"Thud!"
"Clang!"
The cleaver hacked down with tremendous force. Lu Mingyue had no idea when Old Lu had brought it inside. She was certain she had used the cleaver in the kitchen that evening.
This was a different one.
The cleaver had cut her left arm. Blood streamed from her forearm, and as she backed away to dodge, she knocked the stove onto the floor.
"Hah! Hah! Hah..."
Old Lu breathed hard, his eyes bloodshot and his face twisted hideously. Staring at Lu Mingyue, who had evaded his fatal blow, he planted a foot on Huahua's belly.
It was all this beast's fault!
They had lived in the same courtyard for years, yet this beast had actually sounded a warning at the crucial moment. Otherwise, that blow would have severed the girl's neck!
"Yelp!"
Huahua convulsed violently several times. More blood spurted from the wound in its neck, and it went still.
"Huahua!"
Tears streamed down Lu Mingyue's face. Watching Old Lu approach step by step, she shook her head in disbelief.
"Grandpa... why...?"
"Hah, hah... because you got the Shen Household's chance at immortality, girl! Cough, cough, cough!"
Old Lu grinned. After uttering just one sentence, he broke into a violent, unending fit of coughing.
Yet his steps were unusually steady, without any of the weakness he had shown during the day. Presumably, gorging himself on two meals that day had given him some strength.
"The Shen Household's chance at immortality..."
Lu Mingyue retreated step by step. Watching Old Lu advance with the cleaver, she felt that the family member before her had become utterly unfamiliar.
"You're going to kill me just for that elusive chance at immortality, Grandpa?"
She had truly regarded him as her own grandfather!
But the wound on her left forearm kept reminding Lu Mingyue that she had taken far too much for granted.
Old Lu's earlier strike had truly been meant to kill her!
"Girl, don't blame Grandpa..." Panting, Old Lu raised the cleaver again and narrowed his eyes at Lu Mingyue's neck.
"Grandpa doesn't want to die... and that chance at immortality isn't elusive... haven't you been practicing the Shen Household's Spirit Mansion secret art all these years?"
Lu Mingyue's eyes widened. Hearing Old Lu's words, she suddenly pictured the corpse of the Twin Blades Gang's second elder from six months earlier.
It seemed her judgment back then had been wrong.
She had thought that since the second elder had not opened a Spirit Mansion, no chance at immortality would appear on the Corpse-Wrapping Cloth. Yet Old Lu had clearly gained knowledge related to immortal cultivation.
Otherwise, how would he know that the Shen Household's chance at immortality was a Spirit Mansion secret art?
Old Lu had washed the Corpse-Wrapping Cloth back then...
"Immortal cultivation... it really is wonderful!"
Old Lu noticed the change in Lu Mingyue's expression, but he did not care. Right now, he felt full of strength. His granddaughter, by contrast, had nearly had her hand chopped off by him.
"All these years, you've never been sick. You don't even need a fire in the depths of winter... but what about Grandpa? Grandpa is growing old, getting sick, inching closer to death every day..."
"Why?"
As he spoke, Old Lu hacked down again. Lu Mingyue wanted to open the door and escape, but turning around now would undoubtedly expose her back to that sharp cleaver.
She could only dodge farther into the room.
"Bang!"
The cleaver struck the door. Old Lu wrenched it free and turned to glare viciously at Lu Mingyue.
"My dear granddaughter! Grandpa doesn't want to die! Can't you fulfill Grandpa's dream of becoming an immortal? If Grandpa hadn't carried you home from the snow, how could you have lived to this day?"
"Grandpa gave you your life! Now Grandpa wants you dead! You should give your life back to Grandpa!"
Old Lu seemed to have gone mad. He brandished the cleaver, hacking at Lu Mingyue over and over.
The room was only so big. With nowhere left to dodge, Lu Mingyue could only grab the table and thrust it out to block him.
"Bang!"
"Crack!"
The rotten table split beneath the cleaver, but Old Lu staggered too, retreating two steps.
"Hah... hah... hah... cough! Cough!"
Old Lu began coughing violently again. This time, Lu Mingyue no longer felt sorry for the old man who had raised her.
"Grandpa, since you know the Shen Household's chance at immortality is only a Spirit Mansion secret art, you should know that even opening a Spirit Mansion doesn't make you an immortal!"
Lu Mingyue's heart was filled with anguish. She had thought that the hundred or two hundred lives lost among the Shen Household, the Twin Blades Gang, and the County Yamen over this Spirit Mansion secret art had already made it a terrible tragedy.
Yet she had never imagined that years later, Grandpa would raise a cleaver against her over that same Spirit Mansion secret art.
They were grandfather and granddaughter, who had lived under the same roof for twelve years!
"Hah, hah... heh, heh... of course Grandpa knows!"
Old Lu looked up with a smile. Suddenly, he flung a packet of lime at Lu Mingyue, then raised the cleaver and lunged at her.
"Aah!"
Agony seared Lu Mingyue's eyes. Waving the table leg in her hand, she stumbled backward in panic.
"Yelp!"
"Aah!"
Huahua's cry rang out again. Lu Mingyue squinted through her swollen, reddened eyes and saw that Huahua, who had been utterly motionless, was now clamped onto Old Lu's ankle. Even as the cleaver hacked into its body, it refused to let go.
"Huahua..."
Tears fell from Lu Mingyue's eyes in heartache. Looking at Old Lu, she finally swung the table leg in her hand.
"Bang!"
The table leg struck Old Lu hard on the head. The old man went rigid for a moment, then toppled helplessly to one side.
"Thump!"
Old Lu was dead.
His head tilted to one side, he stared at Lu Mingyue, seemingly unwilling to accept his fate even in death.
Yet perhaps it was Lu Mingyue's imagination, but the corners of Old Lu's mouth curved slightly upward, as though he were smiling.
Was he laughing at her innocence?
Or was he laughing because she finally knew how cruel this world was?
"Grandpa..."
Lu Mingyue knelt on the floor. Looking at Huahua, whose jaws remained clenched even in death, she could not help sobbing bitterly.
Burning coals from the overturned stove rolled to Old Lu's bedside, setting the bed curtains alight and igniting the wooden bed.
Gradually, the entire room began to burn. The blazing flames illuminated Lu Mingyue's small, thin figure.
"Immortality..."
Lu Mingyue lowered the hands covering her face. Her tears gradually stopped, and her expression became indescribably impassive.
"Whoosh..."
A piece of black cloth enveloped Old Lu's corpse.
"Crackle..."
In the dark night, flames soared toward the sky.
Lu Mingyue stood alone in the courtyard.
She carried a bundle on her back and held a piece of black cloth in her hands. Five lines of bloodred writing gradually appeared on it.
"Mortal, Five Elements Eternal Spring Art, Wooden Caltrops, Fireball Technique, Water Mirror Shield."
An old man's entire life suddenly flooded before Lu Mingyue's eyes.
On this snowy night, beneath the blazing flames, Lu Mingyue seemed to live through an old man's entire life.
From being picked up out of the snow, to growing into adulthood, bidding farewell to the grandfather who had raised him, then taking in an abandoned orphan girl and watching her grow day by day...
"My dear granddaughter, from now on, you must never trust anyone..."
Before you continue