Chapter 004: Overcoming Foes with Poison, A Single Hoof Shakes the Earth

Three sturdy warhorses snorted violently, their iron-shod hooves churning deep into the black crust, kicking up sprays of foul-smelling grit.

Astride his mount, Wang Heng wore a greasy sheepskin vest, the heavy flesh of his face twitching in the biting chill. He brandished his gleaming butchering knife high, its edge glinting with a frosty, bloody sheen under the pale dawn light, leveled straight at Gu Qingwei's throat.

"Gu Qingwei, you truly possess the tenacious life of a cockroach!"

Wang Heng hauled back on the reins. His stallion reared and stamped in place, blowing frothy lather from its bit. He sneered down at the youth, his lips splitting into a cruel grin:

"Manager Zhao gave strict instructions that these thirty acres of sludge would be your grave. If you had obediently rotted away in your shack, this master could have saved himself some breath. But not only did you refuse to croak, you actually managed to patch up this mangled beast! What, do you truly think this broken-horned sack of bones can plow gold out of the mud for you?"

Gu Qingwei stood before the ruined mud shack, his feet planted upon a furrow coated in dry, frost-like alkali salts.

He did not retreat. His hand holding the notched cleaver remained completely steady. The morning wind whipped through his thin hemp robe, but his face was as serene as an ancient mountain tarn, cold and unfathomable.

"This is the death-labor wasteland, not your servant quarters," Gu Qingwei said evenly, his voice carrying a metallic bite. "The death-labor contract states in black and white that I am exiled here to bear my own life and death, receiving not a single grain from the sect. Under sect law, those consigned to death-labor are regarded as entering secluded penance. Any servant who enters without official authorization is trespassing on restricted grounds. Cross this furrow, and you forfeit your life."

"Rules?"

Wang Heng threw back his head and laughed like a madman, his booming voice shaking loose thatch from the shack roof.

"The horsewhip in my hand is the only rule that matters! A trash servant with a crippled five-element root dares talk of rules with me? Today, not only will I slaughter this beast to trade its skin for cultivation pills, but I’ll also sever the tendons in your hands and feet so you can watch this old animal get carved up slice by slice!"

Without waiting, Wang Heng barked at the two henchmen flanking him:

"What are you standing there for? Get in there! Lash the ox with the iron chains! Break the legs of anyone who resists!"

The two henchmen sneered, dismounted, and uncoiled thick, oil-soaked iron chains from their saddles, closing in on the old ox with feral grins.

Whoosh—

The old ox expelled a jet of scalding white breath. Taking a heavy step forward, its massive slate-colored bulk shifted sideways like an ancient stone rampart, shielding Gu Qingwei’s left flank. Its broken horn tilted upward, cold battle intent gleaming in its dark eye.

Seeing Gu Qingwei refuse to show the slightest fear, an uncontrollable fury flared within Wang Heng’s chest.

"Courting death, you little bastard!"

Wang Heng roared, launching himself from his horse like a striking hawk!

His cultivation at the peak of the 1st Layer of Qi Refining erupted, his boots cracking the frozen soil as he hurtled forward. The butchering knife descended in a vicious arc, aimed squarely at Gu Qingwei's right elbow.

If that strike landed, the arm would be shorn off clean!

Yet at the very instant Wang Heng closed the distance to within five feet, Gu Qingwei moved.

He did not raise his cleaver to parry. Instead, he took half a step back with his left foot, while the toe of his right straw sandal lightly and masterfully flicked forward along the dry furrow!

Subtle dust upon the earth commands the thunder.

Through the microscopic vision of the Myriad Transformations Seal, Gu Qingwei had long noted the fine layer of "Crimson Niter Poison Flakes" that had crystallized on the surface of the scorched furrow. Dried and feather-light, these mineral flakes were saturated with a volatile, insidious fire poison that easily seeped through open pores.

Gu Qingwei’s kick was timed to perfection. As his sandal grazed the ridge, a seemingly harmless cloud of pale brown dust billowed into the morning breeze!

SWISH!

The draft swirled, hurling the fine powder directly toward Wang Heng.

Mid-air, Wang Heng was in the midst of his war cry, his mouth agape and his breath drawn deep. The cloud of toxic dust hit him squarely across the face!

The moment the powder contacted his skin, it slipped effortlessly through his expanded pores, rushing into his meridians.

Instantly, Wang Heng felt a sensation like ten thousand frozen needles stabbing beneath his knees. A sickening, paralyzing numbness surged upward through his thighs, violently choking his circulating qi and blood!

"What?! My legs—!"

Wang Heng gasped in terror. His momentum collapsed, and his legs grew as heavy and unresponsive as pig iron.

Worse still, the ground he landed on was the exact patch of "fire-fiend alkali mud" Gu Qingwei had subtly guided him toward. Though dry on the surface, beneath lay a layer of greasy, viscous sludge that had absorbed the night’s dampness.

Numb knees. Zero traction.

Squelch!

Wang Heng’s boots slipped violently. His balance shattered, his body tumbled backward, and the butchering knife flew from his grip with a sharp thwack, sinking deep into the clay wall of the hut!

"Master Wang!"

The two henchmen cried out in panic, rushing forward to grab him, but their feet slipped on the slick mud as well, tumbling into a frantic heap.

And in that split heartbeat, the old ox exploded into motion!

MOOO—!

A roar like rolling thunder tore across the plain!

The great ox demonstrated terrifying explosive force. Its mended left hind leg dug into the bedrock, its slate-blue muscles rippling like giant pythons. Pivoting its massive hips, its bowl-sized hoof—armored in thick, ancient horn—swept through the air with a deafening sonic boom, crashing like a siege ram!

BANG—!

A sickening crunch of shattered bone echoed out!

"PFFT—!"

A geyser of bloody froth erupted from Wang Heng's mouth. His burly frame was propelled through the air like a stone flung from a catapult, screeching thirty feet across the yard!

SPLASH!

Foul-smelling black sludge erupted high into the air!

Wang Heng crashed squarely into the bubbling, toxic mud pond where decades of alchemy slag had accumulated. The rancid slime instantly flooded his gaping mouth, and the agony of crushed ribs sent him into violent convulsions.

"Save... save me..."

Wang Heng flailed helplessly in the toxic mire, his face warped with suffocating terror and unbridled hatred.

The two henchmen turned pale as ghosts. Scrambling desperately through the muck, they dragged the half-dead Wang Heng from the pond.

"A monster... that ox is an ancient man-eater!"

Supporting their gurgling, blood-vomiting leader, the two servants fled for their lives, abandoning their weapons and gear in the mist as they vanished into the distance.

Silence reclaimed the barren plain.

The old ox slowly retracted its massive hoof, warm vapor snorting from its nostrils. The cartilage of its throat ground with a dry, mocking rumble:

"In my youth, I traversed ten thousand peaks and saw scum a hundred times fiercer than that worm. The higher a clown leaps, the harder he hits the dirt."

Gu Qingwei knelt down, gently patting the ox's trembling hind tendon, his eyes steady:

"A splendid kick. But with the hounds beaten, the master holding their leashes will not let this rest."

He looked toward the misty horizon, feeling the earth hum beneath his feet.

“Dismiss not the subtle dust in the mire;
The fiend rises on the wind to halt the frenzied guest.
When golden halberds shatter at the bottom of the deep mire,
One learns at last that a crippled ox holds the power to shatter mountains.”

Gu Qingwei turned, his gaze falling upon the saddle of a horse the panicked servants had left behind.

There, caught on a sharp thorn of the rotting stump, was a coarse hemp sack that had been torn open, spilling a scatter of dark brown granules onto the earth. A pungent, heavy aroma wafted through the chill.

Gu Qingwei walked over and crouched down, rolling a few of the hard brown granules between his thumb and forefinger.

The granules were firm and slightly warm, crumbling into a greasy, nutrient-rich powder under pressure.

Within his mind, the Myriad Transformations Seal resonated, casting a microscopic view:

Deep within these coarse granules lay unrefined botanical essences and the preserved marrow of high-grade spiritual beasts!

"This is the raw fertilizer residue strictly banned from smuggling out of the Inner Sect medicine gardens..."

Gu Qingwei clenched his fist around the powder, a cold spark flashing in his eyes.

Wang Heng was merely an outer servant supervisor; he could never possess such contraband on his own. Manager Zhao was not only embezzling spirit rice—he was running an illicit ring moving high-grade spiritual fertilizer.

This half-sack of abandoned fertilizer was not merely the perfect nutrient broth to tame the sacred microbes in the dead soil.

It was an ironclad, lethal dagger waiting to be driven straight into Manager Zhao’s throat!

Author's Note: Thank you for reading! If you're enjoying Gu Qingwei and the old Kui-ox's journey to turn toxic wasteland into an immortal harvest, please consider hitting that Follow button and leaving a Rating/Review. Every favorite and rating helps this humble barren ridge grow more than you know!