Behind the stone rim of the Sweet-Spring Well, away from the bright bonfires and laughing villagers, Old Wei sat with his back pressed against a cool gray wall.
His heavy Rank 2 broadsword lay across his knees, and a rolled-up piece of cowhide was clamped tightly between his teeth. His right hand gripped the empty stump of his left shoulder so hard that his knuckles had turned white. Beneath his torn shirt, thin black lines like spiderwebs were creeping out from the old scar across his collarbone, pulsing with a dull, icy blue chill.
==================================================================== [ CITIZEN TOOLTIP: OLD WEI (Captain of the Village Guard) ] * Realm: Rank 1 Late Martial (Suppressed by Crippled Meridians!) * Loyalty: 96/100 (Loyal unto Death) * Status Warning: [Frost-Blade Bone Poison (7 Years Old)] - Seven years ago, the Marquis's First Wife sent an assassin with a poisoned blade to kill Pei Xuan's mother. Old Wei blocked the strike with his left arm. - Because he swung a heavy Rank 2 saber with one arm in yesterday's battle, his shoulder meridians tore open, waking the frost poison! * Thought: "I cannot let the Young Master see me like this. The village just got settled... if the prisoners think I am weak, they might cause trouble. Just bite the leather until dawn..." ====================================================================
Pei Xuan stood in the shadow of the well house, reading every word on the floating screen. His chest tightened.
He remembered that rainy night seven years ago in the Marquis's back courtyard. He had only been nine years old, burning up with fever after his stepmother's servants threw him into the winter lotus pond. When a masked killer jumped over the wall to finish off him and his mother, Old Wei had stood in the doorway in the pouring rain, taking a poisoned sword slash through his left shoulder so his broadsword could take the killer's head.
The Marquis had refused to send a doctor to the humble maid's courtyard. Old Guo had used a red-hot kitchen cleaver to seal Old Wei's bleeding stump so he wouldn't die, leaving the frost poison trapped inside his shoulder bone for seven long years.
"Uncle Wei," Pei Xuan said softly, stepping out into the lantern light.
Old Wei flinched. He spat the chewed leather into his palm, shoved it into his pocket, and hurriedly tried to stand up with a forced smile. "Young Master! Why aren't you at the banquet table? Old Guo saved the biggest lamb-potato for you! I was just... just cooling off by the well. It's a bit warm by the fire."
"Your hand is colder than ice, and you're telling me it's warm?" Pei Xuan walked over and pressed his palm against Old Wei's right shoulder, pushing the old soldier gently back down onto the stone bench.
Even through the thick cloth of Old Wei's tunic, Pei Xuan could feel the biting chill radiating from the left stump.
At the footsteps behind him, Hong Ling and Old Guo came running over with a basin of hot water and clean towels. When Hong Ling saw the black frost-lines creeping up Old Wei's neck, her eyes immediately turned red.
"Uncle Wei, you liar!" Hong Ling sniffled, dropping to her knees and pressing a steaming towel against the old soldier's shoulder. "You told me yesterday that swinging that eighty-pound Rank 2 saber didn't hurt at all! Look at your shoulder! The black lines are almost touching your throat!"
"Don't cry, little girl," Old Wei muttered awkwardly, his rough face turning red. "A soldier with one arm is already half-useless. Being able to cut down Scarface Wolf's horse for the Young Master yesterday was worth a few days of bone-ache. Once the sun comes up tomorrow, the frost will shrink back down."
"It won't shrink back down forever," Old Guo sighed heavily, wiping his eyes with his sleeve. "Every time the poison flares up, it eats away another inch of your heart meridian. In the capital, the apothecary said only a Rank 3 Spirit Pill or a master artificer's meridian-lock could draw out old bone poison, and those cost thousands of gold taels."
"Who needs the capital's apothecaries?" Pei Xuan said calmly.
He dropped a heavy hemp-cloth sack on the stone table beside the well, followed by a three-foot branch of dark, iron-hard desert wood that he had looted from Scarface Wolf's treasure chest, and finally an old, dented iron gauntlet wrapped in clean oilcloth.
Old Wei blinked when he saw the dented iron gauntlet.
"Young Master... isn't that my old left gauntlet from seven years ago?" Old Wei asked in surprise. "You kept that broken thing all this time?"
"You dropped it in the mud outside my mother's door when you saved us," Pei Xuan said, looking Old Wei straight in the eye. "I promised my mother before she passed away that one day, I would give Uncle Wei his left arm back—stronger than it ever was before."
Old Wei's lips trembled. He opened his mouth to tell Pei Xuan that severed limbs could only be regrown by legendary Rank 6 Golden Core Immortals in fairytales, not in a poor desert village.
Before he could speak, Pei Xuan stepped between Old Wei and the stone table, blocking the view with his cloak as he opened his Fusion Cube.
With yesterday's midnight settlement and the housing bonus, his balance stood at 1,200 LP.
In his mind, he dragged the three items on the table into the golden slots of the Cube.
==================================================================== [ FUSION CUBE — RANK 2 MASTERWORK SYNTHESIS ] * Slot 1: [100 Jin of Deep-Fried Red Scorpion Shells (Rich in Yang-Fire Chitin & Blood-Iron)] * Slot 2: [500-Year Desert Iron-Wood Heart Branch (Rank 2 Material — Conducts Internal Qi)] * Slot 3: [Old Wei's Stained Left Iron Gauntlet (Soaked in Owner's Blood & Will)] -------------------------------------------------------------------- * Fusion Cost: 1,000 Loyalty Points (LP) * System Analysis: The owner's dried blood on the gauntlet provides 100% meridian compatibility! The Yang-Fire Scorpion Chitin will automatically burn away all [Frost-Blade Bone Poison]! >> FUSE NOW? [YES / NO] ====================================================================
"One thousand points," Pei Xuan thought without a second of hesitation. "Fuse!"
[-1,000 LP! Current Balance: 200 LP.]
CLANG—HUMMMMM!
A brilliant flash of dark crimson and bronze light burst from the stone table, accompanied by the deep roar of an invisible forge!
Old Guo and Hong Ling gasped and stepped back, shielding their eyes. Inside the glow, the hundred pounds of hard red scorpion shells melted into liquid blood-iron, pouring over the ancient Iron-Wood branch as it shaped itself into forearm bones, wrist joints, and five articulated iron fingers.
Tiny golden runes—formed by the Fusion Cube's law of perfection—etched themselves along the inside of the shoulder socket, turning into thirty-six fine red-copper needles designed to connect directly into human acupoints and meridians!
When the light faded five seconds later, a gleaming, dark-crimson mechanical arm lay on the stone table.
It looked like a piece of peerless dark-red armor, yet the joints between the plates were woven from living, flexible Iron-Wood fibers that pulsed like real tendons. Even sitting still on the table, the arm gave off a gentle wave of warm Yang heat that melted the frost on the well stones around it!
==================================================================== [ FUSION SUCCESS! RANK 2 MASTERWORK CREATED! ] >> [ Rank 2 Blood-Iron Mechanical Arm (Soul-Bound: Old Wei) ] << -------------------------------------------------------------------- * Defense: Equals Rank 2 Peak Iron-Bone Body! Can block steel swords and arrows barehanded without a scratch! * Strength Bonus: +1,500 lbs of Crushing Grip Force! * Special Effect 1 (Meridian Bridge): Locks into the wearer's shoulder acupoints. Moves as naturally as a real flesh-and-blood arm with zero delay! * Special Effect 2 (Scorpion-Yang Furnace): Continuously pumps warm scorpion blood-heat into the body, permanently curing [Frost-Blade Bone Poison] and boosting Martial Training speed by +50%! ====================================================================
"H-Heavens..." Old Guo's jaw nearly hit his round belly as he stared at the dark-red arm on the table. "The joints are breathing like real muscle! Young Master, what kind of Immortal treasure is this?!"
"A custom fit for Uncle Wei," Pei Xuan said with a smile. He picked up the Blood-Iron Mechanical Arm—which weighed sixty pounds of solid condensed blood-iron, yet felt light as a feather once its runes sensed Old Wei's aura nearby—and held it up to Old Wei's left shoulder. "Uncle Wei, hold still. This might sting for a second."
Old Wei was staring at the five crimson iron fingers in a daze, his single hand shaking. "Young Master... this... you spent your precious Immortal fortune on a crippled old servant like me..."
"In Dry-Well Village, you are family, not a servant," Pei Xuan said firmly. "Brace yourself!"
He pressed the detachable bronze shoulder cup of the mechanical combat-rig flush against Old Wei's scarred left stump, showing how the quick-release clasp allowed Old Wei to strap the heavy iron arm on for battle or construction and unclip it whenever he wished to keep his pinned left sleeve as a badge of honor.
SHING—CLICK!
Thirty-six warm red-copper meridian needles slid effortlessly into the sealed acupoints of Old Wei's left shoulder, locking onto his collarbones and back muscles with a soft, rhythmic hum.
"ARGH!"
Old Wei let out a muffled roar as a wave of scorching golden-red heat surged out of the mechanical arm's Scorpion-Yang Furnace and rushed straight into his crippled shoulder meridians!
Hiss—sizzle!
Right before Hong Ling and Old Guo's wide eyes, thick clouds of foul-smelling black frost-mist hissed out of Old Wei's pores and evaporated into thin air! The spiderweb-like black poison lines on his neck shriveled up, retreated, and vanished completely, replaced by a healthy, ruddy bronze glow.
For seven years, Old Wei's internal Qi had been stuck in a dead-end bottleneck because half of his upper-body meridian loop was missing.
Now, as his hot blood rushed out of his heart, flowed down through the Iron-Wood veins of the new left arm, reached the five dark-red iron fingertips, and cycled cleanly back up to his dantian, a complete, unbroken circuit snapped together inside his body!
Clack... clack... clack!
Slowly, the five dark-crimson fingers of the left hand twitched.
Then the index finger curled. Then the thumb.
And then, with a crisp metallic ring, Old Wei closed all five fingers of his left hand into a tight, iron-clad fist!
Silence fell over the well courtyard. The only sound was the gentle splashing of the Sweet-Spring Well and the crackling of bonfires in the distance.
Old Wei stared at his left fist.
He opened his fingers. They opened smoothly, instantly, obeying his thoughts without even a blink of delay. He reached out with his new left hand and touched the rough skin of his own cheek—and through the meridian needles, he could even feel the warmth of his own skin and the breeze of the night air!
Two huge, hot tears rolled down the scarred cheeks of the fifty-year-old veteran who hadn't cried even when his arm was chopped off seven years ago.
"It moves..." Old Wei whispered, his voice cracking like a child's. He raised both hands in front of his face, opening and closing them together. "Seven years... in my dreams every night, I still had two hands to hold a shield in front of the Young Master... and now... it really moves..."
He suddenly spun around and punched his new left fist straight into a three-hundred-pound granite boulder sitting beside the well ditch!
BOOOOOOM!
Rock dust exploded ten feet into the air!
The granite boulder didn't just crack—it shattered into a dozen rubble chunks like a clay pot hit by a siege hammer!
Old Wei stood in the dust cloud, his left iron fist completely unscratched. At the same moment, the long-suppressed blood and Qi inside his body roared like a flood breaking through a dam. His spine popped like a string of firecrackers, his muscles swelled an inch thicker beneath his tunic, and a powerful wave of Rank 2 Bone-Tempering aura swept across the well yard, blowing the loose sand three yards back!
THUD!
Old Wei dropped straight to both knees in front of Pei Xuan, placing both his flesh right hand and his crimson iron left hand flat on the stones as he pressed his forehead to the ground.
"This old slave Wei Zhong..." Old Wei choked out, his shoulders shaking as tears dripped onto the stone slabs. "Swears by the bones of my ancestors! In this life and the next, even if the sky falls and the Immortal gods come down to strike Dry-Well Village, Old Wei will stand in front of Young Master Pei until my bones turn to ash!"
DING! DING! DING!
A blinding shower of golden fireworks burst across Pei Xuan's RTS screen!
==================================================================== [ SUPREME LOYALTY MILESTONE ACHIEVED! ] >> OLD WEI HAS REACHED 100/100 DIE-HARD LOYALTY! << -------------------------------------------------------------------- * Cultivation Breakthrough: Rank 1 Late -> Rank 2 Early Martial! (Daily Point Output Increased: +10 LP/day -> +100 LP/day!) * [100 LOYALTY DIE-HARD JACKPOT]: When any subject reaches 100/100 Perfect Loyalty for the first time, the Lord receives an instant 10x Rank Point Jackpot AND 10% of the subject's breakthrough cultivation feedback! >> JACKPOT REWARD: +1,000 LP INSTANTLY ADDED! >> CULTIVATION FEEDBACK: Pei Xuan's body absorbs pure Bone-Tempering essence! (Pei Xuan: Rank 1 Mid -> Rank 1 Late Martial!) -------------------------------------------------------------------- * Population: 585 | Daily Income: +1,050 LP/day! * Current Balance: 1,200 LP! ====================================================================
A surge of warm, golden energy poured out of the system straight into Pei Xuan's limbs and bones.
Pei Xuan felt the muscles in his arms and legs tighten like coiled steel cables. His skin grew tougher, and the internal strength in his body jumped from five hundred pounds of force straight past eight hundred pounds—putting him cleanly into Rank 1 Late Martial without spending a single hour meditating!
Wait a second.
He had spent 1,000 LP to fuse Old Wei's arm, and the 100-Loyalty Jackpot had immediately refunded the entire 1,000 LP, raised his daily income past a thousand points a day, AND pushed his own cultivation up a minor realm for free?!
"Now that is what I call a return on investment," Pei Xuan grinned, reaching down with both hands to lift Old Wei up from the ground.
"Get up, Uncle Wei! Try holding your saber with both hands!"
Old Wei wiped his tears, stood up, and grabbed the long hilt of his eighty-pound [Rank 2 Heavy Mountain-Cleaver Saber] with both his right hand and his new Blood-Iron left hand.
With one arm yesterday, swinging the heavy blade had strained his shoulder. Now, with his left mechanical arm adding 1,500 pounds of grip strength and balancing his center of gravity, the giant black-iron saber spun in his hands as light as a willow twig!
WHOOSH—CRACK!
Old Wei swung the blade horizontally across the empty yard. The sheer wind pressure from the swing sliced a wooden fence post twenty feet away clean in half!
Over by the bonfires in the village square, Scarface Wolf and One-Eyed Jack heard the sonic boom and poked their heads around the corner of East Well Street.
When the two former bandit bosses saw Old Wei standing by the well with a glowing dark-red iron left arm, casually spinning an eighty-pound Rank 2 heavy saber like a windmill while a shattered granite boulder lay at his feet, both men gulped so hard their Adam's apples clicked.
"Big Brother..." One-Eyed Jack whispered, nudging Scarface Wolf with his elbow. "Yesterday when Uncle Wei chopped your horse in half, he was only using one hand and was poisoned?"
Scarface Wolf's legs wobbled slightly. He quickly grabbed a broom from a nearby porch and started furiously sweeping the already spotless stone street.
"Stop talking nonsense and sweep the street, Jack!" Scarface Wolf hissed in a terrified whisper. "If Uncle Wei asks who left three grains of sand on the road, tell him I've been sweeping since dinner! Nobody in their right mind ever rebels in this village—NEVER!"