Chapter 387 - 369: Serving the People

Dusk was approaching. The setting sun was obscured by layers of dark clouds, leaving only a blood-red sliver on the horizon.

In the southern part of the city, deep within a secluded alley next to the docks.

The air was thick with the stench of brine and rotting fish and shrimp. Before an unremarkable, black-lacquered wooden door, Chen Fan pulled his clothes tighter around himself. He scanned his surroundings, confirming no one was following him, before raising a hand to knock three times.

"Is that you, Ah Fan?" a woman’s voice came from inside.

"It’s me. Open up," Chen Fan’s voice was low and raspy.

The bolt slid back with a CLICK.

The door opened to reveal a woman. It was Ye Lu, a former apprentice from the White Ape Martial Arts Hall.

Unlike the youthful, energetic girl she once was, she now wore her hair in a married woman’s bun. She had on a narrow-sleeved, blue blouse and a pair of black cotton-linen skirt-trousers.

Upon seeing Chen Fan, her flushed face lit up with joy, her eyes filled with submission and gentleness.

Chen Fan’s expression was grim as he slipped sideways into the courtyard. Ye Lu quickly shut the wooden door and bolted it tight.

"Gaga... Dada... hold..."

By a rough stone table in the corner of the courtyard, a little boy of one or two was holding onto a stone stool, his two chubby legs wobbling as he tried to move. The moment he saw Chen Fan, his large, dark eyes lit up, and he reached out his hands, drooling.

Looking at the small face that bore a slight resemblance to his own, the violence and gloom in Chen Fan’s eyes receded for a rare moment. He strode forward, scooped his son into his arms, and pinched the boy’s soft cheek, letting out a couple of soft, teasing chuckles.

Seeing this from behind, Ye Lu’s face broke into a sweet smile.

"Ah Fan, you must be hungry, right? I bought some excellent tendon meat at the docks today and stewed it in aged brine. I’ll go slice some for you."

Ye Lu said in a gentle voice, turning to walk toward the low-roofed kitchen.

Before long, a plate of fragrant, soy-braised beef and a pot of fiery liquor were set neatly on the stone table.

Chen Fan casually placed his son in a nearby bamboo chair.

He picked up a slice of beef with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth. After chewing twice, his expression suddenly darkened.

"Ptooey!"

"It’s so salty, are you trying to kill me? You can’t even braise meat properly. What good are you?" Chen Fan’s features looked particularly savage in the dim twilight. A vein throbbed on his temple as he stared murderously at Ye Lu.

Ye Lu trembled, instinctively shrinking her shoulders back. "I’m sorry... Ah Fan, I didn’t mean to. I-I’ll go wash it again..."

"Stupid woman, just looking at you pisses me off. You’ve been clinging to me since our days at the White Ape Martial Arts Hall, bringing me nothing but endless bad luck!"

The more he spoke, the angrier he became, the violence in his heart finding an outlet. He strode in front of Ye Lu.

SLAP!

He swung a hand across Ye Lu’s face. The force of a man at Flesh Refining Realm Perfection sent her flying into the wall.

Bits of dried mud trickled down. Half of Ye Lu’s face instantly swelled up, and a trickle of crimson blood seeped from the corner of her mouth.

WAAAH!

The little boy in the bamboo chair was terrified and burst into tears.

Ignoring the sharp, stinging pain in her cheek, Ye Lu struggled up from the ground and stumbled over to the wailing child, hugging him tightly. Tears streamed down her face, but she bit her lip, not daring to make a sound.

Chen Fan watched this scene, the disgust in his eyes deepening. He snorted coldly, sat back down on the stone stool, picked up the cup of fiery liquor, and drained it in one gulp.

The spicy liquid burned its way down his throat, but it couldn’t extinguish the rage in his heart.

’Damn it! Damn it all!’

’Su Yu has already broken through to Muscle Forging, but I, a supposed genius, am still stuck in the Flesh Refining Realm, unable to advance!’

’That old bastard Huyan promised to marry Huyan Tong to me, but he’s just treating me like a dog for the Huyan Family!’

’The way they’ve been looking at me these past two days isn’t right. The old man is probably going to discard me now that I’m no longer useful...’

’Should I run now?’

Chen Fan’s fingers dug into his palm so tightly that his nails broke the skin, drawing trickles of blood.

’No! I’ve given up so much. I refuse to run away like a stray dog! I won’t accept this!’

’As long as I can break through to the Muscle Forging Realm, I’ll have a chance to turn things around!’

His eyes were filled with anxiety, resentment, and indignation. He was clearly the true genius, so why had he ended up like a stray dog?

The next moment, he took a Jade Bottle from his robes and carefully tipped out a Pill.

The Pill was pitch-black and emanated a sinister aura.

’A Black Lotus Pill. This damn thing can stimulate a person’s potential and allow for rapid advancement, but the side effects are enormous!’

Chen Fan had once personally seen a Demon from the Black Lotus Sect fail to withstand the backlash and dissolve into a puddle of bloody sludge!

"WAAAH—"

The child’s wails once again sounded particularly piercing in the quiet courtyard.

"Make him shut the hell up!" A vein bulged on Chen Fan’s forehead as he whipped his head around and roared at Ye Lu. "Get in the house! If I don’t make it through this and die here, take the silver from under the bed and flee to Jian’an Prefecture! Get out!"

Ye Lu’s face turned deathly pale, terrified by the crazed look in Chen Fan’s eyes.

She looked at the Black Pill in his hand, which radiated an ominous aura, and instantly understood what he was about to do.

"Ah Fan... don’t take it, I’m begging you!" Ye Lu’s voice trembled, her eyes filled with pleading and despair.

"Get out!"

...

Chen Fan’s eyes were bloodshot as he stared fixedly at the Black Lotus Pill in his hand.

"To hell with it! I’m a genius! I will definitely break through!"

With a savage grin, he threw his head back and swallowed the pitch-black Black Lotus Pill.

The Pill went down his throat, its sinister energy chilling him to the bone. But after only three breaths, an indescribable, searing heat erupted wildly from his stomach!

"AHHH—"

Chen Fan let out a beast-like, bloodcurdling scream. He instantly lost control, falling from the stone stool and curling up, writhing violently in the dirt.

Beneath his skin, dark blue veins bulged out like earthworms, and tiny beads of blood even began to seep through.

Wisps of pitch-black, sinister energy spewed from his pores, enveloping his entire body.

"Ah Fan! Ah Fan, what’s wrong?"

"WAAAH WAAAH WAAAH..."

The courtyard descended into chaos. The woman’s cries of alarm, the child’s wails, and the man’s beastly roars mingled together, sounding exceptionally grim in the dark of night.

Pain!

The excruciating pain felt as if it would shatter every bone and tear every meridian in his body. This inhuman torture lasted for a full hour. Just as Chen Fan’s consciousness began to fade and he thought he was truly about to dissolve into a puddle of blood...

CRACK.

Deep within his body, it felt as if some long-dormant shackles on his bloodline had suddenly shattered.

An extreme, bone-deep cold surged forth from the depths of his soul. This chill instantly froze the rampant medicinal power of the Black Lotus Pill, transforming it into a terrifying torrent that rampaged through his limbs and torso.

At the same time, countless ancient memory fragments exploded in his mind, forcibly flooding his spirit like a flash flood.

"Cold... so cold..."

Chen Fan’s agonized roars turned into weak shivers.

A layer of white frost rapidly covered his entire body, visible to the naked eye. Even the weeds around him were coated in a layer of bright white ice crystals, making a CRACKLING sound as they froze.

His heartbeat began to slow, and the Qi Flow from his breath instantly condensed into ice crystals in the air.

Ye Lu rushed out and her face filled with alarm at the sight. She quickly fumbled in Chen Fan’s robes, pulled out several Pills to replenish Qi and Blood, and fed them to him.

But the cold energy continued to pour out of his body unabated, and there was no improvement.

"Ah Fan, you can’t die, you can’t die!"

Ye Lu gritted her teeth, immediately dropped down, and hugged Chen Fan, using her own body heat to warm him.

Soon, the cold had her shivering uncontrollably. But she still held onto Chen Fan tightly, unwilling to let go.

...

An hour later, Chen Fan’s eyes snapped open, a cold glint flashing within them before disappearing.

He sat up abruptly. With a jolt of his inner strength, he roughly shoved away Ye Lu, who was lying on top of him, frozen to the point of barely breathing.

"Hahahaha... HAHAHAHA!"

Chen Fan stared at his hands, now fair as jade and faintly glowing with a cold light. He threw his head back and laughed wildly, his voice filled with long-suppressed madness and ecstasy!

"I’ve awakened... So that’s how it is! I’m not some piece of trash at all, I’m a Cold Soul Cold Fire Spirit Body! Hahahaha, I, Chen Fan, am the true genius!"

"Junior Su, the next time we meet, I’ll be sure to give you a huge surprise. Then, you’ll understand which one of us is the real genius!"

...

「Qingxi Village.」

As soon as Su Yu entered the village, Village Chief Wang Yuechi led a large group of villagers to the entrance, kneeling excitedly to greet him.

"Greetings, Lord Su!"

"Everyone, please rise, Village Chief Wang."

Su Yu dismounted and raised a hand, gesturing for everyone to stand.

Wang Yuechi stood and approached Su Yu, his heart pounding with even greater excitement. With the Black Lotus Sect running rampant and bandits on the loose, even Black Stone City was in chaos, to say nothing of the areas outside the city walls.

But the turmoil itself wasn’t the worst of it; after all, they had rarely known peace. The main problem was that the harvest season had not yet arrived, and grain was scarce outside the city. The price had already risen to nearly twenty copper coins, far more than anyone could afford.

It was only thanks to Lord Su sending someone to warn them earlier that Qingxi Village had managed to stockpile some grain and last until now.

Unfortunately, their stores were now depleted. Just as Wang Yuechi was despairing, unable to just stand by and watch the villagers starve, Lord Su had arrived!

Seeing Lord Su gave him the feeling that he could solve any problem!

"Village Chief, I’ve brought some grain from the Su Mansion. Please see to it that it’s distributed among the struggling families in the village."

"Thank you, my Lord!"

Wang Yuechi immediately called over a dozen excited young men from behind him, who took the grain sacks one by one from the hands of the Flying Feather Guard.

"Lord Su is too good to our Qingxi Village! He actually brought us grain! My kid won’t have to go hungry anymore!"

"Lord Su is like a second father to us all in Qingxi Village! He’s such an important figure now, but he still hasn’t forgotten our village!"

"Of course! What kind of person is Lord Su? Back in the day, everyone in Qingxi Village had nothing but praise for him. Even now, many of the servants in his mansion were chosen from our village!"

After the grain was quickly distributed, Su Yu spoke with Wang Yuechi again. "Village Chief, I came for another reason as well. I am now a Commander and plan to expand the Flying Feather Guard. I’d like you to select a group of people with good Martial Arts talent from Qingxi Village and the nearby towns. I intend to recruit them all into the Flying Feather Guard!"

"What? Join the Flying Feather Guard?"

After hearing this, Wang Yuechi’s eyes went wide, and he stared at Su Yu in disbelief.

"That’s right. Please see to it. I think this will also help support many of the families in the village. In addition, I will propose to the Mansion Master that we build city walls. We can offer work-for-relief, which should allow most of the villagers outside the city to earn enough to eat and avoid starvation."

Hearing this, Wang Yuechi couldn’t hold back his tears. He bowed respectfully to Su Yu and said, "Lord Su, you are a savior to the people! You deserve to be honored in the Imperial Temple!"