The third day of the first lunar month.

  Early in the morning, Wen Chaoshen climbed out of the treehouse, washed his face with snow, and hurried towards the abandoned temple.

  In truth, he hadn't slept much the previous night.

  Today was an extremely special day for Wen Chaoshen, a day that seemed no different from any other, yet he had waited for it for three full years.

  Originally, he had pnned to take a hatchet and fight to the death with Magistrate Liu Jinshi of Kuhai County. If Liu Jinshi didn't keep his promise, Chaoshen was ready to make him pay in blood.

  But now, because of A Shui's intervention, he felt that Liu Jinshi would most likely agree.

  Becoming a citizen of Qi Kingdom, he had countless pns in his mind that he had simuted over and over, allowing him to make a fortune within five years. Once he had money, there would be so much more he could do.

  Since it hadn't snowed the previous night, traces remained on the road. As Wen Chaoshen passed by, he noticed a long drag mark.

  His brow furrowed slightly, and a vague sense of foreboding crossed his mind, prompting him to quicken his pace. Upon reaching the abandoned temple, he immediately saw A Shui resting inside, which allowed him to breathe a sigh of relief.

  But soon, he also noticed a pile of iron weapons in the corner of the temple.

  Those were weapons.

  "Did someone come st night?"

  He asked A Shui directly. She was boiling some snow water, her eyes not fully open, as if she hadn't woken up.

  "Someone came?"

  "What kind of people?"

  Wen Chaoshen pointed to the weapons in the corner of the temple, among which there seemed to be a long hook.

  "No one came. Where did these things come from?"

  A Shui zily rubbed her hair and said casually:

  "Picked them up."

  Seeing her indifferent attitude, Wen Chaoshen sat by the fire, warming his arms as he spoke:

  "It didn't snow st night. Things done at night leave traces."

  "You should at least clean up the traces, right?"

  "Such a long drag mark in the snow from a corpse, even an amateur like me can see there's a problem, let alone..."

  Seeing him seriously listing these points, A Shui sighed, rubbed her brow, then propped her face with one hand, staring at him:

  "Nagging."

  "Wen Chaoshen, do you really think this broken pce of Kuhai County can hide people?"

  Wen Chaoshen was stunned.

  A Shui pointed to a wine jar in the temple that had been smashed and not fully cleaned up, saying:

  "I went to the local thug in Kuhai County to beg for wine, didn't kill them to silence them, the traces have long been leaked. If someone wants to find me, this winter snow surely can't hide it."

  "The reason no one has come is because they're all waiting."

  Wen Chaoshen was puzzled:

  "Waiting for what?"

  A Shui stared at him, a chilling smile appearing on her face:

  "They're waiting to see if the person who didn't die in that big fire back then is really done for now."

  "If those people send some fools to test me, then I'll kill them to show them whether I'm done for or not."

  Wen Chaoshen looked at A Shui, and after a while, his eyebrows raised, and he excimed:

  "Fucking awesome."

  A Shui scoffed, indifferent:

  "Awesome?"

  "In the future, if you enter the Martial World, you might not think so."

  Wen Chaoshen:

  "I understand, once you enter the Martial World, you're no longer your own master."

  The st eight words made A Shui's gaze towards Wen Chaoshen change slightly.

  "...Once you enter the Martial World, you're no longer your own master."

  She repeated, then murmured to herself:

  "What a 'no longer your own master.'"

  "Wen Chaoshen, let me ask you, what do you want to do when you become a citizen of Qi Kingdom?"

  Wen Chaoshen:

  "Make money, cultivate."

  A Shui:

  "That's it?"

  Wen Chaoshen thought for a moment, then replied:

  "I want to do whatever I want."

  The two stared at each other, and for some reason, A Shui felt that the light in Wen Chaoshen's eyes was sharp, bright and sharp. She silently drank a bowl of hot water, no longer mentioning the topic, and stood up, patting the dust off her clothes.

  "Let's go, find Liu Jinshi."

  Wen Chaoshen nodded, and together with A Shui, they headed towards the county city. But when they arrived outside the city, Wen Chaoshen noticed that there were no constables with knives guarding the gate today, which made his brow furrow slightly, and a bad feeling crossed his mind.

  In the years Liu Jinshi had been in office in Kuhai County, he hadn't done much for the people, but he had done a thorough job with public security, even in the snowy weather. The constables, who were fed by the government, couldn't sck off and had to stay on duty.

  But now, with the new year over, in broad daylight, there wasn't a single constable on duty, which was truly strange.

  Entering the county city, on South Gate Street, there was no one in sight.

  A Shui's sharp eyes scanned the surroundings, a hint of doubt fshing in her eyes. The two quickly headed towards the County Office, but from a distance, they saw a rge crowd of people.

  The two exchanged a gnce and immediately squeezed into the center of the crowd. Wen Chaoshen struggled to push his way to the entrance of the County Office, and when he looked at the entrance, he was stunned, speechless with shock.

  People whispered around him, some jostled him, but he was oblivious, standing there like a wooden dummy.

  At the entrance of the County Office, he saw Liu Jinshi, whom he hadn't seen for a month, but now the man had become... a corpse.

  Liu Jinshi was dead.

  Hanged.

  The body hung at the entrance of the County Office, facing the street, the face livid, swaying eerily in the wind.

  Wen Chaoshen stared bnkly at Liu Jinshi's corpse, and after an unknown amount of time, he seemed to lose all his strength, colpsing to the ground, ughing maniacally.

  The people around, either fearing he was insane or worried he was trying to scam them, backed away from him. Some locals who knew a bit about Wen Chaoshen began spreading stories, true or false, to the uninformed.

  For a moment, many people cast sympathetic gnces at Wen Chaoshen.

  After a while, a loud shout came from afar:

  "Official business, all unreted persons, clear the way!"