Chapter Thirty-Seven: Next Time I'll Come Myself

  Chui Lue Shang had never been so scared, and he had never been so shocked. This sudden change left him completely stunned, although he was also a cultivator who had reached the second rank two years ago. But when Li Yuan was choked by the red-dressed woman and pressed to the ground, he didn't react at all. Until the woman poured roasted meat from the plate into Li Yuan's mouth, he still didn't react at all.

  He subconsciously took a glance at Fang Jie and then looked at Liu Yinan and others.

  "What's this... for?"

  He asked Fang Jie for an explanation.

  Fang Jie cursed a sentence of idiot, jumped over and squatted beside Li Yuan. Li Yuan's mouth was pinched by Mu Xiao Yao, his mouth was stuffed with roasted meat. His body and limbs struggled desperately, his body twisted more and more. But under Mu Xiao Yao's hands, his head couldn't move at all.

  This was the first time in his life he had ever been so scared.

  Afraid of dying here without knowing what happened.

  "Please...please you..."

  With great difficulty, he managed to utter a few words, but as soon as he spoke, the lump of meat in his mouth slipped into his throat. One piece was particularly large and got stuck, making it hard for him to breathe, and his face turned from red to pale with fright.

  Fang Jie couldn't bear to see him suffer, so he pressed down on his throat and coaxed him gently. As Li Yuan's Adam's apple moved a few times, the meat that was stuck in his throat was finally swallowed. Fang Jie didn't stop there; instead, he picked up a pair of chopsticks and began feeding Li Yuan pieces of roasted meat that had fallen to the ground, one by one.

  Liu Yinan and others were frightened, and when they reacted and wanted to run away, they suddenly found that the ugly man with a bruised eye socket and mouth corner, wearing a pair of steel-studded gloves, was staring at them with a sneer. Liu Yinan was called a devil by children and women in Xiangcheng, but tonight under the dusk mountain he finally knew what a devil looked like.

  The big dog smiled and suddenly charged forward, instantly knocking the two people who only knew how to be romantic gentlemen to the ground. Those two didn't even have time to shout before they passed out. One punch each, both landed on their temples. These two heavy blows were something ordinary people couldn't withstand, to be honest, Liu Yinan couldn't tell if they had fainted or died.

  But he knew if he didn't escape now, he would be the next one to get knocked down.

  Then he escaped.

  But in the world of thieves, there are really not many who can outrun Daquan. This world is too big, and it's certain that someone has better agility than Daquan, but Liu Yi definitely can't.

  He had just run out one step, when he was caught up from behind by the big dog and kicked in the buttocks. The evil tyrant who made trouble for many good girls and young women in Xiangcheng, flew forward like a cannonball, more than five meters away, before falling to the ground with a thud.

  As he struggled to escape with the intense pain in his chest, the large dog had already stepped on his back.

  "Wait..."

  He turned his head laboriously and begged the big dog: "Don't kill me... My father is the second master of Xiangcheng Liu's house, as long as you promise not to kill me, I guarantee that you will have a prosperous and wealthy life in the second half of your life. Whatever you want, you'll have it... I'm the only son of my family, please spare my life, good man!"

  "Mr. Liu..."

  Fang Jie stuffed the last piece of meat into Li Yuan's mouth and chuckled, saying: "I'm not afraid of someone with the surname Li, let alone you with the surname Liu."

  The implication of this sentence can only be understood by Fang himself, with a bit of malice.

  Until this time, Chui was still unclear about what had happened: "Brother Shang... Li Gongzi is not willing to eat first, you don't have to use force to compel him, do you? ...This is not good... How can you be so rough? Being rough is a breach of etiquette. The sages once said that a gentleman uses his mouth but not his hands..."

  "Shut up!"

  Fang Jie turned his head and glared at him, pointing to Liu Yining and saying: "You go ask them yourself what they discussed in the dense forest. They all want to kill you, but you're still here, stupidly unaware of everything. You, surnamed Liu, come tell him what you all said in the dense forest!"

  "It's none of my business...... It really is none of my business!"

  Liu Yi was so scared that he burst into tears, with snot running down his upper lip. But before the snot came out, his pants were already soaked through.

  "It was all Li Yuan's idea, he's the one who did evil, it really has nothing to do with us... great hero... don't kill me, okay? And if you kill me, you'll definitely not be able to leave Longxi County. It was Li Yuan who told me to poison Cui Lüe's merchant, it really wasn't my idea!"

  "For... why?"

  Chui Lue's eyes widened in shock, and his face turned pale: "Why did you want to poison me?"

  Liu Yinan hastily said: "It's Li Yuan... He was jealous that you participated in the Martial Arts Academy exam this year! So he instructed me to put poison in your food, wanting to kill you and then frame the Shang brothers."

  Chui's lips twitched and he trembled as he walked up to Liu Yining, looking at him with a sorrowful tone and asked: "Just because of an entrance exam quota for the Martial Arts Academy, you're actually ruthless enough to kill your friends?"

  "Damn it!"

  "Are you still thinking they consider you a friend?"

  This sentence thoroughly ignited Cui's anger, and this kind-hearted but slightly foolish man kicked Liu Yinan's chin with a furious kick. The kick was so powerful that it kicked Liu Yinan's body out again. He quickly chased after him, grabbed the front of Liu Yinan's collar and lifted him up.

  "We've been classmates for many years, and friends for many years, how can you be so heartless?!"

  "It's you who is stupid."

  Fang explained for a moment, then looked at Li Yuan with a puzzled expression: "Why haven't you died yet?"

  The big dog suddenly thought of something, turned his head and looked at Fang Jie, asking: "After boiling the water, is the toxicity eliminated? Or is the toxicity reduced, so that it can't directly kill people?"

  "Really?"

  Fang Jie hesitated for a moment, got up and walked to the distance to carry over that iron pot. He looked at the pot and saw that there was still more than half of the water left. He walked back and said to Xiao Yao: "Hold him and pour all the water in, then you'll know if the poison has been eliminated."

  Li Yuan let out a mournful cry and was so frightened that she fainted.

  Dozens of meters away, the old cripple with a red sleeve sat on a large stone watching the commotion over at Fang Jie's place, furrowed his brow and muttered "nonsense" under his breath before standing up to leave. He had only taken two steps when he suddenly stopped, turned around and shouted loudly in the direction of Fang Jie's place: "If you're going to kill him, do it quickly! It's so late at night, letting him yell and scream like that will scare the people camping outside to death! Don't you have any sense of decency?"

  ……

  ……

  Red Sleeve Inviting Campsite

  The old cripple sat down in front of the carriage, raised that huge wine gourd and took a swig. Before he could swallow it, he heard Xi Huamei softly ask from inside the carriage: "Luo Ye, what's going on?"

  "It's nothing big, just that the three of them are murderers. The dregs of Xiangcheng, although they come from a good family, it's not like they're anything special. They're relatively clean-handed, but it's hard to investigate clearly."

  "That's good."

  "As long as this doesn't delay our journey... keep an eye on them, in case they leave some trouble behind due to their own foolishness. We can't get dragged into it too. There's still a long way to Chang'an, and we've only just left Shandong Road, yet they're already causing trouble. Who knows what kind of chaos they'll stir up when we reach the capital."

  "That kid is not stupid."

  The old cripple smiled, closed his eyes and leaned against the outside of the carriage: "It's late at night, let everyone rest early. Tomorrow morning we still have to hurry on our journey, just let those three take care of themselves. In this wilderness, a few people less, it won't be noticed for three or five days. By the time they find out that those guys are gone, the people in Xiangcheng will have investigated and we'll already be hundreds of miles away."

  "Alright, Master Lu, you should get some rest too. Go sleep in the tent, it's windy at night... no need for you to keep watch here."

  "It's nothing"

  The old cripple said in a low voice: "It's stuffy inside the tent, better outside."

  He no longer spoke, closing his eyes.

  Why suddenly want to kill people?

  The old cripple asked himself, but was destined to get no answer.

  A few miles away, Fang Jie wiped the sweat from his forehead and casually threw the iron pot aside. He couldn't help but sigh and say: "I'm not suspicious that the boiling water has lost its toxicity, but rather that this stupid cunt's medicine is fake! Dammit, even if I poured in half a pot of water to force it down, it would have killed him by now... but he still hasn't been poisoned... I'm exhausted."

  He sat down on the ground and panted heavily.

  "Aren't you unwilling to kill people?"

  Mei Xiao Yao looked at him with a puzzled expression and asked a sentence.

  "Killing evil people is also doing good."

  Fang Jie said with a smile.

  "Those were the words of the Buddha's sect."

  "Fang Jie said with a sigh, "It's not that it doesn't matter who says it, but there is still reason to it. And... after what happened with Pan Guo, I suddenly realized that just because you have good intentions in your heart, it doesn't mean others won't harbor murderous intentions towards you. If I hadn't coincidentally seen this scoundrel discussing the assassination of Cui Lüe in the woods, I wouldn't have known about this despicable affair of classmates turning against each other."

  He also wanted to say something else, but didn't say it out loud.

  If it weren't for Fan Geng's narrow escape from death, he wouldn't have started doubting the emotions between people.

  He and Li Xiaozong can be said to have a deep affection for each other, and in the past three years, they have indeed developed feelings. However, when Li Xiaozong thought of killing him for his own benefit, he would not have hesitated at all.

  "I still don't want to kill people now."

  Fang Jie restored his calm and looked at Mu Xiaoyao, saying in a low voice: "That's why I'm meddling in this trivial matter... In Fan Gu, there's no one I want to kill, and I couldn't bring myself to do it. But since I've come to understand some principles, I have to adapt to certain things that must be adapted to. When I first went on a mission, I would always shoot cold arrows from the shadows to take down those most brutal horse bandits. However, I didn't want to harm their lives, and would always show them mercy by shooting at their hands and feet."

  He paused for a moment, smiled self-deprecatingly: "But they still died. As long as they were injured and fell off their horses, Li Gan would naturally kill them, cut off their heads, and bring them back to Fan Guo in exchange for military merit. I've been comforting myself by saying that it wasn't me who killed them, but rather Li Gan who did. But this is just deceiving myself, after all... they still lost their lives because of me... Li Xiang said I'm the best scout among Fan Guo's 800 border troops... what he said was true."

  "I can always find the lair of those horse thieves and then our troops will move out to wipe them out completely."

  "My hands are clean of blood, but all the debts of blood are on me."

  He slowly stood up and looked at Miao Xiao with a serious expression: "Since we will eventually have to kill people, it's better to practice before we actually have to."

  Killing a few people when it's not necessary is preparation for when it will be necessary?

  Mei Xiao Yao was taken aback for a moment, and suddenly found that Fang Jie standing in front of her now seemed somewhat unfamiliar.

  "Is it just because you wanted to kill someone that tonight's events occurred?"

  She couldn't help but ask.

  Fang Jie nodded and smiled: "I want to try."

  ……

  ……

  Choi didn't stop Fang Jie from killing, his mind wasn't that deep but that doesn't mean he's a fool. Today's events have already occurred, even if he spares Li Yuan and the others, will they spare him? Li Yuan and Liu Yinan will eventually try to silence him about today's events.

  He had hit enough, was tired from hitting, and then fell to the ground, unable to hold back his loud sobs. A big man like him had actually cried until he became a tearful person. And next to him, Liu Yinan had already been beaten beyond recognition, but still hadn't died. Such external injuries, no matter how severe, as long as they didn't damage the internal organs, could still be recovered from with rest.

  Just as he was crying hoarse, Fang Jie walked up to him with a calm pace.

  "Have you ever killed anyone?"

  Square root of question mark.

  Chui Lue Shang's crying suddenly stopped, and he shook his head with a hint of grievance after trembling for a few moments.

  Fang handed him a short knife and pointed to the dying Liu Yinan, saying: "I've never killed anyone before, I want to try tonight. If you can't do it, wait for me to kill that Li guy first and then come back to help you."

  He stood up and walked in front of Li Yuan.

  Li Yuan's body trembled, his face had long since turned pale with fear. His four limbs were all pinched off by Mu Xiao Yao, and his cultivation of three products could not be exerted at all. Looking at Fang Jie walking in front of him, he begged with a terrified gaze: "Don't kill me... please! Just now... just now I heard you mention Fan Gong Li Xiangzong, that's my fifth uncle, it's my fifth uncle... I'm from the same family as him!"

  "I know."

  Fang Jie crouched down beside him, looked at the knife in his hand and slightly furrowed his brow, then stabbed the knife into Li Yuan's neck. Blood gushed out instantly like a waterfall, splashing all over Fang Jie's body and face.

  "So I wanted to kill you."

  He wiped away the blood from his eyes, looked at Mu Xiao and said seriously after a moment of silence: "It doesn't feel quite right, next time I kill someone, I should do it myself, no need for you to disable their hands and feet."