3: Murder and robbery at midnight?

High.

Pale golden characters floated in his mind, each word like an icy needle piercing Gu Changsheng's nerves.

zi hour, kill and seize treasure.

The anticipated crisis had arrived faster and more lethally than imagined.

Gu Changsheng slowly exhaled a turbid breath, forcibly suppressing the lingering fear from his narrow escape and the ecstasy of obtaining the marrow cleansing grass into the deepest recesses of his heart.

Fear?

No, it didn't exist.

When a person has already experienced death once, nothing in this world can truly make him fear anymore.

All he wanted now was to survive, at any cost, to live long and enduringly.

Anyone who stood in the way of this path was an enemy.

For an enemy, the only choice was... to make them disappear forever.

Gu Changsheng immediately decided to deal with the marrow cleansing grass first, lest the long night breed more dreams.

He carefully placed the marrow cleansing grass in a broken bowl by the head of his bed, then moved a stool over, wedging it firmly against the door plank.

After completing these preparations, he returned to the bedside and picked up the broken bowl.

The marrow cleansing grass's fluorescence grew more distinct in the gloom, and a faint, refreshingly cool fragrance drifted into his nostrils, seeming to dissipate some of the weariness from his body.

Without further hesitation, he stuffed the Spiritual Plant, whose Impurities had already been cleansed, into his mouth.

The grass leaves melted upon entering his mouth, transforming into a cool, thin stream that slid down his throat into his abdomen.

At first, there was no special sensation.

But just a few breaths later, an indescribable burning heat exploded from deep within his lower abdomen!

"Ugh!"

Gu Changsheng grunted, and beads of sweat the size of beans instantly seeped from his forehead.

That scorching Qi flow was like ten thousand red-hot steel needles, madly scouring his limbs and skeleton, tearing at his Meridians, and tempering his bones.

Excruciating pain!

Unspeakable, excruciating pain!

His body involuntarily curled up, his teeth clenched tight, not allowing a single sound to escape.

He knew very well that if his uncle and aunt noticed anything amiss, his secret would not remain hidden.

Under this inhuman torment, his consciousness began to blur, as if he had returned to the instant of the car accident in his previous life, his body torn apart, his Soul stripped away.

No!

I want to live!

I finally got this chance!

A fierce will to survive supported the last shred of his clarity. He held onto his mind tenaciously, letting that violent force wreak havoc within his body.

Time stretched unbearably long in the agony of suffering.

After what felt like an eternity, that scorching heat that seemed to burn everything finally began to weaken, replaced by a tingling, gentle warmth that nourished his body, which had been ravaged into a sieve.

A layer of sticky, foul-smelling black Impurities continuously seeped from his pores, quickly forming a thick black crust on his skin.

Gu Changsheng slowly exhaled a turbid breath.

He felt his body was unprecedentedly light.

His originally frail limbs were now filled with explosive strength.

His hearing became incredibly sharp. He could clearly hear the rustle of fallen leaves in the courtyard and even hear, from the next room, the irritated tossing and turning of his aunt, Lady Li, and the heavy snoring of his uncle, Gu Dashan.

His vision had also transformed. In this pitch-black darkness where he couldn't see his own hand, the outlines of the room were faintly discernible.

His five senses and six perceptions had been comprehensively enhanced!

More importantly, he could clearly feel that something deep within his Dantian seemed to have awakened. A faint but pure strand of "Qi" was slowly flowing.

The spiritual aperture had opened!

He was now a genuine cultivator, capable of absorbing and refining the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi!

Gu Changsheng slowly sat up from the bed, feeling the changes as profound as being reborn, an irrepressible joy surging in his heart.

However, this joy was soon diluted by another matter.

Old Fourth Zhao!

He glanced at the deep night outside the window. The zi hour was not far off.

He must prepare before he arrived.

Gu Changsheng tiptoed out of bed, enduring the stench on his body, pressed his ear against the wall, and listened carefully to the movements next door.

His uncle's snoring remained steady and strong.

He suddenly remembered something.

Uncle Gu Dashan had been a skilled hunter in his youth, only going down to the mine later due to leg problems. He remembered that his uncle's room seemed to hide some old things from those days.

Relying on hearing far surpassing that of an ordinary person, he could capture the most subtle sounds from the adjacent room.

He heard his uncle turn over, the bed board emitting a faint creak.

That was the spot!

Gu Changsheng silently moved the stool blocking the door, pulled back the door bolt, and slipped out like a civet cat.

The night breeze was cool, dispersing some of the stench on him.

He circled to the back of his house and arrived beneath his uncle's window.

The window was closed, but that didn't trouble him.

He picked up a long, thin branch from the ground, carefully inserted it through a crack in the window, gave a gentle flick, and dislodged the wooden latch inside.

He climbed in through the window; the entire process didn't make a single sound.

Crouching down, holding his breath, he groped his way to the bedside.

Relying on memory and his enhanced hearing for positioning, he soon felt a cold, hard metal object under the bed.

A bear trap!

Large, heavy, carrying a scent of rust and blood.

Delight surged in Gu Changsheng's heart. He used both hands to pull it out, the process careful, not daring to make any sound.

He had witnessed the power of this thing as a child; it could even snap a wild boar's leg in the mountains.

It would be more than enough to deal with a frail old man.

He retraced his steps and quietly brought the bear trap back to his own storage room.

Next was setting the trap.

He observed his room. The most likely entry route for Old Fourth Zhao was this single window facing the outside.

He went to the spot beneath the window, dug into the soft soil with his hands, opened the huge bear trap, and carefully placed it inside.

He then found some dry grass and loose soil, meticulously spreading it over the top, perfectly concealing the trap's traces.

From the outside, this spot looked no different from ordinary ground.

After finishing all this, he finally let out a long breath.

A perfect "accident" was now ready.

He returned to bed, didn't undress, just lay down, eyes open, quietly gazing at the dark rafters.

His heart beat calmly and powerfully in his chest, like a precise timekeeper, waiting for midnight to arrive.

Time passed second by second.

When the village night watchman struck the clappers signaling the zi hour, Gu Changsheng's ears twitched slightly.

He heard it.

A series of extremely faint footsteps, almost blending with the wind, were approaching his window.

He's here!

A thin, dark figure furtively groped its way to the spot beneath the window.

The shadow looked left and right, confirming no one was around, then stretched out a withered hand, preparing to push open the window.

One of his feet tentatively stepped toward the ground beneath the windowsill.

In the darkness, Gu Changsheng slowly closed his eyes.

The next moment!

"Crunch!"

A bone-chilling sound of metal clenching, accompanied by the crisp crack of shattering bone, suddenly tore through the silent night!

Immediately following was a distorted, agonized howl, choked back and suppressed deep in the throat.

"Urgh—!"