The person died a ghastly death: dressed in black clothes, their mask fallen to both sides, revealing wide-open eyes. Zhou Zishu felt a sense of familiarity before he even got to see the body clearly, so he bent down to inspect further. He couldn’t help but frown afterwards, “Isn’t this… Sir Mu, lord of Duan Jian Mountain Manor?”

Just this morning he was rambling to no ends for an hour; no one could have thought that he also became a “night owl” like Zhou Zishu, then a dead owl, unfortunately.

Wen Kexing approached as well, rubbing his chin with interest, “Moonlit night, black clothes, it’s possible that…”

Zhou Zishu turned to the other, ready to hear his deductions.

Only for Wen Kexing to continue his brilliant train of thought: “…that Lord Mu is out here picking flowers7?”

Zhou Zishu turned away, face expressionless, internally praising himself for keeping his composure.

There was no trace of blood on Mu Yunge’s body or beside him, but his lips had gotten bluer. Zhou Zishu, after some thought, opened the front of his shirt. On his chest was only a black mark in the shape of a hand.

| |

Footnotes

1 Also called the Beggar Clan, it’s one of the most common sect appearing in a wuxia setting. It’s made up of beggar and is famous for intelligence gathering.

2 师叔 (shīshū) – Uncle-Master is the apprentice-brother (both senior and junior) of one’s Master in a sect.

3 Means that there is still lots of time for Zhou Zishu and Zhang Chengling to meet again.

4 A Chinese breed of domestic cat.

5 某 (mǒu) is an old-fashioned honorific used to refer to oneself in a formal manner.

6 Qinggong is a Chinese martial art technique, often portrayed in wuxia fiction as the ability to move lightly and inhumanly fast, such as gliding on the water surface or travelling through the air without any external help.

7 Slang for sexual harassment.

Chapter 10. Netherworld

Zhou Zishu stared at the handprint for a while, then turned the corpse front-down, undressing the body’s upper half—another handprint was on his back at the same position.

Wen Kexing sighed, “Was he branded, or the attack went through his body?”

Zhou Zishu replied nonchalantly. “No one would waste their time to play with the dead, the attack went through from one side of his body to the other. I can only think of one person in the recent fifty years who is able to do this…”

“It’s the Raksha1 Palms from Sun Ding the Delighted Mourning Ghost,” Wen Kexing continued.

Zhou Zishu glanced at him without replying, kneeling down to search Mu Yunge’s body carefully. What he found were some banknotes and silvers. “Oh, stealthily left the Zhao’s Holdings at late night while carrying travel expenses…” Zhou Zishu touched his own chest—so did he.