Eighth-Grade Mortal Wish: Never Again

After leaving the Wang Household's gates, the Zhengqing Gang wanderers went their separate ways from Yu Chen.

Yu Chen headed toward the Hanging Bridge area in the west of the city, while the Zhengqing Gang made for the south.

Weishui was not large, but though the sparrow was small, it possessed all five organs.

The tiny city of Weishui was nevertheless divided into four districts: east, west, south, and north.

The Hanging Bridge area in the west was where the poor common folk lived; the Skybridge area in the east housed the wealthy; the north contained the yamen and the Aura-Observing Bureau; and the old streets in the south were famously chaotic.

Gangs stood thick as forest there, competing in ferocity and fighting ruthlessly. Hardened killers gathered there, and bloodshed was as commonplace as eating and drinking.

A tyrant and thug like Li Er of Hanging Bridge would not even dare let out a fart if he went south.

Of course, the four districts were not completely separated either.

For instance, according to what Yu Chen had heard, the Tongbao Gambling House in the Skybridge area was backed from the shadows by the Blackwater Gang, the largest gang in the south. As for the Zhengqing Gang he had just encountered, they controlled eighty percent of Weishui City's porters and hard labor.

In the terms of Yu Chen's past life, that seemed to be called labor services, or something like that.

Lost in random thoughts, Yu Chen did not immediately return to Qingfeng Mausoleum. Instead, he took a winding route to the Hanging Bridge market.

He went to Sun's tofu stall and bought two blocks of tofu. After the tyrant Li Er had repaid the silver, the widow, who had lost both her husband and mother-in-law in succession, had gone to the clinic for medicine. At last, her complexion had improved somewhat.

When she saw Yu Chen, she smiled and greeted him.

Though she could not yet easily emerge from the grief of losing her loved ones, at least illness no longer plagued her, and she had some loose silver left in reserve.

Life would surely become a little easier from now on.

After buying the two blocks of tofu, Yu Chen turned toward the Li family butcher shop.

Sure enough, just as the corpse-bearer had said, Li Er, the once overbearing tyrant, now wore a genial, smiling expression toward everyone.

He was utterly unlike the red-faced, domineering brute from last night.

Yu Chen merely glanced at him twice and made no further move. Naturally, Li Er did not recognize Yu Chen either. Their eyes met, then immediately slid apart, as though they were two people with nothing whatsoever to do with each other.

Yet Yu Chen secretly nodded to himself.

With last night's lesson, Li Er of Hanging Bridge presumably would no longer dare bully merchants and dominate the market. The vendors of the Hanging Bridge market ought to be free from this tyrant's harassment for quite some time to come.

By the time he returned to Qingfeng Mausoleum, noon had already passed.

Yu Chen had brought back two tender, white blocks of tofu—and a miserable ghost.

He put the tofu on to cook and began preparing the meal. Only after steam rose vigorously from the pots did he finally have a moment to take out the Scripture of Deliverance.

The ghost of the Wang family's eldest young master was instantly drawn inside, where it crawled beside the Yellow Springs River.

At the same time, the eldest young master's life unfolded before Yu Chen's eyes like a revolving lantern.

There was nothing especially remarkable about it.

As the eldest young master of one of Weishui's foremost medicinal herb Aristocratic Clans, his life had been ordinary enough to make others envious.

Under the tutelage of his teacher and Old Master Wang, he had spent his childhood learning to read and write, practicing martial arts to strengthen his body. At only twenty-two, he was already accomplished in both literary and martial pursuits, and was also well versed in poetry and song.

Had nothing unforeseen occurred, after Old Master Wang rode a crane westward, the eldest young master should have inherited the Wang Household's herb business. After several more decades, he would have become another Old Master Wang.

So the cycle went on.

But just as nothing unforeseen was supposed to happen, the unforeseen happened.

Before the New Year, during an unremarkable trip into the mountains to gather herbs, an accident occurred, and he died.

To the west of Weishui County stood two great mountains.

One was called Qingming, the barren mountain where Clear Breeze Bright Moon Mausoleum stood.

The other was Fanghua, blanketed in vegetation and difficult to traverse. Yet it also produced countless herbs and wild beasts, the very support upon which hunters and herb gatherers depended for survival.

The Wang Household, as a medicinal herb Aristocratic Clan, had risen by relying on Fanghua Mountain. Gradually expanding, they had become one of the wealthiest prominent families in Weishui County.

But where there was opportunity, there was naturally risk.

The dangers of Fanghua Mountain lay in the venomous insects and ferocious beasts that covered it.

The great beast called the White Ghost, which struck terror into the hearts of so many commoners, was the most dangerous of them all.

From what Yu Chen knew, this great beast had no natural enemies on Fanghua Mountain and ran rampant. Though it had ample bloody meat to eat, the brute had repeatedly descended the mountain to attack households below, leaving the people both hateful and fearful.

Returning to the Wang family's eldest young master.

As a medicinal herb Aristocratic Clan that had gathered herbs in the mountains for years, the Wang Household naturally had methods for dealing with the great beast.

—Sparrow-Dropping Incense.

It was a special incense blended with mountain sparrow droppings, and what the great beast hated most was the smell of mountain sparrow dung.

Thus, once the incense was lit, the great beast would generally keep far away from the source of that scent.

When the eldest young master went into the mountains this time, he had naturally brought ample Sparrow-Dropping Incense and made thorough preparations.

But the skies could shift without warning. Who could have expected that before they had even been in the mountains a day, wind and snow would howl, and a blizzard would seal the mountain, trapping them there for two days and two nights?

Only after the wind stopped and the snow ceased, after their Sparrow-Dropping Incense had burned out, did the great beast—which had long been eyeing them like a tiger watching its prey—suddenly attack as the eldest young master's party was returning.

Of the dozen or so people, only two servants fled down the mountain in panic, bringing back half of the eldest young master's body.

That was all.

The Wang family eldest young master's story ended there.

At the same time, the ghost that was only half a body muttered softly.

"Such pain... never again... never again..."

Yu Chen froze.

A thought belonging to the Wang family's eldest young master reached him.

Foremost was the unbearable agony of his fleshly body being brutally torn apart by the great beast.

Then came overwhelming sorrow.

All along, the eldest young master of the Wang Household had heard the stories of the great beast harming people only through rumor, just like Yu Chen.

Not until he personally experienced the pain of his body being torn apart, felt the terror of life and death, and realized he would never again see family or friends... did the eldest young master, at that moment between life and death, deeply understand the harm this great beast had inflicted upon countless herb gatherers.

He himself was somewhat better off. His family had enough money, and he had brothers and sisters. Even if he, the eldest young master, was gone, the Wang Household would not collapse, nor would Old Master Wang be left without anyone to care for him in his old age.

But most of the herb gatherers and innocent commoners who had died beneath the tiger's jaws were young and strong, with elderly parents above and children below. Their deaths meant at least one family torn apart, with the old and young left helpless and without support.

That great beast had brought calamity upon no small number of people!

At the very end, between life and death, the strongest and most unquenchable thought in the Wang family eldest young master's heart was not hatred for the great beast, but the wish that from then on, no one else would suffer pain like his.

The revolving lantern ended.

Yu Chen let out a long breath of foul air, freeing himself from the eldest young master's emotions.

He could not help but feel a measure of admiration.

The eldest young master's final wish was not revenge.

It was never again.

Smoke-gray words surfaced upon the pages of the Scripture of Deliverance.

[Eighth-Grade Mortal Wish]

[Remove a scourge from the people]

[Time Limit: Thirty days and nights]

[Reward upon completion]

An Eighth-Grade Mortal Wish!

Since Yu Chen had obtained the Scripture of Deliverance, this was the first time an Eighth-Grade Mortal Wish had appeared.

All the previous ones had been Ninth Grade.

He did not know what standard the Scripture of Deliverance used to determine the grade of a final wish.

The difficulty of fulfilling it, the identity of the deceased who made the wish, or something else?

Yu Chen did not yet know.

But one thing could be guessed: the benefits after completing an Eighth-Grade Mortal Wish would surely be anything but ordinary.

After watching the entire revolving lantern, the tofu on the stove was hot, and the meal was cooked as well.

Yu Chen served up the food and sat on a small stool by the door, eating while staring blankly into space.

He thought of the Zhengqing Gang wanderers he had encountered during the day. Clearly, their purpose was also to subdue the great beast and claim the reward.

Once Yu Chen realized this, a thought abruptly surfaced in his mind.

Since the Wang family eldest young master's final wish was to remove a scourge from the people and prevent that vicious tiger from harming anyone again—

Then if the great beast was not killed by Yu Chen, but instead slain by the Zhengqing Gang, would the Scripture of Deliverance still grant the reward for the Eighth-Grade Mortal Wish?