Chapter 21: Their Poison, My Honey

By the Qingshui River.

In a grand mansion with vermilion gates and blue-tiled roofs, a middle-aged man with a hooked nose and a cold expression sat in a pavilion, watching the water.

Occasionally, a few vivid red carp surfaced.

The middle-aged man toyed with a tiny pebble, no larger than a fingernail, curling his fingers slightly.

Zzzt!

The pebble shot out like an arrow, striking one of the carp with perfect accuracy; the pond splashed violently, and soon the carp lay still.

Remote harm!

“Pull it out. Eat it tonight.”

Upon hearing the man’s words, the maid standing nearby was utterly unfazed.

“Yes.”

At that moment, along the path leading to the pavilion, a disciple of the Heaven’s Alliance in black robes hurried over, holding a list in both hands.

“Captain, here is this month’s recommendation list.”

The middle-aged man picked up the list and glanced at it.

“Those who have entered the ranks become stewards; the rest, send them to the grounds for a few years, then reassess after evaluation.”

The black-robed disciple said: “Captain, yesterday Master Wu recommended a rank-entered martial artist—excellent martial skill, understands the underworld’s ways—but he’s quite old. His name is Li Rui.”

“How old?”

“Seventy.”

“.”

The middle-aged man flipped through the list and indeed found Li Rui’s name.

“Now is the time to use capable hands. Send him to Tianyi Hall. Perhaps he can still contribute something.”

“Yes.”

At the other end.

“The blade follows the body; man and blade become one!”

Li Rui swung his wooden staff, sweeping down lush green leaves that blanketed the entire courtyard.

The house he rented from the employment agency was small, but it had a rare small courtyard, and the willow trees on either side had grown beautifully since spring.

After leaving the Zhu family.

Freed from worldly troubles, his blade technique improved rapidly.

I'm afraid even the instructors in town who specialize in swordsmanship wouldn't dare claim they could defeat him.

“One lives but once; one must strive.”

No martial cultivator avoids striving—for techniques, for reputation, for wealth.

If you don’t strive, others will leave you behind, and you’ll become their stepping stone.

Fortunately, Li Rui had a cheat.

His martial bones, combined with the White Ape’s Blade, gave him the luxury of indifference to fame and fortune; if he could just secure a decent post, the herb problem would be mostly solved.

After finishing his practice, he stepped inside.

At that moment—

Thud, thud, thud!

A knock came at the courtyard gate.

He opened the door and found Yang Yong.

Yang Yong looked at Li Rui with urgent concern: “Old Li, didn’t you go to that abandoned temple outside the city?”

“Yes.”

Li Rui nodded, his heart tightening.

He didn’t know why Yang Yong had come to mention this.

Yang Yong cried out in alarm: “Something’s happened! Today, Captain Liu from the government office came to the Zhu household—I happened to be there—and he said the constables who went to that temple have been killed off one by one. He suspects someone is targeting them deliberately and warned the master to be careful.”

“I thought of you—you were there too—so I rushed over to warn you.”

Li Rui’s brow snapped tight.

“Trouble!”

The rumored killer was likely that Huaqing Sect disciple.

He took the disciple’s secret technique; the disciple clearly wasn’t willing to let it go and came seeking revenge. Unable to pinpoint the target, he simply killed one by one until he found the technique.

“I understand, Old Yang.”

Yang Yong offered a well-meaning suggestion: “Old Li, why not flee to another county for a while?”

Li Rui shook his head.

“You can’t run from it.”

He knew too well how precious the White Ape’s Blade was. Unless he fled beyond Yunzhou, the killer would never let him go.

“Then what should we do?”

“I plan to join the Heaven’s Alliance.”

Hearing Li Rui intended to join the Heaven’s Alliance, Yang Yong was stunned—he’d certainly heard of its reputation.

“Someone recommend you?”

“Yes.”

Seeing Li Rui nod, Yang Yong relaxed slightly.

The Heaven’s Alliance had many experts; if Li Rui lived within their compound, the killer would find it hard to strike.

Those constables had all been killed on their way home.

Not long after seeing Yang Yong off, a burly, bearded man in black Heaven’s Alliance uniform arrived at the courtyard gate.

Li Rui smiled and stepped forward: “Brother Wu.”

Wu Tu entered the courtyard and pulled from his sleeve a brass token engraved with the number “28.”

“Old brother, this is your token. The number corresponds to your rank. If you lose it, report it immediately to the Heaven’s Alliance’s Supply Hall—otherwise, if someone uses your token for evil, you’ll be punished.”

Li Rui nodded and took the token from Wu Tu.

He was about to thank him.

Then Wu Tu pulled from his sleeve a sheet of paper covered densely with markings and characters.

Li Rui needed only one glance at the “Wanbao Trading House” seal to recognize it as a silver note.

In ancient times, the poor used copper coins; the rich used silver.

But when silver amounts were too large to carry, people deposited them in trading houses and received silver notes—thin sheets that were easy to carry, specially treated to be waterproof and fireproof.

Li Rui didn’t understand Wu Tu’s intent.

Wu Tu stared at him a moment, then sighed and shook his head: “Old brother, my younger brother didn’t do right by you—he feels ashamed. I absolutely cannot accept the silver from this recommendation.”

“What’s wrong, Brother Wu?”

“The number on the token indicates rank—the smaller the number, the higher the status. The Qinghe Branch of the Heaven’s Alliance has twenty-eight rank-entered martial artists.”

I thought your experience and skill would earn you a number under twenty.”

But I didn’t expect—”

Wu Tu raised two fingers in oath: “Don’t worry, Old Brother—I’ll fight for better treatment for you from now on.”

Before he finished speaking, he shoved a silver note worth one hundred taels into Li Rui’s hand.

The token was made of brass, with the characters “Heaven” and “Alliance” raised in sunken relief, surrounded by crimson patterns—elegant and grand.

“Old brother, with this token, you’re now the Hall Master of Tianyi Hall.”

“Tianyi Hall is responsible only for guarding the branch’s martial techniques and miscellaneous texts—guarding only. Distribution of techniques is handled by the Transmission Hall.”

“It’s a very idle post.”

Wu Tu had struggled for a long time to find any real advantage to Tianyi Hall, and finally settled on what martial artists would consider no advantage at all.

He truly wanted to secure a good post for Li Rui.

Though he was ruthless in action, when he respected someone, he genuinely cared for them—otherwise he’d never have risen to lead the Rongmen.

After several encounters, he found Li Rui’s martial skill and character flawless, aside from his age.

Li Rui understood.

Hall Master of Tianyi Hall—another way of saying librarian.

He looked at the hundred-tael silver note in his hand.

He got silver—and an idle post.

Could such a thing truly exist in this world?!

(End of Chapter)