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[JunEr] «Candle Snuffed Out, Chess Game About» 05 - “I will not be beaten” by the Big Villain


Ze Que’s hand passing the pawn ticket over hovered in the air, but Zhongli Zixi had no intention of extending his hand to take it. So he spoke again: “What are you looking for? I know this town fairly well, I can take you there.”

“It doesn’t concern you.” Although he had doubts, Zhongli Zixi didn’t bother to delay with him, so he took his leave, turned around, and left.

Ze Que sensed that he had no intention of saying much to him, and even felt somewhat rejected, so he tactfully stopped walking. He stared blankly for a moment, then put that pawn ticket into his breast pocket.


Ze Que knew a bit about this small town, but he hadn’t been here for more than a month or so. He’d only woken after a bout of serious illness to hear that his parents were away on a trip, and that because of his illness he had been placed in the care of some distant relatives living in this remote, small town in Nanling.

The relative was some kind of older cousin of the second maternal uncle of the paternal aunt of the niece of the wife of the younger brother of his father, or something like that. He’d asked about it several times, but it really was too convoluted, so he couldn’t remember.

He had lived here for a while, and he would usually help the elders farm, run errands, and do some heavy labour, but he always felt out of place. The whole family were all simple farmers and traders, why was he the only martial artist?

Except for this sword, everything else felt unfamiliar. Only when he saw the muddy stranger today did he feel an inexplicable thread of familiarity, so he wanted to get close to him.

Unfortunately, the other party didn’t seem to appreciate his kindness at all, so he supposed it was merely his wishful thinking.


Zhongli Zixi asked for directions and followed the trail to the nearby pharmacy. The village was not big, but it was a little spread out and scattered, and the paths criss crossed each other, so it took him turning for a long time before he found it.

The doctor helped him pack the ingredients, and Zhongli Zixi landed in another dilemma. There was no equipment at home to boil the medicine with, but he really couldn’t carry those types of heavy clay pots back with him. He could save himself the trouble if he let the physician help him decoct the herbs, but the soupy decoction would be even harder for him to hold…..

Zhongli Zixi was holding the medicine bag as he sat in a daze on a bench on the side of the shop, when a group of middle aged men stepped into the entrance hall. The people were boorish, pushing and shoving their way into the door, and doctor Chen immediately let out an anxious sigh.

Among them, a man wearing a straw coat and hat shouted in a rage: “Surnamed Chen, could it be that you fucking swindled your grandfathers? Your lousy medicine was completely ineffective, do you still want a beating!”

“Gentlemen, gentlemen….. It’s not that we treated it lightly, it’s that we really can’t treat master Fang Si’s injury ah…..” Doctor Chen came out from behind the counter, bowing humbly, “We can only take care of common illnesses, that is not an illness…..”

The large man spoke again: “If it’s not an illness, then what is it? Poison? Are you actually saying that?”

“It shouldn’t….. be poison either….. I don’t recognise it either, I really have never seen it before…..” Doctor Chen spoke in fear.

“No one wants to listen to you babbling so much nonsense! If you can’t cure it, then your whole family will be buried with you!” The man with the straw coat and hat grabbed doctor Chen by the collar and was about to slam him against the counter when a figure approached, fast as lightning, and lightly pushed the large man on the chest, sending the whole person flying out.

When Zhongli Zixi saw the person who arrived clearly, he though to himself: How come it’s you again?

Ze Que put doctor Chen behind him to protect him, asking: “Uncle Chen, are you alright?”

Doctro Chen hurriedly stopped him: “Aiya, aiya….. third child, you can go back….. Don’t fight them, hurry and make up for your mistake…..”

The large man was helped up by the others, and when they clearly saw who he was, they also shouted: “It’s you again, boy!”

Someone muttered and shrank back: “Fuck why is it him again….. I don’t want to get beaten by him again.”

Someone beside him immediately struck him with a fist: “What are you afraid of! Don’t forget he’s still got that evil poison in his body, don’t think about leaving!”

The farmers taking care of Ze Que were also close to the doctor of the pharmacy. He often came to the shop to lend a hand, and he had taught these hooligans a lesson several times when they came to cause trouble in the shop. Since they were unable to beat him, they used the shady and ruthless method of coating concealed weapons in poison. Ze Que had not been careful and fell for their trap, and had so far been unable to solve it.

Since then, every time Ze Que used his qi, he would feel a sharp pain in his heart like it was being ripped apart, but he also couldn’t care about it for too long, since he saw Zhongli Zixi quietly spectating by the side of the shop and felt a bit of a headache, having no choice but to say: “Uncle Chen, you leave first. Help me bring this customer in, I don’t want to implicate the innocent.”

Doctor Chen had just popped his head out when the large man wearing a straw coat and hat immediately shouted: “Surnamed Chen, you con-man! Don’t even think about leaving! Watch this grandfather beat you to death!”

With that shout, doctor Chen dared not concern himself with the customer, covering his head with his hands and slipping into the counter through its back door.

Ze Que sighed, patiently negotiating: “Then, we’ll go out to fight.”

“That’s not up to you! In any case, they can’t cure people, so there’s nothing to keep in this shitty pharmacy!” He kicked over the tables and chairs in the hall, and flung the porcelain down to smash it. The cracked imitation Ge pottery flew out everywhere, Zhongli Zixi moved his head to the side as best as he could, but a fragment still slashed him across near the tip of ear, drawing a long, bright red gash on his cheek.

Zhongli Zixi was completely unaware of this stab of pain, thinking: That won’t do, if this pharmacy is destroyed, how am I going to get Ye Jun’s medicine next time?

Ze Que had already exchanged a few moves with the five or six men, but with his inner strength having been limited, he was really restricted in every aspect, so he could only try to not use his qi as much as possible and rely solely on his external force¹ to deal with them. He struggled to brace himself, using all of his strength to lure the hoodlums out of the store, and thought to himself that that man should be able to run inside through the door, but when he relaxed a little, he was knocked down to the ground and ruthlessly trampled into the mud.

He struggled, wanting to get up, and unconsciously used his inner strength, suddenly feeling the pain of ten thousand swords piercing through his heart, his mouth overflowed with blood, and even his sight began to blur. When the men saw he had finally been subdued, their punching and kicking became even more intense as they took revenge for their past hatred.

Ze Que was just thinking about whether he should release his inner breath and risk his life to fight, but then saw that young man whose body was half-covered in mud leaning on his crutches, wobbling as he came out of the front entrance of the pharmacy. Although his walking was not steady, his expression was extremely calm and he had a solemn, imposing manner, so the words about hurrying up and escaping that Ze Que wanted to say suddently wouldn’t come out.


Zhongli Zixi glanced at Ze Que and gave a slight snort of utter contempt.

Ze Que’s cultivation had also been at its peak in Zhongli Court, so now him being humiliated like this by those vulgar men in this remote place was simply laughable.

The troublemakers had long since regarded him as a filthy eyesore, simply not paying attention to him, but now turned their glaring eyes towards him: “Beggar, what the hell are you laughing at?”

Zhongli Zixi spoke coolly: “I laugh at the fact your life will end soon, but you still have the time to humiliate others.”

The large man wearing the straw coat and hat flew into a rage and shouted: “You fucking crow’s beak², you dare seek your grandfather’s misfortune——”

Zhongli Zixi peacefully said: “You feel a sharp pain in your right rib every night at around midnight, and there is a blue spot three inches below your abdomen. This pain gets more acute day by day, and the spot also becomes darker and darker.”

Hearing this, the large man’s complexion suddenly changed, and he spoke in horror: “You, how did you know!”

“I also know that the line of blood on your left ring finger follows along the vein into your heart, and within seven days, you will die violently.” Zhongli Zixi looked at him calmly, as if he was looking at a lifeless corpse.

“How do you know so much?!” The large man was sweating like a pig, those words had already come true for several of his brothers, he pounced at Zhongli Zixi and lifted him up by the neck, shouting: “Since you know, can you cure it? If anything happens to this father, the first thing I’ll do is take your dog life——”

Zhongli Zixi’s throat was gripped so tightly by the man that he couldn’t breathe, but he still didn’t have the slightest hint of panic, serenely stretching out his finger and softly pressing on the exact place where that blue spot was on the man through his clothes. The large man let out a miserable shriek as if he had been struck by lightning and fell to the ground on his knees, convulsing.

“Is this how you ask for help?” When the other side let go, Zhongli Zixi couldn’t stand and suddenly fell to the ground, so he supported himself on the wall and shook as he stood up, frowning and coldly saying, “I’ll save you, but there are conditions, naturally. If you irritate me again, then you can just obediently wait to die.”


That really was not an illness, nor was it poison, but rather a gu.

He naturally knew more about this than anyone.

These kinds of poisonous gus were personally tried on him one by one during those years at Wangsheng Palace.


The Wangsheng Palace had many methods of torturing people, they were malicious and sinister, but also extremely effective.

After planning the destruction of Wangsheng Palace, the Second Young Master filtered and refined a few methods involving poison gu. He gathered his former subordinates and established the Wushui terrace in the Nanling mountains, which specialised in doing the secret and shameful torture and assassination work on his behalf.

These men perhaps inadvertently offended Wushui terrace and escaped, arriving to this remote village but being unable to move forward because they were all poisoned, and so became stranded here. They grabbed countless doctors and physicians to treat them, but there was no improvement, some of them died and some were injured, until this half-crippled, lame man arrived.


Zhongli Zixi agreed to save them for no reason other than money.

Ze Que saw him being carried to Fang Si’s house, and fearing something would happen to him, restlessly leaned against the foot of the wall and waited. After half a sichen of crouching, a servant girl popped her head out and looked about all over the place, trotting over in a flash when she saw him; “Hey, excuse me, are you Young Master Ze Que?”

Ze Que nodded: “That’s me.”

“My Master asks that you come in.” The servant girl smiled and bowed. Ze Que put a hand over his chest and stood up with difficulty, and when the servant girl saw that he was injured, she hurriedly lent her arm to support him in through the door.

It was only after Ze Que walked into the garden and saw an unharmed Zhongli Zixi waiting for him in the courtyard that he put his mind at ease.

Zhongli Zixi looked at him and immediately withdrew his gaze: “You were still actually outside.”

“I was afraid something would happen to you.” Ze Que said.

After speaking, he smiled embarrassedly. He also understood he didn’t have the strength to keep anyone safe, but he still couldn’t stop worrying.

Ze Que asked again: “Are you really going to save those men’”

Zhongli Zixi calmly said: “I’m short on money.”

“I can help you think of a way.” Ze Que spoke in a low voice, “Why should you do business with those scoundrels? They’re under control today, so they will just be nice to you for a while, but after they’re cured, they will come back to trouble you…..”

Zhongli Zixi spoke indifferently: “Let’s speak again if we can live to that day.”

Ze Que lowered his head thoughtfully and stroked the hilt of his sword, thinking to himself that if he hadn’t been so careless, he could have easily said something like “I can protect you” at this point…..

Zhongli Zixi suddenly turned his head and said: “I will also cure your poison, I had you come in for this. It’s merely a variation of gu poison, so it’s much simpler than theirs and you’ll get better quickly.”

Ze Que was startled, he lifted his head and stared at him, and his heart felt a burst of joy for no reason: “Tha-thank you….. In the future, I will——”

“Don’t misunderstand, I’m not helping you.” Zhongli Zixi saw his response and got an increasing headache, “It’s just that there’s something I have to ask of you. My hand and foot are unsuitable, so I’m afraid I won’t be make it back today, but——but there’s someone still waiting to eat at home.”

Ze Que nodded: “I will sincerely help you take care of your family, you can rest assured.”

Zhongli Zixi actually didn’t feel the usual awkwardness by putting the title of “family” on Ye Jun.


At that time, when Ze Que died from his punishment, it was Ye Jun himself who was supervising the torture. Now Ye Jun lay dying deep in the mountain forest, recovering from his wounds, if Ze Que went, it would certainly be like an sky-shattering thunderclap.

Zhongli Zixi was deeply worried as he thought: I hope Ye Jun isn’t directly frightened to death by thinking he’s a vengeful ghost out for his life.