He Jiaqing had plucked out Xie Juncong's heart and gallbladder, yet Xie Juncong was not dead. He Jiaqing kept a breath of life in him, forcing him to watch with his own eyes as more than twenty men of the Ghost Hand Sect met their deaths.
These twenty-odd men were no ordinary sect disciples; they were the Ghost Hand Sect's strongest fighters, its very foundation and backbone.
Now, in the blink of an eye, these twenty-odd men had become a floor of corpses lying beneath the conference table, yet Xie Juncong could not even be bothered to spare them a glance.
Leaning close to Xie Juncong's ear, He Jiaqing asked, "Old Xie, the Ghost Hand Sect is finished just like that. Doesn't your heart ache?"
Xie Juncong had no desire to hear He Jiaqing speak. All he could think about right now was how to save himself.
Even with his heart and gallbladder gone, as long as he had a single breath left in him, Xie Juncong had to find a way to survive.
He Jiaqing placed Xie Juncong onto a chair in the conference room and smiled. "Back then, you tricked quite a few young pathway juniors to Xiao Qianshou's side, turning living people into hands for Xiao Qianshou. You committed so many heinous deeds for him—wasn't it all to protect the Ghost Hand Sect? Now that the Ghost Hand Sect is gone, what meaning is there in your staying alive?"
"How could you say there's no meaning in it?" Xiao Qianshou's voice drifted into the conference room.
He Jiaqing stood up.
Xiao Qianshou slowly materialized beside Xie Juncong, shoving a heart into Xie Juncong's body from behind.
He Jiaqing looked down and realized the heart in his own hand was gone.
Panting for a long while, Xie Juncong began to slowly recover.
What sort of technique was this?
That Xiao Qianshou could steal back Xie Juncong's heart came as no surprise to He Jiaqing.
Yet when He Jiaqing stole Xie Juncong's heart, the blood vessels had been torn apart. Could Xiao Qianshou actually have a way to reconnect those vessels for him?
Xiao Qianshou paced through the conference room, looking at the corpses strewn across the floor, and sighed. "Old Xie's talent is mediocre, and he isn't sharp in his work. If you say he's loyal and devoted, that's even more nonsense. Loyal to whom? To me? Or to the Ghost Hand Sect? Total nonsense. There's not a soul in this world loyal to the Ghost Hand Sect.
"In Puluo Province, if someone slashes a disciple of the Sanying Sect, even just an ordinary lackey, by the next day the Sanying Sect's bronze seals will surely lead men to seek vengeance. In the Ghost Hand Sect, have you ever seen anyone avenge a fellow sect member?
"The petty pinches steal things to honor the senior pinches, and the senior pinches steal things to honor the elder pinches. If you don't pay tribute, tomorrow they'll trip you up, and the day after they'll stab you in the back.
"The Ghost Hand Sect is made up of that sort of scum. No helping one another among peers—nothing but mutual sabotage. In a sect like this, who could possibly care? Whose heart could possibly ache?
"Huddling under this roof is only ever about living the good life, eating well and drinking well. When a man can't even stay alive, how could Old Xie still care about the Ghost Hand Sect?"
He Jiaqing nodded. "Patriarch, well said. Since the Ghost Hand Sect is useless and you don't care if I wipe them out, why did you still come here to save them?"
"I never intended to save them. I came here purely for you!" Xiao Qianshou broke into a smile. "Little brat, to draw you out, I was willing to sacrifice the entire Ghost Hand Sect. Isn't that enough face given to you?"
He Jiaqing shook his head. "How is this giving me face? Patriarch, did your esteemed self not grace us with your presence for the formula of the entry powder?"
Xiao Qianshou shook his head repeatedly. "Little brat, this trick of yours might fool Xie Juncong, but it can't fool me. Just because I tossed you an iron-sinew bamboo stalk, you could crack the formula? If the formula were that easy to decipher, would the peddler have poured so much blood and sweat into it back then?
"You used this trick because you wanted to fish out the Ghost Hand Sect, and through them, fish me out. Now I'm granting your wish. I'm here. See? Isn't my sincerity enough? Come with me!"
He Jiaqing frowned. "Are you really that eager to turn me into one of your hands?"
Xiao Qianshou nodded with utmost sincerity. "I am. I truly am. I've taken so many disciples, yet not one has ever been as handy as you!"
He Jiaqing lit a cigarette and took a drag. "After all this time, you must have gotten hold of quite a few hands by now, haven't you?"
Xiao Qianshou rotated his wrists. "I really have gathered quite a few. Some are fairly handy, but using them just feels a bit disagreeable—because they aren't of the same bloodstock as me."
He Jiaqing let out a chuckle. "Patriarch, never mind what bloodstock it is, you can just make do with them. My life won't be easy for you to take. If you keep tangling with me, I'm afraid your own old life might not hold out either."
Xiao Qianshou laughed aloud. "Little brat, big words indeed, but your execution falls flat. You want to take my life? I'll lay it right here for you to take—do you dare make a move?"
Having spoken, Xiao Qianshou calmly stared at He Jiaqing.
He Jiaqing remained silent.
Xiao Qianshou let out an amused sigh. "Little brat, chickened out? I think highly of your natural talent, but I really look down on your temperament.
"Tell me, why did you choose to be a Thief Cultivator? Because you're greedy! In this world, there isn't a thief who isn't greedy.
"Yet you don't even know what greed is. Guarding your He family's assets—does that count as greed? Scheming a little to bring down the Lu family—does that count as greed? Setting up a Brotherhood Alliance to run some businesses in Puluo Province—you think that counts as greed?
"Being a thief isn't so simple. You're far from it."
He Jiaqing earnestly asked, "Patriarch, please instruct this disciple. How should one be greedy, and how should one be a thief?"
Xiao Qianshou pulled up a chair and sat across from He Jiaqing. "It's a rare occasion for the two of us to sit together. Let me tell you what greed is, and what a thief is.
"In Puluo Province, there aren't many whose seniority predates the peddler's. I am one of them. Back when the peddler created the pathways, the first pathway was the Food Cultivator, because people need to eat.
"The second pathway was the Joy Cultivator, because once people are fed, they have to see to proper business.
"The third pathway was our Thief Cultivator. Do you know why?"
He Jiaqing pondered for a moment and shook his head slightly.
Xiao Qianshou explained, "Because our pathway has the most people! Because people in this world are all greedy! Seeing others have food to eat and work to do, while they don't want to earn it themselves, they think of stealing!
"Disciples of our pathway are everywhere across the world. You don't have to smear powder on yourself, enter the pathway, and pick pockets on the streets to be called a Thief Cultivator.
"Laborers cutting corners on work—that counts as Thief Cultivators. Officials lining their own pockets on official business—that counts even more as Thief Cultivators. Merchants squeezing sellers first and then cheating buyers, stuffing themselves at both ends—those are the paragons of our Thief Cultivator pathway!
"The Garrison Office sent by the Outer States—what benefits have they brought to Puluo Province all these years? Yet their bowls and ladles overflow with what they've collected here. They are the epitome of Thief Cultivators!
"Little brat, you claim to be greedy, but what have you been greedy for? I told you to go to the peddler and steal the powder's formula, but you shrank back and didn't dare strike. Ai Qiandao told you to steal the means to breach the Boundary from Zhou Badou, and it scared the wits out of you—you intentionally stirred up a huge commotion just to win yourself a chance to escape.
"Granny Ku and Old Train told you to steal the position of the Lord of Puluo, paving the road for you, yet you didn't dare walk it! You have the thief's desire, but lack the thief's guts. What great feat could you ever accomplish? I truly can't fathom what they see in you. You must still have plenty of useful things on you that I haven't discovered yet."
He Jiaqing also pulled over a chair and sat down. "No wonder Patriarch values me so much; turns out you think I'm still useful. But Patriarch doesn't need to look down on me like that. I am indeed timid, perhaps because I cherish my life too much."
Xiao Qianshou chuckled. "I cherish my life too. There's nothing wrong with that, but if all you think about is clinging to life and you dare do nothing, what's the point of living?
"When you finish a job, if you win, you must be able to enjoy the fortune; if you lose, you must be able to endure the torment. Only that is worthy of the realm of the Thief Cultivator pathway!
"When your ancestor sees something he wants to take, his hand never hesitates! I've been beaten by the peddler three times, and every time the peddler struck to kill.
"You should know what caliber the peddler is—not a single person in Puluo Province can withstand his methods. But did he beat me to death? Three separate times, I walked away with my life from his clutches! Ask around Puluo Province: who else could ever do that?
"City Lord Sun Tiecheng of the City of Fools is a ruthless man, vicious in method and dark at heart; countless masters have died by his hands. Ask around Puluo Province: how many people dare set their sights on him?
"I dare! I stole from him five times, succeeded three times, and was caught twice. One of those times, he truly almost killed me, but he fell just a hair short—I still didn't die!
"Gold Cultivator Old Xu looks honest, but underneath that kind face lies a cruel heart. How many big figures has he killed with a single ladle and a single bucket? Yet I don't fear him; I stole from him just the same!
"When Mad Train went crazy, mountains shook and the earth trembled; even the peddler had to avoid him at times. But I didn't avoid him—I gathered quite a few good things from him!
"The people from the Heavens dared vie for supremacy against the peddler, and I swiped plenty of good treasures right from their sides too!
"Every prominent figure in Puluo Province—I've stolen from them all! So long as they can't beat me to death, when we meet a few days later, I'll dare to search for treasures on them again! That is what you call greed. Do you understand now?"
As they spoke, the cigarette burned down. He Jiaqing rotated the ring on his finger half a turn.
"I don't understand, Patriarch. I truly can't fathom it. Why do you enjoy gambling with your life so much? Is your life so worthless?"
Xiao Qianshou laughed aloud. "Because I'm a thief! All thieves are like this: remembering the food, but never the beatings! That is the very essence of our pathway!"
He Jiaqing smiled as well. "Patriarch is quite right. I truly admire you."
As he spoke, the ring on his finger rotated another half turn.
Xiao Qianshou rose to his feet. "You're not the only one who admires me. Plenty of people in Puluo Province admire me. Take Granny Ku, for instance—she possesses a Heaven-Harmonizing technique, which is truly remarkable, but she suffered at my hands all the same!
"Granny Ku, step out and speak a fair word. Did I lie about this?"
He knew Granny Ku was here!
The moment his words landed, Xiao Qianshou lunged with a grab toward He Jiaqing.
Back when Xiao Qianshou had only his own two hands, he had hesitations when striking, and He Jiaqing might actually have dodged the blow.
Now, Xiao Qianshou possessed many hands. He struck without the slightest reservation, moving so fast that He Jiaqing could not even see an afterimage, able only to dodge with great difficulty relying on his foundation as a Thief Cultivator.
After a dozen exchanges, Xiao Qianshou drove He Jiaqing into a desperate corner. The congealing blood on the floor stuck to the soles of He Jiaqing's shoes.
Just as He Jiaqing was about to fall, Xiao Qianshou did not rush to take his life; instead, he stripped the ring from He Jiaqing's finger.
"Little brat, playing mind games with your ancestor? Afraid you couldn't lure me here, you hid Granny Ku in a wind-and-sand land." Xiao Qianshou held He Jiaqing's ring, eyeing the mechanism upon it.
He had guessed correctly. In Puluo Province, 'wind-and-sand land' was slang for a stealth space. Fearing Xiao Qianshou wouldn't come, Granny Ku had indeed concealed herself inside a stealth space, but she hadn't expected Xiao Qianshou to possess the eyesight to see through it.
Xiao Qianshou said to He Jiaqing, "This wind-and-sand land is inferior even to an Unnameable Land. If it were an Unnameable Land, I truly wouldn't have noticed her, but with a wind-and-sand land, I can spot quite a few traces. The door to this wind-and-sand land has a lock hanging on it. Now that you've lost the mechanism, let's see how that Old Bitter Hag comes out!"
Xiao Qianshou had guessed everything right.
This stealth space inside the film company had a natural lock that could only be opened from the outside using a mechanism—and that mechanism was turning the ring three full circles.
He Jiaqing had only turned his ring two full circles before Xiao Qianshou snatched it away. What could be done now?
Xiao Qianshou lunged at He Jiaqing once more.
Sitting beside the conference table, Qian Sangxue pinched her ring and turned it three full circles.
Just as Xiao Qianshou's fingertips were about to touch He Jiaqing, Granny Ku suddenly appeared and tore off one of her right fingernails.
The moment he saw that fingernail, Xiao Qianshou hastily withdrew his hand, but it was already too late.
His fingertips split open, blood gushing forth. Beginning at his right index finger, flesh rapidly stripped away from bone all the way up to his wrist. The unbearable agony made Xiao Qianshou shudder involuntarily.
Without hesitation, Xiao Qianshou severed the hand. It wasn't his original hand anyway, so he felt little regret.
Yet he was intensely curious about one thing: how had Granny Ku gotten out?
"Because of you?" Xiao Qianshou looked toward Qian Sangxue and stole her ring away. Qian Sangxue remained expressionless.
"Impossible. That thing on your hand doesn't look like a mechanism at all!" Xiao Qianshou examined Qian Sangxue's ring closely, still feeling it was just an ordinary piece of jewelry.
This time, he had misjudged. He Jiaqing had made more than one key; he carried one himself, and Qian Sangxue had one as well.
He Jiaqing said, "Patriarch, you once said that of all my methods, none caught your eye, save for the craftsmanship of my rings, which you found passable."
Xiao Qianshou leaped, seemingly attempting to flee.
Granny Ku stabbed herself in the leg, and Xiao Qianshou's right lower leg severed from the knee down.
"Old Bitter Hag, you're truly ruthless!" Xiao Qianshou extended a foot and kicked the severed leg toward He Jiaqing.
Mid-air, the severed leg splayed five fingers, transforming into a hand that clawed straight for He Jiaqing's face.
How could a leg turn into a hand?
A Thief Cultivator technique: Stealing the Beam to Replace the Pillar!
Xiao Qianshou had struck too fast, so fast that He Jiaqing hadn't even caught the timing of his move.
He Jiaqing chopped the severed hand into mincemeat with his folding fan. Xiao Qianshou's fingertips twitched, moving to pluck He Jiaqing's heart and liver next.
Granny Ku drew a fingernail across her own arm; the flesh and blood stripped from Xiao Qianshou's right arm, leaving only bare bone.
Granny Ku drew a fingernail across her cheek; the skin fell away from Xiao Qianshou's face, exposing his skull.
Granny Ku drew a fingernail across her forehead; Xiao Qianshou's cranial bone flipped open, yet no brains were revealed.
Hidden inside Xiao Qianshou's skull was a hand! The hand leaped out from the skull, clawing toward He Jiaqing.
Xiao Qianshou's entire body collapsed onto the floor, scattering into more than a hundred hands that crawled and groped in all directions, besieging He Jiaqing alone without harming Granny Ku in the slightest.
"Don't keep going after the junior! Old Pinch Xiao, whatever tricks you have, let me have a taste of them too!" Sensing Xiao Qianshou's location, Granny Ku poked her own eye.
"What's the use of targeting you? You have the Heaven-Harmonizing technique—the more you suffer, the harder you fight. Striking you is just asking for misery myself!" Squatting on the chandelier, Xiao Qianshou's eyeball fell out of its socket.
That eyeball turned into a hand as well, scurrying over to claw at He Jiaqing.
"To use Stealing the Beam to Replace the Pillar to such an extent, you're probably the only one in the world!" Granny Ku gave a word of praise, drew a stalk of bitter greens from her pocket, stuffed it into her mouth, and chewed twice.
With just those two bites, Granny Ku vomited.
She had cultivated this vegetable with painstaking care; it was bitterly excruciating.
When Granny Ku tasted one part of bitterness, Xiao Qianshou's suffering was magnified—he tasted three parts. Slumped against the wall, he couldn't help vomiting as well, retching so hard he couldn't straighten his back for a long time.
Seizing the chance, He Jiaqing groped across Xiao Qianshou and ripped half a lung out from his back.
Pluck Heart, Seize Gallbladder—what it could seize was far more than just hearts and gallbladders. Any internal organ could be stolen out through skin and flesh by He Jiaqing.
After yanking out the lung, He Jiaqing moved to pluck the remaining half. Just as his hand struck, He Jiaqing's brows suddenly smoothed out, his body relaxed, and an involuntary chuckle burst from him.
With that chuckle, his technique slowed by a fraction. What pulled free from Xiao Qianshou's body was not a lung, but a hand.
The hand locked tightly around He Jiaqing's hand and pulled hard, yanking out He Jiaqing's hand tendon!
He Jiaqing's right hand immediately went limp, dangling down like a cooked noodle.
"That's enough. Stealing one of your tendons today makes it worth my while!" Xiao Qianshou leaped onto the wall, preparing to flee, when suddenly a gash split open across his abdomen.
Xiao Qianshou looked toward Granny Ku, only to see her holding a knife plunged into her own belly.
Xiao Qianshou spat a mouthful of blood. Turning his head, he looked at Granny Ku and said, "Old Bitter Hag, striking with such a vicious hand—is it really worth it?"
Granny Ku smiled. "I'd like to ask you the same. Is it worth it? Taking such a huge risk just for a single He Jiaqing?"
Xiao Qianshou sighed. "I just wanted to see how handy a fellow chosen by you and Old Train could really be."
Granny Ku shook her head. "Pity. You won't get to use him."
Xiao Qianshou wanted to gamble one more time; he wanted to find a hand to swap with himself.
Yet under the searing agony, he could scarcely execute his technique.
He deliberately threw his head back and let out a long sigh as though utterly despairing, then burst into roaring laughter, attempting to compel Granny Ku to laugh along with him.
Yet, by some bizarre stroke of luck, two candles fell from the chandelier overhead. One of them plunged straight into Xiao Qianshou's open mouth!
A Fortune Cultivator technique: Fortune and Misfortune in an Instant!
Choked by the candle in his throat, Xiao Qianshou's laughter stopped dead. The Smile Cultivator technique failed to take effect.
Granny Ku picked up the other candle and shoved it into her own belly, setting her internal organs ablaze.
"What an Old Bitter Hag!" Xiao Qianshou gasped in admiration. Instantly, flames engulfed his entire body, and he burned down to ash.
He Jiaqing let out a long breath, a heavy weight lifted from his chest, and turned to bow in gratitude to Granny Ku.
Granny Ku smiled. "Not bad. Today you truly dared to charge in, showing me a glimpse of what you can do. Let me ask you: what do you want to do at Qishuiyao?"
He Jiaqing replied, "There is an entrance to the Inner States there."
"What do you want to do in the Inner States?"
"I want to rescue Senior Train."
Granny Ku stared intently at He Jiaqing. "Are you serious about that?"
He Jiaqing nodded. "Absolutely."
"Count it as having a sliver of conscience." Granny Ku nodded, though she couldn't help feeling the claim wasn't quite credible.
Hands lay scattered all across the floor of the conference room. Granny Ku picked up one and examined it closely. "This hand is quite peculiar. It's different from the others—doesn't look like a living person's hand."
He Jiaqing studied it for a moment and said, "This must have been crafted by an artisan cultivator."
"It doesn't look like Puluo Province craftsmanship." Granny Ku pulled the candle from her wound and casually waved her hand, incinerating all the hands Xiao Qianshou had left on the floor.
He Jiaqing felt a twinge of regret; those hands would have been of great use to him.
Granny Ku asked He Jiaqing, "You took half of Xiao Qianshou's lung earlier. Where did you hide it?"
He Jiaqing shook his sleeve, preparing to produce the lung, but Granny Ku waved him off. "If it's of use to you, keep it. What do you plan to do about your right hand?"
The tendon in He Jiaqing's right arm had been yanked out by Xiao Qianshou; restoring it would be exceedingly difficult.
The peddler did have a plaster that regrew tendons, but He Jiaqing didn't dare seek him out.
Granny Ku likely had a method as well, but with her eccentric temperament, asking her directly wouldn't guarantee she'd agree to help.
There was another path, one He Jiaqing had traveled before: "Looks like I can only go to Broken-and-Continued Mountain at Santoucha to try my luck."
Back when he had lost a hand, it was only by going to Santoucha that he regrew it. He said this in a rather pitiful tone, thinking Granny Ku might lend him a hand.
To his surprise, Granny Ku said, "Fair enough. Tempering yourself at Santoucha might even bring you some progress."
Granny Ku departed, leaving He Jiaqing sighing repeatedly.
After sighing, he had to make haste with serious business.
Though the battle just now had been brutal, it hadn't created much disturbance; no one else in the company building had noticed anything amiss. He Jiaqing hoisted up the dying Xie Juncong. "Go back to the Ghost Hand Sect, summon all the senior and junior pinch-hands, and tell them the leadership has changed hands—it's Qian Sangxue now."
Xie Juncong nodded.
He Jiaqing added, "Once you're back, get straight to business. Don't wander around aimlessly. Wherever you go, I can find you."
Xie Juncong struggled to his feet and walked out of the film company.
Two lookouts—one guarding the doorway, the other watching by the roadside—were still standing outside.
Seeing the chief come out, the two hurried forward. "Chief, is the business done?"
"Done," Xie Juncong said with a slight nod.
"Chief, where are the other brothers?"
Xie Juncong waved his hand, signaling them not to ask too much.
Seeing how painfully Xie Juncong walked, the two lookouts hurriedly supported him and headed back to the Ghost Hand Sect's lair.
He Jiaqing escorted Qian Sangxue back to her bedroom, then returned to the conference room to move the corpses of the Thief Cultivators into his own bedroom.
Once the conference room was cleaned up, He Jiaqing returned to his bedroom, took out the half lung of Xiao Qianshou, and placed it on the table.
He took a flat cap and put it on his head, pulled a wire out from the cap, and connected it to a storage battery.
Then he took a piece of magnet and held it in his mouth.
With everything prepared, He Jiaqing flipped the switch on the flat cap, and his body began to convulse violently.
Ten minutes later, He Jiaqing flipped the switch off, spat out the magnet, and lay on the floor coughing for a long while.
Xiao Qianshou's lung was gone, vanished to who knew where.
Lying on the floor, He Jiaqing coughed a bit longer, hacking up two Profound Accumulation Pills.
"Good stuff, truly good stuff!" He Jiaqing murmured in awe, walking toward the corpse of one of the Thief Cultivators.
In He Jiaqing's impression, this Thief Cultivator's cultivation was quite respectable. While refining Profound Accumulation Pills from him was impossible, refining a few Golden Origin Pills should be no trouble at all.
Xie Juncong returned to the Ghost Hand Sect's old manor. Resting for a brief moment, he ordered his men to quickly arrange a banquet; he was going to cede the sect master's position to Qian Sangxue.
There could be no sloppy business about this—he knew his life hung in He Jiaqing's hands.
The two lookouts, exhausted from the night's watch, went home to rest.
The one who had guarded the entrance arrived at his quarters and had just lain down when he suddenly felt an itch on his scalp.
He scratched at it twice. Suddenly, his scalp tore open, and a hand reached out from inside his skull.
Chapter 665