Harvest, Uproot the Grass and Root

Fang Shu stayed in the Solitary Gu Hall, training until noon, then until dusk, without the slightest trace of fatigue.

For the next two days, he showed not the slightest difference from usual, as if he had completely cast the matter of slaughtering Cheng the Jar out of his mind.

Until this day.

Li Hou'er came looking for him in high spirits. "Brother Fang, I've got something to tell you! Good news!"

Fang Shu heard this, and a ripple rose in his heart. He asked with a smile:

"What is it? Did Uncle Li draw a Fortune Lot?"

"Ah, how could that be?" Li Hou'er said, his brows dancing with excitement. "It's Cheng the Jar from the Paper Workshop. He's dead. Slaughtered like a dog."

Seeing the surprise and curiosity on Fang Shu's face, Li Hou'er looked satisfied and immediately became even more animated:

"To be exact, that bastard was more like a pig. He was stabbed to death by the canal. Good grief, blood ran everywhere—on the walls, on the doors. I just went back to look. It still hasn't been cleaned off."

Fang Shu spoke up:

"A good death! Which hero killed him?"

Li Hou'er looked utterly unconcerned and spread his hands.

"Who knows. No one investigated it either. Other than his nephew, who would care who killed him?"

Those words genuinely piqued Fang Shu's curiosity. Without showing it, he asked:

"I heard Cheng the Jar had quite the backing. No one came to deal with it?"

Li Hou'er pondered for a moment and said:

"Someone did come. But when the Black Tiger Daoist Hall sent people over, they saw that although Cheng the Jar's corpse had begun to rot, his bones were intact and none were missing. So they simply took his body away and did not pursue the matter further.

"Later, I heard that the killer had only taken Cheng the Jar's life and had not dug out his tiger bones. They had not coveted the Black Tiger Hall's secret arts, so they had given the Black Tiger Hall some face.

"Thus, the Black Tiger Hall would most likely give the killer some face as well and could not be bothered to interfere. At most, they might help look after Cheng the Jar's nephew."

Li Hou'er clicked his tongue.

"My father said that Cheng was only a lackey, after all. Dead was dead. What year did people not die in the market district?

"It was only because he died inside the market district this time that it caused a bit of a stir.

"But Cheng the Jar had committed plenty of evil deeds, and the killer was experienced. The neighbors at the Paper Workshop did not even know how tall or large the killer was, let alone what spell they used.

"How could the Black Tiger Hall and the market district possibly waste too much manpower and resources investigating a case? At most, they'd put up a reward."

Li Hou'er continued muttering excitedly:

"I always thought Cheng the Jar was all bark and bluster, like he was some great figure. Who knew he was just a paper tiger?

"Ha, he really died like a dog!"

Li Hou'er invited Fang Shu:

"Come on, let's go drink and celebrate. I've disliked that bastard for ages. What a pity my father never told me on his own—I only found out after going back to the Paper Workshop."

A suitably tempted expression appeared on Fang Shu's face.

But he glanced at the training hall, especially at the young man within who cultivated bitterly day and night without cease.

So he shook his head and declined. "Let's have dinner together in the dining hall tonight. I still need to train."

Seeing this, Li Hou'er gave up on the idea of drinking and slacking off. He remained in the training hall too, lazily muddling through his training.

Yet his mouth still ran without end:

"Cheng the Jar's nephew seems about the same age as you and me. I heard that because of Cheng the Jar's death, that fellow received a bit of favor in the Black Tiger Hall. Right now, he's sworn oaths to train hard and vowed to avenge Cheng the Jar."

Li Hou'er muttered irritably:

"When that fellow returned to the market district, he looked at us Paper Workshop neighbors like some fiend, treating us all as enemies.

"He even said things like, 'If no one from the Paper Workshop had kept their doors shut, if no one had come out to save him, Uncle would not have died,' and, 'You are all accomplices.'

"Lots of people are saying that once this fellow grows up, he'll definitely become a scourge too."

Fang Shu, who was training, heard this. His movements remained precise, and he smiled along without any outward change.

Yet his heart had just skipped a beat, and threads of killing intent immediately rose again.

Not long after.

Li Hou'er endured training alongside him for a while. Seeing Fang Shu seemingly enter a state of focused cultivation, he found it dull and went off on his own to chat idly with disciples from other halls.

In the corner.

With his back against the wall, Fang Shu suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze cold.

The killing intent he had suppressed moments ago now surged and churned within him.

As Fang Shu circulated his blood to train, he silently recited in his heart:

"The nephew of a bandit should also be killed. If he is not killed, the future trouble will not be severed."

Borrowing that killing intent, the Insect-Face Secret Script upon his body once more appeared fierce and terrifying, in an exceptionally fine state.

The thoughts in Fang Shu's heart also began to roil.

Cheng the Jar's skeleton truly was a valuable material.

Especially since that fellow had broken through to become a One-Tribulation Refining Essence Immortal, and he came from the Black Tiger Hall. The Black Tiger Hall's Mystic Script would surely be branded upon his bones.

If Fang Shu had dismantled and collected them, he could have used them as Immortal materials or sold them to others for them to study the Mystic Script on the bones.

The value of his entire skeleton should not have been inferior to the value of all his precious blood. At the very least, it would have been comparable to a One-Tribulation Artifact!

And the reason Fang Shu had not taken the bones was not because he failed to understand such things, nor because he was wary of this sort of "human material."

He had deliberately abandoned them.

First, bones were inconvenient to carry and easily left traces behind. They could only be sold outside the market district as well, which carried risks.

Second was what Li Hou'er had just said. By not touching the Black Tiger Hall's Mystic Script, he could greatly reduce the chance that the Black Tiger Hall would intervene.

Now, it seemed exactly as Fang Shu had expected. The Black Tiger Hall had merely gathered Cheng the Jar's bones and called it a day. They did not want their secret arts to leak out, and had no motivation whatsoever to pursue the true killer.

Originally, with that, the matter of Cheng the Jar should have ended there.

But now it seemed there was still one small omission—Cheng the Jar's nephew.

Fang Shu considered this inwardly.

But no matter. He only needed to patch that omission.

As he pondered, the thought of uprooting the grass and pulling out the root settled completely in Fang Shu's mind.

He had no wish to leave future trouble behind for himself and his Second Uncle because of a momentary mercy!

Though his killing intent had risen again, Fang Shu did not act rashly.

Just as before, he began to wait quietly for the right opportunity.

During this period of waiting.

After repeatedly confirming that the things on Cheng the Jar would not lead anyone to track him down, Fang Shu withdrew them from the pawnshop in batches.

That fellow's wealth consisted of three parts. The first was nearly a thousand scattered talisman coins, and the second was a thick gold chain.

Fang Shu had heard a little about thick gold chains.

They were both something market-district toughs used to put on a show and display their status, and something they could easily sell for money when they needed to flee.

That was because a thick gold chain was wrapped in gold on the outside, while the inside was cut from spirit stones.

Spirit stones were valuable, while gold was dense in texture. It was both a material for artifact forging and capable of sealing off spiritual energy. The two paired perfectly, were easy to sell, and could be used directly as money.

The thick gold chain on Cheng the Jar weighed a full two taels and seven qian. When Fang Shu cut it open, there truly was spirit stone inside!

This unexpected windfall immediately gave Fang Shu new tuition funds, enough to extend his cultivation time in the Solitary Gu Hall by three months.

As for the third part, it was a Black Ticket.

Out of caution, Fang Shu had not yet used the Black Ticket. He merely made some inquiries and discovered that it was not an anonymous talisman-coin note, but a storage receipt from a certain pawnshop.

There was no need to think further. The value contained in this item was most likely greater than the first two combined, filling Fang Shu with anticipation.

And while he was calculating.

When he should retrieve the contents of the Black Ticket, then take Cheng the Jar's nephew's life, unexpected news suddenly arrived.

That day.

Li Hou'er came to find him again, bursting with excitement.

"Brother Fang, Brother Fang, Cheng the Little Jar is dead too!"

Fang Shu froze.

He heard Li Hou'er say eagerly:

"Hahaha, that fellow drowned in a ditch at night.

"No one saw how he died, but they all say he got drunk and fell in himself.

"Maybe his uncle missed him and took him along with him."

This news truly left Fang Shu dumbfounded.

He had never expected Cheng the Little Jar to die so suddenly.

After Li Hou'er left, Fang Shu slowly exhaled, and the killing intent in his heart dissipated along with it.

But as the killing intent faded, a trace of vigilance arose in his heart.

Fang Shu suddenly recalled something Second Uncle had said—

When the mouth opens, spiritual vigor scatters; when the tongue moves, trouble is born.