The Little Demonic Cultivator in the Courtyard: Borrowing 100,000 Japanese Pirates to Heal

Xu Jiande sat beside her without saying a word, just watching her sew stitch by stitch.

Some things don't need to be said so clearly. Where he's going tomorrow, and how she'll live the day after, are all contained in these few stitches.

Xu Jiande leaned against the headboard, tilted his head back, and looked up at the yellowed beams of the ceiling, stained by smoke. After a long while, he suddenly said something.

"When I get back, I'll steam a pot of white flour buns for you."

Bai Ling paused for a moment, then dropped the needle again.

"I'll remember that," she said.

……

Before leaving, Xu Jiande wanted to bleed the Japanese soldiers in Beijing one last time.

He set three goals for himself: two sentry posts, one patrol, and see if he could run into one or two lone officers.

He didn't think too much about whether the goal was big or small. Anyway, on the night before he left, he didn't want to go at the appointed time or count the number of trips like he usually did.

High-ranking Japanese officers, including the commander and generals, cannot be killed; killing them would drive the Japanese mad.

After dinner, he sat at home and continued practicing to adjust his state.

Bai Ling sat behind him for a while before asking, "Are you coming back tonight?"

"Come back," Xu Jiande said, head bowed. "Come back soon."

"How early?"

"Before dawn."

Bai Ling nodded and said, "Then I'll wait for you."

Xu Jiande didn't look up, and his hands didn't stop sharpening the knife.

He knew Bai Ling was watching him. He didn't know what to say, so he simply remained silent.

I left home around 11 p.m.

It was dark in the courtyard; everyone was asleep.

Xu Jiande climbed over the courtyard wall and landed in the alley. The night wind blew in from the north, carrying the smell of coal cinders and rotten vegetable leaves.

He took a deep breath and drew the demonic energy from his dantian, spreading it slowly along his meridians.

As that cold yet scorching power flowed through his limbs, he felt every inch of his skin burning.

Tonight, the moon is obscured by clouds, revealing only a blurry white veil, casting a hazy, gray darkness over the entire alley. This kind of weather is perfect for murder.

He first went to a sentry post in the northeast, determined to wipe them all out.

Now the Japanese are afraid, so there are no separate sentry posts; sentry posts are only kept outside the base.

But tonight, those Japanese devils are in trouble.

Two Japanese soldiers huddled behind sandbags; one was dozing on an ammunition box, while the other stared blankly into the distance, clutching his rifle.

Xu Jiande walked around from behind, hugging a row of broken brick walls for dozens of steps, and finally stopped in the shadow of a utility pole.

The distance was less than fifteen meters.

He picked up a small pebble and flicked it to the left. The pebble hit the base of the wall with a soft thud.

The Japanese soldier who was standing there in a daze turned his head when he heard the sound. He had only twisted his neck halfway when Xu Jiande was already behind him.

The bayonet pierced diagonally into the back of the neck, and when it was pulled out, it left a thin line of blood.

Another Japanese soldier was still dozing off when Xu Jiande stepped forward and plunged the tip of his knife into his skull from below his ear.

The Japanese soldier didn't even lift his eyelids; he just leaned to the side and fell silent.

Xu Jiande squatted behind the sandbags to catch his breath, dragged the two corpses into the shadows, searched their ammunition and grenades, and then headed west.

Twenty minutes later, all the Japanese soldiers in the garrison were wiped out. Xu Jiande left a warning at the scene, which was to say that they should behave themselves in the future and not disturb the people of Beijing, or else they would all be killed.

Leaving a warning, Xu Jiande turned and left.

The number of people he killed tonight was neither too many nor too few.

But these people are different from the Japanese soldiers we killed before.

In the past, when he killed someone, he would calculate in his mind "how much blood is needed to reach the next level".

He didn't calculate anything tonight. He just wanted to kill, to clear out all these yellow-skinned people one by one, even knowing he couldn't clear them all out, even knowing he would be leaving after tomorrow, he still wanted to have one last good, satisfying killing spree.

This is probably what "the madness before parting" means.

He returned to Nanluoguxiang around 3 a.m.

When he climbed over the wall into the courtyard, he stood at the base of the wall for a while, as if he was reminiscing about something.

The door wasn't bolted; he pushed it open.

Bai Ling was indeed not asleep; she was sitting in the main room, where the oil lamp had almost burned out.

She had been dozing off with her arms propped up, but when she heard the door open, she was jolted awake as if by something, and sat bolt upright.

"I'm back," she said.

"You're back." Xu Jiande closed the door and sat down at the table.

Afterwards, Bai Ling said that the water had been boiled, and Xu Jiande nodded and went to the kitchen.

……

Half an hour later, the oil lamp went out for a while, and no one moved.

Of course, they were all in bed.

"Once you leave, who knows when you'll be back?" Bai Ling suddenly spoke, her voice very soft, as if she were talking to herself, not speaking.

Xu Jiande did not respond.

"I've heard about Jingzhou," Bai Ling continued. "The organization has sent back messages saying it's much worse there than in Beijing. The Japanese have been killing people for three whole weeks after they captured Jingzhou, and the riverbanks are full of corpses. Whether you go there or not, nobody can say for sure."

She paused for a moment before saying, "I advise you not to go, but you won't listen."

Her voice lowered, "I'm not trying to persuade you. I just want to... tell you something."

Xu Jiande tilted his head in the darkness. Although he couldn't see her face clearly, he could feel that she was standing very close, close enough to hear her breathing.

The breathing was light and steady, like someone holding down their heartbeat before mustering courage.

"Go ahead," Xu Jiande said.

Bai Ling remained silent for a few seconds. Then she took a breath and slowly exhaled.

"I want to leave a child for your Xu family."

"..." Xu Jiande.

"If you could come back, our family would live a good life together."

Bai Ling's voice was still soft, but more steady than before, "If you don't come back, I'll have a child for you. A boy will look like you, and a girl will look like you too. What you do in Jingzhou, the child won't know. When he grows up, I'll tell him that his father was a man who actively killed Japanese soldiers."

It was very dark inside.

The wind outside seeped in through the crack in the door, just a very thin wisp, which showed that winter in Beijing was unusually cold.

Xu Jiande took a breath and slowly exhaled.

"I may not die," he said.

"I know," Bai Ling said, "but I want to finalize this."

Xu Jiande hesitated for a moment before saying, "You'll be in trouble if I really die in Jingzhou."

Bai Ling didn't move or say anything.

The air in the room felt incredibly oppressive and tense.

Xu Jiande could feel the heat emanating from her body, mixed with a faint scent of lamp oil and soap, swirling around him.

A long time passed, so long that Xu Jiande thought she would stop moving, when Bai Ling suddenly reached out her hand.

Her fingers were a little cool. She first touched the back of his hand, then slowly moved up his wrist, and finally covered the back of his hand, pressing gently and steadily.

"Do you have anything to say? If not, let's leave a child for the Xu family now." This wasn't a question, but rather a statement.