Supported by the little girl attendant Ming Yue, Li Mu waved his hands, sat at the head of the table and said, “Just tell me now.”

Feng Yuanxing bowed himself and said, “Hello, your honor, we’ve finished the issue on Shennong Faction headquarter, and the rest people have all been in prison including all of their properties, weapons, medicines and food, etc., they have all been transmitted to the government office and we’re now waiting for your order now. We’ve also seized the Dianshi janitor’s family and Zhou family, but…” As he said so, he hesitated for a while and didn’t dare to continue.

“What?” Asked Li Mu in a low spirit.

Gnashing his teeth, Feng Yuanxing replied, “The Dianshi janitor’s and Zhou’s houses had all been empty when we arrived there, all the properties had been transferred and only some servant girls left there. Some of the secret places had been destroyed too and we’ve got nothing so we’ve found anything.”

That’s to say, he came away empty-handed and made no credit at all.

Why suddenly Feng Yuanxing felt thrown into panic in fear that this young county magistrate might say with a gloomy face “Go and die”, then he would be killed by the arrow just like the way when Zhou Wu and Zheng Longxing died… It was just like the feeling of to be in the king’s company as tantamount to living with a tiger.

“Well, it’s OK, you make the decision. Forget it if you cannot check it.” Said Li Mu as he looked uninterested.

He killed Zhou Wu and Zheng Longxing not for money nor the so-called secrets.

Feng Yuanxing was relieved.

Then Li Mu asked again, “Are there any books about martial art in the Shennong Faction’s property?”

“There were several rough Cultivation Method books, and we’d also got ‘Five-poisons Classics’ and ‘Training of Qi Formula’ from Sikong Jing. They were common Cultivation Method and just a far cry from your matchless magical kung fu…” Said Feng Yuanxing with flattery again.

Li Mu replied impatiently, “Don’t talk nonsense. Send all the brochures to me.”

Without any hesitation on Feng Yuanxing’s face, he replied quickly, “All right, let me pick them for you now.”

He was about to turn back and leave while Li Mu thought about something and said, “By the way, are there any archery masters in this county?”

Feng Yuanxing turned back and said, “Yes, exactly, your honor. The Dutou Official Ma Junwu from our government office is an excellent archery master in Taibai County. So, are you going to learn, your honor?”

Li Mu nodded, then suddenly, he coughed and spat out a mouthful of blood and phlegm, replied with a paled face, “OK, there’s nothing else here, you can leave now.”

As Feng Yuanxing saw that blood phlegm, he felt a little shocked.

“The magistrate has become more serious than we imagined.”

And he suddenly felt a little worried.

Would this magistrate resist the revenge from Bloody-moon faction and Zhou family since he was in such condition now?

Zhou Wu and Zheng Longxing were killed, those two great powers suffered heavy losses and they would never leave the matter like that.

Feng Yuanxing left in a reflective mood.

As he left, the little girl Ming Yue jumped with joy, “So, Young Master, why are you pretending to be dying and using chicken blood on your body… Well, that flatter seemed to be convinced and looked so shit… Aha… By the way, why are stilling spitting blood? Are you really dying? Aha… You should keep your word and leave the chicken bottom for me.”

“Damn… The chicken bottom for you.” Li Mu raised up his hand and slapped her on the back of the head.

Damn, why this guy was so stupid?

…

…

It was deep night outside.

“Li Mu, if I don’t revenge, I’m swearing not to be myself.”

On the deep mountain road to Taibai Mountain outside the county, one 60-odd old man with malicious and insidious face was waving his hands, he was looking at the sparkling Taibai County with shrilling curse.

There were hundreds of people following him.

Among them, they were Deputy county magistrate Zhou Wu’s brothers, wife as well as his son, which were all from Zhou family.

And the old man Zhou Zhenhai, who was making shrilling curse, was just the Deputy county magistrate Zhou Wu’s father.

They were there with hatred in their eyes.

They were living an extravagant life and acting willfully like a local tyrant in the county before, but everything ended since this young new county magistrate came. They had to escape and give up everything now and suffer in the depth of the mountain. Especially those younger generations, who were spoiled and never lived hard, were suffering unspeakably and wished to kill Li Mu while they were running away all night and had bleeding blisters on their foot and bitten by mosquitoes.

“Maybe Li Mu dares not hurt us if we stay in the county, we can use relationships…” One member from Zhou family spoke reluctantly.

“Shut up.” Said Zhou Zhenhai with a fierce look like a furious lion. He glanced at them and they all looked down, then he said, “Damn, Li Mu is extremely cruel and merciless that he’s such a bandit. I’ve been ready to completely annihilate for a life-and-death struggle since he’s killed my son. We must have already died if we stayed in the county. You can be back if you want to die now.”

Those people were taken aback and didn’t dare to speak.

Today when he heard the news as Zhou Wu was killed, it was just the former patriarch, Zhou Zhenhai, who overrode all objections and transferred all Zhou family members to save this family after they left Taibai County immediately.

“Humm, he can be arrogant like that for only several days. Let’s go to Taibai Sword Faction and turn to the brother who is the low-level presbyter. He will kill Li Mu for revenge once the master from the Taibai Sword Faction agrees to kill him.”

Zhou Zhenhai said viciously.

“Let’s go.”

He walked with a cane, glanced at Taibai County insidiously again, then took the lead in walking on the rugged foothills towards the deep mountains.

…

…

It was dark and cold.

“That’s so good when Zheng Longxing died. He’s just a manager of the faction and Bloody-moon faction helped him a lot with such a lot of human resources as well as wealth to get this good-for-nothing into the Dianshi janitor of Taibai County, but finally he was killed by such a teenager. He’s such an incapable person and that’s good when he died, the earlier the better. So that he will not waste any resources in our faction anymore.”

The sound, which was like the night owl, was reverberating in the black hall.

A blood moon floated in the dome of the hall.

The light in the hall was just like the running blood water while more than 20 martial art masters in bloody moon armors didn’t even dare to breath heavily, because they knew the Grand Master was quite unsatisfied about this matter since so many years’ coercion made all of them be afraid this mysterious master in Bloody-moon faction.

“But we’ll be the joke of Northwest Wulin if we just forget it since one of our Bloody-moon faction managers was killed. And that’ll also be quite impossible if we want to be at the higher grade for our faction…” Said the Grand Master of Bloody-moon faction again.

His voice was just like the sound of gold and iron that sounded sick and made you feel palpitations.

“That’ll be easy since Li Mu is also a martial arts fellow. Now come and pass on a message, inform that I will challenge Li Mu personally on top of Ji Feng Mountain. We’ll solve this matter according to the rules made by the Nine Great Holy Clans.” Said the Grand Master of Bloody-moon faction whose voice was like bloodsucking reverberated in the big hall.

All the masters from Bloody-moon faction felt shocked.

Was the Grand Master going to fight after practicing for 10 years?

The Grand Master had been the top master at Joint-thoughts level 10 years ago, and he created his own world by killing that made himself a fearful role for the Northwest Wulin. He chose to retreat practice for a period of time for an extremely vicious and hegemonic skill. Now the rating of flourishing age for decennial faction level started, and it meant the Grand Master was absolutely sure about his breakthrough since he chose to fight at this time, right?

It could be imagined there would be a sanguinary slaughter since this peerless cruel man from the Northwest Wulin appeared.

What about that young county magistrate of Taibai County?

He must die for sure.

…

…

“How can this be called classics?”

Li Mu disdained and shook his head, then put aside the dark blue brochure in his hand.

Last night when Feng Yuanxing left, he sent people to present the martial arts brochures collected from the Shennong Faction the first time. Most of the books were useless while two of them were useful, and they were “Five-poisons Classics” and “Training of Qi Formula”, which could be barely the martial art secrets.

First Li Mu was reading Five-poisons Classics, but he felt a little disappointed after reading.

This so-called “Five-poisons Classics” contained mostly on refining poison, making poison and how to forge the weapons with poison, how to set traps as well as using poison to kill people. Generally speaking, it recorded crooked ways and methods to kill people, which might be obtained in the short term but it had limits since it was quite impossible to practice on long term.

Though Li Mu had just started practicing, he had been exposed to various chivalry culture and the old faker’s instruction, which made him understand early that it was not the good idea to obtain through crooked ways. True strength was self-strength rather than external things such as poisons.

So, after reading once, Li Mu found no interest on those things in unorthodox ways like Five-poisons Classics.

Then he began to read Training of Qi Formula.

Li Mu’s interest was attracted by the contents recorded in this book, and by the first part of the book, some clear-cut narrative contents.

“The physical bodies are always weak, the elite magic weapons are weak, the water and mountains are weak, and the fire and the cold ice are weak… Everything in the world is weak but the qi is not. Those with qi have strong power and that’s the rule of the universe. It has no shape and no color, odorless and tasteless, which exists up in the ninth heaven and the nether world that makes the fool to be unable to feel. But luckily, there were sages in the ancient times who knew the way of heaven and earth, the meaning of vanity, captured the qi to become spiritual and to be free between the earth and heaven… Till now, the qi forging method has been widely spread. There’re thousands of factions and there’re also countless magic martial arts and secret skills in this world, however, the base lies in the qi forging and there’s no exception for the Nine Great Holy Clans too.”

—