Chapter 4: Reappearance
Sha sha!
Fang Qing’s expression was solemn, his hands crimson-red, like sharp blades, plunging repeatedly into the red sand inside a wooden tub.
This sea sand had come from the beach outside the fishing village. It was said to be the place where a certain demonic beast had wept blood—an entire stretch of shoreline dyed red, the color refusing to fade for a hundred years.
And cultivating the “Red Sand Hand” with this kind of red sand made progress advance at a pace that could be described as a thousand miles a day, surpassing many medicinal baths.
Pu pu!
Beads of sweat appeared on Fang Qing’s forehead, yet the movements of his hands did not change in the slightest.
As the grains of sand continued to flow past his fingertips, the crimson hue on his hands gradually deepened.
“Strength… has deepened by another fraction.”
Half an hour later, Fang Qing lay sprawled on the ground without any concern for appearances, panting heavily.
“The Red Sand Hand can only be cultivated for two hours a day, but after dispersing its accumulated power, my body seems able to endure more. Every day, I can add another half-hour of extra training…” This should be one small convenience brought by “Return to Origin.” Fang Qing silently noted it down.
After a brief rest, he stood up again, began to assume a horse stance, and cultivated the “Thousand-Catties Drop.”
Although these two techniques were merely third-rate martial arts, Fang Qing still treasured them greatly. After all, back in the Fang family of Three-Waters Hollow, there had not been a single martial art at all.
‘Come to think of it… the martial arts from the Small Huan Sea can actually be used here. Could it be because they’re too basic, merely ordinary bodily exertion and force conversion? Or is it the power of the cheat?’
Fang Qing had always harbored some concerns, such as whether the supernatural systems of the two worlds were compatible.
However, with the Dao-Birth Pearl, there really was nothing to worry about.
What was more, he had no choice at all!
“The body of an ordinary person has limits. Four hours a day of high-intensity martial training must be matched with powerful tonics and meat!”
“Not to mention that each of these martial arts has its own limitations. Take the Red Sand Hand, for instance—at most two hours a day. Go beyond that and the body won’t be able to bear it…”
“But by using the cheat, I can convert all the time and experience spent cultivating the Thousand-Catties Drop into the Red Sand Hand. It’s practically equivalent to doubling experience points… of course, it may not be fully convertible. After all, they’re two different martial arts. If I switched to other second-rate or first-rate martial arts, perhaps cultivating a third-rate art for ten hours would only convert into one hour of first-rate power!”
“Besides that, cultivating martial arts also involves encountering bottlenecks.”
Fang Qing silently recorded the ratios and conditions after each conversion, preparing for future exploration of the cheat’s capabilities.
“Now… I can barely be considered to have some means of self-protection. I can go look for Old Uncle.”
He looked beyond the mountains and sighed softly.
Previously, due to the mystery of the womb, he had been ignorant in his youth and knew very little.
He only knew that this world was incomparably vast.
Just the “Land of Ancient Shu” alone exceeded the area of a great nation from his previous life, and the “Ba Commandery,” where the Fang family was located, contained many cities bustling with people.
“According to what Old Uncle revealed earlier, we were preparing to flee as refugees to ‘Heavenly Prefecture City.’ That’s the nearest large city from here, with stable order… If he was being hunted down and had a large sum of money on him, he would definitely head toward a city. Perhaps I can go take a look…”
……
Heavenly Prefecture City.
The city gates towered high, bearing traces of age and time.
After entering the city, crowds pressed shoulder to shoulder.
Along both sides of the road were clothing shops, fabric stores, pawnshops, eateries, taverns, brothels, rouge and powder shops… all kinds of businesses lined up one after another, almost dazzling to the eye.
Fang Qing stood at the city gate, gazing at the posted notices and wanted proclamations, his eyes dimming slightly.
‘Old Uncle never said who he came here to rely on… searching for him is like looking for a needle in the sea.’
Fortunately, this trip had only been made with a faint hope of finding someone.
Seeing that Old Uncle was not there, he turned on his heel and headed toward the pleasure quarters… the restaurant next door—Tianwei Tower.
Although he really wanted to experience the service industry of this world and listen to some tunes in the pleasure quarters,
Fang Qing had to admit that he had been captured by the aroma of wine and dishes…
For a wanderer of the wilds, eating a hearty meal was more tempting than anything else. After all, only when one was fed and warm could one think about that other stuff…
“Wait… children make choices. Adults should… have it all.”
Fang Qing turned again and walked straight into a pleasure quarter.
“Young master… do you have any familiar ladies?”
A procuress immediately came up to him, his face full of ingratiating smiles.
“No. Call a few ladies to sing some tunes for me… and go next door to Tianwei Tower to order a table of their finest wine and dishes.”
Fang Qing took out a piece of broken silver.
Jade Island did not use silver taels, but rather a kind of silver shell.
In terms of purchasing power, however, it was far lower than here in the Land of Ancient Shu. Fang Qing did not care much about money.
With control over the passage between two worlds, he would sooner or later become the richest person under heaven.
……
“Pure white snow shrouded in crimson skirts, endless charm bent within winding curves… beneath mandarin-duck quilts, spring breeze is drawn close…”
A short while later, inside a private room, two heavily made-up women sang tunes while casting plaintive glances at the guest.
After bathing and changing clothes, Fang Qing now wore a loose azure robe.
He might not have been jade-tree handsome, but he was at least a refined youth—far better than those decrepit old lechers.
Yet this guest truly only listened to the singing, not even sparing them a glance.
Fang Qing would of course not tell them that, having been influenced by his previous life, although he had never eaten or used such things, his standards were still quite high.
What was more, there was something even more attractive to him…
Meat!
Braised pork!
Once it entered his mouth, grease filled it completely, carrying the fragrant sizzle of something just taken off the stove.
The rice was steamed fluffy and soft;
mixed with the meat juices, it was enough to eat three bowls in a row.
There were also fresh green vegetables glistening with vitality, and rich, mellow chicken soup…
The only dish that failed to interest Fang Qing was the squirrel-shaped mandarin fish. He truly had grown sick of eating fish.
‘In the pleasure quarters, all walks of life gather. It’s a top-tier place for gathering information…’
‘But… separated by only a hundred li, and yet they don’t even know that my hometown was struck by a plague?’
Fang Qing shoveled rice into his mouth while thinking silently.
After eating and drinking his fill, he teased the two plaintive ladies a bit more, declined their invitation to stay the night, and walked out of the pleasure quarters. He stretched lazily and said with satisfaction, “This is what life is supposed to be…”
Unfortunately, he had only asked Old Man Zha for a single day off. For now, Jade Island still had to take priority.
“It’s getting late. Time to leave the city.”
Fang Qing exited through the city gates and headed down a secluded path.
Not long after, his brows suddenly knit together. “Who’s there? Come out!”
As soon as the words fell, three burly men emerged from the dense forest behind him.
The leader had a pockmarked face and held a dagger, a cold smile on his lips. “The old one got away, but there’s still the little one.”
“Ma Old Three?”
Fang Qing recognized him at once—it was Ma Old Three, the leader of that group of refugees who had once besieged and tried to kill him!
He could not help but be greatly shocked. “How did you find me?”
“Heh heh… I’ve got eyes at the city gate. You brat really walked right into the net. If it were inside the city, we’d still have some scruples. But now…”
Ma Old Three advanced with a ferocious grin.
“You’re not right. Something is very wrong!”
Fang Qing’s face sank. “The value on me isn’t worth you tracking me for three whole months, is it? Or is there… something else behind this?”
“Hmph!”
Although Ma Old Three was a villain, he was not one for talking. He directly charged forward with his men.
If it were Fang Qing from three months ago, he would only have been able to submit helplessly.
But now?
Fang Qing’s hands glowed crimson.
In an instant, they split into two palms, like twin dragons emerging from the sea.
Bang! Bang!
Two of Ma Old Three’s subordinates cried out miserably, their chests caving in as they toppled backward.
“Hm? You know martial arts!”
Ma Old Three’s figure flickered.
The dagger in his hand shot forward like a venomous snake flicking its tongue. He actually knew a bit of crude, half-baked skill himself.
Seeing this, the corner of Fang Qing’s mouth lifted slightly. His right hand shot out, grasping Ma Old Three’s dagger-wielding wrist as easily as catching a fish in water.
The next moment, he exerted force through his legs, unleashing the power of the Thousand-Catties Drop.
His right foot came down like an iron hammer, slamming heavily onto the top of Ma Old Three’s foot.
Crack!
The piercing sound of bones shattering rang out.
Ma Old Three’s face twisted as he screamed and collapsed to the ground.
“Let’s go!”
Fang Qing grabbed Ma Old Three and vanished swiftly from sight.
……
The wilderness, a certain hill.
Fang Qing casually tossed Ma Old Three aside. “How do you feel about this place as your burial ground?”
Although Ma Old Three’s face was deathly pale, cold sweat beading on his forehead from the pain, his expression was vicious. “I didn’t expect you to have such good martial arts. Nothing to say—if I die, I die… it’s just a pity my family died to bandits spreading a plague, and I can’t take revenge!”
“Revenge?”
Fang Qing was momentarily stunned. Only then did he recall that Ma Old Three, like himself and Old Uncle, was also a refugee—one who had even once been a fellow villager, though not especially close!
“You mean… this plague was man-made, not a natural disaster?”
His heart suddenly trembled as he thought of his own family.
“That’s right… I took refuge with the Luo family and finally learned that we never should have died in the first place. It was the thieves of the Black Miasma Sect who practiced miasma cultivation arts in our hometown. That’s why the plague spread, leaving nine out of ten households empty… But once you leave the range of those miasma arts, you’re naturally fine.” Ma Old Three gritted his teeth.
“The Black Miasma Sect? Miasma arts?”
Fang Qing already believed it somewhat. Without supernatural power, there was simply no way to explain why, after leaving the plague-stricken area, there was no plague at all among the large group.
“Wait… this is something between immortals. How did you know? Did the Luo family tell you?”
Suddenly, he caught another key point. “That Luo family?”
The Luo family was a true local hegemon.
In theory, even the vast stretch of land around the Fang family’s Three-Waters Hollow fell under Luo family control.
And previously, the Fang family’s annual “Moonflow Radiance” ritual implements had all been sold to the Luo family!
“That’s right!” Ma Old Three gave a miserable laugh. “I knew I was doomed today, but you’ll definitely take revenge on the Black Miasma Sect… so there’s no harm in telling you. I had only planned to flee my hometown, but people from the Luo family found me and told me to keep an eye on several families, including your Fang family!”
“Investigate the remnants of our Fang family? For what?”
Fang Qing was even more puzzled.
“I don’t know either. I only overheard a few vague words… saying that your Fang family had good fortune, and that after the plague passed, they would continue to cultivate literary ethos or something like that…” Ma Old Three’s gaze was also filled with confusion.
“Good fortune, cultivate literary ethos?”
Fang Qing silently recorded it.
After interrogating him several more times to verify the details and confirming that Ma Old Three was not fabricating things, he finally raised a hand, pressed it against the top of Ma Old Three’s head, and sent him on his way.