Spoils

Zhou Qingmei gripped her sword hilt, and it took her a good while to react before she understood what had just happened. Just as the old woman unleashed the Black Fiend Demon Skill to take their lives, Fang Shuwen punched her. The whole process was that simple—so simple it seemed like a farce. The black true qi rising all around the old woman's body, under Fang Shuwen's fist, was like lingering snow meeting the scorching sun, with not the slightest power to resist. She had just leapt up, then immediately lay back down. Except she did not look peaceful. A large amount of blood gushed from her chest. Fang Shuwen's punch had directly shattered her heart, punching clean through her body. Her face still bore the savagery of her murderous intent, and the disbelief after being pierced by that punch. That complex expression, as the rain washed over it, was especially terrifying. Even so, Zhou Qingmei found it hard to believe: "Dead? "Did she die just like that?" She looked at the old woman in the grave, then at Fang Shuwen beside her, feeling her mind was a bit dazed. Because last night, when Fang Shuwen saved her, Zhou Qingmei knew how skilled the black-robed man was. Yet Fang Shuwen had struck him directly with a single-edged saber, leaving him severely injured and near death. So Zhou Qingmei had already thought highly enough of him. But now it seemed this person was unfathomable—far beyond what she could imagine. Recalling further, she realized she should have already been struck by the Black Fiend Demon Skill last night—after all, that palm strike had initially felt overbearing, then suddenly flared up, making life worse than death. Yet after a whole night, she was completely unharmed. At the time she had been worried about the Zhou estate and hadn't thought it through; now, reflecting on it, if not for Fang Shuwen, even if she hadn't died directly at the black-robed man's hands, her fate would have been extremely miserable. "Do you think she died too easily? "Should we torture the next opponent a bit before killing? "Didn't realize you had such a ruthless streak." As Fang Shuwen said this, he jumped into the pit, looked at the corpse, then looked up and shouted: "Eldest Young Miss, lend me your deerskin gloves." Zhou Qingmei was stunned: "What are you going to do?" While speaking, she took out the deerskin gloves and threw them to Fang Shuwen. After putting them on, Fang Shuwen smiled: "This old witch looks not simple; she should be different from that middle-aged man last night. "Maybe she carries silver on her when she goes out to kill... "Now that she's dead, how could we not search her properly? Who knows, we might strike it rich." Zhou Qingmei, after all, was from a reputable orthodox sect; Zhujige Pavilion already had money, and her family was incredibly wealthy. Hearing Fang Shuwen say this, she was genuinely surprised. But she didn't know why—her heart not only felt no disgust at this act of killing and looting a corpse, but she even jumped down with excitement: "Let's search together." "Be careful. This person doesn't look like someone from the righteous path; she might carry poison on her. "I'll search her myself; you keep watch." The two readily agreed and began searching the old woman's body. Fang Shuwen searched very carefully—he even pulled off her boots, checking inside for hidden items—while Zhou Qingmei checked for anything missed. Their searching did yield results. First, a copy of the Black Fiend Demon Skill. No one knew what mindset led the old woman, despite her extremely high attainment in this skill, to still carry the secret manual on her person. Besides that, there were several silver notes. But the payee on them was the Daxuan Money House—obviously they couldn't be exchanged elsewhere—and the amount was not small, over five hundred taels. Then there were some scattered silver pieces, and an already-opened letter. The old woman was soaked through, yet these things had not been damaged by the rain and were well preserved. Only after falling into Fang Shuwen's hands did they get wet from the rain. After collecting these things, Fang Shuwen thought for a moment, then tapped the old woman's head with a finger. Then he brought Zhou Qingmei out of the pit, threw all the stones the old woman had dug up into the pit, and returned to the previous tree hollow. After this, neither of them felt sleepy. First they used internal skill to dry their clothes, then dried the silver notes, envelopes, and such. Then they laid everything out in the middle, took out a fire starter, and fixed it to the inner wall of the tree hollow for light. Zhou Qingmei glanced at the Black Fiend Demon Skill, and disgust arose in her eyes: "Such demonic skill must not remain in this world; it's best to destroy it." "Wait, not so fast. Let me look first." "You want to practice it?" Zhou Qingmei looked at Fang Shuwen in disbelief. Fang Shuwen shook his head: "I definitely won't touch that kind of internal skill practiced with human blood. I want to see if there are any external techniques on it." His Four Seas Dragon Fist and Plum Blossom Scattered Hands, though not yet perfected, had potential that was plain to see. Waiting for system rewards of new martial arts would have to wait until this mission ended, and this mission looked quite troublesome—who knew when it would be finished? So in the meantime, it was better to find ways to add some techniques. Hearing this, Zhou Qingmei was somewhat surprised: "Your martial arts are so profound, and you still need to find external techniques from this demonic skill?" "Profound martial arts?" Fang Shuwen stopped turning the pages and glanced at her: "It's profound internal skill; as for external techniques... you should know the Four Seas Martial Hall's Four Seas Dragon Fist, right? What do you think of it?" Zhou Qingmei hesitated not at all: "Inferior martial arts." "I use the Four Seas Dragon Fist; I am a disciple of the Four Seas Martial Hall." Fang Shuwen said quietly: "My internal skill is due to another opportunity; for fist techniques I only know Four Seas Dragon Fist and Plum Blossom Scattered Hands." There was nothing to hide about this—anyway, as long as Zhou Qingmei didn't die this time, she could ask Zhou Half-the-City and others, and learn his background clearly. "..." Zhou Qingmei was speechless: "You're actually a disciple of the Four Seas Martial Hall? Then your internal skill... forget it, forget it, I won't ask." She instinctively wanted to get to the bottom of it, but thinking they had known each other for less than two days, probing into someone's secrets like this was really overstepping. She paused, then edged closer to Fang Shuwen: "It's fine if you want to find external techniques from the Black Fiend Demon Skill, as long as you don't touch the internal skill—anything goes. "However, judging by what you say, your martial arts experience should be quite shallow, so I'll still keep an eye on you, lest you go astray. "You've helped me so much, saved my life twice; I don't want to see you again after some time and find you've become a great demon that everyone in the jianghu is out to destroy." "...Fine, let's look together." In the tree hollow, the two sat side by side, by the dim light of the fire starter, studying this infamous demonic skill of the jianghu together.