Peace and Quiet

Ye Fu smiled. "Well, you really are kindhearted and genuinely good. There aren't many people like you."

"That's right."

With that, they fell silent.

They walked on for a while longer.

Ye Fu asked with a smile, "Why are we getting farther and farther away?"

The short, stout man's voice deepened, as though he had become someone else. He said eerily, "We're almost there."

"Almost where?"

The short, stout man suddenly stopped. Without moving his body, he twisted his neck around to face Ye Fu, his sinister expression radiating a chill. "The place where you'll die!"

Chapter 5: Peace and Quiet

With that, the whole scene abruptly changed. He opened his mouth wide, and it instantly grew larger than a human head. Then he lunged at Ye Fu with a bite.

At the same time, the tall, thin man, who had been silent behind them all along, turned both hands into fish fins and swept them viciously toward Ye Fu's back.

Ye Fu breathed a quiet sigh of relief and casually stepped aside. The fatty's huge mouth clamped straight onto the thin man's fins. Then Ye Fu casually kicked the thin man into the air, grabbed him by the ankle with one hand, wrapped him around his own head, and gave him a twist. Luckily, the thin man's body was long enough to be used like a rope to tie up the fatty's head.

In just a few moves, he had tightly bound the two men-no, the two monsters.

The two monsters, twisted into a ball of flesh, crashed onto the stone pavement.

They still hadn't realized what had happened.

A moment later, when they did, the fatty let out an unpleasant, ear-splitting roar. His entire face had completely transformed into that of a catfish. "Bastard! I'll kill you!"

Ye Fu squatted down and said with a smile, "This is only the second time I've met monsters, and I've already run into ones as stupid as you."

The fat catfish flicked its head, sending two whiskers whipping toward Ye Fu. Ye Fu deftly caught them both, then gave them a hard yank, tearing them off and tossing them aside. Separated from their owner, the two whiskers writhed about like black snakes.

The tall, thin man was a fish monster too, but he was a slender tree-root fish. He didn't seem fully developed yet and couldn't speak human words, so he just glared fiercely at Ye Fu.

The fat catfish said bitterly, "How did you discover us?"

Ye Fu smiled. "Come on, be a little more professional. Look at your reflections in the river. Anyone who isn't blind could tell, couldn't they?"

The fat catfish turned its head and saw the reflection in the river: a catfish with a tree-root fish wrapped around it in a strange fashion.

Hatred suddenly flared in its eyes, and it opened its foul-smelling maw and lunged at Ye Fu.

Ye Fu raised his hand and slapped the catfish hard across the head, leaving it completely dazed. The tree-root fish beside it simply glared fiercely.

"If you're monsters, don't go copying human speech. You should learn from that divine statue that became a spirit. Look at it, quietly going about big things," Ye Fu said.

The fat catfish cried in terror, "You killed big brother!"

Ye Fu smiled. "So you even became sworn brothers. Well, I really am sorry I can't reunite the three of you."

"What did you do to him?" the fat catfish shrieked.

"He turned to ash."

If the fat catfish had still been in human form, its face would surely have gone deathly pale.

Ye Fu shook his head. "I can't walk a few steps without running into monsters. Looks like it really is just as you said-there's a lack of oversight."

The fat catfish reacted quickly, its voice breaking as tears streamed down its face. "Great Immortal, please spare me! I cultivated for three hundred years just to barely manage to take human form. Great Immortal, please let me live. I'll be forever grateful and burn incense and kowtow to you every day from now on."

Ye Fu smiled and patted its head. "You really are a catfish, slippery as they come. Let me ask you: how many people have you killed on this road?"

"Not... not many. Only fifty."

"Fifty? Then you're really impressive."

Ye Fu stood up with a smile. "Fifty, was it?"

As he spoke, he gently sent out a wisp of Qi, which fell into the river.

"Great Immortal..."

"Don't be impatient. You'll get your wish soon enough."

The fat catfish heard the water in the river begin to churn rapidly, as though something were stirring it up.

Ye Fu took a look, then muttered, "Fifty, not one missing." He looked at the fat catfish and said with a smile, "All right, I'll send you back into the river."

"Thank-"

Before he could finish, Ye Fu kicked them in. "Don't thank me. Disgusting!"

After that, Ye Fu turned and walked toward the city.

In the river, the fat catfish let out a loud, bubbling laugh. "What an idiot. I only had to beg a little and he let us go. Glug glug glug-"

But the next moment, a tearing pain came from its lower body. It looked and saw a shoal of the notorious man-eating fish in the murky river water. Like hungry ghosts reborn, they swarmed toward the two monsters, frantically biting and tearing at them.

"No!" The piercing scream came to an abrupt halt as its throat was bitten through.

In the end, the fifty man-eating fish departed in satisfaction, leaving two skeletons, one wide and one long, to sink to the riverbed.

After a whole night of trouble, Ye Fu sighed helplessly as he arrived at the nearest small city. Dawn was already breaking, and the three large characters "Black Stone City" were written above the gates. Just as he arrived, the gates finally opened, as he had wished.

The first person the soldiers guarding the gates welcomed into the city was Ye Fu, "clad in rags."

Fortunately, there was no such thing as an entry permit here, and Ye Fu was allowed inside.

The rain had eased somewhat. Rainwater rushed along the city streets and into the drainage channels. Hardly a person could be seen at a glance, making the place seem especially deserted.

Everything here matched Ye Fu's idea of an "ancient city." The buildings, streets and everything else were built almost entirely of gray bricks and black tiles. Some doors still bore couplets that didn't look worn, so presumably it hadn't been long since the time for putting them up.

Ye Fu walked deeper into the city beneath the dripping eaves. He shook himself, shaking off the muddy water, and felt much fresher at once.

He walked on, listening to the rain and the drops falling from the eaves, like a piece of delightfully chaotic music. He was the only person there. The streets had been washed clean by the rain, and with the faint light lending its touch, the scene was serene and peaceful.