Chapter 22#

If You See SnowCh22 - This is Your Corpse#

The border capital not only had a ban on iron, but also a curfew. The Secret Sect enforced strict laws; even stealing a bag of fine salt would result in ten severe lashes on a bench, and stealing ten bags would lead to exile. Anyone found loitering on the streets after curfew would be arrested by patrolling officers and thrown into jail. Nobody wanted to end up in jail, so as the sun began to set and the drums sounded at the market entrance, all the vendors began to pack up their stalls. Su Ruhui managed to buy a string of meat just before the last pork vendor left. He was starving and hoped that Su Yu, that brat, would be diligent enough to heat up the pot and boil the water before he got home.

Su Ruhui walked home through the streets covered with particles of snow, the sunlight fading behind him. He turned into a small alley, where a man was leaning against a white cloth covered shack, blocking his path. Despair washed over Su Ruhui. He thought he really should have brought a knife; he’d kill anyone who stood in his way of getting home for dinner.

He thought this, but upon seeing the tall man emerge from the shadows, he changed into a forced smile. “House Head, what brings you here? If you wanted to contact me, you could have sent someone to deliver your message. Why come in person?”

“I had nothing to do, so I came along to take a look.” Han Ye looked at him with a smile that wasn’t really a smile, “I heard that the Scout Guard trial this time involved throwing about a hundred people into the Kunlun Mountains to fight each other to the death. I didn’t expect you, someone without any secret arts, to survive. A-Qi, you’re more capable than I thought.”

Su Ruhui said modestly: “I just have a few ways to save my own life. I’m not good at fighting, but I’m number one at running away.”

“The Paradise Pavilion monitored your entire trial. There was only one puppet carriage that came out of Kunlun, and it had you and that little kid with you. Only the two of you came out from the Secret Sect, carrying the guard’s standard weapons and military officer robes.” Han Ye crossed his arms, “I don’t know how many spies the Great Compassion Temple sent, but from our Paradise Pavilion’s side, we sent three others besides you. Two of them were secret arts users. Did they make contact with you? Why didn’t they pass the trial?”

This was awkward. Su Ruhui couldn’t possibly tell him that his three subordinates had all been killed by the very person standing in front of him. Not only were they killed, but Su Ruhui had also stripped them naked and used their clothes as firewood. Wait, Han Ye said that besides Su Ruhui and Su Yu, no one else had come down the mountain. He Sheng didn’t come down either? Could it be that none of the fifty people who passed the trial had come down?

Su Ruhui composed himself and skillfully feigned ignorance, “No, this trial was too brutal. I hid in a cave as soon as I entered the mountains and stayed there for three days and two nights. Those three brothers you mentioned probably missed me.”

Han Ye didn’t suspect a thing. Su Ruhui guessed he wouldn’t even consider the possibility that Su Ruhui alone could take down all three of them. Han Ye frowned: “They’ve probably been exposed. The Secret Sect must have some means of monitoring the trial.”

“That’s right. They might have cultivators with the ‘Heaven’s Eye’ secret art.” Su Ruhui helped him analyze.

Han Ye appearing now was great timing. This guy was a secret arts user at the Dongxuan level, and he had many thugs under his command. It would be better to let him help investigate the Secret Sect, saving Su Ruhui the risky job of fighting alone. Su Ruhui proactively reported the matters of the corpse in the snowy mountain ravine and He Sheng. Han Ye listened, his brows furrowing tighter and tighter. This matter was truly too strange. Resurrection from the dead was something that only happened in fictional stories.

Han Ye said darkly: “Do I look like I’m easy to fool? Did you even draft your lies before making them up?”

“I swear to heaven, I speak no falsehood,” Su Ruhui declared solemnly. “Not only I, but my xiaodi Su Yu saw it too.”

“Xiaodi?” Han Ye’s gaze became complex, “Why are you acting like Su Ruhui, always taking in younger brothers as attendants?”

Su Ruhui felt bewildered. What do you mean he loved taking in little brothers? It wasn’t even his idea to become sworn brothers with Su Yu.

Assuming Su Ruhui wouldn’t dare to deceive him with lies, Han Ye looked up at the sky and said: “The weather is good today, there won’t be any snow or wind in the mountains. l’ll take some men to check out that ravine tonight.”

“I’ll go too!” Su Ruhui volunteered.

“Of course you’re going too,” Han Ye sneered, pinching his cheek. “If you dare play me for a fool, I’ll toss you into the snowy ravine to keep those corpses company. Meet me at the city gate at zishi tonight. Don’t be late. I hate waiting.”

Su Ruhui returned home and started chopping the meat with a steady dongdongdong while Sang Chiyu helped out. They were so hungry they felt like their stomachs were sticking to their backs. Making rougamo would take too long, so Su Ruhui promised Sang Chiyu that he would make them for him another time. They casually stewed a plate of braised pork, added a bowl of pickled vegetables, and ate it with rice. The two of them polished off every last scrap on their plates.

He was alive again. Su Ruhui stretched lazily. Knowing he had to go out again tonight, he decided to get some sleep in before then. Sang Chiyu watched him go inside, then looked up at the eaves, noticing a new cloth bundle tucked into the brackets. He took the bundle down, went back inside, lit an oil lamp, and opened the bundle. Inside were portraits and identity information of five people, plus two formless gate talismans.

The portraits depicted the two monks who had pursued He Sheng that day. One was killed by Su Ruhui, the other passed the trial. Sang Chiyu recalled encountering that yellow-robed monk who used bone knives at the snowline.

Sang Chiyu took out the saber he had been issued that day, with its meteorite iron blade, sharkskin handle, and ruyi-patterned handle guard. It was a standard-issue saber from the guard, sharp enough to cut through iron like mud and capable of severing most firearms. Sang Chiyu placed the saber horizontally on the table, then added his crossbow, spirit fire gun, and dagger. After some thought, he chose the saber and the dagger. Although the gun was powerful, he was more accustomed to using a blade.

He sat before the oil lamp, waiting. Time flowed by like a river, its light illuminating his serene face. He sat still, breathing deeply. His calm and composed expression resembled a buddha in meditation rather than a killer preparing to murder someone.

Zishi arrived. He took out the talismans, placing one in his pouch and activating the other.

On the other side, Su Ruhui was already waiting at the city gate, having left the city just before the gates closed. Just in case, he brought his sleeve-concealed firearm and a single-shot crossbow. The weapons issued by the guard were good, but unfortunately, there was a limited supply of arrows and ammo. If he used them all, the guard would inquire about where they were used. This would be troublesome, so Su Ruhui decided to use his own weapons. He could, however, use the guard’s saber. Su Ruhui lowered his head, his gaze falling on the hilt of the saber at his waist. It was quite heavy, with a slender blade— it was a fine weapon.

Han Ye and several thugs from the Paradise Pavilion arrived on time at zishi. Including Su Ruhui, there were eight of them in total, each carrying an oil lamp as they set off up the mountains. It was difficult to navigate in the dark, but thankfully, there was the system to help. A glowing blue path projected onto the ground in Su Ruhui’s field of vision. The night was as heavy as iron, and their fur boots sank into the snow with crunches as they walked. Looking up, withered birches towered in the darkness like they bore fangs and claws, giving off a flavor of eerieness. The light from the thugs’ oil lamps scattered through the forest as they moved together towards the snowy ravine.

After walking for a full shichen, they finally climbed over the cliff and reached the ravine. The oil lamps’ light only illuminated a very limited area. As they stood at the edge of the ravine and looked down, they could only see a pitch-black abyss below.

“Are we going down?” One of the thugs asked.

Han Ye called someone over, “A-Pan, you listen for sounds below.”

The guy named A-Pan nodded, crouched down in front, and tilted an ear towards the abyss. After a moment, he said: “There’s nothing alive down there, it’s safe.”

A-Pan, Su Ruhui remembered this kid. He had run a literacy school at the Paradise Pavilion, and A-Pan was one of the children who attended the school. He never imagined that five years later, the child would have grown so much. A-Pan was a cultivator of the “Keen Hearing” secret arts. Su Ruhui had encountered similar users before, whose hearing was so acute they could hear a person’s heartbeat and breathing from three hundred paces away.

Han Ye ordered the thugs to go down into the snowy ravine to examine the bodies. Seeing Su Ruhui standing idly by, he kicked him and said: “You go down too.”

Su Ruhui nearly got kicked off the slope. His teeth itched in frustration, but there was nothing he could do. When you’re under someone else’s roof, you have to bow your head. Su Ruhui comforted himself, thinking that a real man knows when to bend and stretch, and he slid down the snowy slope into the ravine. When he reached the bottom and looked back, Han Ye had also come down. This guy was surprisingly leading by example.

The thugs examined the corpses one by one, holding their oil lamps low to illuminate their faces. They were all uniformly frozen and deathly pale, their bodies harder than bricks. It was bitterly cold on the mountain in the middle of the night, and Su Ruhui felt he would soon freeze solid himself. He searched for He Sheng’s body while shivering all over; he needed to take a good look at it to understand what had happened.

As he was flipping through the corpses, a thug’s shout rang out from the other side: “House Head, we found Li Jinbie!”

Su Ruhui stumbled over to the body with uneven footsteps and saw that it was Slant Eyes who had been killed by his firearm. Turns out this guy’s name was Li Jinbie, a truly remarkable name. Han Ye bent down to examine the bullet hole in the man’s forehead, then shot Su Ruhui a meaningful look.

Su Ruhui’s heart turned cold. It’s cooked, he totally forgot about this. He hadn’t expected the soldiers of the Secret Sect to be so quick; in just half a day’s worth of work, they’d dumped all the bodies from the trial here. He nervously forced a smile, “House Head, I can explain. I didn’t strike first. Those three tried to rob me and even tried to dishonor me. I had no choice.”

“Dishonor you?” Han Ye’s face darkened.

A thug whispered nearby: “Li Jinbie really does have a thing for men. He’s played many of them to death in the brothels.”

“…” Han Ye kicked Li Jinbie back into the corpse pit. “Then he deserved to die.”

Su Ruhui thought to himself: what right do you have to criticize others?

Someone ahead had already reached the depths of the corpse pit and shouted: “House Head, we’ve found another brother! It’s Dao Xiaoliu!”

Another one? Su Ruhui furrowed his brow. He remembered Han Ye saying that besides himself, there were only three others: Scarface, Slant Eyes, and Pockmark Head. Scarface and Pockmark Head had been melted away by the talismans. There were no traces of their bodies left. How could there be another one?

Su Ruhui followed the group deeper into the area. Several thugs were gathered around a corpse in the center, an oil lamp placed beside its face, illuminating the corpse’s features—it was the face of Scarface. Upon seeing this, Su Ruhui felt a chill run down his spine and instinctively held back Han Ye, who was about to step forward.

“What’s wrong?” Han Ye turned his head in confusion.

Su Ruhui stared intently. The corpse was indeed Scarface with his burly build and scar running across his nose. It matched perfectly.

How could this be? He clearly saw Scarface melt into a pool of blood. How could he possibly appear here?

Two other thugs carried over a corpse. It was Pockmark Head. One of the thugs wiped the sweat from his face and said, “We’ve finally found them all, House Head. Should we burn them here, or take our brothers home for burial?”

Before Han Ye could answer, several thugs came running over in a panic. Upon colliding with Su Ruhui, their faces froze in terror as if they’d seen a ghost.

“House Head, come take a look at this!”

They led Han Ye to another corpse. The thug put down the oil lamp, and everyone’s faces turned deathly pale at the sight of the body.

The corpse lay still with its eyes closed, its face as pale as snow. It had Su Ruhui’s face.

“A… A-Qi,” someone stepped back a few paces and nervously asked , “Why is your corpse here?”