With the Blade

Evil Qi, an extremely dangerous yet extremely fierce force.

Those who have experienced its ferocity will become infatuated with this power, while those who have experienced its danger will be in awe of it. But regardless of whether it is dangerous or fierce, power is power, it is the path to strength, and it can be grasped in one’s hand. As long as power is mastered, one can do anything.

So, who wouldn’t know about such a useful power?

There are.

There are too many.

Like Yu Laoer from Li Family Village; he doesn’t know about Evil Qi. Growing up in Li Family Village, he hasn’t even been outside the village a few times, let alone know about Evil Qi—just like most people these days, if they don’t encounter any soldiers or chaos, they would spend their whole lives in this small place, working hard all their lives until some illness or disaster comes, and then they would be buried in the ground.

As for fierce bandits or anything, he hasn’t even heard of them. He only knows that weapons that have killed people are sinister, which is also the common belief of most people these days. Of course, people only hear about it; as for weapons that have actually killed people, they have never seen them.

After all, killing someone is a serious crime and would result in being arrested and executed. Most families want to live peacefully, so how could they possibly do such a deranged thing—though some people indeed go insane, and they are caught and beheaded by the authorities.

"A life for a life," is a simple truth that has existed since ancient times.

However, the authorities can’t truly catch everyone, just like the bandits causing trouble near Li Family Village recently. Seven or eight people wielding weapons blocking travelers, yet no one has come to manage them. Li Taigong from Li Family Village has reported to the authorities several times, but they have never had the time.

This has indeed made the whole Li Family Village nervous, fearing that one day they would encounter the bandits upon leaving, losing their belongings would be minor, but if they were killed on the road, that would be truly unfortunate.

Therefore, having no way to report to the authorities, Li Taigong simply decided to organize people within the village. But most villagers are kind-hearted; how could they possibly contend with such vicious villains? The young men organized searches nearby several times, but they didn’t even see the bandits before they scared themselves back.

After thinking it over, Li Taigong could only write a letter to his son, asking him to come back and help handle this matter.

Speaking of Li Jia Dalang, he is remarkable. He is one of the few from the village who stayed outside. In his youth, he was quite brave and was thus selected to be a soldier. Recently, it is said that he was even transferred to the capital Jiankang—knowing that it’s Jiankang, where the nobles reside, it’s impressive that Li Jia Dalang was transferred there.

"Once Li Jia Dalang returns to deal with the bandits, everything will be better!"

Upon hearing Li Taigong announce this, people felt slight relief.

But it was only slight relief.

It would take time for Li Jia Dalang to receive the letter and more time to return. During this open period, could everyone stop going to the fields and stop working?

Fields need to be planted, work needs to be done, and maybe the Li family has some savings and won’t be greatly affected, but for outsiders like Yu Laoer, waiting means not knowing what to eat next year.

Yu Laoer also works in the fields, but the land is rented from the Li family, and every year he has to pay a portion of the rent. This is no small amount. If those seven or eight bandits cause trouble this year, after paying the rent next year, there won’t be much left. It’s not possible to live by drinking northwest wind.

So, regardless of anything, the fields must be planted.

The land Yu Laoer rents is at the base of the mountain, which sounds dangerous; something unexpected might suddenly happen from the mountain, and he might not survive. But there’s no other choice; Yu Laoer can only afford to rent such a place. This plot of land was originally rented by his father when fleeing soldiers and calamities, and after his father passed, the lease was handed down to Yu Laoer.

"If only there weren’t that mountain."

Thinking this, Yu Laoer shouldered his hoe.

Not only Yu Laoer, his father had thought the same. Old Yu Tou spent his life with the greatest wish for that mountain to disappear, not only because farming would be safer, but also could perhaps cultivate more fields. Most importantly, there is a river on the other side of the mountain; if the mountain were gone, the irrigating river water could be drawn directly into their rented fields—how convenient would that be?

Driven by this unrealistic hope, Old Yu Tou embarked on his grand solitary project.

As long as he dug a little each day, he believed he could hollow out the mountain. He thought this way and kept doing it. Although he spent his life without truly hollowing out the mountain, he did manage to cultivate some wasteland at the mountain’s base—though these newly cultivated land still belonged to the Li family, considering Old Yu Tou’s lifelong toil, this piece of wasteland was leased to him.

After all, apart from Old Yu Tou, no one else wanted to rent the land at the mountain base.

Now, this task of digging the mountain, along with the lease, fell into Yu Laoer’s hands. It was his father’s last wish, his father’s lifelong work, and Yu Laoer couldn’t let it end just like that, couldn’t let it end in his hands.