Returning Home

Zhou Yan stayed at the martial hall for a few more days, then asked Ma Tou'er for two days off, saying he wanted to go home and take a look.

Ma Tou'er did not ask much. He merely waved him away.

After leaving the county town, he first detoured to Li Family Village.

Ever since Zhou Xing had married into that village, he had never visited her even once.

Li Family Village was small, with only a few dozen households and a crooked locust tree at its entrance.

Zhou Yan asked an old man squatting by a wall in the sun. The old man pointed to the third house at the eastern end of the village.

The courtyard gate stood open. Zhou Xing was feeding chickens inside, scattering a handful of grain as more than a dozen chickens fluttered over to surround her.

She wore a faded blue cotton shirt, its sleeves rolled up to her elbows.

Hearing footsteps, she looked up and froze for a moment.

"Zhou Yan?"

"Sis."

Zhou Xing set the grain scoop on the ground, wiped her hands twice on her apron, and ran over.

She stood before him, looked him over twice, then reached out and squeezed his arm.

Zhou Yan looked at her, and his heart felt a little sour.

In his previous life, he had been an only child. He had never known what it felt like to have an older sister.

In this life, he had been born into a family where his father did not care for him and his mother did not love him. Only this sister had protected him ever since they were young.

When the family split apart, she had already married out, yet she had specifically come back.

With Zhao San beside her, she pointed at their parents' noses and cursed them out, warning them not to mistreat their third son. She had only been nineteen that year.

"You've gotten thinner. Didn't you get enough to eat at the martial hall?"

"I eat enough, Sis. I've just been training a lot."

"You need to eat even more if you're training a lot." Zhou Xing slapped his shoulder, then turned and shouted toward the house, "Zhao Shan! Your brother-in-law is here!"

Zhao Shan came out of the house with a hoe in hand and mud on his trouser legs.

When he saw Zhou Yan, he grinned. "You came at the right time. Your sister stewed chicken today."

The house was not large. A square table stood in the middle, while an iron pot on the stove bubbled and steamed.

Zhou Xing brought over a bowl of water and set it on the table, then began looking him over again.

"I heard Zhao Shan say you're in Class B now?"

"Yeah." Zhou Yan nodded with a smile.

"I knew it." Zhou Xing smiled. "When you were little, you were the cleverest one in the family. Father and Mother always said you were quiet. So what if you were? Quiet people know what they're doing. They know when to fight and when to seize something. You've always been sharp."

Zhao Shan leaned against the doorframe and tapped the mud from his shoes with his hoe. "He's pretty good at fighting now."

"As long as he can fight." Zhou Xing got up and went to check the pot. "Don't let anyone bully you at the martial hall."

"No one bullies him," Zhao Shan said. "I heard people from Class C say everyone calls him Senior Brother Zhou now."

During the meal, Zhou Xing kept putting chicken into Zhou Yan's bowl.

When he was about to leave, Zhou Yan took out a silver ingot from his clothes—twenty taels—and placed it on the table.

Zhou Xing stared blankly at the silver.

"Sis, take it. Buy yourself a couple of new outfits."

"Where did you get so much money?"

"The Sun Family gave it to me. Don't worry, I still have enough."

Zhou Xing reached out and shoved it back. Her eyes suddenly reddened. "Do you think your sister treats you well for that little bit of silver? Take it back!"

Zhao Shan, knowing the siblings' temperaments, stuffed the silver back into her hand. "Keep it. Your brother has more money than I do now."

Zhou Xing clutched the silver and walked Zhou Yan to the village entrance. Standing beneath the crooked locust tree, she watched him until he disappeared into the distance.

After leaving Li Family Village, Zhou Yan walked for less than half an hour before Willow Village came into view in the distance.

The entire way to Willow Village, Zhou Yan did not feel the slightest warmth in his heart.

In his previous life, he had been an only child. His family had not been wealthy, but at least both his parents were there. In this life, he had been born into this family, where his father did not care for him and his mother did not love him. He did the hardest work and ate the worst food. In the depths of winter, he had gone barefoot to carry water until his lips turned purple from the cold, yet no one had asked after him.

What this family had given him was cold food, contemptuous looks, and treating him as an unwanted extra even when the family split apart.

Now that their attitude had changed, it was because he brought money home and because he was close to becoming a Martial Adept.

This trip home was both a visit and the last time he would ever return.

The village was still the same village, but his family's courtyard was different.

The earthen courtyard walls had been replaced with half-brick ones. The old roof tiles had been redone, and several newly made farming tools lay in the yard.

His mother, Madam Liu, was sitting at the entrance picking vegetables. When she looked up and saw someone walking down the alley, she narrowed her eyes for a closer look.

After staring for several breaths, the vegetables fell from her hand, and joy overflowed across her face.

"Third?"

"Mother."

Madam Liu stood up, her legs not quite steady as she walked over and grabbed Zhou Yan's hand tightly.

"You've gotten thinner and darker, but stronger."

She pulled Zhou Yan into the courtyard, her mouth never stopping.

"Your brother-in-law had people bring word several times, saying you entered some Class B. When he came back a while ago, he even said you were doing well at the martial hall and that becoming a Martial Adept in the future was a certainty! Your father used the silver you sent home to build the house. Look at this wall, newly built. Now everyone in the village calls your father Old Brother Zhou when they see him. He never got that kind of treatment before. Zhang Laosan's wife even came by two days ago to ask about you being at the martial hall. She said their boy wanted to go too. I told her, could their boy endure that kind of hardship?"

"Your second brother and fourth brother have both been sent to the neighboring village to study. They aren't suited for martial arts, so I thought that now the family has money, it would be good to send them to school and let them learn a few characters!" Madam Liu said with a smile.

Clearly, the family had already begun treating Zhou Yan as their pillar.

These days, whoever brought money home held the highest status. That person was the master of the house.

His father, Zhou Dazhuang, came back from the fields carrying a hoe, his trouser legs rolled up to his knees and his feet covered in mud.

Seeing someone seated inside, he smiled and said, "Good that you're back," then leaned the hoe against the wall and went to wash his hands by the stove.

At dinner, there were several more meat dishes than before.

Madam Liu kept putting food into his bowl until it was nearly piled over the rim.

Zhou Yan pushed aside the food in his bowl, took out a silver ingot from his clothes—ten taels—and set it on the table.

Madam Liu's eyes lit up, and her hand reached for it.

"This silver is the last time," Zhou Yan suddenly said.

Madam Liu's hand froze in midair. "Third, what do you mean by that...?"

"From now on, you live your lives, and I'll live mine," Zhou Yan said. "Don't tell outsiders that I'm from the Zhou Family, and don't use my name to act however you please outside. I'm out in the world now. Anyone associated with me could be dragged into disaster. Remember that!"

Madam Liu's expression changed bit by bit. "You're cutting ties with the family? You're going to become a Martial Adept. The family will be counting on you from now on..."

"Counting on me?" Zhou Yan looked at her coldly. "For the past ten-plus years, who did I ever have to count on?"

The room instantly fell silent.

Zhou Dazhuang lowered his head and smoked his pipe without saying a word.

Madam Liu's lips moved. Knowing she was in the wrong, she still wanted to say something, but Zhou Yan lifted his eyes and looked at her.

That look was calm—so calm that every word she had left lodged in her throat.

She suddenly remembered how this son had looked as a child, skinny as kindling. In the dead of winter, he had gone to the well to carry water, the buckets taller than he was. Water spilled all along the road, and when he got home, she had still scolded him.

Back then, she had felt nothing. But under the gaze of those eyes now, she suddenly realized that everything she had owed him over the years might never be repaid.

"Keep the silver." Zhou Yan stood up and took out another twenty taels. "This money counts as repayment for giving birth to me and raising me. If you spend carefully, it'll be enough for the whole family to live on for a lifetime. From now on, we go our separate ways."

He walked to the door and paused. "Take care of yourselves."

Madam Liu clutched the silver ingot as tears fell from her eyes. Whether they came from fear or regret, even she did not know.

But she knew that this son of hers would never return.

Zhou Yan did not look back.

Zhou Dazhuang squatted on the threshold, his pipe unlit, watching Zhou Yan's retreating back without moving.

After leaving Willow Village, Zhou Yan did not return directly to the county town.

He took a detour toward Blackwind Ridge.

That was the true purpose of this trip.

Blackwind Ridge was called a ridge, but it was actually a stretch of rolling low mountains, thick with forest and terribly desolate.

This was where he had run into Zhao Mo being besieged, and where he had later secretly buried the bodies.

After that, he had hidden Lei Bao's group and the corpses from White Cloud Martial Hall among a pile of rocks in the mountains.

Zhao Mo and the Black Tiger Hall corpses had been left in one place, while the White Cloud Martial Hall people and Lei Bao's group were hidden elsewhere.

Zhao Mo's skeleton had already been discovered.

But if the other site were uncovered, a check of the blade wounds and fist marks, followed by comparing notes with White Cloud Martial Hall, would immediately lead the trail to him.

There was no time to waste!

After crossing a mountain ridge, he vaguely heard activity ahead.

He crouched behind a boulder and looked down. Seven or eight people sat at the edge of the woods, all with Azure Cloud Gang badges hanging from their waists.

The most conspicuous was a lean man in his forties, seated atop a blue stone with his eyes closed in rest. A thick-backed saber lay beside him.

Someone beside him offered him water, but he did not take it. His aura was steady and heavy.

Even from dozens of paces away, Zhou Yan could feel that oppressive force. Qi Gathering Greater Achievement—and he had clearly remained at that realm for many years.

Two other Qi-Gathering Realm practitioners stood beside him.

One was in his early thirties, with thick brows and a broad face, two short blades tucked into his belt.

The other was younger, around twenty. He was using a stone to carve markers into tree trunks, impatience written across his face.

The remaining four were all in the Body-Tempering Realm, sitting on the ground chewing dry rations and drinking water.

The young man carving marks spoke first, smashing his stone to the ground. "We've been searching for months. We've turned this damn mountain over more than three times already. We still have to search?"

The lean man did not open his eyes. "Then what do you suggest? The gang leader said search. If you don't like it, go talk it over with the gang leader yourself."

"Song Tou'er, I just don't get it." The young man squatted down. "We've already investigated Black Tiger Hall's people thoroughly. They all cultivate hard-body techniques. If they weren't the ones who killed the young gang leader, then maybe it was another gang. What about Heavenly Peak Martial Arts Hall? What about Mountain-Suppressing Martial Hall? Why do we have to investigate within the gang?"

"You don't understand." The lean man opened his eyes. "We aren't here to investigate who killed the young gang leader. Black Tiger Hall killed him. That is already beyond doubt. But that isn't what the gang leader sent us to search for. The Mountain-Breaking Fist manual the young gang leader carried was lost."

The young man froze. "The manual?"

"The booklet containing the Mountain-Breaking Fist formula. The young gang leader carried it with him. When his body was found, there was nothing on it. The blade wounds were from Black Tiger Hall blades, but the manual was gone. The gang leader suspects there was a third party present at the time. Black Tiger Hall killed the young gang leader, then amid the chaos, someone searched the corpse and stole the manual."

The young man's eyes widened. "So the gang leader is searching the mountain to find the person who stole the manual?"

"We can't find the person. We have to find traces of him." The lean man stood and dusted off his robe. "Mountain-Breaking Fist is the Azure Cloud Gang's exclusive fist art. Only the gang leader and the young gang leader knew how to use it in the entire gang. If the manual falls into an outsider's hands, it will no longer be exclusive. The gang leader said the person who stole the manual must still be in Qingyun County. He also killed people from the He Family. It takes at least half a year to train Mountain-Breaking Fist from beginner level to minor accomplishment, and two or three years more to reach major accomplishment. As long as we keep an eye on those whose martial skill has advanced by leaps and bounds recently, we'll find him sooner or later."

Hearing this, Zhou Yan frowned as he remained hidden behind the boulder.