Imperial henchmen? My divine skills are all hacked versions.

...

The butcher, knife in hand, faced the Gu master, bent down, and began his old trade.

"Ugh!"

The Gu Master let out a scream.

The butcher's tears dripped onto the blade, mingling with the blood, as he mumbled incoherently.

"My son's name is Youzhi. He loves my pork tenderloin the most. Every time I slaughter a pig, he squats by the stove waiting..."

"Hehe...did he call me that when you took him away...?"

The Gu Master struggled in agony, screaming until he was too weak to continue.

Finally, the butcher stopped, closed his eyes, squatted for a few breaths, then stood up and handed the knife to the person next to him.

"Who's coming?"

The woman holding the cloth tiger took the knife.

Her hands were thin, with prominent veins on the back of her hands, but her hand holding the knife was very steady.

She walked up to the shop owner, who was already pale with fright and desperately tried to shrink back against the wall, but Zhao Bao held his shoulder down.

The woman squatted down in front of the shop owner and began to take revenge. Her movements were slow but very patient.

She kept looking down at the tip of the knife as she worked.

"Don't be afraid, little one. Mother will avenge you. Mother will make them taste the pain too..."

"It must have hurt even more when you were bitten by bugs... Waaah... I'm so sorry, I'm so useless, I shouldn't have let you go out to play alone..."

The shop owner kept fidgeting, and Zhang Hu and Zhao Bao held his shoulders down tightly, their eyes reddening.

Next was the middle-aged man carrying his son home, followed by the parents of the other children.

The knife eventually returned to the butcher's hand. He stood in the rain, squatted down, and placed the tip of the knife an inch below the Gu Master's throat, then gently pushed it.

The Gu Master's pupils suddenly dilated and then slowly dilated; he ended the shopkeeper's suffering in the same way.

After finishing everything, the nine men, covered in blood, stood in the alley and turned to look at Xu Xian.

The butcher knelt down first, then the woman, and then the middle-aged man.

One after another, the nine people kowtowed heavily to Xu Xian, Lu Jing, and the others in the rain.

Lu Jing was startled and instinctively tried to step aside, but Xu Xian grabbed him.

  [At this point, I hope readers will remember our domain name: 101 Reading Network, the top choice for reading books, 200ll.ll. It's super powerful!]

"Make them kowtow!"

Xu Xian pressed down on his arm, "Brother Lu, don't dodge, don't let people remember your kindness...remembering kindness will crush you!"

Lu Jing paused for a moment, then stopped dodging.

He looked at the nine people kneeling in the rain, kowtowing heavily, and suddenly understood something—Xu Xian had asked them to kill the Gu Master with their own hands today not because he didn't trust his own blade, but because these nine people needed an outlet.

They need to be able to say to themselves every night they wake up for the rest of their lives:

I avenged my child; I personally dismembered my enemy's flesh!

...

When Xu Xian pushed open his courtyard gate, the oil lamp in the kitchen was still lit. Hua Xi was sitting on the threshold, holding a tortoise in her arms, her head nodding off.

Hearing the door open, she suddenly looked up, rubbed her eyes, jumped down from the threshold, and ran over.

"Brother, you're back! I left you some food!"

She tugged at Xu Xian's sleeve and led him towards the kitchen. After taking a couple of steps, she suddenly stopped, leaned closer, and sniffed him.

"Brother, you smell terrible. Did you get into a fight again?"

"I hit him."

"Did you win or lose?"

"We won."

Xu Xian sat down on a low stool by the stove, his bones creaking all over.

The old injury on my right shoulder was re-bandaged, the broken ribs were fixed with a splint by Pharmacist Sun, and the five bloody grooves on my left arm from the shop owner's scratches were treated with ointment, but they still burned with pain.

Hua Xi tiptoed down from the stove and took a small iron pot, which contained a bowl of vegetable and meat porridge.

The porridge wasn't mushy; each grain of rice was distinct. The greens were chopped into varying sizes, but at least they were all cooked. The cured meat was cut into small cubes and sprinkled evenly on the surface of the porridge.

There was also a dish of pickled vegetables on the side, which was cut crookedly but arranged neatly.

Xu Xian looked at the dish of pickled vegetables. Last time, when Hua Xi was cutting pickled vegetables, she almost cut her own finger while adding them to her dish. This time, however, there was no blood.

"Did you make this yourself?"

"Um!"

Hua Xi handed him the chopsticks, then sat on the small stool opposite him, hugging the tortoise, her short legs swinging back and forth.

"My brother taught me last time that the rice should be rinsed three times, the water should be two fingers above the rice and flour, the cured meat should be diced, not sliced, and the vegetables should be added last, otherwise they will become mushy. I've remembered all of that."

Xu scooped up a spoonful of porridge, blew on it, and put it in his mouth.

The porridge was a bit salty, and there was too much cured meat, but the rice was cooked just right, and the vegetables weren't overcooked and were still a bit crunchy.

He picked up another piece of pickled vegetables with his chopsticks, which was so salty that he frowned, but he chewed it twice and swallowed it, then scooped up a large spoonful of porridge.

"You've made great progress. Last time, half the pot of porridge was burnt, but this time it wasn't. Last time, the pickled vegetables were chopped as thick as a finger, but this time they were chopped quite finely. Next time, it would be even better if you used half the amount of cured meat."

Hua Xi smiled, her eyes crinkling. The turtle's head poked out of its shell, its beady eyes glancing at Xu Xian, then at the dish of pickled vegetables, before retreating back inside.

It doesn't like pickled vegetables. Hua Xi fed it one last time, and it ignored her all day.

After finishing the meal, Xu Xian put the bowls and chopsticks in the kitchen to soak. When he returned to the main room, Hua Xi was already lying on the table and starting to doze off again.

He picked her up and put her on the bed, covered her with a blanket, and was about to turn around and go to sleep on the wicker chair when his sleeve was pulled.

"Brother, you're not happy."

Xu turned around first.

Hua Xi lay on the bed, the blanket covering her chin, revealing only her two dark, grape-like eyes and her messy hair.

"I'm not unhappy."

"have."

Hua Xi took the turtle out of the blanket and placed it next to her pillow, then turned over and lay on her side, looking at Xu Xian.

"You had a frown when you came in, and you had a frown while eating. The porridge was clearly very salty, but you finished it all without saying a word. When you're happy, you laugh at me for cutting the cured meat into pieces that look like fingernails, but you didn't laugh at me today."

Xu Xian remained silent for a moment, then sat down on the edge of the bed and pinched Hua Xi's cheek. The little girl's body temperature was slightly higher than his, warm like a little heater, and he felt a little guilty.

"Hua Xi, the deal between you and your brother was that you wanted me to help you find something and you were supposed to protect me, but all this time you've been helping your brother."

"You guarded the carriage in the Green Wolf Forest, you kept watch for me at the pastry shop, and you captured the Gu Master in the secret passage of the dye house. I haven't done anything for you yet."

"Hehe... I'm not in a hurry..."

Hua Xi blinked. "Moreover, the Prince only said that I could find it by following my brother, but he didn't say that he needed my brother to help me find it. Sure enough, there is a seal in the capital."

Xu Xian was taken aback. "Kyoto?"

"Yes, it's very close, right in the city! I can sense it; it's in a large mansion, guarded by many people. But don't worry, Prince Xiang said that seal won't escape."

"That's great..."

Xu Xian smiled, then suddenly reached out and pulled Hua Xi out of the quilt and into his arms. He then lay down on the bed, let her rest her head on his chest, and pulled the quilt up to cover her.

"That's true, but I still have to make it up to you a little. It's not good to owe others favors. Just tell me, and I'll do whatever I can."

Hua Xi rested her head on his chest, tilted her head back to look at him upside down, and grinned.

"Brother, tell me a story. I love listening to stories... I think someone told me one when I was little, but that was a long, long, long time ago."

"Haha...that works, I have a lot of stories."

Xu Xian cleared his throat, then took Hua Xi's small hand and played with it.

"What do you want to hear? Martial arts, fantasy, romance, mystery... I probably wouldn't understand mystery, it's too brain-teasing."

What does "mind-bending" mean?

"It makes your head spin after listening to it."

"Then something that won't require too much brainpower!"

Hua Xi shook her head vigorously, "Whatever, brother!"

"Alright..."

Xu Xian thought for a moment, then a slight smile appeared on his lips. "Alright, I'll tell you one—'Smoke rises over Cybertron, Daiyu captures Wei Zhentian seven times!'"