Dust to Dust

Qiao Wei sat by the window, sipping his wine with a look of calm satisfaction on his face.

Just outside on the balcony, three desiccated corpses lay in eerie stillness.

Their black robes had long since decayed, reduced to shreds that clung to their skeletal forms like remnants of forgotten centuries. What once were flesh-and-blood assassins now resembled mummies exposed to desert winds for over a hundred years.

Their eyes were sunken, their bones stark and protruding, their presence as disturbing as it was silent.

And even now, the decay hadn't stopped.

It was as if time itself had accelerated, showing in mere minutes what would take nature a century. Skin flaked away into powder. Bones began to crumble, collapsing inward along with the tattered remains of their robes. Within the span of three cups of wine, they had disintegrated completely—reduced to three neat piles of fine, grey ash.

Then came the wind.

It swept over the balcony, lifting the bone dust into the night sky. The remains scattered, drifting into the vast emptiness of the world, leaving behind no trace that the three men had ever lived.

Qiao Wei sighed, shaking his head with a wistful smile."Ah, time spares no one... Be it hero or tyrant, saint or devil, all eventually become nothing more than dust carried on the wind."

A sudden gust stirred the curtains.

Qiao Wei didn't bother to look. He already knew who it was.

The faint rustle of robes slicing through the air was distinct—deliberately made. If the man had wished to be silent, he could have crossed the room without making so much as a whisper.

"Young Master, come in! I've been warming this wine just for you!" Qiao Wei's melancholic demeanor vanished in an instant. He adopted the sycophantic grin of a petty man eager to please, his voice shrill with feigned enthusiasm.

The young lord known as "Third Young Master" leapt gracefully in through the open window. Mid-air, he twisted with casual finesse and landed effortlessly in the seat across from Qiao Wei.

"Well, well, Brother Wei—you've gotten good. You can recognize me just by the sound of my step now," the young man said with a smirk, pouring himself a cup of green-tinted wine and downing it in one gulp.

"All thanks to your guidance, Young Master," Qiao Wei beamed, bowing slightly as he refilled the cup. "Had you not gifted me that miraculous pill, I'd never have come this far."

The Third Young Master waved it off."Bah, don't make it sound like such a big deal. Just one pill—it barely adds ten years' worth of inner strength. Our Xiaoyao Manor has more of those than we know what to do with."

He wasn't boasting. The Xiaoyao Manor had long collected rare pills from across the world, especially those that could boost martial power. Some could add ten years' worth of cultivation, others twenty, thirty—even sixty.

As for the Third Young Master himself, his body housed a hundred years' worth of cultivated strength. He no longer bothered with the lesser pills. To him, giving one to Qiao Wei was no more than handing out leftovers.

What he didn't know was that Qiao Wei's power had already reached a terrifying level—what the old masters would call the peak of human potential.

"You're back later than usual tonight," Qiao Wei remarked. "I've reheated this wine seven times already. Usually you're here before the first warming cools off. Don't tell me... hmm?"

His eyes twinkled with mischief, and he waggled his brows suggestively.

The Third Young Master chuckled."Ran into Du family's guard captain Tu Hong and a few others. We set a little trap and took out that infamous rapist roaming Yan Province. One less rival for me, wouldn't you say? And afterward, well... heh."

"You got the Du family's girl, didn't you?"

The young man nodded proudly."And I didn't force her, mind you. No drugs either. She came to me willingly. Brother Wei, that fits your theory of the 'romantic saint,' doesn't it?"

Qiao Wei eagerly asked for details. The Third Young Master was all too happy to brag. Unlike past conquests—Xiao Xiangyue, who was bought with silver; Liu Piaopiao, who was taken by force and clever martial arts—this one had required neither gold nor guile. Du Xiaoyan had offered herself willingly.

Of course, he could have pursued her properly, but what self-indulgent rogue would hunt for meat when it walks right into the pot?

"So why not spend the night there?" Qiao Wei asked. "Crawling out of a warm beauty's bed in the dead of night? I don't think I'd have the heart."

The young lord grinned."Would've been inconvenient. The Du family is still a major martial clan, and though Xiaoyan's mine now, we're not married yet. Staying the night might cause gossip. I'd rather keep her reputation intact—for now."

"Who cares what the servants say? Who would dare spread rumors?" Qiao Wei scoffed.

"You're missing the point, Brother Wei." The Third Young Master popped a peanut into his mouth and spoke between chews."I may be a scoundrel, but I don't share my women. If I take someone, she's mine alone. Xiaoyan's father, Du Gongfu, is head of the Tianping Manor—and the upcoming martial assembly is being held there. You think he doesn't have plans? We've already learned that the Du family secretly allies with the Zhao and Zhou clans, hoping to topple my uncle's Ironblood Fortress."

"This so-called martial assembly may claim to uphold justice, but it's really a web of lies and power plays. I see through it all."

The young master had heard the rumors on his way to Dingzhou: how his name now struck fear and outrage across the martial world. But experience—both from his previous life and the countless wuxia stories he'd devoured—told him that any such assembly always came with hidden daggers.

He wasn't afraid for himself. But if this dragged down the Qin and Tie families, then the cost was too great.

What worried him most was his second brother's injury. With his brother's famed Thunderblade technique, only a handful in the martial world could have possibly harmed him.

And it wasn't the Third Young Master who did it. Which meant someone powerful had not only hurt his brother but used the chaos to frame him—fanning the flames across the entire martial world.

No, this wasn't a coincidence. This was war.

"I may not have been a schemer in my past life," he thought, "but I studied philosophy—learned to think deeply and see clearly. That's what philosophy is, isn't it? Peering beneath the surface."

In this life, he had kept all that knowledge. Armed with ideas a thousand years ahead of this world, and a head full of military treatises and old novels, his mind was no longer bound by convention.

He might be lazy, but once forced to act, his insight was nothing short of terrifying.

Du Xiaoyan's beauty was only part of the reason he'd gotten close. The other reason... was war.

"She's fallen for me. No doubt about that," he said aloud. "But what happens when she learns that the man she loves is none other than the infamous Qin Ren? The man every righteous sect wants to kill?"

He turned to Qiao Wei, his smile fading."When I reveal who I truly am, and stand against the Tianping Manor in open battle... whose side do you think she'll choose?"