Translator: Tamon
Yu Qiang’s Divine Sense didn’t pick anything, despite his target’s aura lingering nearby.
The dashing youth was grave, on high alert.
Their mark spotted them and drew them in here, the perfect spot to hide bodies.
He cupped his hands. “Fellow Daoist, we’re outer disciples of Sky Effigy Sect, here to set River Town straight. Please reveal yourself.”
Silence was the only answer.
Yu Qiang sneered. “Senior Brother Zhao, your courteous speech is beyond his understanding. Let me try.”
He stepped up and barked. “Midget, you have three breaths to show your face or you’ll end up like this dog!”
He pointed and a blade wave shot for the peeing dog.
The black dog squealed and split in two, its blood sinking into the rotten floor.
“One!” Yu Qiang shouted.
The black dog twitched, dead.
Yu Qiang took another step. “Two!”
The black dog’s upped half opened its jaw and bit hard at Yu Qiang.
Yu Qiang mocked. “You thought I didn’t know?”
He touched his storage bag as he jumped back, throwing lizard puppets at it as they spewed fireballs.
He knew something was off about the midget’s extremely short stature. Then there was his vanishing act replaced with a dog.
It was easy to see the cultivator was this black dog.
He even tested the dog, but was shocked to find he didn’t dodge, turning into a corpse.
What was even more amazing, the dog didn’t die!
Boom~!
The lizards blew up the dog, in a bloody explosion.
The house crumbled, kicking up a cloud of dusts as bone, meat chunks and bone mixed in the air and redecorated the slums with a new, much more morbid look.
Yet the meat chunks still twitched, flying straight for Yu Qiang.
“What an evil cultivation method!” Yu Qiang squinted.
Xu Hei watched from his cover, the chunks flying about. “Oh, so that’s what he meant by wanderer.”
Splat~
The meaty chunks stuck to the lizards and the puppets lost their light.
The lizards were made with Sky Effigy Sect’s unique art, a mechanical beast puppet. All Sky Effigy Sect disciples had a hundred of these.
The puppets ended up halting after being splashed with Hei Huang’s blood.
Yu Qiang was grave, taking out a frog puppet to swallow the incoming meat.
The frog lost control as well, breaking apart, and the meat burst out for their target.
“What?”
Yu Qiang was overwhelmed. The frog puppet was one of his aces, invincible below Foundation Establishment.
He turned tail at once, but was met with bloody mist from the splattered blood, sticking to his throat.
“You’d dare kill a Sky Effigy Sect disciple?” Yu Qiang raged.
The Zhao youth rushed in front of his junior, taking out a sail and waving it to unleash a fierce gust that blew the bloody mist.
“Junior Brother Yu, don’t waste your breath. Let’s kill this thief together.” Zhao Yiduo shouted.
“Right!”
Yu Qiang gnashed his teeth and threw more puppets. Zhao Yiduo used his magical arts as well.
As time went by, the bloody mist grew thicker and stuck to them, damaging and messing their True Qi. Death was only a matter of time.
Xu Hei sighed and left.
The two were finished.
“The dog is damn strong and didn’t let it on. Bastard!”
Xu Hei felt urgency as he watched, not wanting to be left behind. He had to be stronger than the dog.
The Invisible Talisman almost ran out so Xu Hei went back.
He crossed two streets when he froze.
He noticed a shadow in a corner, unmoving.
The ragged and messy beggar blended with the slums, yet his fingers kept twitching.
They moved like plucking an invisible zither’s strings.
Xu Hei crawled closer.
“Something’s off about him.”
Xu Hei observe with his eyes.
The beggar was focused entirely on his action, ignoring everything else.
A thought came to mind, and Xu Hei recalled that dashing youth.
He tried curbing the horse-faced guy’s intent when the chase started, a man of caution.
But when the horse-faced guy couldn’t win and resorted to threats, the dashing youth said to skip the banter and just fight to death, highly unusual.
It proved the dashing youth was certain of success.
[Why so confident?]
Xu Hei wracked his brains and came up with a solution.
“Maybe the dashing youth’s a fake?”
Since Sky Effigy Sect made puppets, it could make human ones as well. That would explain everything.
This beggar was the true culprit!
“But what if he’s fake as well?”
Xu Hei wasn’t hasty, not wanting to startle the real mastermind.
He used his Divine Sense to scan the area.
The user had to be nearby his puppets to control them.
He confirmed the beggar was the only one suspicious.
“He might have some aces. I must finish him in one strike. I can’t leave room for errors!”
Xu Hei pulled three of his scales, setting a trap.
He added Fireball Talisman, Windblade Talisman, Lightning Talisman, and all other attack talisman to the trap.
Xu Hei still found it lacking so he took out the Thunder Seal and Beast Trapping Ring.
He crawled on the wall behind his target and braced. True Qi gathered swiftly in his throat.
It was his strongest attack, an amplified Fireball.