Young hero, stay put and don't be reckless.

Chapter 7 Explosion

Jiang Xun put the iron plate away and patted his stomach.

I'm hungry.

He touched his pockets—he still had a string of coins left, which he had brought from Jiangzhou and had never been willing to spend.

Let's find a place to eat a bowl of noodles.

He walked along the street and found a noodle stall that hadn't closed yet.

"Boss, a bowl of plain noodles, please."

"Okay!"

The owner was an old man in his fifties, but he was quick and efficient, and soon served a steaming bowl of noodles.

Jiang Xun lowered his head and ate his noodles, making a mess of them.

The boss was clearing away the dishes and glanced at him.

"Young man, are you alone?"

"Um."

"Judging from your accent, you're not a local?"

"Jiangzhou's".

The boss nodded and lowered his voice, saying:

"After you finish breakfast, find a place to rest. Don't wander around outside at night."

Jiang Xun looked up.

"What's wrong?"

The boss looked around and moved closer.

"Things haven't been peaceful in the city lately."

"A fight at the docks?" Jiang Xun asked dismissively. "I just witnessed it."

"It wasn't a fight," the boss shook his head, lowering his voice even further, "it was a lost child."

Jiang Xun stopped using his chopsticks.

"A lost child?"

"Hmm." The boss sighed. "In the past two weeks, seven or eight boys have gone missing, all around ten years old. Some were from out of town, some were local. They've disappeared without a trace, neither alive nor dead."

Jiang Xun's expression changed.

He thought of Ah Li and the others.

"Is the government not going to do anything?"

"Control?" The boss smiled wryly. "We did control it, but what's the use? Things still get thrown away."

Jiang Xun remained silent for a while before finishing the last few bites of noodles.

"Thanks for the reminder, boss."

He put down two coins and stood up.

"I'm leaving."

"Hey, take care, be careful—"

Jiang Xun walked into the night.

He walked and thought.

Losing a child.

A boy around ten years old.

Is he at that age, exactly the right age for him?

Jiang Xun shivered and quickened his pace.

He found the dilapidated temple, just as Ah Jiu had told him.

It was even more dilapidated than the one in Jiangzhou; the roof leaked like a sieve, but at least it kept out the wind.

Jiang Xun lay on the haystack, tossing and turning, unable to sleep, the moonlight shining through the roof onto his chest.

Jiang Xun's mind was in turmoil—how were Ali and the others? What should he do next? Who was responsible for the missing children in the city?

As I was thinking, my body suddenly started to feel hot.

It wasn't ordinary heat; it was the kind of heat that seeped from the very marrow of his bones. It was as if someone had lit a fire inside him, making him burn intensely.

Jiang Xun suddenly sat up.

Come again?

It was fine during the day, so why did it change at night?

The heat surged stronger and stronger, rising from his lower abdomen to his chest and then to his limbs. He could feel the heat rushing through his veins, making him tremble all over.

pain.

It hurts even more than last time.

Jiang Xun curled up in pain, clenching his teeth to keep from crying out.

But the heat became increasingly intense, causing him so much pain that his vision blurred and he fainted.

Jiang Xun didn't know how long he had been unconscious.

When I woke up, it was already broad daylight.

He lay in the haystack, his whole body aching as if he had been beaten from head to toe with a stick.

Strangely, the surging heat in my body disappeared, replaced by an indescribable weakness—my hands and feet felt weak, and I even had difficulty lifting them.

"Oh shit……"

He slowly sat up, supporting himself on the ground, and it took him several breaths to steady himself.

He touched his body and found that the iron plate Ah Jiu had given him was still there, hard and pressing against his chest.

Jiang Xun took it out and looked at it in the sunlight.

I still can't figure it out.

Forget it, let's just focus on staying alive.

He carefully tucked the iron plate into his pocket, leaned against the wall to stand up, and limped out.

Jiang sought out three doctors.

The first one was an old man with a white beard. He took the pulse, and his brows furrowed so deeply they could trap a fly.

"Your pulse... is strange."

"What's strange?"

"I can't explain it." The old man shook his head. "I'll prescribe you some calming medicine. Take it for two days and see how it goes."

Jiang Xun got the medicine and paid for it.

The second one was a middle-aged doctor who waved his hand after Jiang Xun finished describing the symptoms.

"I've never seen this disease before; you should seek help from someone else."

The third doctor was a young man who was quite enthusiastic. After taking the patient's pulse for a while, he finally managed to say, "How about you try acupuncture?"

Jiang Xun looked at the needle, which was thicker than a chopstick, and decisively refused.

As I walked out of the third clinic, the sun was already setting.

Jiang Xun squatted by the roadside and opened the medicine packets prescribed by the three doctors to take a look—they were all ordinary medicines for calming the nerves and replenishing qi, similar to what the old man had given him back then.

It's completely useless.

He stuffed the medicine bag into his arms, stood up, and didn't know where to go.

The street was bustling with people: vendors selling candied hawthorns, acrobats performing, and elderly women carrying baskets to buy groceries. Everything seemed so normal, as if the intense heat that had threatened to tear him apart last night was just a nightmare.

But Jiang Xun knew that wasn't the case.

He looked down at his hands.

Last night's punch sent that big man flying more than ten feet away.

That's not something an ordinary person could do.

But he actually did it.

"What exactly happened...?"

As he was thinking, his stomach suddenly growled.

I'm hungry.

I've only eaten that bowl of noodles since last night.

Jiang Xun touched his pockets—he had a few copper coins left, enough to buy a steamed bun.

He walked toward a steamed bun stall on the street corner.

I had only taken two steps when I suddenly heard someone shout behind me.

"Make way! Make way! Officers are on duty!"

Jiang Xun looked back and saw a group of soldiers coming from the other end of the street, driving away passersby along the way.

His heart skipped a beat, and he instinctively dodged to the side.

Has something happened in Jiangzhou?

Someone nearby muttered something.

"Another batch has been arrested."

"What happened?"

"I heard that a notorious bandit has fled here. The prefect has ordered that anyone suspected of being a criminal be arrested and interrogated."

"Wouldn't that be framing someone unfairly?"

Jiang Xun's face turned pale after hearing a few words.

Could it really be that they're arresting me?

Without saying a word, he turned and left, disappearing into a narrow alley. He wandered around until sunset before daring to return to the dilapidated temple.

That night, the heat arrived as expected.

Jiang Xun gritted his teeth and remained silent.

He got up, staggered out of the dilapidated temple, and plunged headfirst into the pond next to it.

cold.

It's fucking cold.

But the heat was eventually suppressed a little.

Jiang Xun was soaking in the water, panting heavily.

After an unknown amount of time, the heat finally subsided.

He climbed ashore, soaking wet and shivering from the cold.

"donor."

A voice suddenly came from behind me.

Jiang Xun was so startled he almost jumped up, and turned around abruptly—

Under the moonlight, an old monk stood at the entrance of the dilapidated temple, looking at him.

The monk was quite old; his beard and eyebrows were white. He wore a worn-out monk's robe and leaned on a staff.

But those eyes were so bright and clear, they didn't look like an old person at all.

"Who...who are you?" Jiang Xun felt inexplicably nervous—when did this monk appear?

The old monk didn't answer, but just looked at him with a hint of inquiry in his eyes.

"The benefactor's internal energy is running rampant. If it is not guided in time, his life may be in danger."

Jiang Xun was stunned.

"What internal energy? I... I've never practiced martial arts—"

"Never practiced?" The old monk frowned, stepped forward, and said, "Stretch out your hand."

Jiang Xun hesitated for a moment, but still reached out his hand.

The old monk took his wrist, closed his eyes and probed for a moment, his brows furrowing more and more tightly.

How strange.

"What's wrong?"

The old monk opened his eyes and looked at him.

"The benefactor does indeed possess a powerful and domineering true energy that is constantly circulating on its own. This humble monk has never heard of such a technique before."

Jiang Xun was completely confused.

"Master, could you please say something I can understand?"

The old monk glanced at him.

"That means you have internal energy within you, but you don't know how to use it. This internal energy will grow on its own, increasing until your body can't contain it anymore. At that time—"

He paused.

"You will explode and die."