The Bounty Hunter Goes Home

"A ghost! A ghost!"

The peddler's voice trembled, and he didn't shout much. In his panic and helplessness, he seemed to be asking someone incoherently, "What do we do? What do we do?"

The peddler suddenly turned around, pulled out his carrying pole, and stared nervously at the headless corpse.

"Don't move!"

Chu Tianshu's voice overlapped with another voice.

The man leaning against the wall stood up, his eyelids only fluttering for a moment before drooping back down.

But Chu Tianshu had already seen clearly that the man's eyes had almost no irises.

Besides the whites of the eyes, there are only the pupils.

Therefore, his eyes looked frightening, as if two holes had been punched in the whites of his eyes.

However, there were no obvious injuries to his eyes. Judging from the fine blue veins that were habitually taut at the corners of his eyes, he was probably blind due to illness.

"Don't move."

The man used the knife in his hand as a cane, tapping the ground slightly twice, but his steps were quick and agile; he had already reached the doorway.

"This person just wants to go home; don't crush his last hope."

Although the peddler dared to pick up the carrying pole, his eyes clearly showed fear, and his voice was strained and thin. "Go home? Go back to the underworld?"

The blind man didn't open his eyes; he just turned his face slightly towards the peddler.

"You have a family, and so does he. There must be someone in his family waiting for him, otherwise he wouldn't have such an obsession."

Chu Tianshu put away a silver needle from his fingertip and asked curiously, "Brother, do you know anything about this headless man?"

The blind man's voice was indifferent. "Didn't you see that just now too?"

"I just told the peddler brothers not to do anything rash."

Chu Tianshu said in a gentle voice, "I really don't understand what's going on with this headless man."

In Chu Tianshu's psychic vision, there wasn't much evil energy emanating from the headless man.

There was a faint, sinister aura emanating from that knife.

To a psychic, it looked like a glowing blue line running along the spine of a knife from the hilt to the tip.

But this blue line is constantly emitting tiny blue specks of light, and is in the process of collapsing and being destroyed.

If this is a spirit attached to the knife, then that spirit is extremely weak.

Instead of choosing to remain asleep to protect himself, he forcibly controlled a recently deceased corpse.

This is unreasonable.

"He must be a swordsman. Swordsmen lick blood from their blades, but they can't live like that forever. They have to fight for fame."

"With enough fame, I can leave the swordsman profession and become a martial arts school owner or instructor. My life will be more stable, and my family can live a better life."

"But to gain fame, one must challenge more dangerous things or people."

The blind man's tone remained cold, but his desire to ensure the corpse returned home safely showed that his heart wasn't as cold and hard as it appeared.

"This is the Nanzhao Royal City. The atmosphere of swordsmen dueling and vying for fame and fortune, while perhaps not comparable to Chang'an Luoyang, surpasses that of many military governor's prefectures."

"The man outside was clearly beheaded in a duel between swordsmen. His last thought before death was for his family, and his Saber Soul will send him home."

Saber Soul?!

Chu Tianshu's expression shifted, and the swords and blades seemed to come alive, becoming what could be called Saber Soul Sword Soul.

But that should be an extremely rare occurrence, so why does this blind man talk about it so casually, as if Sikong?

"The Saber Soul you're talking about, is it the soul born from the sword?"

Chu Tianshu was skeptical. "Still a wandering soul trapped in a knife?"

The blind man furrowed his thick eyebrows and said, "Wandering spirits are extremely rare. Even if someone were to encounter one and manage to trap it in a weapon, that would be considered an evil spell. If caught by the authorities, their tendons would be severed, and they would be thrown into a latrine."

"The Saber Soul is naturally the soul born from the sword. Among those who can learn the Blood Refinement Weapon Method, there will always be one or two out of ten who can cultivate a soul within their weapon."

Wait, isn't that backwards?

Chu Tianshu found it utterly unbelievable.

How can it be that wandering spirits are rarer than Saber Soul?

One or two out of ten will become Saber Soul; that's an absurdly high probability.

Is your practice of cultivation really that miraculous?

Chu Tianshu glanced at the corpse outside.

But it feels very weak.

"Are you actually a doctor?"

The blind man was also somewhat suspicious. "Since the Han and Jin dynasties, Daoism and medicine have been interconnected. You studied medicine, so you should have studied Daoism, or at least heard a few words about it. How come you know nothing about the Saber Soul?"

The headless corpse had already passed by the earthen temple.

He indeed showed no reaction to the few living people in the earthen temple and continued walking forward on his own.

Chu Tianshu stared at the headless man and said, "Everyone has their own expertise. My school of thought really doesn't know much about Saber Soul."

"But I can see that the power in his sword is dissipating. If he encounters something else on the way, even the slightest obstacle, will he be able to hold on until he gets home?"

Chu Tianshu smiled, cupped his hands in greeting to the three peddlers, and said, "Take care, my lords, and farewell."

He turned and went out the door, picking up the banana leaf he had left behind.

The three peddlers looked at each other in bewilderment.

The headless swordsman carried his own head back to his doorstep.

The old peddler sighed, "I've heard this story several times before, but it turns out it's actually true."

The peddler whispered, "Isn't that even scarier? What if his family opens the door and sees only his body and head?"

The old peddler choked, glared at him, and said, "What does a dead man know about all that?"

The peddler also said, "If you're worried about your family, don't get involved in that swordsman duel. Why not do something else?"

This time, the old peddler didn't say anything.

There aren't that many living people to choose from.

Once you've entered a profession when you're young, it's not so easy to back out later.

The old peddler said, "Let's stop talking about this. Let's go sell our goods after the rain stops. These past few years have been peaceful, and city people have some extra money. I'm sure there will be plenty of people buying things."

"We need to work hard these next few years and build up our wealth."

Chu Tianshu had already caught up with the blind man. After thinking for a moment, he plucked a banana leaf from the roadside and placed it on the blind man's head.

Before the leaf could touch his head, the blind man reached out and grabbed the leaf stem.

He sensed what it was and mumbled, "Thanks."

"Are you planning to escort him, buddy? We're just strangers, what a kind heart you have."

Chu Tianshu said, "But you have a knife, and there's someone over there who's been slashed to death. If he falls, and you're standing next to him, it might cause some trouble, wouldn't it?"

The blind man simply said, "I am a registered swordsmith in the government; there can be no misunderstanding."

They make their living by accepting bounties from the government and chasing down all sorts of criminals and thieves. That's what a ghostwriter is.

Such a person naturally needs to have a certain level of credibility with the government.

The blind man walked silently, at a slow pace.

Because the headless man walking about seven feet ahead of him couldn't move too fast either.

"That's quite a statement you made. You must be pretty famous among ghostwriters."

Chu Tianshu smiled and said, "My name is Chu Tianshu. May I ask your honorable name, brother?"

The blind man said, "Just call me the blind man."

Chu Tianshu walked leisurely, his voice soft and gentle. "That's not a good way to address someone."

The blind man said, "But it's a fact."

Chu Tianshu found this person quite interesting and added, "He needs a surname."

"Success, but not great success."

The blind man grew impatient. "Didn't you follow him because of that man? Then just keep an eye on him and stop talking to me."

Chu Tianshu said, "I'm just going to the royal city on my way, and I'm also quite interested in the Saber Soul."

The Blind Cheng slowed his pace slightly, turned his head, and said, "You don't mean you want his knife, do you?"

"The Saber Soul and the sword master are one. If the Saber Soul perishes, the sword master will be severely injured. If the sword master dies, the Saber Soul will not live for long either."

Even if the weapons are intact, it's just an empty shell.

(End of this chapter)