“He's too healthy. Doesn't look like a beggar at all.”
Zhuang Xun bent down, scooped up a handful of mud, and slapped it onto the little beggar clone's face with a wet splat.
He then opened the Character Creation Panel, selected the little beggar clone, and began draining its flesh and blood to convert them back into panel points.
After reclaiming four points, the little beggar clone became gaunt and sallow, with dry skin and yellowing teeth. His strength also dropped to Five Stones of strength.
“Perfect. Now he actually looks like a little beggar.”
Zhuang Xun split off a portion of his mind to control the little beggar clone, only to immediately feel a wave of dizziness as his vision went black.
“Ah, man... low blood sugar.” He stumbled a few steps, grabbing the Debt-Lending Bladesman's waist for support. It took him a moment to recover.
The little beggar clone took a set of tattered coarse cloth garments from the Debt-Lending Bladesman—which had been stripped from a dead refugee before they arrived—and reluctantly put them on, holding his breath against the sour stench.
They didn't fit very well, but it suited the little beggar's persona perfectly.
Afterward, the little beggar and the Debt-Lending Bladesman split up. One went to beg outside the Wanxing Market, while the other went to investigate whether there were any dangerous individuals among the refugees worth watching out for.
Soon, the Debt-Lending Bladesman made several hundred leaps across the treetops, reaching the edge of the dense forest.
Hiding within the lush canopy, he fully activated his Heart Hibernation Technique and Spiritual Sight, observing the long queue of refugees not far away.
Zhuang Xun scanned them thoroughly several times. These refugees were generally weak, with physical strength rarely exceeding One Stone of strength. Only a handful possessed One or Two Stones of strength, and there were no hidden experts among them.
“In that case, I don't have to worry about the little beggar clone's safety. His remaining Five Stones of strength are more than enough to let him go full Dynasty Warriors and mow them down like grass.”
Zhuang Xun also took a moment to look for the little boy from this morning, only to find that he was already dead.
—He had stuffed himself to death.
He was still lying in the same spot where Zhuang Xun had met him. His limbs were as thin as dry firewood, but his belly was bloated like a stuffed chicken wing.
Zhuang Xun was slightly dumbfounded. This morning, he had wondered if he might casually raise some future powerhouse like in a web novel, only for the boy to die by the afternoon. It seemed this world wasn't nearly as romantic as fiction.
He thought about it for a moment and decided to accumulate some karmic merit—or at least do a good deed.
Passing by like a gust of wind, he carried away the boy who looked like a stuffed chicken wing without making a sound.
The people on the ground remained lying there, their fates unknown;
The crows in the sky continued to circle, cawing discordantly.
On the way, Zhuang Xun pondered an epic conundrum: if someone who was starving to death ended up stuffing themselves to death, would they become a starved ghost or a bloated ghost?
“Either way, make sure to watch out for an OB-GYN covered in betel nuts. He'll abort you,” Zhuang Xun warned the stuffed-chicken-wing boy on his shoulder.
Sometime later, Zhuang Xun arrived at the hill where he had buried Guichen.
There was now another stone marker here.
It belonged to the original owner of the little beggar clone's clothes. As compensation for taking his garments, Zhuang Xun had buried him too.
He drew the woodcutter's cleaver from his belt and began digging a hole next to Guichen's mound.
On a strange whim, he glanced at Guichen's mound, and after a moment, he actually started digging up the grave.
“Whew, thank goodness. Still dead and buried. My bad, my bad. Sorry for disturbing you, Brother Guichen.” He quickly pushed the dirt back over.
A burn of an incense stick later, another stone marker stood on the hill.
Looking at the three stone markers, a sudden thought popped into Zhuang Xun's mind.
I should turn this place into a mass grave.
What a noble and grand ambition.
...
The slums outside the Wanxing Market.
A filthy little beggar, his face obscured by grime but his eyes exceptionally bright and lively, wandered aimlessly with a perfectly straight tree branch, occasionally using it to thwack the weeds by the roadside.
Zhuang Xun had picked up this perfectly straight branch in the dense forest.
From the moment he laid eyes on it, he couldn't look away.
This is my signature weapon from now on!
By now, the initial joy of finding the perfectly straight branch had faded, and Zhuang Xun was feeling a bit troubled.
I don't have a bowl.
Just then, a black dog even larger than him trotted past, carrying an iron basin in its mouth. His eyes instantly locked onto it.
“Junior, leave your fortuitous encounter behind!”
The black dog was startled by his loud shout, and the iron basin fell to the ground with a loud clang.
Zhuang Xun immediately rushed over, scooped up the iron basin, placed it on his head like a helmet, and bolted.
“Woof! Woof! Woof!” The black dog barked furiously behind him, prompting Zhuang Xun to move his short legs even faster.
He skidded to a sharp left turn into another alleyway, and in no time, he had completely lost the black dog.
Slowing his pace, Zhuang Xun returned to the refugees' camp. Finding a secluded spot, he sat down and set the iron basin on the ground with a clatter.
Give me money! he thought, looking expectantly at the passing pedestrians.
Cheapskates! Half a shichen later, the sky turned a fiery red as night approached.
Zhuang Xun grimaced at the empty iron basin. He picked it up, placed it back on his head, stood up, and tucked the perfectly straight branch behind his back, preparing to find a place to stay for the night.
The Wanxing Market didn't allow refugees inside, so he could only search within the slums outside.
At this moment, many refugees were setting up makeshift shelters on the outskirts of the slums, while the nearby residents watched them with cold, indifferent eyes.
Zhuang Xun wandered aimlessly, looking left and right. Just as darkness was about to fall, he ran into the black dog from earlier again.
As the saying goes, when enemies meet, their eyes blaze with hatred.
The large black dog bared its teeth, growling deeply as it glared viciously at Zhuang Xun.
Zhuang Xun, however, was staring with sparkling eyes at the doghouse behind it.
“Junior, this venerable one shall borrow your cave dwelling for a short stay.”
“Awooo!”
The moment he finished speaking, the large black dog lunged at him.
“Hmph, foolish junior. It is your good fortune that this venerable one deigns to stay in your cave dwelling!”
Zhuang Xun didn't dodge. He pulled the perfectly straight branch with a reverse grip, and as the black dog lunged with its jaws open, he executed a perfect slide-tackle, propping the branch upward to flip the dog over. Quickly springing to his feet, he delivered a swift whack to the dog's head, knocking it unconscious.
Afterward, Zhuang Xun dragged the black dog by its tail and crawled into its doghouse. Using the dog as both a door and a pillow, he rested his head on its soft belly and fell asleep.
The sun set and the moon rose, the starry sky resembling a river of silver.
Within the alley where the doghouse lay, a faint sound of breathing could be heard, though it was muffled by the much louder chirping of cicadas.
Suddenly, the breathing stopped.
Zhuang Xun fully activated his Heart Hibernation Technique, minimizing his presence.
A moment later, almost imperceptible footsteps echoed outside the alley. Two pairs of boots trod past the street outside, accompanied by the faint murmur of conversation.
However, with this clone's maximum Skeletal Structure, Zhuang Xun possessed incredibly sharp senses, allowing him to catch every word of their conversation.
“Emissary, there are many children of suitable age among the refugees who arrived this time. Should we guide them to return to our Ancestor's body?”
“No. We have a more important mission here. Try not to alert the enemy and ruin the Blood Son's plan.”
“Understood...”
The Shengxue Cult, the Blood Son's plan... is it targeted at the Wanxing Martial Academy? Since they were wandering around the slums outside the academy, Zhuang Xun easily linked their plot to the Wanxing Martial Academy.
Well, when the Debt-Lending Bladesman has some free time, I'll have him keep an eye on them and see if he can eavesdrop on their plan.
As for now, Zhuang Xun just wanted to sleep. He was currently just a defenseless little beggar who couldn't do much anyway.
His own plans had to come first, with the academy's safety taking second place. Sticking his nose where it didn't belong would only invite unnecessary trouble.
Otherwise, if the little beggar clone got kidnapped by the Shengxue Cult to be used as a medicine vessel, he wouldn't even have a shoulder to cry on.
Zhuang Xun wasn't worried about losing track of them after missing this chance, because he already knew where they lived.
—A tavern outside a secluded alley in the Wanxing Market.
It was a mysterious faction he had discovered five months ago, on the night the Zhong family was wiped out.
After months of investigation, he had confirmed that it was a secret outpost planted by the Shengxue Cult near the Wanxing Martial Academy.
Rate on N.U.
