CHAPTER 124: CHAPTER 107: BEAM

The Academic Palace curriculum made it clear that when encountering bizarre situations, acting recklessly or doing nothing both led to equally high mortality rates. One must be cautious, observe, gather information, and plan before acting.

Li Wei pulled a dagger from the side of his boots and threw it to Yang Yu, who was unarmed.

The three of them stuck close to the wall and headed in the direction of the sound.

No sooner had they stepped out of the alley than they saw a man squatting on the earthen slope of the canal by the street. His figure was slender; he wore a bamboo hat and a brown straw coat, with a bamboo pole for punting resting beside him. Given the umbrella boat parked by the canal, he appeared to be a boatman.

"New logs on the river, floating down the stream..."

The boatman squatted on the ground, singing a chantey, his voice deep and hoarse, its tune erratic, like an opera singer’s. In front of him, his hands were digging at something.

It was... a human.

Li Wei, who was leading the way, felt his pupils dilate suddenly. In front of the boatman lay a middle-aged man in brocade clothes. His limbs were severed, his torso split open and eviscerated, his face still frozen in an expression of utter horror and despair.

"Lady ashore, look far to see me..."

The boatman continuously dug out the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys, murmuring dreamily. He then suddenly turned his head and looked towards Li Ang and the others on the street. Blood dripped from the corners of his mouth. His wrinkled face formed a respectful smile as he said, "Would the three young masters like a boat ride?"

Yang Yu was already so frightened his scalp tingled. Although Li Wei was also shocked, he was, after all, a soldier from a border town, having tasted blood since his teenage years. He gripped his longsword tightly, ready to swing it at any moment.

Seeing no response from the trio, the old boatman dropped the organs in his hand, rose to his feet, and said humbly, "A ride for three will cost the same as for one: five cents a mile."

Li Ang narrowed his eyes and answered, "No, thank you."

"If you’re not taking a ride, then please settle this gentleman’s fare." The boatman pointed to the corpse of the man in brocade lying on the ground.

Li Ang glanced at Yang Yu from the corner of his eye. Yang Yu nervously touched his clothes, sweat beading on his forehead. His pockets were empty.

"How about this Jade Pendant?" Quick-witted, Li Wei snatched a round Jade Pendant from Yang Yu’s belt and offered it to the boatman.

"Don’t jest with me, young master. Isn’t this just a mud pie?" The boatman glanced at the Jade Pendant, his mouth slowly curling into a sinister grin. "If you can’t settle the fare, then you’ll pay with your lives."

With that, he scrambled up the slope on all fours, his bloodstained straw coat trailing on the ground as he charged towards them.

"Fire Burning Skill!" Yang Yu shouted, sweating profusely as he formed a hand seal and gestured toward the boatman.

BOOM!

The intense flames bursting from his fingertips died out in mid-air, failing to reach the boatman.

"This is no time for casting spells!" Li Wei stepped forward. Without dodging, he swung his sword, bypassing the boatman’s shoulder and clavicle to strike the vulnerable part of his neck.

SLASH—

The boatman’s head flew into the air before falling to the ground and rolling. However, little blood seeped from the severed neck of the headless corpse.

"Murder!"

A wailing cry came from the umbrella boat. A woman ran out, threw herself to the ground, and embraced the boatman’s head, crying out in grief, "Eldest Son, your death is so tragic! Fellow villagers, please, avenge me!"

Her cries seemed to flip a switch, bringing the entire workshop district to life. Flower sellers with baskets, peddlers with carrying poles, scholars in blue robes, young ladies in makeup, maids holding umbrellas... One after another, figures emerged from street corners, quickly filling the street.

"A life for a life! It’s only right!"

They stared menacingly at Li Ang and his companions, their expressions ferocious. In unison, they chanted as they stepped forward.

Trying to set us up? Li Ang thought. He looked at the menacing crowd ahead and whispered to Li Wei and Yang Yu, "Go!"

With that, he stamped his foot, leaped up, grabbed the top of the wall, and vaulted over it. He then reached down, grabbed Yang Yu by the collar, and hauled him up too.

"Li Wei!" he called.

"Coming!" Li Wei responded, also clambering over the wall. Just as he steadied himself, he saw even more townsfolk surging into the distant street, chanting, "A life for a life! It’s only right!"

The cries of the crowd echoed through the workshop district. Their expressions were maniacal as they rushed towards Li Ang and the other two, like a tide of rats.

"What on earth is going on?" Li Wei’s scalp tingled.

Then he heard Li Ang beside him shouting clearly, "A life for a life! It’s only right!"

Li Wei abruptly turned his head. He saw Li Ang with a crazed expression, eyes wide, appearing even more frenzied than the crowd below, shouting at the top of his lungs as he repeated, "A life for a life! It’s only right!"

Even Li Ang... had been assimilated by the strangeness? A chill enveloped Li Wei and Yang Yu, as if they had fallen into an ice cave.

Yet, in the next instant, Li Ang’s expression returned to normal. He murmured, "They’re still surging this way... So, it didn’t work."

"Ah?"

Seeing Li Wei gaping, utterly confused, Li Ang had no choice but to explain, "I was testing if I could blend in with these ghouls, you know, tell them ’no impostors among us.’ But it seems that didn’t work."

As if that would ever work!

Regardless of Li Wei and Yang Yu’s frantic inner protests, Li Ang made another decision. "Upstairs!" he said. He then led them to jump down from the wall they were on, enter a tavern, and sprint to its top floor.

Together, they dragged over several rectangular wooden tables, placing them with the thick tabletops facing down to cover the top-floor staircase entrance.

By then, the frenzied crowd below had already charged into the building. They swarmed up the staircase but were blocked by the tables. They pounded on the tabletops and clawed at the gaps between the tables and the stairwell.

Li Wei stood on one of the constantly vibrating tables, swinging his sword to chop at the arms reaching up from below. Yang Yu, his fighting spirit ignited, used the dagger to stab a hand that stretched up.

Although the crowd surging up from below was fearless of death and numerous, they all had ordinary physiques. Li Wei was from the border army. He had undergone Medicine Baths in the army and studied the Body Refining Technique at the Academic Palace, so his stamina was considerable. Guarding this sole entrance, for now, was not an issue.

"Qilang," Li Ang’s voice interrupted Yang Yu’s desperate stabs. "Your boot sole."

"Hm?" Following Li Ang’s gaze, Yang Yu looked down. A plum blossom-shaped bloodstain had somehow appeared on the sole of his boot. Li Ang’s and Li Wei’s boot soles bore identical marks.

"The corpse by the canal earlier—that was the man in brocade who bumped into the grey-clad old woman from the Jianyue Theater Troupe today," Li Ang spoke quickly. "The bloodstain on his boot sole was the same as ours."

"Is this anomaly caused by the Jianyue Theater Troupe? Are the bloodstains on our boot soles some kind of mark?" Yang Yu suddenly realized something. "How could it be? They’re the Zhou Kingdom’s Theater Troupe. To enter Chang’an, they would have had to pass through numerous stringent security checks and searches."

"I don’t know." Li Ang narrowed his eyes. "But there’s definitely a problem with the Jianyue Theater Troupe. You two hold this position. If you’re about to be overrun, take off your boots and throw them away. It might help."

"Risheng, where are you going? Don’t be rash!"

"I’m going to the Luoyang Building where the Jianyue Theater Troupe is stationed. Whoever pulled us into this will be able to get us out."

Li Ang leaped over the top floor railing, stepping across the eaves and tiles, jumping onto the adjacent building. His departure instantly drew away a portion of the frenzied crowd, significantly reducing the pressure on Li Wei and Yang Yu.

The wind whistled past his ears. Under the blood-red sky, Li Ang leaped and darted across the rooftops of the West Market buildings until he reached a crossroads devoid of tall structures. He landed lightly in the middle of the crossroads. From the four intersecting streets, a dense, crazed crowd surged towards him.

They (Li Wei and Yang Yu) probably can’t see me from their spot, right? Li Ang murmured to himself, glancing back towards Li Wei and Yang Yu’s last known position. He twisted his neck, producing a crisp crackling sound.

Ignoring the approaching horde, he walked to the front of a shop, patted a thick wooden support beam outside the entrance, and nodded with satisfaction.

THUMP!

His punch shattered the surface of the wooden beam, sending splinters flying.

THUMP!

Another punch, and the top of the thick, long beam snapped. Li Ang then uprooted the entire beam from its stone base as if pulling a giant radish.

Li Ang casually hefted the heavy beam, holding it at his waist. He stood in the middle of the crossroads, facing the dense, onrushing crowd.