Chapter 16: Young Master Zhou

A blade flashed and a huge head flew off. This guy wasn’t as considerate as Pockmark Chen, since he didn’t praise Li Chaosheng even as he died, and along with the straw-hat man’s head being cleaved in two, the ghost-faced human-skin drum in the straw-hat man’s hand was split as well.

Looking at the ghost-faced human-skin drum split in half, Li Chaosheng felt a pang. This was a fine treasure: it could control the living and the dead, men and women. Li Chaosheng’s mind kept flashing back to the image of how this corpse-driver had handled his victims.

With the drum destroyed, the iron-arm corpse stiffened too. The old temple keeper seized the chance and sliced off the iron-arm corpse’s head with a sword. The head hit the ground and the corpse collapsed, dead beyond any doubt.

The old temple keeper sagged down onto the ground, breathing heavily. If the fight had continued a bit longer he might not have held on. Fortunately Li Chaosheng had taken the ringleader first, chopping off the straw-hat man’s head with one swing. Otherwise the one collapsed from exhaustion would surely have been him.

Sitting there, the old temple keeper had that feeling of having survived a great calamity, panting hard. Li Chaosheng, however, was fine. After consuming the Essence-Washing Marrow-Refining Fruit, his strength, endurance, and bodily fundamentals had all been tuned to their best.

Even the cuts on his body made by the paper effigies were tingling and itchy now, so probably they would heal in a few days.

As Li Chaosheng was about to say something to the old temple keeper, he suddenly saw a long string of torches lit in the distance, as if a large group was approaching. The old temple keeper, who had been crouched on the ground looking near death, suddenly seemed to recover in a flash. With a jolt he jumped up and shouted to Li Chaosheng, “Quick, search these two guys! Pull out the silver notes on them.”

“Ah, but…”

Hearing the old temple keeper, Li Chaosheng was dumbfounded, but the keeper deftly started rummaging through the nearest straw-hat man’s body. Even the dull-witted Li Chaosheng caught on and immediately reached into Pockmark Chen’s pockets. His hand came out with a big handful of silver notes. Seeing the money, the old temple keeper shouted again, “Keep half, keep half! Stuff the rest back in.”

At that, Li Chaosheng quickly pulled out around half. He didn’t know how much each note was worth, so he just split by note count and pulled out about ten notes. The old temple keeper waved his hand to indicate the rest be stuffed back. After storing that half, the keeper immediately collapsed onto the ground and said to Li Chaosheng, “Sit. After such a battle we are both exhausted and gravely wounded!”

Hearing that, Li Chaosheng thought the old temple keeper was really quite the professional. Just then the torch line had come up close, and someone shouted, “Circle this area—everyone else with me, go in.”

At the shout, the torch line split into two automatically. One group went around the inn, while another group came into the room. Their leader was a youth in a black moonlight robe, with a gray sash at his waist: a Ninth-Rank Nightwatcher. He was holding a long spear, his gaze sharp like an eagle’s.

Seeing the old temple keeper collapsed on the ground, he quickly stepped forward to help him up and said, “Assessor Zhu, are you all right?”

The old temple keeper glanced at the youth and said, “I tell you, Young Master Zhou, if you’d come any later, I’m afraid my post as Assessor would have been yours.”

“Sir, please forgive me. After receiving your message we entered the mountain, but on the way we encountered merchants who had illegally purchased humans. The others were easy to handle, but there was a merchant from Liaodong who turned out to be an expert in fighting. I couldn’t take him down at first, so I had to fight him, which delayed us. Please pardon the delay, Sir.”

Hearing this, the old temple keeper waved his hand and said, “Forget it, forget it. I’ll leave the cleanup to you. Brother Li and I will take our leave first. This whole night’s trouble nearly shook our bones apart.”

As he said this, the old temple keeper sent a wink to Li Chaosheng. Li Chaosheng immediately understood and bade the youth farewell. The youth cupped his hands and said, “Zhou Bo.”

“Li Chaosheng.”

Zhou Bo nodded and said, “I’ll invite Brother Li to drink another day.”

“Then many thanks, Brother Zhou.”

After the courtesies, Li Chaosheng walked past him and followed the old temple keeper down the mountain. On the way he asked, “That Young Master Zhou…?”

“He is the nephew of Zhou Xianggui, the Eighth-Rank Warden of the Nightwardens,” said the old temple keeper.

Li Chaosheng instantly understood the relationship: an Eighth-Rank Warden was the direct superior to aa Deputy Eighth-Rank Assessor. No, wait, the old temple keeper’s superior should be a Seventh-Rank Chief Warden, so that Principal Eighth-Rank Warden was like half a boss to the old man, like a director and deputy director of different departments in the same large company.

They each managed different affairs, so while not strictly superior and subordinate, and they undoubtedly competed privately, which explained the old temple keeper’s attitude toward Zhou Bo.

Walking in front, the old temple keeper, as if he had eyes on the back of his head, said, “Do you feel like I’m picking on him?”

Li Chaosheng smiled and said, “He almost cost us our lives, it’s understandable that you’d have a temper.”

The old temple keeper said, “That Zhou boy isn’t so bad, not a bad man. It’s his uncle I have a problem with, that Zhou Xianggui. He sent his nephew to our county’s team of Nightwatchers for impure reasons: he’s waiting for the day I die so his precious nephew can inherit my Assessor post. In this region, Zhou Xianggui would be like half a Chief Warden. When he speaks or acts, no one dares ignore him. That old codger craves power too much.”

The old temple keeper spoke irritably. Li Chaosheng said nothing in response. The old rules applied in unfamiliar surroundings: watch more, listen more, speak less, eat more.

The two walked along the mountain road for a long while and were near the city gate. Up ahead a fork required them to part, one to enter the city, the other to go to the City God Temple. The old temple keeper stopped and said, “All right, this is where we part ways. After you enter the city, do what you need to do. If there is a task later I’ll notify you with a wooden bird.”

“Understood.”

Saying this, Li Chaosheng pulled the silver notes from his bosom. He couldn’t keep them all himself, since that would show a lack of manners and excessive greed, leaving a bad impression. Besides, the old temple keeper had indeed contributed greatly to their survival.

Li Chaosheng counted the notes: ten in total, 100 taels each. He split them in two, so 500 to the keeper, 500 to himself. With the money in hand the old temple keeper smiled and said, “Good, this trip wasn’t in vain. Rest up a bit and we even have some left over. Enough to enjoy ourselves for a while.”

After speaking he waved his hand and said, “All right, hurry back to the city. After this whole ordeal, it is nearly past the fifth watch, the gates will open soon.”

“Then I take my leave.”

With the money taken, Li Chaosheng was quite pleased. After all, who isn’t happy to earn silver? But he was even happier that they had killed two people who clearly cultivated. Their lives might fetch a good price, and perhaps he’d salvage some treasures from the Killing Scripture’s spoils.

Li Chaosheng knew well how valuable the treasures from the Killing Scripture could be: one Essence-Washing Marrow-Refining Fruit had already boosted his strength considerably. If he could extract more treasures, wouldn’t he grow even stronger!

Under the lure of the Killing Scripture’s treasures, the 500 taels he’d just received seemed far less enticing.