Qi-Blood Second Level, Yang Er's Death

Once the Crimson Origin Fruit entered his belly, Yi Yang understood that Blood Qi Powder was really just a poor man's petty dabbling.

This stuff defied reason.

Its medicinal power rolled down his throat and, the moment it reached his belly, became a surging torrent of heat that burrowed beneath his skin, plunging straight into his muscles and fascia.

Yi Yang shuddered, his spine going rigid as small text appeared before his eyes.

[Old Steed in the Stable, yet its ambition gallops a thousand miles]

[Wood-Nurturing Longevity Art, second layer: (1200/3000)]

A moment later, the numbers began climbing.

[Wood-Nurturing Longevity Art, second layer: (1260/3000)]

...

[Wood-Nurturing Longevity Art, second layer: (1340/3000)]

...

[Wood-Nurturing Longevity Art, second layer: (1630/3000)]

Yi Yang clenched his teeth until his jaw ached.

Sweat streamed down his forehead, mingling with the blackish-gray filth seeping from his pores and sticking between his collar and skin. The stench could have sent mountain rats scurrying off on a detour.

Outside the cave, a night bird swept past, flapped a few times, and vanished into the distance.

Inside, Yi Yang sat cross-legged without moving, his arms loosely curved before him as he circulated the Wood-Nurturing Longevity Art again and again.

[Wood-Nurturing Longevity Art, second layer: (2700/3000)]

[Wood-Nurturing Longevity Art, second layer: (3000/3000)] ```

He had reached it.

But the medicinal power had yet to dissipate.

The heat in Yi Yang's chest and belly surged forward again, forcibly crossing the threshold of the second layer.

The panel finally settled at [Wood-Nurturing Longevity Art, third layer: (360/6000)].

Only then did the heat slowly subside.

Yi Yang opened his eyes.

The cave was dark, but he could see far more clearly than before.

He could distinguish the moss in the cracks, the patterns along the edge of the shed snakeskin on the ground, and even the tiny cracks in the dried grime on the back of his hand.

He raised his hand. It was still an old man's hand.

The age spots remained, and his skin had not become smooth like a young man's.

But beneath the skin and flesh, deeply concealed muscle gave him a plain appearance that only revealed its hard edges to the touch.

Yi Yang reached out and picked up a broken stone.

His five fingers closed around it.

Crack.

The stone split in his palm, then was crushed to powder. Grayish-white dust sifted through his fingers.

Yi Yang watched for a moment, then exhaled the stale air in his chest.

"Qi-Blood Second Level. Flesh-Training."

Yi Yang stood and rolled his shoulders and back. As his muscles contracted and relaxed, strength rolled beneath his flesh. With his feet planted on the ground, he felt far steadier than before.

After testing his strength, Yi Yang took the black iron token from inside his robe.

A crooked character for "evil" was engraved on the front of the Command Token, while nine hideous ghost faces adorned its back. It weighed heavily in his palm.

The Nine Evil Sect.

That name was trouble enough to set the authorities' nerves jangling in any county town of the Great Yu Empire.

Yi Yang sat back down in the cave, lightly rubbing the edge of the Command Token.

Wang Yue was dead.

Li Shun was dead.

There were still snake carcasses in Greenwood Mountain, along with human corpses and a chaotic jumble of saber marks.

If anyone traced the matter straight to him, trouble would come crashing down one wave after another.

Yang Er would not let it go.

Yang Da certainly would not either.

A county constable had died, and the constable captain's man had perished in the mountains. Without someone to take the blame, those officials would dig three feet into the earth to unearth an explanation.

But what if the Nine Evil Sect took the blame?

Li Shun had been one of its members anyway.

Wang Yue's body bore snake wounds and cuts left by the Nine Evil Saber Technique.

As for the hatchet wound on the back of his neck, with snake carcasses strewn across the cave, beasts gnawing, jagged rocks battering bodies, and blades clashing in a melee, who could sort out every last detail?

Yi Yang looked down at the Command Token, his old face betraying neither joy nor anger.

"Someone died. Somebody has to answer for it."

"Li Shun, don't blame this old man for being unkind."

"You came from an evil sect. Taking the blame is right in your line of work."

He put the Command Token away and looked out of the cave toward Three Trees Village.

That fat grub Yang Er was probably still waiting for good news.

Waiting for Wang Yue to bring word of his death.

Waiting for the purplewood.

Waiting for his precious granddaughter, Jiang Yuexin.

Yi Yang brushed the dust from his clothes, his voice very low.

"Since you're in such a hurry..."

"This old man will send you on your way."

In Three Trees Village, the setting sun stained the dirt road at the entrance a dull orange. The chickens and ducks had returned to their nests early, and insects chirped irritatingly in the grass beside the walls.

In the Yi Family Courtyard, Jiang Yuexin sat beside the well, clutching Yi Yang's battered fan.

The shabby thing usually looked pitiful, but with it in her hands, Jiang Yuexin could not bear to let go.

She glanced toward the courtyard gate, then glanced again.

The sun moved from east to west, stretching the shadows long. Her heart seemed to stretch along with them, pulled tighter and tighter until it was about to snap.

She wanted to wait at the village entrance.

She wanted to search at the foot of the mountain.

She even wanted to go into the mountains herself to find Grandpa. She had already lost her grandmother, and her parents had vanished too. Though Yi Yang was not her blood grandfather, after three years together, she had long since come to regard him as her own.

She had promised to care for Yi Yang in his old age, but now he might well have lost his life in the mountains.

Yet the words Yi Yang had spoken before leaving that morning kept weighing on her mind.

"It'll be all right. Trust Grandpa."

She lowered her head and bit her lower lip, her eyes reddening. Tears welled and swirled, but she stubbornly refused to let them fall.

The courtyard gate was pushed open.

Yang Hui came in carrying a bowl of hot porridge, a bit of grass picked up while doing laundry still stuck in her hair. She bustled forward, her strides more forceful than a man's.

"Yuexin, stop just sitting there."

She offered the bowl and soothed her. "Have something to eat first."

Jiang Yuexin shook her head, her voice muffled.

"Aunt Yang, I can't eat."

"You have to, even if you can't."

Yang Hui pressed the bowl into her hands, sat beside the well, and wrapped an arm around the girl's shoulders.

"Your grandpa's been cutting firewood for decades. He knows better than anyone which mountain paths are slippery and which stones will trip you."

Jiang Yuexin kept her head bowed. "But they never meant Grandpa any good when they sent him there."

Yang Hui opened her mouth, but no curse came out.

There was no arguing with that. The whole village had seen Yang Er's smug expression at the entrance today.

After a while, Yang Hui hugged Jiang Yuexin a little tighter.

"Your grandpa's hard to kill."

"Anyone who lives to nearly sixty in Three Trees Village makes King Yama check his ledger before collecting, just in case he's got the accounts wrong."

Jiang Yuexin held the bowl of porridge, its steam washing over her face.

She did not eat, only whispered, "Aunt Yang, I'm scared."

Yang Hui reached out and wiped the corners of her eyes.

"Of course you are."

"What living person isn't afraid? But afraid or not, you still have to eat, guard the door, and wait for him."

On the eastern side of the village, the main room of Yang Er's house blazed with lamplight.

A freshly opened wine jar sat on the table beside several plates of braised meat brought back from town.

Yang Er's fat body sprawled in a Grand Tutor Chair, his belly straining against his clothes and his triangular eyes narrowed to slits. He held a wine cup and drank with relish.

Zhang Xiaoshan attended him, bending low as he poured the wine.

"Second Master, it should be settled by now, shouldn't it?"

Yang Er chuckled twice, his fat wobbling along with him.

"With Wang Yue handling it, what's there to worry about?"

"That old bastard went up the mountain and still expects to come back alive? There are cliffs and deep ravines everywhere. One little shove, and who can tell whether he fell to his death or got dragged off by a snake?"

Zhang Xiaoshan hurriedly nodded and flattered him. "You really are clever, Second Master."

Yang Er dipped a fat finger in wine and drew circles on the table.

"When word comes back tomorrow that Old Yi's gone, that girl Yuexin will be all alone in the world. Who's going to look after her?"

He ran his tongue over the gaps between his teeth, his Adam's apple bobbing involuntarily at the thought of Jiang Yuexin's appearance. "Then she'll have to rely on me, Yang Er, to take care of her, won't she?"

"The girl's mine."

"And the purplewood's mine too."

Zhang Xiaoshan gave a hollow laugh, all the while calculating how much of the spoils he might get.

Yang Er drank more and more. By midnight, he was slumped sideways in his chair, his waves of snoring making the wine cups tremble on the table.

He had a dream.

In it, Jiang Yuexin meekly poured him wine, purplewood filled the courtyard, and his elder brother Yang Da patted his shoulder and praised his competence.

He was so delighted that drool ran down onto his clothes.

But however sweet the dream, it could not stop someone from returning along the night road.

By the time the moon stood overhead, Yi Yang had packed everything in the shallow cave.

He wrapped the snake gallbladder in oilcloth.

He folded the shed snakeskin and pressed it flat.

He packed the Nine Peaks Saber and the silver separately.

Then he went to the stream to wash off the blood and grime and changed into an old set of clothes he had hidden in the cave earlier.

He had stashed those clothes six months ago while hiding the purplewood.

Dry rations, clothes, a fire striker, and hemp rope.

If a man lived sixty years and still did not know to leave himself a way out, he had eaten all those years of coarse grain for nothing.

Yi Yang clenched his fists.

After Flesh-Training, his body was completely different.

He still looked like an old country man, but beneath his clothes, his muscles were taut and his strength lay hidden deep within. Quiet when unused, lethal when unleashed.

He looked up at the night sky, then followed the mountain path toward Three Trees Village.

After midnight, the village sank into its deepest silence.

Occasionally, a dog barked twice, then quickly fell quiet.

Clouds obscured most of the moon, leaving the village paths too dark for him to see his own feet.

Yi Yang slipped in through the vegetable plots behind the village.

His feet touched down softly.

After reaching Qi-Blood Second Level, his control over his body had become much finer. Even when he stepped on dry grass, the blades merely bent slightly.

The yellow dog outside Zhou Liang's house had sharp ears. Normally, when a stranger passed, it would bark until the entire village started cursing.

Yi Yang took a long detour and approached from downwind.

The yellow dog raised its head, twitched its nose, then settled back into its kennel.

The wall around Yang Er's courtyard was low.

Over the years, that fat grub had only been willing to spend money fixing the main room. He could not even be bothered to patch the damaged courtyard wall.

Yi Yang circled around to the side, set a hand on the wall, and drove his waist and abdomen into motion, vaulting over.

The courtyard was empty.

Zhang Xiaoshan had gone home long ago.

The main room's door stood ajar. The reek of wine was strong enough to assault his nose even through the gap.

Yi Yang pushed the door open.

The hinges made no sound.

Cups and dishes lay scattered around the room.

Yang Er slumped in the Grand Tutor Chair, his neck tilted back and his mouth half open. A long strand of drool trailed down, soaking the front of his clothes.

Yi Yang stood before him.

He looked down at him for a moment.

This man had pressured Jiang Yuexin, threatened the Yi Family Courtyard, sent Wang Yue to kill him with a borrowed blade, and even coveted his purplewood.

He had truly offended Yi Yang beyond forgiveness!

Trash like this wasted grain alive, and even dead, he was too filthy to fertilize the soil.

Yi Yang wasted no words.

A chopping blade slid from his sleeve.

Its edge swept across Yang Er's neck.

Blood gushed out, but he had already pressed the man's collar against it, keeping it from splattering too far.

Yang Er's body twitched a few times. All the wealth and women he had enjoyed in his dreams were stopped up in his throat.

Yi Yang waited until he stopped moving before letting go.

Then he took out the Nine Evil Sect Command Token.

He first tucked the Command Token into Yang Er's right hand, then left it half fallen beside the Grand Tutor Chair, exposing one corner of its ghostly face, as though the killer had dropped it in his haste to leave.

He also found the short blade beside Yang Er's desk and added several slashes to Yang Er's body, imitating the marks left by Li Shun's vicious blade technique.

That was enough. After confirming that everything was in place, Yi Yang stepped back twice and surveyed the room.

A drunken village tyrant, murdered at night by a cultist, with a Nine Evil Sect Command Token left at the scene.

Wang Yue had died on Greenwood Mountain, and Li Shun had also belonged to the Nine Evil Sect.

The trail could not have lined up more neatly.

Yi Yang put away his chopping blade and turned toward the door.

Before stepping outside, he glanced back at Yang Er once more.

"Don't be too quick to cry injustice once you're down there. For trash like you, even King Yama probably won't bother listening."