Living steadily in the world of gods and mystery

"Hmm, I know!" Chen Li said.

"Ah, what’s with that expression? Why aren’t you excited at all?" Zhang Yan saw Chen Li’s calm face and asked in confusion.

"I already went to the market this morning and had my excitement then."

"I see, do you know who killed the Second Order demon beast? Was it the Yu Family’s Foundation Establishment cultivator who made a move?" Zhang Yan probed.

It was me!

Chen Li thought silently to himself.

"It wasn’t the Yu Family’s Foundation Establishment; it was the butcher!"

"Ah, the butcher! Who is this butcher, I’ve never heard of such a person." Zhang Yan looked puzzled, then laughed and said, "But this butcher is really shameless, and his guts are too big; probably found a corpse outside and claimed the credit for it. Thankfully it doesn’t involve us, at least we can confirm that the Second Order demon beast is dead, and we can finally get a good night’s sleep!"

Chen Li suddenly felt somewhat disinterested.

"Outside the Green River District, there isn’t just one Second Order demon beast lurking; one might be dead, but at least there is still another one out there," he said in a low and meaningful tone.

...

The next morning, the meat sold even faster as many people heard the news and hurried over.

Some were big clients.

Buying in quantities of a hundred pounds or more.

Two or three hundred pounds, also not uncommon.

Especially the Yu Family.

They bought a thousand pounds of meat, but with limited leftovers, they could only get their meat the next day.

After the sales ended, Chen Li realized he was being watched.

He originally wanted to shake off the trouble.

But then he changed his mind, thinking it would be a good opportunity to establish his authority.

...

An old and disheveled cultivator walked nonchalantly on the street; seeing someone ahead entering an alley, he couldn’t help but quicken his pace. However, just as he passed by a grove of trees, a figure shot out like a ghost and struck him on the back of the head.

His vision darkened, and he collapsed to the ground without any chance to resist.

Letting the shadow drag him into the woods.

After activating a Silence Talisman,

Chen Li slapped the man awake with two sharp smacks:

"Hey, old man, even at your age, you still play at tracking people. Spill it, which power sent you here?" Chen Li demanded.

The old cultivator’s face was swollen, and as he slowly opened his eyes, he feigned confusion: "Fellow Daoist, spare me! I wouldn’t have the guts to track anyone, I was just passing by, nobody sent me. I know the rules, I know the rules. Take the Spirit Stones, Magic Artifacts you want, just spare my life."

"Heh, ol’ man, who do you think you’re fooling?" Chen Li chuckled darkly, his eyes flashing a dangerous light: "I purposely took a circuitous route, and you still followed, how could such a coincidence happen in this world? Initially, I saw you’re advanced in years, life isn’t easy, I thought of sparing your life, but now it seems unnecessary."

He slowly drew his sword, intimidating him.

"No, no, no, I’ll talk! I’ll talk." The old cultivator trembled all over, his face pale, realizing he couldn’t hide the truth, he grudgingly admitted: "Fellow Daoist, what I said was true, you will really spare my life? You can’t deceive me!"

"As long as your answers satisfy me, I always keep my word!"

"That’s good, that’s good... it was the Spirit Fox Gang that told me to follow you, they wanted me to find out all about you... You can’t blame me, I’m just a low-level cultivator, alone and without support; how could I oppose a gang? You understand, right? They told me to do it, so I had to do it!" The old cultivator pleaded with a smile full of submission:

"You said your word is your bond, can you let me go now?" the old cultivator pleaded hopefully.

"No rush, I can’t trust your words, how do I know if you’re lying or not? Come, take me to your place." Chen Li pulled him up forcefully: "Lead the way up front."

"Fellow Daoist, this will kill me; how is this different from you killing me?" The old cultivator’s complexion turned sour, his smile faltering.

"At least you don’t have to die right now!" Chen Li said coldly: "But rest assured!"

As he spoke, the muscles on Chen Li’s face writhed and changed into an unfamiliar face.

The old cultivator looked on in shock: "You, you, are you human or evil?"

"Making a fuss over nothing, now lead the way!" Chen Li snorted coldly.

Helpless, with no other choice, the old cultivator resignedly set off, leading the way out of the woods with Chen following behind him.

"Tell me about the leader of the Spirit Fox Gang," Chen Li said.

"Please don’t make it difficult for me, I’m just a low-level nobody; would be lucky if I could even see their face. I only heard they are a late-stage Qi Cultivation cultivator; if I want to know more, I have nowhere to find out," the old cultivator answered smoothly, with an ingratiating smile.

Chen Li did not speak further.

His mind was busy calculating.

In these two days,

People from all the major gangs had come and gone, gone and come.

It seemed they were all trying to probe in a subtle way, restless with anticipation.

Reason they haven’t acted, all is calm and peaceful.

On one hand, it is because of the fearsome reputation he had established previously.

On the other hand, there was also a hidden apprehension about his potential for having killed the Second Order demon beast.

Yet it was still not enough.

As long as he showed the slightest hint of weakness or lack of confidence, these gangs would probably pounce like a pack of hungry wolves.

He could clearly feel the undercurrents swirling beneath the calm surface over the past two days; all the gangs seemed restless.

The Spirit Fox Gang was just one of them.

There were many more that had yet to show themselves.

A Second Order Demon Beast.

Worth a hundred or two hundred Mid-grade Spirit Stones.

To any gang, that was not a small sum, enough to make everyone green with envy.

The words "rational" and "cautious" carry obvious positive connotations.

That is to say, there are not many who can truly be rational and cautious.

Birds die for food, and humans die for money, which is the normal state of affairs.

Leeks are always harvested one after another, never truly eradicated.

"Since my reputation is not enough, then I’ll start by making an example of the Spirit Fox Gang!"

The two of them quickly arrived at Old Xi’s place, and upon asking around, Chen Li confirmed it was indeed the territory of the Spirit Fox Gang.

Confirming that Old Xi hadn’t lied,

Chen Li immediately let him go and turned to leave.

...

Deep into the night.

All was quiet.

The leader of the Spirit Fox Gang, Zhang Lin, went to bed early, but suddenly, a surge of panic woke him from his sleep, causing him to break out in a cold sweat. He lay there gasping for air, looking at the ceiling with residual fear on his face.

"What happened today, why did I wake up all of a sudden...wait, something doesn’t seem right."

He had great confidence in his own spiritual intuition; over the years, it had allowed him to escape fatal traps several times.

He listened quietly, and at that moment there was no sound outside, deathly silent, with a faint, almost imperceptible scent of blood drifting in the air.

He immediately sensed that something was wrong.

Glancing at the woman beside him, he grabbed her harshly, "Damn it, stop sleeping!"

The woman let out a muffled cry, startled awake: "What’s wrong?"

"Stop mumbling and go check what’s happening outside," Zhang Lin said with a cold snort.

"There’s no need to trouble sister-in-law any further, I’ll be on my way as soon as I’m done."

Just then, an ice-cold voice came from the darkness.

"Who’s there!"

Chen Li lit the oil lamp beside him, and soon, a ferocious face covered in horizontal scars came into view.

"This morning, you were buying meat from me, don’t you remember?"

"Wait, it’s Fellow Daoist Chen! I don’t know what brought you here especially, but you can take anything I have," Zhang Lin said, trying to keep his calm as his heart pounded violently, all the while attempting to steady Chen Li and surreptitiously reach for the Magic Artifact under his pillow.

"Heh heh, think I’m robbing you..." Chen Li suddenly lost interest, "So many little tricks, nevermind, there’s nothing much to ask anyway..."

Before the words were finished, his figure flickered.

A flash of sword light passed.

Zhang Lin’s body stiffened.

"You..." A red line appeared on his throat, his eyes widened, and his mouth opened and closed as if he wanted to say something, but before a word could be uttered, blood gushed out and his head soon fell from his neck.

At the same time, the woman’s scream rang out.

"Shut up!"

"Don’t...don’t kill me, I don’t know anything," the woman pleaded, her face pale with fear, backing away.

"Don’t worry, sister-in-law, I never kill the innocent. Come, hand over his Magic Artifacts, Spirit Stones, Talismans to me, do you understand what I’m saying?"

The woman hurriedly nodded desperately, tears welling up in her eyes.

Clad in her undergarment, regardless of her indecent exposure, she quickly scrambled to find her man’s wealth and offered it up with both hands, forcing a smile, her face filled with subservience.

After taking it, Chen Li said with a smile, "Good, do you know who I am?"

The woman hurriedly shook her head, terrified, "I...I don’t know, it’s dark and you’re wearing a mask, I can’t see your face at all."

"Hehe, you do know quite a bit, no, you should know! I am Chen, the butcher from the market. Remember, if anyone asks, that’s what you say."

After Chen Li finished speaking, he didn’t care about the confusion on the woman’s face,

He turned and left.

...

Compared to the last time when he had fought Qiao Guanyuan and ended up severely wounded,

this time it was as leisurely as a stroll in the park, not even using much Spiritual Power or physical strength.

Master-level Scolding Skill combined with swordsmanship, the guards caught off-guard were no better than chopping wood blocks; he searched each corpse, then quickly left, vanishing into the night.