This Mad World

Du Chengfeng fell silent as he looked at the great axe he had just finished sharpening.

He had never expected the great axe to carry such memories. What surprised him even more was that the armored Hu general he had cut down with a single stroke had an even more formidable elder brother.

This was a blood feud now. Given the bond between those two brothers, the Hu chieftain named Hexi Qing would definitely come to avenge his brother.

Most importantly, the man called Hexi Qing was strong.

Before he had even grown taller than a cartwheel, he had dared to wield an axe and fight a winter bear head-on, even hacking it to death on the spot... When Du Chengfeng experienced that memory, he had briefly suspected that Hexi Qing was not human at all.

And after reaching adulthood, Hexi Qing would only have become stronger.

Whether to protect the life he had now or to face the vengeance that was soon to come, he needed strength.

Fortunately, the memory within the great axe had also shown him a path.

Unlike the Yang Clan, who feared Sha Qi entering the body as one would fear a tiger, Hexi Qing had another understanding of it—while for most people, Sha Qi entering the body meant losing their minds, a calamity that could drive them mad or kill them on the spot, for the few with unshakable wills, as long as they could remain themselves beneath its erosion, Sha Qi was instead a reward from Heaven.

Du Chengfeng had experienced that firsthand.

As a man from peaceful times, he had barely even fought before. Aside from being somewhat sturdier than average, when it came to bloody life-and-death combat, he had been weak enough that he could not even truss a chicken—yet after taking in the Sha Qi from that great saber, even a gentle man who had spent his life studying had been able to cut down more than two hundred Hu riders.

Of course, much of that had been because the Hu riders had killed until their eyes turned red and had not known to flee. But forget two hundred people—even two hundred pigs would not be something an ordinary person could slaughter clean.

Letting Sha Qi enter the body could make one tireless, immune to pain, transform into a fierce general who plunged through enemy lines, and become unrivaled upon the battlefield.

Most crucially, it required nothing troublesome.

All one had to do was kill.

"Hiss..."

Having thought it all through, Du Chengfeng could not help drawing in a sharp breath.

If it were explained in terms of Sha Qi, perhaps he would not have understood it. But he quickly translated it into a system he could grasp more easily—simply put, killing people earned experience points. The more people one killed, the more experience one gained; the higher one's level, the greater one's strength.

Except that this level and strength did not accumulate on a person.

They accumulated on weapons.

"Mad. This is completely mad..."

Du Chengfeng shook his head again and again.

When he had first arrived in this world, he had thought he was going to survive in the wilderness. After he encountered signs of human habitation, he had thought he was going to build a life from nothing. When Yang Family Fort was besieged by the Hu and he realized this was a chaotic age where human lives were cheaper than grass, he could only pinch his nose and accept it.

But now, it seemed this world was even madder and bloodier than he had imagined.

One only needed to kill to grow stronger. He had never heard of such a path to advancement. In this short while, he had already thought of five hundred ways to make himself powerful quickly—and at the root of them all was nothing more than killing people. Just like playing a game, he only needed to treat living people as experience points to grind.

Who had never farmed monsters while playing games?

First, kill every member of the Yang Clan. Then slaughter everyone in Yang Family Fort. Add the more than two hundred Hu men he had already killed, and that would amount to roughly a thousand people's worth of Sha Qi. With that power as his foundation, he could look for a chance to attack Ji Town. Though Ji Town was guarded by a Commander Liu, which might prove troublesome, as long as he could seize an opportunity...

Clang—

Just as Du Chengfeng's eyes had turned bloodshot and killing intent boiled off him, the heavy great saber leaning beside him crashed down onto the top of his foot.

The pain in his foot made Du Chengfeng release the axe and lift the great saber. Yet it was only when he let go that he realized something had seemed wrong with his state just now.

"What was I thinking?"

When he recalled how he had just wanted to slaughter all of Yang Family Fort—even the entire family of Carpenter Li next door, who had helped him—Du Chengfeng felt a chill run through his heart.

That was not something he could ever do. Just now, it had been as if something had possessed him. He had become a completely different person.

He could not help lowering his head to look at the axe by his feet.

The freshly sharpened axe blade reflected the moonlight. The patterns carved across the axe head were ancient and mysterious, like a distant summons from the Northern Desert Grasslands, making one unable to resist picking it up and examining it closely in one's hands...

"Excuse me."

With one kick, Du Chengfeng sent the axe flying aside and did not spare it another glance.

Clearly, just as he had confidently believed his will was firm enough that he would no longer be affected by the Sha Qi of weapons, this axe had quietly driven him into madness again.

"Looks like this Sha Qi path is not so easy to walk after all."

Picking up the great saber that had landed on his foot, Du Chengfeng could not help sighing.

No wonder. Pies did not fall from the sky. How could a power even more insane than the demonic arts in martial arts novels possibly come without hidden dangers?

So rather than dwell on that dangerous thing, he might as well first consider what he had gained from sharpening the great axe this time.

The gains were still somewhat tooth-grinding. He had originally thought he might learn something about battlefield formations or martial arts from this great axe, but who would have thought that the people of the Northern Desert Grasslands did not practice such things either? Those rough men fought far more directly than he had expected. When they hacked at people, it was little different from butchering cattle and sheep.

Fortunately, both Hexi Qing and Hexi Xuan had excellent horsemanship, which counted as a useful skill for Du Chengfeng, who could not ride. As for martial arts techniques... if sports could be counted, then Du Chengfeng had indeed acquired one skill.

It was Bökh Wrestling, popular across the Northern Desert Grasslands, a contest only strong and powerful warriors were qualified to take part in.

"Can this really count as martial arts?"

Du Chengfeng frowned. This was rather different from the wondrous internal arts he had imagined, the kind that could summon inner force or true qi at the drop of a hat and had all sorts of uses.

"Besides, doesn't this need two people to wrestle? Who am I supposed to try it on?"

Whoosh—

Just as Du Chengfeng was pondering how to test this newly acquired skill, a throwing spear came hurtling from afar and embedded itself by his feet.

He could not help raising his head.

Outside the gate of the small courtyard, Yang Sanlang stood in the distance, a sack of throwing spears slung over his back, looking at him.

Their eyes met.

Thanks to reader 20190531190737171 for the recommendation vote. Everyone's encouragement is what drives me forward. Thank you all.