Possession: Black Wind Baleful Intent

Down the mountain and home!

To him, it was just exchanging a quiet cage for a lively one.

He crumpled Zhao De's letter into a ball and casually tossed it on the ground. The orange cat pounced on it and made it a new toy.

His mother was gravely ill?

Most likely a lie.

His cheap father, Zhao De, had probably just found him a pretext to return.

Fine by him.

He missed Liu Ruyan's waist too.

He stood and stretched, his joints cracking.

Daoist Xuanli soon got the news and came running over with Mingfeng and Mingzheng.

"My worthy nephew! Leaving already?" Xuanli's fat face was full of reluctance to see him go-or rather, even more reluctance to part with those three thousand taels of incense money.

"Mm." Chen Fan walked past him without even breaking stride.

"Then... come back and visit often!" Xuanli shouted after him.

Chen Fan didn't look back, merely waving a hand.

Outside the mountain gate, Zhang San and Li Si were already waiting with the carriage.

When they saw Chen Fan, the two hurried over with ingratiating smiles. "Young master!"

Chen Fan nodded and climbed into the familiar, spacious carriage.

The carriage slowly set off, following the stone-paved road down the mountain.

Wang Chong stood on a huge rock on the back mountain, watching from afar as the carriage disappeared around a bend in the mountain road.

The expression on his face looked particularly sinister in the shadows cast by the sunlight.

He carefully took a carrier pigeon from inside his robes.

A small strip of red cloth was tied to its leg.

"Go."

He released it.

The pigeon beat its wings and soared high, racing toward Black Wind Mountain.

Zhao Long.

This time, let's see how you stay alive!

The carriage rumbled along the mountain road, jolting somewhat.

Chen Fan leaned against the soft cushions, drowsy.

They had been traveling down the mountain for nearly an hour, and the main road was in sight.

Everything was much the same as it had been on the way up.

But for some reason, the mountain road seemed a little too quiet today.

They could hardly hear even a bird's call.

Zhang San and Li Si sensed something was wrong too. Flanking the carriage, they gripped their saber hilts, their expressions wary.

"Young master, should we... pick up the pace?" The driver's voice carried a barely perceptible trace of tension.

"No need."

Chen Fan's voice came from inside the carriage.

"If it's a blessing, it isn't a calamity. If it's a calamity, there's no avoiding it."

Just then, the carriage stopped without warning.

The sudden halt sent Chen Fan lurching forward inside.

"What's going on?" Zhang San demanded sharply.

No one answered.

What answered him was an arrow whistling out of the woods!

"Pfft!"

The arrow pierced the driver's throat with unerring accuracy.

The loyal driver tumbled from the carriage shafts without even letting out a scream.

"An ambush!"

Zhang San and Li Si roared, drawing their sabers and pressing their backs against the carriage to guard the door.

"Protect the young master!"

Figures moved among the trees.

A dozen, several dozen...

One after another, men in ragged clothes emerged from the woods, carrying all manner of weapons.

Bloodthirsty, savage grins covered their faces.

Their leader was a burly man with a full beard, a broad executioner's saber resting on his shoulder.

It was none other than Black Wind Baleful Intent, the chief of Black Wind Mountain!

He pointed his saber at the carriage and spoke in a booming voice.

"Is that Young Master Zhao in the carriage?"

Zhang San and Li Si's legs had already begun to tremble.

But they did not retreat.

"Who are you people?! Do you know who's in that carriage?!" Li Si summoned the last of his courage and shouted, blustering to hide his fear.

"Hahaha!"

Black Wind Baleful Intent threw back his head and laughed.

"Of course I know! Isn't it Zhao Long, the precious son of the Qinghe county magistrate, Young Master Zhao himself?!"

"I'm here today to take his dog life!"

He slammed the executioner's saber into the ground, making the whole earth shudder three times.

"Brothers, get them!"

"Kill those two lackeys and invite Young Master Zhao out!"

The bandits swarmed forward.

Zhang San and Li Si knew a little martial arts, but they were no match for these desperate outlaws.

Blades flashed, and blood and flesh flew.

In a mere dozen breaths or so,

a spear punched clean through Zhang San's chest.

An axe split Li Si's head open.

The two bodies fell in pools of blood.

A bloodied steel saber roughly lifted the carriage curtain.

Chen Fan sat inside, still holding a half-eaten piece of osmanthus cake.

He looked at the savage face outside and stuffed the last bite of cake into his mouth.

"What a pity. I haven't had my fill of being Zhao Long yet."

The three madams were simply too enticing, leaving him somewhat reluctant to part with them.

He brushed the cake crumbs off his hands before leisurely stepping down from the carriage.

The sunlight was a little dazzling.

He narrowed his eyes and looked at the bandits surrounding him, as well as their chief with the executioner's saber on his shoulder.

No fear.

No begging for mercy.

"You're Black Wind Baleful Intent?" Chen Fan asked.

Black Wind Baleful Intent froze for a moment.

He had imagined Zhao Long would be scared shitless, would fall to his knees and beg for mercy, would invoke his father's name.

But he had never imagined the man would act like this.

So calm it was uncanny.

"Brat, death's staring you in the face, and you still dare talk tough?" Black Wind Baleful Intent said viciously.

"Death?"

Chen Fan smiled.

"To me, this isn't death."

"It's a new life."

Black Wind Baleful Intent didn't understand.

Nor did he want to.

All he knew was that the calm gaze of this wastrel, rumored to be a good-for-nothing, filled him with inexplicable irritation.

"Cut the fucking nonsense!"

He raised the executioner's saber in his hands.

"Brat, keep your eyes open in your next life. Don't go provoking people you shouldn't!"

Chen Fan looked at the cold gleam of the blade and nodded.

"I'll remember the lesson."

He closed his eyes.

Fine by him.

Being a bandit was bound to be more interesting than being a wastrel too weak to truss a chicken.

At least this body looked strong.

"Kill!"

Black Wind Baleful Intent roared, bringing the saber viciously down at Chen Fan's neck with a rush of wind!

He could almost see that pretty head flying into the sky.

But just as the blade was about to touch Chen Fan's skin,

an indescribable chill burst violently from his body!

Black Wind Baleful Intent's movement froze.

He felt a cold, overbearing will that was not his own invading his body with savage force!

His consciousness rapidly dissipated.

His last memory was of seeing the young man with closed eyes suddenly open them.

There was no fear in those eyes, no despair.

Only an unfathomable, bottomless indifference.

[Death-Substitution Rebirth activated]

[Target locked: direct assailant, Black Wind Baleful Intent]

[Possession... beginning]

[Possession in progress... 1%...]

[15%...]

[58%...]

[99%...]

[100%!]

[Congratulations, host: possession successful!]

"Thud."

Zhao Long's body fell.

There was only a shallow line of blood on his neck.

The executioner's saber had stopped less than half an inch from his neck.

The bandits stood around them, dumbfounded.

What was wrong with the chief?

Why was he holding his saber up without moving?

The next moment,

"Chen Fan" opened his eyes.

He moved his still somewhat stiff neck, feeling the explosive power in this body.

The meridians were open.

There was Qi in the Dantian.

Crude as it was, it was indeed internal force!

He raised his hands and looked at the large, callused, powerfully built hands.

Then he looked at the corpse on the ground, the one that belonged to "Zhao Long."

That familiar, fair face was now utterly lifeless.

Around him, the bandits' voices reached his ears.

"Chief, what's wrong?"

"Chief?"

He slowly turned his head and swept his fierce eyes, Black Wind Baleful Intent's eyes, over them.

Everyone his gaze fell on instinctively took a step back.

Finally, he lifted the heavy demon-head saber from the ground and hoisted it onto his shoulder.

He grinned, baring teeth yellowed by tobacco smoke.

"Nothing."

His voice was hoarse and rough, filled with a violent air.

"I just thought it was a bit of a shame that this kid died."