A Complete Nobody

Duan Yun had failed to borrow any fire, so he could only head to the market, buy several fire starters himself, then return and burn the man-bear.

A bear with a human brain growing from it—he could not rest easy without burning it.

Raging flames engulfed the bear, and the air was immediately filled with the scent of roasting fat mixed with a charred stench.

Had he not seen that human brain, he would not have considered trying the bear meat.

It was simply too bizarre.

The fire burned ever fiercer until the entire bear had been roasted into charcoal. Duan Yun then swept out a Water-Moon Slash, chopping it into fragments before finally leaving in peace.

After this incident, Duan Yun had learned a lesson.

In his previous life, he had only encountered such malicious mimic chests while playing Soulslike games. But in this absurd and terrifying world, such things could truly happen.

All he could say was that opening chests carried risks, and one had to proceed with caution.

That chest had always been there. If someone else opened it someday and lacked martial skills like his, it would likely become a terrible tragedy.

He had, in a roundabout way, eliminated a menace for the people.

As for why a bear could survive so long inside a chest underwater, why it had remained motionless until the chest was opened, Duan Yun no longer wished to understand.

It had a human head grafted onto its brain, and it still wanted to talk about science?

Over the past two-plus months of cultivation, Duan Yun had lived a quiet life and had nearly grown accustomed to such stability and peace.

Yet that chest reminded him that this was still the perilous and absurd martial world.

After returning to Bamboo Grove Cottage, Duan Yun began packing his luggage.

Half the side room and courtyard wall had collapsed, and they would be difficult to repair anytime soon. He needed to patch walls and plaster them over, and he had no construction experience.

He could not get his deposit back for the time being. He could only wait until he had killed everyone in the Black Bear Gang, then return to settle the matter.

In any case, traveling there and back and killing the Black Bear Gang would take only a few days, so there was no need to explain things to the landlord first.

There was still some time before dawn, but Duan Yun had already set off.

He was going back to send the Black Bear Gang on their way. At the very least, he had to make it in time for lunch.

Only after lunch would he have the strength to kill people.

Within the thick night, heaven and earth were as dim as when he had camped in the wilderness before.

Yet Duan Yun's mood was utterly different from before.

Two months ago, he had been fleeing disaster, running away. Now, he was returning to resolve the trouble.

He truly was not holding a grudge. Only when the Black Bear Gang was gone could he solve the problem of hiding everywhere, living in fear, and being unable to return home.

It was now just nearing the end of summer, earlier than he had expected before the weather turned cool.

Following his old route back gave him the feeling of revisiting familiar ground.

Under the faint moonlight, Duan Yun crossed that wasteland again. He saw those burial mounds again, and the tree trunk pierced by his Jade Sword Finger.

Though only a little over two months had passed, it felt as though a lifetime had gone by.

He was much stronger now than before.

Duan Yun strode down the empty road, moving swiftly without feeling tired.

Now, even traveling two hundred li in a day did not leave him red-faced or short of breath.

That was the benefit of cultivation.

He traveled without pause, walking from nightfall to dawn, from dawn to noon. The road had begun with only him trudging along alone, but later he could see farmers laboring in the fields. At last, Duan Yun arrived at Riverside City.

In the two-plus months since he had left, Riverside City had not changed much.

If there was any change, it was that a few more graves had appeared outside the city.

In this place, people died of old age, illness, or simply being beaten or killed by others with rather alarming ease.

Still, no matter what, Duan Yun had made it in time for lunch.

He ate braised-flavor noodles in the city.

A large bowl, with a braised chicken drumstick added.

If Duan Yun still had any attachment to this place, then this old-established noodle shop and his old house, where he did not need to pay rent, were the two things.

He had only eaten half his noodles when three Black Bear Gang members sat down.

Duan Yun continued eating, while beneath the table his left hand had already formed a sword-finger gesture.

One of the Black Bear Gang disciples suddenly looked at him and said, "What the hell are you looking at?"

Duan Yun did not respond.

That Black Bear Gang disciple was about to continue shouting abuse, but then the noodles arrived. At his companions' urging, he stopped paying attention to Duan Yun and continued eating.

Duan Yun was very disappointed in him.

All he knew was how to eat.

Judging by the thickness of that Black Bear Gang disciple's palms, he was inferior to Wang Li, who had tried to kill Duan Yun back then.

In Duan Yun's experience, the thicker a person's palms had been trained, the more extreme that person seemed to be, and the more likely he was to throw tantrums like a brat.

After finishing his noodles, Duan Yun headed straight home, a question rising in his heart.

Could it be that no bounty had been placed on me?

Those three Black Bear Gang disciples had clearly seen his handsome face, yet they had barely reacted.

Upon returning near his home, Duan Yun climbed over the wall like a thief, then a bad premonition welled up within him.

Other than a thick layer of dust covering the house and three-foot-tall weeds growing over the patch of soil where Wang Li was buried, everything was unchanged.

Even the strand of hair he had tied to the door lock before leaving was still there.

Of course, there was now an official seal on the door stating that the protection fee had not been paid.

That meant that over the past two-plus months, no one aside from those collecting protection fees had come here at all.

As Duan Yun rinsed the dust from the house with water, he sighed, "No one came? No one discovered that I killed someone and buried the body?"

"So after all that swaggering, you're just a complete nobody?"

Standing beneath that crooked-necked tree, Duan Yun could not help but sigh.

It was as though the Black Bear Gang had forgotten they even had an elite gang member named Wang Li.

Yes, if that bastard had not truly been wearing Black Bear Gang clothes that day, and if his right hand had not been the distinctive "Bear Paw," Duan Yun would even have suspected that he was not one of the Black Bear Gang.

That afternoon, Duan Yun took another turn through the bustling parts of town. He even went directly to the Black Bear Gang's headquarters to ask around, yet no one mentioned Wang Li.

Wang Li was a complete nobody, and so was he, the one who had killed Wang Li.

Did I run away for nothing?

Did I pay rent for nothing?

For a moment, Duan Yun actually felt somewhat disappointed.

The scene he had imagined was that the Black Bear Gang would discover his movements and be determined to avenge their brother Wang Li. Then he would go on a killing spree, slaughter straight through the Black Bear Gang, and avenge the grievance of having to leave his homeland and pay rent.

Only that would have eased his hatred!

But now they were telling him that he had never needed to flee.

Because no one cared about Wang Li, and no one cared about him, the man who had killed Wang Li.

The two of them had been like a private grudge, and when he killed in return, everything had long since ended.

So did he still need to wipe out the entire Black Bear Gang?

As Duan Yun walked home, he suddenly heard a loud series of slaps, along with a girl's crying.

Unable to resist, he craned his neck like everyone else to watch the commotion.

He saw a man selling chestnuts and sweet potatoes being grabbed by a Black Bear Gang member and repeatedly slapped.

"Can you pay the protection fee or not?" the Black Bear Gang man asked as he slapped him.

Half the man's face had swollen up, blood streaming from his nose. He begged, "Sir, someone at home fell ill this time, business has been bad, and you raised it by another thirty percent. This really is all I have."

"So you're blaming us?"

As the Black Bear Gang member spoke, he delivered another slap, sending the man straight to the ground and making him cough up blood.

Beside them, a little girl of about five or six clutched the fallen man's arm and wailed, "Dad... sob, Dad..."

Looking at the man on the ground, Duan Yun seemed to see himself being kicked around like a cuju ball back then.

No, this was even worse than what had happened to him.

If he had a daughter someday and someone beat him like this in front of her, it would be something neither he nor his daughter could ever accept.

Though the man's face had swollen like a steamed bun and blood had already soaked onto his clothes, he still comforted the little girl. "It's all right, Xiaoting. Dad's all right. Don't cry."

"All right, is it?"

"Don't cry, is it?"

With a bang, the lackey beside them kicked the man in the face again, sending broken teeth flying.

At that point, the man, who had been suppressing his pain all along, could no longer endure it and let out a cry of agony.

Meanwhile, the three Black Bear Gang men revealed delighted smiles.

At the sight of this, the last trace of doubt in Duan Yun's heart completely vanished.

Some carbon-based lifeforms were an insult to the air simply by being alive.

He had actually been softhearted just now?

How naively ridiculous!