A Hero Had Just Walked Out of That House

Chen Xu's blade cleaved straight into the center of the old woman's brow.

This strike was like wood chopping, clearly intending to split the old woman straight down the middle.

The old woman's hands were too slow. She had no time to reach for what was in her robes, but she suddenly opened her mouth, spitting out a scarlet snake tongue like a venomous serpent!

The snake tongue traced a nimble arc through the air, scattering a spray of rancid droplets as it lunged straight for Chen Xu's face.

Though it struck later, the snake tongue was actually faster than Chen Xu's blade.

The old woman let out a venomous, hate-filled shriek. "You dare kill my son? Die... ah!"

Pfft—

In the darkness, the indistinct young man opened his mouth and exhaled a blast of flames.

The roaring fire, like banners swept backward by the wind, instantly burned the snake tongue the old woman had spat out into a limp, blackened mess that hissed with smoke.

Chen Xu's blade followed close behind, chopping straight down in the firelight.

With a crack.

Like rotten firewood split in two, the old woman only had time to spit out one final, unwilling cry. "You!"

Bang, bang—blood sprayed forth.

Her body had already split into two pieces, each falling to one side.

Was everything over?

No, not yet.

From the middle of that body split in two, a dark-red bead somehow rolled out. It was inconspicuous in the night, but fortunately, Chen Xu possessed the talent to see through food tags.

[Evil Thought Bead, an object nurtured from greed, anger, delusion, rage... all evil thoughts. Ghosts and gods may consume it. After consumption, it increases the Divine Soul of the Nine Netherworlds and reveals what the vessel of evil thoughts saw within one incense stick before death. Can unlock the recipe: Ghost Punishing Pill.]

There was something strange about this thing!

As Chen Xu pondered, he saw the dark-red Evil Thought Bead, as though it possessed a spirit of its own, silently rolling toward a shadowed corner the instant his gaze slipped away.

At this moment, Chen Xu had just killed two people. All the clamor in the darkness seemed to sink into silence beneath the curtain of night.

Yet somewhere in the distance, the wind seemed to swell, and the chill of the spring night faintly assailed him.

The neighboring households of Jingsha Ward seemed to have heard some commotion from the sheep seller's home. Muffled voices asked anxiously in the dark, "Honey, why does something seem off at Old Man Yang's house?"

"Mind your own business!"

The noisy wind only made the night seem stiller.

Chen Xu suddenly strode forward like an arrow, stepping on the Evil Thought Bead. With a thought, he stored it inside Embers Kitchen.

Having reached this point, Chen Xu relaxed slightly.

But it was still not enough.

Holding his blade, he used its flat to lift the black cloth covering a handcart and saw six little white lambs sleeping atop it, piled together.

The lambs were packed tightly together, each with a pink nose and red lips. They looked tender and adorable—so adorable that it was almost eerie.

Chen Xu's heart sank slightly. He first pushed the handcart beside the tightly shut courtyard gate, then turned back to examine the mother and son's corpses on the ground.

After confirming that both were truly dead, Chen Xu began dealing with the aftermath.

He took a bundle of rope from a huge wooden rack nearby, tied the corpses together, then dragged them into the adjoining room.

Chen Xu entered the room and quickly searched it once over.

He did not dare waste too much time. With only a cursory search, he found just over thirty taels of silver and more than ten strings of loose copper coins.

Besides that, there were some sacrificial objects that looked sinister and impossible to identify. Especially in the main room, where a savage black goat-head idol with pointed horns was enshrined. Chen Xu did not even step inside for a closer look before a wave of extremely unpleasant, evil Killing Intent washed over him.

He simply did not enter that room at all, merely tossing the mother and son's bodies into the kitchen next door.

Calling it a kitchen, this room ought to have been called a corpse-dissection room instead.

There were still sheep bones, sheep heads, and scattered chunks of mutton left inside.

Yet none of those so-called "sheep goods" had any tags above them!

One could imagine what those sheep goods were actually made of.

Though Chen Xu had killed the mother and son, the anger in his heart only surged higher.

He left the kitchen, came into the courtyard, and snapped his fingers from a distance.

A ball of orange-red flame sprang into existence inside that so-called kitchen.

Anger churned within Chen Xu. The fire in his heart blazed fiercely. He heard the pounding of his own heart, and he heard his Vital Blood rushing through his body.

The fiercer the heart-fire, the more violent the flames.

In but an instant, the raging blaze ignited both the kitchen and the main room beside it.

Roaring flames shot into the sky.

[Fire Control Level 1 (92/100)]

[Fire Control Level 1 (93/100)]

(96/100)

...

Driven by that intense fury, the experience for Fire Control rose in a straight line.

The heart was the master of fire; the spirit was the intent of fire.

What was Fire Control?

So this was Fire Control.

[Fire Control Level 1 (100/100)]

Crack—like a mighty pass collapsing at a single charge.

In that instant, Chen Xu achieved enlightenment!

Yet prompts continued to emerge from the panel of the Cauldron Scripture.

[You killed to achieve benevolence, gaining one measure of exhilaration and three measures of melancholy. Reward: 100 Firework Value.]

[Your thoughts became clear and unimpeded. You obtained one qian of Heart Fire Divine Lotus. Reward: 100 Firework Value.]

Chen Xu let out a long breath.

Just then, cries of alarm rose one after another from the neighboring streets.

"Fire!"

"What's going on? Old Man Yang's house is on fire? Quick, go put it out!"

Courtyard gates opened one after another, and figures rushed out.

Even those unwilling to meddle in others' affairs did not dare ignore a neighbor's house burning down.

From the main street farther away came the urgent clang of a gong at once. "Dong dong dong—"

"Fire! There's a fire in Jingsha Quarter!"

The night watchman shouted at the top of his lungs.

The Wuhou Post on the street also sprang into action, and more and more cries blended into one continuous roar.

But Chen Xu moved faster than everyone else.

He kicked open Old Man Yang's courtyard gate and, under the shadows cast by the firelight, pushed the handcart piled with lambs out the door.

The handcart was left in the middle of the street. Before the neighbors rushing from their homes could even look at the fire in Old Man Yang's house, they saw the handcart in the road.

Naturally, no one had time to care about it at first. Some carried buckets, others splashed water, all shouting, "Quick, put out the fire!"

"Yang! Yang Dazhu, are you awake? Your house is on fire! Get out here..."

"Old Woman Yang! Old Woman Yang!"

More and more people ran out, and the street soon became a crush of bodies.

At last, someone noticed the handcart in the street and said in surprise, "Why is this handcart blocking the road? Quick, move it aside..."

Before he could finish, someone came up beside him and grabbed him. "Don't rush. I just heard that what's on this handcart isn't sheep—it's actually people, people turned into sheep by the Yang mother and son using the Livestock Creation Art!"

"What?"

Amid the chaotic scene, such bizarre words made people wonder whether their ears had gone wrong.

The young man in the darkness repeated, "It really is the Livestock Creation Art. These aren't real sheep—they're people transformed into sheep. A hero had just walked out of Old Man Yang's house and told me. He said that as long as we force these sheep to drink water, the Livestock Creation Art can be broken.

"If you don't believe me, then let's give the sheep water right now."

Having said that, the young man snatched a bucket of water from a nearby neighbor, picked up one sleeping lamb, pried open its mouth, and truly began pouring water down its throat, gulp after gulp.