Plum Blossom Bandit.
To be honest, Li Miao's impression of this name wasn't very deep.
If he hadn't heard it mentioned repeatedly, he wouldn't have remembered the name at all.
He only remembered that fifteen years ago, he took Zhu Zai's assignment to kill someone in a certain place. After half a night of killing, he encountered a soft-faced young man in a room.
Li Miao stepped forward and gave him a sword strike; he didn't dodge and almost died by Li Miao's hand.
Later, this person awkwardly evaded Li Miao and escaped using his Qinggong.
This person wasn't an important figure, nor did he have any significant title. That day, there were many masters attacking Li Miao where he was, so he had no time to chase an irrelevant person.
He just glanced at his fleeing figure, noting his Qinggong movement technique and the plum blossom-like birthmark on the back of his neck.
This is why Li Miao could recognize this person's Qinggong today, but not Zhao Dehua's claw technique, because Li Miao barely even fought him; he just blocked once, failed to block, and then fled for his life.
Later, this young man committed several crimes on his escape route. Because of the plum blossom birthmark on the back of his neck, he was called the 'Plum Blossom Bandit'.
Even later, this person was probably afraid of the Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards)'s pursuit and disappeared for two years. However, he was accidentally discovered by the Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards) during a major case and died.
His body was sent to Shuntian Prefecture, and after verification by a specialist, it was confirmed to be the Plum Blossom Bandit himself without a doubt.
That was the end of this person's story.
So Li Miao was very curious: this person had no reputation back then, his martial arts weren't particularly good, and his death was even more casual. If Li Miao were to evaluate him, he was just a 'small-time hoodlum'.
Why did he keep encountering two people related to him, as if he were some mastermind?
"Plum Blossom Bandit?"
The person in night clothes heard Li Miao's question, hesitated for a moment, searched his memory, and then shook his head.
"I have never heard that name, Senior."
Li Miao saw that he didn't seem to be faking it and asked again, "How did you acquire your internal energy and Qinggong?"
"Senior, my name is You Zi'ang. Before this, I was always a 'gentleman of the beams' (a thief)."
"Five years ago, I found a wealthy family in North Zhili. I went to their house to get some money, and in the study, I found two secret manuals."
"One for internal energy, one for Qinggong. I took both. Later, I practiced them myself and found they were suitable, so I've been practicing them until now."
"I truly have no connection whatsoever with that Plum Blossom Bandit. If you have a grudge against him, I can tell you where that wealthy family lives, and you can go find him."
"I'm just a thief. As you can see, I don't know how to fight. All my skill is in Qinggong; I never hurt people, and I don't have the ability to hurt people. My cultivation methods were also stolen by accident. I truly don't know that Plum Blossom Bandit!"
"If you blame me for this, then I am truly wronged!"
You Zi'ang kept begging for mercy, and by the end, his face was full of grievance.
Li Miao heard this and originally planned to capture this person and take him back to Wang Hai for interrogation.
However, he saw You Zi'ang lowering his head, and a trace of a mark was revealed on the back of his neck, which had been covered by his clothing.
Li Miao's pupils constricted slightly. He stepped forward and pulled down the back collar of You Zi'ang's clothing.
On the back of his neck, there was clearly a blurred, plum blossom-shaped birthmark!
"Se-Senior?"
You Zi'ang was suddenly pulled by his clothes and shivered, thinking that he often moved among high-ranking families and always heard that important figures often had 'dragon-yang preferences' (homosexuality). Had he actually encountered it today?!
What a hardship! If he had known this, he would rather starve to death than come to this Wu Mansion to steal money!
Li Miao carefully examined the birthmark, then grabbed You Zi'ang's hand and pressed his pulse point.
"Bone structure... only in his twenties. When I saw the Plum Blossom Bandit fifteen years ago, he was already in his twenties, so the age doesn't match."
"Cultivation method..."
"This is...?"
Li Miao released You Zi'ang's hand and laughed.
"Interesting, truly interesting!"
"Back then, I only thought he was an insignificant hoodlum, but I never expected him to be a great talent with an idea!"
He channeled his true qi into You Zi'ang's body, tracing the Plum Blossom Bandit's internal energy circulation path.
This internal energy was quite good, barely qualifying as profound.
But the truly noteworthy aspect of this internal energy was that when the true qi circulated to the 'Fengfu', 'Yamen', and 'Dazhui' acupoints at the back of the head, it deliberately made a turn, causing the true qi to stagnate and not disperse.
While it wouldn't cause any harm to the practitioner, over time, it would leave blood stasis under the skin.
And this blood stasis would precisely leave a plum blossom pattern on the back of the neck!
Because the name of the Plum Blossom Bandit came precisely from the plum blossom-shaped birthmark on the back of his neck.
In other words, everyone who practiced the Plum Blossom Bandit's internal energy would automatically become the inheritor of the 'Plum Blossom Bandit' title!
The mundane world is like a tide, people are like water; new generations replace the old.
The Jianghu passes down from generation to generation; there will always be people who become great heroes whose names fill the heavens, and there will always be people who become demonic figures whose evil names spread throughout the Jianghu.
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But no matter how astonishingly talented you are, how righteous, or how many evil deeds you commit that make the entire Jianghu tremble with fear. As long as you die, you will be completely forgotten within twenty or thirty years.
The Jianghu is like this; people are just grains of sand within it, occasionally leaving a trace, which quickly dissipates with the end of life.
But this Plum Blossom Bandit chose another path.
Li Miao's true qi flowed along the internal energy circulation path within You Zi'ang's body, as if he could hear that soft-faced young man speaking.
"My bone structure is poor; I cannot become a top master, nor can I make a grand name for myself in this Jianghu."
"I am clearly astonishingly talented, with extraordinary comprehension. Yet, limited by my bone structure, I am forced to be called alongside mediocre people, living a mundane life and dying silently."
"Perhaps only a few people in this Jianghu will even know that I existed."
"I am not reconciled."
"I am not reconciled..."
"I am not reconciled!"
"My body is but a pile of flesh and blood; my face, after I die, will be but food for mosquitoes and flies; my name is unknown to anyone."
"This is not important."
"I want everyone, I want this Jianghu, to forever remember my name from now on."
"Plum Blossom Bandit!"
Li Miao understood why the Plum Blossom Bandit, when pursued by the Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards), deliberately committed crimes and didn't conceal his most important feature, thus establishing the name 'Plum Blossom Bandit'.
He did it on purpose.
He wanted everyone to remember that plum blossom pattern, and then distribute the unique internal energy he created.
This way, even if he died, everyone who practiced his internal energy in the future would inherit his characteristic and become his substitute. As long as they made a name for themselves in the Jianghu and were seen with the mark on the back of their neck, it would remind people of the 'Plum Blossom Bandit'.
This was his calculation, his plan to leave a mark in this Jianghu.
Another form of 'eternal life'.