"Ha, hi!" On a riverbank outside the town, Fan Yi was practicing the eighteen basic sword forms of the Twenty-One Forms of the Divine Sword, which he had pestered old Li into giving him.
With his cultivation at the Ninth Heaven of Dark Force, he could easily wield the iron sword, making him look like a youthful swordsman in the eyes of an outsider!
Yet had old Li and the others been here, they would surely have mocked Fan Yi for using a sword like a club, completely lacking even the basics of swordsmanship.
Silver light flashed, and the low sound of the long sword cutting through the air could faintly be heard—all thanks to Fan Yi's cultivation of Dark Force.
"Hoo!" Fan Yi returned the long sword to its scabbard and let out a long breath, transitioning from movement to stillness with remarkable speed and naturalness.
"I don't know you!" A childish voice drifted over from a nearby grove.
Fan Yi frowned, put away his sword, and flew over.
"You little beast, don't you dare scream!" A scrawny man with triangular eyes, disguised as a farm woman, was clamping his hand tightly over a boy's mouth.
The man with triangular eyes looked utterly desperate.
He wasn't cut out for this kind of work in the first place, but the boss didn't want too many people knowing his secrets.
Kidnapping children from wealthy families would lead those families to hold onto false hope while waiting to pay a ransom.
Yet if they snatched peasant children who couldn't be squeezed for a single drop of grease, those rich folks would realize the kidnappers weren't after money.
That would make certain tasks much harder to handle.
Many in the gang assumed this was just an ordinary ransom extortion.
However, the man with triangular eyes knew that these children, every single one of them, weren't meant to live!
And this was the sort of dirty work the child-trafficking specialists in the gang wanted nothing to do with.
What a troublesome brat!
The man with triangular eyes let out a sharp cry of pain as the boy bit down fiercely on the webbing between his thumb and forefinger.
"I'll knock you out and drag you back!"
The man raised his palm, preparing to smash it mercilessly against the boy's neck.
"Brute!" Accompanied by a fierce roar, a sharp sword flashed through the air and neatly severed the man's right hand.
The man froze, and a wave of agonizing pain hit him a split second later.
Taking advantage of the man collapsing to his knees, Fan Yi scooped the boy up into his arms.
"Close your eyes."
Fan Yi gently covered the boy's eyes with his small hand, then sighed.
"I originally wanted to tag along and have a look around your thief's den, but I never expected a scumbag like you to try and kill the kid right now."
If the force of that palm had landed,
the boy in his arms would have been done for.
"... "
Without a word, the man with triangular eyes endured the excruciating pain, drew a dagger, and lunged forward.
Fan Yi moved even faster, flicking his wrist to strike the man's arm with the flat of his blade.
Under the power of the Ninth Heaven of Dark Force, the man's remaining hand went limp like wet noodles.
"Take me to..."
Before Fan Yi could finish, the man bit down on his poison capsule, foaming at the mouth.
Fan Yi had no choice but to stop.
"Great Hero, please take me as your disciple!" The moment Fan Yi stopped, the boy blinked his big eyes and rushed over.
Fan Yi squinted, smiled warmly, and rubbed his smooth chin. "What did you say?"
"Teach me kung fu!" The boy's face was flushed, his clear, watery eyes staring intently at Fan Yi.
"No, no, no, the first two words you said."
"Great Hero!" The boy blinked in surprise, then hurriedly called out, "Great Hero, teach me!"
Fan Yi coughed, feeling quite pleased with himself, and asked, "What's your name?"
The boy's eyes lit up, almost blinding Fan Yi with their brilliance. "My name is Gu San. Great Hero, are you going to take me as your disciple?"
"No." Fan Yi coolly twirled his long sword and turned to walk away. Are you kidding me? Back then, he had sacrificed his dignity as an adult just to find a master!
He had thrown tantrums and rolled around on the ground—that was the only way he managed to learn Tongbei Fist and the Twenty-One Forms of the Divine Sword.
You ask to become my disciple in the same breath, and I'm just supposed to teach you? On what grounds? Because of your innocent little puppy-dog eyes? Wouldn't I lose all my face?
"Huh?" Gu San blinked his watery eyes in bewilderment, vaguely sensing that this master might be a bit strange. But after a moment's thought, holding onto his dream of becoming a hero, Gu San decided to come back tomorrow and show Fan Yi his sincerity!
"Can you not tell my mother about this?"
"Hmm?"
"I'm afraid she'll worry."
"Deal!"
"A promise between men!"
"Alright!"
In the morning light, two figures—one tall, one small—made their way one after the other toward the town. The morning air was filled with the fresh scent of earth and flowers.
Flowing upstream along the babbling brook was Carp Mountain. Legend had it that a river carp once swam upstream against the current, attained enlightenment and destiny within the mountain, and finally transformed into a white dragon right in front of Bailong Town, ascending to the heavens in broad daylight—which was how Bailong Town got its name.
Whether there really were opportunities for immortality hidden in the mountains was unclear to outsiders, but a gang of desperate outlaws had most certainly moved in recently.
Deep inside a cave on Carp Mountain, a heavily built brute with a vertical eye tattooed on his forehead, a shiny bald head, a fierce-looking face, and a height of nearly one meter eighty-nine was carefully using a torch held by a henchman to compare a map while carving something into the ground.
The henchman standing beside him stood completely motionless, his face as blank as a wooden carving, entirely devoid of life.
After a long while, the sound of footsteps echoed from outside. Only then did the burly man put away the map and snap his fingers, whereupon the henchman immediately dropped off into a drowsy sleep.
The man reached out, grabbed the torch, and shouted, "Back from hunting? Dammit, you little bastards, if you bring back a few more meatless hedgehogs or weasels, I'll skin you alive."
As he spoke, he pulled on a cap to cover his shiny bald head and the "vertical eye" on his forehead, tossed the henchman casually into another cave, and strode out while cursing under his breath.
Faint sounds of children crying drifted from within the cave.
"How could that be, Boss!" A sharp-faced man with buckteeth chuckled slyly. "Yesterday was just a slip-up. Today we caught some fat rabbits and a deer."
Only then did the bandit leader break into a wide grin.
"Big Brother, when are we going to demand the ransom from those wealthy families?" Big Bucktooth asked the bandit leader while he and the other henchmen set to work dressing the venison.
"What's the rush? Let's grab another one in a couple of days and demand it all at once." The bandit leader waved a hand, picked up a heavy chopper from the side, and brought it down fiercely on a nearby tree trunk, snapping it clean in two.
"Wow, Big Brother's chopper technique is truly amazing!"
"No kidding! No matter how many times I see it, it looks incredible. Could that be what people call Mingjin?"
"Very likely."
"..."
Seeing the envious looks of his gang, the leader's vanity was immensely satisfied, and he chopped up a few more logs just for firewood.
Only Big Bucktooth, standing to the side, flashed a trace of lingering resentment in his eyes.
"Xiao Er, serve the food!" Fan Yi sat contentedly in the inn's main hall, waiting for breakfast.
Life with financial freedom was simply wonderful! Other predecessors had to bust their guts making soap and boiling glass while constantly guarding against officials trying to muscle in.
And himself? Well, alright, he had also spent four years living like a semi-primitive man before finally achieving financial freedom, suffering every bit as much as they did!
Thinking of this, Fan Yi even felt a tiny twinge of grievance, so he decided to order a few more fine dishes to reward himself. *I've had it so hard.*
"Sigh, this whole thing has blown up. Every prominent, well-known family in town has lost a child."
"Those goddamned child snatchers! How could anyone lay hands on children that small?"
"Child snatchers?" The inn's server curled his lip in disdain.
"Oh? What's this? Do you have some brilliant insight?" Fan Yi, who was busy mentally hacking up nameless child traffickers with his sword, caught the server's cold snort.
"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare." The server waved his hands dismissively, then leaned in with a mysterious look. "Young Master, you might not know this, but every single child taken belongs to a wealthy family. Those damned child snatchers don't have the guts to pull that off."
Fan Yi had been splashing his money around so generously that the server already viewed him as a major patron.
"You mean it's a kidnapping for ransom?" Fan Yi frowned.
"Eight-to-ten chance. But the strange thing is, none of these wealthy families have received any ransom demands."
"Now that *is* peculiar." Fan Yi casually fished out a handful of copper coins and tossed them to the server.
The server happily scurried off to tend to the next table.