Chapter Twenty-Six: Chaos

The chaos descended without warning.

On a night in April, Chen Mu was fast asleep when a sudden scream pierced the air. He woke up instantly. Listening closely, the faint, lingering wails made him realize that something terrible had happened. He hurriedly threw on some clothes and scrambled up onto the roof. Looking out, he saw fires burning in various parts of the city, accompanied by the rising and falling sounds of slaughter and shrieking.

*Rebel forces attacking the city?*

He did not dare to venture out. In such chaos, one could lose their life in an instant. He could only sit on the roof, vigilantly monitoring every movement around him. Fortunately, the bandits were not immediately sweeping through the civilian districts; they were focused on the wealthy households in the city center. The fires were mostly concentrated in the central district. He kept a tense watch until the sky grew bright, at which point the sounds of killing slowly faded. With only the distant, occasional sound of horses galloping and shouting, Qingshan County fell into a brief, uneasy silence.

As the sun rose, the sounds of weeping and wailing erupted. In one night of chaos, countless lives had been lost. Chen Mu kept his gates bolted tight, resolved to stay holed up at home. Though the bandits had departed, the chaos was far from over.

"It’s a good thing I stockpiled grain beforehand," he muttered. As grain prices rose and news of the rebels spread, he had felt a sense of foreboding and decisively stocked up on food and medicine. Now, with grain in his pantry, his heart was at ease. He reinforced the gates of his three properties with wooden beams, sealing them shut. Chen Mu hunkered down at home, quietly grinding his skills. "Wait. I'll wait until things are completely calm before going out to investigate."

Two days later, in the evening, Chen Mu finished his daily cultivation and sat down to eat. He listened carefully to the surroundings. The chaos had not yet completely subsided; even in the middle of the night, sporadic screams could still be heard.

"I wonder what the county guards are doing?" Two days had passed, and the authorities had yet to restore order. "Could they have been completely wiped out by the rebels?" The thought of going out to take a look was immediately dismissed. With his martial arts, he could run if he encountered a strong opponent, but if he exposed the fact that he knew martial arts, it might attract unwanted attention and trouble.

*Staying low-key is the only way to live longer.* The waters of this world ran deep.

...

In Anle Ward, East Market, the doors of the Miaohua Gallery stood wide open. Inside, scrolls, paper, and ink were scattered everywhere. The counter had been overturned, and there were specks of blood on the walls. Zhou Liang and Zheng Huan walked out of the shop looking miserable.

"They did a clean job—not a single copper left for us!" Zhou Liang spat.

"The wealthy shops nearby have already been looted. Shall we check the homes of the big families in Shengye Ward?" Zheng Huan asked, unwilling to give up.

"Those with broken gates have already been picked clean," Zhou Liang said helplessly. "And we can't get into the ones that haven't been breached."

"If not that, then let's find some smaller households. Every bit counts; we can't go back empty-handed," Zheng Huan said through gritted teeth.

With the bandits having breached the county seat, the local order had collapsed. For street thugs like them, it was a feast. The desires they usually hid were now fully unleashed, and they stopped at nothing—burning, killing, and looting.

"What kind of profit can you get from those small homes?" Zhou Liang’s eyes darted around, and he gave a sly grin. "Have you forgotten about Chen Mu?"

Zheng Huan’s eyes lit up. "Twenty taels for a single painting—that’s a fat sheep!"

"It’s a pity Old Man Yan went missing and his assets were carved up. Otherwise..." Zhou Liang lamented.

"Let’s go, let’s go! Let's take that brat down first!" Zheng Huan urged. "That kid only knows how to eat meat; he never spends anything. He must have saved hundreds of taels of silver!"

"Then we’ll teach him how to spend it!"

The two men tucked short swords into their belts and excitedly slipped into the alleyway. After two days of chaos, they had already killed and looted more than once. Their eyes were bloodshot, and greed had completely consumed their minds.

...

At the entrance to the Chen residence in Ping'an Ward, the two men peered through a crack in the door.

"The gate is still bolted."

"Bolts won't do a damn thing. Not a single coin of those hundreds of taels is getting away!"

"Step on my shoulders—we're going over the wall!"

Zheng Huan crouched down, and Zhou Liang stepped on his shoulders to vault over the wall. Perched on top, Zhou Liang looked excitedly into the courtyard and saw a figure standing upside down on a stone pedestal. The man was shirtless, his well-defined muscles bulging with blood. His left hand was behind his back, while the index and middle fingers of his right hand were splayed in a V-shape, supporting his entire weight on the pedestal. He was performing a one-handed, two-finger handstand!

Zhou Liang’s heart skipped a beat. He looked at the face hanging upside down. *Is this... is this that frail scholar?!* His scalp went numb. That lean, well-defined musculature—how could it possibly be described as frail?

Chen Mu looked up in surprise at the figure on the wall. *Zhou Liang?* He immediately flipped down from the pedestal, landing on his feet. Staring at the shocked face on the wall, he couldn't help but grin, revealing a row of white teeth. "So, you’ve found me..."

*Whoosh!*

Before Zhou Liang could react, Chen Mu vanished. A moment later, he appeared on the wall, his right hand gripping Zhou Liang’s neck like an iron pincer. With immense strength that allowed no resistance, he lifted the man like a chicken, jumped off the wall, and slammed him against the wall on the opposite side.

Zheng Huan, crouching beneath the wall, felt a blur, and then Zhou Liang was gone. He instinctively turned his head and saw a shirtless, robust man holding Zhou Liang aloft with one hand. Seeing Zhou Liang’s face turning purple as he kicked the air, Zheng Huan turned and ran.

*Splat!*

A spray of blood erupted from his knee. Before a scream could even leave his throat, his neck was seized by a massive hand.

*Whoosh!*

The short, frantic call vanished as quickly as it had begun. The alleyway was empty once more, returning to silence.

...

In the night, Chen Mu vaulted and sprinted across rooftops, carrying two straw-mat bundles. His twice-refined physique provided him with immense power. He pushed the leaping style of the Red Falcon Form technique to its limit; even while carrying two people, his movements remained completely silent. At the same abandoned house, Chen Mu dug pits and buried the bodies with practiced ease. He quickly erased any traces of the scene and disappeared into the night.

...

In the easternmost residence of the Chen family in Ping'an Ward, an oil lamp flickered on a square table. In the dim light, a pile of assorted items lay scattered: copper coins, bits of silver, short swords, lime powder, knockout drops, and "Golden Yang Pills." These were the spoils taken from Zhou Liang and Zheng Huan.

Chen Mu clutched his chest, feeling his heart still pounding. "I had to kill them again," he muttered with annoyance. "Damn this wretched world! Why can't everyone just be a good person like me?"

Chen Mu sighed and counted the coins and silver one by one. Copper with copper, silver with silver; he threw away the knockout drops and lime powder—the quality was too poor. *Golden Yang Pills? What is this nonsense? Trash!* Finally, he picked up the two short swords. They had brown wooden hilts and scabbards with oval brass guards, measuring from his elbow to his fingertips. He unsheathed them, the gleaming silver blades still stained with a trace of blood.

"These two were truly wretched." In the two days of chaos, there was no telling how many innocent souls had perished beneath these blades. He found a rag and wiped them clean. "From now on, I shall only use you to purge evil. I hope this brings you some redemption."

Chen Mu pondered going to the Ghost Market once things calmed down to find a manual for sword techniques. He couldn't let these two blades go to waste.