The woman had lost her husband, her child, and even her innocence. For her, death was a kind of release.
“These days, living is more painful than dying. Looks like this world is truly beyond saving…”
Lu Chen gently closed her eyelids and let out a sigh. He glanced at the corpses of Zhang San and Li Si, then began searching them like last time. Unexpectedly, he really found two money pouches.
He counted the fragmented silver and copper coins inside. A total of ten taels of silver and over 300 copper coins. Compared to the last time, the gain had shrunk drastically, but it was better than nothing. For ordinary people, ten taels of silver was enough to last an entire year.
Lu Chen wasn’t greedy. No matter how much he found, he was always content. He pocketed the money pouches, put on his bamboo hat again, and returned to the martial arts school.
Earlier during the fight, his arm and lower leg had both been slashed. Since he hadn’t treated them in time, the wounds had already scabbed over. He used hot water to carefully clean the injuries and applied some ointment.
The ointment was bought from the martial arts school, specifically for treating bruises and wounds. It worked well, but it was expensive—two bottles cost a whole tael of silver. If not for Lu Chen’s decent savings, he wouldn’t have been willing to spend that much on medicine.
“Hiss!” A sharp sting shot from the wound, and Lu Chen couldn’t help but suck in a breath of cold air.
Just then, Jiang Qingyu ran in holding a kite.
“Brother Chen, let’s go fly kites with Lin Wan tomorrow.”
But the moment she saw the long gashes on his arm and leg, her face turned pale in shock.
“Brother Chen, how did you get hurt?” Jiang Qingyu asked, her voice trembling with tears.
She had lived by begging in the past and was often beaten, so injuries weren’t new to her. But she couldn’t bear to see Lu Chen hurt.
“It’s nothing. I was sparring with a disciple at the martial arts school earlier and accidentally took a couple of hits.”
“Hmph, Brother Chen is lying to me! The disciples there respect you too much to go that hard on you.” Though she was young, Jiang Qingyu was far more perceptive than others her age. Lu Chen’s lie couldn’t fool her at all.
Helpless, Lu Chen could only tell the truth, “I killed two scumbags from the Wild Wolf Gang earlier and got wounded in the fight.”
Tears welled up in Jiang Qingyu’s eyes, her heart aching. “Brother Chen, let me bandage you.”
“Alright,” Lu Chen said with a smile.
She took a roll of gauze and carefully wrapped his wounds, afraid of hurting him. After finishing, Jiang Qingyu gathered her courage and asked, “Brother Chen, can you teach me martial arts?”
Lu Chen was taken aback. “Why do you suddenly want to learn martial arts?”
Without hesitation, Jiang Qingyu said, “If I learn martial arts, I can help you fight bad people and protect you too.”
“But training is very tough. You might get hurt.”
“I’m not afraid!” she declared.
Lu Chen hesitated for a moment, then said, “Alright. Starting tomorrow, you’ll train with me in Evergreen Technique and Mountain-Shaking Fist.”
Before, he believed that as long as he stayed by Jiang Qingyu’s side, he could protect her. So, there was no need to teach her martial arts.
But after witnessing that woman take her own life after being humiliated, his thoughts changed. After all, Lu Chen couldn’t be with Jiang Qingyu every moment. If danger ever came when he wasn’t there, how could she defend herself?
That thought pushed him to teach her.
The next day, Jiang Qingyu didn’t go to Lin Wan’s courtyard like she usually did. Instead, she obediently followed Lu Chen to practice.
“Your stance is wrong. Lower your posture!”
“When you punch, it needs to be fast and fierce. Don’t look like you haven’t eaten!”
…
While teaching her, Lu Chen seemed like a completely different person. He was strict, even punishing her with a slap on the palm when she got a move wrong. If it had been someone else, they would have cried and given up long ago.
But Jiang Qingyu held back her tears and practiced the same moves over and over again.
After half a month of effort, she finally mastered Evergreen Technique and Mountain-Shaking Fist. To celebrate her becoming a martial artist, Lu Chen personally cooked her favorite dish—sweet and sour carp.
Jiang Qingyu was overjoyed, and her enthusiasm for training only grew.
Back then, the old beggar had said Jiang Qingyu’s aptitude was even better than Lu Chen’s. Lu Chen hadn’t believed it at first.
Until five years later, when Jiang Qingyu advanced to 6th stage Qi Palace Realm faster than him.
Only then did Lu Chen have to admit—the old beggar hadn’t lied.
In those five years, they trained together every day. They spent the same amount of time, but Jiang Qingyu’s martial cultivation improved faster.
“Aptitude is something a martial artist is born with. You can’t envy what you don’t have…” Lu Chen often comforted himself with that thought.
That day, after killing two hall masters from the Wild Wolf Gang, they quietly returned to the martial arts school.
“Brother Chen, why are there still so many bad people in Luo City?”
“In these five years, we’ve killed hundreds of villains. Why haven’t we wiped them out yet?” Jiang Qingyu removed her bamboo hat and asked, puzzled.
She had grown from a young girl into a graceful and elegant young woman. Lu Chen, too, had matured from a thirteen-year-old boy into a handsome and refined young man with sword-like brows and starry eyes.
Inside the side chamber, Lu Chen removed his black coat and poured himself a cup of tea.
“It’s not that there are too many bad people. It’s that this world is rotten to the core. To them, good and evil no longer matter. To survive, they’re willing to do anything,” Lu Chen said calmly after taking a sip.
Earlier, he and Jiang Qingyu had worked in perfect sync to kill two hall masters from the Wild Wolf Gang—both of whom were at the 6th stage Qi Palace Realm, just one level below the gang’s deputy leader. Lu Chen himself had only just entered the 6th stage.
If Jiang Qingyu hadn’t blocked several fatal sneak attacks for him, he might not have made it back alive.
“Brother Chen, if the world is truly rotten, what about the common people? Are they just supposed to suffer endlessly?”
Years of training had turned Jiang Qingyu into a righteous warrior. Her concerns were always about the people.
Lu Chen shook his head and said, “Of course not.”
Her eyes immediately lit up. “Then what should we do to save them?”
Lu Chen took another sip of tea and said, “There’s only one way—change this world.”
“How do we change it?” Jiang Qingyu asked.
Lu Chen thought for a moment, then said with firm resolve, “It’s simple. Slaughter through this rotten world until all fear you. Only then will you have the power to reshape it and save the people.”