Huqi Town looked even more lifeless at dusk. Its once-bustling streets held only a few drunken martial warriors and some Great Jin soldiers on patrol.
Zhong Duo'er and Lü Bufan checked two shops together, but when they pushed open the doors, they found only ruined walls and wreckage strewn across the floor. The tailors who had once worked there were long gone.
Lü Bufan said nothing. He walked around the street corner and glanced at a pawnshop nearby... "Let's try there."
As the two entered the pawnshop, a sallow-faced man behind a high counter looked up. "Where did you savages come from? We don't buy rubbish here..."
Duo'er, following behind Lü Bufan, snorted. "Are you blind? Do you have any clothes for sale? We just got back from the mountains. Bring out your good clothes!"
"Oh! So you're heroic knights returning from a treasure hunt... Come in, come in! Erlü, hurry and pick out the best martial warriors' fighting outfits we've bought. Bring out some leather armor, belts, and the like too..."
A dull-looking shop boy answered and hurried into the back.
"Please, have a seat! I'll pour you some tea to quench your thirst... We've only just opened. We followed the Taihua Sect here to offer everyone a few conveniences! Besides buying and pawning ordinary goods, we also sell spirit medicines and spirit stones from the mountains, along with a few Pills and some Wound Medicine! If you heroic knights have any unusual spiritual treasures or spirit medicines, we can buy those at a fair price too..."
Lü Bufan shook his head. "I have nothing to sell..."
The shopkeeper frowned. "Nothing at all?"
Beside him, Zhong Duo'er gave an indignant snort. "Could you afford it if we had a treasure?"
The shopkeeper curled his lip. "Heh, I certainly couldn't afford a Divine Weapon or an Immortal Weapon... But spirit medicines and ores from the mountains-do you have any?"
With a smack, Zhong Duo'er slapped a cold, softly gleaming ice soul stone onto the table... "How about this? A hundred spirit stones apiece! How many can you buy?"
The shopkeeper paused. "Lady knight... how many do you have?"
Lü Bufan immediately tugged Zhong Duo'er back, then addressed the composed shopkeeper. "We barely escaped death to find this one... We still have to hand it over to our master when we get back!"
"Heh, once you give it to your master, there'll be nothing left for you... I'll pay what this young lady asked: a hundred third-grade spirit stones! Plus five hundred taels of silver... How's that?"
Just then, the shop boy staggered back with a huge pile of clothes and boots in his arms... "Shopkeeper, I've brought everything!"
"Hahaha! Pick out two good sets for this young hero. Free of charge!"
Lü Bufan declined the offer, chose two sets of moderately worn clothes and shoes, and paid five taels of silver... Finally, he gave the beast hide he had been wearing to the shop boy.
"You really won't reconsider?"
"No need. Thank you, shopkeeper..."
Watching the pair walk away, an inscrutable look crossed the shopkeeper's face, and he turned back into the pawnshop.
Lü Bufan did not reproach Duo'er for her rashness. He merely walked in silence with a small bundle on his back.
"Young master... young lady... have mercy! Spare me a bite to eat... Immortals above, take pity on a poor woman!"
Lü Bufan turned and saw a disheveled, filthy middle-aged woman huddled in a dark corner, kneeling on the ground and begging him.
He studied her, and his expression suddenly shifted. "You're... aren't you the old madam from Huqi Town? From Spring Splendor House?"
The woman froze, then shrank back several steps. "You look unfamiliar, young hero... Those rioters burned Spring Splendor House down long ago, and they tormented and violated all the girls to death... If I ever offended you in the past, please don't hold it against me! Spare my life, young hero... spare my life..."
Pity showed on Duo'er's face. She was about to take out some money when two bare-chested hooligans came down the alley. One leaped forward and seized the old madam...
"Heh heh! You old whore, you certainly ran fast! Hungry, are you? Come back and have some fun with your grandpa. I'll make sure both your mouths, top and bottom, get stuffed full... Hahaha..."
The other hooligan spotted the beautiful Zhong Duo'er and immediately approached with a leering grin. Duo'er snorted, and a thin layer of a martial warrior's gang qi appeared over her fist...
The hooligan shuddered at the sight and immediately backed away, bowing and scraping. The two dragged the old madam into the alley...
"Good sirs, spare me! I truly can't endure so many of you tormenting me anymore... I'll play with you if I must, but please, please don't make me do those deadly things again. They'll kill me..."
"Haven't you fucking tormented enough people to death yourself? Shut up!"
Duo'er hesitated. "Since you know her, why not save her?"
Lü Bufan thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Why should I save her? I know those two as well... One of them is Sun Xiaoliu, who used to sell steamed flatbreads in town. A few years ago, this old madam tricked his wife into Spring Splendor House, where a constable who had taken a fancy to her violated her..."
Duo'er nodded. "So she's a dog who's committed every evil under the sun. Then we won't save her..."
Lü Bufan shook his head. "Dogs... are actually quite good."
They continued walking, and Lü Bufan remained silent... As they neared the Jianghu Inn, he told Duo'er, "I'm going out for a walk. I'll be back in a while."
"Oh, you're a local, so you know your way around... Just don't get into trouble. Come back early!"
"Mm!"
Lü Bufan asked Duo'er to take his bundle back, then disappeared alone into the dusk.
In a narrow alley, Lü Bufan slowly approached a small courtyard.
Many abandoned courtyards now stood around it. Some homes had even had their front gates torn away. There was no telling how many common people had died in the upheaval that swept across most of the Southern Borderlands over two months ago...
Nor was there any telling how many people, bullied and oppressed in their daily lives, had followed those rebel martial warriors and cultivators and raised their butcher's blades against others...
Sun Xiaoliu was clearly one of the lucky ones. Somehow, he had survived and instead learned the belligerence and brutality of the hooligans, gathering a pack in Huqi Town to become a tiger and take revenge on former high-and-mighty figures like the old madam.
"Good masters... spare me! I've already served each of you once. Please lift your hands in mercy and let me go..."
Lü Bufan paused at her words, then silently pressed a hand onto the wall and vaulted onto the neighboring courtyard wall!
Night fell... Yet a faint, dark gleam shone in Lü Bufan's eyes as he silently watched the scene in Sun Xiaoliu's courtyard.
The old madam, in her forties, knelt in the courtyard with her hair hanging loose. The hooligans appeared to have scrubbed her down with well water. Sun Xiaoliu strode over, his eyes bloodshot, and grabbed her hair...
"Old whore... spare you? Didn't my wife beg you the same way back then? Why couldn't you spare her just once? You damned bastards..."
"Constable Ma forced me to do it! It was all Constable Ma!"
"Shut up! You filthy whore, come lick your grandpas' soles clean... Constable Ma was as good as your master. I can't take him on yet, but I can torment you to death!"
In the shadows beneath the night sky, Lü Bufan sighed softly and picked up a pebble, holding it between his fingers...
In unbearable pain, the old madam crawled before Sun Xiaoliu and had only just raised her head... when it suddenly jerked backward, and a trickle of blood spilled from her mouth.
"What happened?"
Two drunken, naked hooligans ran out of the house. One prodded the old madam with his foot... "Dead? She coughed up blood and died? Ah... Xiaoliu, why did you kill her? All the decent-looking women in town were either tormented to death by those people or taken away by the soldiers. We finally caught this old madam to vent our urges on..."
Sun Xiaoliu kicked the old madam viciously. "Fuck... I hadn't even started yet! I was planning to make her suffer a few more days... Who knew she'd cough up blood and die? Fuck... Let's go back and drink. Tomorrow night, we'll drag this whore out to feed the stray dogs!"
"Forget it, forget it. She's dead already. Let's go drink..."
The men shoved and tugged at one another as they went inside, cursing all the while. Atop the wall, Lü Bufan rubbed the dirt from his fingers...
He did not know why, but he had seemed unwilling to watch these men go on torturing the old madam... With a quiet flick of his finger, he had sent a small pebble through her mouth and pierced her throat!
Save her? Lü Bufan had no desire to... She was a sinner who deserved to die. Yet he could not quite explain it... It seemed he did not want to see a once-kind person like Sun Xiaoliu become utterly evil because of her!
Lü Bufan sat dazed atop the wall, his head lowered as he pondered... The old madam deserved to die, but what about Sun Xiaoliu? Besides torturing her, had he harmed other innocent people? Did he deserve to die too?
And the old madam? Before she committed her first evil deed, had she also been a pitiful woman persecuted by others, just like Sun Xiaoliu?
Lü Bufan shook his head... In this world, the immortal sects and the imperial court, along with countless martial artist sects, minor mountain sects, and Guardian Cities... weighed densely upon the common people's heads. Those who could no longer survive... could ultimately do anything.
Was it this world that deserved to die?
Lü Bufan raised his head and discovered that the martial warrior Zhong Huan was standing behind him!
Zhong Huan quietly felt reassured... He had secretly followed the boy Lü Bufan all this way, still uneasy about this lad he had picked up along the road...
In times like these, people's hearts were unfathomable! How could an old hand like Zhong Huan easily trust someone of unknown origins?
But the scene before him had allowed the seasoned veteran to breathe easier... The boy did indeed seem to have come from this little town, and... he seemed kindhearted as well.
"Did this old madam once show you kindness?"
Lü Bufan shook his head.
"Did you have a grudge against her?"
Lü Bufan shook his head again. "She harmed my master, but that wasn't why I killed her... I've seen several people die at her hands. She truly deserved to die... But I didn't want those people to become evil like her because of their hatred!"
Zhong Huan nodded. "But you also couldn't bear to see her suffer... is that right?"
Lü Bufan nodded.
The two walked out of the alley together. Zhong Huan said softly, "You have kindness in your heart. I can see it in your eyes. But... when you travel the jianghu in the future, you must keep that kindness hidden behind your guard. Staying alive matters most!"
"I'll remember, Sect Master!"
"I can tell you must have other abilities too... Learning to conceal your talents is a good thing. Keep them well hidden! That's the first and most important rule for staying alive in the jianghu..."
"Sect Master..."
"All right, all right. You've passed my test. I trust you! Someone with kindness in his heart won't be a bad person... Once you join the sect, just get along well with your fellow disciples!"
"Thank you, Sect Master..."