"I finally found you! Those black-skinned... those Captains really don't treat martial artists like people. Damn it."
Butcher Zhang hooked an arm around Shen Yi's shoulder and let out a sigh of relief. "All right, all right. As long as you're safe."
Seeing the burly man covered in mud and looking utterly bedraggled, with every slap leaving a handprint on his clean robe...
Shen Yi genuinely wondered where the man had gone to spend time with his old flame.
Did they really get that wild?
"Hey! You got promoted already?"
Butcher Zhang glanced over and spotted the cloud patterns on the young man's cuff. His face immediately filled with shock.
Shen Yi rolled his eyes at the man's huge belly and said coolly, "Looks to me like you're about to give birth."
"Heh heh, that's what body tempering does. You wouldn't understand unless you tempered your body."
The burly man scratched the back of his head, then hesitated. "I know you're strong, but it'd be better to keep a low profile for a while."
At last, he got to the reason he'd come.
Shen Yi led him inside, poured two cups of well water that he'd boiled earlier and let cool, then handed one over. "What happened?"
Butcher Zhang took the cup and, without ceremony, gulped the water down. "You haven't heard? Something big happened in Linjiang Commandery!"
Shen Yi leaned against the edge of the bed, took a sip of the cool boiled water, and glanced sideways at him.
If he remembered correctly, he'd just returned from Linjiang Commandery.
Fortunately, the butcher's next words dispelled his doubts. "Remember that swordsman from Green Peak Mountain I told you about?"
"The one with a household of more than twenty people, who treated each of his concubines with chivalrous tenderness?" A complicated