The sun had already set by the time I returned to Three River City. Finding the ten year ash bark had taken far longer than I expected and the unfortunate incident with the man tailing me had left a sour aftertaste.

  Even when I pursued alchemy and healing I was unable to avoid the brutality of this world. I’d become mired in plots and schemes far beyond my grasp and despite my best efforts to avoid them, it seemed inevitable that I would need to dirty my hands or find myself caught unawares as a dagger slit my throat in the night.

  When I tried to open the front door I found it locked. Xiao Cui and the village head must have retired to bed already, given the late hour.

  Unlocking it was easy. It was a very simple array formation that had been inscribed prior to Grandpa Guan giving me the building. The instructions for unlocking and locking it were included in the deed.

  The faint aroma of cooking permeated the lobby and when I entered the kitchen I found a bowl of noodles and silky tofu left out for me. Xiao Cui was a devoted disciple, cooking for me even though I didn’t need to eat.

  I reached for a chair to sit, but my eyes narrowed as I sensed movement on the upper floors of the building. I immediately dashed out of the kitchen and raced up the stairs.

  When I reached the floor which Xiao Cui and the village head slept on, I stopped for a second. Upon sensing that they were both alive and well, their aura that of peaceful rest, I continued upwards until I was outside my bedroom.

  My hand hovered against the door, allowing my senses to permeate the room before I entered. When they brushed against a feeble presence within I let out a relieved breath.

  The door clicked as I opened it, but I was already gone from the entrance. There was a feminine yelp as I grabbed the intruder and pressed them against the wall where they’d been standing.

  “You know, Sir Zhao, there are those who would say that pressing an unfamiliar woman into the wall against her will is not how a gentleman conducts himself,” drawled a honeyed voice.

  I kissed my teeth and released her, taking a step back as she twirled around and leaned into where I’d been standing a moment before. She staggered, eyes widening in shock but I saw through the act.

  Yu Chun caught herself before falling and stood up straight, staring at me with a predatory smile painted in red. “You’re no fun,” she harrumphed.

  “I don’t take kindly to strangers invading the privacy of my home, especially where the safety of my disciple is concerned. You’re only alive because you left the two downstairs untouched,” I snapped. “What do you want?”

  She sighed, taking a seat on the edge of my bed and lounging against the frame as though it were her own room. “All the men in my life are so high strung. Where are all the relaxed playboys I can wrap around my finger like dragon’s beard candy?”

  I let the weight of my qi slip out, pressing down on her as though she was deep under the ocean. I admired her courage, her bemused facade not shifting an inch.

  Unfortunately for her, I could see beyond the poorly constructed falsehoods. Her fear was a hideous stench marring the air of my room, reminding me of the impurities left after a breakthrough.

  “Do not test my patience. You have five seconds to explain yourself or you’ll spend the next few weeks as a test subject for my experiments,” I snarled.

  “Cultivators are far too perceptive. If only I was gifted with spirit roots, perhaps I could raise my skills to a level where even the likes of you and that vile man would fall under my spell…” she mused, trailing off when she saw my fierce glare.

  “I confess, the reason I am here is a little embarrassing, Sir Zhao. After our last meeting, I found myself entranced by your talent and handsomeness, desiring another conversation with you,” Yu Chun continued, her words dripped into my ears like honey, her eyelashes fluttering as she spoke.

  Honestly if not for the fact that I was exhausted after my trip and the events of the last couple months, I might have believed her. Yu Chun was a beautiful woman and it had been a while since I’d spent the night doing anything but cultivating or sleeping—both in my own company.

  Hurting a woman was near the bottom of the list of things I wanted to spend my time doing, but I’d had enough of her games. Before she could blink I grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against the wall.

  She screamed, but I muffled it with a hand over her mouth. “I told you to be honest. If you had any idea about cultivation, you would know not to try and slip something past one at my realm,” I sighed, holding up a jade, orange runes floating in the air around it. “What is this?”

  I knew what it was already. A communication jade. However, what I needed to know was why Yu Chun had snuck into my room with one hidden inside her clothes.

  “A communication jade,” she replied blankly.

  I narrowed my eyes and tightened my grip on her throat.

  “My employer wanted to listen in on our conversation,” she wheezed.

  “Who is your employer?” I demanded, crushing the jade in my hands.

  As the dust fell between my fingers Yu Chun’s eyes grew wide and I felt her heart rate quicken. I supposed these were sturdy, from a mortal perspective. Not my intention, but if it squeezed more information from her then I’d play it up. My grip tightened a little more.

  “I can’t say. He’ll kill me. Please,” she begged, a tear forming in the corner of her eye.

  She could’ve been lying, but with her emotions on full display and her soul crushed under the weight of my qi, I doubted it.

  Treating a woman like this, even if she was a duplicitous brothel mistress, wasn’t my idea of fun. As I considered what to do, I felt a shift in the spiritual energy around the clinic, triggered by the security array.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  I threw Yu Chun onto my bed, leaping in the opposite direction right as the window shattered. A throwing dagger buried itself in the door, the blade twanging as it cast scattered moonbeams across the room.

  Where the dagger struck, the wood hissed and smoked as it rotted away. Poison or acid coated the blade.

  It might not harm me if I was struck instead, but better not to take the risk. Keeping that ace up my sleeve might allow me to catch the intruders by surprise.

  By now I didn’t need to interrogate Yu Chun to figure out her purpose here. Whether she had been informed or not, her goal was to distract me while the real threats broke in to assassinate me.

  There was an obvious culprit, based on the evidence. Councillor Gao had apparently decided that he couldn’t tolerate the city lord’s decision to free me.

  When the masked figure leapt through the broken window, followed by another similarly black-clad assassin, I met their gaze. A pair of familiar eyes stared back.

  Wang Bao and I shared a brief moment of recognition before the second assassin tossed a dagger at my heart with pinpoint accuracy. We both knew that no matter the outcome, only one of us was leaving here alive.

  I applauded Yu Chun for not making a noise this time, remaining out of sight and wrapped in my covers. Fighting against two foes was going to be challenging enough without having to protect a mortal.

  I dodged another dagger and danced around Wang Bao’s sword strikes, my mouth curling into a frown. It wasn’t challenging at all.

  The last time Wang Bao or the city lord’s men had seen me, I wasn’t even in the Qi Gathering Realm. Vice Captain Wang didn’t even put me in his eyes and even then he’d brought help to take me out.

  However, my cultivation had advanced in leaps and bounds. My unique methods combined with serendipitous encounters had allowed me to reach five-star Qi Gathering far faster than usual with half the effort.

  Three clashes later and I realised that I was simply delaying the inevitable. Wang Bao’s associate grew frustrated with their continued failure to strike me and rushed forward.

  “Wait-!” Wang Bao cried, but it was too late.

  I had guided the battle towards the door and ripped the dagger from where it was buried in the wood. The would-be assassin thrust his own dagger at my neck, but I was faster.

  He clutched at his throat as his blood spilled, the scent of burning flesh filling my nostrils as the last remnants of the poison went to work. I stepped past his dying clutches at my legs, facing off against the city’s vice guard captain.

  “You know, I was quite shocked to learn that Captain Kang’s right hand man was colluding with that vile bastard Gao,” I admitted, pushing him for information. “Despite our differences, I respect his pride and honour. I believed those under his command would hold themselves to similar standards, but perhaps he is a diamond hidden in dogshit.”

  Wang Bao snarled, abandoning caution as he leapt at me. He slashed wildly, waving his sword like a child throwing a tantrum. I ensured that my dodges were timed to the last second, giving him the illusion of almost catching me.

  I planned to play with him a little longer until his focus slipped, but the battlefield shifted in an instant. I felt two more intruders on the floor below.

  I dodged Wang Bao thrusting his sword at my gut, grabbing his wrist and crushing it in a single movement. To his credit, he barely winced as I turned his bone to dust. My next strike was a palm to the side of his head.

  His eyes rolled back and he dropped to the ground. His sword clattered against the floorboards, but I was already gone.

  I burst into little Cui’s room to see the village head standing between her and two Body Tempering practitioners garbed in the same black outfits as Wang Bao and his accomplice. The closest of the assassins stabbed the village head as I took a step.

  Before his blade could cut the village head I smacked it away and backhanded the man without controlling my strength. I had no time to hold back with the head’s life at risk.

  A sharp crack rang out as the man dropped to the ground like a sack of cabbages. The second assassin looked at me, then at his fallen comrade.

  His eyes were conflicted, fear of me and whoever had sent them here clashing as he froze in indecision. I made the choice for him, my fist smashing into his gut and the follow up kick snapping his neck.

  Killing wasn’t enjoyable, but they had come to kill Xiao Cui. If they had left her and the village head alone and only come for my life, perhaps I would’ve spared them. However, they crossed a line they never should have.

  I stored their bodies, realising that my spatial storage bag was now full. There was still a corpse in my room, but I could at least keep little Cui and the village head away from that one.

  “Zhao D- Master! Who are those men?” Xiao Cui exclaimed, clearly startled but to my surprise, not crying or breaking under the pressure of the situation.

  For a teenage girl she was sturdy. Whether that had been her character from the beginning or she was being tempered by her time in Three River City and travelling with me, only the heavens knew. I suspected it was a little of both.

  “I believe it is related to the matter with your village and that irritating councillor. I will handle it,” I replied.

  “Don’t worry about us, Cultivator Zhao. We shall clean the room and make some food. I think we need to have a little comfort after that shock,” the village head said with a smile. “It seems I owe you a life debt twice over. I am not sure what more I can offer, but I am at your beck and call.”

  “Nonsense, Head Wei. I only did what any man in my position would do,” I dismissed him with a wave.

  “Ha! If only that were true, benefactor Zhao. The Celestial Jade Empire would be a paradise,” he scoffed.

  I didn’t reply. He was right of course, but it was important to see the best in people. Or so I believed, anyway. I hoped I would still hold true to that belief if I ever reached the pinnacle of my path.

  When I entered my room once more, I found Yu Chun sitting at the edge of my bed, gently kicking the unconscious Wang Bao. I raised an eyebrow quizzically, scoffing at the stifled yelp she emitted when she noticed my presence.

  I took the two corpses back out of my bag. She yelped again as they hit the floorboards. “Can you stop that? I’m trying to focus. Also, your acting is as believable as pigs being able to fly.”

  “I heard there are spirit boars which can fly. Apparently their meat is a delicacy,” she replied, smirking at me from behind her sleeve.

  “Of course there are…” I muttered. Damn magical world and its implausible creatures.

  There would be no hiding this incident. If the city guard vice captain went missing there would be a search and I was sure that Captain Kang would not leave me out of it.

  Instead of allowing it to get to that point, it would most likely favour me if I approached the captain and the city lord myself. Doing things this way might even lead to Councillor Gao exposing himself.

  At the very least, Wang Bao would face punishment for his crimes. That was an outcome I would be pleased to witness.

  Of course, I was no fool. Leaving everything to the whims of City Lord Teng without taking precautions would be idiotic.

  With my five-star Qi Gathering cultivation, I could force his hand by exerting my strength. However, there was always a bigger dog. A taller sky.

  Doing that would only bring the Cloudy Falls Sect down on my head. As it was, I was already under scrutiny from the elders of the sect and had no desire to exacerbate that particular problem.

  I stomped on Wang Bao’s chest hard enough to make him cough. His eyes flickered open and he tried to sit upright. I kicked down and his head smacked the floorboards.

  That seemed to do the trick, startling him awake. Before contacting Captain Kang, I would squeeze every last drop of information from this filthy bastard.