The rain stopped in the latter half of the night. Chen Xu carried the silver box and returned silently to Ping'an Alley beneath the curtain of darkness.
He divided the silver in the box into several portions and hid them separately around his room, then summoned the Cauldron Scripture to check the latest data.
[Accumulated Likes: 767] [Free Attribute Points: 13] [Firework Value: 113]
This trip had not been in vain. Not only had he obtained a considerable sum of silver, but the various figures in the Cauldron Scripture had also increased substantially.
He was drawing ever closer to accumulating 1,000 likes, and Chen Xu could even raise his Threefold Attributes to their limit at any time.
Yet Chen Xu was in no hurry to spend all his points. He wanted to leave himself some leeway, lest his Threefold Attributes overflow before the God of Cookery Cultivation Scroll was unlocked and affect his perfect Foundation Establishment.
What concerned him more now was that his Wood Chopping Saber Technique had already reached the limit of Level One. Next, he ought to unlock the Level Two cultivation method.
But he had checked before: unlocking Level Two Wood Chopping required 160 Firework Value.
His current Firework Value was still insufficient.
Was the night simply supposed to end like this?
Go home and sleep, then wait until new Firework Value came in the next day before unlocking Level Two Wood Chopping?
That had indeed been Chen Xu's original thought, but after returning to his room, he tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep.
That fleeting glimpse of the sheep's head kept surfacing before his eyes—the white wool, the red eyes, the tear stains gathered at the corners, the curled horns like two scimitars thrust diagonally into the darkness.
Chen Xu's heart thudded wildly. He abruptly sat up in bed and cursed under his breath, "Damn it, I'm doing it!"
If he did not, his thoughts would never run clear.
What the hell was this? Selling sheep made through the Livestock Creation Art openly on South Market Street. If he had never learned of it, so be it—but now that he knew, why could he not wield the blade in his hand and cry out against injustice?
The woodcutter's blade was in Embers Kitchen. Chen Xu had later discovered that he could take the blade out and put it away again whenever he wished.
It was one of the few non-food items in Embers Kitchen that could be taken out and stored away.
Chen Xu steadied his breathing and did not immediately take out the woodcutter's blade. Instead, he listened to the sounds outside. After the night watchman passed by once more, he slipped lightly out of his house and headed straight for South Market Street.
Chen Xu knew that some of the permanent vendors on South Market Street actually lived in Ping'an Alley. However, the sheep seller did not live here, but on the other side of South Market Street, in Jingsha Quarter.
Jingsha Quarter sounded the same as "Cleanse Killing Intent Quarter."
It was said that butchers, sheep sellers, and the like slaughtered too many living things, their Killing Intent too heavy, so strange incidents often occurred at night.
Thus, all the stallholders on South Market Street who sold meat gathered to live in the nearby neighborhood. They pooled their money and hired an expert to rename the neighborhood Jingsha Quarter.
After that, the so-called strange incidents truly never happened again, and the neighbors returned to peace and harmony.
Chen Xu had only recently moved to Ping'an Alley, but he had heard this legend too.
Before, he had taken it for nothing more than a strange tale from the streets and markets. He had even planned to make up a few related stories and write them into his storybooks.
How could his former ignorant and fearless self have imagined that gods, ghosts, and monsters in this world were stranger by far than anything he could conceive? His imagination had simply been too impoverished!
Chen Xu stepped into Jingsha Quarter beneath the night.
The ground was soaked through, and the air carried an indescribable dampness mixed with a fishy stench. The night was deep and heavy, with neither stars nor moon in the sky. The clouds were so thick that another night rain seemed ready to fall at any moment.
Chen Xu did not know exactly which house the sheep seller lived in, but after his Threefold Attributes reached a balanced thirty points, his sense of smell had gradually become extraordinarily sharp.
Merely passing through a dark street corner, he could distinguish by scent alone—
For instance: this household sold pork, this one sold fish, this one sold mutton... and it was likely real sheep. After all, the smell of real sheep was different.
Chen Xu carefully recalled the various details he had smelled earlier on South Market Street and continued deeper into Jingsha Quarter.
He occasionally encountered rats darting past along the way. They were large and black as pitch, flashing back and forth like lightning, appearing and vanishing in an instant, nowhere near as adorable as the two rats in Chen Xu's home.
Suddenly, Chen Xu stopped in the shadows beside the wall of a household at a corner in Jingsha Quarter.
For in the depths of that night, a flatbed cart had somehow been pushed out from the other end of the street, its wheels rumbling along.
The cart wheels made noise, but the sound was actually very faint.
Chen Xu's eyesight had improved as well. Straining his eyes through the darkness, he could vaguely make out that the wheels had been wrapped in cotton and soft cloth.
Pushing the cart was a rather short but sturdy old woman. Huffing and puffing, she pushed it to the back door of the house at the corner.
Before she could knock, the person inside seemed to have known she was coming. The door suddenly opened, and a voice asked softly, "How was it? Did you get a lot this time?"
Chen Xu found the voice familiar. It belonged to the white-sheep seller from South Market Street!
Sure enough, he had not searched the wrong place. He had found the man himself.
The old woman pushing the cart spoke in a rough, hoarse voice. "Come help me push it in. They're all a bunch of hefty brutes, heavy as hell."
The sheep seller hurried out to help push the cart. Their movements were practiced, clearly something they did often.
The cart was pushed inside, but neither of them noticed that in the brief interval as they moved it and shut the door, someone had already nimbly flipped over the wall from the shadows at the other corner, entering the courtyard before them.
Chen Xu hid at the inner corner of the wall, keeping close to the shadows as he carefully surveyed his surroundings.
At the same time, he listened to the conversation between the sheep seller and the old woman.
The sheep seller lifted the cloth covering the cart and exclaimed in delight, "So many! One, two, three, six—there are six of them! Six! Mother, how did you trick so many sheep into coming?"
So the old woman was actually the sheep seller's mother.
The old woman said in her rough, hoarse voice, "They're all stupid as can be. I just watch for a while and look for children or young girls who are alone. Sometimes I ask for water, sometimes I offer them candy, and it's easy to trick the sheep over.
"A-Zhu, you ought to learn from me too. This craft cannot be known by me alone.
"If I don't pass it on to you, what will happen once I grow old and pass away?"
The sheep seller seemed reluctant. "Mother, it's not as if you don't know. You look kind and gentle, while I look ugly and vicious. You can trick stupid sheep with ease, but if it were me... not a single one would be willing to pay me any attention. It's not that I don't want to learn; it really is difficult to learn. What am I supposed to do?"
"Forget it," said the old woman. "When the time comes, we'll find you a wife and have your wife learn it. Come, before dawn breaks, let's slaughter all the sheep, lest trouble arise if they stay overnight."
The sheep seller said, "Then you set up the pot and boil the water. I'll go get the knife."
He turned to leave, only for a streak of saber light to flare from the side like sudden lightning.
That blade light came too fast. Like a thunderbolt crashing through the night, it descended from the heavens, shoving mountains aside and toppling jade. With a single stroke, it cleaved straight through the sheep seller's neck.
The sheep seller did not even have time to let out a cry of alarm, much less retrieve the knife he used to slaughter sheep.
"Ah—" Behind him, his mother watched with her own eyes as his head was sent flying skyward by the blade light, and she suddenly shrieked.
Whoosh! Another slash.
Chen Xu turned and shifted his footing, his second strike cleaving directly toward the screaming old woman.
The old woman immediately reached into the folds at her waist, seemingly intending to pull something out, but her hand was truly far too slow.
Slower than Chen Xu's blade.
The second strike crashed down before her eyes!
Before you continue