Pig Brain!

Li Keshi laughed heartily, then turned toward Xu Yao. "From what I saw, you've been practicing the Eight Battle-Formation Sabers? Battle-Formation Elbow and Battle-Formation Leg?" "Yes, sir. Your discerning eye sees all." "Have you practiced the Demon Suppression blade?" Li Keshi asked with a smile. "No, sir." "Mm." Li Keshi nodded, thoroughly satisfied. "Good." Chen Chong wiped away sweat at the side. Sure enough, Li Keshi brought a palm down hard across the necks of the Second and Seventh Brigade captains with a resounding smack, cursing, "Do you think I'm blind?!" Their faces dark, the two hung their heads low. "It's only because it was me who came today. Anyone else would have had the heads off you two bastards! Teaching the Demon Suppression blade to someone who hasn't even entered the Demon Suppression Bureau? Good-for-nothing scoundrels, is your head full of manure? Where are the rules?!" Li Keshi let loose a barrage of curses. "It was only the stances... we didn't pass on the cultivation formula. Please, sir, see reason." "Even stances are forbidden! Anyone who sees it, who's going to believe it was only stances?!" Xu Yao lowered his head in realization. So that was why the men in the compound never let him watch when they practiced their saber. The Demon Suppression blade was never taught to outsiders. "Work harder!" Li Keshi said to Xu Yao, "What you have right now is hardly enough! You only have a little over two months left." "Yes, sir." Li Keshi said no more. He merely clapped Xu Yao on the shoulder, nodded to Chen Chong and the others, and turned to look toward the courtyard where the funeral arrangements were underway. Sighing softly, he pulled out a pouch of silver and handed it to the captain of the Fifth Brigade. "I won't wait around for the funeral. If I stay, seeing me will only bring them grief... Give this money to the two mothers and their boys." "Understood." "Raise those boys well." Li Keshi turned to look at the men who had come with him. "Don't wait around, either. Come with me." The men nodded. In the end, Li Keshi still paced a few steps near the entrance and sighed. Xu Yao noticed that he paced two full circles. Only then did he finally wave a hand and lead his men airborne. Like a patch of dark cloud surging into the sky, they banked sharply in midair and vanished without a trace. After that, Chen Chong and the other captains gathered the members of their respective brigades. They quietly said their farewells to the Fifth Brigade and refrained from visiting the other courtyard where the sorrowful wailing echoed. Then, in silence, each brigade set out on their return journey. The yellow-haired lad and the short, dark, pudgy fellow, on the other hand, each waved to Xu Yao. "See you next time, Boss!" "..." Xu Yao had no desire to acknowledge those two shameless scoundrels. Rolling his eyes, he followed after his brigade. Calling him "Boss" with honeyed words and begging for protection, then instantly turning around to stab him in the back after fighting side by side, and when their strike failed to faze him, having the sheer cheek to turn right back and call him "Boss" again. As Liu Zhen sprinted, he laughed. "What's the matter? Can't stomach that kind of two-faced treachery?" "A little," Xu Yao admitted sheepishly. "Honestly, I'm just amazed they could do it so naturally." "Well, that's something you'll have to figure out for yourself." Liu Zhen chuckled, a look of amused detachment appearing on his dark face. "Just a word of advice: down the road, you might find yourself surrounded entirely by people like that. Could you really manage to hate them all?" To the side, Buck Teeth remarked with surprise, "Mama Liu actually changed his ways? He isn't chattering on and repeating himself for once." Xu Yao lowered his head in thought. "I've thought about it. Maybe people out in the world are all that cunning?" "You call that cunning? That barely scratches the surface!" A burst of thunderous laughter immediately erupted from the burly men. Although their pace on the return trip was still swift, it felt far more relaxed than when they had come. Along the way, Xu Yao gazed into the vast expanse of mountain forest. Looking closely, he noticed quite a few scattered homesteads tucked away in extreme secrecy; without paying close attention, one wouldn't spot them at all. Some were accessible only via winding goat tracks concealed beneath dense thickets where no clear path could be seen. These trails snaked deep into remote mountain valleys and hidden hollows surrounded on all four sides by peaks. Dense woods enclosed them, and the dwellings were built in colors matching the surrounding forest. Even when fires were lit for daily cooking, not a wisp of smoke could be seen from outside. Yet the more hidden a place was, the more Xu Yao noticed upon closer inspection that people actually lived there. "Why does everyone live so far out?" Xu Yao had thought his own home was already remote to the extreme, never imagining there were so many households living even further out. Buck Teeth cast an envious glance at those secluded spots. "The ones who can live in places like that are all capable, clever folks. You should've seen what a mess the outside world was torn into during the war... In places like this, you don't need much. Just some hunting skills and clearing a few mu of land. As long as you don't cross paths with demons, life might be a bit rough, but it's like living as an immortal. And even if you do run into a demon, it doesn't matter much." Xu Yao was puzzled. "Is facing war out there really more terrifying than facing demons here?" "You truly don't understand," Buck Teeth sighed. "For one, you might not even run into a demon. And secondly... when you compare the scourge of war and bandits to demons... heh..." He gave a bitter chuckle, shaking his head and saying no more. Chen Chong, in a rare gesture, looked back and offered a conclusion: "Running into a demon means nothing worse than death—clean and quick, and that's the end of it. But running into other things... heh heh..." With that, he brought a hand down on Xu Yao's head with a sharp smack and cursed, "Stop thinking people are so good from now on! There's something wrong with your head!" Xu Yao rubbed his head, wanting to protest, *I didn't think people were so good!* But before the words left his mouth, he took another smack. With a dark expression, Chen Chong barked, "And who taught you to specialize in kicking people in the groin?! Tell me who it was!" Xu Yao shifted his gaze around. "It was—" Liu Zhen, Buck Teeth, Zhang Sanbao, and the others let out a whoop and surged ahead at full speed, laughing heartily and shouting, "We're heading home...!" Chen Chong cursed loudly, "You bastards!" Then he turned back to Xu Yao. "Was it Liu Zhen and the rest?" Xu Yao scratched his head. "I forgot... It felt like all thirty-odd men taught me..." "Heh... heh heh heh..." Chen Chong's face darkened further. "...I finally see it now. Hanging around this bunch of crude bastards, you haven't picked up a single good thing!" Xu Yao didn't dare make a sound. He privately reserved judgment on that statement: *I learned plenty of good things too.* As they continued their journey back, Chen Chong began explaining the lower ranks of the Demon Suppression Bureau to Xu Yao. "The Mountain Patrol Brigade is the very bottom of the Demon Suppression Bureau. Generally speaking, a Demon Suppression Warrior can serve as a brigade captain. "However, our brigade is somewhat of a special case. Every single member falls into the category of 'enjoying the benefits of a Demon Suppression Warrior, but not actually being an official Demon Suppression Warrior.' As for me, I 'enjoy the benefits of a Demon Suppression Bureau banner officer, but am not an official banner officer.' Everyone in our brigade is like this. In the other brigades, there are usually only three to five such men, all of whom are either captains or key backbones. "Don't ask why. "People like us are nailed down to the Mountain Protection Brigade. There's no chance of being transferred anywhere else. In a sense, as long as we don't commit a blunder like watching that execution today, we're basically here in the Mountain Protection Brigade to live out our days in retirement. You could say it's a unique welfare benefit granted to us by the higher-ups. "After all, the Mountain Protection Brigade has it quite easy. Before a mountain demon takes form, it's just a tree root. With the demon-catching compass pointing out the location, we arrive ahead of time, wait for the right moment, and bring down a saber. Honestly, even ordinary folk could do this job." Chen Chong's tone carried a hint of wistfulness as he spoke. "However, if you want to test into the Demon Suppression Bureau, you generally start as a warrior. Warriors are divided into three ranks. Above that is banner officer, also split into three ranks, followed by chief banner officer. Ahem, banner officer was the old title; nowadays they're called directors." Chen Chong gave a faint smile. "Knowing this much is enough. Just these positions alone are enough to occupy most people's entire lives—transferring left and right, serving in various duties, rising and falling... And locally, they carry enough weight to make a name for yourself, command respect, and bring honor to your ancestors. "Once you reach that level, you'll naturally learn about the ranks above." At this point, Chen Chong chuckled and tapped Xu Yao on the head with a finger. "When you're nothing more than a toad in a well, what good does it do you to know about the mountains and rivers out in the wider world?" "Understood," Xu Yao said, rubbing his head with an innocent, foolish smile. "That innocent grin might work on others, but drop it with me," Chen Chong said, rolling his eyes. "What's the point of grinning like a fool at me?" This time, Xu Yao truly smiled like an awkward youth. "Heh heh heh..." Then he asked, "Uncle, are all these ranks determined by cultivation base?" "Cultivation base?" Chen Chong's three eyebrows twitched. "Do you think that the higher your cultivation base, the higher your post and status?" Xu Yao asked in surprise, "Is that not the case?" "Heh... You really think that..." Chen Chong sneered with boundless contempt. "If official ranks across the entire realm were determined strictly by martial might... then, bluntly speaking, the common people of this world would have died out long ago! "Little fool, wait until you see people at Lishen or Lixin who are still petty, sesame-seed officials, and even some at Liming who only hold empty, honorary titles with no real power—then you'll understand. "An official post is an official post, and personal strength is personal strength. Combat prowess is combat prowess, and capability is capability!" Smack! Xu Yao took another hit to the back of his head, accompanied by a bark: "Pig brain!"