Blade - Unbound

As he spoke, the old man rolled up his sleeves with trembling hands. His arms were covered with patches of black spots of varying sizes.

Some of them had already ulcerated, with tiny worms crawling in and out of the wounds...

Li Yan sniffed lightly, the suspicion in his eyes deepening. Shaking his head, he said, "If a demon capable of entering Chang'an to wreak havoc really existed, would it care about your little business? There's probably more to this than meets the eye.

"Come on. I'll take you to see someone first..."

In the Hall of Benevolence in Lanling Street, Heidan's uncle sat stiffly on a stool with his cheeks puffed out, staring at Li Shiqing.

Meanwhile, Li Shiqing rolled an egg back and forth over the wounds on his arms, occasionally using silver needles to prod the tiny worms. After about half the time it took half a stick of incense to burn, Li Shiqing picked up the egg and cracked it into a nearby bowl. Both the yolk and the white had already turned into black sludge. Countless white worms the size of grains of rice writhed continuously within the sticky liquid.

Li Shiqing already had an idea of what was happening, but he wasn't in a hurry to draw conclusions.

Instead, he asked, "Can you smell anything fishy?"

Heidan's uncle shook his head.

"Mm. Spit it out."

Hearing it, the old man immediately spat out what he had been holding in his mouth.

It was a mouthful of soaked raw soybeans. To an ordinary person, they would have reeked of a strong fishy odor, yet he could not taste or smell anything at all. Not only that, but every soybean he spat out had turned black.

"This is gu poison." Li Shiqing shook his head. "People often mention it and curses together, but they're actually two different things. This isn't an evil curse."

"Oh?" Li Yan grew interested. "Can you please enlighten us?"

Li Shiqing nodded. "The word for curse is linked to rituals. The Book of Changes says: 'Dui represents the mouth and the shaman.' In oracle bone script, it referred to praying to the gods. Thus, a curse borrows the power of ghosts and deities and is spoken through the mouth...

"As for gu poison, there's even less to say. The character itself depicts insects within a vessel. Like many oracle bone pictographs, it dates back to antiquity and flourished during the Shang and Zhou dynasties..."

Listening to the two converse, Heidan's uncle immediately realized he had been tricked. His face flushed crimson as he clenched his teeth in fury.

"Those bastards!"

Li Yan chuckled, "What are you so angry about? This is just a jianghu con artist's trick. Your shop has probably already changed hands by now. Even if you reported it to the authorities, all the paperwork would be perfectly legitimate. The only way to resolve this is through jianghu methods. Whatever it is, let's remove the poison first.

"Senior Li, what kind of poison is this? Can it be cured?"

Li Shiqing stroked his beard with a smile. "Of course it's easy to cure. This is nothing more than ordinary maggot poison. It's refined by sealing corpse maggots taken from the body of a deceased woman inside an earthen jar, burying it underground, and feeding it pig, sheep, and cattle blood every day. It takes only ten days to refine. It's considered one of the most basic forms of gu poison.

"It seems the other party still held back and didn't go all the way. If I'm not mistaken, as long as we find them, this matter can be settled instantly."

Li Yan immediately understood. "It was the Feng Sect."

Heidan's uncle looked completely confused and couldn't help growing nervous. "Little Brother Li, Doctor Li... What exactly is going on?"

He only had half a foot into the jianghu. After being expelled from the shadow puppet troupe, he hadn't remained in the jianghu for long. Instead, he had come to Chang'an, kept his head down, worked hard, and gradually built up his livelihood.

Although he knew a few people from the Daoist world, they were all honest businessmen. He truly knew very little about the jianghu's underworld rules.

Seeing Heidan looking equally puzzled, Li Yan shook his head slightly and explained with a smile. "Among swindlers, there are only four major sects. There's the Feng Sect, the Ma Sect, Yan Sect, and the Qiao Sect.

"The members of the Ma Sect are lone con artists. They usually disguise themselves as monks or Daoists, wandering from place to place. Once they succeed, they disappear without a trace. The Yan Sect uses women and seduction to deceive people. That speaks for itself. As for the remaining two, they're the Feng Sect and Qiao Sect. Both operate in groups, with everyone assigned different roles. The only difference is that one only wants your money, while the other also wants your life.

"What happened to this old uncle here was the work of the Feng Sect. They usually leave themselves an escape route. If you're capable of seeing through the scam and finding them, they'll return everything. If you can't, then you'll just have to accept your bad luck."

Beside him, Li Shiqing stroked his beard and smiled. "Mm, there's one more thing. Gu poison has been responsible for countless major criminal cases throughout history. As a result, every dynasty has had strict laws against it. In almost every case, the punishment is execution after the autumn assizes.

"Since they've used it, as long as we find them, not only can you recover your belongings, but you'll also receive hush money."

"I don't want any hush money!" The more Heidan's uncle thought about it, the more aggrieved he became. "I just want to report them to the authorities and have every last one of them thrown into prison!"

Li Yan pondered for a moment before nodding. "That works too. But doing it that way will make things much more troublesome, and you'll also have to be prepared for their retaliation."

Heidan's uncle froze. "They'd actually dare retaliate?"

"Why wouldn't they?" Li Yan laughed helplessly. "These people target wealthy families and even officials. What they've absorbed over the years are the jianghu's rules. To them, the law is merely a set of shackles.

"If you handle this according to jianghu rules, it's quite simple. Find them, and you'll recover everything in full. If they refuse to follow the rules, then you kill them. The rest of the Feng Sect won't even bat an eye.

"If you follow the imperial laws instead, then you secretly report them after locating them. Once they're all arrested, using gu poison to harm others is more than enough to earn them a sentence of execution pending review.

"But once you do that, all pretense of peace is gone. The rest of the Feng Sect will make you their target. You'll probably have to fight several battles before you can completely beat them into submission.

"As for getting your business back... That's almost impossible."

Heidan's uncle found it difficult to accept. "H-How can things be like this?"

Li Yan shook his head. "Those are the rules of the jianghu. Benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness are nothing more than slogans. In reality, there has never been any true morality. It's all about relative strength and mutual compromise.

"They definitely have people inside the authorities. If we simply report them, someone will tip them off, and they'll all disappear. That's why we'll have to make some plans first. We'll need to gather more people and block every exit..."

After hearing what he said, Heidan's uncle hesitated. "Then... Let's forget it. I just want my belongings back. I really can't handle all that trouble."

Li Yan nodded slightly. He wasn't surprised by the sudden change in attitude.

That was exactly how Feng Sect swindlers manipulated people. Ordinary folk simply wanted peaceful lives. Who would willingly stir up such trouble? Besides, they had even deliberately left an out for those who were scammed. If one found them, they would return everything. Because of that, even fewer people chose to resolve things through official channels.

Swindlers, thieves, assassins had existed since ancient times. In the world, some people survived through their own labor, while many others survived by feeding off others. There would never be an end to them. Li Yan had simply laid out the situation clearly.

Since the victim preferred the safer route, he had no intention of making matters any bigger. The process of removing the gu poison then went smoothly. The maggots wouldn't kill anyone, but they were both persistent and disgusting. If the wrong method was used, even cutting away all the flesh wouldn't stop it from returning.

It was just like athlete's foot. It constantly tormented the victim, and so the Feng Sect used it partly as a warning.

Since maggot gu originated from corpse maggots, Li Shiqing first applied a poultice made from glutinous rice mixed with powder made from duck gall bladder, then repeatedly used eggs to draw out the poison. It took over twenty eggs before every trace of the gu poison was finally removed.

Although the wounds on Heidan's uncle's arms were still ulcerated, all the rotten flesh and worms were gone. Once medicinal powder for wounds was applied and bandaged, he would recover completely after they healed.

After expressing his heartfelt gratitude again and again, he accompanied Li Yan out of the clinic.

Heidan was also from a Li Clan. His ancestors had originally been military households that had migrated from Longyou, and his uncle was named Li Laogan.

Li Laogan's leather shop had originally been located in Yongle Street. Situated in the central part of the city, it was somewhat better than the commoners' districts, though still far inferior to the wealthy wards in northern Chang'an. Owning property there meant he had done fairly well for himself.

Soon. the three of them headed to Yongle Street to have a look.

Sure enough, the shop had long since changed owners. Several times over, in fact. It had become a hat and clothing shop, and the current owner knew absolutely nothing about what had happened before.

Li Yan wasn't in a hurry. He went to a nearby teahouse, exchanged a few words with one of the brokers drinking tea inside, then quietly waited together with Heidan and the others.

Not long afterward, Zhao Jiu hurried over to the inn. "Young Hero Li, you were looking for me?"

He wore an ingratiating smile, though inwardly he felt extremely uneasy. Back then, he had been the guide who led Li Yan and the others to Guodu Town. Fortunately, he had sensed something wrong and fled early, only later learning a major incident had occurred there.

Though secretly relieved, he had also worried that Li Yan might come looking for him over it.

"I need a favor from you, Brother Zhao."

Li Yan invited him to sit, poured him a cup of tea, and explained the situation.

"Oh, so that's what happened..." Zhao Jiu finally relaxed before shaking his head. "Young Hero Li, I don't think you'll be able to find them through the different middlemen.

"First, Feng Sect swindlers are extremely cautious. When transferring property, they'll definitely use multiple fake identities as cover. Even the transfer records filed with the authorities will appear flawless. Second, if the brokerage houses behind us interfered, we would be violating the jianghu's rules."

Li Laogan immediately became anxious. "Then what should we do?"

Zhao Jiu glanced at him thoughtfully before speaking again. "Since they knew the details of what happened back then, someone must have leaked the information. It may even have been someone you knew. How many people knew about the incident back then?"

Li Laogan paused before nodding slowly. "When my master expelled me from the troupe, nearly all my fellow apprentices knew about it."

Zhao Jiu clapped his hands with a smile. "There you have it. Go ask around at the Liu Clan. One of your former fellow apprentices must have come to Chang'an."

Li Laogan revealed an utterly incredulous look. "Impossible! I got along well with all of them..."

"Hahaha." Zhao Jiu's expression turned complicated as he sneered. "People laugh at those with less and resent those with more. You're already this old, don't tell me you still don't understand how ugly the human heart can be?"

Li Laogan stood there in a daze for a long while before letting out a long sigh. "The old shadow puppet troupe did come by. They're over in Pingkang Street.

"Master has already passed away, and my fellow apprentices haven't been doing well. I even went out of my way to help support them..."

Li Yan laughed. "Pingkang Street? I live there."

***

Pingkang Street, in a place called Qingyuan Pavilion.

Although the brothel couldn't compare with Calyx Pavilion, it was still among the better establishments in Pingkang Street. It occupied a considerable area, complete with a pond and waterside pavilion in the back.

Opera performances, drum performances, and all manner of entertainment continued without interruption. Guests needed only push open the windows to toss down reward money. Whatever one wished to hear or watch, there was always another troupe standing by. It was truly a place where fortunes disappeared overnight.

Before Li Yan had even reached the entrance, the head waiter spotted him and immediately shouted in excitement. "Young Hero Li has arrived!"

He quickly gestured into the establishment. "Oh! Young Master Li, please come upstairs! You haven't visited us in quite some time!"

The head waiter was all smiles, and even the madam hurried out behind him.

Li Yan's face darkened. "What nonsense are you talking about? When have I ever been here?"

"Oh, listen to yourself!" The madam smiled so broadly her face nearly blossomed. "The first visit makes you strangers, the second makes you old friends. Lady Wanfang has been waiting for you for ages!"

Li Yan was speechless. "Who the hell is that?"

The madam looked at him with exaggerated pout. "Oh, Young Master, those words would truly break Wanfang's heart if she heard them..."

Li Yan hurriedly shook his head. "I don't know her."

Beside him, Heidan's mouth fell wide open, his eyes filled with admiration. "Brother Yan, this place really is your turf?!"