Chapter Twenty: Fury

Dust of Karma had once examined every member of the Zhang family, one by one. The old man of the house should have had several decades of life left in him; the matriarch should have lived to a ripe old age as well. As for the Zhang sisters, they were not fated for great wealth or rank, but neither were they marked by hardship and ruin. Otherwise, how could he have left with such certainty?

Now he was filled with doubt, and even more with fury. He went first to the household of the second Zhang sister’s husband, the “culprit” who had brought calamity upon the Zhang family. If he could have done so, he would have struck this ordinary farming family down with thunder and fire, leaving none alive. But the law of heaven was clear: could he truly act without restraint? He forced down the raging fire in his heart and decided to find the root of the Zhang family’s changed fate before anything else.

He saw the second Zhang sister again, the bold, outspoken woman who had once matched any man in spirit. But was this still her?

Skin and bones. A numb expression. In her dull eyes there was not a trace of life; she merely hacked at firewood in the courtyard by sheer instinct. The second Zhang sister was already dead. What remained was only an empty shell. Dust of Karma nearly wept. That spirited woman on the fishing boat, bright as the wind and proud as the waves...

While she was chopping wood, a man came out of the house. The moment he saw Dust of Karma, he immediately started shouting abuse.

“Where the hell did this dead old bastard come from? What are you standing in front of my courtyard for?”

“I’ve come to see the second Zhang sister,” Dust of Karma said, his voice calm despite the rising anger within him.

“What are you looking for my wife for? Seems like the Zhang family doesn’t have any half-wit relatives, does it?” the man said suspiciously. Then, glaring with his narrow, triangular eyes at his wife chopping wood in the yard, he barked, “Look at this. Is he one of your Zhang kin? Tell him to get lost, now. What kind of people keep wandering into our home!”

Dust of Karma laughed inwardly. This man had absolutely no destined bond as husband to the second Zhang sister. In other words, they should never have become man and wife in the first place. He did not know what force had twisted things so badly, but if it was not ordained by heaven, then he could set down most of the burden in his heart. With a faint smile he said, “Who I am is not important. I’m here today to take the second Zhang sister away.”

His voice was not loud, but it was exceptionally firm.

“What kind of man do you think you are? My old Mo family’s wife is not someone a senile fossil like you can lay hands on. Get lost!” The man was clearly enraged now. He rolled up his sleeves and was ready to strike.

Dust of Karma smiled slightly, then kicked the courtyard gate. The half-inch-thick wooden door shattered into fragments and flew in all directions. That single move plainly stunned the man. His triangular eyes rolled about, and then he suddenly began cursing his wife instead.

“You damned woman, you shameless thing! What kind of adulterer have you brought home to disgrace me—”

As he cursed, he even prepared to hit her.

What startled Dust of Karma even more was that the second Zhang sister gave no reaction at all. She continued to chop wood mechanically, utterly unresponsive to everything around her. Dust of Karma was shocked. How could he let this man strike her in front of him? In a blur he seized the man’s wrist and crushed it hard. He had no intention of showing mercy. In an instant, the man’s wrist bones were ground into powder, limp as a dead snake, no longer even recognizable as a wrist. The man let out a scream like a slaughtered pig and rolled on the ground, howling in agony.

The shrieks instantly alerted the neighbors. Some gathered around; others ran off, clearly to summon the Mo family. Dust of Karma did not even glance at the man writhing in the dirt. He strode straight up to the second Zhang sister and, looking at the face that had been tormented beyond all resemblance to its former self, said in a low voice, “Second Sister, I am your Brother Liao. I’m taking you with me. I’m taking you to find your third sister.”

But what answered him was still that expressionless face and those lifeless eyes. Dust of Karma was stunned. He had imagined countless possibilities, but never that he would see the second Zhang sister in such a state. For a moment he had nothing to say, his throat tight with emotion, and he did not know what to do.

The crowd outside the Mo family home grew larger and larger, with every sign of completely blocking the small courtyard. They began whispering among themselves, guessing whether Dust of Karma was truly some lover of the second Zhang sister come to the door. Yet the broken gate scattered on the ground, and the man still rolling and howling there, kept the villagers from making any rash move. No one wanted to be the first fool to test just how formidable Dust of Karma really was.

The villagers who had gone for help clearly had quick feet. Before long, the strong men of the village were hurrying over from fields and roadside paths with their farm tools in hand, staring at Dust of Karma and the second Zhang sister with hostile eyes.

“What kind of person are you, barging into our home and injuring people? Do the laws not apply here?” An old woman who looked very much like the man on the ground pushed through the crowd and stepped forward, followed by three pairs of middle-aged men and women, and an old man. These were all members of the Mo family. The three men were sturdy enough, but the three wives looked much worse: gaunt and yellow-faced, each with the same numb expression. It seemed the women of this household truly were not treated as family at all.

The old woman immediately saw her son lying there and burst into tears of anguish. She hurried over to support him, then glared at Dust of Karma with venomous hatred.

“Who I am is better left unknown to you,” Dust of Karma said with a cold laugh. Right now, he only wanted to find some way to make the second Zhang sister react, so that she would come away with him.

“Must be Fourth Aunt’s lover, then. Never expected him to be an old monkey-scrubber. What a shameless adulterer—he ought to be caged and drowned like a pig. Pah!”

The speaker was not one of the Mo adults as Dust of Karma had assumed, but a half-grown child, dressed in the rarely seen garb of a village schoolboy. He was evidently a student, yet the words he had just spoken made Dust of Karma see children in a new light.

“So it really is in the family blood. Your Mo family truly produces talent,” Dust of Karma said through clenched teeth.

Still, the second Zhang sister remained utterly lifeless, giving no response. Dust of Karma was not a man especially gifted with words, and he no longer wished to linger. When all was settled, he would surely let this family learn what it meant for grievances to breed more grievances without end.

“Second Sister, let’s go!”

Ignoring the murderous looks of the villagers, he forcibly took the second Zhang sister’s thin, bony hand. She visibly shuddered and tried to pull away, but how could Dust of Karma allow her to fall back into this wolf’s den? He gripped her tightly and started toward the door.

“What, you think everyone here is dead? Come and go as you please? A pair of shameless dogs and bitches like you aren’t leaving here whole today!” The old woman was clearly the one in charge. Seeing his actions, fury blazed in her triangular eyes as she roared, “Break their legs first!”

The Mo family sons were the first to obey. Relying on their strength and farm tools, they charged at once. This was exactly what Dust of Karma had been waiting for. He now felt no goodwill toward this family or this village at all, only disgust and hatred. If he had not cared about the consequences, he would have burned the place to the ground or flooded it flat.

His heart was merciless, and so was his hand.

He stepped forward lightly and stamped on the foot of the leading man. A sharp crack rang out, and one of the man’s foot bones shattered piece by piece. Before the man could even react, Dust of Karma seized the hand that still held the farm tool, raised his palm like a blade, and chopped down with force. His hand fell away with the tool in it, more cleanly than any sharp knife could have managed. The severed edge was smooth and level, without the slightest raggedness. The man instantly went deathly pale, and blood gushed from the stump at his wrist. He howled in misery.

Dust of Karma finished with one man and turned to the second, repeating the same method. In the blink of an eye, three right hands lay on the ground, and three burly men were also writhing in agony. Blood sprayed out in an instant, splashing the courtyard and staining it red with a stench of gore. The villagers behind them, who had been ready to rush in, were so frightened that they hurriedly backed away, faces drained of color, staring at the scene in horror.

The old woman nearly went mad. Those were her four sons, all crippled by a single man, and whether they would live or die was now in question. Somehow, summoning up a surge of courage from who knew where, she let out a shriek and charged forward. But Dust of Karma had no patience left for age or sex. Seeing her wild rush, he slapped her across the face. A crisp crack sounded, and the old woman was knocked flat, her teeth flying out, blood streaming from her mouth as she collapsed, unable to rise.

For a moment, the entire courtyard fell into a chilling silence. Aside from the four cries of agony, it was deathly still.

The old man cowered and did not dare step forward. The three daughters-in-law were clearly frightened as well, their faces full of terror, too afraid to move. As for the villagers who had only come to help, they had been thoroughly terrified by Dust of Karma’s ruthless methods and uncanny skill.

Seeing that no one dared to block him any longer, Dust of Karma took the second Zhang sister by the hand and dragged her toward the courtyard gate. The crowd retreated in a rush, opening a path, and no one dared stop them even a little.