"Virgin boys and girls?!"
At Yuan Qu's words, Zhou Peide stiffened, staring at him in utter disbelief. "Isn't he a disciple of an orthodox lineage? What does he need those for? And here in Xianyang City—does he have a death wish?!"
"Oh, my dear Senior Brother Zhou..."
Yuan Qu shook his head faintly. "Rules are merely rules. If everyone in this world followed the rules, how could so many people ever rise to greatness?"
"If Lord Lu, the Left Vice Envoy, had followed the rules, could he have climbed to such high office?"
"If Master had followed the rules, would he ever have taken me as a disciple?"
"If I followed the rules, could I have handled all those dirty jobs Master handed down? Would the Zhou family have the power and influence it enjoys today?"
"Rules are made for fools. Throughout history, among all the kings, dukes, generals, and ministers, who ever rose to power by playing by the rules?"
"Hmph, if we went by the rules, Zhou Bai's vengeance shouldn't even be pursued!"
Seeing that Zhou Peide was still hesitating, Yuan Qu let out a sneer. "Senior Brother, do you really think Master doesn't know about the things I do?"
"Master Chen runs his shop right here in Xianyang, doing whatever he pleases, and you don't see anyone from the Hall of Enforcement coming to cause him trouble. Even he isn't afraid, so what are you scared of?"
Zhou Peide's expression flickered with indecision. After a long silence, he finally said in a heavy voice, "The brokerage houses are under your control too. Finding a few shouldn't be that difficult..."
"It is difficult!"
Yuan Qu shook his head. "If it were that simple, why would he need us? Their birth dates and eight characters must align perfectly. Everyone I could find, I've already searched through."
"Don't you have the registries of the boys who signed up for the Divine Fist Association across the villages, Senior Brother? Their eight characters of birth are written on them. Master Chen is still short by three. If we can help him complete the count, avenging Zhou Bai will be effortless."
"Besides, Master Chen also said that Zhou Bai's injury is not beyond cure..."
"What?!"
Zhou Peide leaped to his feet, crying in disbelief, "Junior Brother Wang consulted several master physicians, and every one of them said nothing could be done! He isn't lying to us, is he?"
Yuan Qu shook his head. "I've delivered the message. Whether to believe it or not is up to you, Senior Brother. Once he gets what he needs, I expect he'll leave immediately."
"Senior Brother, once this chance is gone, there won't be another..."
Zhou Peide took a deep breath, turned, and strode away.
"Tomorrow, I will have the registries brought to you..."
...
Watching Zhou Peide's departing back, Yuan Qu breathed a sigh of relief.
*Squeak—*
The side door to the main hall swung open slowly, and a tall figure stepped out. Draped in a red robe with a hairpin flower tucked into his hair, it was none other than Zheng Heibei, chief of the Iron Saber Gang.
With a cold sneer, he dropped heavily into a chair, spreading his legs wide, and cursed, "That old bastard has always looked down on us. Even when begging for help, he puts on that haughty air! Why do you bother catering to him?"
"What do you know!"
Yuan Qu turned, sat down, and took a sip of tea before saying calmly, "With the way things are playing out in Xianyang, with all this fighting back and forth, we are the ones in the greatest danger."
"Old Man Zhang and his lot are gripping our throats and won't let go. Given Master's temperament, he was willing to cast aside even Zhou Bai; when the time comes, he will certainly use our lives to wash his own hands clean."
"Big surprise."
Zheng Heibei scoffed. "From the day we bowed to him as Master, didn't we know this day would come? In any case, the moment things look sour, I'm ready to pull out."
"Pull out?"
A sinister fire flared in Yuan Qu's eyes. Glancing around, he said in a low, grim voice, "This fortune and foundation were built by my own blood and sweat! You might be willing to throw it away, but I'm not."
"Hmph, that old devil thinks he can play it clever. Drag the Zhou family into the mud too, and let's see if he can stay out of it then!"
Zheng Heibei did not argue. After a brief silence, he suddenly spoke up. "What about that band of bladesmen? If, by chance..."
"There are no 'by chances'!"
Yuan Qu cut him off sharply. "That Zheng fellow wasn't honest either, scheming behind our backs to replace us once Master sold us out. What he never suspected was that every damn one of those bladesmen was fed and paid for by me!"
"A penniless beggar—what did he think he had to play against me?"
"Remember, you and I are grasshoppers tied to the same string now. If you don't want to end up drifting through the Jianghu with a bounty on your head, cooperate properly."
"Hmph! That old bastard had one thing right."
"He who laughs last is the true winner..."
* * *
*Scrape—! Scrape—!*
Before dawn had even broken, Sha Lifei was jolted awake by a racket in the courtyard.
The rasp of wood planes, the clinking of chisels, the rhythmic pull of saws... The noise resonated everywhere.
"Breakfast! Time to eat!"
"Old Uncle, what did you make today? It smells amazing!"
"Jiangshui noodles, steamed bowl pork, vegetable tofu..."
Sha Lifei had been dying of sleepiness, his head buried deep beneath the quilt, but the moment he heard about food, saliva flooded his mouth. Rolling out of bed, his clothes in utter disarray, he dashed straight outside.
Sure enough, the courtyard was a hive of bustling activity.
The carpenters were already drenched in sweat. Even in the chill of the autumn morning, white vapor rose from their heads as they tidied up their leftover work and prepared to eat.
When Sha Lifei dashed into the front courtyard, his nose nearly twisted with envy.
Six massive cauldrons were propped over roaring fires. Two bubbled with jiangshui noodles, two steamed with bowls of pork, and two simmered with vegetable tofu, sending rich, savory aromas wafting into everyone's nostrils.
Meanwhile, Wang Daoxuan and Li Yan were squatting side by side on the steps, holding sea-sized bowls of noodles, sweating profusely as they shoveled food into their mouths alongside the steamed pork and vegetable tofu.
"Well played, you two!"
Sha Lifei's lips trembled with indignation. "Eating good food and not even calling me!"
Li Yan raised his oversized bowl, his chopsticks clinking noisily as he slurped down the final bite of noodles. Letting out a satisfied belch, he scoffed, "You were sleeping like a dead pig. We couldn't wake you if we tried, and now you blame us...?"
"Hahaha!"
The carpenters burst into hearty laughter. Sha Lifei didn't bother arguing back; he rushed over, grabbed a bowl of each dish, and squatted on the steps, eating so furiously his eyes bulged and his neck strained.
Shopkeeper Wan stepped out as well, a warm smile crinkling his eyes as he held his long tobacco pipe. "Brother Li, finished eating? Come, follow me to inspect the drum."
Li Yan's eyes lit up, and he hurried to follow. "It's finished already? That fast?"
"Haha, how could it be?"
Shopkeeper Wan chuckled, shaking his head as he walked. "Making a drum—from selecting the timber, cutting the planks, bending them, sun-curing, all the way to mounting the hide and nailing the studs—takes over a dozen steps for an ordinary craft. Our Wensheng Pavilion's technique involves more than twenty."
"No matter what, it usually takes at least a month."
"You're in luck, though. The si-hide we brought back a while ago had already been cured and prepared by my men, which saves a great deal of time..."
As he spoke, he led Li Yan into the back courtyard.
Unlike the front, this was Shopkeeper Wan's living quarters. Various tools were arranged here as well, but all were crafted from top-grade wood, their surfaces polished with a sleek, lustrous patina.
Li Yan even detected a faint scent of incense, indicating none of these were ordinary items.
On the drying racks, the lightning-struck jujube wood they had brought back had already been cut and heat-cured into curved staves, neatly aligned to dry.
Jujube wood was naturally dense and tough, and combined with the scorched grain left behind by the celestial strike, it possessed a striking, unique beauty.
Li Yan formed a Yang Mudra and took a breath. A fierce, scorching aura rushed into his nostrils, instantly clearing his mind.
It was the celestial thunder gang qi preserved within the lightning-struck wood.
Before it was even refined into a dharma artifact, it already held such potent might; no wonder it was prized as prime material for spiritual tools.
A smile tugged at the corner of Li Yan's mouth.
Standing beside him, Shopkeeper Wan added, "There is one more thing I should tell you, young friend. I reduced the size of the war drum by half."
"It isn't that I'm being stingy. Once this drum is finished and consecrated, it will become a genuine dharma artifact. If it were crafted to the scale of a true Qin-Han war drum, striking it just a few times a day would likely shake your soul and leave you injured."
"I understand your circumstances. Mystical arts are not mastered in a single day, but this hidden jin of yours must be practiced constantly, lest you drift backward like a boat against the current. This size is just right."
"Since this lightning-struck jujube wood is a heavenly spirit earthly treasure, it only needs a few days of sun-curing. After that, we mount the hide and drive the studs. In under seven days, you'll be able to wield your treasure."
"I shall defer entirely to Senior's judgment."
Knowing the elder meant well, Li Yan nodded promptly.
"Furthermore..."
Shopkeeper Wan retrieved a wooden box from his robe and opened it carefully. Inside lay a length of leather cord. It looked unremarkable, yet Li Yan caught a remarkably thick scent of incense, laced with a crisp, chilling killing intent.
Shopkeeper Wan said in a low voice, "With the drum's size reduced, the leftover lightning-struck wood ended up with me in the end. I can't let you come away empty-handed."
"Among the batch of si-hides I brought back, one came from a beast that had attained spiritual cultivation, which was consecrated in Taibai Hall of the Doumu Courtyard. Strips of its hide were made into cords for the drum tassels."
"I kept a piece for myself. Hand over your saber tassel."
Li Yan's eyes brightened, and he hastily untied the Three Powers Demon-Suppressing Coins saber tassel.
With practiced ease, Shopkeeper Wan unraveled it, carried it into the inner hall, and lit three sticks of incense before the altar of his ancestral masters. Then, he began to braid.
His hands blurred with speed. Each time he tied a knot, he formed a hand seal, incanting under his breath before jabbing a finger at the knot to proceed to the next.
Li Yan could smell a frosty sha qi blending with the incense smoke, injected into every single knot.
Sha knotting!
Li Yan's eyes sparkled.
Wang Daoxuan had once told him: a blade without temper has no edge, and a talisman without sha has no efficacy. When drawing a talisman, the talisman head and talisman gallbladder were merely the foundation. To truly make a talisman potent, one could not do without sha knotting and name inscription.
Sha knotting meant channeling gang qi and sha qi into the talisman paper.
Name inscription meant writing down the secret names of the deities.
Only when both steps were fulfilled would a talisman take effect.
For Shopkeeper Wan to integrate sha knotting into artifact refinement spoke to an extraordinary heritage.
Then again, if Wang Daoxuan hadn't pointed it out, who would have guessed that this genial old shopkeeper was actually an elder of the Xianyang Artisan Guild, with a cultivation standing two stories high?
At last, before the three sticks of incense burned down, Shopkeeper Wan finished weaving the saber tassel.
The new tassel looked even more rustic and understated. It completely concealed the Three Powers Demon-Suppressing Coins, and even their supernatural scent was thoroughly sealed. Unless deliberately activated, it looked no different from an ordinary trinket.
Taking it back, Li Yan beamed with delighted surprise.
From now on, he would never have to worry about the Three Powers Demon-Suppressing Coins drawing covetous eyes.
Having braided the tassel, Shopkeeper Wan was visibly weary. Taking a few puffs of his pipe, he smiled and said, "This tassel can also be hung from the war drum. When drumming to banish evil, its power will double. My only concern is whether your spirit preservation is strong enough to trigger it."
"Thank you, Senior."
Li Yan bowed deeply with clasped hands.
Shopkeeper Wan waved a hand dismissively. "No need. Zhao Lvzi told me that without your help, that lightning-struck wood couldn't have been harvested, and my plans would have fallen through."
"We unorthodox practitioners cannot compare to the orthodox Xuanmen lineages; naturally, we must support one another."
"Senior is truly righteous!"
Li Yan cupped his fists once more in gratitude.
Shopkeeper Wan had done him an immense favor. With this, combined with the gold taken from the bandit stronghold, once matters in Xianyang were settled, they could head to Mount Taibai to conduct the tower-building ritual.
With his artifact complete, Li Yan was in high spirits.
He stayed another day. Near noon, feeling thoroughly bored with nothing else to do, Li Yan picked up some wine and food, intending to head up the mountain to drink with Zhao Lvzi.
Yet before he could even step out the gate, a man dashed into the courtyard in sheer panic. With a loud *thud*, he dropped to his knees and wailed:
"Old Uncle Wan, Zhuzi has been abducted! I beg you, please save him!"
As he cried out, he began knocking his head against the ground in frantic kowtows, his forehead instantly bathed in blood...
Chapter 59