Chapter 15: Dead with Eyes Wide Open

Chapter 15: Dead with Eyes Wide Open

The campfire crackled back to life inside the cave.

Beside it, a brawny man twisted off a tiger’s leg with brute force. A youth wielding a cleaver hacked the meat into chunks, skewered them on a branch, wrapped the pieces in fat, and set them over the flames.

Nearby, a bearded young man with a blade embedded in his head sat before a stone, hunched over a confession scroll.

Jiang Biehe had no desire to write this scroll, but he had no choice. Only by doing so could he reveal what he knew.

He would ensure Li Chaofeng, the man who had killed him, would perish in his own arrogant complacency.

Jiang Biehe was confident of this.

Now, Li Chaofeng finally knew the brawny man’s name—Hu Tiehua, just as he’d suspected.

“Swallow and Butterfly Twin Wings, Fragrant Blossoms Fill the Mortal Realm.”

The swallow was Ji Bingyan, the butterfly Hu Tiehua.

Hu Tiehua was barely twenty-four or twenty-five now.

In a way, the story of Chu Liuxiang hadn’t even begun yet.

Li Chaofeng pulled a small white sprayer from his bundle and, under Hu Tiehua’s surprised gaze, misted homemade marinade over the roasting tiger meat.

As the aroma intensified, the skewered meat was finally ready.

“Gulp!”

The scent alone convinced Hu Tiehua that Li Chaofeng’s title of “Little Gourmet God” was well-earned. When he took a bite, the texture and flavor were incomparable to any meat he’d eaten before.

Wild carnivore meat was usually tough and gamey, but Li Chaofeng’s superhuman perception from the Five Insect Blade Art, combined with his culinary skill and homemade seasonings, had transformed it into something exquisite.

“With this skill, Lord Jin Sizhe wouldn’t be losing money even if he gifted you ten taverns instead of one!” Hu Tiehua gushed, mouth greasy as he chewed.

Li Chaofeng simply smiled, skewered more meat for Hu Tiehua, then turned to processing the tiger carcass.

In this world, no one cared about animal conservation. Tigers were valuable—pelts, bones, claws, gallbladders, blood, and penises were all marketable.

After finding the Tiger’s Lair and killing the beast, Li Chaofeng had lured Jiang Biehe into ambushing him.

If he’d processed the tiger first, he wouldn’t have had time to sleep, and Jiang Biehe wouldn’t have believed Li Chaofeng was in a deep slumber.

Now with time to spare, he could profit from the carcass.

As Li Chaofeng wielded his boning knife like a master butcher, Hu Tiehua finally finished his meal, patting his belly with regret.

“If only there were a jar of wine now, life would be perfect.”

Li Chaofeng seemed to recall something, then retrieved a jar of Hua Diao from his bundle.

Hu Tiehua’s eyes lit up. “You carry wine while wandering the martial world?!”

“This is cooking wine,” Li Chaofeng explained. “The bundle’s already heavy with tiger bones and pelt. Might as well free up space by giving it to you.”

Unlike Hu Tiehua, who carried silver notes and dined freely, Li Chaofeng, lacking lightness skills, had to prepare provisions for wilderness survival. His bundle held spare clothes, dried meat, fruits, salt, oil, and spices—not stylish, but practical.

Hu Tiehua didn’t care why Li Chaofeng carried wine. Cooking wine was still wine. Before Li Chaofeng finished speaking, he’d already tilted the jar to his lips.

After downing the Hua Diao, he sighed in satisfaction. “Now this is living!”

As Li Chaofeng finished curing the tiger pelt, Hu Tiehua glanced at Jiang Biehe, still scribbling furiously, and snapped,

“A confession scroll—do you plan to write it till the end of time?”

A scroll needed only a hundred words, yet Jiang Biehe had written thousands. Hu Tiehua knew this was stalling.

Li Chaofeng ignored him, but Hu Tiehua had no patience left.

Hearing Hu Tiehua’s grumble, Jiang Biehe continued writing calmly. “Doesn’t Hu Daixia want to see the secrets of the Bridal Robe Divine Skill?”

“Haha! A ‘Master of Selling Favors’ suddenly growing a conscience?”

Hu Tiehua chuckled. Jiang Biehe had previously offered the Bridal Robe Divine Skill to buy his aid, then abruptly turned docile. Though curious about the change, Hu Tiehua decided not to pry—Li Chaofeng seemed unbothered, and he was only meddling out of convenience.

Jiang Biehe smirked inwardly but replied grandly, “A dying man’s words are kind. What good is taking this skill to the grave? And since Li Shaoxia allows it, why rush, Hu Daixia?”

Li Chaofeng dismissed Jiang Biehe’s schemes. The man was a doomed autumn grasshopper, powerless to act.

Jiang Biehe could only scheme through his writing, his body too weakened to move. Li Chaofeng’s blade, though busy carving meat, never lost focus on him. At the slightest movement, the Five Insect Blade Art would return to his hand.

As for the blade staying lodged in Jiang Biehe’s head—Li Chaofeng, who’d refined it for five years, mused that if it truly changed masters, it would be a fascinating discovery, perhaps altering his combat style.

Would Jiang Biehe become invincible with the Five Insect Blade Art?

Li Chaofeng doubted it. Its strength lay in surprise, not direct confrontation. Killing the Three Tigers of Heavenly Gate Sect had only lengthened the blade half an inch; it was still an eight-inch dagger. Worse, it lacked healing properties—Jiang Biehe would die before wielding it in battle.

As Jiang Biehe finished his final stroke, his eyes gleamed with triumph.

Once Hu Tiehua read the Bridal Robe Divine Skill’s secrets, Li Chaofeng’s hidden truth would unravel.

Imagining Li Chaofeng’s downfall, Jiang Biehe’s smirk deepened.

Li Chaofeng noticed the smugness but merely smiled. With a flick of his right hand, the Soulbound Dagger flew from Jiang Biehe’s forehead back to his palm.

“How could you—”

Jiang Biehe’s eyes widened in disbelief, his heart twisting with rage.

He’d poured effort into encoding messages in the Bridal Robe Divine Skill manual, hoping to secretly inform Hu Tiehua of the blade’s supernatural traits.

Yet Li Chaofeng had just demonstrated its power openly. All his scheming…

Had been for nothing but writing a scroll and a manual!

“Ugh!”

Jiang Biehe spat blood, collapsed, and lay still. Pus oozed from the twin wounds in his head, his eyes wide in eternal fury.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end