Illusory Prosperity
Looking down from here, Li Qingshan could saw the whole picture of this ancient mountain city where various houses and buildings in orderly rows were shrouded in the red sunglow .
A great number of people, including vendors who sold groceries, breakfast and vegetables, as well as merchants who got up early to have a business trip, were pa.s.sing through the interlaced alleys and streets . The hustle and bustle of large crowds showed the worldly prosperity .
Enjoying the broad field of vision, Li had boundless ease of mind .
"The view here should be so good?" Li was slightly surprised, took a deep breath, and began to practice boxing to exercise his hands and feet .
Feeling the flow of Qi inside the body, he realized that with the help of nine Qi condensation pills taken last night, his power grew stronger and his cultivation on second level of Qi Refining was gradually stabilizing .
Li Qingshan did not hurry to cultivate his demon core and demon body or swallow a lot of Qi condensation pills at a stroke, because he might stay here for some time and the next portion of Qi condensation pills needed to be gotten from Jia Ping City . Rather than run out of the pills and suffer temporary shortage of Qi condensation pills, he preferred to make it slow, since his body would naturally absorb the efficacy of pills .
Li found a suit of original owner's old clothes in the room to replace the Eagle Wolf uniform which he was wearing, then opened the door, went out, and had a special local snack in a restaurant with a Chinese character - "Tea" on the signboard .
He felt that his great dream of eating delicious food all over the world had been fulfilled a little bit, and then he continued his walk contentedly . Li walked slowly on purpose, admiring the scenes along the street .
Li didn't know how long it had been since he lived such a life of ease . Since Li began to cultivate, his days had been tough and tense . Even he came back to the secular world, and to the ancient Jia Ping City, he still had to deal with all kinds of ceaseless accidents .
He went to punish the wicked, a.s.sa.s.sinate strong enemies or guard against enemies . Even if he got some leisure time, he had to practice and dared not slack off at any moment .
He had almost forgotten what it was like to be idle . Li remembered the days when he had been herding the cattle on the Crouching Cattle Hummock, looking at the mountains, playing a fife, and avoiding the oppression of his brother and sister-in-law . An afternoon pa.s.sed before he knew it .
It seems that he had experienced two opposite lives, and each had its interesting part . But he still liked the present life better, and would not miss the past too much .
Now looking at the noisy crowd in the market, unconsciously, he felt kind of strange . Although Li was still one of the lowest and weakest pract.i.tioners of Qi refining, he had been on an irreversible way totally different from that of the common people .
Common people could only walk on the ground, usually would get married and have children, enjoyed an ordinary life full of joys and sorrows, separations and reunions from birth to death . But the pract.i.tioners’ life was just like climbing a mountain whose peak could never be reached . Each improvement would allow the pract.i.tioner to see new scenery and extend his lifespan, so lifespan wouldn’t be a troublesome problem for pract.i.tioners .
In front of the county yamen, a notice had been posted and a literate inferior official had been a.s.signed to read the notice aloud, informing the public that all the lands and houses of Qian Family would be auctioned seven days later .
Hundreds of people stood in front of the county yamen, pointing at the notice and talking about the matter .
Li Qingshan stood in the crowd, looking at the notice for a while and thinking that the magistrate’s reaction speed was quite fast .
Then he walked out of the crowd and came into a small bookstore . He spent two liang (a unit of weight; 1 liang =50 grams) of silver on more than ten leisure books, including poetry anthologies, historical books and essays . Then he found a musical instrument shop and bought two music score books and a jade flute with 35 liang of silver .
When he got home, he lay on the cane chair under the grape arbor, opened a book and read it carefully . It was nearly noon and the sun turned white from red . The suns.h.i.+ne pa.s.sed through the dense grape leaves, and fell on the yellowing pages of the book and his face .
At this time, he was like a young man, rather than a bold and fearless pract.i.tioner or a decisive and cruel Black Wolf Guard . On his stone-like face which was angular to some extent, the sharp eyes were deep and bright now .
Spiritual Turtle Demon Core in his body, slowly rotating, became unprecedentedly clear, and the vapor it released naturally rushed out, wetting his clothes .
He was lost in a great battle in the historical book, so he didn’t perceive it .
Adjusting mood was also a kind of cultivation .
When the bow was not in use, bowstring should be dismounted for maintenance . He relaxed himself, recuperating from the strain for rising to a higher level based on acc.u.mulated strength in the future .
Not everyone could enjoy such leisure . A small town named “Shangguan Town” was dozens of miles away from Ancient Wind City, and it got the name because most of the people in the town had the surname - Shangguan .
Although the surname was rare, people here were just the common ones who knew little about martial arts .
There was a family in the town; because of a daughter whose surname was Qian, the ordinary family suddenly rose to a rich and n.o.ble one in the Shangguan Town . The family boasted a house with pink walls and glazed tiles, and numerous servants, and held feasts almost every day, becoming the envy of the whole town .
On the official road from the Ancient Wind City to Shangguan Town, a man in black was riding a white horse, slowly marching .
Qian Rongzhi looked at the Shangguan Town appearing on the horizon, and she suddenly got anxious, clenching the pike pinned on her waist . The cold weapon should made her feel warm .
Under the burning sun, with a touch of lingering dismay in her eyes, she said with self-mockery, "I really overestimate myself .
She was taken away from her home . When she got somewhere in cultivation, she was allowed to go back to visit relatives by Qian Yannian . Since then, she often came back, and gently treated each person in the family, since she wanted to let Qian Yannian believe that she really valued her family and could be easily controlled .
But now, she had broken the shackles of Nian Family, so there was no point in maintaining the illusory intimacy . Her heart gradually turned cruel . It was time to end this .
No one deserved happiness from her misfortune! No one!
The vermillion door of the Shangguan House opened, and blood flowed out along the screen wall behind the outflow .
Qian Rongzhi frowned, holding her pike and thinking, when she saw a dozen corpses, including guards, maids, servants and cleaning women, lying in disorder on the ground behind the screen wall .
She could name them all, but now they were all dead .
As she continued to walk towards the depths of the house, she saw more and more corpses . When entering the inner courtyard, Nian Rongzhi saw a dead n.o.ble woman, who was originally a village woman, but now wore expensive hair jewelry on the head and silk clothes brought back from the south by a guest . At this moment, the clothes were covered with blood .
Nian Rongzhi could hardly remember the lady's name, for she had called the woman mother for a long time .
Nian felt relieved inexplicably, cast a deep glance at her mother, and then strode over her body .
Then there were more corpses, most of which were her siblings .
Even at noon, the ancestral temple, where were placed forefathers’ memorial tablets of Shangguan Family, was still very dark .
A grey-haired old man, was seizing a portly middle-aged man on both sides by the arms and cast a cold and resentful glance at Qian Rongzhi, shouting, "Shangguan Rongzhi, I know you will come back!"
Qian Rongzhi said with a complex expression, "Third Uncle!"
The old man was Qian Yannian's nephew, who had studied martial arts for many years, finally broke through the Innate Realm, reached the second level of Qi Refining, and became one of the martial masters of Qian Family . That night, he fled from the Qian Family, but Diao Fei did not chase him, so he had a close shave .
"You did all this?" Qian asked .
The old man said, "Yes, I did . Shangguan Rongzhi, you are a traitor! All people of Qian Family died due to you . You destroyed the Qian Family and ruined everything I had, so I feel irreconcilable hatred for you and killed all your family members . "
"Rongzhi, save me!" the middle-aged man trembled, and set his eyes and nose at flow with fear .
That portly man was Qian Rongzhi’s father . Qian Rongzhi got panic and angry, "Dad, I will save you . Qian Haode, let go of my father!"
Qian Haode said, "Now do you know fear? You b.i.t.c.h! Drop your weapon and get down on your knees!" Qian Rongzhi hesitated . Qian Haode crushed the portly man's shoulder, and the man screamed, "Kneel down, right now!"
With a clanking, Qian Rongzhi dropped her pike and knelt down . She moved forward slowly, begging piteously, "Please let my father go!"
Qian Haode put on a complacent, crazy smile . He was unwilling to just kill her at a stroke . He not only wanted to destroy her whole family, but also planned to torture her dad in front of her .
Qian Rongzhi moved one more step forward, and then she s.n.a.t.c.hed up the pike with right hand by Qi . She jumped up, and launched an attack at Qian Haode .
Qian Haode used the portly man as a human s.h.i.+eld to cover himself, and grasped the man’s the other shoulder, trying to severely torture the man again and make the b.i.t.c.h regret what she did after forcing Qian Rongzhi to step back .
But suddenly Qian Haode felt cold on the chest and found Qian Rongzhi didn’t mean to stop attacking . The pike pierced through the human s.h.i.+eld, and its tip had reached Qian Haode’s chest; her Qi turned into a blue light and penetrated through his body .
"You . . . " Qian Haode and the portly man looked at Qian Rongzhi with shocked looks in their eyes, since they found the sad expression on her face had disappeared and she looked cruel and complacent at this moment .
Qian Rongzhi laughed and said, "It is really not easy to kill you!"
Qian Haode said, "Shangguan Rongzhi, you . . . You are so evil-minded . How can you even kill your relative?!"
Qian Rongzhi corrected him, "My name is Qian Rongzhi instead of Shangguan Rongzhi . All my family members are dead, except you . From this day on, I have no family . " She jerked the pike out .
At the same time, Qian Haode and portly man fell on the ground, dead . Qian Rongzhi did not even glance at the portly man . She took away Qian Haode’s treasure pouch, and said in a sweet voice, "Thank you, Third Uncle . ” At this point, she was just like the docile girl at the beginning .
Qian Haode barely raised his hand, trying to converge his Qi, while she pushed the pike into his head without hesitation, "You are welcome . "
"Rongzhi, help . . . me!" the portly man reached out a hand and wanted to catch the lower hem of her gown .
"Who are you?” she asked .
