Chapter 13: Chapter 13

Liu Rouwei was stunned.

A person? And someone who was barely alive?

She did not believe that Pockmarked He and his companions would carry someone into the city out of kindness. They were not nearly so benevolent.

Seeing the disbelief mixed with shock on Liu Rouwei’s face, Zhao Jiu had no desire to explain. She probably would not understand even if he did. He could hardly tell her that it was simply intuition. Experience was like that—once someone understood it, it no longer seemed difficult.

“I am going outside to deal with the bodies. Open the sack and see for yourself if you do not believe me.”

Zhao Jiu spread his hands. Without waiting for her response, he dragged the corpses of Pockmarked He and Old Fourth Li out of the ruined temple.

He dragged all three bodies into the woods beside the temple, took a shovel from his Storage Space, and began digging shovelful by shovelful.

In less than fifteen minutes, he had dug a pit large enough to hold all three corpses.

Whistling beneath the pouring rain, Zhao Jiu tossed the bodies into the pit, filled it with the excavated soil, and tamped it down firmly with the shovel. Once the rain stopped, no trace of the burial would remain.

By the time he had finished and returned to the ruined temple, Liu Rouwei had already dressed. She stood leaning against the doorframe, while the opened sack lay a short distance behind her.

“What is wrong, Miss Liu? Was it really pork after all?” Zhao Jiu teased.

“N-No… It is a person… But she is in such a terrible state…” Liu Rouwei stammered, looking deeply shaken.

“Let me see.”

Zhao Jiu entered the temple and dragged the sack closer to the fire for better light. Liu Rouwei followed closely behind him the entire time.

When he looked down, he saw that there truly was a person inside—a woman.

The left side of her face had been split open, and her left eye socket was completely empty. Numerous cuts surrounded the socket. Her nose had been sliced off, along with one of her ears.

Her entire body was as limp as a heap of mud. Fragments of bone protruded from her skin in several places. One glance was enough to tell that scarcely a bone in her body remained intact.

The woman’s mouth opened and closed, yet she could not make a single sound.

Even Zhao Jiu, who was accustomed to seeing corpses, found the sight unbearably cruel.

What hatred could possibly drive someone to do this?

She had been left unable to live, yet unable to die.

“Why… Why is she like this?” Liu Rouwei clutched the hem of Zhao Jiu’s robe and turned her head away, no longer daring to look.

“Her throat, nose, and ear were cut apart. Her eye was carved out one slice at a time while she was still alive. A blade was pushed into her mouth and used to mince her tongue. It was thoroughly destroyed and cannot be restored.”

Zhao Jiu paused before continuing.

“At least half the bones in her body are broken. Her hands and feet, in particular, were almost completely shattered. She cannot be saved. Try to accept it.”

Tears glistened in Liu Rouwei’s eyes. Her expression held equal measures of sympathy and lingering fear.

She could not help imagining what might have happened if she had fallen into the hands of Pockmarked He and his companions. Her fate probably would not have been much better than that of the woman in the sack.

The thought sent a chill down her spine.

“Could we… help her somehow?” Liu Rouwei asked hesitantly.

Zhao Jiu fell silent.

He was not a Divine Physician. Even in the twenty-first century, injuries of this severity would have required treatment at Peking Union Medical College Hospital. What could he possibly do?

He could release Internal Qi outside his body, but only a Third Rank martial artist could accomplish that. Zhao Jiu was merely at the Fourth Rank and was powerless to help.

Even if he somehow forced his way into the Third Rank, he would still be willing but incapable.

Regenerating severed limbs and restoring flesh to dead bones were the methods of immortals. A martial artist probably could not accomplish such feats.

At the very least, Zhao Jiu could not.

“Reversing life and death is a power that belongs only to immortals,” Zhao Jiu said tactfully.

“How about I free her from her suffering instead? I will not charge you for that.”

“I told you to save her!” Liu Rouwei exclaimed emotionally.

Zhao Jiu shrugged helplessly and said nothing more.

The woman was overwhelmed by emotion. Not even an immortal could reason with her at that moment, much less Zhao Jiu.

As for saving the injured woman, he simply did not have the ability. What else could he do?

Seeing that Zhao Jiu remained unmoved, Liu Rouwei had no choice but to wipe away her tears in silence. Her fragile, sorrowful appearance was enough to stir anyone’s heart.

Even heroes could not overcome the trial of a beautiful woman, Zhao Jiu lamented inwardly.

Although he was no hero, Liu Rouwei was certainly a beauty.

Who could endure the sight of a beautiful woman lowering her head, covering her mouth, and struggling to hold back her tears?

“Hmm… How about this? You pay me, and I will wipe out Pockmarked He’s entire family. What do you think? That should count as helping her in another way,” Zhao Jiu said helplessly.

Before Liu Rouwei could answer, the woman inside the sack nodded several times. A few tears trickled from her sole remaining eye.

Whether they came from bitterness or pain, no one could tell.

How could Liu Rouwei remain unmoved by such a sight? The tears she had finally managed to stop began flowing again.

“Name your price. Wipe out the entire family if that is what it takes. Can those people even be called human? What difference is there between them and beasts? They are worse than wild animals!”

Zhao Jiu immediately beamed at her reaction.

That was more like it.

He might not be able to save someone, but surely he could still kill someone.

For professional work, one should always hire a professional.

Should you require the punishment of evil, the promotion of justice, the preservation of social harmony, or the stabilization of emotions between fellow human beings, please visit the Ghost Market and ask for Master Zhao!

“By custom, I charge two hundred taels per person. However, exterminating an entire family is a major undertaking. Let us each make a concession. No matter how many people there are, the total will be one thousand taels, and the price is nonnegotiable. What do you think?”

Zhao Jiu took out his Abacus and solemnly flicked its beads as he spoke.

Liu Rouwei merely replied with a quiet, “Fine.”

No one knew what she was thinking.

Zhao Jiu did not care. In business, the greatest taboo was allowing personal feelings to become involved.

He looked at the woman in the sack, shook his head, and sighed.

Then he hurled a Throwing Knife.

It struck the woman squarely between the brows.

Her mouth opened slightly, and then she stopped moving.

“What a miserable life.”

Zhao Jiu pulled out the Throwing Knife as he spoke.

Liu Rouwei stood to one side, unable to watch from beginning to end.

Zhao Jiu could understand how she felt. She was the daughter of a wealthy family. How could she have witnessed so much suffering in the world?

The walls surrounding her home had been too high, shutting out the stench of the corpses beyond them.

Zhao Jiu walked over to Liu Rouwei and began feeling her face, particularly her nose and chin.

Liu Rouwei froze for a moment before raising her hand and smacking his away.

“How dare you!” she exclaimed angrily.

Although her voice was forceful, it still carried a trace of panic.

Should Zhao Jiu cross the line, there was little she could do to resist him. The man before her had just killed four people. Adding her to that number would make little difference.

At the thought, Liu Rouwei hurriedly retreated several steps. She crossed her arms and hugged her shoulders defensively.

Seeing the panic and anger in her eyes, Zhao Jiu understood what she was thinking and curled his lips.

“Miss Liu, I must escort you home, and I must also wipe out that family. I do not possess a Doppelgänger Technique. Would you rather I take you home first and then return to exterminate them?”

“The best solution is to make you a Human-Skin Mask and turn you into someone else. What is wrong? Do you not wish to see how these people die? You paid for it, after all.”

Zhao Jiu stroked his own face before continuing.

“How am I supposed to make a suitable Human-Skin Mask without understanding the shape of your face?”

Hearing his explanation, Liu Rouwei breathed a sigh of relief and agreed with a smile.

Zhao Jiu narrowed his eyes and studied her for a while before moving aside to make the Human-Skin Mask.

A beauty attracted attention, but an ugly person did as well.

Zhao Jiu’s goal was to transform Liu Rouwei into someone utterly ordinary.

Once the Human-Skin Mask was finished, he handed it to her, then raised his hand and pinched her nose once more.

“Go to sleep. Tomorrow night, when darkness falls, we exterminate the family!”