No More Than Thrice

As Xu Yao made ever greater strides, Chen Chong's expectations of him grew increasingly strict. His attitude could no longer be called mere sternness—it was downright harsh, picking bones out of eggs at every turn. Even so, this latest assignment left Xu Yao entirely dumbfounded, unable to recover his senses for a long while. "Did you... give the wrong order?" Xu Yao asked cautiously, his mind entirely numb. *He wants me to figure out how to kill everyone in the First Brigade?! I... I'd rather just kill myself!* "It's only hypothetical!" Chen Chong glared. "Hypothetical!" "Even as a hypothetical, I can't do it... I can't even begin to imagine it... Just thinking about raising a hand against our own people makes me..." Xu Yao wore a face like he was at a funeral. Infuriated, Chen Chong planted a kick on him. "Damn it, it's just a theoretical exercise! I'm having you analyze human nature, not actually murder them!" "But..." With a contorted expression, Xu Yao started to argue, only to be booted right out the door. "Get lost! Go back and think! If you can't come up with anything, I'd rather skin you alive myself than send you out like a fool to be slaughtered by others!" "Boss, is there really any need to be so... ruthless?" Liu Zhen offered his opinion in private afterward. "If he passes the assessment, becomes a Demon Suppression Warrior, and returns to the First Brigade, we can look out for him. Then it wouldn't be a big deal." Chen Chong's face was grim. After a long pause, he countered, "Do you think that once he qualifies as a Demon Suppression Warrior, he'll actually be assigned back to our First Brigade?" Liu Zhen fell silent. Chen Chong asked, "What has he been up to lately?" "Aside from carrying out his duties, whenever he spots places heavy with yin qi, he spends his spare time chiseling stone steps and pathways to make things easier for the future. He's already done over a dozen cliffs and is still going. It seems he also knows he might not be able to return to the First Brigade." Liu Zhen sighed. "The lad truly has a good heart." "Precisely because he has a good heart, he's far too soft!" Chen Chong said with a dark expression. "That won't do! He has to be ruthless! Ruthless! Ruthless!" Liu Zhen said, "Actually, having a little kindness isn't a bad thing..." "Hmm?" Chen Chong whipped around to glare at Liu Zhen. "Have you forgotten General Yue? And what happened to him in the end?!" Liu Zhen said nothing more, silently lowering his head. Chen Chong fell quiet as well. *** *Thud!* Xu Yao slammed his fist into a hard, protruding rock before him. Stone fragments flew in every direction. A slick rope chute leading straight down to the bottom of the cliff was cleared open. When the time came, if any mountain demons or wood demons appeared below, someone could harness a rope and slide down effortlessly to deal with them. Ever since he resolved to test for the Demon Suppression Warriors, he had not taken action unless there were triplets or more among the mountain demons. His eyes still absorbed the yin qi from the mountain demon roots, but he no longer competed for the fruits they bore. As for the assignment Chen Chong had handed down—to think through how to kill everyone in the First Brigade—Xu Yao had pondered it for ages without making any headway. Thus, over the past few days, he had been dodging Chen Chong like a mouse avoiding a cat. Chen Chong simply turned a blind eye to his avoidance. Today, Xu Yao had accompanied the Fifth Squad into the field once more. Nearby, members of the Fifth Squad were waiting at the edge of a cliff to handle a mountain demon scholar tree. They were currently debating whether this scholar tree might produce scholar fruits. Unlike demon peaches and ghost apricots, scholar fruits grew in clusters of blossoms along the branches. Every individual blossom would yield a single fruit. Though they were only the size of sesame seeds and their effects could not match demon peaches or ghost apricots, their advantage lay in sheer quantity, yielding dozens or even hundreds at a time. Everyone was filled with eager anticipation. Xu Yao, meanwhile, stared blankly at a handful of assorted stone shards clutched in his palm. These were what he had just smashed to pieces. When he threw that punch earlier, an icy current had suddenly welled up from his dantian, rushing past his shoulder and down his arm. A distinct, pleasant chill washed over his elbow, followed by an abrupt explosion of force from his fist. Immediately afterward, the hard rock had shattered. The surface of his fist felt completely fine, devoid of the stinging pain and jarring shock he used to experience. He raised his hand and looked at the back of it, blowing away the stone powder with a single breath. It was real. Taking a sharp stone, he dragged it forcefully across his skin, leaving behind only a deep white line. His flesh felt as tough as seasoned ox hide. Yet the deeper muscle still registered a faint ache. The first stage of the Physical Cultivation Realm—the Iron Skin stage—was achieved! "Hehehe..." Xu Yao could not help but grin to himself, his smile splitting from ear to ear. Days when he could feel unmistakable progress were wonderful indeed. Back when Ning Weiyu taught him the Purple Mansion Qi Circulation Art, he had once remarked, *"If all goes smoothly, reaching the Iron Skin stage within a year will mean there is hope for the future."* Back then, Xu Yao knew full well that although Ning Weiyu was willing to teach him, he had little confidence in how far he could actually progress. Yet now, barely three months had passed. He had genuinely stepped into the Physical Cultivation Realm and firmly established himself in its first tier, the Iron Skin stage. Compared to the year Ning Weiyu had estimated, he was nine months ahead of schedule. What was more, as his eyes absorbed energy to continually refine his aptitude, his future cultivation pace would likely be even faster... wouldn't it? His heart surged with excitement. He knew he was no genius, so he had always envied the remarkably gifted figures portrayed in legends and novels. Take Ning Wuxia, for instance. She was roughly his age—Ning Weiyu had clearly stated that his sister was twenty-one, while he was nineteen. Yet what realm had Ning Wuxia already attained? Soaring through the sky, traversing the jianghu unimpeded. Though her temperament still had a touch of childish innocence, her cultivation base was formidable. As for her temperament, that would gradually mature and take shape through worldly experience. But what about him? That was why Xu Yao never measured himself against geniuses; he only compared himself to who he was yesterday. Even the slightest sliver of progress felt, in his own mind, like shedding his mortal frame. *Walk steadily, one step at a time. Pay no mind to what lies far ahead; look only at the ground beneath your feet. Wherever this life takes me, that is where I will go.* Such was Xu Yao's long-term goal for his life. By the time Xu Yao climbed back up, the others had already completed their mission and returned, beaming with broad smiles. Squad Captain Cao Wang held a small pouch filled with scholar fruits. "Good fortune today! A single cluster produced five floral spikes, each averaging about twenty fruits. Ninety-six in total. Seven in our squad plus Big Fatty makes eight, so exactly twelve apiece." Cao Wang chuckled hearty laughs as he distributed the scholar fruits to everyone. "Take them home and let the elders and children have a few. Keep the rest—these hold up well over time. If anyone comes down with a fever or minor ailment in the future, eating one works better than medicine. At the very least, it can buy you extra time." "Understood, Captain. Should the two who went down the cliff get extra?" "With this many, there's no need. We divide it equally within our squad." "Got it." Xu Yao did not refuse. He accepted his portion openly and offered his thanks. In the hands of Physician Xu, these twelve scholar fruits would prove far more potent than in anyone else's. His father truly had use for such ingredients. "Let's head down the mountain." Cao Wang looked up at the dark clouds gathering rapidly once again and muttered, "Looking at these clouds, another massive squall is brewing. It's truly bizarre this year—the torrential rain hasn't stopped, and neither has the thunder and lightning. It's all focused right over our patch of land. Downright unnatural." "Besides, lately it feels shadowy in these mountains. It feels as if people are lurking everywhere, yet not a single soul can be seen. It's giving me the creeps." With a wave of his hand, everyone packed their gear and set off down the mountain amidst lively chatter. Xu Yao, however, pondered silently the entire way. The speaker meant nothing by it, but the listener took it to heart. Cao Wang's words had suddenly caught his attention. *"It's truly bizarre this year—the torrential rain hasn't stopped, and neither has the thunder and lightning. It's all focused right over our patch of land. Downright unnatural."* Those words sent Xu Yao's thoughts branching out. The last time the brigades gathered at the Fifth Brigade, Chen Chong had mentioned the torrential downpours, but the other brigades reacted differently. Some of their territories had seen no rain at all; others had experienced light showers, and a few had heavy rain, but none witnessed such terrifying, crisscrossing lightning. After returning, casual chatter among the men revealed that these heavy storms were largely confined to a radius of two to three hundred li. What was more, the terrifying lightning was concentrated strictly in the middle zone. And that middle zone was precisely where the greatest number of mountain demons had appeared, and where the multi-birth demon incidents had clustered most heavily. Every single one of those places was somewhere Xu Yao had visited! Black Pine Ridge, White Birch Ridge, Red Pine Peak, Fierce Ghost Cliff, Severed Head Mountain, and Yellow Wolf Gu. These six locations were the prime targets of the lightning. Passing by a high vantage point on their return, Xu Yao paused at the highest ground and gazed out toward that region from afar. He realized that Black Pine Ridge, White Birch Ridge, Red Pine Peak, Fierce Ghost Cliff, Severed Head Mountain, and Yellow Wolf Gu, when viewed from a distance, formed a cluster that made a near-perfect ring. Six locations, six peaks. Looking with this preconceived notion, they appeared like six outward-pointing vertices. If one considered only the ground embraced within those six spots... It formed an almost perfectly regular hexagonal basin! A hexagram array! Xu Yao felt as though his heart had been struck a heavy blow. A certain memory suddenly flashed across his mind: That copy of the *Classic of Herbs* that had vanished so inexplicably. Right at that moment, an indescribable gale swept down from the upper skies. An abrupt whistling tore through the air, shrill and piercing to the ear. Like a blade, it sliced the warmth cleanly away from the high heights. A thousand mountains bowed; ten thousand ravines wailed like ghosts! Immediately following, ink-dark clouds surged! Heaven and earth grew dim! Lightning flashed and thunder roared! This familiar gust, this familiar spectacle—Xu Yao's eyes widened abruptly as realization dawned on him. *If I remember correctly, this kind of weather... this is the third time!* *Completely identical weather!* *** Elsewhere within Black Mountain. Amidst the same sudden howling wind, Gu Huo, clad in black official robes, darted up onto a treetop. With a grave countenance, he raised his head to gaze at the heavens. "If today brings the same torrential rain as the previous two times, trouble won't exceed three!" "Today, the truth will surely be unveiled!" "If not, perhaps there will still be a next time, or a time after that..." Gu Huo let out a sigh. The hardest things to handle were always those that could not be determined with certainty. "May tonight truly be that third time!"