At the hour of Shen, in the dense forest of Black Tiger Mountain, cliffs surrounded the forest on all sides. Ji Liang waved a gold-embroidered green sunflower fan, walking at the very back of the mountain expedition party.
Ji Liang had come to the Black Tiger Mountain hills to hunt wolves. His Dog Pit had been quite deserted recently. The gambling-addicted, vicious-tempered patrons had grown tired of watching dog fights and needed something fresh and exciting to stimulate them before they would be willing to throw silver coins his way.
Since dogs couldn’t satisfy these bastards, hmph, then wouldn’t catching a few even more ferocious and cold-blooded wild wolves do the trick?
Beside Ji Liang was a pockmarked man—the manager of the Dog Pit, named Huang Bingshui. Those who knew him habitually called him Huang Mazi.
Huang Mazi leaned over and said to Ji Liang, “Young Master, why does that boy look so confused and dazed? Is he sick?”
The boy Huang Mazi mentioned was walking at the very front of the group—a youth of short stature. The youth wore tattered clothes and had disheveled hair hanging loose. His eyes were filled with dullness and blankness.
His name was Xia Jiuying, and he was the lowliest servant under Ji Liang.
Ji Liang lightly tapped his fan, staring at the frail and weak Xia Jiuying at the front who seemed like he would topple over from a gust of wind. He gave a cold laugh, “It’s nothing. If he fell this easily, would he still be Xia Jiuying?”
“But it’s getting late, and from the looks of it, we’ll have difficulty catching anything,” Huang Mazi said worriedly.
“We’ve found something.” A house servant came jogging over and said to Ji Liang, “Young Master, we’ve discovered a wolf den ahead. It seems there are wolf cubs inside.”
“Excellent, let’s go take a look.” Ji Liang followed the servant to the edge of the cliff, where they could clearly hear the “woof, woof, woof” calls of wolf cubs coming from the grass. Ji Liang excitedly wanted to capture the young wolves.
Suddenly, a large wolf with pure white fur leaped out from the dense forest.
The white wolf, protecting its cubs, swiped a claw at Ji Liang. Ji Liang couldn’t dodge in time. He raised his hand to shield his face, but his arm was clawed open with a large bloody gash. Blood instantly soaked through his sleeve. Ji Liang screamed in terror, “Someone, someone come!”
The white wolf was quite enraged by Ji Liang’s covetous behavior toward its cubs. It arched its body and growled several times, preparing to tear into Ji Liang again. But very quickly, the white wolf’s attention was drawn away by another person.
The youth, with a sickly complexion, stood in front of Ji Liang. Ji Liang pointed at the white wolf and shouted, “I don’t want the wolf anymore. Xia Jiuying, you kill this white wolf for me!”
The youth’s wooden gaze turned toward the white wolf. In those blank pupils, a trace of ferocity gradually rose, along with a coldness that penetrated deep into the bone marrow. The white wolf froze for a moment. In this opening, Ji Liang and Huang Mazi had already retreated far away with the group. They feared this terrifying white wolf.
This white wolf was quite a bit larger than ordinary wild wolves. When it pounced, it was easily half the height of a grown man, not to mention its sharp claws and fangs that could bite through anything.
The white wolf still wanted to find Ji Liang. It roared at the fleeing Ji Liang. Ji Liang held his arm, and with Huang Mazi’s support, fled from the forest in a flash. The white wolf shifted its body, and Xia Jiuying also shifted, precisely blocking the white wolf’s path to pursue Ji Liang.
The white wolf bared its fangs and deeply arched its body. But Xia Jiuying actually made the same movement—both hands digging into the earth, body arched, buttocks raised, with both eyeballs close to the ground staring at the white wolf.
The white wolf froze again. It couldn’t understand why this human youth was imitating its movements. Because the white wolf didn’t know that when Xia Jiuying was nine years old, he had strangled a lone wolf to death with his bare hands. To this day, when he closed his eyes, he could still recall that look of incredible fear in the lone wolf’s eyes as death approached.
Xia Jiuying was fourteen years old this year. In five years, he had already killed no fewer than fifteen wild wolves. He was intimately familiar with every movement of wild wolves, and he had even applied the wolves’ hunting movements to himself.
The white wolf growled low. Its perfect form lunged toward Xia Jiuying, wolf claws swinging, intending to tear his face apart.
Xia Jiuying remained arched. When the white wolf pounced within three inches, he suddenly moved. His body slid along the ground like a loach under the white wolf’s belly, then he twisted his body and kicked inward, appearing like a ghost on the white wolf’s left side. His clenched fist struck heavily at the white wolf’s ribs.
The white wolf was greatly alarmed. The beast’s innate rapid reaction caused it to curl into itself, becoming a white ball, narrowly avoiding Xia Jiuying’s punch. Xia Jiuying’s face remained expressionless, as if he had anticipated this punch wouldn’t succeed. He flew out with a kick toward the wolf’s head. The white wolf wasn’t willing to show weakness and swung its head to bite toward Xia Jiuying’s ankle.
Xia Jiuying’s ankle was bitten with deep wounds, and the white wolf’s head also suffered a kick. Man and wolf leaped apart, staring at each other in confrontation, both panting heavily.
At this moment, two more people crept into the forest—members of the wolf-hunting party. Ji Liang had sent them to watch the life-and-death battle between Xia Jiuying and the white wolf.
The white wolf growled low again. Xia Jiuying’s face remained expressionless.
Man and wolf collided together once more. Xia Jiuying’s ankle was injured, slowing his movements. The white wolf absolutely would not give him the slightest moment to catch his breath.
“Crack!” The white wolf successfully bit down on Xia Jiuying’s left leg. Xia Jiuying fell to the ground in pain. His lower back was right by the white wolf’s mouth. How could the white wolf miss such a good opportunity? It bit down viciously on Xia Jiuying’s lower back. Intense pain shot through Xia Jiuying’s eyes, but hidden within was still a trace of killing intent. At the instant the white wolf bit into Xia Jiuying’s lower back, Xia Jiuying burst forth with a strange force, twisted half his body, pressed the white wolf beneath him, and locked his elbow around the white wolf’s throat in a death grip.
His lower back torn open with dripping blood, Xia Jiuying could barely feel it anymore. Endless killing intent and layers of dense cold ice rolled through his eyes. The cold ice wrapped around the killing intent—it was a resolute determination without turning back.
The white wolf gradually couldn’t breathe. It released its teeth. A layer of mist spread through the wolf’s eyes. The white wolf struggled to turn its head backward, where there was a patch of vibrant grass. The white wolf let out a difficult, mournful cry, as if it had something to say.
Xia Jiuying looked where the white wolf was looking.
At the same moment, his elbow pressed down fiercely.
Black Tiger Mountain entering the night could only make one feel a single word: cold. So cold—the wind was cold, the forest was cold, the flowing blood was cold, and that slowly withering gaze was even colder.
Xia Jiuying’s cold gaze receded, returning once again to his wooden, vacant expression.
He walked from beside the cliff into the forest. Blood from his ankle, left leg, and lower back dripped and splattered, staining the forest path, as if blooming with a road of bewitchingly brilliant red flowers.
“Where’s the white wolf?” When Ji Liang saw the blood-covered Xia Jiuying, he asked this first.
“It died. Clutching… the wolf cub, it jumped off the cliff.” Xia Jiuying spoke. This was the first sentence he had uttered since entering the Black Tiger Mountain hills, and also the last.
When Xia Jiuying said the wolf was dead, no one doubted it, especially since he had nearly become a blood-soaked person.
Ji Liang clenched his fists tightly and said hatefully, “Damn it, I couldn’t kill that white wolf with my own hands.”
Past the middle of the hour of You, the South Market of Mingling County was bustling and lively as usual. Stalls for acrobatics, magic tricks, street performers, and medicine sellers lined up one after another. Dance halls, teahouses, and gambling dens were brilliantly lit.
Taking a left turn down an alley in the South Market, there were three large buildings. In front stood a bright red, eye-catching sign—Shanhai Tower.
Shanhai Tower appeared to be a teahouse on the surface, but was actually a Dog Pit. Dog Pits had existed for over a thousand years, but after Shi Dezong ascended the throne, he ordered them abolished. Shi Dezong believed Dog Pits incited dogs to fight bloodily and even included human-dog combat, which was too cruel and bloody, so he ordered their abolition.
But this thousand-year tradition had long taken deep root in the hearts of common people. Or perhaps life was too bland and tasteless—these people craved stimulating projects that made their blood surge. Many years after Shi Dezong abolished Dog Pits, they merely changed their name and added a layer of gauze, continuing to exist with fervent popularity.
Li Si and Wu Wen, along with County Magistrate Situ Bo, ordered tea at the Shanhai Tower counter. After a while, a teahouse servant came over and respectfully guided the three men toward the rear courtyard of Shanhai Tower. After passing through the back hall courtyard, they arrived in front of a row of flat buildings. At the entrance, they could hear cheerful shouting.
Lifting the thick cloth curtain of the flat building, there were several elderly gentlemen with brushes serving as betting clerks. So-called betting clerks meant that if you fancied which dog would win, you would place silver betting on that dog, and the elderly betting clerk would record your wager. On the counter were sheets introducing the fighting dogs, convenient for patrons to place bets.
“Old Hu, I’m betting on Boss Hong’s ‘Black Silk Panther.’ I heard this black dog has shown off its power in neighboring counties. Other dogs, upon seeing it, wish they could find a hole to crawl into,” said a patron who was placing a bet.
“Black Silk Panther is extraordinarily fierce. It excited me so much that last night I couldn’t even perform with my woman,” another patron said with a lecherous laugh.
“Bah, look at your pathetic prospects.” The patrons walked inside with arms around each other’s shoulders.
Li Si’s eyes scanned the dog-fighting sheets. Suddenly he said, “Eh, this last one on the sheet is a child.”
“Dog sheet information—Xia Jiuying, fourteen years old.”
“Only fourteen years old. What are they trying to do? Making a child fight vicious dogs—this is too shameless,” Wu Wen said angrily.
Li Si and Wu Wen walked into the interior of the Dog Pit. Situ Bo followed them in as well.
Inside the Dog Pit were rows of circular bench seats arranged in rings, equipped with small tables for placing tea and melon seeds.
The Dog Pit was very spacious and could seat two hundred people. In the center was the so-called pit opening.
Dog fighting took place inside the pit, with patrons looking down to observe the entire dog-fighting process. At this moment, there were two fighting dogs in the pit—both were large-bodied northern wolf dogs, fierce and aggressive. The two large dogs glared at each other, their eyes thick with bloody fighting spirit.
Two dog owners held the fighting dogs. When the golden gong at the pit opening rang, the dog owners would release the fighting dogs, and the combat would officially begin.
When the time came, a worker struck the golden gong. The dog owners released the fighting dogs and retreated into the isolation room behind. The two fighting dogs collided heavily in the pit like charging mad bulls, bloody mouths and white teeth tearing at each other. The weaker fighting dog was viciously bitten on the throat by its opponent, then with a “crack,” its neck was bitten through.
Deafening cheers erupted in the Dog Pit, along with curses. Those cursing had undoubtedly bet on the wrong dog.
Very quickly, the second dog fight was about to begin.
At this time, in a small partitioned room within the pit, the youth Xia Jiuying lay on a cold stone bed. In his mind, he replayed scene after scene of his life-and-death battle with the white wolf at Black Tiger Mountain during the day.
The white wolf’s final unwilling, reluctant gaze caused Xia Jiuying’s ice-frozen heart to beat violently several times. But only those few times—very quickly it was once again frozen by endless cold.
“Xia Jiuying, get ready. It’ll be your turn to go on soon.” Outside the small room, someone laughed twice with a “heh heh.” By the voice, it was Huang Mazi.
Xia Jiuying paid no attention. His dull eyes stared at some dark, hollow place, drifting, sinking.