"Whoa! This should be the place."
Xu Zishuai reined in his horse and looked left and right. The steed beneath him was panting heavily, and even the spare horse he led by the reins was utterly exhausted.
With just the two of them, each managing two horses, they had ridden hard through the night and finally reached the vicinity of their destination.
"I'll head down and search."
Winter in the south was not particularly cold. The dense forest was filled with broad-leaved trees, and dappled sunlight filtered through the canopy.
Seeing the thick jungle ahead, Xiang Changsong was about to dismount when Xu Zishuai stopped him.
"No need. I'll go. Head to the nearby villages and see if you can hire a few wagons. Leave the rest to me."
"Fair enough."
Xiang Changsong turned his mount around and set off to find the local settlements marked on the map.
Though Fourth Senior Brother was wild and unrestrained in daily life, he was thoroughly reliable when real business arose. His talent was among the best of all the disciples, and dealing with a few bandits was well within his grasp.
Xu Zishuai tethered his horses to a nearby tree and ventured into the woods alone.
The mountain terrain was rugged and intricate. Even with the formidable senses of a martial master, it took him a full two hours to track them down.
A two-meter-tall stockade gate loomed in the forest. Xu Zishuai did not act rashly; holding back his presence, he slipped inside and took a look around.
The bandits were all sleek-faced, their arms covered in tattoos. These were no oppressed folks driven to desperation, but thugs and scoundrels banded together to plunder from the mountains.
He also spotted a room where several disheveled women were locked away. The youngest was only about ten years old, bound around the neck with an iron chain. Before them sat broken bowls coated in rancid grease, exuding a pungent, sickening stench.
No wonder the authorities had put bounties on their heads.
Having confirmed the bounty notice was accurate, Xu Zishuai returned to the front of the stockade gate. He stopped before a tree as thick as a man's thigh. The sword at his waist flashed—its motion too fast to track—and the entire tree slowly collapsed.
Brittle branches cracked and snapped with a thunderous commotion. Startled and alarmed, bandits poured out of their quarters and scrambled up the gate to see what was happening.
Suddenly, an entire tree, its trunk whittled into a massive wooden spear, surged out from the forest. Riding a terrifying shockwave of displaced air, it slammed violently into the stockade gate. The gate shattered in an instant, hurtling backward along with the two bandits stationed behind it.
A deafening boom sent the birds and beasts of the woods scattering in fright.
Dust and smoke billowed in all directions.
The bandits collapsed to the ground, pissing their pants, scared utterly speechless.
"Wasted two dog lives. What a shame."
Xu Zishuai brushed the dust from his hands and strolled into the stronghold. Glancing at a gap-toothed bandit sprawled on the ground, he snapped off a twig and tapped the man lightly on the cheek.
"Hey. Where's your chieftain?"
The gap-toothed bandit's mind was blank with terror. He instinctively pointed toward the mangled pulp beneath the shattered wooden gate.
"Oho, dead? What a hassle." Xu Zishuai scratched his cheek, leaped atop a remaining piece of timber framing, and brandished a coil of rope, shouting, "Don't be afraid, everyone! Listen up: I'm here for three things and three things only. First, arresting people. Second, arresting people. Third, fucking arresting people! Be good now, step up one by one, and put your necks in the noose!"
In the shadows of a corner, a bald bandit's fingers twitched. Seeing that no one seemed to be paying attention to him, his legs shifted slightly, and he began backing away inch by inch. After retreating four or five meters, he scrambled to his feet and bolted!
*Squelch.*
The bald bandit looked down. A bloodstained branch was planted straight into the earth before him. Reaching up to touch his chest, he discovered that at some point, a thumb-sized bloody hole had pierced clean through his torso.
*Thud.*
The bandit fell to his knees as blood pooled beneath him.
"Hey, didn't I tell you to behave? Why won't anyone listen? Come on, up here, stick your necks in!"
By the time Xiang Changsong returned with the wagon convoy, more than twenty bandits were leashed to trees like dogs.
"There are a few women inside the stronghold. Help take care of them."
"I'll go see to it."
Leading a few trembling wagon drivers into the stronghold, Xiang Changsong saw the ruined gates, the mangled mess beneath the heavy timbers, and blood smeared across the ground. He was entirely unfazed.
Senior Brother Xu was an orphan.
He was both more fortunate and less fortunate than Junior Brother Liang. He had once had adoptive parents, but when bandits raided their village, they had both died trying to protect a single egg-laying hen.
Senior Brother Xu despised bandits to the bone.
Within a hundred li of Pingyang Town, not a single bandit lair remained standing.
***
Night fell.
The day's special training finally came to an end, and Liang Qu felt so exhausted he wanted to collapse right onto the training ground.
Yet the moment he closed his eyes, thoughts of the Wave-Subduing Spear stashed beneath his bed sent a surge of excitement through him.
After absorbing the medicinal bath and finishing a round of stance training to restore his qi and blood, Liang Qu took out the spear. He spent a while admiring it in solitude, then carried it out to the courtyard to practice.
Moonlight poured over him, his bare chest rising and falling with each breath.
He threw his full strength into his movements, his muscles knotting together like a crouching leopard.
As qi and blood circulated, his well-defined arms powerfully thrust and hoisted the heavy spear, every contour flowing with absolute grace.
In physique alone, he could easily rival the finest competitive swimmers of his past life.
At times, standing before the bronze mirror in his room, Liang Qu could hardly believe those flawless lines belonged to him.
Over the course of three months, his height had surged. From an underfed runt barely over one meter sixty, he had shot up to one meter seventy-five, and his growth showed no signs of slowing.
Before forging the Wave-Subduing Spear, Senior Brother Lu Gang had felt his bones again to determine his skeletal age and decide the weapon's final length.
His ultimate conclusion was that if current trends held, Liang Qu's height would settle between five chi six cun and five chi seven cun—over one meter eighty-five!
Perfection.
Liang Qu took a deep breath, giving free rein to his strength beneath the moon.
The dark-gold gleam of the spearhead grew sharper, shimmering like reflected shards of starlight.
When a fist struck a hard surface, microscopic fractures formed in the bones, prompting the body to repair them. As these repairs repeated over and over, bone density increased, making subsequent punches all the harder!
A spiritual weapon operated in much the same way. Every clash and swing caused it to adapt itself, aligning ever closer to its master's needs and combat habits.
A spiritual weapon could no longer be called an ordinary implement; it was practically a living entity!
So long as it did not suffer catastrophic destruction, a spiritual weapon could always recover!
*Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.*
The spear, weighing nearly a hundred jin, swept through the surrounding bushes like a gale, kicking up swirling layers of fallen leaves.
After practicing for fifteen minutes, Liang Qu's muscles began to throb and ache. He had no choice but to stop, wipe down the spear shaft, and rinse the sweat from his body with cold water before drifting into a deep sleep.
***
The third day brought more special training.
However, it lasted only half the day. In the afternoon, Hu Qi instructed Liang Qu to rest and take a midday nap to get into peak condition.
Judging by the time Xu Zishuai and Xiang Changsong had departed, they should be returning around dusk.
At that time, all four disciples would head up the mountain to Fahua Temple together to see what was truly going on with that mountain ghost.
At dusk, Hu Qi dismissed his classes early. He donned arm bracers, slung a dark red greatbow measuring a full meter and a half across his back, and wore a quiver at his waist.
Lu Gang also arrived at the martial hall. Dressed in his usual plain attire, he led an enormous black hound with a sleek, lustrous coat and an exceptionally spirited bearing.
"A mountain-seeking hound, Master's prized treasure," Lu Gang explained. "It's extremely sensitive to the scent of spirit creatures. If the blood sacrifice doesn't work, we'll let it try."
Dressed in clean robes with his spear strapped to his back, Liang Qu listened thoughtfully.
With everything prepared, he and his two senior brothers made their way to the crossroads at the foot of Fahua Temple's mountain.
As darkness fell, the rolling rumble of wagon wheels against the muddy road approached from the distance.
Chapter 77