Xu Guang finished off the dark-faced man nearby with a single slash. He squatted down and thrust a hand into Chen Sandao’s stomach, finding the warmth of the internal organs somewhat comforting.
"I didn’t actually mean to kill anyone," Xu Guang said. "You wanted to rob my house, so I just struck first.
"Look at you, at your age, fighting and killing like this. It’s not good. After committing so many sins, being freed early is a good thing."
Blood flooded into Chen Sandao’s windpipe. Unable to speak and drained of all strength, he could only let out a ragged WHEEZE.
He was unwilling to accept this!
He had only wanted to follow Xu Guang and rob his house. As for killing...
Feeling the corpse grow cold, Xu Guang sensed the Essence Blood in his Blood Eye beginning to condense. Satisfied, he withdrew his hand. His palm, as smooth and pale as jade, dripped with a clear liquid, completely untainted by a single drop of blood.
He squatted back down, wiped his hand on Chen Sandao’s clothes, and used the same method to extract the dark-faced man’s blood.
From killing fish to butchering pigs, and now killing people—perhaps because of the Blood Eye, his body had no adverse reactions to fresh blood at all. Instead, it felt like food to him.
Sometimes, he felt like a psychopath.
Tying up the five sacks of grain, he hoisted them onto his back and hurriedly left.
Just as he had said, if Chen Sandao were a good person, he wouldn’t have wanted to follow him home to rob him. He didn’t dare imagine what would have happened to Mrs. Xu if he had actually brought Chen Sandao home.
Therefore, Chen Sandao’s intentions were evil.
He didn’t slaughter the innocent; he merely set a trap to deliver justice.
He was still that ordinary, pure-hearted young man.
Killing Chen Sandao wasn’t difficult for Xu Guang. Although entering Bone Forging with such poor progress had caused his Combat Power to drop to Elite Level, slaying Chen Sandao—especially with a sneak attack and a series of calculations—had been effortless.
With the food issue resolved, Xu Guang’s life returned to peace.
Every few days, he would go to the Immortal Institute to collect Secret Medicine to satisfy his Cultivation, or visit the Xu Family slaughterhouse to see if there was any blood available.
Life was dull. Aside from Mrs. Xu’s constant nagging about marriage, which remained the same as always, Xu Guang felt like nothing had changed.
Ten days passed in the blink of an eye since his little entrapment operation. Just as Xu Guang had expected.
The war outside the city had paused. The chaos within the city had been bloodily suppressed by the recalled Three Guards. However, under such immense pressure, the entire city felt like a suppressed volcano, threatening to erupt at any moment.
Xu Guang paid close attention to these matters, but there was nothing he could do. All he could manage was to work even harder on his martial arts.
The Xu Family’s original hunting plans were forced to a halt due to the high tension in the city. No one dared to casually break the rules.
In times like this, making a mistake meant death, while keeping a low profile meant survival. The Three Guards transferred into the city never showed mercy with the blades in their hands.
Xu Guang had witnessed the Three Guards killing people in the streets at least five times. They acted like robots in a slaughterhouse, executing judgment casually and ruthlessly.
He kept an even lower profile.
Over the past ten days or so, he had also made some achievements in Bone Forging. The Golden Willow Skill emphasized the lower body, so Xu Guang’s Bone Forging progressed from the bottom up. By now, the bones below his calves were basically completely forged, and the progress displayed on his interface had reached seven percent.
If he maintained this speed, he would finish Bone Forging in about two hundred days.
However, this speed was not the norm. His Essence Blood could not sustain such rapid Cultivation.
Xu Guang sighed silently. Recently, apart from officials, pedestrians on the streets had become increasingly sparse. He practiced martial arts all day and had virtually nothing else to do.
"Brother Guang, when exactly are you going to get married like you said?"
Mrs. Xu, who had been sitting on the steps watching Xu Guang practice, immediately asked this the moment he finished a sequence of movements from the Bone Forging Chapter.
This was already a daily routine.
But the Searcher had yielded no results, and Xu Guang didn’t want to just settle for anyone. Mrs. Xu’s methods of pressuring him into marriage were endlessly inventive; she even roped his eldest sister, Xu Chun, and her husband into joining her efforts.
If her husband hadn’t become so busy due to the crackdown, Xu Chun would have come over every single day.
Xu Guang looked rather helpless, but there was nothing he could do. Since the crackdown began, Old Zhao had also stated that, aside from the summons once every five days, going to the Immortal Institute at any other time was forbidden, for fear of causing trouble.
Now, he had nowhere to go but stay at home.
In just a few days, despite practicing martial arts all day, he already felt stifled. Consequently, his thoughts couldn’t help but turn to his mother.
Ever since he had scolded her for going out to pray for a talisman last time, she had not stepped foot outside.
At this thought, Xu Guang felt a pang of guilt. Since moving to the city, his mother had been cooped up at home alone. It was fine when Xu Chun occasionally visited, but when she didn’t, and he was busy practicing martial arts, his mother had no choice but to stay by herself.
He remembered videos he had seen in his past life of lonely elderly people left alone at home. Wasn’t his mother’s current situation just like theirs?
For some inexplicable reason, he wanted the Searcher’s progress bar to move a bit faster.
[Searching... 75%]
However, it would be done soon. He wondered what kind of wife the Searcher would find for him. Surely, it would be more reliable than the matchmakers his mother and Xu Chun’s husband had found, right?
Waking up in the dead of night, he had also fantasized about his future wife.
At the very least, as someone who had been nothing more than an otaku in his past life, he didn’t have any grand dreams. Avenge his father, fulfill his mother’s wishes, carry on the Xu Family line...
In a rare departure from his routine, Xu Guang didn’t Cultivate. He sat on the steps and chatted with his mother, talking about the past and listening to her recount the bitter days of yesteryear. It wasn’t until the sun went down in the late afternoon that Mrs. Xu finally stopped, still eager to talk more, and went to cook for her son.
Nowadays, he lacked neither money nor grain. Being on good terms with Xu Sanduo meant there was no shortage of meat at home either.
The food had improved significantly: a large basin of braised donkey meat, a large basin of cabbage and tofu, and white flour steamed buns as the staple.
They were living quite well indeed.
"Brother Guang, you’re a promising one. Having followed your father for so many years, I never imagined I’d be able to eat food like this. Practicing martial arts takes a lot out of you, so eat more meat," Mrs. Xu sighed emotionally, placing food in Xu Guang’s bowl.
Xu Guang smiled. "Things will only get better from here."
Mrs. Xu cast a hesitant glance at him and said softly, "I’m getting on in years, and I don’t care much about eating well. As long as you have Ping’an in the future, that’s enough. I know you Martial Artists are always fighting and competing ruthlessly. Brother Guang, you mustn’t be like that."
Xu Guang’s chopsticks paused slightly in mid-air before his smile grew even wider. "I definitely won’t."
Mrs. Xu simply continued eating. Whether she believed his words or not, she had her own judgments.
Ever since the day they left the village, when Xu Guang stood up for Xu Chun and stabbed Ma San to death in the street, she knew her son had changed...
Xu Guang saw the worry in his mother’s eyes, but there was nothing he could do. He could only take things one step at a time, hoping that after he got married, she would worry less.
It wasn’t until it was time to go to the Immortal Institute that Xu Guang finally stepped out again.
The weather had grown increasingly cold. The people were already lacking food, and now they were both freezing and starving. There were also a few more people on the streets from villages outside the city, coming in to sell firewood.
Xu Guang took a few glances and quickly walked away.
As he walked, however, an ominous feeling crept into his heart, as if someone were watching him from the shadows.
Maintaining his composure, he carefully navigated through the streets and alleys, using his peripheral vision to observe the person tailing him whenever he turned a corner.
A tall man with a bulge at his waist caught his attention. It wasn’t because of the man’s attire, but his appearance.
He looked... extremely similar to Ma San, whom he had killed!
"Trouble has come knocking," he thought.
This was the reality for a Martial Artist. You kill me, I kill you. No one could remain untainted.
"I wonder what his Realm is," Xu Guang thought. Changing his route, he headed to the nearby firewood market. It was crowded, and the firewood on the handcarts was piled high. In some spots, one had to turn sideways just to squeeze through.
Xu Guang’s footsteps slowed down, and finally... he drew a bit closer to the man.
[xxx, Combat Power: Elite Level of Skin Grinding Realm]
"Hmm?" he thought. "Just someone in Skin Polishing?"
A strange look flashed in Xu Guang’s eyes. "Have I been keeping too low a profile? A mere Skin Polishing Cultivator dares to follow me?"
Instantly, he quickened his pace, turning into some sparsely populated alleys.
A moment later.
A figure in black holding a woodchopper’s knife stood at a corner, looking bewildered.
"Where is that kid?" he thought.
Feeling puzzled, he looked at the alley before him, which seemed rather eerie even in broad daylight. After a moment of hesitation, he walked in, quietly drawing his knife halfway out of its sheath.
Suddenly, a series of sharp cracks rang out in his ears, like countless claps of thunder exploding right next to him.
Reacting swiftly, he fully unsheathed his blade and swung it toward the source of the sound.
CLANG!
The collision between the knife and the fist unexpectedly produced the sound of clashing metal.
He quickly realized that he couldn’t match this strength. Flinging the knife, he bolted outward without looking back.
But as fast as he was, Xu Guang was faster. The Golden Willow Step made him seem as if he were riding the wind. Without a single footstep, his figure suddenly flashed, closing a massive distance in an instant.
THUD!
A heavy punch blasted into the knife-wielding man’s chest.
CRASH.
The man flew backward and crashed into the wall. Plaster rained down as the masonry caved in slightly.
By the time the man looked up, Xu Guang’s hand was already gripping his neck.
"You’re Ma Wu?!" Xu Guang’s tone was low; it was phrased as a question, but spoken with absolute certainty.
Ma Wu’s pupils shrank. "You can’t kill me! If you do, you’ll be in trouble!"
Xu Guang sneered, and his hand suddenly exerted force.
CRACK!
Ma Wu’s neck snapped to the side. Blood from his severed windpipe spilled past his teeth as his limp body slid down the wall. He collapsed onto the ground, a wet WHEEZE escaping his throat.
He was neither a protagonist nor a villain who would be interested in an enemy’s dying words. A living person was always a threat. Only a dead man, fully integrated with the earth, would allow him complete peace of mind.
Xu Guang didn’t collect his blood. It was currently the crackdown period, and he didn’t want to invite unnecessary trouble.
He figured Ma Wu felt the same way. Otherwise, with his courage and strength, he would have broken into Xu Guang’s house long ago.
Just as he was cleaning up his tracks and preparing to leave, that ragged WHEEZE suddenly sounded again, like someone trapped in a nightmare about to wake up.
Xu Guang abruptly turned his head, his pupils contracting.
He saw... Ma Wu’s ragdoll-like body violently twitching and contorting on the ground. His limbs thrashed wildly until, in an entirely inconceivable manner, he stood back up...