Chapter 2: Kills Three, Continues to Break Through!
The next day, roosters crowed at dawn, the sky just beginning to lighten.
“Lin’er, come eat.”
In the main hall, a woman in a coarse cloth dress and simple thorn hairpin brought out a bowl of porridge and eggs—she was Gu Lin’s mother, Zhou Man, who worked as a weaver at the Kangle Workshop.
Out in the courtyard, a bare-chested burly man was practicing spear forms, standing eight chi tall, his physique powerful, his back covered in scars—he was Gu Lin’s father, Gu Changchuan, a bodyguard employed at an escort agency.
The dinner table sat in silence. Zhou Man peeled an egg for her son, while Gu Changchuan spooned up coarse-grain porridge, refusing to so much as look at Gu Lin.
Gu Lin kept his head down, saying nothing.
‘My father is at Energy Condensation, Eighth Layer—and he still hasn’t noticed his own son’s world-shaking transformation?’
‘It seems no one else can detect my cultivation.’
Knock, knock, knock—
A sudden knocking sounded at the door outside.
Gu Lin walked out of the main hall.
The moment he opened the courtyard gate, he saw the face he despised.
It was Li Qingwu.
Li Qingwu’s delicate features showed no visible change, but deep in her eyes flickered a flash of intense shock.
‘How is this possible?’
‘This lowly dog is still alive?!!’
‘It seems the woman practicing that evil art last night didn’t survive the backlash of her Cultivation Deviation, and died without ever running into that dog. That surnamed Gu really has good luck!’
Li Qingwu mused inwardly, then instantly shifted her demeanor, forcing a smile:
“Gu Lin, you must have been drunk last night, to have shown me such disrespect. I couldn’t sleep all night, I was so hurt for so long—you owe me an apology.”
Her reasons were twofold: first, she still wanted to keep draining the Gu family’s wealth; second, she needed to keep Gu Lin in check, to stop this dog from barking about her all over town and tarnishing her reputation.
Gu Lin’s expression remained perfectly calm, but he sharply caught the shock in the vile woman’s eyes, and combining it with the “little girl” that evil woman had mentioned last night—
‘Me becoming a cauldron is absolutely tied to this vile woman!’
‘Just wait. Sooner or later, I’ll carve you apart.’
This vile woman had begun cultivating at age nine, training bitterly for ten years, and was now at Energy Condensation, Fourth Layer.
But what did he have to fear?
In a single day he had broken through to Meridian Opening, Fifth Layer—and as long as he kept earning merit, the speed of his breakthroughs was beyond imagination!
Clang!
The sound of a bowl shattering came from the main hall.
Hearing it, Li Qingwu pursed her lips and sauntered off, unhurried.
The atmosphere in the main hall dropped to freezing.
Zhou Man bent down to gather up the shattered bowl pieces, sighing repeatedly.
Gu Changchuan glared coldly at Gu Lin as he walked in, roaring furiously:
“Li Qingwu! Li Qingwu again! Hasn’t our family suffered enough because of her? When will you ever wake up?!”
“A real man reduced to groveling like a dog, thinking himself devoted in love, when to everyone else you’re nothing but a laughingstock—a spineless thing, a beast without dignity!!”
“Dear, please stop…”
Hearing him grow harsher, Zhou Man rushed to intervene.
Gu Changchuan’s fury blazed hotter, pointing at his wife, nearly shrieking:
“Look at your mother—does she have a single piece of jewelry left on her body? Every night she still has to go weave cloth on Weaving Street just to help support this family—look at the calluses on her hands, look at the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes!!”
Zhou Man caught sight of the scars on her husband’s back and belly out of the corner of her eye, her spirit sinking with sorrow.
Gu Changchuan, in his overwhelming rage, veins bulging on his forehead, bellowed:
“That you can’t cultivate—Father doesn’t blame you for that. Father accepts your mediocrity. But that you’d sink this low, without a shred of dignity, that you’ve ruined this family and want to keep sinking endlessly—you don’t just chill my heart, you disgust me to my very core!”
“Other parents are proud of their children. You’ve never once made me proud—only humiliated and furious!”
“The whole neighborhood mocks our Gu family. Your mother can’t even hold her head up when she talks to people!!”
Once a modestly prosperous small family, the unfilial son had repeatedly taken out high-interest loans for Li Qingwu’s sake, squandering the entire Gu family savings—the house and shops were gone, his wife’s jewelry was gone, until the family had nothing left but bare walls!!
The roaring echoed through the house.
Zhou Man had assumed Lin’er would storm out of the house in a sulk as usual, letting every word go in one ear and out the other.
But this time, Lin’er didn’t.
“Father, Mother, I’m sorry.”
Gu Lin didn’t argue back. Instead, he offered a sincere apology, saying softly:
“Your son has thoroughly mended his ways. I’ve already cut all ties with her.”
Gu Changchuan froze for a moment, but his attitude didn’t soften, his tone remaining cold:
“Don’t ever let me see you tangled up with her again!”
He’d scolded him a thousand times, a hundred times over—he simply didn’t believe his unfilial son would truly wake up this time.
Even if he genuinely had a change of heart, it was too late now—the family fortune was drained, the boy had no talent for the Martial Dao, and studying had proven useless too. Even wanting to live an ordinary, peaceful life, the family no longer had the means to support him.
Gu Changchuan let out a long sigh and said to his wife:
“I’m heading to the escort agency. I need to deliver three bandits to the county office to claim the bounty.”
With that, he left the house.
Gu Lin told his mother he was going too, and actually followed after him.
His father was a bodyguard at Tongxing Escort Agency, one of the three major escort agencies in Shiyang County, responsible for escorting grain and goods, earning five taels of silver a month.
But to earn enough to support the family, his father held down three jobs!
First, his primary job as an escort guard.
Second, as a martial instructor, teaching spear techniques to children just starting out in the martial arts.
Third, as a bounty hunter—during escort runs, capturing bandits for the county office to claim rewards. This was work where you carried your life in your own hands; though the pay was substantial, it was extremely dangerous.
***
Tongxing Escort Agency.
“Brother Gu Six.”
“Morning, Brother Six!!”
The workers at the agency greeted him respectfully.
Gu Changchuan ranked sixth among the agency’s guards, hence the respectful title Brother Gu Six.
But the moment they spotted Gu Lin, the smiles vanished from many of the guards’ faces, though they still managed some polite small talk:
“Young Master Gu is quite the handsome one.”
That much was true—Gu Lin’s looks were exceptional. But it fit that old saying: gold on the outside, rot within!
Everyone at Tongxing Escort Agency knew his “legendary story!”
If not for this unfilial son, would Brother Gu Six have to work himself half to death like this?
Sensing the guards’ attitudes, Gu Changchuan could only manage a bitter, weary sigh.
They entered the agency’s stable, where three bandits were being held, mouths stuffed with cloth, bound in iron chains.
He’d captured them the night before, waiting only for the county office to open for the day so he could deliver them to the constabulary and claim the bounty.
Gu Lin followed behind. Seeing his father pick up an official document, he immediately stepped forward to look it over.
The document recorded the evil deeds the three wanted men had committed.
【Reward for the head of…】
Seeing these key words, his expression brightened slightly.
This was also the reason he’d come along.
Bounty hunters could claim rewards by bringing in a “head”—this was an unspoken rule the county constabulary tacitly permitted.
“Father, I want to kill them!”
Gu Lin suddenly spoke up.
Gu Changchuan whipped his head around, scrutinizing his son in disbelief.
A coward who flinched even at the sight of blood from killing a chicken—daring to kill a man?
He didn’t respond right away, staring fixedly at Gu Lin.
Gu Lin met his gaze and said in a low, steady voice:
“Father, I don’t want to be a coward anymore. I don’t want to be a laughingstock to others. I need to have ruthlessness in me—a real man needs to be ruthless enough to stand firm in this world!”
The muscles in Gu Changchuan’s face tensed, then gradually relaxed. His usually cold gaze even carried a hint of warmth.
This time, he genuinely began to believe his son had had a true awakening.
“Good!”
Gu Changchuan agreed at once.
His son shedding his cowardly nature—he couldn’t help but feel glad, and he wanted to see how his son performed at his very first kill!
“Here.”
Gu Changchuan proactively handed over a knife, his voice gentle:
“Close your eyes and just stab them to death.”
Unexpectedly.
Gu Lin refused, stating plainly:
“Father, give me an axe!”
For a moment, even the usually steady escort guard Gu was taken aback.
A knife—stabs the belly.
An axe—splits the skull!!
The level of violence involved was worlds apart.
To request an axe for one’s very first kill—what kind of nerve did that take??
Gu Changchuan fell silent for a long moment, then turned to fetch a gleaming axe.
Father and son said nothing more, walking deep into the stable, looking down at the three bandits.
The latter struggled desperately, making muffled “mmph mmph” sounds through their gags, their chains clanking and rattling.
Gu Lin took the axe, gripping the handle, and walked step by step toward the three men.
Gu Changchuan watched quietly, though inwardly he was quite tense—he still didn’t believe his son truly had the nerve for this.
Seeing him hesitate to act, Gu Changchuan felt a flicker of disappointment and spoke quickly:
“Don’t feel burdened about it—they deserve to die, they’ve all brought harm to the people of Shiyang……”
He didn’t even finish the sentence.
Gu Lin calmly raised the axe and brought it down hard onto one man’s neck.
Blood sprayed, the head rolled to the ground!
He raised the axe again, and struck again!
Without the slightest hesitation—the instant the axe sank into flesh and blood, he felt not a trace of fear. Having endured last night’s humiliation, he craved power all the more, and he simply wasn’t afraid of blood.
Not until all three heads had rolled off in different directions, their scattered, lifeless eyes still staring fixedly at their executioner, dying with eyes wide open.
Drip!
Drip—
A prolonged silence, broken only by the steady drip of blood.
Witnessing all this, Gu Changchuan couldn’t hide his shock, his eyes wide as he studied his son.
Thud—
Gu Lin dropped the axe, turned, and said to his father:
“Father, I told you I’ve thoroughly mended my ways. I’m going to be a real man who stands tall between heaven and earth! I won’t be cowardly and useless anymore, and I’ll never grovel before anyone else again!”
With that, he wiped off the blood and left the stable, leaving behind a visibly gratified escort guard Gu.
Amid his relief, Gu Changchuan watched his son’s retreating figure and could only sigh:
“Jingming, ah… you’ve woken up far too late!”
He rarely used his son’s courtesy name.
Now that he’d truly had a change of heart, the family no longer had any wealth left to help him along—his son had no cultivation talent, no achievements in scholarship, and making something of himself now seemed nothing short of a pipe dream.
***
After leaving the escort agency, Gu Lin found a teahouse and sat in a corner.
Before his eyes, visible only to him, golden starlight appeared once more, converging into the three large characters: 《Book of Merit》.
【Slew three evildoers of “Grade Four, Ding Rank”; reward: Max-Level Wave-Treading Steps】
【Martial Dao: 732/1000】
【Confucian Dao: 0/1000】
【Arcane Dao: 0/1000】
【Witchcraft Dao: 0/1000】
In an instant, the internal force within Gu Lin’s body surged upward rapidly, his meridians expanding once more, two clouds of Qi and blood forming mist that flowed through his channels.
Two levels broken through at once!
He was now at Meridian Opening, Seventh Layer!
Gu Lin took a sip of tea. Though he wanted to keep a composed expression regardless of joy or anger, there was simply no suppressing the curve tugging at the corners of his mouth!
Last night, he’d still been a worthless cripple who couldn’t cultivate at all!
This very morning, he was already at Meridian Opening, Seventh Layer!
Not to mention he’d also mastered two max-level martial arts—the Mysterious Netherworld Palm and the Wave-Treading Steps. The Wave-Treading Steps was an extremely powerful movement technique; in his mind, he had every move down with practiced fluency, including the precise flow of power through each acupoint required to cast it.
‘It seems evildoers are ranked by Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding grades, and further divided into Star ranks one through nine, with Jia-Nine being the highest.’
‘The merit points from dealing with these three men combined still don’t come close to that evil woman from last night—the higher an evildoer’s rank, the richer the reward!!’
Gu Lin chuckled to himself for a moment before finally settling his emotions and leaving the teahouse.
Walking into an empty alley, he couldn’t resist trying out the Wave-Treading Steps.
In an instant, his figure blurred past like the wind.
Exhilarating, exhilarating!!
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