Chapter 5: Chapter 5

For three consecutive days, Zhao Jiu barely left the inn. He remained in his room, swallowing Essence-Nourishing Pills one after another.

The White Jade Flesh-Regeneration Pill had been remarkably effective. Before dawn on the night of his return, his injuries had already recovered by seventy or eighty percent.

A grave choice now lay before him.

He could force his way into the Fifth Rank, risk his life to kill Jiang Ruhai, and spend at least half a month recuperating from an unstable foundation afterward.

Alternatively, he could close the distance and gamble everything on a single strike—succeed or die trying.

The process itself was not difficult. Making the choice was.

Zhao Jiu valued his life, so he chose the former.

For three days, Essence-Nourishing Pills entered his stomach one after another. On the third night, he finally broke through to the Fifth Rank.

The instant he advanced, his meridians felt as though they had been set ablaze.Internal Qi surged wildly throughout his body, his veins bulged, and sweat poured from him like rain.

This was the consequence of forcibly breaking through. His meridians had yet to grow accustomed to such immense power, while hisInternal Qi surged like a raging river that cared nothing for whether its embankments were strong enough to contain it.

Everyone had a first time.

After regulating his breathing for half an hour, Zhao Jiu finally suppressed the rampagingInternal Qi.

Fortunately, the Grand Purity Jade Void Scripture was gentle and nourishing. Had his cultivation technique also been fierce and explosive, even if he had not immediately suffered Qi Deviation, he would not have been far from it.

“What a disastrous loss. I nearly killed myself this time. I was such a fool, truly. All I could see were those one thousand three hundred taels. I was such a fool, truly…”

Supporting himself against the edge of the bed, Zhao Jiu transformed into Xianglin’s Wife and repeated his lament.

Everything was ready; all he lacked was the east wind.

He had no choice but to proceed. The longer he delayed, the greater the chance that hisInternal Qi would backlash against him.

There was no plan.

He would gamble everything tonight. If he failed, he would hide for a month before considering anything else.

After preparing himself mentally, Zhao Jiu put on a human-skin mask and dressed in black night-raiding clothes. He then waited silently for the second watch.

CLACK—CLACK—

The drum marking the second watch sounded.

Zhao Jiu leaped from the window and made his way toward the rear courtyard of the Prefectural Yamen with practiced ease.

Just as he had three days earlier, he pressed one ear against the wall and activated the Tortoise Breathing Technique, silently sensing every movement inside the courtyard.

Risking one’s life was one thing. Charging in without using one’s head was merely stupidity.

Once the courtyard fell silent, Zhao Jiu scaled the wall in two steps and leaped inside.

Jiang Ruhai was still drinking tea.

When he saw the black-clad visitor, Jiang Ruhai smiled.

“Little brother, it is you again. Is my life truly worth so much money, or are those people in the imperial court really so afraid that I will uncover something?”

“Lord Jiang, to tell you the truth, I do not wish to kill you. Unfortunately, this is how I make my living.”

As soon as Zhao Jiu finished speaking, several hidden weapons flew from his hands.

Just as before, Jiang Ruhai waved his left hand, preventing the weapons from coming anywhere near him.

Zhao Jiu knew the hidden weapons were of little use, but he had no choice except to keep throwing them.

Several volleys of flying knives, golden needles, and iron pellets failed to tear even the corner of Jiang Ruhai’s robes. Instead, the courtyard ground looked as though someone had plowed it.

Perhaps Jiang Ruhai had finally grown tired of the spectacle. With a quiet shout, hisInternal Qi surged, and he charged toward Zhao Jiu.

“You have come after me time and again. Do you truly believe that I, Jiang, have no temper?”

Zhao Jiu did not answer.

He drew the Tang saber from his storage space and met Jiang Ruhai’s palm force with several consecutive slashes, forcing him to halt. Zhao Jiu then shifted the momentum of his saber and confronted Jiang Ruhai’s bare palms with fierce and domineering Saber Qi.

Jiang Ruhai was indeed an expert who had already stepped more than halfway into the Fourth Rank.

Although Zhao Jiu had entered the Fifth Rank, Jiang Ruhai still forced him backward without pause.

When he noticed Zhao Jiu’s saber momentum weakening, Jiang Ruhai abruptly slowed the rhythm of his palms before launching several strikes in quick succession.

Zhao Jiu could only raise his saber to block. He immediately became flustered, and the difference between their abilities was laid bare.

Jiang Ruhai naturally refused to let the opportunity pass.

Inner Qi surged through his left hand, knocking aside Zhao Jiu’s incoming Tang saber. The moment Zhao Jiu’s centerline was exposed, Jiang Ruhai shouted, “Monument Shattering!”

His right palm lashed across Zhao Jiu’s chest like a whip.

Zhao Jiu tasted something sweet in his throat. He staggered three steps backward, crashed into the courtyard wall, and spat out a mouthful of blood.

Using the momentum of his retreat, he hurriedly released several flying needles, temporarily halting Jiang Ruhai’s assault.

“Stubborn fool.”

Jiang Ruhai’sInternal Qi surged once more. He knocked the flying needles away, pushed off the ground, and thrust a palm toward Zhao Jiu.

Zhao Jiu secretly gathered hisInternal Qi and circulated Thousand Flowers, Myriad Blooms through his left hand. He stepped forward twice and exchanged a palm strike with Jiang Ruhai.

Thud! Thud!

Both men retreated two steps.

Jiang Ruhai regained his footing immediately after the second step. Zhao Jiu, however, slammed into the courtyard wall once again.

He propped himself up with his saber and spat out another mouthful of blood. Beads of blood were already emerging from his ears and nostrils. He clearly had no strength left to continue fighting.

At this point, Jiang Ruhai had lost all desire to continue. He clasped his hands behind his back and spoke calmly.

“Leave, little brother. Do not return again. Even after entering the Fifth Rank, you still cannot kill me.”

“Lord Jiang, do you truly believe I exhausted myself merely to receive a beating? I could not kill you at the Sixth Rank, but I never said I could not kill you at the Fifth Rank. In truth, from the moment our palms met, you were already a dead man. Cough, cough…”

Zhao Jiu wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and regarded him calmly.

Jiang Ruhai’s expression changed drastically.

He attempted to circulate hisInternal Qi, only to discover that it had become as heavy and motionless as liquid silver, congealing inside his meridians.

A deadly poison unlike anything he had ever encountered was spreading through his meridians toward his internal organs and every part of his body.

Jiang Ruhai hurriedly struck several major acupoints, attempting to stop the poison from spreading.

“It is useless, Lord Jiang. You should wait peacefully for death. Once Thousand Flowers, Myriad Blooms enters the body of someone at the same rank, death is inevitable.”

Zhao Jiu took out his abacus and reset the beads.

“Lord Jiang, preserving the corpse intact and leaving the face unblemished will cost fifty taels. A coffin will cost five taels. Sending you back to your hometown will cost forty taels, and the burial will cost another five. Those are all at cost price. I would charge anyone else at least ten taels more!”

“You are certainly interesting. You accepted money to kill me, yet you still intend to make another profit from my corpse.”

As Jiang Ruhai spoke, blood was already seeping from all seven of his orifices.

“Money cannot be taken into the grave. You might as well spend it on preserving some dignity for yourself.”

Jiang Ruhai did not respond.

He retreated several steps and sat on the stone steps beneath the pavilion. With a look of relief, he said, “Little brother, why not listen to my story?”

Without waiting for Zhao Jiu to answer, he continued.

“I was born in Jingzhou. My family had fallen on hard times. Before I was old enough to understand anything, my father had already joined the army. He died beyond the frontier while saving the late emperor. Remembering that my father had saved his life, the late emperor granted our family a hereditary appointment by imperial favor.”

“The ridiculous part was that the appointment never reached me, his only biological son.”

“My mother had been a sheltered young lady from a great household who had never performed a day of hard labor. To allow me to continue my studies, she personally worked the fields every day. At only thirty-two, she became gravely ill and could no longer rise from bed.”

“I still remember the night she died. I knelt outside the gates of my clan and begged them to save her, but they never even opened the doors.”

“Ha. When a man is poor, even dogs despise him!”

“Later, those clan elders were not even willing to admit my mother’s spirit tablet into the ancestral hall.”

After speaking, Jiang Ruhai threw back his head and laughed. His eyes seemed to reflect all the helplessness and poverty of those years.

He raised a hand to wipe away the blood flowing from the corner of his mouth, then continued murmuring.

“When I was sixteen, I borrowed money to study, yet all I received were contemptuous looks. Had my private-school teacher not taken pity on me because of my devotion to learning, I might have starved to death more than twenty years ago.”

“Over the following eight years, I passed one examination after another. At twenty-three, I passed the Metropolitan Examination. At twenty-six, I earned a Second-Class Jinshi degree and was appointed a Hanlin Academy Compiler.”

“When I became the Assistant Prefect of Bingzhou at the age of thirty, my teacher had already been dead for three years.”

“That is my greatest regret. I received his kindness, yet never had the opportunity to repay it!”

By this point, tears were streaming down Jiang Ruhai’s face.

“Later, the Yanyun Rebellion broke out. I submitted a memorial requesting permission to join the army.”

“Over the next eight years, I was promoted from Army Supervisor to Registrar, from Registrar to Commandant, and from Commandant to Deputy General. After that came General of Martial Strategy, General of Martial Resolve, General of Illustrious Might, and General of Proclaimed Might.”

“By the time the rebellion was suppressed, I had become a General of Expansive Might.”

“Before I had even reached forty, I was already a full Fourth-Rank official. One could say I had risen to the highest ranks a subject could hope to attain.”

“I still remember returning to my hometown. Those clan elders knelt outside my door and kowtowed like pestles pounding garlic.”

“Hahahaha!”

“I wonder whether my mother could see it from heaven. Her son truly became someone worthy of pride!”

Zhao Jiu swallowed a White Jade Flesh-Regeneration Pill without interrupting Jiang Ruhai’s increasingly disordered speech.

“When the Xuanfu Rebellion began, His Majesty recalled me by imperial decree. Before I left, I personally beheaded seven clan elders…”

“My mother deserved to be buried in the ancestral grave…”

“My father truly was useless. That cousin who stole the hereditary appointment meant for me was even more useless. He began at the Seventh Rank, yet after more than ten years, he had only crawled his way into a Fifth-Rank post as an Assistant Director in the Ministry of War.”

“After suppressing the Xuanfu Rebellion, I was promoted to General of Pacifying Trust and concurrently appointed Vice Minister of Personnel.”

“A full Third-Rank official.”

“That year, I submitted a vicious memorial accusing my clansman of corruption. That dog had squandered the reward bought with my father’s life.”

“To kill him, I used military merit that could have advanced me another step and struck a bargain with the emperor.”

“And I did not earn that merit by slaughtering innocent people and claiming their heads as enemy kills. Every fragment of it was something I fought for, step by step!”

“Hahahaha!”

“That bastard was somehow worth a Second-Rank appointment as Assistant Commander-in-Chief, together with the honorary title of Commandery Duke!”

“Hahahaha!”

“I do not regret being forced to stop at the Third Rank, nor do I regret dying far from home. Just as I never regretted abandoning the civil path for the military path all those years ago!”

When he finished, Jiang Ruhai threw two banknotes in front of Zhao Jiu.

“The location of my mother’s grave is written on them. There are four hundred taels. Help me sweep her grave, burn some paper offerings, and light several sticks of incense.”

“There is no need to send these ruined remains back to Jingzhou. I already purchased a coffin and a burial plot in the capital.”

“Little brother, you and I are both pawns on someone else’s board.”

“‘A gentleman changes like a leopard; his markings become resplendent.’ But if a great python undergoes such a resplendent transformation, it becomes a flood dragon.”

“Go. Leave this place.”

“Remember to visit my mother’s grave. Tell her that her son, Jiang Ruhai, died on the battlefield just like his father.”

“Do not let my mother be unhappy.”

Jiang Ruhai spat out several more mouthfuls of blood. Blood now flowed continuously from all seven of his orifices.

He slowly raised his head and gazed at the falling threads of rain.

Jiang Ruhai seemed to return to the bitter years of study thirty years earlier. He murmured repeatedly in a fading voice.

“I miss my mother…”

His voice grew quieter and quieter until it disappeared entirely.

Zhao Jiu sighed.

“Another pitiful man.”

He picked up the banknotes from the ground. They were indeed two notes worth two hundred taels each.

Ignoring Jiang Ruhai’s corpse, which had died bleeding from all seven orifices, Zhao Jiu activated Chasing Stars and Moon. He floated over the courtyard wall and vanished into the darkness.

Not long after Zhao Jiu departed, an old man and a burly man leaped into the courtyard.

Had Zhao Jiu still been present, he would have immediately recognized the burly man as his employer.

“Lord Chen, those two thousand taels were well spent. Jiang Ruhai died in Jianzhou. Everyone can rejoice.”

The old man smiled as he addressed the burly man.

“Indeed, Eunuch He. His Majesty can rest assured, the palace can rest assured, the Grand Secretariat can rest assured, and the local officials can rest assured. Everyone can rejoice.”

Lord Chen echoed him with a fawning smile.

“The Wu family’s young grandson was probably killed by that boy as well. Leak word that he is in Jianzhou.”

“I cannot act personally. Pay close attention to the matter of silencing him.”

“It is also time for you to rise a little higher.”

“Thank you for your appreciation, Eunuch He.”

Lord Chen’s face lit up with excitement.

“Go.”

Eunuch He remained utterly impassive.

The two men leaped from the rear courtyard and disappeared into the darkness.