180: Can't be happy

"Be careful," Jiang Hanwen warned.

"Alright." Xia Zhijie turned around and quickly walked towards his teahouse.

The explosion was loud and the flames were high, but Jiang Hanwen didn't feel any intense Spiritual Qi fluctuations.

Watch the excitement?

No, he wasn't interested in that.

He just wanted to go home quickly, open his storage ring, and learn Alchemy. As for the news, someone would tell him!

At this moment, the Zongheng Chamber of Commerce was a sea of fire, with countless burning people roaring and cursing in the red glow.

The fire was merciless. No matter how much they struggled, the flames relentlessly scorched their bodies, devouring their already tragic fates. Ninety-nine percent of them were—refugees.

On the hillside behind the courtyard, the fields full of grain were completely gone. Half of the mountain was now a fiery dance of red snakes.

Hiss, hiss ~

A strong wind blew across the ground, and the red-hot charcoal hissed.

The fat of the corpses in the fire emitted a burnt, foul smell, disgusting and terrifying.

"Thump, thump, thump ~"

The neat hoofbeats of the Xunwu Guard vibrated through the ground. The spectators quickly made way as a black torrent of people reached the edge of the inferno.

"All unrelated personnel retreat! Qi Induction Realm cultivators, step forward and extinguish the fire!"

Splashes of water, mist, ice crystals, water leopards... water and fire clashed, boom ~ boom ~ intense mist rose, forming a giant cloud pillar a hundred meters wide in the sky.

In less than an hour, the fire was put out.

Looking at the dense array of corpses, Xiang Yinglong, the highest commander of the City Name Xunwu Guard and the Chief Official, frowned.

The whip in his hand was deformed from his grip. Too many people had died!

"Seal off the scene! No one is to enter without my command. Violators will be executed!"

"Yes!"

"Squad One, go invite Master Yang over.

Squad Two and Three, check for any survivors and tally the casualties. Squad Four..."

Just as Xiang Yinglong was issuing orders to uncover the truth,

On a more distant hillside, untouched by the flames.

Wang Ye lay prostrate on the ground, his head shaking uncontrollably. Tears streamed from his wrinkled eyes, mixing with saliva at the corners of his mouth.

"Ah ~ oh ~"

A desolate sob escaped his parched throat.

Although half of his body was covered in wrinkled burns, and he didn't have long to live,

The shattered spirit hurt more than the physical wounds.

His friends and colleagues, the adorable children, the old uncle who loved to tell jokes—not a single one remained. All had perished in the fire.

Wang Ye choked, blood-red tears flowing from his eyes.

"Rustle, rustle ~"

A sound came from the bushes behind him; something was approaching.

"Whoosh!"

A woman in a green dress emerged from the bushes, looking at the distant, charred black mass. She stopped two meters from Wang Ye.

After a long pause, the woman looked at Wang Ye.

"Are you done crying?"

Behind Wang Ye was a bloody trail, left by the scar on his chest as he crawled out of the woods.

Wiping away his tears with his right hand, Wang Ye struggled to look up at the woman.

"Who exactly are you?"

"What? I saved you, and this is the tone you use with me?" The woman looked down at him, her eyes filled with indifference.

"Then what tone should I use?

They're all dead. You let me live, but I'd rather die. I'm not a coward!" With that, Wang Ye struggled to get up, supporting himself with his right hand. He had barely lifted himself a foot off the ground when he pulled at the wound on his abdomen.

Thump!

He fell back to the ground.

"Yuan Qi isn't dead."

After saying that, the woman turned around.

Wang Ye's pupils widened. Yuan Qi, the culprit behind this great fire, wasn't dead!

A killing intent for revenge overshadowed his grief. Wang Ye immediately propped himself up.

"I don't want to die. What do you want me to do?!"

The woman threw a green-glowing pill onto the ground.

"If you want to live, from today on, you must obey me.

This poisonous pill contains a Heart-Devouring Gu. Eat it."

Wang Ye had read about Heart-Devouring Gu in storybooks.

Once one consumed the Gu, their life would no longer be their own.

Below the Jade Crystal Realm, there was almost no way to deal with the Heart-Devouring Gu, because it slept in the heart.

Any method attempting to remove the Gu carried a great risk of exploding the heart.

I can't die, I must get revenge!

This was the only thought in Wang Ye's mind.

"Gulp ~"

Wang Ye swallowed the poisonous pill.

Seeing him swallow it, the woman beside him took out a gray conch. The surface of the conch had rings of black and gray patterns, carrying a hint of ancient, wild aura.

"Thump!"

Her slender palm lightly tapped the conch, emitting a strange muffled sound, like a drum yet not a flute, vibrating sound patterns in the air.

"Ah!"

A sudden, excruciating pain, as if tens of millions of pliers were clamping his entire skin and violently pulling it outwards. His face contorted in agony, and Wang Ye screamed hysterically.

Due to the intense pain, all his muscles tensed, and he curled up like a cooked shrimp.

The woman was pleased with Wang Ye's reaction. A faint smile played on her lips as she dropped a porcelain bottle: "Remember, your life is in my hands!"

After a while, the pain subsided, and Wang Ye swallowed his humiliation.

Opening the porcelain bottle, a familiar scent of qi and blood pill entered his nostrils.

He tremblingly poured them all into his mouth and bit them open.

A warm current permeated his internal organs from his throat. With the support of the medicinal power, his body's self-healing accelerated, and the icy chill of impending death gradually dissipated.

He wasn't going to die for now, but the burns that had almost cooked his flesh were still there. The continuous tearing pain hammered at Wang Ye's nerves like relentless blows—it hurt so much.

A quarter of an hour later, the woman threw two crutches over.

"Follow me."

The other party had no consideration for Wang Ye being a living corpse who needed careful attention. She left directly, regardless of whether Wang Ye could keep up.

Wang Ye shakily propped himself up with the crutches. He was still alive, and as long as he was alive, there was hope!

In the evening, the investigation report of the great fire was placed on City Lord Guo Huai'an's desk.

Guo Huai'an frowned, his right hand nervously gripping the armrest of his chair.

The investigation report had passed through two hands: Xiang Yinglong, the Chief Official of the Xunwu Guard, and Yang Wanli, the Commander of the Night Watch.

Both were seasoned veterans, rich in experience in all aspects.

The combined result they provided was valuable, and precisely because it was valuable, Guo Huai'an couldn't be happy.