46 Wei Yan, the Murderer
Jiang Ming pushed the door open and stood in the courtyard. The shallow pit under his feet looked familiar. Right, he remembered. It was left by the Tiger Subduing Fist.
Cicadas were chirping on the treetops. At this time last year, Jiang Ming came here to learn martial arts from Master Zhou. However, now things had changed.
The people in the room heard him and quickly came out. When they saw Jiang Ming, they were also stunned, and then their eyes turned red.
“Ming…”
Jiang Ming looked at Zhou Wenxiu. The once cheerful and sweet girl had changed. There was a hint of maturity between her brows, and there were many scars on her exposed arms and wrists, which looked like marks from a whip.
Jiang Ming knew that she must have suffered a lot in the city, but this was the only way for people at the bottom to succeed.
Some people were born privileged, while others were born in poverty. Not only did they have to struggle in poverty, but they also had to bear the ridicule and oppression of those who were privileged.
There were so many things he wanted to say, but in the end, he chose to speak to her as usual.
“Did you make too much dinner? Let me have some.”
Zhou Wenxiu gritted her teeth and nodded, then hurriedly ran into the house. After a while, she came out again and brought Jiang Ming some dry bread and boiled wild vegetables with red eyes.
Jiang Ming sat on a low stool, eating and drinking as if he had not seen food for several days. In the end, he burped in satisfaction.
“You ate all my bread.” Zhou Wenxiu sat opposite Jiang Ming, with her elbows on her knees.
Jiang Ming couldn’t help but smile. At this time, Zhou Wenxiu finally regained some of her spirits.
“I didn’t bring any money with me.” Jiang Ming stood up and smiled. “Why don’t I teach you some fist techniques? I’ll pay for the food that way. How about it?”
When Master Zhou had been alive, he never taught his granddaughter to practice martial arts, for fear that she would ruin her feminine figure.
However, Master Zhou did not understand that being ugly was far better than being weak. It was too late when Master Zhou finally understood this.
Zhou Wenxiu was also stunned when she heard this. Then, she bent her legs and was about to kneel on the ground.
Jiang Ming quickly picked her up and shook his head, “You cook for me, and I’ll teach you martial arts. We are equal.”
Zhou Wenxiu blushed.
Jiang Ming coughed and comforted her, “Don’t be embarrassed. As long as I’m in town, you’ll need to cook three meals a day. Don’t even think about skipping out!”
Zhou Wenxiu was stunned.
“What are you in a daze for? Let’s start. This is the first form! The Crouch of the Tiger!” Jiang Ming recalled what Master Zhou had taught him and said slowly, “This is the fundamental form of the Tiger Subduing Fist.”
A moment later, the sounds of martial arts practice filled the small courtyard, just like in the past.
* * *
In the blink of an eye, three months had passed.
The trees had turned red and gold, and the cold wind rustled.
In front of a small house in the mountains, a fat tiger stared at the human by the river, its tail tightly clasped behind its back.
‘That human’s aura is getting more and more terrifying by the day. I’m a little scared. Why didn’t Master Si take me far away?’
By the river, Jiang Ming’s attacks were as strong as the wind, and he did as he pleased, no longer constrained to official techniques. However, his moves were still quite organized.
He had almost achieved the momentum of a fierce tiger, and his blood Qi was in a similar state. However, he still had yet to reach the mentality of a tiger.
Jiang Ming shook his head gently. Martial Dao was a difficult path to tread…
Ever since he had gone down the mountain to buy a few big bags of medicinal herbs, he had been drinking three bowls of the soup a day. It was indeed effective. It allowed him to calm his heart and Qi and focus on practicing his fist techniques.
Currently, Jiang Ming was on par with a powerful third-class martial artist. In addition, he was not afraid of being cut or stabbed. Unless a second-class martial artist like Guan Feng were to challenge him, he would be unrivaled in Great Cloud City.
However, jumping from third class to second class was not easy. It required far more comprehension. It was no longer something that could be attained through relentless training. Many third-class martial artists had been stuck at this level for their entire lives.
Jiang Ming himself was prepared to be stuck at this bottleneck for three to five years or even longer.
“Master Guan and the others should have entered the mountain by now. Let’s go and join in the fun,” he muttered to himself.
In the past few months, although Jiang Ming didn’t participate in the affairs of the Peace Town branch of the Tiger Hunting Village, he would still participate sometimes when he encountered Master Guan leading a team to hunt.
“The creator of the Leather Tiger Bone Technique had created this technique by imitating the posture of both a barbaric bull and a fierce tiger. By fighting a tiger, one can understand a mentality of a tiger. It’s a pity that although I have a tiger at home, I can’t fight it. I have to keep it to guard the door.” Jiang Ming glanced at the fat tiger under the eaves and shook his head. He left the wooden house with a fine iron blade and went deep into the forest.
The fat tiger, in question, looked at Jiang Ming in confusion.
* * *
Deep in the Cloudy Dream Mountain Forest, Jiang Ming met up with Guan Feng and the others at a resting point.
“Huh? Huang Xiaoying didn’t come today?” Jiang Ming raised his eyebrows. He remembered that ever since the girl passed the team’s assessment, she had never missed a hunt.
Fang Lie shook his head and sighed, “She just sensed her blood Qi a few days ago. I was happy for her, but the next day, she packed up and left. She said she was sorry, and her only purpose here was to learn martial arts for free. Now that she has achieved her goal, she left.”
“Since she was learning martial arts, why didn’t she stay back to continue?” Jiang Ming asked, puzzled. “Why was she only satisfied with sensing blood Qi?”
Fang Lie shook his head, indicating that he did not know.
Guan Feng was sitting under a big tree with his eyes closed. He suddenly said, “The only requirement for the city-breaking team of the Green Mountain Army is to be able to sense blood Qi.”
“The Green Mountain Army?” Everyone was shocked.
Jiang Ming was also stunned and could not believe it.
The Green Mountain Army was the rebel army that had defeated three prefectures in a row in the north. Their leader called himself the Green Mountain King. Their momentum was fierce, and they continuously attacked cities and seized territories.
The Green Mountain Army’s city-breaking team was infamous. They made people tremble with fear and set a record for breaking through a prefecture city in a mere six hours.
In the beginning, the city-breaking team was made up of martial arts practitioners. Later on, when the force grew stronger, their entry requirement was raised. Now, one had to be able to sense blood Qi in order to join.
However, everyone, including Jiang Ming, couldn’t believe it. The low-key and honest Huang Xiaoying was going to join the rebel army?
“She came to find me the day she left. Her family is in Qinglin Village, north of Dayun Town,” Guan Feng said. “Her family offended the officials and were all killed. Even her seventy-year-old grandmother was not spared. She was the only one who managed to escape with her life and made it to Great Cloud City. She only has one goal in life, and that is to kill her way into Qinglin Village and kill the official who killed her family.”
Everyone was silent.
After a long time, someone sighed and said, “This world is f*cked.”
Suddenly, a voice came from the front, “Yeah, this world is f*cked!”
A few figures slowly walked out of the forest and appeared in front of everyone.
“Who are you guys?” Peng Lu stood up abruptly, his face vigilant.
On the opposite side, a young man who looked to be in his twenties slowly walked to the front and said with a faint smile, “I am Wei Yan!”
“What? You’re him?! The murderer who massacred a hundred people?”