“Who’s Dong Hai? I’ve never heard of him.” Xiahou Ren squinted in thought before he asked this question.

“Dong Hai is the strongest outer disciple in the sect. He took the Rite of Initiation last year, and he’s already reached the sixth step of the second realm.”

Ren gripped his chin and muttered in thought before saying, “You know, I’ve never heard of the Dong Clan. Are they from the western reaches of the Golden Tiger continent?”

A memory resurfaced in Shao’s mind. He had heard of a Dong Clan before. In fact, his village traded with theirs frequently. “I’ve heard of them,” he said. “They live in the Amber Crown Village on the northern half of Haishan. They’re a mortal clan.”

“Funny,” Xiahou Ren said with a mirthless smile, making it clear that humor was the farthest thing from his mind. “A pattern seems to be emerging. Anyway, next question. Why is Dong Hai attacking the new recruits?”

“He wants to minimize his competition during the tournament next month. First place in the tournament gets to choose a prize from the Greater Treasure Hall. When Dong Hai becomes an inner disciple, his support will allow his followers among the outer disciples to gain special privileges. We’ll be able to force other disciples to perform our assigned tasks, and we’ll be able to steal all the body-enhancing pills we want from those without Dong Hai’s support.”

“And you would end up with our treasures as well. At least, that was the idea, right?” Xiahou Ren spoke with such enthusiasm and good humor that his tone was almost indistinguishable from someone expressing admiration for his ally’s good idea.

“Yeah, that was the idea,” Shen Guanzhong said with a weak chuckle. It seemed to Shao that the blood loss made even that expression of humor difficult.

Sighing in annoyance at the realization that he would have to allow Shen Guanzhong to go free, Shao flicked the blood off his sword and returned it to his sheath. He took a few deep breaths and tried to think logically. Beyond attempted robbery and attempted murder, Shen Guanzhong hadn’t really done anything wrong to Yang Shao. Considering everything that went down, Shen Guanzhong had certainly left that conflict in worse shape.

His mind drawn to the injuries sustained during that sword fight, Shao looked down at the cut he had taken when he grabbed onto Shen Guanzhong’s sword. Shao remembered that the cut felt deep, and he knew it would be pointless to bother gripping his sword with that hand after the injury.

The cut was bad, and Shao figured that such a wound would cause a mortal to bleed to death over several hours. Shao’s hand was cut down to the bone, and several of the smaller bones in the center of the hand were visible. Despite the grievous nature of the wound, it had already stopped bleeding.

Cultivator biology puzzled Shao. After the battle with the demonic cultivators, his broken bones didn’t heal any faster than a normal mortal’s would. Here, where the wound was potentially life threatening, his body healed much faster. It was as if his body knew the severity of his injuries, and only really applied itself when it was in danger.

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The pain was only just starting to hit Shao. During the battle, he barely felt the cut, even though he could feel the blade scrape against the bones in his hand.

Gritting his teeth and trying not to let the pain show, Shao said, “Yeah, I think that calls for a healing pill.”

Shao took a healing pill from his pocket and frantically put it into his own mouth. As he swallowed, the one-armed swordsman looked over to him with a smirk.

“Ha! I see you didn’t escape our fight unscathed, garbage collector!”

Shao flashed a vulgar hand gesture toward Shen Guanzhong but didn’t otherwise respond. Shao would have liked a little respect after proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was the better fighter.

“Hey, hey! We’re still talking!” Xiahou Ren pulled Shen Guanzhong’s attention back toward himself. “Last question. We have the ‘Who’ and the ‘Why.’ Now, I want to know the ‘Where.’ Where does Dong Hai live?”

“He lives in the South District near the Armory. The place he lives is called the Village of Great Potential; it’s where all the strongest outer disciples live.”

“Sounds like we’re gonna be neighbors soon,” Ren said with a smile that seemed genuine. “Thank you, friend. You’ve been a great help.”

Xiahou Ren held his left hand out for Shen Guanzhong to shake. With a condescending smile poisoning his features, Shen Guanzhong shook Ren’s hand. His expression clearly signaled his utter contempt for those around him and the low regard he held for Ren’s intelligence.

A heartbeat after the two men clasped hands, Xiahou Ren drew a razor-sharp knife out of his bag and slashed Shen Guanzhong’s throat. Holding the man’s hand in place to prevent him from defending himself, Ren stabbed Shen Guanzhong’s chest three times in quick succession before he could fall to the ground.

A look of shock contorted Shen Guanzhong’s face as he fell to the ground. A single bright red trail of blood trickled out of the side of his mouth, and he was dead.

“I couldn’t just let you live, obviously,” Xiahou Ren said to the body as he cleaned the blood off his knife with the small cloth. “As soon as you said, ‘Sixth step of the second realm,’ your fate was sealed. Sorry, but I’m not looking to fight another Zhouji without a little training.”

“You killed him,” Gao Long said breathlessly.

“Yeah.”

“That was dishonorable. To kill a man with deceit is impropriety of the highest order. We are cultivators, not common thugs.”

“There’s a difference?” Xiahou Ren shot back. “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t tell. From my vantage point, it seems that our ‘moral code’ as cultivators is determined by whether or not we survive. If I had released him, he would have gone straight to Dong Hai and told him everything. We would be dead before morning.”

With an unflinching glare, Gao Long said, “Certain acts are good; certain acts are evil. No amount of equivocation will change that.”

Xiahou Ren matched his glare. “Didn’t you say you had to tell the Gao Clan of your cousin’s death? You should go do that.”