Chaos came unexpectedly.
One night in April, Chen Mu was sleeping deeply.
Screams pierced the air.
Chen Mu woke up instantly.
Listening carefully, the faint sound of wailing made him realize, something had happened!
Hurriedly putting on a garment, he leaped onto the roof.
There he saw fires blazing across various parts of the town, with the sounds of fighting and screaming overlapping each other.
An army attacking the city?!
He dared not wander outside carelessly.
In such chaos, one could easily lose their life without caution.
He could only sit on the roof, vigilantly observing every movement in the surroundings.
Fortunately, the bandits did not raid the common people first.
They primarily targeted the big households within the city.
The fires were mostly concentrated in the central area of the town.
He stared tensely at the surroundings until the sky brightened, and the sounds of battle gradually subsided.
Accompanied by the faint sounds of galloping horses, Qingshan County Town fell into a brief calm.
As the sun rose, cries and wails rose again.
In the chaos of the night, countless people had perished.
Chen Mu bolted the main door shut, determined to stay at home and not go out.
The bandits had just left, but the chaos had not yet ended.
“Thank goodness I had hoarded a batch of food earlier.”
As grain prices continued to rise and news of the marauding armies spread, he had a bad premonition and decisively hoarded food and medicine.
Now with grain in hand, he was not in panic.
He barricaded all the doors of his three residences with wooden sticks, sealing them shut.
Chen Mu huddled at home, quietly increasing his proficiency.
“Just wait, when it’s completely calm, then I’ll go out and explore.”
…
Two days later, in the evening.
Chen Mu ended a day of training, had his meal, and rested.
His ears were carefully tuned to the sounds around him.
The chaos was still not entirely over.
In the middle of the night, sparse screams could still be heard.
“What are the soldiers from the County Government Office doing?”
Two days had passed, and the officials had yet to come out to sweep away the chaos and restore order.
“Could they have been thoroughly slaughtered by the bandits?”
The recently rising idea to go out and have a look was immediately dismissed.
With his martial arts, he could outrun stronger foes if he couldn’t beat them.
But if he were to reveal his martial arts skills, it might arouse curiosity, investigation, and ultimately lead to trouble.
“I must skulk to live longer.”
The waters of this world were quite deep.
…
East Market, Anle Square.
The doors of Miaohua Shop were wide open.
Inside, calligraphy and paintings, paper, and ink were scattered everywhere.
The counters were toppled and overturned.
There were spots of blood on the walls.
Zhou Liang and Zheng Huan came out of the shop with gloomy expressions.
“They didn’t leave us a single copper coin, those bastards!” Zhou Liang said resentfully.
“All the wealthy shops nearby have been looted. Should we check out the big households at Sheng Ye Square?” Zheng Huan suggested reluctantly.
“Those big households whose doors were broken have long been cleaned out,” Zhou Liang said helplessly. “We can’t get into the ones that haven’t been broken into.”
“If that won’t work, let’s target some smaller households. Little by little adds up, we can’t leave empty-handed,” Zheng Huan gritted his teeth and said.
When bandits breached the county town, chaos ensued within.
For gangsters like them, it was a gluttonous feast.
Their desires, usually hidden, were now fully unleashed.
Raping, killing, and looting knew no bounds.
“What’s there to gain from targeting those smaller households,” Zhou Liang pondered with a sly grin. “Have you forgotten about Chen Mu?”
Zheng Huan’s eyes lit up: “One painting for twenty silver taels; that’s a fat sheep!”
“Too bad that old Master Yan disappeared, his property was long divided up… Otherwise…” Zhou Liang said with regret.
“Let’s go, let’s go, let’s take down that kid first!” Zheng Huan urged repeatedly. “That kid, once he earns money, only knows how to indulge in meat and doesn’t spend much. He must have saved up hundreds of silver taels!”
“Then let’s teach him how to spend it!”
Both men, with daggers at their waists, excitedly slipped into the alley.
During the two days of chaos, they had killed and looted more than once, their eyes bloodshot, greed fully seizing their minds.
…
Ping’an Square, the Chen Family’s doorstep.
Two people peered through the crack in the door into the interior.
“The door’s even been barred.”
“What good’s barring the door? Not a single silver piece of those hundreds of taels will be allowed to escape!”
“Step on my shoulder, climb the wall!”
Zheng Huan crouched down steadily, and Zhou Liang, stepping on his shoulders, climbed over the wall.
Perched atop the wall, Zhou Liang, excited, took a glance into the courtyard and saw a figure standing inverted on a stone pier in the yard.
The person’s bare upper body, their muscles full and bulging as they pumped with blood.
Left hand behind their back, right hand’s forefinger and thumb forming an ‘eight’ shaped fork, supporting against the stone pier.
The person was actually standing inverted in midair, supported by just two fingers!
Zhou Liang’s heart gave a violent thump, and he couldn’t help but look at the face that was upside down.
This was… this was that frail scholar?!
He suddenly felt a numbness tingling his scalp.
Those distinctly lined muscles, how could they have anything to do with frailty?!
Chen Mu, surprised, looked up at the figure who had sprung onto the wall.
Zhou Liang?
In a flash, he somersaulted and landed, knees bent, steadily on the stone pier.
Staring at the astonished face on the wall, he couldn’t help but grin, revealing a row of stark white teeth, “You’ve found me, huh…”
Whoosh!
Before Zhou Liang could react,
Chen Mu had vanished from his original spot.
The next moment, he appeared abruptly on the wall.
His right hand clamped around Zhou Liang’s neck like an iron vice.
A tremendous force allowed no resistance from the other party, grasping Zhou Liang’s neck and, like lifting a little chick, leapt down from the wall, bang, slamming against the opposite wall.
Kneeling at the base of the wall, Zheng Huan only felt a blur before him, as Zhou Liang above him disappeared.
Instinctively turning his head,
He saw a muscular man, bare-chested, lifting Zhou Liang into the air with one hand.
Watching Zhou Liang’s face turn red, his feet kicking wildly in the air, Zheng Huan turned and fled.
Thwack!
A splash of blood burst open at the back of his knee.
Before a scream could escape his throat, his neck was seized by a large hand.
Whoosh!
The short cry flashed and was extinguished.
The alley was empty, returning to silence once again.
…
Under the cover of night, Chen Mu, carrying two people wrapped in straw mats, leapt and rushed across the rooftops.
Two transformations had given his body powerful momentum.
The Red Falcon Shape Cultivation Technique’s Soaring Leap was utilized to its utmost limit.
Carrying two people, he moved so quietly that not a sound was made.
Back at that deserted house, Chen Mu dug pits, buried bodies, filled holes, as familiar as the back of his hand.
Then he rapidly cleared all traces from the scene and vanished after a few jumps.
…
Ping’an Square, within the easternmost number one residence of the Chen Family.
A four-sided table was lit by a single oil lamp.
Under the dim yellow glow,
A pile of assorted items lay scattered on the table.
Copper coins, silver pieces, daggers, lime powder, knockout drug, Golden Sun pills…
These were items scavenged from the bodies of Zhou Liang and Zheng Huan.
Chen Mu, touching his chest, felt his heart still pounding, annoyed, said, “I had no choice but to be ruthless again.”
“Curse this damned world!”
“Wouldn’t it be better to just be a good person like me?”
Chen Mu sighed and began to check the copper coins and silver taels on the table one by one.
Copper coins with copper coins, silver taels with silver taels, the poor quality knockout drug and lime powder were thrown away.
Golden Sun pills? What the hell? Get rid of them!
Finally, he picked up the two daggers on the table.
Brown wooden handles and scabbards, oval brass guards, just long enough from elbow to fingertips.
He drew the blade from the sheath; the bright silver blade still bore traces of blood.
“These two really deserved to die.”
In two days of chaos, these blades had claimed who knows how many innocent souls.
He found a cloth to clean the daggers, “In the future, I can only use you to eliminate evil more often, hoping to redeem you.”
Chen Mu pondered that once the chaos subsided, he would make another trip to the Ghost Market to look for a swordsmanship manual to practice.
He couldn’t let the two daggers go to waste.