The instant Wang Ping aimed his arrow at the county office, Xu Bingzheng felt a cold killing intent lock onto him. His face flushed, then turned pale.
That damned soldier... I knew he couldn't be trusted!
He glared through gritted teeth at Wang Ping outside the county office. The man's every expression and gesture filled him with unbearable humiliation and rage.
Who was he, after all? How dared a mere peasant point an arrow at him...
But he soon suppressed his anger.
With his martial skill, he was confident he could stop Wang Ping's arrow. Yet he was already in poor condition, and blocking it head-on would worsen his injuries.
He could not accept that.
So, in the next instant, he made his decision. Enduring the searing pain of his worsening injuries, he circulated his Inner Force.
Almost simultaneously, Wang Ping released the string. Like a pebble falling into a lake, the arrow sent rings of visible ripples through the air.
No sound came. The whole hall fell silent.
Or rather, the arrow had left even sound behind. In that soundless world, its dragonlike streak of light hurtled toward the county office.
But just then, four figures moved ahead of it and blocked its path. Shock and disbelief still lingered on their faces, yet their movements showed no hesitation. Using their bodies of flesh and blood, honed to External Arts Perfection, as shields, they wore away the arrow's blazing blood-red light by force!
Aside from Wang Ping, no one understood what had happened.
That included the four veteran constables at External Arts Perfection. Bewilderment was still written across their faces as they died, with no idea why they had suddenly stepped forward.
Only Wang Ping knew why.
The Sky Roc Dragon-Seizing Physique Diagram. That damned official wasn't lying. He really did secretly turn these veteran constables into puppets with Wraith Dragon Force.
Boom!
The arrow's light broke through their formation, spreading frost across its path. After tearing through the four veteran constables, it flew on without slowing and plunged into the deepest part of the county office.
Yet Wang Ping soon seemed to sense something and sighed.
"What a pity. I failed to kill the villain."
Before the words had left his mouth, the flesh across his body began to burst. His vision rapidly darkened, and fierce dizziness and exhaustion left him barely able to stand.
Then the county office doors slowly opened, and Xu Bingzheng strolled out in his imposing official robes. He held an arrow in one hand, blood dripping from the web between his thumb and forefinger. He appeared injured, but judging by his still-composed expression, that was the extent of it.
"Fine archery. Have you perfected the Cloud-Piercing Heaven-Shaking Bow?"
Xu Bingzheng stared at Wang Ping, surrounded and drenched in blood, and said gravely, "You had talent. Why throw your lot in with rebels? You have only yourself to blame."
"Sorry, my hearing isn't very good."
Wang Ping rested a hand on his saber hilt and chuckled. "If the magistrate has something to say, please come closer. Otherwise, I really can't hear you."
Xu Bingzheng said nothing.
"A precious son does not sit beneath a crumbling roof," Xu Bingzheng sneered. "If you cannot reach me, that is your failing. I have no need to accommodate you."
Despite his words, he felt nowhere near as composed as he looked.
That arrow had pierced four heavily armored warriors at External Arts Perfection and still had enough force to draw his blood. If he had been the only one to stop it...
For the first time in years, Xu Bingzheng felt a chill.
What angered him even more was Wang Ping's expression. His life was a candle guttering in the wind, his death imminent, yet there was not the slightest fear on his face.
Does he still have a last resort worth dying for?
At that thought, Xu Bingzheng, ever cautious in his conduct, not only refused to advance but took a step back, placing the constables between himself and Wang Ping.
After this battle, the county office had lost nearly half its constables, including all four veterans. The court's position in Longxing County would grow even more precarious, but Xu Bingzheng cared nothing for that. Compared with such matters, his personal safety was the foremost concern of the court and all under heaven.
After all, he had come to Longxing County under a secret edict from the palace.
And with such a weighty mission entrusted to him, he carried the hopes of the common people on his shoulders. If he truly died at the hands of a brute who could not see the bigger picture, what had the common people done to deserve it?
Nothing, then, mattered more than his safety.
Besides, having saved him, those damned soldiers had died for a worthy cause.
Everyone knew that, though books always said high and low were equal, some lives in this world were simply worth more than others.
"What are you standing there for? Kill him!"
At Xu Bingzheng's command, the constables who had cleared a path closed in again. They remained cautious, afraid Wang Ping might suddenly lash out and kill someone.
At the sight, Wang Ping suddenly laughed.
"Hahaha!"
There was no fear of his approaching death in that laughter, only unrestrained delight.
For one thing, he had settled both debts of this life, to Old Liu and Madam Su. By dying here in public, he would not implicate them.
And besides, one man breaking an army makes a rather heroic tale. If I use the Peace Scripture to settle my corpse after I die, I should get a decent scripture scroll, shouldn't I? Wang Ping imagined it with pleasure. He would satisfy his conscience without coming away empty-handed. His merit would be complete.
Beyond that, there was one thing he looked forward to most.
"Hey, damned official."
In the next instant, Wang Ping reached into his robe and took out a porcelain bottle. Five bold, flowing characters were written on its label:
Heaven's Will Soul-Returning Pill.
"This is what you want, isn't it?"
"Everyone, stop!" Xu Bingzheng abruptly raised a hand, halting the constables. His eyes shone. "Give me the pill, and I shall spare your life."
"...All right."
Wang Ping grinned and casually tossed the bottle to Xu Bingzheng. "There's your pill. Let's see if you dare swallow it."
Xu Bingzheng's expression shifted. He naturally understood Wang Ping's implication. A label did not prove what a pill really was. The martial world was treacherous; heaven knew what the bottle contained. What if it was a deadly poison pill?
But he soon regained his composure.
"Why wouldn't I dare? I can have someone test it. One test will show whether it's genuine. If it is, well and good. If it isn't..."
Xu Bingzheng's gaze turned cold.
"...then you must already have eaten the real one."
"When that time comes, I'll throw your corpse into a pill furnace and refine it again as an ingredient. Believe me, you won't be able to digest that pill's medicinal power."
With that, he stared straight at Wang Ping, hoping to see even the slightest trace of fear on his face. All he saw was contempt.
"You think you'll still get my corpse?"
"What?"
Xu Bingzheng's heart tightened at those words. He urged them on again. "All of you, attack! Whoever kills him will be the new chief constable and receive a thousand taels of silver..."
Thud!
Before he finished speaking, Wang Ping's breath left him. He dropped to his knees on the spot, his bones and sinews shattered and blood pouring from him. Then, before everyone's eyes—
He vanished.
The blood he had shed remained, but his flesh and bones were gone. Only his bloodstained clothes lay spread on the ground. His corpse had vanished without warning!
Xu Bingzheng could no longer remain where he was. He strode forward and examined the scene with an ashen face. Every trace of smugness disappeared, replaced by deep wariness. "A vanished corpse... Something strange is at work. Could the Aberration attached to Shouchong have taken an interest in him too?"
At that thought, he lost all desire to pursue the matter.
Or rather, it was not a matter he ought to concern himself with.
He shifted his gaze and pointed casually at the strongest martial artist among the remaining constables. "From this day on, you are the county office's new chief constable."
"...Yes, sir."
The chosen constable lowered his head and answered respectfully. His tone even seemed somewhat excited, yet Xu Bingzheng heard the reluctance beneath it.
His expression darkened further.
The effect Wang Ping had had on him in this battle went far beyond that one arrow. Or rather... that arrow had never been meant solely to kill him.
More than kill my body, he meant to strike at my heart.
Xu Bingzheng understood now. To stop Wang Ping's desperate arrow, he had exposed not only his ability to control puppets but also his own way of doing things.
Put simply, a subordinate's achievements belonged to his superior, and a superior's mistakes belonged to his subordinates.
Everyone now knew he was a man who would force his subordinates to take an arrow for him in a crisis. How could such a man earn anyone's loyalty?
Never mind. It hardly matters.
I won't be stationed here for long anyway. A madman like Wang Ping, willing to storm the county office without regard for his own life, is rare. There won't be a second.
With that thought, Xu Bingzheng put the matter aside. He hurried back to his study in the county office with the pill and took it out of the bottle. At a glance, it was a clear, glassy sphere. Merely exposing it to the air filled the surroundings with a medicinal fragrance.
"It certainly looks real."
Xu Bingzheng gazed at it greedily and could not help swallowing. Still, he restrained himself and carefully extended a tool to scrape off a thin layer of powder.
Then he summoned a servant from the county office.
"Eat this."
In the past, the servant would have swallowed it without hesitation. This time, however, hesitation showed on his face after Xu Bingzheng spoke.
The change instantly enraged Xu Bingzheng.
"You insolent wretch!"
Before the words had left his mouth, he slapped the servant across the face. Not bothering with further talk, he forced the powder into the man's mouth.
Under Xu Bingzheng's expectant gaze, the servant first retched where he stood, then knelt in terror. A full quarter-hour passed without any change in his body... At the sight, Xu Bingzheng's eyes grew brighter.
"It's genuine!"
Wang Ping had previously tried to study the effects of Heaven's Will Soul-Returning Pill but learned nothing, because taking it produced no visible change.
In truth, he had missed the point.
If my revered teacher hadn't instructed me beforehand, I probably wouldn't understand either. Within the court, Heaven's Will Soul-Returning Pill has another name.
The Elixir of Immortality.
It produced no immediate change in the body because its effects lay in the future. Simply put, one pill granted ten years of life!
To be safe, I should cut off a small piece and test it.
After some thought, Xu Bingzheng dug a small piece from the pill's edge and gave it to the servant. This time, the servant suddenly clutched his throat.
Moments later, the servant collapsed to the floor.
Poisoned to death.
"As I thought, there's a trick to it... It's a Heartbreak Pill."
Xu Bingzheng's face turned ashen. He studied the pill carefully again, then pared away layer after thick layer from the longan-sized sphere.
In testing it, he poisoned three more servants to death. Only then did he finally obtain a pill no bigger than a fingernail. Tests showed it was entirely free of poison, and its effects matched the description of Heaven's Will Soul-Returning Pill. Xu Bingzheng breathed a sigh of relief and transferred it to another container as though it were a priceless treasure.
"This medicine is exceedingly precious. I must send it to my revered teacher."
Though he coveted those ten years of life himself, he was still in his prime. More than longevity, he wanted to advance so he could continue contributing to the common people.
With that thought, he beckoned at once.
"Someone, bring me my Golden-Eyed Eagle. Send this to the Imperial Academy in the capital with all haste. Tell Master Cheng to take it as soon as possible, and say it is a token of his disciple's filial devotion..."
By the next morning, the smell of blood had finally faded.
Doors opened across the county town, and countless people talked among themselves. They had only one subject: the battle that had swept through more than half the town the night before.
Word soon spread beyond the town walls.
Seven days later, in the peach grove outside town.
Madam Su had set aside her dress and changed into mourning clothes. She sat numbly on a blue stone beside the stream.
Beside her, a young woman with a high ponytail and long, slender legs quietly recounted what she had learned around town over the past few days.
"I have to admit, he was brave."
"That final arrow of his failed to kill that damned official, but it struck a heavy blow to the people's faith in Longxing County. The situation in town has grown even more chaotic."
"Even the county office constables now have complaints about the magistrate."
"As for him, though no one can find his corpse, he must be dead..."
Before she finished, Madam Su, who had been sitting like a wooden doll with her mind far away, suddenly turned toward her. A faint glimmer appeared in her formerly vacant eyes.
"There was no corpse?"
"Well, no, there wasn't. But cousin, you'd best not read too much into it. Strange events often have far-reaching causes. It's best to assume he's dead..."
Madam Su shook her head hard.
The tall young woman could only sigh and gently counsel her. "Cousin, don't forget that although he saved your life, the danger arose because of him too."
"If he hadn't killed that county office chief constable, you would never have been in danger. He was also largely responsible for your having to flee the town in the end. He did all that, and yes, he took responsibility for it, but you owe him nothing. Now that he's dead, the debt between you is settled..."
"You don't understand. He was different." Madam Su shook her head again.
Then she fell into a daze.
She suddenly remembered that absurd night, when the young constable had taken her by the waist and whispered something in her ear.
He had said he would keep her safe for as long as he lived.
And he had.
They had spent only half a month together, yet scene after scene rose in her memory, finally settling on the young constable's smile before he left, fearless in the face of death.
"A promise made in a moment, a bond held through life and death, a word worth a thousand pieces of gold..."
At that moment, Madam Su, who had laughed rather than shed a tear when she heard of Chen Haoyan's death, suddenly choked up. Two trails of tears rolled down her cheeks.
Before you continue