Chapter 103: The Weeping Yu County (Revised)

Finding five displacement talismans and a large stack of silver banknotes, he did not set them ablaze. Instead, he smashed each of the Ghost Slave’s bags before walking away without a backward glance.

He intended to spread the news of what happened at the manor, giving the local Jing’an Division and the martial artists who had come to apprehend Song Jiang something to occupy themselves with.

"You like acting as righteous heroes, don’t you? Go and hunt down the Ghost Sect then."

Ling Chi did not pause for even a moment, utilizing his Thunder Flash to rush back to Yu County under the starlit sky. After a brief disguise, the "Traveler" Wu Song went offline, and the "Skull-Crushing Demon" Song Jiang came online.

Employing his Divine Concealment art, he headed straight for the Jing’an Division. He was bursting with a belly full of rage that he needed to vent. Along the way, anyone whose presence triggered the reaction of his Thunder Bead had their skulls shattered by his skull-crushing hammer. He came and went like a phantom; despite the violent nature of his assassinations, he left not a single sound behind.

The Thunder Bead trembled from time to time, and he adjusted his path to reap the souls. Consequently, the low-cultivation martial artists at the inns suffered, providing him with hundreds of strands of thunderous spiritual energy.

It took less than half an hour to reach the Jing’an Division. Ling Chi looked at the gilded characters "Peace Under Heaven" hanging above the entrance and curled his lips into a smirk.

"Forgive me, colleagues."

He charged into the Jing’an Division. This time, he did not choose to start with the prisoners. He headed straight for the backyard, the Thunder Bead delivering its judgment, and Ling Chi carrying out the execution. His sneak attacks and assassinations carried a distinct air of cold-blooded efficiency.

The Captain of the Yu County Jing’an Division was only at the fourth level of the Qi Sea realm, and those beneath him were nothing but small fry. In less than the time it took to burn a stick of incense, save for half a dozen low-level flag officers, every other colleague, along with the prisoners and the gatekeepers, had been slaughtered.

With over a thousand strands of thunderous spiritual energy feeding back into him, his drive only intensified. The fish rots from the head down; since their Captain was a slave to the Ghost Sect like Wei Si, one could imagine just how rotten the Yu County Jing’an Division had become. The few flag officers were knocked unconscious and tossed into a corner; they would have their uses later.

The bright moon cast its soft glow, turning a blind eye to Ling Chi’s actions, even seemingly trying to light his path forward. The "Skull-Crushing Madman" Song Jiang continued his spree, pinpointing his next destination and heading straight for the County Government Office. After witnessing the tragedies of the underground cavern and the Tiger Might Manor, he knew that killing three or four hundred people wouldn't be enough to vent his anger.

The gatekeeper at the County Office was still dozing when the Thunder Bead passed its death sentence. As a gust of wind blew past, his head exploded. Ling Chi was like an underworld reaper, leaving no survivors under his hammer.

Passing by Hou Haoran’s room, he found the man sleeping soundly, lost in a spring-like dream, whispering the name of his dream lover.

"Caiwei, Cai..."

*Bang.*

His head exploded, splattering the bed. Dozens of strands of thunderous spiritual energy flowed back into him. He had been marked for death the moment they met; he had been lucky to live for a few hours longer.

"Don't worry, I’ll send your father down to join you soon."

Ling Chi continued his harvest with his hammer. The courtyard of the County Office was quite large, housing the magistrate’s advisors and clerks. This made Ling Chi’s work much more convenient. The magistrate was sleeping soundly while embracing his concubine; the couple was sent off together. Two hundred strands of thunderous spiritual energy were harvested—more than several Hou Haorans combined. Truly, a son is a reflection of his father.

Leaving the County Office, he turned and went to the adjacent jail. The work here was far easier; he simply went from cell to cell, no searching required. The few who had been wrongly imprisoned were simply knocked unconscious in their sleep. The entire dungeon provided him with four or five hundred strands of thunderous spiritual energy, causing the thunder crystal within his body to gradually grow stronger.

Emerging from the dungeon, Ling Chi stretched his arms, his bones popping with a series of cracks. Looking at the whitening sky, he realized dawn was approaching. A night of slaughter and bloodshed had finally passed. The people of Yu County were about to welcome a brand new... day of slaughter.

Ling Chi had no intention of stopping. He could keep this up for days and nights on end without a break. If the capitalists of his past life knew of this, they would be overjoyed—what a tireless beast of burden.

Ling Chi retrieved the few unconscious flag officers from the Jing’an Division, carrying two in each hand as he departed. Tiger Might Manor was thirty or forty miles from Yu County; with his Thunder Flash speed of several hundred feet per second, he could make a round trip in a hundred seconds. He transported all the flag officers, the unconscious martial artists from the inns, the surviving bailiffs from the County Office, and most importantly, the gossiping matrons who were the epicenter of the local rumor mill, dragging them straight from their beds.

When the sun rose, Ling Chi found a corner and watched silently as he prepared to detonate this small county town.

At the transition between the hours of the Tiger and the Rabbit (around 4:00 or 5:00 AM), the first scream rang out. A woman from a brothel, who worked in manual labor, woke from her stupor to find that the head of her patron was gone, red and white matter splattered everywhere, and she had spent the entire night sleeping in his arms.

With a shriek, she rolled her eyes and fainted. The awakened county was filled with vigor and vitality, echoing with cries, screams, and the furious roars of martial artists. All manner of foul language filled the air, but Ling Chi remained indifferent, ignoring it all.

The survivors gathered in groups, exchanging gossip and exclaiming in shock.

"That Old Man Ge is dead too? I knew he wasn't a good person; he was a lecherous old vulture," a young woman said indignantly, shoveling food into her mouth from a large bowl.

"It's a pity young brother Huang was killed by the thieves, too. Even though he was a jailer, he made good money, right?"

"He deserved to die. Back then, when Cai’s second daughter’s husband was wrongly imprisoned, he took the chance to blackmail her, demanding to marry her thirteen-year-old daughter. He should have looked at his own ugly face in a puddle before trying that. In the end, he forced the girl to jump into a well."

The group of women chattered away, the scene lively. The county town was in total chaos. Convoys of surviving dignitaries, carrying their disheveled family members, tried to flee the city but ended up blocked at the gates, unable to move forward or back.

At this moment, the flag officers sent to Tiger Might Manor returned with the matrons. They brought news of the Ghost Sect refining human pills, a story that, under the spreading tongues of the matrons, multiplied in reach. Within a single stick of incense, the entire town knew.

Ling Chi finally began his second phase of work. He changed back into his Wu Song outfit and laid an ambush on the only road leading from Yu County to Tiger Might Manor. He was lying in wait for the remaining martial artists; there was no reason not to devour the prey that delivered itself to his doorstep.

These martial artists, confident in their high cultivation, would certainly come to the site to see for themselves. After all, the Ghost Sect was world-renowned; what a glorious story it would be to bring such news back to their hometowns. Even though the Ghost Sect was massacring cities, they weren't massacring *their* cities. The saying that people laugh at poverty but not at prostitution applied here as well; these martial artists laughed at the weak but not at the strong.

Ling Chi found a spot to wait, watching to see which fish would take the bait first. His long, disheveled hair covered his sinister, ruthless face as he held his horse-slaying saber, waiting for fate to arrive.

After half a stick of incense passed, the sound of movement cutting through the air echoed from afar. Two fierce-looking martial artists were riding toward him, both at the third or fourth level of the Qi Sea realm.

The Thunder Bead vibrated, declaring their imminent deaths. Ling Chi struck suddenly from the woods, the power of extreme Yang clinging to his blade. The crimson saber slashed out dozens of rainbow-like beams in an instant, and the two men fell dead immediately.

Two or three hundred strands of thunderous spiritual energy flowed back into him. He chased off the horses, burned the corpses to ashes, and hid back in the woods to wait for the next fated visitor.

The slaughter continued until dusk. Finally, some martial artists realized something was wrong. Why were only a dozen or so people returning, when over a hundred had gone? Had the others gone home? Did they agree to leave together?

The more they pondered, the more they felt something was off. Someone suggested they go together to investigate. There was strength in numbers; the timid martial artists, seeing so many experts around, grew bolder and decided to move out. Dozens of them set off from Yu County in a grand, blustering manner, though some of the more observant ones began to sense that something was wrong.