Chapter 122 : Chapter 122
Chapter 122. Beyond Cure
The following day, the twelfth day of the ninth month.
Inside a secret room in the Workshop Master’s office.
Candlelight flickered, casting shifting brightness and shadow across the four walls.
The air was filled with a damp, moldy smell, mixed with the faint scent of medicine.
Xu Yuan sat on a wooden chair in the middle of the room, quietly looking at the man before him.
That man was slumped on the floor, his hands locked in shackles, his eyes vacant, as though even his soul had been torn away.
Only when he saw Xu Yuan did a trace of life return to his face.
It was an expression woven from regret and something more complicated, impossible to tell whether it was remorse or resignation.
Looking at that familiar face, Xu Yuan felt a flood of emotions.
“I had thought that even if you were narrow-minded, you at least still had some sense of decency in the way you conducted yourself.”
Xu Yuan spoke slowly, his tone flat. “I never imagined you would actually dare do something like this. You really have committed every evil under the sun, Sun Xiaochuan.”
Sun Xiaochuan lifted his head. His face was as pale as paper.
His lips twitched, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he only forced out a miserable smile.
“The victor is king, the loser is a criminal. If that is what you say I am, then so be it.”
That smile held resignation, unwillingness, and a complexity that could not be put into words.
Xu Yuan immediately let out a scornful laugh. “What kind of loser do you think you are?”
“You are nothing more than a cheap chess piece, the sort both the Bai Family and Shangyang Residence could throw away without a second thought. Stop trying to find some kind of self-worth here.”
Those words were like a thorn, stabbing right into the place that hurt Sun Xiaochuan the most.
His lifeless eyes suddenly widened. Strength came from who knew where as he jerked upright and roared hoarsely,
“Stop pretending you stand above me! What difference is there between you and me? We are both expendable fuel, that is all!”
His whole body trembled, his face twisted, and his voice was almost hysterical.
“The only reason you broke through back then was because you stepped in dog shit and got lucky enough to find some heavenly treasure!”
“I am telling you, you were no better than me then, and you will not be better than me now or in the future. My fate is mine, not heaven’s!”
When the words fell, the secret room sank into dead silence.
Xu Yuan looked at him quietly, without the slightest expression on his face.
Expendable fuel? A chess piece?
Perhaps so.
In a world like this, who was not expendable?
The only difference was that some fuel burned away and was gone forever, while some could borrow even that little bit of leftover ash to climb higher, little by little, until they remade their lives.
“My fate is mine, not heaven’s?”
Xu Yuan rose to his feet, walked slowly to Sun Xiaochuan, and looked down at him from above.
“Then why are you still here?”
Sun Xiaochuan opened his mouth, but not a single word came out.
Just then, his body suddenly began to tremble violently.
First his fingers, then his arms, and then his entire body.
He abruptly curled into a ball, both hands clutching his hair as muffled, agonized whimpers came from his mouth.
“The medicine... give me the medicine!”
He looked up, his eyes unfocused, saliva spilling from the corner of his mouth, his breathing growing faster and faster.
What remained of the hysterical momentum from moments before?
“Give me the medicine!”
He struggled to crawl to his feet, only to be yanked back by the shackles. His whole body lunged toward Xu Yuan in a twisted posture, like a trapped beast, or even more like a dog wagging its tail and begging for pity.
A Fifth Meridian martial artist standing nearby reacted swiftly and pinned him down in one move.
Sun Xiaochuan struggled violently, a hoarse cry tearing from his throat, but mixed into that cry, beyond the pain, was something like pleading.
The Fifth Meridian martial artist frowned and looked up at Xu Yuan.
“Workshop Master Xu, this man has most likely fallen victim to the Bai Family’s Five Joys Powder. Judging by his condition, he is already beyond saving. He cannot go even a moment without it now.”
Xu Yuan lowered his eyes to Sun Xiaochuan, who was curled on the ground and convulsing from head to toe, and suddenly an indescribable emotion rose in his heart.
“How long has it been?” Xu Yuan asked.
The Fifth Meridian martial artist shook his head. “Judging from the state he is in, at the very least several months. At this level, there is basically no cure.”
Xu Yuan fell silent for a moment, then gave a slight nod.
He recalled Sun Xiaochuan’s hoarse cry just now of “My fate is mine, not heaven’s,” and felt an absurd sort of bleakness arise within him.
My fate is mine, not heaven’s?
How could someone who could not even control himself talk about whether heaven held sway or not?
Xu Yuan waved a hand.
The Fifth Meridian martial artist understood at once. His blade rose and fell.
A dull thud sounded.
Sun Xiaochuan’s body convulsed violently once, then went limp on the floor, never to move again.
Silence returned to the secret room.
After a long while, Xu Yuan shook his head and turned to leave.
When he reached the doorway, he suddenly stopped and said without looking back, “Dispose of the body cleanly.”
An acknowledging response came from behind him.
Xu Yuan pushed the door open and stepped out.
The sunlight was dazzling, warm without being harsh, and everything looked no different from usual.
Standing beneath the corridor, he suddenly sighed and said,
“In this life, gambling and drugs are my sworn enemies!”
...
That afternoon.
Inside the Bai Family camp.
Chen Donghai was in his study, flipping through battle reports with a deep frown on his face.
In the battle last night, the Bai Family had suffered no small losses. Not only had they lost two streets, they had also lost quite a number of men.
What irritated him even more was that Xu Yuan...
The moment he thought of that young face, his chest felt clogged.
A newcomer who had only just entered the Sixth Meridian had actually made both him and He Feng suffer a crushing humiliation.
If word of this got out, how was Chen Donghai supposed to keep showing his face in the Level Three zone?
Just as he was stewing in frustration, there came a knock at the door.
“Come in.”
A young martial artist pushed the door open and entered, his expression panicked. “Workshop Master Chen... that inside man failed!”
“What?”
Chen Donghai shot to his feet in shock. He was startled not only by the sudden collapse of his scheme, but also by the realization that he had misjudged the situation. “How did he see through it?”
The martial artist lowered his head, not daring to look at him.
“The exact reason is still unclear. We only know that after the man slipped into Changlin Ward yesterday, he never came back out. Then at noon today, someone inside the ward saw his corpse being carried out...”
Chen Donghai stood there in a daze, unmoving for a long time.
Killed?
That hidden piece of his had been pulled out before it could even serve its purpose?
And... How had Xu Yuan noticed?
He had made the arrangements so carefully. From the supply channels to the route into the quiet chamber, every step had been set in place without the slightest flaw. How had it been discovered?
“How strange indeed...” he muttered to himself as he slumped back into his chair. “He actually resolved it so easily.”
He paced back and forth around the room, his brows locked tightly together.
The loss of a Fourth Meridian martial artist was a loss, yes, but nothing truly serious.
What really gnawed at him was this feeling of having been outplayed by a single move. He had not tasted that feeling in a very long time.
“Workshop Master Chen...”
The young martial artist hesitated for a moment, then took a cloth bag from his robes and offered it up with both hands. “This... was sent over from Xu Yuan’s side. They said it was a return gift for you.”
“Oh?”
Chen Donghai stopped in his tracks, then immediately let out a cold laugh as he took the bag. “What, does he intend to make a show of force?”
There was no need to think. The other man had clearly been disgusted by his tactics and sent something over to vent his anger.
Young people really were young people. They could not keep their composure.
He opened the bag casually.
Inside was a set of women’s clothes.
A pink skirted dress, an embroidered undergarment with mandarin ducks sewn on it, and a pair of dainty embroidered shoes.
The smile on Chen Donghai’s face froze.
Then his face flushed red, and the veins at his temples bulged violently.
How could he not understand what this meant?
Xu Yuan was clearly mocking him for using petty, despicable tricks, for being small-minded and underhanded, like some scheming woman.
This was outright humiliation!
“You little bastard! How dare you insult me like this!”
Chen Donghai roared, his chest heaving violently as blood and qi surged straight to his head.
The world spun around him, his vision went black—
Pfft!
A mouthful of blood sprayed out, splattering across the pink dress and making it look even more vivid than before.
...