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If I can figure out the reason, I should be able to counteract the medicinal effect, and then use that to make the beetles a bit tougher.

Bloodcurdling screams rang out constantly, but that didn’t influence Xu Qing’s studying. He was completely focused. After enough time passed for an incense stick to burn, he extracted the dead cultivator’s soul. He looked like he might have some inspiration, but only a moment later, he frowned and looked at the door.

It opened, revealing the bashful face of a beautiful young woman. She looked to be about sixteen or seventeen years old, and wore a green jerkin. She had dimples when she smiled, and her fair hands were as delicate as jade. Wrapped around her right forearm was a little octopus. She was none other than Yanyan.

The octopus glared briefly at Xu Qing, then looked away, feigning as if it hadn’t noticed him.

“Big Bro Xu Qing,” she said happily in greeting. Rushing in, she glanced at the opened-up corpse, and her eyes lit up. “Big Bro Xu Qing, I don’t want to interrupt. I’ll just watch from the side, okay?”

Xu Qing frowned again, and opened his mouth to say no.

Seeing that he was about to refuse her request, Yanyan quickly said, “Big Bro Xu Qing, I just caught a criminal! I was hoping to learn a thing or two from you. Or maybe we could have fun together!”

At the same time, the octopus blew out a bubble, which floated off to the side and rapidly expanded in size. Inside the bubble was Huang Yikun. As soon as he appeared, countless tiny black beetles began to quietly swarm around the bubble. It seemed as though it would only take a word from Xu Qing, and they would immediately start burrowing into Huang Yikun’s flesh.

Xu Qing recognized Huang Yikun and also noticed all of his fresh wounds. Before, he had five dazzling fingers, but now only the thumb and pinky finger remained. The other three were gone, such that his hand now resembled the character 六.

An odd expression appeared on Xu Qing’s face. Then he noticed the black beetles seemed to be behaving oddly. An unusual gleam flickered in his eyes as he looked at Huang Yikun’s hair.

As for Huang Yikun, he was now regaining consciousness, and at first he looked confused. But then he looked around and saw Xu Qing. He didn’t say anything. He thought back to the things he’d said to Xu Qing only a few days ago, and then everything he’d experienced this night. He suddenly felt an unprecedented sensation of grief and indignation. Of course, he wanted to struggle free and escape, but there was no way for him to do so. Huang Yikun had no desire to speak.

But Xu Qing did. “So, you went and challenged the Seventh Peak?”

Huang Yikun shivered. He still didn’t want to say anything, but then he looked around at the blood-soaked scene around him, and all the corpses with grotesque anguish on their faces. The mere thought of going through a night of torment caused his heart to weaken, and terror filled his eyes as he looked at Xu Qing and Yanyan.

It got worse when Yanyan started talking again.

“Big Bro Xu Qing, this is a really bad guy. He jumped out of midair and tried to ambush me. Oh, right. Forget about him, Big Bro Xu Qing. How come you never invited me here? I’ve been so bored lately. Anyway, after watching you have so much fun, I came up with some fun stuff of my own.”

Yanyan waved her hand, causing a large number of medicinal pill bottles to appear in front of her, within which were all sorts of poisons. Along with them was a huge wooden rack, which thumped down onto the ground. Astonishingly, the rack was filled with all sorts of bladed tools. Some were curved, some were straight. Some were long, some were short, and some had corkscrew shapes. There were dozens altogether, and they even included some metal hooks and various sawed instruments.

Xu Qing looked at the collection.

“Look how prepared I am, Big Bro Xu Qing. Why don’t we apply the poison first, then cut out his dharma apertures and see what they look like? Also, how do we make his screams sound really good? Like the last few hundred of your test subjects?”

Yanyan’s voice was so sweet and clear that one would expect her words to be equally charming. Instead, it was the complete opposite. What was more, her clear eyes, arching eyebrows, and fluttering eyelashes made it seem like she was very, very happy.

When Huang Yikun took all of that in, his heart started pounding. He looked at all the bladed instruments, then at Yanyan, and finally at Xu Qing, who was standing there looking thoughtful, and he suddenly wondered if he was in hell on earth.

“What do you think, Big Bro Xu Qing? It’s a good idea, right?” Reaching over, Yanyan started picking through the bladed instruments as if looking for the perfect one. At the same time, she looked out of the corner of her eye and fawningly continued, “Where do we start, Big Bro Xu Qing? What if we cut out his tongue first? I’m thinking that might make his screams sound a bit better.”

Huang Yikun was tightly restrained, yet he was still shaking violently, and the terror in his eyes was so intense it had reached the point of being in despair. He was absolutely convinced that Yanyan was just outright insane, and that there were no limits to what she would do. He suddenly looked at Xu Qing with an ingratiating expression. As of now, he was convinced that this place was far more horrifying than the Seventh Peak.

“Where do we start, Big Bro Xu Qing?”

Yanyan bit her bottom lip and stared at Xu Qing. Her fair skin was a bit flushed, and her tender, rose petal lips were so delicate it seemed like they might start bleeding at any moment.

Xu Qing looked at her placidly. When she had suddenly started helping out the Violent Crimes Division, she had been overstepping her bounds, but he had let it slide. As for how she’d dragged Huang Yikun into the cell block, he was actually intrigued. Huang Yikun clearly had wounds from a very big sword, and he also had bite marks on his hand. That alone made it obvious he had challenged the Seventh Peak. He had heard the loud thump earlier, which seemed to indicate someone had thrown Huang Yikun over to the Violent Crimes Division. There had to be a reason that Huang Yikun had been able to leave the very pragmatic Seventh Peak with two of his fingers.

Xu Qing had a guess as to why. For one thing, it didn’t seem likely that the Captain and the others from the Seventh Peak would throw a poisoned Huang Yikun to him. There was no need for that. But Huang Yikun indeed had been poisoned. It was on his hair.

Xu Qing had seen this type of poison before. It was basically the same kind that the young merfolk prince had used on him, except this one was designed to attract other poisonous creatures.

Furthermore, this was a much higher level of poison. Anyone who got within nine meters of him would be infected by it.

It was very hard to detect. In fact, it was only because of the strange behavior of the beetles that Xu Qing noticed it. At the moment, he couldn’t even be completely sure of the precise effects of the poison. But based on his skill with plants and vegetation, he was certain that the poison would make it possible to track down and observe whoever had been infected by it.

Given all that, he now wanted to know who had put the poison on Huang Yikun. Obviously, Yanyan was the biggest suspect. Although Yanyan had seemingly surrendered, based on everything she’d said, Xu Qing felt... that there was no way that the black-garbed young woman who had attacked him so ruthlessly would be cowed so easily. Therefore, he didn’t believe anything she said.

“Why aren’t you saying anything, Big Bro Xu Qing?” She was now biting her lip so hard that blood seeped out, though that only made her bewitching face even more beautiful.

Xu Qing’s expression remained the same as ever as his hand suddenly shot out and latched onto her throat. The move was so sudden, and so forceful, that bruises immediately appeared on her fair skin.

Pulling her close to him, he slowly said, “The reason I didn’t kill you isn’t because you have a nice grandma, but rather because you haven’t crossed my bottom line. If you keep this up, you will.”

Yanyan shivered, and the little octopus looked like it was ready to peel off her arm. Before it could, she quickly projected a message to it with divine will. “Don’t do anything rash, Stinker.”

Though Xu Qing was holding her tightly by the throat, she managed to force her head down, then stick out her tongue and lick Xu Qing’s wrist.

Xu Qing frowned and threw her off to the side. She slammed into the wall and fell to the ground, blood oozing out of the corners of her mouth. And as she looked at him, it was impossible to read the look in her eyes.

“Oooh, that’s right, Big Bro Xu Qing. This is the version of you I like the most. You changed before, and I wasn’t happy about that. And when I’m not happy with you, then I want to kill you. I knew you’d notice that poison, and knew how you’d react. It’s exactly what I wanted to see.”

Off to the side, Huang Yikun saw all this and started trembling even harder.

Yanyan was definitely off in the head. That had become clearly apparent to Xu Qing thanks to her glazed eyes and everything else she’d done had made it all clear. Glaring coldly at Yanyan for a moment, he then looked back at the trembling Huang Yikun and his two remaining fingers.

Huang Yikun shivered in grief; he was certain he knew what was going to happen next.

However, the person to take action wasn’t Xu Qing. It was actually Yanyan. She flew across the room, and then two cracking sounds rang out as she ripped off Huang Yikun’s thumb and pinky finger. Then she offered them obsequiously to Xu Qing.

To Huang Yikun’s sorrow, he was actually getting used to this process. It didn’t hurt as much this time.

Xu Qing took the fingers and looked coldly at Yanyan.

She could read the look in his eyes. Quickly backing up to put distance between them, she put her finger into her mouth and bit down hard, causing blood to flow. Trembling, she extended her finger to Xu Qing, her eyes filled with anticipation.

“Have a taste, Big Bro Xu Qing.”

“Not interested,” he replied coolly. He waved his hand, causing Huang Yikun to tumble into a nearby jail cell. At the same time, his ring of holding flew into Xu Qing’s hands.

Sima Ling wasn’t imprisoned in this location, which meant that Huang Yikun was the only chosen here. He had obviously been sneaking around the sect, and the punishment for breaking curfew was imprisonment.

Having accomplished these things, Xu Qing went back to his beetle research. He really wanted to raise his current generation of beetles to a higher level.

Meanwhile, Yanyan sat on the floor in a W position, sucking her finger and watching Xu Qing. Slowly, a happy smile spread across her face. [1]

***

Unbeknownst to them, up in the building on the summit of the Seventh Peak, Master Seventh had been watching. He saw everything Yanyan did, as well as Xu Qing’s reaction. Now, an approving smile covered his face.

“Fourth Sib did great. I like his style. He reminds me of me, back in the day.”

Upon hearing this, the servant bowed his head and said nothing. Inside, he was musing that Master Seventh certainly didn’t seem to be on par with the Kid in terms of style. After all, there were a lot of female disciples who seemed to really like the Kid, whereas Master Seventh.... Well, the patriarch’s daughter was a vice-peaklord, and she had been back in the sect for days now, yet hadn’t gone to see Master Seventh a single time. Deep conflict between daoist partners wasn’t something that ‘style’ could remedy.

1. W-sitting is the most common English term I could find to convey what is called in Chinese “duck sitting.” It involves sitting with knees bent, feet tucked under, bottom resting on the floor between the legs, and legs out to either side. There is another word to describe this sitting position, but I’m not sure if I would get in trouble for using it, whether in the main text or in a footnote (translators have caused problems in the past for posting things in footnotes that could be considered “problematic.”) Anyway, for reference. ☜