Chapter 5: Taking a Risk, Planning Carefully
He didn’t sleep at all that night.
At dawn, Gu Lin headed to Shiyang Academy, exhausted down to his bones.
With only Meridian Opening, Seventh Layer under his belt, there was absolutely no way he’d clear the seed candidate selection trials!
Only nine days left.
What should he do?
Arriving at the Wilderness cohort’s study hall, he chatted with Wang Mu for a moment, then asked in a low voice:
“Could you lend me three taels of silver? I’ll pay it back in seven days!”
He planned to head over to the neighboring counties of Youxi and Xiajiang to see if any bounty notices were posted, but he didn’t have a single copper on him—he needed to borrow enough for travel and lodging.
“This…”
The chubby boy’s brow furrowed, but out of consideration for their friendship, he still pulled three pieces of loose silver from his money pouch, urging:
“You’d better pay it back!”
Gu Lin nodded and was just about to leave.
A group of people walked into the study hall.
The one leading them was eighteen or nineteen years old, built exceptionally massive, his eyes bulging like brass bells as he swept his gaze across the room.
“That’s Zhuang Wei from the Universe cohort—another one of Li Qingwu’s followers,” Wang Mu said quietly.
The hulking young man locked eyes on Gu Lin and strode over with a commanding gait, launching straight into an accusation:
“The Divine Maiden Li says you’ve committed a grave affront—how dare you slander her? Who gave you the nerve?”
Seeing this, the chubby boy stepped forward with a friendly grin, since he’d always been well-liked, throwing an arm around Zhuang Wei’s shoulder in an attempt to smooth things over:
“Zhuang Wei, do me a favor here—I’ll treat you to a meal at Five Phoenix Hall later.”
But Zhuang Wei shoved him aside roughly, seething with anger:
“Fat-headed, pig-eared thing, who do you think you are? If I don’t teach this Gu bastard a proper lesson today, I swear I’m not worthy of calling myself a man!!”
The Wilderness cohort’s study hall fell into dead silence, though plenty of students broke into smiles, delighted at the prospect of watching a good show.
The chubby boy, his face flushed with embarrassment, climbed to his feet, brushed off the dust, and stood off to the side with his head down.
Gu Lin watched the man approaching him, his gaze utterly calm, unmoved.
Faced with a stray dog’s snarling and barking, he had no interest right now in showing off or picking a fight for the sake of pride.
“Is the coward too scared to go to the training grounds?”
Zhuang Wei closed in step by step, his finger nearly poking Gu Lin’s forehead, sneering down at him:
“You’re a cripple whose meridians haven’t even opened. I won’t even need to use internal force…”
His words were cut off.
“Get out!”
An old man with graying temples stepped into the study hall, his voice booming like rolling thunder:
“The seed selection trials are almost here! If any of you vermin and maggots dare stir up trouble and disrupt the academy’s order again, the lightest punishment will be confinement, and the harshest will be expulsion!”
It was Instructor Zhao, the teacher assigned to the Wilderness cohort.
For these next nine days, whoever dared cause trouble would face severe punishment.
Zhuang Wei didn’t dare defy him. As he turned to leave, he shot Gu Lin one last glance, a knife hidden behind his smile:
“Once the selection trials are over, we’ll catch up properly then.”
The threat was unmistakable.
Gu Lin didn’t respond.
‘Li Qingwu—must die.’
‘This one too—he belongs on that list.’
In his mind, there was no such thing as “teaching someone a lesson”—there was only death.
Once the study hall settled back into quiet order, Instructor Zhao fixed his gaze on Gu Lin, speaking with genuine distress:
“Gu Jingming, your parents spend dozens of taels a year just to send you here, and all they’ve gotten out of it is a hopeless fool—wasting their silver, wasting their years of hard work, foolish and unfilial both. If you have even a shred of conscience left, withdraw from the academy while you still can!”
The Wilderness cohort already ranked dead last in the entire academy, and Gu Jingming’s own coursework within the cohort sat at the very bottom as well. Staying on would only invite more mockery.
The chubby boy caught the genuine goodwill behind Instructor Zhao’s words, and he too had repeatedly urged Jingming to withdraw early, to stay away from all this trouble.
Take the incident with Zhuang Wei, for instance—if he’d already withdrawn, would Zhuang Wei still dare cause a scene at the Gu household? Did he think the county office was just for show?
Seeing that Gu Lin offered no response, Instructor Zhao didn’t bother pressing further, opening up a basic martial arts text instead and beginning to explain the concepts of Qi, blood, latent force, and explicit force to the students.
There was nothing to be done about it—the washouts of the Wilderness cohort could only grasp the most rudimentary common knowledge.
Two hours later, the lecture ended.
Gu Lin, however, found himself wishing it had gone on longer.
Based on what Instructor Zhao had explained, he could infer that his own Qi and blood reserves were absolutely far beyond anyone else at the same cultivation level!
Leaving the Wilderness cohort’s hall, someone blocked his path.
“Gu Lin, care to take out a loan?”
The man got straight to the point.
He was dressed head to toe in fine silk, carrying himself with elegant, refined bearing.
Gu Lin remembered this person all too well.
His own family’s downfall had come from constant borrowing, and the lender had always been the Shen family.
Shen Xun waved his folding fan lazily and said, unhurried:
“The entire Heaven cohort is scrambling to buy up every medicinal herb and pill on the market, making their final push. Your Li Qingwu has fallen far behind the pack. At a critical moment like this, if you could offer timely help, you’d surely win her heart and carry the beauty home.”
“Borrow three hundred taels. Same old terms—nine out, thirteen back.”
Gu Lin sneered inwardly.
Nine out, thirteen back—borrow a hundred taels, receive only ninety in hand, but owe a hundred and thirty back, with steep penalties for late payment.
Absolutely predatory, bloodsucking usury.
This was exactly how his predecessor had sunk deeper and deeper, until the family’s entire fortune was destroyed!!
Seeing that Gu Lin remained unmoved, Shen Xun kept pressing, trying to sway him:
“Divine Maiden Li is noble and stunningly beautiful, and Young Master Gu spends so generously—it’s practically a match made in heaven. If Divine Maiden Li manages to secure a seed candidate spot as she hopes, she’ll soar to great heights, and Young Master Gu’s name would spread throughout Shiyang County right alongside her. Out of gratitude, Divine Maiden Li might even agree to a formal engagement with you.”
Shen Xun’s face grew tight as he spoke, the corners of his eyes twitching slightly—he nearly burst out laughing at his own words.
Li Qingwu was proud and ambitious to her very core—as if she’d ever settle for a washout like him!
Gu Lin was just about to walk away when a thought suddenly struck him.
‘Dare I take the risk?!’
Compared to the uncertainty of some future bounty notice, he could say with near-total confidence that a certain person had committed no end of evil deeds—killing him would absolutely yield merit.
That person was Shen Xun’s own elder brother, Shen Chi!
Every time he’d borrowed from the Shen family, it had always been Shen Chi who drew up the loan contract with him.
Shen Chi was a man of mediocre talent, only at Energy Condensation, First Layer despite being in his thirties, but he leveraged the Shen family’s influence to run rampant, lending money predatorily all across the county.
He’d been thrown in prison once already, purely on charges of forcibly seizing and violating married women, sentenced to five years—it had taken the Shen family enormous effort and a massive compensation payment to the victim just to get their eldest legitimate son out.
And that was only the crime that had come to light.
Shen Chi had almost certainly committed far darker crimes hidden beneath the surface.
Shen Chi’s head was absolutely worth merit.
“Think it over carefully,”
Shen Xun said, sensing the loan was still in play, settling in to wait patiently.
Gu Lin smiled and nodded.
‘Yes, I do need to think it over carefully—whether or not I should kill your elder brother!!’
The risk of an assassination was enormous.
First, could he even succeed? That alone was a real question.
Though Shen Chi’s body had been hollowed out by years of wine and women, he was still at Energy Condensation—his internal Qi projected outward could crush both latent and explicit force with ease!
Second, murder was against the law!
A commoner daring to assassinate someone—did he think the law didn’t apply to him? Even if the target was thoroughly evil, who gave him the right to act as judge and executioner? Was he some official of the imperial dynasty? Even county officials had to fabricate a convincing enough charge first; only Sacred Ground disciples could draft their own official documents and kill with nothing more than a stroke of the pen.
If he were exposed, everything would be ruined!
The moment he made his move, some trace would inevitably be left behind—and one shouldn’t underestimate the county office’s forensic examiners. Even if they proved incompetent locally, they could still request skilled criminal investigators from the prefectural capital, or Blade-Bearers skilled in solving cases!
But Gu Lin did have one enormous advantage—
His Mysterious Netherworld Palm was utterly unique; he was the only person in the entire world who knew how to use it. Even the finest investigators would have no way to trace it back to him.
As long as he never used it publicly again afterward, he’d be fine. And of course, once he had the chance to join one of the Four Great Sacred Grounds, he’d have nothing left to fear at all.
That wasn’t even a real concern—earning merit would come with even more martial arts rewards anyway.
Shen Xun’s patience wore thin, and he pressed:
“Have you thought it through?”
Gu Lin snapped back to the present and nodded:
“I’ll borrow thirty taels for now.”
Thirty? Shen Xun nearly lost his temper—all that persuading, and he only wanted thirty taels?
Still, he knew Gu Lin’s nature well enough—beneath that groveling, servile exterior, in another couple of days he’d surely be back to borrow three hundred!
“This way, please.”
Shen Xun gestured.
The two of them left the academy, and Shen Xun invited Gu Lin into his carriage, heading together toward the Shen family’s pawnshop.
***
The Shen Family Pawnshop.
A fair number of young people in silk robes and blue-gray gowns had gathered there—all students from the Heaven cohort. Even though their chances of securing a seed candidate spot were vanishingly slim, when it came to a turning point in one’s entire fate, who wouldn’t want to take a gamble?
Martial arts manuals, pills, medicinal herbs… all of it required silver.
And when one’s pockets ran dry, there was always borrowing!!
At the center of the shop, a man with deeply sunken eye sockets wore a face full of satisfaction—this was Shen Chi, eldest legitimate son of the Shen family. Faced with such a thriving surge of borrowers, how could he not be pleased?
Shen Xun and Gu Lin walked in, and Shen Xun said with a wry smile:
“I really do lack any talent for cultivation—otherwise I’d be spending money to nourish myself half to death too.”
As he spoke, he couldn’t help but glance over at Gu Lin, finding the whole thing even more absurd.
Even the biggest washout in the county was here borrowing money—truly, every family has its black sheep, but even the greatest failures still deserve a chance to try.
“Make yourself at home,”
Shen Xun said, then went to help his brother.
Gu Lin looked around the shop and spotted two of the Shen family’s lackeys chatting idly in a corner, so he found a spot nearby and sat down.
Seeing the two glance his way, Gu Lin said with a smile:
“I’m only borrowing a small amount—I’ll just wait here for a bit.”
The older lackey with a horse-like face gave him a sidelong glance:
“I recognize you. You’re a regular at the pawnshop.”
With that, he paid him no more attention, continuing his quiet conversation with his companion.
Gu Lin kept his eyes on the counter but listened intently.
A full half hour passed. Customers came and went at the pawnshop, but Gu Lin still hadn’t picked up anything useful from their chatter.
Until—
The horse-faced lackey lowered his voice to a near-whisper:
“The Liu family’s daughter over in the East Market is getting married the day after tomorrow. Think our young master’s going to go pay her a little visit beforehand?”
The other lackey, with a hawk-like nose, broke into a lecherous grin and nodded along:
“The night before her wedding, of course the young master’s going to properly conquer her—there’s nothing quite as satisfying as that.”
The two exchanged a knowing look, sharing an unspoken understanding.
Their voices had been extremely quiet, but ever since his breakthrough, Gu Lin’s hearing and eyesight had grown remarkably sharp, and he committed every word to memory.
‘This is the perfect opportunity!’
He waited another incense-stick’s worth of time before his turn finally came.
Shen Chi lifted his eyelids and said with a faint smirk:
“Young Master Gu, how much are we borrowing this time?”
Gu Lin: “Thirty taels.”
Shen Chi’s manner turned brusque. He picked up two copies of the loan contract and pressed:
“Sign and thumbprint here. One-month term. You’ll owe forty-two taels.”
Gu Lin immediately objected:
“By rights, it should be thirty-nine taels.”
Shen Chi lifted his eyelids again, studying Gu Lin for a long moment—so this foolish, family-ruining Gu boy could actually do arithmetic. He said carelessly:
“If you were borrowing three hundred, it’d be nine out, thirteen back. For thirty, it’s fourteen back for every ten. Think it through yourself!”
Gu Lin deliberately gritted his teeth as if deep in thought, then finally signed and thumbprinted the contract after a long pause.
Shen Chi took the signed contract and waved a hand:
“Same rules as always—if you don’t pay on time, you bear the consequences yourself!”
With that, he had the shopkeeper hand over a money pouch.
Gu Lin counted it—only twenty-seven taels of silver inside.
Which meant, one month later, he’d owe forty-two taels.
Fifteen taels of pure profit in a single month—what a black-hearted, predatory wolf!
***
Back at the Gu residence.
While his parents were out, Gu Lin hurried straight to his father’s bedroom.
As a bodyguard and part-time bounty hunter, his father kept a small collection of human-skin masks at home—after all, taking on bounty work carried the risk of retaliation, so wearing a mask was simply the safer approach.
Gu Lin obviously wasn’t going to buy one on the open market—that would leave far too easy a trail to follow.
Rummaging through a drawer, he pulled out a mask thin as a cicada’s wing, then returned to his own room and worked at it in front of a bronze mirror, trimming and adjusting until the mirror reflected back a shifty, hangdog face with permanently drooping, mournful brows.
Once he’d finished with that, Gu Lin carefully set the mask aside.
Next, based on the length of his boots, he crafted five insole lifts.
Their purpose was to increase his height.
A full half a head taller.
***
That evening, on Shiyang County’s East Street.
A peddler with sorrowful, drooping brows carried two buckets of cold jelly noodles on a shoulder pole, hawking his wares from street to street.
Without much effort at all, he easily overheard talk of the Liu family’s upcoming wedding.
According to the East Street locals, Miss Liu was the most striking beauty for miles around, gentle in temperament besides—whichever family married her would surely have their ancestors smiling down from the heavens.
The mournful-browed peddler continued on his way with his two buckets of cold jelly noodles, “coincidentally” arriving near the Liu family residence.
With the wedding only two days away, the area around the house buzzed with activity—numerous merchants were peddling their own wares, so one more noodle vendor drew no attention whatsoever.
The mournful-browed peddler lingered for over an hour, staying until every last bit of cold jelly noodles had sold out before finally shouldering his pole and leaving.
***
Near the end of the Hour of the Pig, Gu Lin returned home.
He went into his room, took out brush, ink, and rice paper, and began sketching out a detailed map of the terrain surrounding the Liu residence—marking not just the height of each building, but even which household’s dog barked the loudest.
‘This lecherous, lust-obsessed Shen Chi is bound to sneak over to the Liu residence.’
‘There’s no way he’d dare go through the front gate for something like this—if word got out, the Liu family’s reputation would be utterly ruined.’
‘If it’s the back gate, then… where would be the ideal ambush point?’
Gu Lin studied the map intently, then circled an abandoned firewood shed.
‘This is the place.’
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