After obtaining the information he wanted, Qin Yi held an impromptu cremation for Wang Ma amidst his terrified curses and screams of agony.
The night wind carried a faint scent of roasted meat across the desolate slope as the firelight danced in Qin Yi's slightly lowered eyes.
The situation was simpler than he had anticipated.
No complicated entanglements, just a vendetta following the loss of a patron.
The Zhou family of Qi County.
Two years ago, his sister Ruan Su had incurred their enmity because of him, so once she lost the protection of Immortal Guest Lodge, the Zhou family had immediately come knocking.
It was that simple.
Back at the ruined temple, moonlight streamed through the hole in the ceiling, casting a cold white sheen over the withered grass and stone floor.
Enduring the pain, Qin Yi hopped over and retrieved the torch from the entrance of the passageway. The flames dragged long shadows across the damp rammed earth walls. Before returning to the secret chamber, he picked up the food box Wang Ma had dropped while fleeing.
The leaping light of the oil torch illuminated the chamber. The girl still lay asleep in the corner, the rust-colored bloodstains beginning to congeal, and the air thick with the heavy scent of iron.Confirming everything was exactly as he had left it, Qin Yi relit the torch on the wall, pulled up a chair, and sat down at the square table to eat his dinner.
He likely hadn't eaten anything while unconscious, and his body was ravenous now.
The food in Wang Ma's box was quite good - fragrant rice paired with various braised delicacies, including meat, braised chicken legs, and other chicken giblets. The portions were generous, the only shortcoming being that it had gone somewhat cold.
The candlelight cast alternating shadows across his face as he set aside a portion for the unconscious girl in the corner. While eating slowly, Qin Yi once again pondered his sister's situation.
The reason his sister had lost her patron at Immortal Guest Lodge was actually directly connected to him.
Contrary to the rumors circulating outside, the one who liked his sister wasn't the owner of Immortal Guest Lodge, but the young master. During his last moment of consciousness, she had mentioned this to him in passing.
Qin Yi had seen this coming long ago.
His elder sister was beautiful. Even the sallow, gaunt look from days of hunger and deprivation couldn't hide her natural born loveliness, let alone now that she had grown into her features. Combined with her extraordinary martial prowess, it was a foregone conclusion that a young man like the young master would be drawn to her.
From a purely pragmatic standpoint, orphans like them who relied on each other would find having a local magnate like Immortal Guest Lodge as a patron to be an excellent springboard for whatever they wanted to do in the future.
But unfortunately, the young master already had a formal engagement.
In any world, a concubine was only one step above a servant girl. If the legitimate wife got jealous, Qin Yi didn't know whether the young master could protect his sister, but he certainly couldn't protect this simple-minded younger brother of hers. So when he regained consciousness last time and heard the full story, he had directly told his sister to reject the young master.
Everything,
Must prioritize his own survival above all else.
It seemed his sister had been as obedient as always, but he truly hadn't expected her to resort to such drastic measures.
Had something unexpected happened?
The chopsticks spun silently between his fingers as Qin Yi chewed on a piece of cold braised meat, his gaze dropping slightly.
His original intention had been to keep the young master dangling.
Because of his boundless future, his sister held a special position within Immortal Guest Lodge. Even if they deliberately kept the young master at arm's length, they weren't particularly afraid.
As long as the old master remained alive, the young master could only be the crown prince of Immortal Guest Lodge. And over the past four years, Qin Yi had his sister prove her indispensability to the old master.
For a force in its expansion phase, his sister was a blade any superior would love to wield.
Loyal, obedient, supremely capable, and with an absolute vulnerability.
So was this hunting expedition likely just a farce?
A farce cooked up by the young master in a fit of rage because his sister had burned her own face?
If that were truly the case, and his sister survived this hunting expedition, then based on Qin Yi's assessment of the old master, the man would likely come personally to show goodwill and repair relations with his sister.
But,
Could his sister really survive?
At this thought, Qin Yi's train of thought suddenly came to a halt.
And at that very moment,
"You... what are you doing?"
The girl's voice came from the corner, somewhat hoarse, as if she had just woken from a nightmare and hadn't fully come to her senses yet.
Awake.
Picking up a piece of shredded meat and a leaf of greens, along with a mouthful of rice, Qin Yi didn't turn around. He chewed slowly, swallowed, and only then replied softly:
"Eating."
"........"
The boy's unhurried manner of dining was like that of a young master from a wealthy household, but the shadows of the dismembered corpses all around, flickering in the firelight, seemed especially macabre.
Severed limbs cast distorted shapes across the rammed earth, the aromas of food and the stench of blood intertwined in the air. Especially that bloody head on the table, its hollow, unblinking eyes staring toward the boy.
How could anyone eat like that?
Su Nuo opened her mouth, then curled up into the only clean corner, sniffing.
Compared to this boy, she kind of missed the roaming bandits from before.
Seeing that she wasn't speaking, Qin Yi pointed to the chair beside him and reminded her kindly:
"I saved you some food. Come eat when you're awake. I've killed all of them."
"......"
Glancing once more at the bloody head on the table, Su Nuo pursed her lips.
Perverted little brat.
Despite being very hungry, she still whispered:
"I... I'll pass."
Swallowing his last bite, Qin Yi hopped down from the chair, picked up the other food box, and walked over to the girl.
His worn cloth shoes squelched softly through the pools of blood as he came to a stop. Qin Yi expressed his understanding to her:
"Can't eat in here? How about we go outside?"
"I'm really not hungry..."
"Eat up. You'll need to carry me back to town later."
"Thanks, but... huh?"
Su Nuo instinctively looked up. The blood-stained childish face wore an expression far too serious to be a joke.
The girl pointed at herself:
"Me? Carry you?"
"That's right."
Qin Yi nodded: "I just got injured. Is there a problem?"
Su Nuo: "......"
...
The ruined temple where the secret chamber was located wasn't too far from Yellow Bamboo Town, roughly two or three li away. However, the first half of the mountain path was truly difficult to traverse.
The night was thick as ink, insects chirping in endless succession through the mountains. The moon peeked half out from behind the clouds, casting a thin silver-gray sheen over the gravel and weeds along the mountain trail.
The boy on Su Nuo's back was much lighter than she had imagined. He was very thin, almost pitifully so, but his coarse cloth clothes soaked through with blood pressed against her back, the cold, damp, sticky sensation making her quite uncomfortable.
However, the girl's discomfort was none of Qin Yi's concern. He was quite comfortable right now.
Perhaps because she had been well-fed before, the little girl's body was soft and supple, a much better texture than his sister's lean frame.
The girl didn't have much of a spoiled young lady's temper either. She carried Qin Yi without ever complaining of fatigue, chattering away about all sorts of nonsense along the way.
Qin Yi responded half-heartedly. After walking for about half an hour, he could vaguely make out the lights of the town in the distance.
Scattered glimmers of light dotted the valley, and he could faintly hear the clamor of the town drifting intermittently on the night wind.
Most ordinary towns would quiet down after dark. Rising with the sun and resting with its setting was the norm for the vast majority of people in this era. However, Yellow Bamboo Town's geographical location was rather special.
It sat at the border between ancient Shu and the Later Tang territory, deep in mountains that government officials found difficult to control. Smugglers, human traffickers, and mountain bandits traversing between the two nations would mostly choose to stop here, and gradually, Yellow Bamboo Town had become a notorious den of vice far and wide.
Called a town, it was packed with gambling dens, brothels, willow lanes, and was even one of the hubs for the slave trade.
One-tenth of the luxury goods - silk brocades, jade porcelain, spices, fine wines, and other such items - used daily by the nobility within ancient Shu flowed through this place.
Morbid prosperity.
The distant lights flickered, reflecting warm golden glimmers in Su Nuo's pupils. Her eyes widened and her voice rose:
"Hey hey, what's that place?"
"Yellow Bamboo Town."
"Eh! I was actually kidnapped all the way to ancient Shu?"
The girl was somewhat surprised, but more excited than anything, as if she had no concept of fear.
Hanging off her, Qin Yi glanced at her plump profile. Under the moonlight, her little face had a soft, full, and delicate contour.
Qin Yi's voice was flat:
"But your accent sounds like it's from the Shu region too."
Su Nuo turned her eyes sideways, curving them like crystal crescent moons, and hummed lightly:
"I just learned it, impressive right~"
Qin Yi ignored her bid for praise:
"Put me down."
"Aren't you injured?"
"It's not that serious."
"Then why did you make me carry you!"
"An injury is still an injury."
Su Nuo: "......."
Qin Yi slid down from her back and walked forward slowly, turning off the main road onto an unremarkable forest path.
Su Nuo secretly stuck her tongue out at Qin Yi's back, then quickly caught up. The hem of her goose-yellow jacket brushed through the weeds, rustling as she walked.
She leaned in closer and whispered a reminder:
"Hey, don't you want to find a place to wash up?"
Qin Yi looked at the blood plasma all over himself and shook his head:
"My home is just ahead."
Su Nuo was somewhat disappointed at this, her steps slowing half a beat. She looked hopefully toward the flickering lanterns and faintly visible upturned eaves of the town in the distance:
"You mean we're not going into town?"
"Sorry, my family is poor. Can't afford a house in town."
"Uh... oh..."
Su Nuo pursed her lips, lowered her gaze, and lightly kicked at the pebbles by the roadside. After a moment of silence, she asked in a small voice: "I was thinking earlier... you used to be a refugee, right? I've heard my father say that people who become refugees almost always die, especially little kids. You... you're just used to it?"
Qin Yi didn't understand. He asked: "Used to what?"
Su Nuo blinked, gesturing wildly in the air. Her wide goose-yellow sleeves flapped in the night wind like a clumsy fluttering moth. After a long while, she finally squeezed out a sentence:
"Eat... eating in the middle of a pile of human flesh."
"......."
Qin Yi fell silent and said nothing.
The night wind rushed in from the mountain hollow, making rustling sounds. The two walked one after another along the muddy path. After they had covered about ten meters, the girl behind him suddenly tugged at his sleeve and apologized softly:
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."
"No need to apologize. I was just thinking about how to answer you."
With that said,
Qin Yi turned back to look at her. The cold moonlight fell into his pitch-black pupils, so calm that Su Nuo was momentarily stunned:
"It's not that I'm used to it. It's that I don't care."
"Huh?"
"Dead people are safer than living ones."
Su Nuo froze: "Why?"
Qin Yi asked back as if it were the most natural thing in the world:
"Living people will steal your food, or even eat you directly. Can dead people do that?"
"Uh..."
Su Nuo instantly deflated. Her long, delicate eyelashes cast faint shadows in the moonlight, and for a moment she didn't know how to respond.
Qin Yi took a deep breath. The cool night air of the mountains filled his lungs, and he couldn't help but cough lightly twice. He asked:
"What does your family do?"
Hearing this, Su Nuo immediately perked up. A smile curved at the corners of her lips, hands on her hips as she let out two sniffs through her nose. The collar of her goose-yellow jacket tightened slightly as she puffed out her chest:
"Curious, are you? If you..."
"Never mind then."
Qin Yi walked around her and continued forward.
He wasn't in a hurry about this. This girl clearly had a screw loose. Dangling her would work far better than indulging her.
Su Nuo stomped her foot and quickly caught up:
"Hey hey, you're really not curious? Then let me tell you a secret. If I weren't tied up, never mind those two just now, ten more wouldn't be a match for me at all."
Coming around to stand in front of Qin Yi, the girl walked backward, hands clasped behind her back, leaning forward. Moonlight fell on her plump cheeks as her eyes curved into two crescent moons, carrying a hint of slyness and pride:
"Aren't you curious about my methods? Hehe~ If you beg me, this young lady will graciously give you a demonstration."
Qin Yi ignored her, walked around her, and continued forward. His worn straw sandals made soft rustling sounds on the damp muddy path.
The girl followed behind, quite displeased:
"Hey hey, what's wrong with you?"
"Hey, don't walk away."
"Beg me once and I'll tell you."
"Just once! Once!"
"Please please please beg me..."
"Tell you what, just point at any tree, and this young lady will chop it down for you..."
"......."
Her chattering voice was like a lark. Moonlight filtered through the interlaced branches overhead, scattering coin-sized patches of silvery light.
Qin Yi filtered out her noise and began thinking about matters for the future.
The girl beside him probably wasn't lying. She had carried him for several li of mountain roads without her face flushing or her breath quickening, showing no sign of fatigue at all.
She was indeed the same type of person as his sister, possessing "inhuman" traits. Even more special, actually. Based on what she said, she seemed to understand something like "magic arts"?
Otherwise, how could she "chop" down an old tree with her bare hands.
With her personality, manipulating her shouldn't be too difficult.
A child's heart that hadn't been stained by the dust of the world was the easiest to shape and the most controllable.
If his sister really was dead, this girl could become another meal ticket for him...
The girl kept chattering away, and Qin Yi kept thinking about the future.
After a while, he pushed past the last shrubs veiled in moonlight, parted a thicket, and the courtyard gate came into view at the end of the muddy path.
It was a small courtyard hidden in the woods. A wooden wall taller than a man enclosed the perimeter, with sharpened wooden stakes of uneven heights crowning the top. All sides pressed tightly against the forest.
This was the "home" Qin Yi and his sister had built up bit by bit.
Arriving at the courtyard gate, where only slivers of moonlight penetrated the shade of the trees, Qin Yi hesitated for a moment, then looked toward the girl and spoke again:
"We're here. Aside from me, there's also my si..."
His voice suddenly stopped.
Because as far as the eye could see, there was nothing.
The moon's clear radiance poured down through the layered treetops, coating the mottled forest floor with a thin film of cold silver.
The lark-like noise had stopped at some unknown point. The girl who had been chattering away just moments ago was gone.
A gentle breeze passed, bringing a faint rustle.
Where did she go?
Qin Yi furrowed his brow slightly, his gaze sweeping the surroundings.
The moonlight was clear, and the mountain mist had crept up from the valley floor at some point. Apart from himself, there was no sign or sound of anyone.
Was this the "method" the girl had mentioned?
Because he ignored her, so she wanted to scare him?
Qin Yi analyzed the possibilities, but his hands kept moving. He raised the handheld crossbow, fingers tightening, fingertips resting on the trigger.
When ordinary people think about things, the images their eyes see and the sounds their ears hear tend to "fade" from memory. But Qin Yi's brain condition allowed him to back up these memories in full.
Memories began to flood back.
The girl's footsteps had disappeared suddenly.
No scream, no struggle. Like a single flame in the darkness, silently swallowed whole.
His gaze swept both sides of the muddy path. The shrubs were dense and leafy; passing through them would inevitably make considerable noise.
In other words,
...She's above?
Drip...
Just as he thought this, a drop of viscous liquid fell into the soil before his eyes.
Seeing what it was, Qin Yi let out a soft breath and slowly raised his gaze.
It was an ancient tree over a hundred years old. Moonlight leaked through the gaps between its branches and leaves, casting fine patches of light.
His gaze moved upward bit by bit.
In the deep shade of the treetop canopy, within the shadows woven by layered leaves, a massive, elongated humanoid silhouette was staring at him with crimson eyes.
The night wind froze.
The shadow of death began to gather and brew in the treetops overhead.
It was hanging upside down from the tree trunk.
Arms so long they covered the trunk, with enormous palms and fingers as slender and long as bamboo. The girl Qin Yi had been searching for was currently clutched in its grip.
Her head had been twisted a full circle, hanging limply. Her limbs dangled powerlessly, half her face buried in disheveled hair. Blood wound its way down from the collar of her clothes, dripping one drop after another before Qin Yi's eyes.
Dead.
Before he had even learned her name.
Under Qin Yi's gaze,
The humanoid creature's mouth slowly opened. Its jaw emitted fine crackling sounds, and finally, in his field of vision, it split into a massive, grotesque grin.......
Crack.
A large pool of blood fell instantly, splashing onto the mud half a chi before Qin Yi's feet. Warm droplets, familiar from the girl, splattered against his ankle.
The humanoid creature flashed Qin Yi a humanlike smile.....