Cui Lueshang had never been so terrified, nor so shocked. This sudden turn of events left him completely dumbfounded. Although he was a cultivator, having even reached the second rank two years ago, he hadn't reacted at all when the woman in the red dress grabbed Li Yuan by the throat and forced him to the ground. Even when the woman poured the roasted meat from the plate into Li Yuan's mouth, he still didn't react.
He subconsciously glanced at Fang Jie, then at Liu Yineng and the others.
"What...is this?"
He asked Fang Jie.
Fang Jie cursed "idiot," jumped over, and squatted down beside Li Yuan. Li Yuan's mouth was being squeezed by Mu Xiaoyao, stuffed full of roasted meat. His body and limbs struggled desperately, his form becoming increasingly contorted. But under Mu Xiaoyao's grip, his head remained motionless.
This was the first time in his life he had felt such fear.
He was afraid he would die here without knowing why.
"Please...please..."
He managed to utter a few strained sounds, but as soon as he spoke, the chunk of meat in his mouth went down his throat. One piece was quite large and stuck, making it difficult for him to breathe, and his face turned deathly pale with fright.
Fang Jie, seeing his suffering, couldn't bear it. He pressed on Li Yuan's throat and tried to smooth it down. After Li Yuan's Adam's apple bobbed a few times, the meat stuck in his throat was finally swallowed. Fang Jie didn't stop. Instead, he picked up a pair of chopsticks, grabbed the pieces of roasted meat that had fallen to the ground, and stuffed them into Li Yuan's mouth piece by piece.
Liu Yineng and the others were stunned. When they finally came to their senses and tried to run away, they suddenly realized that the ugly man with a bruised eye and a swollen mouth was wearing gloves with steel spikes, grinning at them. Liu Yineng was called a devil by the children and women in Xiangcheng, but tonight, under the cover of Mushan Mountain, he finally understood what a devil looked like.
The giant dog grinned menacingly, then charged forward, instantly knocking two playboys, who only knew how to indulge in pleasure, to the ground. The two men didn't even have time to cry out before they passed out. One punch each, landing on their temples. How could an ordinary person withstand such heavy blows? Frankly, Liu Yineng couldn't tell whether they were unconscious or dead.
But he knew that if he didn't escape, he would be next.
So he ran.
But in the world, few could outrun the giant dog. The world was vast; surely some people were better at light-footedness than the giant dog, but Liu Yineng certainly wasn't.
He had only taken one step when the giant dog caught up from behind and kicked him in the buttocks. This tyrant, who had terrorized Xiangcheng and ruined countless innocent young women, flew forward like a cannonball for a full five meters before crashing to the ground with a thud.
As he struggled to escape, enduring the excruciating pain in his chest, the large dog had already planted a foot on his back.
"No..."
He turned back with difficulty to plead with the dog, "Don't kill me... My father is the second master of the Liu family in Xiangcheng. If you promise not to kill me, I guarantee you a life of wealth and luxury, you can have anything you want... I'm the only son in my family, please spare my life, sir!"
"The one surnamed Liu..."
Fang Jie stuffed the last piece of meat into Li Yuan's mouth, chuckled, and said, "I'm not afraid of someone surnamed Li, why would I be afraid of someone surnamed Liu?"
The underlying meaning of these words was only understood by Fang Jie himself; it carried a touch of wicked amusement.
Even now, Cui Lueshang still didn't understand what had happened: "Brother Shang... Young Master Li didn't want to eat first, you didn't need to force him... That's not right... How could you be so violent? Violence is an insult to civility. As the sages said, a gentleman uses words, not fists..."
"Shut up!"
Fang Jie turned and glared at him, pointing at Liu Yineng and saying, "Go ask them what they were discussing in the forest. They wanted to kill you, and you're still here, clueless. You, Liu, tell him what you were talking about in the forest!"
"It's not my fault... It really isn't my fault!"
Liu Yineng burst into tears, snot streaming down his upper lip. Before the snot even came out, his trousers were already soaked.
"It was all Li Yuan's doing! He did it himself, it really has nothing to do with us... Great hero... great sir... please don't kill me! Besides, if you kill me, you'll never leave Longxi County. Li Yuan ordered me to poison Cui Lueshang, it really wasn't my idea!"
"Why...why?"
Cui Lueshang froze, his face instantly turning deathly pale: "Why did you poison me?"
Liu Yineng said urgently, "It was Li Yuan...he's jealous of your participation in the Martial Arts Academy's exam this year! That's why he instructed me to poison your food, wanting to..." "We'll poison you and then frame Brother Shang."
Cui Lueshang's lips twitched, and he trembled as he walked to Liu Yineng, looking at him with a bitter tone and asking, "Just because of a spot in the Martial Arts Academy, you're so heartless as to kill your friend?"
"Bullshit!"
Fang Jie cursed, "Do you still think they consider you a friend?"
These words completely ignited Cui Lueshang's anger. This kind-hearted but somewhat foolish man kicked Liu Yineng in the jaw with tremendous force, sending Liu Yineng flying again. He quickly chased after him, grabbed Liu Yineng by the front of his shirt, and lifted him up. "We've been classmates for so many years, friends for so many years, how could you be so heartless?!"
"You're just too stupid."
Fang Jie said, then looked at Li Yuan with suspicion: "Why isn't he dead yet?"
Da Quan suddenly thought of something, turned to Fang Jie and asked, "After boiling him in water, did the poison disappear? Or was the poison reduced so it wouldn't kill him directly?"
"Really?"
Fang Jie hesitated for a moment, stood up, walked to a distance, and brought over the iron pot. Seeing that there was still more than half a pot of water left, he went back to Mu Xiaoyao and said, "Hold him up, pour all the water in, and we'll know if the poison has subsided."
Li Yuan cried out in agony and fainted from fright.
Dozens of meters away, the old cripple from Hongxiuzhao sat on a large rock watching the farce unfolding on Fang Jie's side. He frowned, muttered "Nonsense!" and got up to walk back. After only two steps, he suddenly stopped, unable to resist turning back and shouting loudly towards Fang Jie, "If you're going to kill him, hurry up! It's so late, and he's making such a racket, what if he scares the people sleeping in the wilderness? Don't you have any public decency?!"
...
...
Hongxiuzhao Camp.
The old cripple sat down in front of the carriage, raised his huge gourd of wine, and took a swig. Before he could even take a sip of wine, Xi Huamei asked softly from inside the carriage, "Master Luo, what is it?"
"Nothing serious. Fang Jie and the other two are just killing someone. They're lowlifes in Xiangcheng, and although they come from noble families, it's nothing serious. They're clean-cut, so it'll be hard to investigate."
"That's good."
Xi Huamei said calmly, "Just don't let this delay our journey... Keep an eye on things. If they cause trouble because of their stupidity, we can't be implicated. Chang'an is still thousands of miles away. They've only just left Shandong and they're already causing trouble; who knows what kind of chaos they'll create when we reach the capital."
"That kid's not stupid."
The old cripple chuckled, closing his eyes and leaning against the outside of the carriage. "It's late, everyone should get some rest. We have to travel early tomorrow morning, so let those three handle the aftermath themselves. A few missing people in this wilderness won't be noticed for three to five days. By the time the people in Xiangcheng find out those guys are gone, we'll be hundreds of miles away."
"Yes, Master Luo, you should get some rest too. Go sleep in the tent, the night wind is strong… You don't need to guard this place."
"It's alright."
The old cripple said softly, "It's stuffy in the tent, not as pleasant as outside."
He said nothing more, closing his eyes.
Why did he suddenly have to kill?
The old cripple asked himself, but he was destined to never get an answer.
A few miles away, Fang Jie wiped the sweat from his brow, tossed the iron pot aside, and sighed, "What I suspect now isn't that the boiling water removed the poison, but that these idiots bought fake medicine! Damn it, even if they were stuffed half a pot of water, they'd be dead by now! And I haven't been poisoned yet... I'm exhausted."
He sat down on the ground, panting heavily.
"Didn't you say you didn't want to kill?"
Mu Xiaoyao looked at him with surprise.
"Killing evil people is also doing good."
Fang Jie said casually.
Mu Xiaoyao frowned: "That's a Buddhist saying."
Fang Jie said between breaths, "It doesn't matter who said it, there's still some truth to it. Besides... after the Fan Gu incident, I suddenly realized that people in this world won't refrain from killing you just because you have good intentions. If I hadn't happened to see this bastard plotting to kill Cui Lueshang in the woods, I wouldn't have known about this sordid affair of classmates killing each other."
He wanted to say something more, but didn't. If he hadn't miraculously survived in Fan Gu, he wouldn't have begun to doubt the bonds between people.
He and Li Xiaozong were kindred spirits, and over the past three years, they had indeed developed feelings for each other. But for his own benefit, Li Xiaozong certainly didn't hesitate for a moment when he decided to kill him.
"I still don't want to kill anyone."
Fang Jie regained his composure and looked at Mu Xiaoyao softly, saying, "That's why I meddle in this... In Fan Gu, there was no one I wanted to kill, and I couldn't bring myself to do it. But now that I understand some things, I have to adapt to some things I must. When we were on missions, I always shot down the most ferocious bandits from the shadows. But I didn't want to kill them, so I always took pity on them and shot their limbs."
He paused and smiled self-deprecatingly, "But they still died. As long as they were wounded and fell from their horses, Li Gan and his men would kill them, cut off their heads, and bring them back to Fan Gu for military merit. I kept comforting myself that he..." "I didn't kill them, Li Gandang did. Deceiving myself like this is just burying my head in the sand. Come to think of it, they died because of me… Li Xiaozong said I was the best scout among the eight hundred border troops of Fan Gu… He was right."
"I can always find the bandits' hideouts, and then the border troops will wipe them out."
"My hands aren't stained with blood, but the blood debt is on my shoulders."
He slowly stood up, looking at Mu Xiaoyao earnestly, and said, "Since you're going to kill eventually, it's better to practice before you have to."
Killing a few people when it's unnecessary is preparation for when it's necessary later?
Mu Xiaoyao was startled, suddenly finding Fang Jie standing in front of her somewhat unfamiliar.
"Just because you wanted to kill, this happened tonight?"
She couldn't help but ask.
Fang Jie nodded, then smiled: "I wanted to try."
...
...
Cui Lueshang didn't stop Fang Jie from killing. He wasn't particularly cunning, but that didn't mean he was an idiot. What's happened today has already occurred. Even if he lets Li Yuan and the others go, do you think they'll let him go? Li Yuan and Liu Yineng, to cover up what happened today, will eventually try to kill him again.
He'd beaten enough, he was exhausted, and then he collapsed to the ground, bursting into tears. A grown man, he was a complete sob-head. Beside him, Liu Yineng was already badly beaten, but he wasn't dead yet. Even with such severe external injuries, as long as the internal organs weren't damaged, he could recover.
Just as he was crying his heart out, Fang Jie slowly walked to his side.
"Have you ever killed anyone?"
Fang Jie asked.
Hearing this question, Cui Lueshang's crying abruptly stopped. He twitched a few times and shook his head, feeling somewhat aggrieved.
Fang Jie placed a short knife in his hand, pointed it at the dying Liu Yineng, and said, "I haven't killed anyone either. I want to try tonight. If you can't bring yourself to do it, I'll come back to help you after I kill that guy surnamed Li."
He got up and walked to Li Yuan.
Li Yuan trembled, his face already deathly pale with fear. His limbs had been broken by Mu Xiaoyao, rendering his third-grade cultivation useless. Seeing Fang Jie approach, he pleaded in terror, "Don't kill me...please! Just now...just now I heard you say Fan Gu Li Xiaozong, that's my fifth uncle, my fifth uncle...we're family!"
"I know."
Fang Jie knelt beside him, glanced at the knife in his hand, frowned slightly, and then plunged the knife into Li Yuan's neck. Blood gushed out like a waterfall, splattering all over his body and face.
"That's why I wanted to kill you."
He wiped the blood from his eyes, looked at Mu Xiaoyao, and after a moment of silence, said seriously, "It didn't feel right. Next time I kill someone, I should do it myself, instead of you breaking the enemy's limbs."