Please Don't Die

At that moment, Qiao Zhi could only wonder if all the martial arts training he had done over the years had gone entirely to the dogs. Meanwhile, Chu Qiguang, having knocked Chen Gang unconscious with a single punch, exhaled a breath of turbid air. He felt the hostility inside him completely vanish. His illness was cured, his vigor restored, and the ferocity on his face disappeared. "Did I just make an explosive crack when I punched?" Chu Qiguang recalled the movement of throwing that punch just now and threw several more punches in succession, yet failed to produce another sonic boom in the air. Watching this, Qiao Zhi let out a breath of relief and explained, "You were probably just in peak condition, and you built up momentum during your sprint—that was why you were able to unleash that strike. Your own physical endurance likely hasn't met the minimum requirements for the first stage yet. You need to keep nourishing your body with proper food and medicinal tonics to condition your physical form." Chu Qiguang nodded. "I'll go to the Daoist temple tomorrow to buy medicine." He glanced at Chen Gang, who lay motionless on the ground where he had been floored by the punch, and a sudden wave of panic hit him: 'That punch seemed a little too effective just now... Did I kill this guy with one hit?' 'Please, whatever you do, don't die!' 'I've just entered the upward trajectory of my career—I can't afford to get dragged into a lawsuit!' Chu Qiguang hurried over to check whether he was actually dead. Sprawled on the ground, Chen Gang suddenly twitched, then struggled to get up. Although he had been flattened by Chu Qiguang's punch, he had never practiced martial arts, so he naturally couldn't tell how ingenious that strike had been. He assumed Chu Qiguang had simply landed a lucky hit, and shouted furiously, "I don't accept this! Ergou! What right do you have to—" Chu Qiguang breathed a sigh of relief. Then he stepped forward and planted his foot firmly onto Chen Gang's head, saying fiercely, "Don't mess with me. Next time, I'll crush your dog head." With that, he stomped down hard, nearly knocking the wind out of Chen Gang completely. Chen Gang trembled with rage, yet was utterly powerless. Chu Qiguang turned and walked toward the back mountain, intending to finish his daily cultivation practice. Along the way, he inspected his hands and feet, remarking, "My training lately really has paid off. In the past, there was no way I could have won so cleanly." Without Chu Qiguang noticing when, Qiao Zhi had leaped back onto his left shoulder. Glancing back toward Chen Gang, the cat pondered for a moment and volunteered, "Actually, this Chen Gang has quite a future ahead of him." "Oh?" Chu Qiguang turned his head. "Are you willing to spill some details about his future?" Qiao Zhi averted his face, too guilty to meet Chu Qiguang's eyes, and muttered in a low voice, "In the future, he might catch the Wang family's favor, might be groomed for a few years and sent to take the martial examinations, might then go north to further his studies in a martial academy, and once he finishes, he ends up fighting a match against the world's foremost expert." "Huh?" Chu Qiguang's heart skipped a beat as he looked back at Chen Gang in disbelief. "A brute like him can trade blows with the number one under heaven?" His immediate second thought was: 'Should I just bump him off right now so he won't seek revenge against me in the future?' Qiao Zhi nodded. "Yeah, and that was why he got killed in a single strike." "..." Chu Qiguang rolled his eyes and asked, "Speaking of which, is there a recognized number one in the world? Who is it?" Qiao Zhi said, "Don't look down on him just because he died in one strike. To the number one under heaven, ordinary people die without him even needing to make a move. Forcing him to deliver a single strike already puts someone on the level of an elite in the army. "As for who the number one under heaven is..." Qiao Zhi said with mixed emotions, "it's naturally the Sect Master of the Heavenly Master Sect, the Chief Seal-Bearer of the imperial court's Daoist Registry Bureau, the Grand Master of Orthodoxy and Defender of the Teachings—Huang Daoxu, who entered the Dao twenty years ago." Chu Qiguang nodded. "The Sect Master of the Heavenly Master Sect? If he can instakill Chen Gang in a single blow just like me, I can certainly imagine how formidable he is." Qiao Zhi: "Bah, ptui!" After that, Chu Qiguang sat in meditation on the back mountain, practicing martial arts and studying literature until the first light of dawn. Having beaten Chen Gang, he felt fully energized throughout the night. During his martial practice, he even produced several more audible sonic cracks. He was drawing closer and closer to the first stage of martial arts; he even felt that technique was no longer much of an issue, and what he lacked was only physical conditioning and stamina. So as soon as dawn broke, he went down the mountain toward the county seat to spend his silver on a portion of Hundred-Refined Ointment from the Daoist temple. ... Although Qingyang County's Daoist temple was not widely renowned, seen from a distance its winding corridors connected grand halls, and its palace walls loomed high. Men and women came in an endless stream through the main entrance to burn incense and worship the gods. Chu Qiguang could even see people prostrating themselves from far away, taking one step and kowtowing once, bowing their way step by step all the way to the temple. Entering the main gate, he saw an eight-character feng shui screen wall erected right before the temple, its surface painted a vibrant red. Just as Chu Qiguang approached the temple, he noticed several bailiffs from the county yamen walking briskly toward the main gates, hurrying along with anxious, troubled expressions. Chu Qiguang overheard an old man nearby say, "Have you heard? A corpse mutation case broke out in Yaozitou Village." Another young man cried in shock, "Wasn't the corpse mutation case in Boxing County? How did it reach us?" The old man shook his head and sighed. "It must be those evil cult fiends coming into our Qingyang County. The county magistrate must have asked Master Qingling from the temple to step in and exorcise the evil." Standing off to the side and listening to the passersby's discussion, Chu Qiguang rubbed his chin and thought, 'Daoist Qingling is a monster himself, yet now people are asking him to slay demons and eliminate evil. What a curious turn of events...' Watching the bailiffs pass, Chu Qiguang stepped inside through the temple gates. Rounding the eight-character wall, he saw that the main hall was resplendent with gold and jade, with painted rafters and carved beams along the flanking corridors. Daoist Lord Xuanyuan stood enshrined in the center in solemn majesty, while devout men and women knelt on prayer mats, muttering soft prayers. The rear hall housed golden statues of past Heavenly Masters, perpetually offered incense, candles, paper effigies, and whole sacrificed pigs and sheep. Beyond another side door lay the Daoist priests' cultivation quarters, where one could faintly glimpse exotic herbs, rare flowers, verdant pines, and emerald bamboo—a sanctuary closed off to ordinary folk. 'Just how much of the people's hard-earned wealth have they bled dry?' Chu Qiguang sighed inwardly. 'If only I were in charge of allocating all this silver, you people would have sprinted straight into moderate prosperity long ago. Why would you even need to pray to gods and worship Buddhas?' Because Qiao Zhi was unwilling to enter the Daoist temple, Chu Qiguang had come alone. After wandering around the main hall, he slipped through a side door to the right of the front entrance, which led into the temple's dispensary. The pharmacy was spacious, its floor paved with rippled marble, while the surrounding walls were hung with portraits of various deities of the Heavenly Master Sect. Even though Chu Qiguang had arrived quite early, a queue had already formed. There were old farmers in coarse hemp, scholars in robes, laborers in short jackets, and page boys in cotton shirts. It seemed as though everyone in Qingyang County, from high officials and noble lords down to peddlers and foot couriers, came to this dispensary to buy medicine. This was because the dispensary sold far more than just Hundred-Refined Ointment for martial training; it also carried Heavenly Master Sect exclusives such as Abundant Offspring and Fortune Pills, Child-Bestowing Paste, Longevity Elixirs, and Heavenly Master Talismans. For the common folk who believed in the Heavenly Master Sect, this was a place they had to visit at least once in their lives. However, according to Qiao Zhi, everything sold here aside from the Hundred-Refined Ointment was just a scam to fleece money. ... Waiting his turn in line, it was finally Chu Qiguang's chance to make his purchase. His eyes remained fixed on the clerk in front of him, wary of being shortchanged. The clerk weighed the silver Chu Qiguang handed over on a balance scale, feeling somewhat unnerved under that piercing stare. He used pincers to snip off a corner of the silver ingot and weighed each piece again. "Take a look, honored customer: thirty-four taels and eight mace received in total." The temple sold Hundred-Refined Ointment by weight and portion, with prices fluctuating according to quantity, age, and origin. What Chu Qiguang bought was newly prepared medicine concocted this year by the White Cloud Temple in the Divine Capital. The White Cloud Temple's alchemy was renowned throughout the realm, and since this was freshly refined ointment from the current year, its price stood well above average. Chu Qiguang nodded. Checking over the remaining silver and the Hundred-Refined Ointment, he asked, "Has the price of medicine gone up recently?"