A Violent Death

"All right!"

Lu Mingyue answered brightly. After all her grandfather's comforting words, she stopped dwelling on whether Horseface would take revenge on her.

Turning her anger and nerves into an appetite, Lu Mingyue ate another two large bowls of rice that night and almost forgot to leave a bite for Xiao Huang.

After what had happened that day, she went straight back to her room once she had tidied up, sat cross-legged on her bed, and continued her grand undertaking of cultivating immortality!

This time, Lu Mingyue finally stopped slacking off or using her young age as an excuse.

She forced herself to endure the stabbing pain in her abdomen and cultivated for half an hour before collapsing onto her bed, drenched in sweat.

"I have to work hard and become an immortal! Hmph, then we'll see if those bad people still dare raise their voices at me whenever they please!"

Rubbing her stinging abdomen, Lu Mingyue clenched her little fists and thought of Horseface, who had tried to kick Xiao Huang to death that day and had wanted to attack her too.

Lu Mingyue was very worried that Horseface would come to take revenge on her, but she dared not tell Old Lu. What if he threw her out?

Although Lu Mingyue knew her grandfather treated her very well, as if she were his own granddaughter, still...

Because of the opportunity for immortality that had appeared on the burial shroud, a thread of worry always lingered in Lu Mingyue's heart.

She did not want to suspect ill intent of Old Lu, whom she regarded as family, but as someone who had transmigrated, Lu Mingyue had never felt particularly safe in this world she now inhabited.

After living with Old Lu for seven years, Lu Mingyue had originally gained some sense of security.

But that little sense of security had now vanished.

"I have to cultivate! I have to open my Spirit Mansion as soon as possible!"

After giving herself a little encouragement inwardly, Lu Mingyue finally closed her eyes and fell into a somewhat uneasy sleep.

Beside the bed, a foot away from her, lay the woodcutting knife from the kitchen. Lu Mingyue had brought it in before going to sleep.

Since she was worried Horseface would come seeking revenge, Lu Mingyue naturally had to take some precautions. She was not truly a seven-year-old child, after all...

However, Horseface did not appear over the days that followed.

Lu Mingyue dared not let her guard down. Every day, she worked hard to open the Spirit Mansion within her body. Unless she had work to do, she returned to her room to sleep as soon as she finished eating.

Of course, she did not tell Old Lu she was cultivating. She was simply getting sleepy and going to bed as usual.

This had also taken up the largest part of the grandfather and granddaughter's daily lives over the past seven years. After all, their line of work was far too unlucky in other people's eyes. They could hardly go visiting whenever they had nothing to do.

These days continued for over a month.

Just as Lu Mingyue was almost forgetting Horseface and growing accustomed to extending her cultivation time every day, something suddenly changed.

"Old Lu, come to the yamen. There's work!"

Early that morning, Zhou Biao, who worked at the yamen, arrived. He called out his instructions to the grandfather and granddaughter as they ate, then hurriedly turned and left.

"Grandpa, what happened?" Lu Mingyue bit into a meat bun bought outside, noisily gulped down the porridge in her bowl, and began clearing away the bowls and chopsticks.

"How would I know? I didn't hear anything last night either. Probably wasn't anything on our west side of the city."

Old Lu shook his head and hurriedly finished the bun in his hand. Once everything was ready, he pushed the handcart out of the courtyard with Lu Mingyue in tow.

Neither grandfather nor granddaughter knew what had happened. Only when they reached the county yamen did they receive a shock.

"Is this..."

"Master Shen?"

Looking at the five corpses laid out in the courtyard, Old Lu and Lu Mingyue both widened their eyes, deeply shaken.

They did not recognize the others, but Master Shen had only recently visited their place to collect Shen Yulang's remains and take him home for burial.

Not even two months had passed, and a perfectly healthy wealthy gentleman had become a cold corpse.

And...

One look at Master Shen's remains was enough to tell them that he had suffered considerable pain before his death.

"Old Lu, take Master Shen and the other four back and tidy up their remains. Their families will collect them at noon."

Yangguan City's County Registrar was waiting in the courtyard. Seeing the grandfather and granddaughter arrive, he spoke to Old Lu in a complicated tone.

"So soon?" Old Lu instinctively wanted to refuse the job, but the look in the County Registrar's eyes quickly brought him to his senses. "Sir, there are five bodies. We can't finish them all in one morning..."

The County Registrar waved his hand and said with some impatience, "There are five bodies, yes, but none of their missing parts can be found. You two only need to wash them down. How much time could that take? Get on with it!"

With that, the County Registrar turned and took two steps, then looked back at Old Lu. "Considering we've known each other for decades, I'm doing this for your own good. Don't keep blathering!"

With even the county's registrar putting it that way, how could Old Lu dare say another word?

He hurriedly carried Master Shen's remains home with Lu Mingyue, then had her start washing the body while he went back alone to move the remaining four.

"Woof! Woof!"

Over a month had passed, and little Xiao Huang had already grown into a medium-sized yellow dog.

Unlike the dog's scoundrel of a father, this dog had obediently stayed in the courtyard earlier. Seeing Lu Mingyue return, the dog hurried over and circled her, wagging its tail, then vigorously sniffed Master Shen's remains on the table.

"Huahua, you'd better behave. This is a person, not the meat I usually feed you, understand?"

Calling the name she had given her dog, Lu Mingyue took hold of its collar and led it outside. Only after drawing a bucket of well water did she let Huahua crouch in the room to keep her company.

It was not that Lu Mingyue was being delicate. Master Shen had truly died a gruesome death. Not only had his eyes been gouged out, but his ears and nose had also been cut off, and his lips were covered in blood.

When Lu Mingyue undid Master Shen's clothing, she received another fright.

There were nine bloody holes in Master Shen's belly.

They were not wounds made by a stabbing blade, but actual bloody holes, with the flesh cut away...

"No wonder the County Registrar said that!"

Lu Mingyue sighed inwardly. Although Shen Yulang had been an evil man, Master Shen's manner of death still left her with a chill of shared dread.

Mostly, she felt that human life was worth far too little in this world.

Leaving aside how many dead people Old Lu had handled throughout his life, in the seven years since she had transmigrated alone, she had seen far more than a hundred corpses.

None of them had died of old age or illness. They had all been killed!

And Master Shen had died so horribly. Lu Mingyue dared not imagine how much pain this wealthy gentleman had endured before his death. All she could think was that, starting today, she absolutely had to put more effort into cultivating!

Because she had "experienced" Shen Yulang's brief life through the burial shroud, Lu Mingyue had never considered how difficult cultivating immortality might be.

Only after she began cultivating herself did she realize how difficult it was for a mortal without an inborn Spirit Mansion to open one that would allow them to cultivate!

"Master Shen, may your journey onward be peaceful."

With things on her mind and Huahua beside her, Lu Mingyue was no longer quite so afraid of Master Shen's corpse.

"Girl, don't go out today. Stay put at home!"

But just as Lu Mingyue finished washing Master Shen's remains, Old Lu came rushing in, looking somewhat panicked as he pushed two corpses on the handcart.

"Grandpa, what happened?"

"The county commandant has taken the constables to wipe out the Twin Blades Gang!"