Chen Gang fled with his arms over his head, begging for mercy.

That should keep them from coming after me for at least the next few days, Chu Qiguang thought as he watched Zhang Da’s group leave.

According to Qiao Zhi, there had always been a strong culture of martial arts in Azure Sun County, and there was no shortage of people who had earned positions in the imperial court through the martial examinations.

At present, there were five or six clans in the county that were connected to either current or retired officials of the imperial court. One of them, the Hao Clan, had taken an interest in one of the plots of land belonging to the Wang Clan.

After hearing Chu Qiguang’s story, the Wang Clan would most likely be misled into thinking that the Hao Clan was making a move against them by involving the provincial governor. However, once they realized that they had been tricked, their retaliation against Chu Qiguang would surely be swift and vicious.

Still, that hardly mattered. Chu Qiguang’s intention was only to throw out this red herring and buy himself some time to avoid the immediate trouble that he was facing.

That night, Chu Qiguang lay in bed until Ergou’s mother and sister had fallen asleep.

He was so hungry that he felt as though a cold current was twisting back and forth inside his stomach. It was a terrible sensation, and it also kept him painfully awake.

After enduring in silence for a long time, he carefully got out of bed once he was sure Ergou's mother and sister were sound asleep.

Suddenly, a small hand grabbed him. He looked down to see Ergou's sister staring up at him as she asked, “Are you so hungry that you can’t sleep?”

As she spoke, she offered him half a piece of flatbread, then continued, “Don’t drink cold water. If you drink too much, you’ll get a stomachache and shit yourself again. You can have this instead.”

Chu Qiguang was very surprised by this gesture. He had never expected Ergou’s sister to save half her dinner for him.

Suppressing the urge to devour the piece of flatbread, he gently pushed it back toward her and said, “You eat it; I’m not hungry.”

“Mother said you’re the man of the household, and you need to eat more to be able to work,” his sister insisted.

The poor little girl was staring intently at the piece of flatbread with tightly pursed lips even as she was offering it to him. Chu Qiguang let out a faint sigh, took the flatbread from her, then split it into two and compromised, “Let’s each have half.”

His sister didn’t refuse. She held her quarter-piece of flatbread and licked it bit by bit, as if afraid that it would disappear if she ate too fast.

After coaxing his sister back to sleep, Chu Qiguang patted his belly.

I can’t keep living like this. I have to do something fast. Come to think of it, if Qiao Zhi can command so many animals, surely it won’t be difficult for his followers to hunt some meat, right?

***

As Chu Qiguang made his way toward the rear mountain, he reflected on everything that happened during the day.

Ever since he rebuked Steward Wang, the warden, Zhang Da, and the neighbors had been acting strangely around him. Earlier that day, he had greeted them as usual, but most of them ignored him, clearly afraid of offending the Wang Clan by associating with him.

I’ll decide how to deal with the Wang Clan while learning martial arts from Qiao Zhi tonight.

He made his way up the same steps as the day before, heading toward the clearing where Qiao Zhi taught his followers. However, he didn’t get very far before he heard a cacophony of beastly roars and bird cries, all tinged with fear and panic.

What’s going on?

Chu Qiguang hurried toward the clearing, but before he could get there, he spotted the two feral cats that had guided him the day before. The two cats were standing on their hind legs, waving their front paws at him.

“What happened?” Chu Qiguang asked as he rushed over to them.

The two cats meowed at him while continuing to gesture with their paws, but after realizing that he couldn't understand them, they turned around as if to lead him somewhere again.

Chu Qiguang was following close behind them when a loud roar suddenly rang out from the direction of the clearing.

“Evil fiend! Did you really think you could fool me just by speaking like a human? I knew right away that you weren’t human!”

Immediately afterward, Qiao Zhi’s cackling voice rang out in response.

“So what if I’m not a human? Under my instructions, the fiends on this mountain no longer harm humans. Instead, it’s the villagers at the foot of the mountain who often come up here to harm and kill my brethren! You should be ashamed of yourselves for coming after us!”

“Humans and fiends have always been sworn enemies throughout history!” the male voice declared. “Humans must cultivate the mountains and the fell forests, and they naturally slay any fiends that they encounter. It’s simply survival of the fittest. I never thought I would run into an old fiend as naïve and obtuse as you!”

“Then let me show you what I’m capable of, you foolish Daoist priest!” Qiao Zhi scoffed. His declaration was followed by a series of loud explosions, along with the sound of falling bamboo trees, and a chorus of animalistic howls that gradually faded into the distance.

Chu Qiguang was led by the pair of cats to a crevice in the mountain where he could hide.

Chu Qiguang didn’t know who the fiend-hunting Daoist priest was, and he was feeling very uneasy.

The two cats darted back and forth in agitation, their tails tightly tucked between their legs in fear.

Some time later, two specks of light appeared outside, and Qiao Zhi’s voice was carried into the crevice by the wind.

“You can come out now. I managed to drive that Daoist priest away.”

The two feral cats meowed in celebration as they rushed outside to circle around Qiao Zhi.

Chu Qiguang also let out a sigh of relief as he crawled out of the crevice, then asked, “Who was that just now, Master Qiao? How did you two get into a fight?”

“That was Daoist Master Azure Spirit, a guardian from the Daoist temple in Azure Sun County,” Qiao Zhi sighed. “He oversees various ceremonial affairs and is also a formidable slayer of demons and fiends. He was the one who killed that female corpse in Bo’xing County from the story you heard yesterday at the entrance of the village.”

“That was him?” Chu Qiguang exclaimed. “What do you think the truth behind that story was? Was the scholar really able to seek help from the Daoist priest in a dream because of his devotion to Daoism, or was he caught by the Daoist priest using dark arts?”

“I don’t know the answer to that, but there’s a trace of fiendish aura around that Daoist priest, so he’s definitely hiding something,” Qiao Zhi replied, his eyes narrowing slightly.

“Fiendish aura?” Chu Qiguang repeated.

Qiao Zhi nodded as he explained, “A fiendish aura is an inhuman aura only present in a fiend that has attained a human form, but has not yet perfected it.”

Chu Qiguang still didn’t understand much about the fiend system in this world, so now that the subject had come up, he took the opportunity to ask some questions.

According to Qiao Zhi, the fiends of this world were divided into two categories, namely beast fiends and spirit fiends.

Beast fiends mostly lived deep within mountains and in large bodies of water. They behaved much like ordinary wild animals, but they were far more powerful and possessed intelligence not inferior to humans.

At Chu Qiguang’s request, Qiao Zhi listed some of the more renowned beast fiend species, such as the bashe serpent, the mountain ghost, the black tiger, and the guhuo bird. They were all violent beasts that harmed and devoured humans at will.

As for spirit fiends, they were animals born with higher intelligence. If these spirit fiends embarked on a path of cultivation, then they would be able to attain a human form upon reaching the Dao Comprehension state, making them indistinguishable from humans.

Furthermore, the offspring of spirit fiends that had reached the Dao Comprehension state would all be born with higher intelligence, and some even had human forms at birth.

This applied to all of the spirit fiend’s descendants as well, and these spirit fiend descendants made up what was known as the fiend race.

“So the fact that Daoist Master Azure Spirit has a fiendish aura means that he’s either a member of the fiend race, or he’s a spirit fiend that attained a human form through cultivation,” Chu Qiguang reasoned. “However, since he has a human form even though he hasn’t attained the Dao Comprehension state, that can only mean that he’s a member of the fiend race, right?”

“That’s very likely the case,” Qiao Zhi replied. “I don’t know how a spirit fiend like him was able to not only infiltrate a Daoist temple, but also learn the temple’s martial arts and Dao arts.”

“The Daoist priests of the Azure Sun County Daoist Temple often go out to slay fiends. Can't they tell that he’s a spirit fiend?” Chu Qiguang asked.