Translator: Myuu Editor: Myuu

“Did you kill someone last night?”

When Li Hongtu suddenly appeared at the edge of the pool looking Yan Liqiang with an unprecedented and serious gaze, Yan Liqiang couldn’t help but pause. He had just arrived at the waterfall and had barely been shaking his Dragon Spine Steel spear for less than two minutes.

He looked at Li Hongtu in confusion, wondering if he was joking with him. “No, Master. Why would I have killed someone last night? It has been a long while since I last fought with anyone!”

“When did you last kill someone?”

“Probably when I was escorting Lord Sun back to the Imperial Capital. Why?”

“Weird, that shouldn’t be the case…” Li Hongtu frowned at Yan Liqiang and gave him a suspicious look. “I was just listening to you shaking your spear in the house and it obviously sounded different from yesterday. It’s tinged with this extra murderous rage today. You wouldn’t be able to make this kind of sound if you’ve never killed with a spear technique. Moreover, you didn’t kill only one person. Killing just one person wouldn’t be enough to draw such murderous rage out from your spear…”

Yan Liqiang’s heart skipped a beat as he gulped. “I practiced the entire day in Deer Villa yesterday, Master. How could I possibly kill anyone without going out? Perhaps you are mistaken, Master…?”

Yan Liqiang was telling both the truth and a lie. Of course he didn’t kill anyone in reality. However, he had indeed killed many people with his spear technique in the Heavenly Realm.

“How can I be mistaken?” Li Hongtu glared at Yan Liqiang. “Tell me, will a mouth that has eaten meat still look the same as a mouth that hasn’t eaten any meat?”

“Urm… Is there any difference?”

“Of course there is! A mouth that has eaten meat will still have grease in it no matter how much you wipe it. Even if there is none, you can still find the piece of meat in your stomach. A mouth that has not eaten any meat will not be stained with grease and no meat will be found even if you cut open your stomach. Likewise, cultivating a spear technique before killing anyone with it is a certain type of feeling. After killing someone with the spear technique, cultivating it will feel different. There will be subtle changes in your grasping strength, your stance, the distance between your fingers, the shaking rhythm, and your state of mind. These changes can be observed through the sounds. Other people may not catch the murderous rage in your spear technique, but you can’t hide it from me. Now, explain yourself honestly — did you or did you not sneak out from the Deer Villa last night after dark to kill someone?”

Li Hongtu’s words nearly had Yan Liqiang kneeling before him.

Yan Liqiang couldn’t even hear the difference in the buzzing noises he made from spear shaking today and the previous few days. However, he was aware that after gaining some experience from killing people with the spear technique recently in the Heavenly Realm, there were some changes in his grasping strength, his stance, the distance between his fingers, his rhythm, and his state of mind. Yan Liqiang merely felt that he could move better by making such adjustments. Little did he expect these subtle changes to immediately be picked up by Li Hongtu. Damn, that was really too terrifying.

“Master, I swear to the Heavens that I really stayed in Deer Villa the entire day yesterday without going out. If you don’t believe me, you can go ask around to find out if anyone was murdered with the spear technique around the Imperial Capital last night. Oh right, now that you mention it, I remember I was dreaming last night for some reason. I dreamt that I was a soldier on a battlefield. I was holding an ashwood spear and fighting a tough battle with my enemies. In my dream, I killed many with my spear technique. The dream was so real that it was still vivid in my mind when I woke up this morning and it felt as though I had experienced it myself. I wonder if this could be the impact of this dream…?”

“Ah, you had this kind of dream?” Li Hongtu stared at Yan Liqiang in shock. He only lowered his head after a good while and seemed to be thinking deeply as he stroked his beard while murmuring to himself. “Hmm… that sounds possible… Though a little too far-fetched…” After pondering for a moment, he lifted his head again and asked him skeptically, “Have you ever had such a strange dream before?”

“Frequently!” Yan Liqiang nodded seriously. The expression on his face was akin to a witness swearing an oath on the holy bible in court. “I frequently have violent dreams like these. They are all so vivid that it’s like they actually happened. I can’t forget about them even after waking up. I had another strange dream in the past that caused an incident. Now, nearly everyone in my hometown knows that I have strange dreams…”

Yan Liqiang unobtrusively and secretly shifted the conversation to another topic. As expected, Li Hongtu’s curiosity was immediately piqued as soon as he heard Yan Liqiang. “What strange dream was that?”

“I met an old man in my dream who taught me a method to save a drowned person. I didn’t expect it to actually work and I managed to save people with it!” Yan Liqiang recounted the incident where he rescued someone in Pingxi Prefecture back then. To Yan Liqiang, this incident was a mere platitude that had been overused. The lie had been repeated so many times that even Yan Liqiang almost believed it himself. To Li Hongtu, hearing the tale for the very first time was both interesting and shocking.

After hearing the tale, Li Hongtu stared at Yan Liqiang with a strange gaze. He put his hands behind his back after a good while and spoke solemnly. “If… If you have another strange dream like this next time, it would be best that you keep it to yourself. Got it?”

Yan Liqiang secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed like he managed to get away this time. “Got it, Master!”

“Good. Carry on with your cultivation then…”

“Alright…”

As soon as Li Hongtu turned around and Yan Liqiang picked up his spear to start shaking it, a voice suddenly drifted into their ears.

“Ah, Li Hongtu, Li Hongtu. Just when I was wondering why you hadn’t come to disturb me recently, I see that you have apprenticed such a talented disciple…” Following the voice, Yan Liqiang thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. An old man suddenly appeared on top of a big pine tree by the pool. Dressed in clean, white silk robes, he had a head full of silver hair and a face that had the rosy glow of a baby’s cheeks. He gracefully perched on the pine tree needles, swaying gently, looking as divine as an immortal.

“You, the one surnamed Ji! What are you doing here at my place? Scram!” At the old man’s appearance, the expression on Li Hongtu’s face immediately grew anxious for some reason. He even shot a glance at Yan Liqiang.

Surnamed Ji? Could this be the person on that other bronze paiza that Eunuch Liu had given to him?

“Don’t you worry, Li. I am not here to find you!” The old man surnamed Ji ignored Li Hongtu. He turned his head to Yan Liqiang instead and started sizing him up. “Did Liu give you two bronze paizas, with the character Ji engraved on one of them…?”

Yan Liqiang couldn’t hide the fact, so he nodded.

“Great. From today onward, you shall be my disciple. You may call me Master from now on. I will teach you the ultimate archery technique!” The old man nodded, then announced his newly-formed relationship with Yan Liqiang without even waiting for his consent.

“JI, YOU SNATCHED MY LITTLE YING AWAY BACK THEN AND NOW YOU ARE SNATCHING AWAY MY APPRENTICE AGAIN! I-I… I’VE HAD IT…!” Li Hongtu bellowed in extreme rage and charged at the old man surnamed Ji.

Li Hongtu was so fast that all Yan Liqiang saw was a blur.

BOOM…! An explosion thundered. He didn’t see Li Hongtu striking out, but the big pine tree suddenly exploded. The tree trunk and countless pine needles were blown into fragments that scattered all over the place. Even the spot where the pine tree once stood turned into mud that splattered everywhere. The tree had been completely uprooted…

Amidst the flying fragments, a white figure slowly rose into the air like a cloud and yelled back, “The one Little Ying likes is obviously me…!” He then raised his palm at Li Hongtu…

BOOM…! Another explosion rang out like a thunderclap at ground level. A few trees in the surroundings were blown to pieces by the violent impact. Even the pool of water Yan Liqiang was in vibrated during the explosion.

In just the blink of an eye, both sides had exchanged a few blows in front of Yan Liqiang. In the midst of the confrontation, Yan Liqiang even had a misconception. Both of them were actually moving so fast that he couldn’t even catch their moves with his eyes. However, it felt like they were moving very slow too. This contradictory feeling made the onlooker dizzy and nauseous as though one was experiencing motion sickness…

At this moment, it was as though the trees and rocks around them were chucked into a silent pulverizer. They were reduced to fragments and flying dust while both of them were fighting.

“Are you two only going to stop fighting when I’m dead?” A long sigh came from somewhere a bit further. The two old men stopped fighting when they heard the voice. After exchanging glances, the barely audible words, ‘Little Ying’, escaped both their lips at the same time. The two then dashed toward the source of the voice at lightning speed, vanishing from Yan Liqiang’s sight in a flash.

Yan Liqiang stood on the rock in a daze and looked at the mess around him, feeling as though he had just been dreaming…

He stood on the rock and pondered for a while. In the end, he gave up on the idea of chasing after them. Instead, he picked up the Dragon Spine Steel spear and resumed shaking it…