Chapter Seventeen: The Armor

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West Market, Qingshan County.
As the sun rose, the streets gradually filled with people.
The once quiet West Market now buzzed with the day's commotion.
At the antique shop, Tian Yi Zhai, the owner, Jie Jia, with snow-white hair, opened the door punctually.
First, he meticulously swept the already clean floor.
Then, with painstaking care, he polished the display shelves until they gleamed like new.
Stooped and slow, his movements were steady and deliberate.
A serene aura surrounded him, starkly contrasting with the noisy crowd outside.
Chirp!
A flash of black light streaked by.
A small, jet-black bird, no bigger than a fist, had somehow perched upon Jie Jia’s shoulder.
Jie Jia seemed accustomed to this.
Ignoring the bird, he finished wiping the last corner of the display shelf.
Only then did he reach up, grasp the tiny black bird, remove a small bamboo tube tied to its ankle, and withdraw a slip of paper.
On it was a string of enigmatic numbers.
"Chen Mu, Chenjia Village, one hundred taels. Big business," Jie Jia muttered expressionlessly.
He pinched the paper between thumb and forefinger, gently rubbing it.
A swirl of black and gray dust rose, and the paper vanished.
A young man dressed in gray entered the shop, respectfully nodding to Jie Jia before obediently taking a seat behind the counter.
He pulled a pristine gray cloth from his chest pocket, placed it carefully on the chair, and sat down cautiously.
Jie Jia glanced over without expression and stepped out of Tian Yi Zhai.
The gray-clad youth exhaled deeply.
“Whoever this unlucky soul is, they’re incredibly fortunate to warrant the boss’s personal attention,” he murmured in awe.
His arm instinctively moved toward the counter but froze the instant it touched the surface.
“I heard the boss is a neat freak... better just sit quietly,” the youth said, still uneasy, placing his hands back on his knees.
Like someone being punished, he sat properly behind the counter, making every effort to avoid touching any furniture.
Jie Jia was one of Zhu Yilou’s top assassins.
If he were killed for dirtying the counter, it would be an unbearable injustice!

Behind Chenjia Village’s southern mountain.
A long, red-scaled serpent hung from a tree branch, stretching its body toward a bird’s nest on a forked limb.
Suddenly—
The snake’s head exploded abruptly.
In the next moment, a figure dashed swiftly beneath the tree.
Chen Mu ran like a leopard through the forest.
His hands flicked stones now and then.
A thirty-meter distant palm-sized leaf suddenly sprouted holes.
Nineteen meters away, a centipede was abruptly severed in two on the ground.
Forty-three meters off, a hornet was shattered into pieces.

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Twenty-three meters away, a wild rabbit joyfully leapt.
Thud!
A stone suddenly appeared, piercing its skull.
“Perfect for hunting!” Chen Mu appeared beside the rabbit, happily hoisting it up.
After testing the forest environment’s ability to enhance his Form Practice, Chen Mu attempted hunting with his Flying Locust Stones.
“With this skill, I can at least ease the pressure of meat shortages.”
Not only at Zheng the butcher’s place, but meat prices were rising throughout Qingshan County.
Back at the hunter’s hut, Chen Mu clumsily began processing the wild rabbit.
“I’ll probably have to keep butchering wild game from now on, so I might as well start practicing with this rabbit,” Chen Mu thought cheerfully.

In the forest above the hunter’s hut,
On a thick tree embraced by two arms,
Jie Jia stood stooped, hands behind his back, balanced on a branch as thick as a forearm.
Through gaps in the leaves, he quietly observed Chen Mu busying himself in the clearing below.
“Found him.”
Jie Jia’s heart was calm and unmoved.
He had been an assassin all his life; killing no longer stirred any emotions within him.
What puzzled him was this: who had a quarrel with such a frail scholar that someone would pay a hundred taels for his death?
“Forget it, just a target.”
“Should he die from a fatal fall or mistakenly consume a poisonous fruit?”
“Death by venomous insect bites might be even better.”
“In the southern mountains of Qingshan County, there are twenty-three deadly venomous insects. Silver-ringed snakes leave wounds too large, copper-spider movements too slow—unlikely to attack proactively.”
“Hmm, the golden-winged wasp’s venomous stinger is slender but lethal, sharpened with silver needles and disguised as a wasp’s sting—enough to convincingly fake the real thing.”
Whoosh!
A breeze swept through. Jie Jia vanished, leaving only a swirling leaf drifting down.

“Young man!”
Chen Mu, awkwardly skinning the rabbit, turned his head.
An elderly man with a stooped back was approaching along the path.
His white hair and beard were neatly groomed, his steps slow but steady.
His clothes were clean and tidy, clearly not that of a hunter or farmer.
“Young man, could you spare some clean water?” the old man asked, bending slightly as he reached the hunter’s hut.
“Sir, at your age, why climb up the mountain?” Chen Mu asked with curiosity.
“Don’t judge me by my age; my body is still strong,” the elder replied.
“I’m a doctor, here to gather herbs,” he explained with a smile.
A doctor? Gathering herbs?
Why didn’t he carry a medicine basket?

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Never mind, it was just a drink of water.
“Wait a moment,” Chen Mu agreed, washing the blood off his hands.
He entered the wooden hut to dry his hands, then took the water pouch and approached Jie Jia.
“Please, sir,” Chen Mu offered the bulging water pouch with both hands.
Jie Jia smiled faintly as Chen Mu came close, but a flash of silver light vanished from his right hand behind his back.
He reached out toward the water pouch.
Suddenly, a shadow fell from the sky.
Chirp!
A black bird, fist-sized, abruptly landed on Jie Jia’s shoulder.
Jie Jia’s eyes narrowed.
The Black Bird was Zhu Yilou’s messenger.
Its sudden arrival meant the mission had gone awry.
The smile on his face vanished instantly.
He reached for the bamboo tube and pulled out a slip of paper.
“Employer dead, mission aborted?”
Jie Jia looked at Chen Mu expressionlessly: “You’re lucky.”
Chen Mu looked baffled: “Sir, what do you mean?”
“Don’t play dumb,” Jie Jia stared coldly: “You’re hiding quicklime powder in your sleeve, aren’t you?”
“You misunderstand, sir. It’s only a sachet,” Chen Mu sincerely pulled a cloth pouch from his sleeve.
“I was using quicklime powder to kill people before you were even born,” Jie Jia snorted coldly.
“Sir, you really misunderstand. If you don’t believe me, I can open it for you,” Chen Mu said seriously.
“If you dare open that and sprinkle it on me, I’ll kill you immediately!” Jie Jia glared fiercely.
“Sigh, sir, your mistrust runs deep. I truly am not a villain,” Chen Mu said helplessly, slipping the pouch back into his sleeve.
“You’re lucky. Your employer who wanted to kill you is dead. I never do business at a loss. You can rest easy,” Jie Jia said quietly.
Chen Mu looked at him in astonishment: “Kill me? Sir, you must be joking. I’m just a simple scholar. Why would anyone want me dead?”
“Simple? What simple scholar carries quicklime powder to kill secretly?” Jie Jia sneered.
He reached out to take Chen Mu’s water pouch.
After rushing here, looking for someone and preparing assassination tools, he was indeed a bit thirsty.
“Well, people’s prejudices are like mountains—you can never move them. No matter how much I explain, you won’t believe me,” Chen Mu said sadly as he walked back to the hut with the water pouch.
Jie Jia’s hand grasped empty air. “Heh... this stubborn scholar.”
“Could I really have been mistaken?”
“That smell was quicklime?”
“No way!” Jie Jia’s face darkened. “That little bastard wouldn’t have poisoned the water, would he?”
Prejudice like a mountain?
He certainly acted the part perfectly!