“Song Ying Jie,” Yin Na patted the young martial artist’s shoulder, asking with concern. “Where is your Grandmother?”

Song Ying Jie’s exhaustion had nearly caught up to him, but suddenly remembered that the last thing he said to his Grandmother was to shout at her to run to the forest.

Song Ying Jie ran outside of the Wang family house and back to his own house.

The hut was empty, save the corpses of the bandits that he had slain. He searched around the vicinity, and shouted for his grandmother.

Yin Na trailed behind Song Ying Jie, and helped him look for Grandma Peng Ling.

The further they searched outside the hut and deeper into the forest, the more panicked Song Ying Jie became.

Finally, their fruits were rewarded.

Song Ying Jie found Grandma Peng Ling’s body in a bush. Sticking out of her spine was a bent spear, making her look like a slain animal by some hunter, but of course it was the handiwork of bandits.

Yin Na was behind Song Ying Jie, as he shook his head dramatically.

“Aiya, they are dead.”

Yin Na uttered such a simple sentence, but it had the emotional effect of a truth uttered from a true Daoist.

With those words, the adrenaline wore off from Song Ying Jie, as the exhaustion; bruises and mental toil hit him with the delayed effect of an internal gong fu punch.

He cried while bloodying his ashamed face with his palms.

Song Ying Jie howled to the heavens.

“I shall kill myself!”

Song Ying Jie propped his Grandmother’s corpse up as he were sitting her on the ground, and was about to thrust himself into the exposed spear end.

“Stop!” Yin Na cried out sententiously.

Song Ying Jie listened. After waiting for Daoist Wayseeker Crow to rebuke him, but hearing nothing, Song Ying Jie whimpered:

“Why?”

“Why what?” Yin Na said, as he yanked Song Ying Jie to his feet, letting Grandma Peng Ling’s corpse fall to the earth with a wet thud as the spear was still stuck in her.

Song Ying Jie sobbed:

“Why did this happen? Who did I or anyone in this village offend to bring a bandit attack of this scale to us? Tell me, Crow Bro, why shouldn’t I kill myself? I lost my wife, future family and my only family, I’m all alone in this world! Did you ever foresee this ill event in your divination, Daoist Wayseeker Crow?”

Yin Na’s eyes glittered beneath the moonlight like diamonds.

“Heaven bestows blessings and calamities arbitrarily. Who can say that they truly know Heaven’s will? My divination has limits, too. And you must not kill yourself, Song Ying Jie, for you still have another mission left in life.”

“What? What mission would that be?” Song Ying Jie sniffled.

“The killers of your Grandmother. They cannot be too far off. We can track them and avenge your grandmother together!”

Song Ying Jie wanted to immediately set off to fulfill Yin Na’s suggestion, but Yin Na forbade him.

“You’re exhausted, we both need rest. The honored dead need to be buried- we can’t just leave your grandmother and the villagers out for the wild beasts.”

Song Ying Jie was prone to suggestions from Yin Na.

Yin Na smiled underneath his face mask. The past five days of swallowing the poison pill of Yin Na’s paid off!

He couldn’t expect mental suggestions or even coercion from mortal herbal medicine to completely prevent Song Ying Jie from saving his loved ones. It would be too unrealistic to hope that Song Ying Jie would just allow his own grandmother to be killed upon waking up, which is why Yin Na had left personal explicit instructions to two bandits in Bandit Kang’s gang to lag behind and watch Song Ying Jie’s hut personally.

If Song Ying Jie had remained with his grandmother, then there was nothing this plan could have achieved. Song Ying Jie would have left the hut with Grandma Peng Ling closely beside, and after witnessing his strength, the two bandits who were assigned to watch Song Ying Jie’s hut would have either fled or stupidly attempted to attack and lost their lives. Instead, they watched as Song Ying Jie left the hut, only for an old feeble grandmother to hobble out of the hut later by herself. They killed her par Ragface’s instructions, and then joined the assault on the Wang family house where they were killed by Yin Na.

In short, the two low-lives who killed Song Ying Jie’s grandmother were already dead, their living connection to Yin Na wiped cleanly by the orchestrator himself!

But Song Ying Jie wouldn’t know that. Song Ying Jie psychologically fell into Yin Na’s clutches, he embraced Wayseeker Crow as his confidant; a brother-in-arms and ally who will help guide him into his nonexistent quest for revenge!

“Thus, the most common Jiang Hu trope of hero-lives-on-for-revenge is established,” Yin Na chuckled.

“What was that?” Song Ying Jie blubbered.

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They had finished dressing and washing the bodies of the dead villagers, which were not that many. Of course, the most attention was done on Grandma Peng Ling and members of the dead Wang family.

“Nothing,” Yin Na said. “Let us pray for the dead.”

“En,” Song Ying Jie nodded.

Yin Na spoke a whole bunch of nonsense Daoist gibberish, which sounded like profound eloquent poetry to Song Ying Jie’s hick peasant ears. The puzzling usage of random antiquated words made him weep harder.

When the ceremony was over, Yin Na let Song Ying Jie bury all of the villagers by hand.

The morning sun had already creeped behind the clouds.

“Let’s sleep,” said Yin Na.

“But what about tracking the bandit murderers who killed my Grandma?” Song Ying Jie asked.

“It’s fine, you yourself possess tracking skills and if not- you can trust a Daoist’s tracking methods.”

Song Ying Jie nodded and put his head on the soil just a few footsteps away from where he buried his Grandmother and immediately passed out into a heavy sleep.

“Hehehe,” Yin Na chuckled to himself. “Some things are impossible to change, such as the impulse to save one’s family or the sorrow one would naturally feel from watching their entire family’s death in one unlucky night. But there is another reason why you’re so compliant with my suggestions, Ying Jie. It’s because deep down in that impenetrable muck of hick boorishness that is your subconsciousness, you’re unable to recognize that you are actually relieved. Relieved; and too stupid to be grateful! Because in one night, you were gifted with a quest to chase; enemies to fight; and best of all- freed of your obligations-”

“What was that, Crow Bro?” Song Ying Jie called out from his sleep.

“...” Yin Na stared at Song Ying Jie, who did not hear anything and was already snoring; then he gave a cold harumph and also lay on the grassy earth to sleep.

“Tomorrow, this ruffian will wake up as the most happy man in the Jiang Hu,” Yin Na thought. “If not tomorrow, then the following week.”

Song Ying Jie awoke the next morning and stretched.

“I’m hungry,” he said. But then his nostrils picked up the scent of death, from the bloodied bandits that they’ve piled out the night before, unburied and already beginning to decompose.

“Here,” Yin Na had shown up beside Song Ying Jie, holding a plate of food that he had cooked himself using the still-operational stove from one of the villager’s houses.

He had also been digging through all the villagers’ possessions within their houses, but was unable to find any benefits other than the one remaining manual within Grandma Peng Ling’s chest in her hut.

Tucked within his robe was the final manual, which in his haste he did not even bother reading the title.

“Thank you Crow Bro,” said Song Ying Jie. “But can we first get away from this foul place before eating?”

Yin Na snapped, “No! Eat now.”

Song Ying Jie’s mouth gaped open in shock at Wayseeker Crow’s unexpected response.

Yin Na explained: “You have just slept through your first life or death battle in the Jiang Hu. Now think back to your ancestors, and how they’ve had to fight on the battlefield and be denied the luxury of returning to their sheltered homes to eat. Eat now, you’re already in dire need of energy and recovery. Eat, and realize that this will be something which you will grow accustomed to as a martial artist of the Jiang Hu!”

“Your words enlighten me, Bro Crow!”

Yin Na’s words provided inspiration to Song Ying Jie, whose hunger overpowered his disgust over eating next to corpses. He accepted Wayseeker Crow’s breakfast offering, which was a savory congee with bits of dried meat within the rice.

Yin Na had also mixed in Ether and crushed Emerald Orb Spiders into the mixture, in order to further sway the youth’s mind.

The flavor of the additional ingredients was masked by the sesame oil and soysauce. Yin Na’s cooking aptitude was even raised as a result of this sneaky method of cooking!

“How is it?” Yin Na asked, as he ate his own serving of porridge, free of poisonous ingredients.

“Mm, it’s good. Thank you, Crow Bro. Aiya, I will never cook for my Grandma again..”

Song Ying Jie sounded like he was going to cry again.

“Your Grandma would want you to avenge her,” Yin Na said. “Your Grandma would not want you to be sitting here moping your life away and talking rot about suicide. Both Wang Jiang Jun, Wang Jin Lian and Grandma would want you to avenge them, so continue to cultivate your gong fu to become the best martial artist you can be.”

Song Ying Jie nodded slowly, his mind turning over the words Yin Na implanted in it like seeds on a field.

“Yes…” Song Ying Jie said. “She would want me to…live on, and continue fighting.”

“Exactly!” Yin Na said. “Ying Jie, become a hero, it is your legacy!”

“Crow Bro, your words have made me seen the light!” Song Ying Jie said. Part of him was not sure why he was getting so excited, but he couldn’t help matching Yin Na’s excited tone and energy.

“Good,” Yin Na smiled. “The bandits have left behind one of their mules last night. I took it, and it shall help carry their spoils which will become ours.”

Song Ying Jie nodded, “En. Wait, what ‘spoils?’”

Suddenly, he remembered. Last night, as he charged into the Wang Family house, there was a huge lump of tael and silver around the Wang family house with no explanation whatsoever as to how they got there.

Yin Na saw Song Ying Jie beginning to form his slow thoughts beneath that tangle of dirty hair, and quickly dispelled them with a weak explanation that was credible under the consumption of the poison ingredients.

“The bandits evidently liked to carry their wealth with them, as they were nomadic and therefore had to move their treasury with them on every raid.”

“Oh, I see,” Song Ying Jie nodded.

“That’s right,” Yin Na said. “We won’t leave empty-handed. We will be able to use the wealth from the bandits’ history to enable us to buy basic necessities and food in any town we come across. They will also enable us to establish connections with materialistic-minded Jiang Hu wanderers, and form important networking with other figureheads. Such is the power of money: Jumping Across Clouds compounded with financial freedom is bliss!”

“Yes, money can open many possibilities for a martial artist, I get it now,” Song Ying Jie said. “Fists are not enough, ‘financial freedom’ becomes a shield and spear.”

“Very good, Ying Jie!” Yin Na praised Song Ying Jie as if he were one of his old Yao Guai students. Almost without even thinking about it, Yin Na naturally began veering into the topic of the Dao of Benefits.

“With the taels from the robbers,” Yin Na said. “We can easily bribe the right people who have seen the bandits who killed your Grandmother’s whereabouts. We can buy you some decent clothes, and even weapons.”

“Ah, possessions!” Song Ying Jie cried out. “Where are my Grandma’s stuff? Where were her manuals?”

Yin Na’s eyes almost rolled in their sockets out of exasperation, but he had prepared a response.

“Alas, I checked the chest in the hut. I believe that the bandits who killed your Grandma also were the only ones that didn’t leave empty-handed that night, as they also stole everything from your chest… including the manuals.”

Song Ying Jie’s eyes turned red. Energized by breakfast, he stood up and howled to the heavens in rage.