“Good good good!” Lord Feng said, “I won’t kill you today, I’ll break the muscles and tendons on your hands and feet, then take you back to the Eagle Wolf prison so you can properly simmer there!”

Eagle Wolf prison!

Even hall master Wu who’d come together with lord Feng trembled from head to toes when he heard those three words. The Eagle Wolf prison was a great prison the Eagle Wolf Guard had established themselves. The major criminals they apprehended were tossed inside. It had specially a.s.signed torturers who carried the duty of extorting confessions by force. Rumors said that no one so far had been able to resist ten tortures out of the hundred and eight tortures. Even tough fellows from the martial world were squeezed into mud until they knelt on the ground, calling their tormentors grandfather and begging for a quick death.

Li Qingshan’s hand touched the [Cursive Sword Script] behind his back, already prepared to abscond like the wind. Things had happened too abruptly. With this lord Feng’s egotistical arrogance, it would be no use even if he ate the spirit ginseng now.

He might have an opportunity to kill this man first thing with the roll of [The Calligraphy and the Sword1] on his back. He’d already seen several spiritual devices now, and none of them could compare to the one in his hands. But he had no absolute confidence. Since even first-grade masters had their own trump cards, then what kind of trump card an innate master would conceal, an innate master from a great organization to boot!

“Legalist Statecraft2 – Sanction Wind Blade!”

Lord Feng’s aura changed entirely as he lifted his blade to the apex. The light of his blade solidified into a three feet long wind blade.

The so-called sanction was also known as a killing sentence, that is, a death penalty.

The blade hadn’t moved yet that a harsh and imposing atmosphere surpa.s.sing ordinary martial arts was already brutally pounding Li Qingshan’s consciousness. He felt as if he’d committed crimes worthy of death and had come to the end of his road as he knelt on the stage, his eyes closed as he waited for death, waited for the wave of the executioner’s blade to kill him, entirely unable to summon any will to resist.

An ordinary first-grade master would have their martial arts greatly diminished even if they didn’t forfeit their entire will, hard-pressed to escape from death. But what kind of temperament did Li Qingshan have. Red light exploded in his eyes, and his demonic and murderous nature cleanly drove off this influence at once.

“Tiger Demon Wild Hiss!” The true qi in his entire body gushed wildly, followed by an explosive shout. The wine jars in the restaurant exploded at the same time.

The two men’s aura reached their pinnacle in the s.p.a.ce of an instant. When they were about to clash together with blade and staff until only one was left alive, two beams of red light pierced forth, sending the Mad Demon Staff and the wind-st.i.tching blade flying off at the same time.

Lord Feng said with shock and anger: “Who is it?!”

Li Qingshan didn’t say anything. He was likewise shocked. He was even more speechless when his vision fell on the things that had sent their weapons flying out. It wasn’t a divine sharp weapon but peanuts. They looked like the most ordinary of peanuts. Moreover, they still maintained their original shape intact even after colliding with the long blade and the monk staff.

“You, you’re called Feng Zhang right? If you spent the time bullying kids on training instead, you wouldn’t be stuck at the second level of qi refining still.”

The voice drifted along, transmitting from every direction. There was absolutely no way to ascertain the whereabouts of the speaker. Li Qingshan suddenly lifted his head and looked toward the restaurant’s crossbeams. His eyes had captured a shred of spiritual light.

“Come the h.e.l.l down!” Feng Zhang followed the direction of Li Qingshan’s gaze as he drew out a daoist talisman3 from within his sleeve and shot it toward the crossbeams.

The daoist talisman broke in the air and transformed into a ball of fire, its power even fiercer.

Li Qingshan could sense the astounding heat even standing there on the floor. There was no need to wonder about the outcome of being frontally hit by this fireball. So those were the means of an innate master. They had no need to awkwardly bite their own tongue like Xiong Xiangwu and could arouse the talisman’s energy directly with their true qi. And looking at Feng Zhang’s casual att.i.tude, the talismans in his possession weren’t limited to the present one.

A shadow leaped down from the crossbeams. He stretched out his hand and grabbed the fireball before landing on the floor, then casually extinguished the fireball with a squeeze.

It seemed he had merely done an insignificant thing as he looked at Li Qingshan. “Strange, you were able to spot me with a trivial first level of qi refining?” He actually saw through at first glance that Li Qingshan wasn’t possessed of internal strength, but replete with true qi instead.

Li Qingshan only clearly saw the newcomer then. He was around twenty-five to twenty-six years old, his eyebrows like the crescent moon and his eyes like cold stars. His face was like a halo of jade, and he truly was handsome and stylish. Spiritual qi revolved around around his body like a flow of water. It shone like a torch inside the darkness, hence Li Qingshan had discovered his existence.

The red clothes on his body had a style close to the dark wolf garments, but it was looser than the dark wolf garments, and the pattern embroidered on it was a red wolf laughing to the sky. A similar red copper badge hung at his hips.

“Red…Red Wolf Captain!” Hall master Wu could recognize him even if he never saw him face to face. Red copper was a level higher than dark iron inside the Eagle Wolf Guard. A Wolf Captain commanded the pack of wolves and his authority was below a mere few people inside the whole Clear River prefecture while above innumerable others. He was a character of great power who could decide a man’s life or death in one word.

“Captain Hua!” The originally incomparably arrogant Feng Zhang immediately became like a mouse who’d seen a cat. He was so regretful he’d have liked nothing better than slap his own face.

It was no wonder he was so impudent. He’d already joined the Eagle Wolf Guard at a young age. It could be seen as the pride of youth. He’d been accustomed to acting arrogant and overbearing in ordinary times, so he hadn’t put anyone in his eyes when he’d come to this small Suncheer City. Making four first-grade masters retreat with one sentence had made his haughtiness reach its peak, but he’d been unexpectedly pushed off from that peak by Li Qingshan. So he’d acted with indignant anger, but then things hadn’t unfolded so smoothly.

He had been about to display his consummate skills to take revenge and wipe off his humiliation, but he’d been interrupted midway, his weapon tossed away from his hand. He naturally didn’t think about too many things under the shock and anger. Could the opposite party match rampage t.i.t for tat facing the Eagle Wolf Guard? But how could he imagine he’d provoke a Red Wolf Captain. One had to know that even an ordinary Red Wolf wouldn’t leave the Clear River capital without good reasons. It was the same feeling as suddenly seeing a big shark inside a small pond, a feeling filled with unimaginable horror.

“You actually recognize me, we’ve only met once right?”

“This subordinate doesn’t dare to forget captain Hua. It’s a rare honor for captain Hua to remember this subordinate.” Feng Zhang lowered his head and bent his waist down, his att.i.tude extremely deferential.

Any newcomer joining the Eagle Wolf Guard in the Clear River prefecture had to report to the prefecture capital and meet the two captains. Feng Zhang had been no exception, and he naturally couldn’t forget this superiors’ superior, captain Hua, Hua Chengzan.

Hua Chengzan said: “Haven’t you been dispatched to Blessed Peace under Zhuo Zhiba, why did you come here?”

Feng Zhang’s brain revolved at full speed. The degree of his single-minded nervousness was higher than when he was ready to exchange blows with Li Qingshan. He selected his words and was about to answer.

Hua Chengzan waved his hand and said: “No matter, old w.a.n.g is also here, come meet him!”

Old w.a.n.g!

Feng Zhang’s heart shook dramatically. The one Hua Chengzan spoke about was naturally not any anonymous old w.a.n.g from the neighborhood, but the Clear River head constable, the Red Eagle Captain w.a.n.g Pushi. Because of this name, people gave him the t.i.tle of “old w.a.n.g,” meaning “old king,” but not many dared to call him by this name. Men of the rivers and lake had a saying, “Rather meet the king of h.e.l.l rather than meet the old king 4. Once you meet the old king, you will also meet the king of h.e.l.l.”

Hall master Wu was keeping quiet to the side in fear. His brain rumbled loudly. He’d merely wanted to s.n.a.t.c.h a spirit ginseng from the hands of a later generation kid, how did he attract such powerful figures. Don’t mention a trivial hall master like him, even a protector, even the gate master would have to have to carefully accompany those two figures with a smile. Why did they appear together in this small Suncheer City.

Hua Chengzan said to Li Qingshan, “Kid, follow me, someone wants to meet you!”

1. Reference to the wuxia novel The Book and The Sword by Jin Yong. In case you didn’t know, Jin Yong is a household name in China, he’s sold something like a record billion volumes in China in total IIRC and almost single-handedly popularized the wuxia genre.

2. Legalist Statecraft is a direct reference to the Legalist school of thought developed during Warring States period (~475 BC to 221 BC), focusing on the philosophy of government. The leading founder is Han Fei whom you might have seen in the novel Step into the Past by Huang Yi, and then later led by the prime minister of the First Qin Emperor, Li Si (after he poisoned Han Fei) who adopted the school’s principles in administrating the empire. Later the Han dynasty adopted the same administrative system almost without any change.

3. You’ve probably seen such talismans in animes or movies. Those are rectangular paper or wooden plaques with supposedly magical inscriptions on them. Here’s a wooden example:

4. This is also a quote from the wuxia novel The Book and the Sword by Jin Yong. It’s a reference to w.a.n.g Weiyang, a character in the book famed to be invincible