The Apple of His Eye

Cloud Horn Prefecture was a fine place, with fine mountains, fine waters, and fine women.

It was said that, after the founding ruler of the Great Wei Immortal Dynasty had pacified the world, his first tour of the twenty-six prefectures of Shannan Circuit had taken only four months in all, and he had lingered in Cloud Horn Prefecture for a full three of them.

Before leaving, he had graced it with those words, casually having them carved on the plaque of the governor's yamen. They had been passed down from generation to generation ever since.

Whether the tale was true could not be verified for the time being, but this land, barren in the eyes of immortal cultivators, was indeed a first-rate place for mortals.

The four seasons were distinct, and it was a land of fish and rice. Great rivers raced across its vast plains, and there was rarely cause to fear floods or drought.

Its boundless forests, mountains laden with treasures, and black soil so fertile it oozed oil had nurtured generation after generation of mortals, who lived and multiplied there.

But among tens of millions of mortals, the good and bad were inevitably mixed, and the officials of the age were corrupt besides.

In Pingrong County alone, more than a hundred gangs of mountain bandits and road tyrants with names known far and wide roamed the mountains and forests. In their daily lives, aside from raiding homes and robbing travelers, all they did was commit acts that offended heaven and violated all decency.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!" Three young men dressed as woodcutters fell on a mountain path, each struck in the back by a feathered arrow.

The arrows tore through their wicker back baskets and passed through their chests, carrying great chunks of flesh into the rock face and leaving three white marks. In moments, the mountain path was wet all over.

In the blink of an eye, the three young men were breathing out but no longer drawing breath. Their pupils were dilated; plainly, they would not live.

"Fifth Master Liu, your successive arrow shots have improved considerably again. The chief is sure to hold you in even higher regard. Congratulations!"

A handsome young man in white rode alongside a burly man in a beast-hide robe. His handsome looks were utterly at odds with the flattery pouring from his mouth.

"You praise me too highly, Mr. Zhang," the burly man called Fifth Master Liu replied without warmth. He urged his horse a few paces ahead and led his underlings over the three young men still gasping on the road, passing them one after another.

The handsome young man's lips curled slightly. Entirely unconcerned, he urged his horse forward and resumed chatting with Fifth Master Liu.

His behavior made Fifth Master Liu frown inwardly. This Mr. Zhang was the apple of the chief's eye; he had best not get too close.

The chief was narrow-minded and prone to groundless jealousy, and his abilities were formidable. Though he had yet to reach the Marrow-Refining Martial Ancestor realm, he was a ruthless man who had survived an encounter with an immortal cultivator, and a notorious bandit in the surrounding area.

It was only because this fellow clamored all day to leave the stronghold and have some fun, and the chief could not resist his wheedling, that he had told Fifth Master Liu to bring him along to see the sights while he raided a village.

He had tested the Heaven-Splitting Bow he had just acquired on the three unlucky woodcutters. It had cost a full hundred taels of gold, and it was indeed a fine weapon.

Fifth Master Liu felt a little more confident, with one more asset to help him make his way in the world.

Today they were merely going to raid a wild village of refugees that had not known to pay its respects to the local mountain stronghold. With a Bone Refining expert like himself leading thirty or forty Skin Refining underlings, there was no reason they could fail to win.

He only had to worry about how to satisfy Mr. Zhang if there were no pretty young women in the wild village.

Pah! I thought you came out to have fun, but what kind of fun was it? So you came here to make up for what you've been missing?

Fifth Master Liu suddenly felt sick. Looking at the handsome man in white was like seeing a white worm, and he hurried his horse a few more paces ahead, afraid Mr. Zhang would see the disgust in his eyes.

As the party approached the village entrance, an alert villager spotted them on the road and raced back to the village for his life to raise the alarm.

Fifth Master Liu was bold because of his skill. He neither pursued nor intercepted the villager, watching him enter the village gate.

Before long, the gate was shut tight, and the able-bodied men had all taken positions on the village wall, bows drawn and arrows nocked, ready for battle.

"Whoosh!" Fifth Master Liu turned his head aside to dodge a feeble bamboo arrow without even blinking.

Then he fixed his eyes on the fair, tender-skinned youth who had shot it from the village wall, already pondering what weapon to use to chop off his head later.

"Heroes, which mountain do you hail from? We of Niuli Village have only just arrived. If we have offended you, we hope you will forgive us."

An old man wearing a scholar's headscarf stood on the village wall, his back hunched as he cupped his hands and bowed to Fifth Master Liu.

"I'll say this only once. Open the gate now, and some of you can still live," Fifth Master Liu said mildly, narrowing his eyes.

With Mr. Zhang present today, he was in no mood to trade a lot of talk with these dirt-scrabblers.

There were plenty of large villages and towns around the stronghold that had submitted tribute and registered their names. They would not miss this mosquito's leg, so he might as well raid it.

Silence fell over the village wall. Clearly, the old man had not expected Fifth Master Liu to be so resolute.

If he really opened the gate, he would be putting the lives and possessions of three to five hundred people on the chopping block. How could a country old man who knew a few characters have the nerve to do that?

Their stockade had been built less than half a year ago. They had always kept to themselves in this mountain hollow, growing and making what they needed, and had little money or grain.

By rights, established mountain bandits would not have bothered with a stockade like this. What was there in it for them?

The braised pork knuckle made at Mancang's house by the village entrance was quite good. Had they come because of its reputation? He could not make sense of it!

"Niuli Village has only just arrived and has not lived here in peace for long. The villagers are poor and have few possessions. We can offer the heroes outside the village only two oxen, ten fat pigs, four lambs, a hundred shi of good rice, and three hundred strings of full-value copper coins. We hope the heroes will show mercy."

The old man in the scholar's headscarf swallowed. Looking at the dozens of underlings outside, brimming with killing intent, he felt his legs begin to tremble, but he still had some sense of responsibility and mustered his courage to call down from the village wall.

"Looks like you all want to die!" Fifth Master Liu sneered, ignoring the old man's words.

At any other time, Fifth Master Liu might well have taken the offerings and left to save himself trouble. But wasn't Mr. Zhang, his eyes glowing green, waiting beside him today? They could only blame their bad luck.

Seeing that the bandits outside gave no answer, the old man in the scholar's headscarf, whom everyone had chosen as village head, said no more.

The able-bodied men beside him likewise kept silent, staring tensely at the murderous bandits below. Even swallowing their saliva, they took care.

A hundred or so men crowded the stockade wall, yet at that moment a pin could have been heard dropping.

"Once the gate's open, half is yours and half goes to the stronghold. Round up all the women and let Mr. Zhang have first look."

Fifth Master Liu drew the Heaven-Splitting Bow into a full moon and shot an arrow that scattered the fair youth's topknot. He watched the youth fall onto his backside, his face full of terror.

Fifth Master Liu thought to himself, I can't let you die so easily. I'll saw your head off while you're still alive.

Another arrow flew. A young man who looked to be the youth's father or elder brother abruptly stopped as he was helping the youth up. The feathered shaft pierced the center of his chest and grazed past the youth's cheek.

Fifth Master Liu had little interest in the youth's expression of despair and regret. He turned to watch his underlings, their spirits soaring at his promise, charge the stockade wall with bizarre howls.

Professionals did professional work.

Half the underlings held shields overhead as they hacked furiously at the village's log gate with rough axes. The other half clambered up the wall with blades clenched between their teeth, their faces full of fervor, without a trace of fear.

They had raided and robbed who knew how many times. The knack for risking their lives had long since sunk into these bandits' bones, and they had long ceased to set much store by their own lives.

Farmers these days could not live by scratching food from the soil alone. Several able-bodied young men beside the old man in the scholar's headscarf knew a few fighting moves and took the lead in arranging the defense.

For a time, liquid filth and feathered arrows flew from the village wall, followed by a succession of rolling logs and boulders. A few unlucky bandits failed to dodge and were badly hurt, and in moments the smell of cooked meat rose from beneath the stockade wall.

Even so, the remaining bandits fought on fearlessly. The threshold for making a living as a desperate outlaw was high; it was not a bowl of rice just anyone could eat from.

The good times did not last. As Fifth Master Liu picked off the more capable young men one by one with the Heaven-Splitting Bow, the bandits in beast-hide armor began climbing onto the village wall, and the stockade gate teetered under their blades and axes.

The defensive line the able-bodied men had built began to give way. People felt fear: when their companions in front fell in swathes like wheat, how many ordinary men could still draw the bows in their hands?

A sickly flush appeared on Mr. Zhang's handsome face, and he looked at the stockade like a starving wolf in the snow.

In stark contrast was the old man in the scholar's headscarf, whose aged face was deathly pale, without a trace of color. More and more young men lay on the ground, while more and more bandits leaped onto the village wall.

How could he not know? The village was finished!

Bang! At last, an axe chopped a gap in the wooden gate.

"Third Brother, run! They'll kill you!"

"Brother-in-law, you go first! Go back and take my sister and run!"

"Seventh Brother, don't leave me! Seventh Brother! Seventh Brother!"

They were routed. One man turned back, and a hundred followed, the able-bodied men openly baring their backs to the enemy's blades and axes.

In less than a quarter of an hour, Fifth Master Liu's bandits had routed Niuli Village's able-bodied men, even though the latter outnumbered them five or six to one.

"Why didn't you listen to what I said?" Having entered the gate, Fifth Master Liu saw an impatient bandit and drew his bow, his face cold.

A feathered arrow pierced the bandit's eye socket, carrying his body backward and pinning it to the wooden door of a house behind him.

Fifth Master Liu dismounted briskly and walked up to the bandit. He pulled out the arrow and slashed its point viciously across the bandit's groin, removing a ball-shaped object with its skin.

He tossed it into the air and said in a ringing voice, "Round them up and let Mr. Zhang look them over first! Don't make Fifth Master say it a third time."

The bandits' fervor faltered. They looked at Fifth Master Liu with hatred and fear, but none dared say more. All did as he had ordered and went to round up the women first.

"Thank you, Fifth Master! Thank you, Fifth Master!" How did Mr. Zhang look handsome now?

He kept thanking him like a pug. Unable to suppress the wicked fire in his heart any longer, he picked up the pretty village woman the bandit had just dropped on the ground and darted into the house, paying no heed to her futile struggles.

He had been stifled for far too long. He had almost forgotten he was a man, and he wanted to prove that he still was one.

He would carry out in this village every one of those things from the mountain stronghold that he could not bear to recall, all those scenes of humiliation.

Fifth Master Liu watched Mr. Zhang enter the house, his expression impossible to read as either pity or disgust. He put away his bow and mounted his horse, about to search the village treasury and granary, when a scream came from inside the house!

"This is bad!" Fifth Master Liu's heart jolted. Damn it, he's the apple of the chief's eye!