Corpses lay strewn across the ground, like a horrific painting.
The short stretch of street was littered with bodies too gruesome to look at.
Some were twisted, some had faces reduced to mangled flesh, and some were missing limbs...
Hammud trudged slowly onward, dragging his heavy black gold armor.
It was as though every step would cost him his life.
Another wave of men charged in from the end of the street.
Yet the moment they saw Hammud, they froze.
Under the combined assault of so many experts, more than half his black gold armor had fallen away.
His true appearance stood revealed.
What a terrifying face it was.
No! It could hardly be called a face at all.
At first glance, he looked like a skeleton.
Only the outline of a face remained, as though someone had brutally peeled it away.
Aside from a pair of eyes and a rotting nose,
nothing resembling a human face could be found.
Even more frightening was his exposed body, riddled with pitch-black holes.
Each was the size of a horse's eye, as though insects had hollowed him out.
He resembled a demon that had crawled out of hell, savage and crazed.
Everyone who witnessed this held their breath without thinking. Almost all of them were ruthless men.
They made their living with their heads tucked into their belts, hoping to rise above the rest in the Anbei Four Garrisons.
Only those ruthless enough could do that, yet now they were all struggling to control themselves.
They fought to keep fear from showing on their faces.
Hammud approached step by step, each footfall heavy and slow.
It was as though he were treading on everyone's heart.
"Kill him! Kill him!"
The man leading them finally managed to shout, mustering every ounce of strength he possessed.
But Hammud abruptly accelerated and plunged into the crowd.
He slapped two burly men to the ground like baby chicks, and neither got up again.
Run!
That was the only thought left in their minds.
No one knew who turned and fled first. Then came the second, the third...
Hammud continued forward, as though he had transformed in an instant from a vicious demon into a withered old man nearing death.
"You've followed me this long. Aren't you coming out?"
A hoarse voice scraped from his throat.
After a long while, a figure holding a cane emerged from the darkness ahead.
"How about a deal? I'll escort you out alive, and you give me the Sharira."
Li Ping'an spoke calmly.
Hammud grinned, an expression uglier than weeping and utterly terrifying.
"I know you! You live next door to my daughter."
Li Ping'an did not deny it.
"You knew about me all along! You approached my daughter on purpose, didn't you?" Hammud demanded harshly.
"It was only a coincidence."
Li Ping'an recalled how Old Ox had insisted that he choose that courtyard when he was looking for a house.
That was how he had become neighbors with the sisters Duha and Aliya.
Hammud let out a horrifying laugh, piercingly harsh.
Then he began to weep, louder and louder, until he could no longer form words through his sobs.
Li Ping'an watched him in silence. Meanwhile, several men dressed in black rushed at him from behind.
A moment later, their vision went black, and they collapsed.
"If only I could go back to the beginning. I shouldn't have taken them deep into the Great Desert for the payment they offered.
I should never have coveted that treasure, either. This is all retribution."
Hammud spoke hollowly, not caring whether Li Ping'an was listening.
He had kept it bottled up for too long. Before he died, he seemed intent on pouring out his entire life.
"Why didn't you take your daughters away from here?" Li Ping'an asked softly.
"I can't leave. I can't leave this place.
It wasn't treasure at all. It was a curse.
Because of it, I've become a monster, neither human nor ghost.
Because of it, I have a home I can't return to.
All I can do is hide beneath thick clothing every day, waiting for my life to end.
My fate shouldn't have been like this. It shouldn't have been like this.
Do you know how adorable my two daughters are?
I should have been by their side, watching them grow up little by little.
Then marry and have children.
I could have a little drink every day, listen to a few songs, and see my grandsons and granddaughters..."
As he spoke, he broke into loud sobs again.
What was he crying over?
His tragic fate, the choice he had made back then,
though this world held a thousand roads, not one led back.
"I hid the treasure inside the City God Statue in the Eastern Market. Go find it yourself. I burned all the sinister techniques that devil left behind to harm people.
I have only one request. Help me take good care of my daughters."
After a long silence, a voice came from the darkness.
"Thank you."
"Today is my younger daughter's birthday. Sadly, I'll never see moonlight this beautiful again."
Tap, tap, tap!!!
Once again, footsteps pattered like rain through the darkness.
Countless men in blue robes strode swiftly toward them.
Hammud let out a shrill, agonized scream, then began to sing at the top of his lungs.
His song brimmed with desolation, like a mourning soul, bringing anguish too great to bear.
Li Ping'an walked slowly away beneath the moonlight.
Behind him, the eerie crunch of shattering bones, the sound of weapons tearing through air and flesh, and that uncanny singing intertwined.
Together, they formed a concerto that anyone who heard it would never forget for the rest of their life.
Early the next morning.
The City God Temple in the Eastern Market.
It was a temple that had long since fallen into ruin, one of its two doors open and the other shut.
Looking inside, one saw only a mass of darkness, giving it an eerie, terrifying air.
Li Ping'an appeared at the entrance to the City God Temple, leading Old Ox, and walked inside with his cane.
The moment he entered, the musty smell peculiar to old houses struck him.
It felt suffocating and oppressive.
He walked behind the City God Statue and silently murmured,
Sorry.
Then he shattered the City God Statue with one finger.
Clatter~
Gold, silver, and jewels spilled out in an instant.
Li Ping'an felt around until he found a luminous pearl and toyed with it for a while.
This pearl was probably worth enough to buy ten houses like his.
Li Ping'an reached out and continued feeling around, ignoring the gold, silver, and jewels.
At last, his fingers found a brocade box.
He opened it. Inside lay an oval Golden Core.
Li Ping'an held the Golden Core almost against his eyeball.
Only then could he make out a little of the Golden Core's detail.
This must be the so-called Sharira. What now? Do I just swallow it?
The Spring Beauty Courtyard.
"According to legend, swallowing it will 'regrow what was maimed and restore what was lost,' but I don't know the specifics."
Ma Sanniang shook her head, indicating that she was not certain either.
"Wasn't there an instruction manual or something when you found it?"
Li Ping'an shook his head. Hammud had been the one to discover the treasure firsthand.
He had probably obtained a few scraps of information left behind by Monk Jiyan.
But Li Ping'an had received the treasure secondhand. He had only the objects and no idea how to use them.
"What rotten luck. You finally found it after all that trouble, and you don't even know how to use it."
Ma Sanniang grumbled.
Before you continue