A Life

"Wh-where am I?" In a daze, He Xu opened his eyes. Before him lay a lush grove of flowering trees, their delicate fragrance filling his nostrils. *Could I be in Huang Tian's Qinghui Garden right now?* Stunned, he scrambled to his feet and turned his head, only to see a cold-faced young man. *That's not Huang Tian!* His heart skipped a beat as a terrible foreboding seized him. "He Xu?" Xue Ting's flat voice sounded. "If I remember correctly, you and Huang Tian shared a room for a dozen days or so?" He Xu's mind spun frantically, trying to deduce why this person had brought him here and what he wanted regarding Huang Tian. Cautiously, he replied, "This lowly one indeed lived with him for ten days." "During the days you lived with him, did you notice anything unusual about him?" "Unusual?" He Xu froze and racked his memory. "Not... really, I don't think. He just trained relentlessly every single day. Aside from his exceptional bone structure and comprehension, there was nothing unusual about him." "He didn't make a single abnormal move?" "It seems... no." Seeing the young man pressing for details to pry into something, He Xu felt his unease mount. This person clearly was not on friendly terms with Huang Tian, and by the looks of him, he was no gentle soul. Xue Ting pressed on. "Did he ever sneak around behind your backs eating something, or carry some peculiar object on him?" "No... this lowly one never saw anything of the sort." Xue Ting's gaze turned chilling, boring into He Xu. "You aren't lying to me?!" He Xu shuddered all over. "I-I would never dare deceive you!" He knew it was best not to offend the man before him. If this person had the ability to abduct him in secret, he had the ability to kill him without a trace! Xue Ting's brow furrowed tightly as he scrutinized He Xu from head to toe. Sensing the sheer terror and dread rolling off him, he judged that the boy was likely telling the truth. *Could it be that Huang Tian really never obtained any secret treasure?* he pondered. Throughout the history of the Five Directions Realm, countless figures had stumbled upon secret treasures left behind by predecessors, advancing by leaps and bounds to become regional powerhouses. For instance, a first-rank Grandmaster six hundred years ago had acquired a special Celestial Being divine armament in his youth. That divine weapon possessed the ability to temper bone structure and accelerate the condensation of true qi, allowing his cultivation realm to soar at staggering speed! Beyond Celestial Being divine armaments, there were also sacred relics imbued with most of a first-rank Grandmaster's lifetime cultivation, pearls capable of purifying true qi, three-thousand-year-old earth ginseng, demonic swords that could siphon true qi from others... All manner of secret treasures and wondrous artifacts had forged legions of illustrious experts who dominated their domains. This was precisely why, upon hearing of Huang Tian breaking through multiple realms in a single month, Xue Ting's first reaction had not been that Huang Tian possessed extraordinary bone structure and comprehension, but rather a suspicion that he had lucked into a secret treasure of miraculous power! "Uncle Li!" Xue Ting looked toward Uncle Li standing at his side. Uncle Li immediately stepped forward until he stood before He Xu. Raising a palm, his hand blackened like ink and gave off wave after wave of foul stench. "Wh-what are you doing?" He Xu scrambled back in terror, but how could he ever evade the strike of a fourth-rank expert? With a dull thud, the palm slammed into his chest. The next second, He Xu felt as though his internal organs were engulfed in flames. Every breath burned like molten magma; billowing waves of searing heat scorched his sinews, bones, and flesh, throwing his body into violent spasms as he thrashed frantically on the ground. "Aaaagh!! I... I truly don't know anything!! Spare me! Spare me!" Tears and snot poured uncontrollably down his face, the excruciating agony wrenching shrill, bloodcurdling screams from his throat. Xue Ting watched him writhe and shriek on the ground with an impassive expression, completely unmoved. Only after a long while, when He Xu's cries had dwindled almost to silence, did Xue Ting wave his hand lightly. At the signal, Uncle Li struck out with another palm, though this one carried no fire poison, feeling as frosty as rime instead. A stream of bone-chilling air surged into He Xu's body, coaxing a deep, guttural groan from his lips. Lying on the ground with his muscles and bones aching fiercely, he looked up at Xue Ting in utter dread, his body trembling slightly. The young man said coldly, "I'll give you one more chance. Think carefully. Was there anything bizarre about him, or did he possess any extraordinary object?" He Xu gasped for breath, his mind turning frantically. But the deeper he dug into his memories, the more cold sweat drenched his body. Shivering, he stammered: "I truly can't think of anything! He was just like all the other martial students at the Guard Academy! He didn't make a single abnormal move, nor did he have any strange treasures! Please, I beg you, spare me..." Xue Ting let out a soft sigh. If the boy still gave this answer even under such terror, then He Xu truly knew nothing. He gave Uncle Li a meaningful glance. Uncle Li understood and stepped toward He Xu. Utter panic overtook He Xu. Pushing against the ground with both hands, he scrambled backward and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Is anyone there?! Murder! You can't kill me—Huang Tian and I were dormitory brothers and close friends! If you kill me, he will never let you get away with it!!" Xue Ting sneered. "Dormitory friends? From what I know, not only were you not his friend, you even offended him. He simply couldn't be bothered to care about an ant like you; otherwise, you'd have been tossed into a cesspool long ago." As his words fell, Uncle Li delivered an unexceptional palm strike to He Xu's skull. He Xu convulsed once, then moved no more. His eyes remained stretched wide, seemingly reflecting the scene from two months ago when he had first entered the Guard Academy, full of high spirits as he spoke to Huang Tian and Jiang Hou: "I don't want to just be a common guard, ordered around all day every day. At the very least, I have to enter the ranks and become a squad commander, flanked by a dozen men wherever I go. Only then could I call myself someone of consequence..." *Fwhoosh!* A plume of true qi flame reduced his corpse to flying ash. When the wind blew, it dissipated into nothingness. "Young Master, He Xu shared a room with Huang Tian for over ten days and knew nothing. Presumably, none of the others will know either. What should we do now?" Uncle Li asked. Xue Ting pondered aloud. "Either Huang Tian truly has no secret treasure and his lightning-fast cultivation is purely due to outstanding talent, or he is exceedingly cautious and took great care never to let anyone discover his secret... "As things stand, the former seems more likely. Uncle Li, I fear this trip of ours will yield nothing." Uncle Li was now also inclined to believe that Huang Tian was simply a genius. He said, "If so, let us return to the provincial capital." Xue Ting mused, "There is no rush to return. Since we're already here, we might as well stay a while longer. First, to see if there's an opportunity to grow closer to Huang Tian. If we can befriend a future Grandmaster, this journey won't have been in vain. "Second—humph, Uncle Li, do you think we are the only ones who want to unearth whatever secret Huang Tian might hold? Those people will surely probe him again and again. If he truly conceals some grand secret, he likely won't be able to keep it hidden forever!" His words made it clear that he had not entirely abandoned his pursuit of that supposed secret. Uncle Li said, "In other words, we befriend Huang Tian on one hand while sitting on the sidelines to watch him clash with those rivals?" "Precisely. Whatever the outcome, we won't lose out!" Xue Ting gave a faint smile, brimming with confident calculation.