Took Two Seconds

Night fell.

Crouching Tiger Town, Peace Inn.

Candlelight flickered in a first-class room.

Three heads lay side by side on the table. Four men sat around it, examining them from every angle.

After a long while.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard company commander with a blind left eye and a lame right leg spoke. "Well?"

"With witnesses and evidence both present..."

The other Jinyiwei company commander, whose skin was deathly pale and whose bearing was effeminate, toyed with his teacup and smiled wryly. "...There can be no doubt that General Banner Cao accomplished this impressive feat. The question is... how did he do it?"

One of the guards said, "Didn't he explain? He set a fire to lure them out, then picked them off one by one."

"Idiot!"

Another guard mocked him mercilessly. "Eighth-layer Houtian, with nothing but the Origin Embracing Art and the Wild Wind Blade Technique? Let's see you pick off even one of them! Besides, he was only at the fifth layer before he killed them. It's simply impossible!"

"So he was lying to us?"

"I wouldn't call it lying. General Banner Cao clearly just didn't want to explain a lot of the crucial details."

The room fell silent.

"Then, about the credit..."

One guard spoke hesitantly. He wasn't suggesting that the four of them kill Cao Jinxing and divide the credit-it wasn't worth going that far. He merely wanted to fiddle with things a little.

They couldn't have come all this way for nothing, could they?

"No."

The deathly pale Jinyiwei guard shook his head with a smile. "I'd advise you not to scheme against him. Anyone who dares to assassinate three bandit chiefs single-handedly has extraordinary strength and courage. A man like that will rise sooner or later. If he can kill Yan Baihu, he can kill you! Don't forget, there's only one step between General Banner and company commander."

"Gu's right. This kid is ruthless! Han Dang's death was too gruesome to look at! Better to do him a favor. He strikes me as someone who settles his debts, repaying grudges with vengeance and kindness with kindness. Lend him a hand today, and who knows when it might come in useful?"

"Mm."

"True enough."

The three reached an agreement. Gu Yanzhu turned to the one-eyed company commander. "Zhu, what do you think?"

"Of course we should help."

Zhu Wu raised his teacup and took a sip. "There's something else you mustn't forget. If he hadn't killed them and blocked our way before we reached Hoof Pass, all of us... would have died!"

They had seen how deadly the traps in the final five hundred meters were. One wrong step would have doomed them!

Zhu wasn't exaggerating in the slightest.

The other three fell silent, only now remembering that tremendous danger.

One guard slammed the table and cursed. "Fuck! I'd completely forgotten! That kid factored us into his plan too. If he'd arrived even a moment later..."

"That would have meant he'd already died before we did," Gu Yanzhu said. "Every second mattered in this operation. Whatever else you might say, he fought hard to kill the bandits and stopped us at the deathtrap. Both were enormous favors... Besides, the Pacification Commissioner explicitly ordered us to launch a frontal assault! Even without this business, do you think we could have made it through all the ambushes, assassinated the three chiefs, and gotten out unscathed?"

The guard was at a loss for words. "Well..."

Clearly, it would have been impossible!

Even the best outcome would have left all four seriously wounded.

"That settles it."

Zhu Wu ended the argument and said to Gu Yanzhu, "Gu, you write the report. As for his sudden improvement in martial arts, put it down to some rare natural treasure he consumed, or an expert passing on his power. With such a major achievement to his name, I doubt the office will investigate too closely."

Gu Yanzhu nodded. "All right."

Zhu Wu rose. "After this operation, General Banner Cao will become Company Commander Cao. We return to the capital tomorrow. Mind your attitudes, and stop ordering him around."

The other three answered, "Understood."

The Embroidered Uniform Guard had already left, but Crouching Tiger Mountain was still ablaze with lights. As soon as the government troops in Binzhou received the news, they had rushed straight to the mountain to capture the bandits.

The chiefs were dead.

They also had a map of the traps.

Facing the few hundred remaining underlings, the government troops finally had a chance to hold their heads high. They threw themselves into capturing the bandits with particular enthusiasm.

Cao Jinxing almost laughed at the sight.

Carrying a large haul looted from the three chiefs' rooms, he quietly returned to the foot of the mountain, then sat in the inn's main hall and openly displayed his spoils.

The innkeeper and waiter kept well away.

They had both heard that this was the man who had killed the three chiefs and strung up Han Dang's corpse!

"A Great Vajra Palm manual, a golden saber, a set of [Storm Pear Blossom Needles], and a few banknotes. Tsk, tsk. All that work for this little haul? Hardly worth it."

Cao Jinxing was thoroughly unimpressed. If this were a game, he would at least have earned a heap of experience to level up. Here, he still had to train diligently himself.

"There's also your promotion to company commander."

Gu Yanzhu came downstairs, sat opposite Cao Jinxing, and smiled. "Wiping out the bandits is a major achievement. You'll be promoted soon, my friend, so allow me to congratulate you in advance."

There was flattery in his words. When a superior spoke like that, the proper response was respectful trepidation, but Cao Jinxing had no awareness of such conventions.

"Company commander..."

Cao Jinxing suddenly remembered something. "Doesn't promotion to company commander let me choose two martial arts manuals from the Secret Vault?"

"Exactly."

"The Pacification Commission Treasury ranks alongside such secret sanctums as the Golden Summit of Wudang, the Celestial Master Mansion of Dragon-Tiger Mountain, and the Bodhidharma Cave of Shaolin," Gu Yanzhu said. "Backed by imperial authority, it encompasses martial arts from across the land. Make the most of this opportunity."

"Thank you for the reminder, sir."

Gu Yanzhu's advice was sincere, and Cao Jinxing warmed to him considerably. Since the conversation had reached this point, he voiced the question that had puzzled him most since their first meeting. "Your complexion is rather unusual, sir. What martial art causes that? I'd like to learn it too!"

Pale!

So very pale!

An eerie, chilling pallor.

If a woman practiced it, how much would she save on cosmetics?

Gu Yanzhu smiled ruefully. "Why would you be interested in this? It's notorious, and no orthodox martial art. Don't waste your opportunity on it."

"Then what is it...?"

"..."

Seeing that he still wanted to know, Gu Yanzhu could only tell him the truth. "It's called the Blood Congealing Manual, one of the Demon Cult's nine evil arts. If my unusual constitution didn't require it to keep things under control, I wouldn't practice a martial art like this even if you beat me to death."

"What unusual constitution?"

"..."

"All right, I won't ask."

Cao Jinxing changed the subject naturally. "You're widely knowledgeable, sir. Could you recommend any ice-based martial arts that I could practice? I'd be grateful for your guidance."

"Ice-based..."

Gu Yanzhu considered it. "The Kunlun Snow Mountain Sect has some good martial arts. The Iceheart Art and Snow Mountain Sword Technique are both Sixth-Rank Spiritual Martial Arts, just right for you to select. There's also the Liaodong Frostless Gate's Frostless Fist Manual and the Tianshan Sect's Heavenly Feather Wonder Sword. All are renowned throughout their respective regions, so they certainly have their own merits."

"Oh..."

Cao Jinxing put on a look of sudden understanding, then said casually, "I thought the Heart-Piercing Poison Insect was pretty formidable too. Doesn't the Five Poisons Cult have some good arts?"

"The Five Poisons Cult's martial arts originated in the kingdom of Nanzhao during the Tang dynasty. Everything they study and practice revolves around gu and poison, with nothing ice-based. Their most famous arts are the Gu-Control Art and the Myriad Poisons True Manual. Black Dragon Pool also has a fifth-grade Golden Snake Sword Technique."

"...That's all?"

"That's all."

Strange...

Could the Cold Toad Art not belong to the Five Poisons Cult?

Cao Jinxing kept his expression unchanged as he chatted with Gu Yanzhu, but inwardly he was pondering the origins of the Cold Toad Art.

The more he practiced it, the more powerful it seemed-over a hundred times stronger than the Origin Embracing Art!

Just during the time he had spent waiting in the octagonal pavilion, he had easily reached the ninth layer of Houtian... Whether healing injuries, inflicting damage, or cultivating true qi, it outclassed the other art in every respect!

A martial art like this couldn't possibly be unknown.

I'll look into it once I get back...

The two chatted for a while, then returned to their respective rooms to rest, preparing to return to the capital and report for duty the next day.

Before bed, Cao Jinxing leafed through the Great Vajra Palm manual. As expected, he learned it effortlessly and mastered it completely.

"A secret Shaolin art, an upper-tier seventh-grade palm technique... It really is better than that eighth-grade rubbish. I mastered the Wild Wind Blade Technique in one second. This one took two..."