The Man with Vertical Pupils

By the time Chu Tianshu arrived, several militiamen had come from the other direction.

The gong had been sounded to alert the militia in the first place.

They were all young, able-bodied men from town, with no matching uniforms. Only two carried rifles on their backs; the others had steel cleavers and black iron spears.

But they seemed well accustomed to such bloody scenes. Their steps faltered only briefly before they gathered around the corpse to examine its wounds.

"The body hasn't gone cold yet. It's Liao Ayong, the bamboo-strip craftsman. Looks like he was mauled to death by a wild wolf."

The militiamen questioned the night watchman, who said only that he had seen blood all over the ground when he turned onto the road. He had been so frightened that he immediately sounded the gong.

Chu Tianshu could also see puncture wounds and bite marks on the body, and some flesh was missing from one thigh.

But if it really had been a wild beast, one that knew how to conceal itself before pouncing, why hadn't it let out a single howl after killing him? And why was there no sign that it had dragged the body around or continued feeding?

He looked around and quietly entered a spirit-communing state, but found no trace of any lingering evil presence.

The townspeople nearby had already begun talking among themselves.

"I'm afraid we've got another wolf on the prowl. When ordinary hungry wolves or wild dogs find something alive, they don't eat so little. Only the ones used to eating people go straight for the neck when they see someone. What they mainly drink is the blood from the neck."

"That's right. That wild wolf killed a few years ago bit eight people to death, and the fur at the tip of its tail was red."

"No, I need to go home and find some boards to seal the windows. I'll have to brace the door from the inside, too. There's no telling how long it'll take to catch it this time."

Chu Tianshu couldn't help frowning as he listened.

He hadn't dealt much with wild beasts in the modern world, and the supernatural incidents he had encountered had mostly involved evil things transformed from human souls.

Could it really have been a wild beast, one that had not reached the level of an evil creature but was already vicious and cunning enough?

Yi Province was mountainous, and these were times of war and chaos. With such a large population of beasts, it didn't seem strange that some exceptionally cunning ones would appear.

Unfortunately, these side roads were all dirt.

Even if a beast had bitten someone, so long as it hadn't gotten too much blood on its paws, it wouldn't have left any obvious clues walking along a dirt road.

He wondered whether he would have a chance to catch the beast and avenge the poor man.

"Stop gawking here! Hurry home and hide!"

The militiamen began driving the crowd away. The two with rifles were bolder, and planned to have the others stay while they went to report to the captain.

Chu Tianshu had no leads to pursue here, so he turned off the road and prepared to follow the little streets back to the restaurant.

The militiamen who stayed behind noticed him walking alone and couldn't help whispering among themselves.

"Who's that kid? After seeing something like this, he still dares to stroll along instead of hurrying home?"

"I think he's the eldest young master of the Meng family's friend. He studied abroad, too. He's probably capable."

"If he isn't afraid and hasn't asked us for help, let's not meddle."

Chu Tianshu had already turned the corner and disappeared from the militiamen's sight.

He really wasn't walking fast, but compared with his earlier mood, when he had been strolling home, he was considerably more alert now.

The past twenty-odd days had been so full, and the town so peaceful, that the tension he had felt when he first arrived in this other world had long since faded.

What had just happened made him realize anew that he was truly living in a brutal age.

A glimpse of a leopard through a bamboo tube revealed one patch of its coat: just a few militiamen from a small town were already so accustomed to the sight of such a ghastly corpse.

This bustling little town, which looked so peaceful and serene, was in fact a place long accustomed to bloodshed.

As Chu Tianshu walked, he suddenly sensed something amiss and looked back.

The road behind him was empty, with only moonlight and the shadows of houses. The residents' belongings lay hidden in the shadows.

He looked up again. There was nothing on the rooftops to either side, only a thin veil of mist.

The glint in Chu Tianshu's eyes did not fade. He lowered his eyelids slightly, turned back and continued walking.

The moment he took a step, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. His body suddenly tilted forward, and he sprinted.

He accelerated so violently that his somewhat loose robe gave a distinct rustle in the still night air.

Thin mist and dust rose from the ground, stirred by the current of air.

Boom!!!

The mist had only just risen when it was smashed down and scattered in an instant.

A black figure pounced onto the street like a leopard.

His feet landed and his claws grasped at empty air, right where Chu Tianshu had just been standing.

The black headscarf, the close-fitting black clothes and that gaunt, dark face were certainly not those of anyone from town.

His pounce had missed. His narrowed eyes flew open, revealing green eyes with vertical, spindle-shaped pupils.

That pounce was a move he had honed through countless repetitions. He had flipped down from the roof ridge, and, still dissatisfied with the speed of his fall, had kicked off with both legs to accelerate.

If Chu Tianshu had dodged in any other direction, he might not have escaped.

But a human could sprint forward far faster than he could move in any other direction.

Having missed his pounce, the man in black slammed both feet into the ground. His body had to sink to absorb the impact, delaying him another beat.

In that single beat, Chu Tianshu had already rushed to the foot of a wall and grabbed an abandoned table.

The unpainted wooden table had three of its four legs broken off and weighed thirty or forty jin at most.

But Chu Tianshu seized its one remaining leg, twisted his waist and hips, and hurled the thirty- or forty-jin weight behind him.

The force was still ferocious enough.

The tabletop flipped from side to side as it flew toward the man in black. Suddenly it stopped in midair, and a cracking sound burst out.

Two claws punched through the tabletop. His arms spread apart, tearing the rotten table to pieces.

The wood shattered in all directions. Parts of the tabletop had been hollowed out by borers, and when the wood broke apart, the little white insects inside went flying through the air as well.

The attack came in such quick succession that there was no chance to breathe. Sharp silver needles suddenly arrived, piercing the insects' bodies as they shot toward the man in black's forehead.

Clink, clink, clink!!!

Three very faint metallic clashes rang out.

Amid the flying splinters, the man in black snatched three times with his hands.

He caught all three silver needles.

By then, Chu Tianshu had already charged back. He stretched both arms to their limit and thrust out his hands with all his strength, grabbing the man in black by both forearms.

Even a healthy, well-watered stalk of moso bamboo as thick as a bowl, with its tough outer skin, could be crushed in Chu Tianshu's grip.

If he grabbed an ordinary person's forearm like that, the skin would split, the flesh would cave in, bloody and mangled, and the bones would break.

But when he grabbed the man in black, a piercing, peculiar shriek burst from the man's mouth, like a wildcat whose tail had been stepped on.

The two forearms wrapped in black cloth jerked and pulled back. Their diameter seemed to shrink somewhat, and the five fingers of each hand came together like a pointed cone.

Chu Tianshu had barely felt his hands close firmly around them when his palms were suddenly empty, and cloth scraped violently against the webs between his thumbs and forefingers.

He closed his hands fast enough, curling every fingertip inward toward his palms, but still only managed to tear off a layer of cloth and strip something from the man in black's fingers.

At the same time, the man in black had already raised a leg, driving his knee toward Chu Tianshu's groin.

But Chu Tianshu raised his own knee at that very moment. They collided, and their flesh-and-blood bodies made a sound like heavy blocks of wood smashing together.

Neither could keep his footing. They staggered back several steps.

The man in black crouched low in a bow stance, hands curled into claws and pressing toward the air before him, like a tiger or leopard stalking prey.

Chu Tianshu slammed his back heel into the dirt road to steady himself, then tossed what he held forward.

Besides two scraps of cloth, there were ten finger guards. They looked to be made of steel and painted black.

The man in black hadn't caught the silver needles barehanded just now; he had blocked them with these finger guards.

Chu Tianshu glanced at the finger guards and recalled the wounds on the corpse.

Besides a beast's fangs, these finger guards, combined with sufficiently powerful fingers, should also have been enough to inflict such horrific injuries.

"You killed that bamboo-strip craftsman. Who are you, and why are you attacking me?"

A fierce light showed in Chu Tianshu's eyes, and anger marked his face, but his voice was fairly low.

If a person wanted to shout loudly, he had to draw Qi into his chest and abdomen to produce a high sound. That made it hard to use the full strength of his limbs, and his reactions would be slower.

Chu Tianshu didn't dare expose an opening like that in front of the man in black.

The man in black gave no answer. His facial muscles tensed, his teeth bared in a grimace, and a rumbling growl came from his throat, making his lips and teeth tremble slightly.

He was just like a beast trying to intimidate an enemy, and there were still traces of blood on his teeth.

But when beasts encountered an enemy they couldn't handle, they were actually quick to think of fleeing.

The man in black's gaze and breathing, however, conveyed a desire to swallow Chu Tianshu alive and flay him. There was not the slightest thought of retreat, only malice thick as smoke.

Chu Tianshu stared fixedly at the man in black. His wrists turned slowly at his sides, prominent blue veins spreading from his forearms to the backs of his hands as he clenched them into fists.

Neither wanted to blink, but the fatigue in their eyes would not yield to their will.

When bloodshot lines appeared in the whites of Chu Tianshu's eyes, he couldn't help blinking his wide-open eyes once.

Whoosh!! It truly happened in the blink of an eye.

The man in black had already rushed in front of him. His claws swept toward Chu Tianshu's face, where his defense was weakest, stirring the wind. Though his iron-blue nails were no match for the steel finger guards, they were probably still enough to leave deep gouges in a brick wall.

But a sharp crack rang out in the air.

A fist suddenly swung up from an angle below, striking the man in black's forearm squarely.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!!!

Between the two figures, it sounded as though a string of firecrackers had gone off.

The man in black's hands attacked his opponent's head, face, neck, groin and waist without pause.

But every time, Chu Tianshu managed to strike with his fists and knock his opponent's arms aside.

Tongbei Fist, White Ape Startled by Dew!

The branches of a tall tree were laden with dewdrops. When the wind blew, the dew came pattering down.

A white ape keeping watch beneath the tree was startled. It suddenly struck out, its hands moving in succession to hit the dewdrops in the wind.

This punch unleashed a startling, explosive force, striking with utmost speed.

More importantly, what this move trained was a fighting method that did not rely entirely on sight.

White Ape Startled by Dew relied on sight and hearing working together, even with a touch of intuition.

Chu Tianshu practiced both spirit communion and boxing, and his execution of this move was the most polished of all his techniques.

The man in black realized something was wrong when his forearms kept getting struck. Spurred by the impacts, he actually burst forth with even greater speed.

A lock of hair at Chu Tianshu's left temple was swept off, and the cloth at the right side of his waist was torn open.

The tear looked as though several blades had sliced across it in parallel.

He narrowly dodged without being injured, but the hairs on his back still stood on end. Clenching his teeth, he shot out his left hand like a spring.

His powerful fist, filled with anger, once again struck the arm sweeping in from the left.

The man in black's burst of speed had failed, and an ache began to surge through both arms. His hands slowed slightly.

Chu Tianshu's eyelids tightened. In the space of a spark from a flint, his fist lashed toward the man in black's face almost instinctively.