Crimson-Piercing Art

A kitchen cleaver naturally could not tell whether someone was pretty or not.

But passersby could tell, and the woman herself could tell as well. So before setting up her stall each day, this beautiful woman would lightly apply powder and rouge, dressing herself up a little—of course, most passersby could not see through her superb makeup skills. They only marveled at her beauty, at how she could be so dazzling even with what seemed like a bare face.

And so, just to get close to this beautiful woman, even if only to exchange a few extra words, they were happy to stop by her stall and buy a bowl of tofu pudding to take away.

That was precisely why the woman deliberately dressed herself up. A lovely face could always make people linger a little longer at her breakfast stall.

The breakfast stall sold more than tofu pudding. It also offered soy milk, baked flatbread, and the like. For those who wanted meat, there was braised pork simmering in the large pot beside it. A slit would be cut into a flatbread, then stuffed with chopped pork braised until tender and falling apart, making a roujiamo that filled the mouth with fragrance in a single bite. And if the braising broth was poured over steaming hot soft tofu, drinking down a bowl first thing in the morning would warm the whole body and fill one with strength.

A stall this large naturally could not be managed by this beautiful woman alone. While she sold breakfast out front, her husband stayed in the back, baking flatbread batch after batch. Du Chengfeng found this way of doing business somewhat familiar. Even in the peaceful times he had once lived through, little husband-and-wife shops like this were quite common.

Their skills were good, and they had customers. There would be no disputes over family property, either. Before long, both the woman and her husband had grown prosperous.

Nor was there any melodramatic tale of the two dividing and breaking apart. At the end of the day, being able to live a normal life in this godforsaken world was already pretty good. The couple were both down-to-earth people who wanted to build a better life together, so naturally there were no conflicts.

But as their income steadily grew, the woman's husband eventually found a time to speak with her.

"From now on, leave this sort of public-facing work to me."

That was what the woman's husband said.

"It's not that I have any issue with you. It's for safety's sake. You're as lovely as a flower and as beautiful as the moon, and that can easily invite trouble. Before, when you weren't well known, the danger was smaller. But now your reputation is growing by the day. We should keep it down for a while, lest disaster strike."

Though his words were somewhat blunt, the woman understood what he meant. This chaotic world was indeed full of danger; one careless misstep could bring ruin to the family and slaughter to the household. But understanding was one thing—she did not have much of a solution herself.

At the end of the day, she knew perfectly well why their breakfast stall had more customers than the others. If she truly withdrew behind the scenes and let her husband take charge out front, would so many people still come for breakfast?

So although she was worried as well, she still wanted to keep things going for a while longer, until they had saved up more money and built a sturdier foundation.

"Besides, if we really run into some brute, I'm not afraid of him."

As she spoke, the woman raised her hands and made a few motions. Her form actually looked quite convincing.

"Back then, I learned some fist and footwork from my mother. I can't call myself proficient, but three or five ordinary men still wouldn't be able to take me down."

Hearing her say this, her husband took it as a joke. The woman's limbs were slender and delicate, and she did not look particularly strong. Let alone three or five ordinary men—she probably could not even beat him, a mere flatbread seller.

Still, since the woman insisted, her husband did not press the matter. The two of them had already talked it through, after all. They only needed to wait a little longer, earn more money, and save up some family capital. Then they would stop running this exhausting breakfast stall and invest in something more profitable instead.

But while they waited, disaster came.

There was a highway robber in Jizhou named Ximen Yuan, nicknamed Living Yama. He and several underlings occupied the area near Ji Town, running wild and committing every evil imaginable. Commander Liu, who commanded Ji Town, had sent men to encircle and suppress him many times, but Ximen Yuan always evaded them through his familiarity with the local terrain. Whenever Commander Liu was occupied with official duties and had no time to deal with the bandits, Ximen Yuan would crawl back out again, even daring to swagger openly through the streets.

It was on such a day that the breakfast stall had only been open for a short while when Ximen Yuan happened to emerge with several lackeys.

Famished, Ximen Yuan came to the breakfast stall and saw that the woman selling breakfast possessed beauty enough to sink fish and shame geese, to eclipse the moon and humble flowers. Her skin was so snowy white that it was even fairer than the tofu pudding in the bowls.

Ximen Yuan had never seen such a woman before. At once, he no longer cared about breakfast. He reached out, grabbed her wrist, and tried to drag her away on the spot.

Naturally, the terrified woman refused. She immediately began shouting loudly. Her husband, who was baking flatbread in the back, heard the cries and grabbed a weapon to come stop him. The neighbors also gathered around. They were regular customers of the breakfast stall—how could they watch the woman be snatched away in broad daylight? But some had already recognized Ximen Yuan's face, shrinking back and trembling, too afraid to step forward.

After hearing the neighbors' hushed whispers, the woman's husband roughly understood who Ximen Yuan was. He stepped directly into his path and roared.

"Commander Liu has already sent men! The manhunters will be here any moment! You wicked bandit, release her at once!"

That roar would have frightened any ordinary villain. Though the manhunters were an official organization, their methods for dealing with criminals were unimaginably vicious. Facing their imminent arrest, anyone with a functioning brain would have fled outright.

But Ximen Yuan happened to be one whose brain did not function properly.

"Fine! You actually dared report me to the authorities?"

As he spoke, Ximen Yuan drew his blade and brought it down on the husband.

The heavy blow nearly cleaved the man in two. At the sight of that bloody scene, the neighbors who had just been filled with righteous indignation scattered like birds and beasts. It was not that they were cowardly. Ximen Yuan's bloodstained blade was already pointing at them—if they did not run, they would likely become the next corpse.

Once the crowd had fled and the road was clear, Ximen Yuan called to his lackeys. They took ropes, tied up the woman, and carried her all the way back to their mountain stronghold.

Even after being thrown into the dungeon, the woman remained too terrified to recover her senses. All she remembered was blood—blood everywhere. Her husband had been cut in half with a single stroke, half his body collapsed upon their breakfast stall.

That stall had been the hope that she and her husband would someday live a good life.

But now, there was only blood.

Blood everywhere.

A night of madness.

Early the next morning, Ximen Yuan was refreshed from head to toe and thoroughly satisfied. It was not merely because he had won a beauty for himself, but because that beauty had not sought death after being forcibly taken by him. She had even risen early of her own accord to wash her hands and make him soup.

Conquering someone's heart was undoubtedly a greater accomplishment than conquering the person herself. Ximen Yuan could not help feeling as though he were floating on air.

But he still remembered the most basic precaution.

"Let the lady eat first."

Looking at the tofu pudding and braised meat the woman had brought over, Ximen Yuan had no intention of touching his bowl or chopsticks.

The woman, however, simply picked up a bowl and took two bites without the slightest hesitation.

After waiting another quarter of an hour and confirming that the woman showed no signs of poison taking effect and dying, Ximen Yuan finally set his mind at ease. He picked up his bowl, ready to taste the beauty's cooking.

It was then that a sharp kitchen cleaver stabbed through his chest and abdomen.

One stab in, swiftly pulled out, followed by a second, a third... In only a few breaths, Ximen Yuan's chest and abdomen had taken more than a dozen blows. His neck had been slashed to mangled ruin by the sharp blade.

Yet just as Ximen Yuan gathered his last bit of strength, preparing to seize that damned woman and trade her life for his, the woman wielding the cleaver had already nimbly retreated three steps away.

Only three short steps, yet for Ximen Yuan at that moment, it was a distance he could never reach.

After killing Ximen Yuan, the woman did not stop moving. His lackeys had heard the commotion and rushed in with weapons in hand. But upon seeing Ximen Yuan lying in a pool of blood, rather than being shocked, they were delighted. They all thought that with their boss dead, they had a chance to rise in rank.

But the woman was faster than they were.

Just as the first lackey raised his weapon, the woman holding the cleaver had already charged into his embrace. Before that posture of throwing herself into his arms could bring him any joy, seven or eight bursts of searing pain tore through his chest and abdomen.

The second lackey had only just raised his blade when the bloodied cleaver slashed open his wrist first. Its sharp edge severed the major tendons as easily as cutting braised meat. What followed were more than ten rapid thrusts at his neck, reducing the entire thing to shredded flesh until even his head could no longer stay attached.

Seeing two companions butchered on the spot in mere moments, the remaining lackeys were scared out of their wits. But the woman gave them no chance to flee. She merely strode after them and hacked them to death in a frenzy of blades.

Afterward, covered in blood from head to toe, the woman carried her kitchen cleaver and staggered back toward her own breakfast stall.

Some neighbors saw her along the way and recoiled again and again in fright at her blood-soaked appearance. Facing their fearful gazes, the woman only gave a bitter smile and shook her head. She had never resented them for failing to help in that moment of danger. They had only shared the acquaintance of eating breakfast at her stall—how could she expect them to risk their lives to save her entire family?

She only resented herself.

If she had not stubbornly insisted on her own way back then, if she had not been greedy for that little bit of profit, she and her husband would not have ended up like this.

One was dead, and the other...

"Husband, I'm coming to keep you company."

With that, the woman raised her blade and slit her own throat before the breakfast stall she and her husband had run together, dying for love.

And after witnessing all of this, Du Chengfeng finally gained something that could be called martial arts.

It was the technique the woman had used to slaughter Ximen Yuan and the others.

A martial art known as the Crimson-Piercing Art.