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“Snake Whisperer”

“Old Man Hemp”

“Headless Maiden”

“Bone Monk”

……

Ye Qing whispered some of the names he recognized under his breath. Every single one of them were infamous criminals and late-stage Astral Refiners. Besides that, there were many, many more middle-stage Astral Refiners, early-stage Astral Refiners, Vessel Augmentors and more. There had to be at least a hundred of them.

“Do you think we have enough numbers to kill you now?” Black Spider chuckled darkly.

“Impossible. How did you all know that I’m leaving the city tonight?” Ye Qing uttered in a grave voice.

“Hehe. It’s a bad habit that you’re the only smart person in this world, and you’re a little too young to fool us veterans,” Snake Whisperer sneered. The blue snake on his hat also hissed and added to the horror.

“Impossible! My plan was perfect! There is no way this could happen!” Ye Qing growled like a cornered animal, eyes bloodshot and limbs shaking with fury and fear.

“Perfect? The fact that you think that there’s such a thing as a perfect plan proves that you’re an idiot,” Old Man Hemp said with a grin. “You thought you were being smart, but it was a mistake to leave Luo Shui and the Pacification Bureau. Today is the day you die, Ye Qing.”

“The Pacification Bureau? That’s right! The Pacification Bureau! Someone in the Pacification Bureau must have leaked my plans! Who told you about this? Who!?” Ye Qing roared.

“Amitabha. You are an incredibly insolent and reckless man, benefactor[1]. You must have offended someone and are now suffering the consequences of your actions.”

In short, it was karmic justice.

Bone Monk performed a deep bow before taking a step forward. “Besides, your hands are stained with blood. You have killed so many people that the only way to cleanse your sins is to repent in Avīci[2], and so I shall.”

As he finished his sentence, Bone Monk’s mouth abruptly split open and revealed rows and rows of sharp teeth. He also had a forked tongue that was clearly tinged in blood even in the darkness. He looked far more demonic than he was human.

Headless Maiden spoke up with a giggle, “You can kill him, but make sure you don’t hurt his head. I love heads, and he has a smart and tough head on his shoulders. I think it’ll be a good fit for me.”

Headless Maiden suddenly grabbed a female servant’s head and ripped it right off her shoulders. Then, she placed it over her own neck. Countless scarlet flesh buds immediately reached out and connected the head to the neck.

Headless Maiden shook the head left and right, and for a moment it looked like everything was normal. But a few breaths later, the servant’s head suddenly started rotting and pitting at a visible rate. It wasn’t long before the head had become completely unusable.

“It’s no use! Give me your head, Ye Qing! Give me your head!”

Headless Maiden abruptly ripped off the head and shrieked shrilly at Ye Qing. There was now a note of urgency in her voice.

Everyone else looked eager to get the action started as well.

“So, you’re all here to kill me.” Ye Qing slowly swept his gaze across the crowd, and everyone who met his bloodshot eyes felt an uncontrollable chill creeping up their spine. “But have you figured out how many lives you’ll need to bury me?”

“Is it ten?”

“Fifty?”

“A hundred?”

Every time Ye Qing said a number, his grin would widen just a little further. His face was full of scorn and disdain when he ended with, “Or all of you?”

“I think it’s worth it if I can take you all to the grave with me, actually. What do you think?”

Everyone: “...”

It might be worth it for you, but it sure as hell isn’t worth it for the rest of us.

Regardless, the crowd was intimidated. The fact that Ye Qing had killed over a hundred jianghu warriors and still managed to defeat the Sword Gentleman Chen Cang was still fresh in everyone’s eyes.

“I can see you don’t want to die. To be honest, I don’t want to die either.”

“The reason you’re targeting me is because you want my cultivation manuals and Strange Artifacts, right? I have plenty of those. Why don’t I give them to you, and you let me go? That way, you don’t have to die, and I don’t have to die either. It’ll be a win-win for everyone, don’t you agree?”

His suggestion was tempting. They claimed that the reason they chased Ye Qing out of the city was to defend their honor, but really, the value of honor could be quite fluid depending on the circumstances. The one thing that wasn’t fluid was their greed for Ye Qing’s head and his valuables.

Suddenly, a simple and honest-sounding voice broke the silence, “He’s right, master! If we do as he says, then we’ll get something out of this without having to fight him.”

“Lower your voice, idiot!” rebuked a somewhat ancient voice. “And right my ass! When will you grow a brain inside that empty head of yours? That boy is incredibly cunning. Who can say that he isn’t trying to trick us?”

“What if he gave us fake, useless stuff and ran away while we weren’t looking? What if his plan is to provoke us into fighting and killing each other?”

The speaker was an old Taoist wearing a set of tattered robes. He was standing at the farthest edge of the group, and he was only a Vessel Augmentor. His disciple was a young man with a muscular stature but a dumb, innocent-looking face. He too was just a Vessel Augmentor.

The old Taoist had lowered his voice to a whisper, but the large majority of the jianghu warriors around him were Astral Refiners. Naturally, they had caught onto every word.

Vajra Boy, Old Man Hemp and more couldn’t help but glance at Ye Qing suspiciously after hearing this. In response, Ye Qing looked up at the sky and pretended he couldn’t hear anything. On the inside though, he was swearing and shelving his Plan A.

Meanwhile, the old Taoist was still reprimanding his disciple, “Also, what if he poisoned the items? And even if he’s telling the truth, what if he returns in the future and hunts us down one by one? He never said he wouldn’t take revenge against us, did he?”

The more the old Taoist spoke, the uglier the jianghu warriors’ expressions became. Even Ye Qing was glaring at the old Taoist as well. Are you the fucking worm in my brain, mate? Or a Detective Conan who must expound every part of the whole conspiracy for everyone to hear?

In fact, he had poisoned the items he was planning to give to his attackers. It was a complementary part of Plan A. Unfortunately, it was snuffed out before he could even execute it.

The Old Taoist still wasn’t done, however. “Though to be fair, these jianghu warriors are incredibly stupid. I can hardly believe how easily they were thrown off the track by the boy. They had gathered a small army to kill him, and they thought this could be settled peacefully? Dream on! If they’re stupid enough to let the boy go tonight, I’m willing to bet my meager possession that he will take it all back plus interest by tomorrow!”

“Also, did they forget that killing him would give them everything he has plus the Way of Taiping’s reward? Why settle for less when they could get so much more?”

“Master, we’re jianghu warriors as well. Are you also saying that we’re stupid?” His dumb disciple asked, puzzled.

“I said all that, and that’s what caught your attention!?” The old Taoist jumped on his feet and smacked his disciple on the back of his head, hard. “Of course we’re not the same as these dumb shits! We’re above them!”

This time, Ye Qing wasn’t the only one who looked like he would strangle the old man. Who the fuck you’re calling a dumb shit, old man? We can totally kill you first before we kill Ye Qing, you know?

His dumb disciple didn’t even look like he felt the blows, however. “You’re right, master. What would you do if you were them?”

The old Taoist immediately did a one-eighty and raised his head arrogantly. “Now that’s a good question. If it was me, I would agree to the boy’s suggestion and wait until he relaxes his guard. Then, I’ll rush him before he can enact any one of his cunning plans.”

Ye Qing’s expression immediately turned a shade darker than it already was. Just how dirty is his heart? I can totally kill you first before I kill the others, you know?

“But something doesn’t feel right. The boy doesn’t feel like the type to give up without a fight. He must be plotting something, but what?” The old Taoist scratched his nose as he tried to figure out the source of his unease.

“It probably has something to do with your face turning black, master!” His dumb disciple answered honestly while staring at his master’s face. “Your face looks so black it’s like the bottom of a frying pan. Or did you learn a trick or two from an opera actor? I love operas!”

“My face is… black?” the old Taoist touched his face in confusion before realizing something. “Your face is completely black as well!”

“Is it poison? Are we poisoned?” “We are poisoned! Someone is trying to kill us with poison!”

“Poison?”

This caught everyone’s attention. When they looked around, they realized that the old Taoist and his disciple weren’t the only ones who had pitch black faces. The stronger ones still looked okay, but the weaker ones had already turned completely black in the face. It was just that the night was too dark, and they were putting most of their attention on Ye Qing and not themselves. If it wasn’t for the old Taoist’s discovery, they would still be in the dark even now.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

As if on cue, some Qi Invokers and Vessel Augmentors collapsed to the ground and died.

“Pwack! This poison is horrifying!”

Some people tried to channel their cultivation art to expel the poison, but the second they mustered their true qi, their blood vessels exploded as if they couldn’t withstand the pressure.

“Ye Qing! You’re the one who did this?!”

Old Man Hemp, Bone Monk and everyone else’s faces had turned a shade darker as well. They glared at Ye Qing with fury as they channeled their martial arts to suppress the poison.

They were stupid, but they weren’t that stupid that they would mistake the culprit behind the poisoning. Only one person would benefit from this, and that person was Ye Qing.

“Hehe. Yep! It was me.” Ye Qing broke into a grin. “You realized it too late.”

This was his true trump card and the reason he even bothered to waste his breath on these people.

The poison afflicting the jianghu warriors was the Hundred Poison of Blue Demon Hand. Although it was only a Red-class strange Artifact, the Hundred Poison was still an incredibly potent weapon. It was colorless, odorless, and extremely deadly. Even an Astral Refiner would take huge damage if they inhaled too much of it.

From the moment he was surrounded, Ye Qing had unleashed the Hundred Poison and bought time for the poison to accumulate.

The reason he wanted to incite the jianghu warriors into fighting themselves was to accelerate the poison’s effects. They wouldn’t even find out that he was the one behind the poison because anyone could’ve released it at that point. Ideally, he could’ve destroyed them all without too much effort. Unfortunately, his grand plan was ruined by the Taoist who was too smart for his own good.

It was fine though. The Hundred Poison was just the appetizer, and the show had just begun.

1. Once again, reminder that benefactor means different when spoken by a monk. ☜

2. Avīci or Avici is one of the hells in Buddhism and later Hinduism. ☜