent for cultivation, and his internal organs are severely damaged. However, given that he possesses earth-wood spiritual roots, it is recommended that his five viscera and spiritual roots be extracted and handed over to the sect for processing. Execute immediately."

As Wood Crow recited the report word by word, Lu Li felt as though he were not a person at all, but rather flesh laid out on a chopping board, waiting on a scale to be priced and sold.

At this very moment, Lu Li finally understood who was making the money.

It had to be the immortals. They exploited, lent at interest, refined shares—then they made fortunes until their bowls overflowed. Lu Li wanted to make money too, so he wanted to cultivate immortality. But did he not want to cultivate immortality? Of course he did. He simply had no talent, and these people would not let him cultivate. All they wanted were his kidneys, his blood, and his bones.

Lu Li tried to struggle, but he could not withstand the strength of the two men. They trussed him up like a bundle, drew their blades, and began gesturing over his body as they discussed where to cut.

Just then, a voice rang out abruptly. Its owner sounded like an old crone.

"Caw, child, if you still refuse to agree, you really will be leaving your bones here."

Lu Li looked around, only to find that Wood Crow's beak had never moved, while the two disciples before him showed no reaction at all. The voice seemed to be echoing directly in his mind, audible to him alone.

"Loan..."

Lu Li muttered the word "loan" under his breath, falling into confusion for a moment. He had once resisted borrowing, but now, it seemed he had no other choice. The old crone continued to coax him patiently:

"Use your lungs as collateral, and I'll replace them with a [First-Turn Breath Furnace] at once. I guarantee you'll be able to twist those two little brats' heads right off. What are you waiting for? If you're willing, it only takes a word. Child, will you borrow or not?"

"Fine. Give it to me."

Lu Li's voice was calm—so calm it was nearly icy, as though there was no life in it at all.

"Hehehahaha, good! Child, you've finally seen the light! Reverse Celestial Order Instrument—open for me!"