Chapter 32
Chapter 32
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: [Unknown]
Chapter Title: Ambush on the Road
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Mentioning Old Man Iron Brush, the villagers of Huangyang Village felt a surge of indignation. The old man had sought shelter at night, and fearing he might die outside, they had kindly taken him in. Who would have thought he would use the lives of four children from their village to refine lamp oil for the Life-Extension Lamp!
Seeing some unrest below, the bushy-bearded Embroidered Uniform Guard behind Zhao Yue let out a "hmph." His voice wasn't loud, but infused with Divine Embryo divine power, it made every villager's eardrums buzz.
That flicker of indignation from moments ago was instantly shattered by the sound.
Zhao Yue swept his gaze around, quite satisfied. He said,
"Who will explain?"
No one below made a sound.
Chen Shi had rescued Liu Fugui and avenged the three children of the village. Though rural folk might not understand the Great Ming Code, they knew full well what gratitude and enmity meant. Chen Shi had done the village a great service—how could they betray him?
"Not speaking? So loyal? Rural folk are truly naively endearing."
Zhao Yue couldn't help laughing aloud. He drawled leisurely,
"You think he did you a favor, so you won't turn him in? How ignorant. No matter how great the favor, can it outweigh the king's law? Fools! If you don't name who did the deed, you're all accomplices, all headed for the big prison!
His voice suddenly turned stern and chilling. He said,
"Once in prison, even if you don't die, you'll be flayed alive!"
Still, no one below stirred.
Zhao Yue slowly rose and walked among the kneeling villagers, coming to a stop before Liu Fugui. He sized the child up and smiled.
"Little one, those wounds on your lips, eyes, and nose look like they were clawed out by hooks. Someone harvested your essence energy—probably used it to refine Life-Extension Lamp oil. You must have suffered terribly, eh? Do you remember who saved you?"
Liu Fugui knelt on the ground, not daring to move, but he stubbornly declared,
"I won't say!"
Rich Boy's mother hurriedly yanked the child into her arms. In terror, she glanced up at Zhao Yue, then quickly averted her eyes.
Zhao Yue understood at once.
"My friends, Old Man Iron Brush using children to refine Life-Extension Lamp oil is one matter. He's guilty, and the law of the land will deal with him. Him being killed by the man you hired is another matter entirely. Hiring someone to carry out private punishment violates the Great Ming Code. Me avenging Old Man Iron Brush and the Zhao family steward is a third matter. You're rural folk, unlearned in such distinctions."
Zhao Yue stood amid the crowd, looking around. He raised three fingers and said,
"I'll count to three. If no one confesses, don't blame this official for resorting to torture. One!"
He lowered one finger as the Embroidered Uniform Guards encircled the villagers.
"Two!"
Zhao Yue lowered a second finger. Still, no one named the killer of Old Man Iron Brush.
He sighed and lowered his third finger.
"Three! He Lianzheng, torture these wretches!"
He Lianzheng was the bushy-bearded Embroidered Uniform Guard. He was about to give the order when a burly, broad-shouldered man suddenly rose from the crowd, planting himself squarely in front of Zhao Yue. It was Sanwang.
Sanwang spread his arms wide and bellowed,
"No one's laying a hand! Do you even follow reason? Your Zhao family's Old Man Iron Brush killed three of our village kids to refine lamp oil—that's your Zhao family in the wrong! Since ancient times, a life for a life..."
He Lianzheng swung his three-barreled matchlock, thwacking Sanwang's forehead with a thud. He snarled,
"Disrespect to a superior—you're asking to die!"
That three-barreled matchlock was forged of fine iron, weighing over ten catties—like a heavy hammer. It smashed into Sanwang's forehead, leaving him dazed, his head and face covered in blood. His body swayed but did not fall.
The Embroidered Uniform Guards all exclaimed in surprise and admiration.
"Rural folk have thick skulls—this blow didn't kill him!"
He Lianzheng saw that his strike had already taken Sanwang's life, yet the man stood without toppling, embarrassing him. He swung the matchlock down again with full force.
"Thud!"
Sanwang's skull split open in a spray of brains. His knees buckled, and he collapsed to the ground.
Zhao Yue stepped back to avoid the splatter on his clothes.
He stepped over Sanwang's corpse and walked out from the crowd. Behind him came the sounds of whips cracking and agonized screams.
Zhao Yue didn't look back. With a chilling gaze, he stared at the temple amid the ruins at the heart of Huangyang Village.
He embodied the law of the Great Ming—his authority inviolable. Even entering the village to commit violence, the village god of Huangyang Village dared not resist, forced to watch helplessly as its people were abused.
After a long while, He Lianzheng and several blood-splattered Embroidered Uniform Guards, their own clothes stained, approached him grinning and bowed.
"Sir, one woman couldn't take the torture and confessed!"
Zhao Yue clasped his hands behind his back and said flatly,
"No one who kills a Zhao family member gets to walk free. Who did they hire?"
He Lianzheng replied,
"A little talisman master named Chen Shi, living in Huangpo Village. He has a grandfather at home who's also a talisman master."
"A little talisman master?"
Zhao Yue was greatly surprised. Puzzled, he said,
"Old Man Iron Brush and Steward Zhao Ming weren't weak. How could this little talisman master kill them?"
Nightfall.
A gust of阴风 blew in, carrying a blood-drenched figure that drifted toward the outskirts of Huangpo Village. But Godmother's branches barred the way, keeping it from entering.
"I want to see Master Chen the Talisman Master! I want to see Master Chen the Talisman Master!"
The ghost wailed in the wind, begging Godmother to let it pass. The young woman in her twenties atop the ancient tree remained unmoved.
"Let it in." Grandpa appeared in the moonlight, saying coldly.
The woman's gaze was icy clear, her voice stern.
"If it enters and harms someone, who's to blame? I guard this village—no outsider evil gets in!"
"Don't let it in, and I'll uproot your tree." Grandpa said flatly.
The woman snorted and stopped blocking.
A阴风 blew, thick with the stench of blood. Whoosh—it darted into the Chen family courtyard, straight for Chen Shi's bedroom.
Grandpa murmured in surprise. He'd thought the aggrieved spirit sought him, not Chen Shi.
Chen Shi was dreaming when suddenly Sanwang from Huangyang Village approached, disheveled and bloodied. He cried out,
"Benefactor, run—they're coming to kill you! I tried to stop them but couldn't. I came to warn you! Hurry and go—"
Before he finished, a long tongue shot from the darkness, wrapping around Sanwang's neck with a swipe and dragging him back into the shadows.
Chen Shi jolted awake, looking around in confusion.
"That dream felt so real, like Sanwang was really here. How strange..."
He lay back down. Unable to sleep right away, he recalled the slender tongue coiling around Sanwang's neck and chuckled.
" Dreams have everything, no logic at all."
Soon, he fell asleep again.
Chen Shi woke at dawn, washed up, ate breakfast, paid respects to Godmother, consulted Scholar Zhu on ancient texts, then headed toward Gangzi Village.
He was going to the Mountain Lord Temple again. Though he'd completed his True Blood Exchange, he hadn't yet forged Fully True Viscera—hardly a perfected Divine Embryo body. Cultivating there was far faster than at home.
Walking along, Chen Shi spotted two men in conical hats fishing by the roadside, one on each side, staring intently at the water.
"No fish in this stream," he reminded them kindly.
"Mind your own business?" one snapped irritably.
Chen Shi ignored him and kept walking. Then he saw someone up a tree catching cicadas, net pouch in hand. Below, another watched anxiously, lest the climber fall.
Just then, one fisherman cried joyfully,
"Got one!"
Chen Shi turned, astonished.
"Fish after all? Didn't I catch every last one in this ditch?"
He'd been starving lately, scouring for food. The ditch had held not just fish but eels—and he'd cleared them out.
Chen Shi had just turned when his body seized up. It felt like a mountain range crushing down, bones creaking!
"Got one!"
Laughter came from above. The man below laughed too.
"Me too!"
Chen Shi's heart skipped. Looking down, he saw golden lights coiled around him—finger-thick, scaly, wrapping him over a dozen times, binding limbs so he couldn't exert force.
Looking up, a small golden mountain hovered over his crown—that was compressing his bones!
Behind him loomed a large shield etched with turtle-shell patterns, also golden light, sealing his rear brain to block his Divine Shrine and prevent drawing on his cultivation.
Before one fisherman floated a quietly burning talisman slip. Its runes erupted, birthing golden lights like writhing golden pythons.
The cicada-catcher on the tree had a burning talisman shaped like mountains.
The one below had a shield-patterned talisman, also aflame.
"Spirit Snake Talisman! Mountain-Moving Talisman! Sealing Talisman!" Chen Shi recognized the three.
Grandpa had taught him these, but they were combat talismans—rarely drawn. They sold mostly exorcism and warding ones.
"This the little brat who killed Old Man Iron Brush and the steward?"
The other fisherman tossed his rod, removed his hat, and approached Chen Shi, eyeing him appraisingly. Puzzled, he said,
"I expected some three-headed monster. Just a kid. Old Man Iron Brush was a seasoned veteran—how'd he die by this one's hand?"
He shook his head.
"Young Master Three had us disguise and ambush—overly cautious."
Chen Shi panicked inwardly.
"My crime's exposed. Officials here to arrest and behead me... Wait, I have two Galloping Horse Talismans! I can escape!"
As the thought struck, the fisherman patted him down, found the two Galloping Horse Talismans, and pocketed them.
"Is this kid a talisman master?"
The fisherman grew more doubtful.
"Which talisman master carries fewer than dozens or hundreds? Just two Galloping Horse Talismans. Is he really the killer? Old Man Iron Brush was mighty, no weaker than me. How could he fall?"
The other three were Zhao family Embroidered Uniform Guards, chiming in with flattery.
"Among talisman masters, Fu Shanke's rank tops Old Man Iron Brush. With Fu Shanke's move, capture's assured."
Fu Shanke beamed at the praise and laughed.
"I hold my place in the Zhao family's Xuan Ying Hall through skill, not like Old Man Iron Brush's bootlicking sort."
As he spoke, a roar like a mountain flood crashing assailed his ears—from within Chen Shi's body, like raging waters surging inside.
Fu Shanke's eyes widened. The slight boy before him shot up in height, straining the golden spirit snakes tighter. Gaps widened between scales!
"Not good!"
Fu Shanke's face changed. Boom—the golden spirit snake from the Spirit Snake Talisman snapped inch by inch, vermilion ink spraying everywhere.
"Broke my Spirit Snake Talisman! Such strength! Is this kid a humanoid evil?"
Fu Shanke stayed calm amid crisis, stepping back. A breeze arose underfoot, lifting him and sliding him a dozen feet away.
Simultaneously, a protective talisman flew from his left sleeve, divine power erupting!
From his right sleeve, another talisman emerged, gripped in hand—the Strongman Talisman.
His response was measured: Galloping Horse underfoot, Six Ding Six Jia Protection in left sleeve, Strongman in right—enough for close combat prowess!
As his talismans' powers burst forth, Chen Shi lifted a foot, spun, and stomped down hard—now just three feet from Fu Shanke. In the turn, his right hand whipped back like a chop.
The strike was thunder-fast, smashing Fu Shanke's throat bone.
Fu Shanke's larynx shattered. Chen Shi's palm ridge struck like a thick blade back, slamming the fourth cervical vertebra backward out of the spine!
A huge lump bulged at Fu Shanke's nape. He lost control of his body, watching as Chen Shi halted abruptly, then rammed backward.
Rush, halt, retreat—like zero inertia, impossibly swift.
"Under a golden mountain, and still this fast?"
Fu Shanke was horrified. His body toppled uncontrollably, more breath out than in—he was done for.
He died faster than Old Man Iron Brush!