101: Chapter 101 Vicious Dog

He wore a brocade robe with a jade pendant hanging at his waist, looking somewhat respectable, but his face was twisted like a crazed monkey.

The servant replied tremblingly, "Young... Young Master, those banknotes are from the Tongbao Bank; they couldn't be more real. He... he bought tiger bone paste, black python bile, and Red Blood Ginseng at the Baicao Pavilion..."

Liu Feng froze for a moment.

Immediately after, his expression turned even uglier.

He was a martial artist himself, so he naturally knew what those items signified.

He was going to break through a bottleneck.

"Tiger bone to strengthen the sinews, snake bile to temper the skin, blood ginseng to supplement Qi..." Liu Feng gritted his teeth, his fingernails digging into his flesh. "This is the damn formula we're supposed to use! He's just a commoner; what right does he have to use this? Is he even worthy?"

In his eyes, resources were tied to social class.

The pariahs of the Outer City should be using mud to plaster their wounds and eating moldy brown rice. Such top-tier medicinal materials were prepared for 'superior people' like them. Chen Mo using them was an act of usurpation, a theft, and a provocation to the Liu Family's dignity.

What made him even more anxious was that Chen Mo had money.

With money, one could become stronger.

Of the three Body Tempering Realm experts sent last time, not even a bone fragment had been recovered. Although Liu Feng claimed they were missing to the public, he knew in his heart that it was like throwing a meat bun at a dog—a total loss.

If Chen Mo managed to digest those medicines...

Liu Feng shuddered.

"Young Master, should we... send more people?" the servant asked tentatively. "This time we'll find some ruthless ones and strike directly on the road..."

"Idiot!"

Liu Feng kicked the servant's shoulder, sending him tumbling. "The whole city is watching him right now! That useless Tieshan is watching, and those mad dogs of the Black Robe Guard are watching too! If I move now, am I worried the Black Robe Guard won't find something to use against me?"

He panted heavily, pacing back and forth in the room.

His soles stepped on porcelain shards, making a crunching sound.

"Go, tell my father."

Liu Feng stopped walking, his eyes malicious. "Say that this Chen Mo might be a spy sent by 'that side.' Otherwise, there's no way to explain where he got so much money or how he got such skills."

The servant scrambled up, looking bewildered. "Which... which side?"

"Are you a pig? Naturally, the side that doesn't get along with us!" Liu Feng roared. "Muddle the waters! Let the old man deal with the headache! I don't believe an outsider can turn the world upside down in this Pingyang City!"

Since assassination wouldn't work, he would kill with a borrowed knife.

Liu Feng looked at the darkening sky outside the window and let out a cold laugh.

"Since you ate my medicine, sooner or later you'll have to spit it back out for me—along with your intestines."

...

The sky was like a moldy rag, a murky gray covering everything.

Chen Mo carried his bundle, walking on the road back to the Outer City.

The lights of the Inner City were shut behind those vermilion gates, and the air of the Outer City was immediately filled with the smell of slop mixed with coal cinders.

He didn't walk fast, his mind still calculating how to use those medicinal materials.

When he reached 'Dogtail Alley,' the wind stopped.

This alley usually had many stray dogs, but right now, it was too quiet. There wasn't even the sound of rats gnashing their teeth.

Chen Mo stopped, his hand resting on his saber hilt.

The trash heap ahead shifted slightly.

It wasn't the wind; something was rooting around inside.

"Huff... huff..."

The heavy breathing sounded like a broken bellows.

Immediately after, a dark figure slowly shuffled out from behind the trash heap.

Chen Mo's eyebrows twitched.

It was a dog.

But this dog looked absurd. Its size almost rivaled a small calf, half its fur was gone, and the exposed flesh was covered in sores and mud. Most bizarre were its eyes—they weren't green, but red, so bloodshot they looked ready to burst.

It stared at Chen Mo, long strands of drool hanging from its mouth, dripping onto the ground and even emitting a wisp of white smoke.

"Where did this beast come from?"

Chen Mo muttered.

The dog didn't bark; it kicked off with its hind legs and pounced directly at him.

It was very fast, bringing with it a foul wind.

Chen Mo didn't dodge.

He simply stepped aside, drew his blade, swung, and sheathed it.

The movements were as fluid as shooing away a fly.

*Thud.*

A muffled sound followed.

The massive dog head spun in mid-air, hit the ground and rolled twice, stopping at Chen Mo's feet. The headless body continued to lunge forward for two steps due to momentum before crashing down, blood spraying across the wall.

Chen Mo flicked the blood beads off his blade and was about to leave.

Suddenly, there was more movement in the trash heap.

"Squeak... squeak..."

The tiny sounds were like rats.

Chen Mo frowned and walked over, using his scabbard to push aside the pile of rotten vegetable leaves.

The scene before him made even this man-killing bailiff's stomach churn.

Four or five palm-sized puppies, completely hairless with wrinkled pink flesh. They didn't run or bark; instead, they rushed like mad toward the headless carcass of the large dog.

They opened their mouths, which hadn't even finished growing teeth, and desperately tore at the severed neck of the mother dog.

Drinking blood, eating flesh.

That was their own mother.

"In this world, even the dogs have gone mad."

Chen Mo watched expressionlessly, and the blade in his hand swung down once more.

A few flashes of cold light passed.

A few more lumps of mangled meat appeared on the ground.

He didn't spare them another glance, turning to walk out of the alley. But the string in his heart was pulled tight.

When animals act abnormally, there must be something supernatural afoot.

...

By the time he returned to the entrance of his small courtyard, the sky was completely dark.

A light was on in the neighboring courtyard.

Just as he took out his key, the neighbor's door opened with a creak.

A head popped out—it was Aunt Wang, who lived next door. This old lady's favorite hobbies were stitching shoe soles and eavesdropping; she knew which couples in the Outer City were fighting better than the people involved.

"Brother Mo, you're back?"

Aunt Wang was still pinching half a cornbread bun, her eyes darting toward the bundle in Chen Mo's hand. "Oh, have you struck it rich? Buying so many things."

"It's for official business," Chen Mo brushed her off casually.

"Right," Aunt Wang seemed to remember something, stuffing the cornbread into her mouth and saying indistinctly, "Old Zhang came looking for you during the day. You know... the one who used to bring you pickles."

Uncle Zhang?

Chen Mo's hand inserting the key paused.

Uncle Zhang was an honest carpenter who usually couldn't squeeze out a word even if you hit him three times. Ever since Chen Mo became a bailiff and helped him fend off a few local thugs, the relationship between the two families had been quite good.

"Did he say what it was about?" Chen Mo asked.

"He didn't say." Aunt Wang swallowed the cornbread and brushed the crumbs off her hands. "He looked quite anxious, forehead covered in sweat. I told him you weren't here, so he left, saying he'd come back tomorrow."

Chen Mo nodded. "Thanks, Auntie."

"No need for thanks, and..."

Aunt Wang wanted to chat a bit more when suddenly, a scream erupted from the courtyard behind her.

"Ah—!!"

The voice was shrill, like a chicken being strangled by the neck.

Immediately following was the sound of a heavy object hitting the ground, along with that familiar 'huffing' sound.

Chen Mo's expression changed.

He didn't use the door, instead tapping the ground with his toes and vaulting over the two-meter-high courtyard wall like a large bird, landing inside Aunt Wang's yard.