Li Batian's Dream

Deep within Yun Yuan Mountain, Eagle Beak Cliff!

Black Wind Village.

Slap!

The crisp, ringing sound of a slap echoed through the brightly lit secret chamber.

Li Mo staggered from the blow. Five finger marks swiftly rose on his fair left cheek. Covering his face, he looked up in disbelief. "Father, you actually hit me?"

Li Batian, the Village Chief of Black Wind Village.

This father, who had always doted on him without restraint, now had blazing fury burning in his eyes, like an enraged lion.

"You wretch, do you know what you've done?"

He pointed at Li Mo's nose, his finger trembling faintly with rage. "I told you to collect this year's tribute money. Who gave you permission to draw your blade? Who the hell told you to kill anyone?!"

Li Batian was so furious that his lips trembled, every word ground out through clenched teeth. "If you killed one or two people, I could still find a way to cover it up for you. But you slaughtered the entire Lu Family Village!"

He never could have imagined that his son, who had always been somewhat unruly but still knew his limits, would cause such a heaven-shaking disaster.

Slap...

Seeing Li Mo's defiance, Li Batian could not restrain his raised hand and brought it down hard once more.

This slap carried even more force, knocking Li Mo straight to the ground. Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

He pushed himself up in disarray. His face burned with pain, but the stubbornness in his heart was thoroughly provoked.

Wiping the blood from his mouth, he glared at Li Batian with crimson eyes and roared, "Father! They were nothing but lowly commoners. So what if I killed them?!"

"What were they worth? A pack of lowly commoners worse than pigs and dogs, and they dared defy my orders!"

"I merely punished them a little, killing the chicken to scare the monkeys. That was how we established the authority of Black Wind Village." Li Mo craned his neck, his voice rising ever higher.

The more he spoke, the more justified he felt, until he was practically impassioned. "I did it for you too, Father—for the sake of making things easier for all the brothers in the village in the future! I did nothing wrong! What wrong has Li Mo committed?!"

"Idiot! What the hell do you know?!"

Li Batian was beside himself with rage. His furious voice shook the candle flames violently, wax dripping down the candlesticks and hardening on the floor.

"Authority? You call that authority? That's the path to death!" He pointed at Li Mo's nose, grief and fury in his voice. "Do you know how much effort I've spent over these years, how much humiliation I've swallowed, just so the brothers in this village could live openly beneath the sun?"

Li Batian suddenly held up three fingers, nearly jabbing them into Li Mo's face. "Three thousand taels! A full three thousand taels of silver! Every year, I personally deliver it to the Prefectural Assistant's residence, smiling like a fool and saying things only a grandson would say!"

"For what? So the prefecture would loosen its grip and leave us a path to amnesty—so Black Wind Village could turn from black to white, so these old brothers who have followed me could someday have a peaceful home and no longer live in constant fear!"

A trace of weariness and hope entered his voice. "Things were finally starting to move with the Prefectural Assistant. The amnesty was almost within reach! And then you went and gave me such a grand surprise!"

"Slaughtering a village! Do you know what crime that is under the Great Gan Law? It's a grave crime that warrants the extermination of nine generations! Once something like this breaks through the heavens, no one can cover it up! If the prefecture confirms it, do you think they'll still just send a few constables to put on a show like they did over those petty incidents before?"

The more Li Batian spoke, the more agitated he became, his face turning iron-blue. "Before, we only robbed travelers for money. The people above got their share, so naturally they turned a blind eye. Even if someone filed a complaint, the authorities would just go through the motions and let it pass."

"But now, this is village slaughter! Wiping out an entire bloodline! Once this is tied to Black Wind Village, the Iron Blood Camp from the prefecture will march into Yun Yuan Mountain within three days. When that happens, not even chickens or dogs will be left alive on Eagle Beak Cliff!"

After hearing his father's words, the stubbornness on Li Mo's face slowly faded, replaced by a strange smile.

"Hahaha..."

His laughter grew louder and louder, as though he had gone mad.

"Father, Father... for all your worldly renown, you're still dreaming your dream of becoming respectable commoners!"

He slowly rose and patted down his rumpled robe, his tone dripping with undisguised mockery. "A thief is a thief. You don't truly think that by sending them some silver, those dog officials will treat us as one of their own, do you?"

"Hahaha, what a joke!"

"If they truly wanted to grant us amnesty, why would they have waited until now? Those dog officials merely see Black Wind Village as a money tree."

"The silver you've handed over all these years—was it buying peace? That was tribute money, protection money to keep them from troubling us for the time being."

Seeing Li Batian's expression grow increasingly ugly, Li Mo rubbed his cheek and stepped forward, his voice lowering further. "Father, wake up! Great Gan is already rotten to the core. They are all parasites clinging to the back of this aged lion!"

"Even if we licked their shoes on our knees, we still could not gain true security!"

At those words, Li Batian opened his mouth, yet for a long while he could not speak. His fierce bearing slackened, and he suddenly seemed somewhat dispirited.

He slowly turned around, his steps unsteady, then heavily collapsed into the large tiger-skin chair. He seemed to have aged more than ten years in an instant.

The entire secret chamber sank into silence, with only the candle flames swaying.

After a long while, Li Batian let out a sigh.

How could he not understand these things? But he had had enough of this life of licking blood from the edge of a blade, of hiding here and there.

So long as the warrant for Black Wind Village remained in force, he would have to keep hiding for another day.

He longed for peace. He longed to stand upright and openly. Even if there was only the faintest hope, he was unwilling to give up.

But now, Li Mo's outburst and the monstrous crime of slaughtering a village had shattered all his efforts and all his fantasies to pieces.

Amnesty and a clean slate?

Impossible.

Completely impossible.

He even felt that although Li Mo's bastard words were harsh to hear, they had exposed a reality he had always refused to acknowledge.

Perhaps, from the very beginning, his dream of becoming a respectable commoner had truly been nothing more than a dream.

The night was black as ink, shrouding the ruined Lu Family Village.

Now and then, a few shrill crow cries tore through the deathly stillness, adding an even more sinister air.

Among the chaotic, shattered courtyards, corpses lay everywhere. Lu Shaoyou walked straight over to the bound bandits.

He directly splashed the basin of water in his hands over their faces.

"Urgh... cough, cough!"

The two bandits shuddered violently and slowly woke. When they saw Lu Shaoyou standing before them with a Qi Mei Cudgel in hand and a face dark as water, confusion first filled their eyes.

But when they discovered that they were tied up, they instantly became like enraged roosters.

"Who are you?"

"Untie me right now!"

The triangular-eyed bandit cursed viciously, "Don't you know we're from Black Wind Village? You dare tie me up? I'll make sure you can't even carry the consequences away!"

Yet in the next instant, his clamoring voice came to an abrupt halt. He stared blankly at the mangled corpses covering the ground, and his entire body began to tremble violently.

"D-devil... Ah... you're a devil!"

Lu Shaoyou remained expressionless, his voice icy. "Where did the other bandits go? Where is Black Wind Village's stronghold?"