The ground cracked beneath Bi Kan’s feet, the explosive force of his launch sending a spiderweb of fissures across the packed earth.

  He was a blur of motion, a human projectile aimed with lethal intent.

  A faint cloud of steam, a tell-tale sign of the incomplete Boar Charge technique he had learned, vented from his body as his fist, wreathed in a potent aura of Qi, shot forward.

  Nothing could stop him now.

  But something did.

  Before his fist could connect, before bone could shatter and life could be extinguished, a small, trembling figure shot from the side, placing herself directly in his path. It was one of the innocent girls he had just saved. Her hands were raised, not in a block, but in a desperate, pleading gesture.

  "Please, spare them!" she cried, her voice thick with a mixture of terror and a fierce, unshakeable conviction.

  "If they have ever done you wrong, please find it in your heart to forgive them! They… they saved us!"

  Bi Kan’s momentum came to a dead, jarring halt, his fist stopping a hair's breadth from the girl's face.

  The raw, murderous energy he had gathered dissipated, leaving a heavy silence in its wake.

  He slowly lowered his arm, though his eyes, burning with a cold fire, remained locked on Gu Moyu, the true target behind the girl’s fragile shield.

  "You're lucky," he said, his voice a low, chilling whisper. "Today is your lucky day. Count your blessings, so you won't blame yourself if you die a dog's death in the future."

  A chuckle, surprisingly lighthearted, came from behind him. Ying Xia casually patted him on the back, the blow surprisingly solid.

  "Calm down, Bi Kan," she teased, a wide grin on her face. "You're acting like a devil right now."

  A long, slow breath of profound relief escaped Gu Moyu’s lips.

  He folded his arms once more, his posture regaining a semblance of its earlier composure, though his face was still pale.

  "I'm sorry we've offended you, Brother Bi Kan," he said, his voice laced with a weary sincerity.

  "It is true we were sent to assassinate you, but we have since realized you are far beyond our capabiliti—"

  "Tch!" A sharp, contemptuous scoff cut him off. Bi Kan crossed his own arms, a cold, mocking smirk on his face.

  "Don't lie to me. Your numbers were worn down. You would have ambushed me and killed me without a second thought if your little plan hadn't gone so horribly wrong. This is what you get for chasing me down. How many of you were there?"

  Ma Niu grit his teeth, the shame of their failure a fresh, stinging wound. "

  There were… four of us," he admitted, his voice barely a murmur.

  Bi Kan’s smirk widened. "Serves you right. You set out to kill one man, yet you failed and lost two in the process. What a motley crew you are."

  The insult, laid bare so cruelly, was the final spark. Ma Niu stepped forward, his hand balling into a tight, trembling fist.

  "Watch what you're sayi—"

  SMACK!

  The sound was sharp and final. Bi Kan’s hand connected with Ma Niu’s cheek in a slap so powerful it lifted the disciple from his feet and sent him sprawling to the ground. "Don't you dare talk back to me," Bi Kan snarled, his voice dropping to a low, dangerous growl.

  "You're only alive because of this girl. Be ashamed of yourself for not being able to stand up on your own."

  He took a step forward, his foot drawing back to deliver a vicious kick to the man’s gut.

  A hand shot out, blocking his path. It was Gu Moyu.

  "Please, brother," he said, his voice calm and steady, his gaze piercing Bi Kan's with a surprising intensity.

  "Let our differences aside. We have a common enemy."

  Bi Kan held his gaze for a long, tense moment. He finally let out a short, humorless laugh. "Heh! I'll let you go," he conceded, taking a step back. "You're not entirely bad. But," he added, his voice turning cold as ice, his own gaze unwavering, "I won't hesitate to kill you if you ever cross my way again."

  Ying Xia stared, a knot of confusion tightening in her chest as she watched Bi Kan’s cold, hard expression. He was an orphan who had only just become a disciple, wasn't he? She remembered him mentioning it had barely been a year. How could someone so new to this world, someone who had started with nothing, be so utterly ruthless? The hero who had saved her village and the devil who had just threatened to kill his fellow disciples were two sides of the same, terrifying coin.

  "Anyhow," she finally said, shaking her head to clear it as she broke the tense silence, "we've finally reached the final village, Bi Kan. Let's get some rest and gather intel! So we can finally report back to the sect!"

  "Alright," Bi Kan replied, though his gaze never left Gu Moyu, his eyes cold and sharp as obsidian shards. "But there's no way I'll be able to get some rest. I can't sleep easy when my assassins are just next door."

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Gu Moyu’s eye twitched, a subtle flicker of shame in his weary gaze. This is fine, he thought, a grim acceptance settling in his heart. This is what we deserve. But does he have to be this cruel?

  Ma Niu, however, had no such capacity for self-reflection. He pushed himself to his feet, glaring at Bi Kan with a mixture of fear and wounded pride.

  "Tsk! You're stronger than us, what do you have to fear?! Come on, Gu Moyu, let's get Zhou a proper burial."

  The two tattered disciples turned and began the grim task of retrieving their fallen comrade, the two girls they had saved following closely behind, their expressions a mixture of pity and gratitude.

  "Do you think they have anything worth finding out within the village?" Ying Xia asked, her head turning to watch them go.

  "I don't know, and it doesn't matter," Bi Kan replied, his tone dismissive. "The information we already have is enough. We'd be lucky if we got another crucial piece."

  Ying Xia spun her golden spear, the dragon-fang head glinting in the afternoon sun. "Then Lady Luck shall smile for me!" she declared, her usual boisterous energy returning. "I'll use up 99.99% of my luck just to get that crucial piece of information!"

  A small, almost imperceptible chuckle escaped Bi Kan’s lips, and he finally looked up, his gaze softening as it met hers. "You're an idiot, Xia."

  Back within the village, the sight of the battered disciples was met not with suspicion, but with a quiet, efficient compassion. The villagers, having faced their own recent tragedy, nurtured and cared for Gu Moyu and Ma Niu, bringing them water and tending to their wounds.

  "Look at that, it's as if they're heroes," Bi Kan observed from a distance, his arms crossed, a note of lingering hostility in his voice.

  Ying Xia playfully punched him in the shoulder. "They are heroes, Bi Kan. To those girls, they saved their lives, just like how you saved mine and the others." She sighed, her expression turning surprisingly thoughtful. "Don't be so hostile all the time. Your hair will grow white if you worry too much. Even as a cultivator with a long life ahead of us, we can't spend all that time being angry."

  Bi Kan’s eyes squinted at her, a look of genuine surprise on his face. "That came out of nowhere. Did that just really come out of your mouth? Perhaps the spirit of your old man just came through you."

  "HAH!" she scoffed, her moment of wisdom instantly evaporating. "My grandpa's tongue wasn't that sharp! He spoke like a drunken fool! I'm far smarter than he is!"

  "Not exactly a high bar, Xia."

  As they wandered through the village, their attempts to gather intel were met with a frustrating wall of vagueness. The villagers spoke of slavery, of random, brutal acts the bandits had committed, of fleeting sightings in the deep woods, but there was no solid, actionable information.

  "We should go to that hut they kept mentioning in the end," Bi Kan finally said, scratching his chin as he pieced together the fragmented whispers. "That old hut by the hill, huh?"

  Ying Xia nodded, her thumb jabbing towards a steep, overgrown path at the edge of the village. "Yep! They say if anyone knows anything, it's that old bastard from up the hill!"

  "You're going up there?"

  The question, laced with a weary caution, came from behind. Bi Kan turned to see Gu Moyu and Ma Niu standing side by side, their injuries bound in crude bandages but their stances surprisingly steady. They had recovered with a speed that spoke of a resilient foundation.

  A cold, mocking smile touched Bi Kan’s lips. "You heal fast," he said, raising a fist, the knuckles still raw from his earlier display of force. "Maybe a proper beating from me will keep you in bed longer."

  Ying Xia’s hand shot out, grabbing his wrist with a surprising strength. "Stop it, dumbass," she hissed, her glare a sharp warning.

  Ma Niu took a hesitant step forward, his earlier fear warring with a desperate need to prevent a catastrophe. He pointed a trembling finger towards the steep, overgrown hill. "You best avoid that," he warned, his voice tight. "Or else you might just want to kill the bastard by the hill, and the villagers won't like that. As far as they know, he's the only one hunting food and selling it to them."

  Bi Kan’s eyebrow arched in disdain. He crossed his arms, his posture radiating an arrogant confidence. "And why would I harbor killing intent towards the man up the hill? I can handle assholes just fine."

  Ying Xia shot him a sharp, side-long glance. "Really? That's barely believable."

  Gu Moyu cleared his throat, his own expression grim as he delivered the final, damning piece of information. "He used to be a bandit," he stated, his voice flat and final. "Which is why the villagers told you that he might know something they don't."

  The air grew cold. The playful banter, the weary camaraderie—it all evaporated in an instant. Bi Kan’s eyes, which had been filled with a cold contempt, now blazed with a white-hot, righteous fury. His hands, which had been casually crossed, balled into fists at his sides, trembling with a barely contained violence.

  "Does he think he can repent like this?" he whispered, the words a low, guttural growl that seemed to come from the very depths of his soul. Repentance? By hunting food for the very same kind of people he once slaughtered? What a fucking joke!

  He shifted, his entire body coiling like a serpent. "I'll kill him," he declared, his voice no longer a whisper but a chilling promise. "Does he think he's safe by holing up in a small village like this?! How hypocritical! The lives he's taken… does he think his life deserves to prosper?!"

  Before anyone could react, he shot forward. The ground cracked beneath the explosive force of his launch as he became a blur of motion, a human projectile of pure, unadulterated rage.

  Ying Xia groaned, a sound of pure exasperation. "Dumbass, wait! What if he does have useful intel!" She spun her golden spear and gave chase, her own powerful legs eating up the ground.

  Gu Moyu turned to Ma Niu, his face a mask of grim resolve. "He may not like us, and may hate us even more after what we're about to do, but we need to restrain him. That man might actually be able to help, even if Bi Kan doesn't want it."

  Ma Niu nodded, a new fire of purpose in his own eyes. "Yeah. We're still part of the sect. We must contribute!" Together, they followed, a trio of reluctant keepers chasing their own unhinged attack dog.

  Bi Kan was a ghost in the high trees, his movements swift and silent as he leaped from branch to branch.

  The small, isolated hut at the top of the hill slowly came into view, a solitary structure against the afternoon sky.

  "I can sense you, you bastard!" he roared, his voice echoing through the quiet woods.

  He descended from the canopy in a controlled fall, his hands shooting out. His fists, wreathed in a potent aura of Qi, planted themselves squarely against the simple wooden door.

  BOOM!

  The door didn't just break; it disintegrated, exploding inwards in a shower of splintered wood and dust. Through the settling debris, an old man, wrapped in a simple cloak, spun around, his eyes wide with shock and fear. "W-Who dares—?!"

  He never finished his sentence. A hand, strong as a steel vise, wrapped around his neck, lifting him from his feet as if he weighed nothing. The only thing he felt was a pure, paralyzing terror. "P-Please…" he choked out, his legs kicking uselessly in the air.

  Bi Kan’s grip tightened, his face a mask of cold, merciless fury.

  "Did the women you violated plead like this? Did the men you slaughtered beg for their lives? Did you spare them?!"

  A small, cruel laugh escaped him, a sound utterly devoid of humor. He reeled his other hand back, his knuckles glowing with a gathered, murderous energy.

  "I'll pierce a fucking hole through your chest," he snarled, his voice a low, final judgment, "and watch the light leave your eyes!"