Shan Hui flicked his bloody ji (halberd) and wiped the tip clean on the relatively clean corpse lying near him. There were piles of bodies and heads surrounding him. He would have preferred not using a weapon, but here on the Jianghu Islands he was not only weaker but everyone was taller than him. Without something to compensate for his comparatively short stature and power vulnerability, he’d learned the hard way how difficult life could be.

He’d lost a limb early on because he’d rushed into fight without a weapon. It’s not like he couldn’t heal himself, but losing a limb still hurt like hell and made a fight that should have been straight forward far more complicated than it needed to be. It was better to have his pride hurt than lose another limb, so he’d lowered himself to use a weapon and gotten a ji. He’d have preferred something smaller but reach was important. And he couldn’t deny the spear and dagger-axe combination of a halberd made for some spectacularly satisfying ways to kill his enemies.

People who didn’t know him would think he was a teenager, not a day over sixteen. He had a slender frame, handsome but youthful face and gentle blue eyes that almost glowed. His robes were an elegant pale blue fabric, with gold threaded flower designs expertly stitched along the corners and sleeves. Seeing him, a person would think of words like: regal, educated, and refined.

And yet…

This “boy” was the Butcher of Jianghu, feared by all Factions regardless of their moral alignment. Good, bad, neutral, it didn’t matter to the Butcher. The fact that he tended to go after those on the Evil Faction side, as he was doing now, was a small comfort to everyone else. What mattered when meeting the Butcher was to answer any questions quickly and flee at the first opportunity.

The Butcher of Jianghu rotated his shoulders, finally feeling the anger and frustration from earlier in the morning wash away. For months he’d been hunting this Association down, forgoing any sleep in the process and barely even eating. That was easy enough to do on the mountains back home but here in Jianghu, it was a test of his willpower and endurance. Only after getting a solid lead on this Association’s whereabouts, did he finally allow himself some time to rest. It was only a few hours, just enough to rejuvenate his mind and re-energize his body.

He should have woken up feeling fantastic and ready to have some “fun”. Instead his sleep had been awful.

He didn’t usually dream. That night he did. They were the kind of dreams that crass merchants joked about while crossing over the mountains. Even when he was a teenager, he’d never had those kinds of dreams. He’d woken up terribly embarrassed by his own body, which shortly turned into frustrated fury. He took all that out on the Association in the form of extreme violence, as if blaming them directly for what had happened. He even went so far as to kill people he’d usually have sent back home for further interrogation.

He felt a flicker of regret. He’d gotten the information he wanted, but who knew what more could have been found out by sending some of this ‘trash’ to the dungeons back home? Doctor Zufu could definitely have used the ‘trash’ leftovers for something interesting at least, perhaps further helping his comatose Mother somehow. Instead he’d lost his temper and cut that possibility off.

‘Really,’ he thought feeling helpless at his own behavior, ‘I’m in my forties now, I shouldn’t be like this. It’s like I’m turning into my Old Man…’

He poked a decapitated head with his foot and sighed, of course it was the one he had torn the tongue out of during the fighting. That the corpses were headless wasn’t because he’d been angry. That was just him being sensible. It was his philosophy that, when killing evil cultivators, it was safer to remove their heads rather than pierce their hearts. He learned the hard way that piercing the heart didn’t mean an evil cultivator had died. It might only mean they were waiting for him to turn around and stab him in the back. Such troublesome behavior, he wasn’t stupid enough to let it happen more than once or twice.

As he was feeling a little regretful over losing his temper, a man walked up to him. This man looked like a proper adult, in his mid-twenties. His hair was brownish black and his eyes were an amber yellow. His didn’t carry a weapon in his hands, because his fingers were his weapons. Long, deadly claws were still visible and soaked in blood. His whole body was covered in red, and when he talked sharp deadly fangs could be seen peeking out.

Huilang was a wolf from the Blue Flower Mountains, what Jianghu called a Spirit Beast and Lanhua natives called a Beastie. He was the second most powerful Beastie in the country, which he was very proud about. What he was not so proud about was his pack being in the top fifty. They should have been in the top ten, but Lord Jin favored the deer to such a ridiculous degree that their cultivation was naturally much higher than everyone else’s.

There was no predator on the mountain who wasn’t secretly annoyed and resentful that prey animals had managed to get so powerful with little to no effort. But who would dare complain? Lord Jin was far more powerful than any of them, giving him the right to bless and curse whoever he wanted. And if any of them dared voice any objection about his deer, they’d get cursed without a moment’s hesitation. He didn’t even spare his own Sister, what hope had they for mercy? Therefore, everyone wisely kept their mouths shut.

The Revered One, now called Wushan Lu Fan, was the most powerful deer and Beastie on the mountain. All the Beasties genuinely admired him, unlike the other deer who were just viewed as spoiled. It could be said that he was so old he might as well BE part of the mountain. Many jestingly wondered if he’d turned half-plant from standing still for too long in the sun, and that’s how he’d ended up with vines in his antlers. Despite joking around, the respect they held for him was genuine,. the inner strength and indomitable spirit it required to live that long wasn’t something to take lightly.

The real mystery was how the bear, Xiong, had ended up being in the number three spot. He was not only among the youngest Beastie on the mountain, only being a few hundred years old, but he was also lazy. All he did was eat excessive amounts of fish, get extremely fat, and then sleep to conserve energy. He didn’t have Lord Jin’s favor, like the deer, nor any obvious motivation to climb the ranks, so it baffled everyone that he’d gotten so strong. But since his one-hit strikes frequently turned enemies into powder, no one could argue over whether he deserved his position as number three most powerful.

Huilang had accompanied Prince Shan Hui these last few years. Going over the ocean had been extremely difficult on the Prince’s body, leaving him weak as a newborn babe after first arriving in Jianghu Islands. To protect him while he recovered, Huilang had been picked to be his partner. Even after all this time, the Prince was not as strong as he’d been on the Main Land. Huilang’s presence was still needed no matter how the Prince grumbled about being capable of looking after himself.

One would think the reason Huilang had been picked to accompany the Fairy Prince was for his raw strength, clever mind, and sharp instincts. But no, this was not why he’d been picked. He’d been chosen solely because he was extremely patient, difficult to anger, and sensitive to mood shifts in the people around him. Basically, he could easily tolerate Shan Hui’s prickly and sometimes volatile temperament. This was considered a great talent in and of itself, granting him the honor of being chosen by the Revered One.

Huilang glanced around and, seeing Shan Hui in a better mood, asked politely, “Prince, shall we burn the corpses?”

“En. As always, separate piles.” Shan Hui nodded and then added, “But let me deal with the heads.”

Besides decapitation, it was also important to burn everything. Evil cultivators really lived up to their reputation. Without fail, if there was a pile of bodies (even without heads), it’d attract any random puppeteer nearby who would refine them into creepy corpse puppets and terrorize everyone nearby with his new army. Shan Hui absolutely hated dealing with corpse puppets. They were the biggest time wasters and left a smell on his clothes that was impossible to wash out.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, evil cultivators left behind miasma when they died. Miasma was a physical manifestation of the evil they’d committed while alive, along with a toxic mix of the bitterness and resentment they felt before they died. Miasma sometimes condensed into something called a Vengeful Spirit or it attracted monsters, who fed off the stuff to grow stronger.

Both were extremely annoying to deal with… Vengeful Spirits “remembered” those who “killed them”. They’d stalk “their” killer, bringing them bad luck at best or outright trying to murder them at worst. And monsters getting stronger was never good for anyone. Even if they didn’t cause any immediate problems, they’d create havoc later on. Usually at the worst time.

To combat this problem, cutting the corpses into smaller piles prevented a Vengeful Spirit from being created. To reduce the miasma and stop it from attracting monsters and prevent puppets, Shan Hui would burn the dead bodies.

This kind of nonsense just gave Shan Hui further reason to hate evil cultivators. They picked a fight with his family, almost killed his beloved Mother, yet they wouldn’t even do him the favor of dying quietly like everyone else. Oh no, they had to keep harassing the living even after they died! It was so annoying, ah!

Shan Hui playfully kicked the lopped off heads into smaller piles, while Huilang dragged the bodies into small groupings. The only reason Shan Hui wanted the heads was so he could play a bit of solo cuju*, which reminded him of better times. Before his Mother had been put into a coma.

(*Author’s Note: Ancient Chinese soccer.)

The bodies had gotten piled up long before Shan Hui had finished with the heads. Huilang didn’t rush Shan Hui. Besides it being useless to rush him, the Prince had only just gotten into a chipper mood. Better not to spoil it with impatience.

After everything was properly piled, Shan Hui concentrated. The energy from the Mountain, he’d discovered some years back, was a curious mix of pure and divine power. When he converted it to some other element, in this case fire, it created something like Divine Fire. This kind of fire purified anything it burned, thus dispelling most of the miasma before it properly formed.

It would be perfect if not for the fact that Shan Hui was so far from the mountains. To take the mountain’s power at this distance, over an ocean no less, and then transform it into a “divine” version of a natural element, required a lot of concentration on his part and was mentally taxing. That made him vulnerable whenever he used it.

Shan Hui watched the fire consume the bodies and heads until there was nothing but ash. Huilang stood guard over him during the process. It’s not that Shan Hui needed to be there the whole time, but he never knew… someone might come along and douse the fire when he wasn’t around, stopping the process and making all this work for nothing. It hadn’t happened yet but that didn’t mean it wasn’t going to happen. He couldn’t even count the times evil cultivators had done things they shouldn’t be able to do. It just wasn’t worth the risk at this point.

Out of habit, Shan Hui reached for the talisman hanging around his neck to check it. This talisman was made of thin jade and could send and receive small messages. Most of the time he’d send a “here” message to let his family know he was alive and get a “received” message in return, but sometimes there’d be other information sent at random. So he got into the practice of periodically checking when he had the free time. He wasn’t expecting anything, and so was surprised when he found words on his talisman.

He inhaled sharply, hand trembling slightly, at the message:

“Shan Hui. Mother’s awake. Return. Shi Ji.”

Huilang heard a strange sound from Shan Hui’s direction and glanced over, freezing in disbelief. If he wasn’t seeing it with his own two eyes, he would not have believed it possible.

Shan Hui, First Prince of Lanhua, Tyrant of the East, and The Butcher of Jianghu, was sobbing with a brilliant smile on his blood smeared face.

———

“This, is a town?”

“En.”

“You’re sure?”

Ye laughed. “No matter how many times you ask, the answer will be the same MeiMei.”

Mei Hua was currently in the town of Xifang and in total disbelief. Her experiences with human civilization were rather small, being born in a small town in the east and then living in a town to the west for two years. Living in Blue Flower Palace definitely didn’t count. Her recollection of both of those human towns did not match Xifang at all.

It was huge.

Even before they’d arrived, she’d been amazed. Ye had taken the scenic route, which wound through narrow paths along steep parts of the mountains. Mei Hua almost got a bird’s eye view of the town. It butted up against the mountains and then sprawled all the way into the hills. There were so many buildings, she doubted she’d be able to count them all, of all different sizes, clustered together.

The town was oddly walled off. It looked as though there’d been an original wall encircling it, and then town had grown outside the walls to the north and the south. Thus another wall had been added to enclose the new growth. And then another, and another. It gave the city a strange ripple effect when viewed from above.

When Mei Hua asked about this, Ye and her son told her this wall functioned to mark the border as well as a pseudo-security against invasion. Originally there hadn’t been a wall, but the country to the west of here mistakenly thought Xifang was actually in their territory. A minor scuffle broke out between the two nations. After Lanhua knocked some sense into them, the neighboring country apologized for the mistake and backed off.

When Mei Hua heard this she couldn’t help asking, “Wait, how is that a minor scuffle? Isn’t that technically a war?”

“War?” Ye chuckled nastily. “It’s only a war if an army is involved. All it took was Yan Li and some of his friends giving them a scare to get them to back down.”

“Older Brother has been training all these years Mother, so he can be really intimidating if he wants. The Old Man rarely gets involved with border problems because Yan Li is there to do it for him.” Shi Ji added.

This had left Mei Hua speechless for several minutes. Exactly what kind of training did Yan Li do that would allow him to scare an entire country?!

After almost getting invaded, the citizens of Xifang were worried and requested a wall. It wasn’t really needed as long as they stayed in Lanhua proper, but since it’d make everyone feel better, Jin had gone along with it. He’d even graciously built the original wall himself.

The west side of the wall marked the exact spot people crossed over into Lanhua. Xifang citizens never built beyond the western wall, only spreading out to the north and south. These areas were still in Lanhua proper, which were under Jin’s protection. They built new walls as they expanded, creating a ripple effect seen from above.

The town of Xifang was packed with people, a fact that shouldn’t have surprised Mei Hua but did. She’d seen all those buildings, she obviously knew there must be people to fill them. But call it the difference between knowing and experiencing, she still was shocked. If she stepped to the right or to the left, she’d bump into someone. Even walking in a straight line was difficult, because someone was either in front or cutting across.

If Ye and Shi Ji hadn’t been there, she’d have definitely gotten lost. Or perhaps she would have turned around and simply run back home. This was the first time she’d experienced a real crowd of people and it left her feeling suffocated. But Pei Zhi lived here, so she couldn’t give in to the pressure she was feeling to flee from the pressing masses. She’d never visited Pei Zhi in her own home, she desperately wanted to see her friend in her natural element!

Ye was skillfully weaving them through the foot traffic. To keep a low profile, he’d turned his hair black and his eyes a dark brown. Even Shi Ji’s bright glowing eyes had dimmed into a blue that bordered on black. The fairy could modify his appearance slightly as needed, while apparently the tattooed arrays on Shi Ji allowed him to do something similar. Mei Hua was told that if they didn’t do this, they’d be instantly surrounded by excited townsfolk. Not many people knew what Mei Hua looked like, so she didn’t need to hide her appearance.

“Everyone knows me by my hair and your son by his eyes. But it’s me being recognized that’d be the problem. I don’t mean to boast but…” Ye rubbed his nose smugly, “…I’m fairly popular here.”

Mei Hua and Shi Ji both rolled their eyes, causing Ye’s lips to twitch. They definitely looked related just then. If Mei Hua had looked older, it’d have been a classic example of the Son taking after his Mother. As it was, they looked like siblings.