After pulling the throwing knives from Yue Feng's back, Yu Xian picked up the straight hook from his fishing rod and began stitching up the wounds. To finish, he spat on the injuries, considering the treatment complete.
"Well, he won't die anyway. That'll do."
Yu Xian stood up, glanced at Yue Feng lying motionless on the ground, then walked over to his rocking chair, sat down, and began surfing the web.
About five or six hours later, Yue Feng slowly regained consciousness, feeling a burning pain across his back. Highly alert by instinct, he pushed himself up from the ground immediately, his hand reaching for the flexible sword hidden in his belt.
However, upon seeing Yu Xian lounging in the rocking chair, he froze for a moment.
He had no idea what Yu Xian was called, but Old Man Ugly by Lake Longqin was quite famous. After all, anyone who could be that hideous and still survive in this world was bound to possess some degree of skill.
"You're awake? Then get lost. Don't go spreading your filthy mess to my place," Yu Xian said, glancing at him and immediately showing him the door.
Yue Feng was at a loss for words. Any normal person possessed a modicum of compassion; seeing someone grievously wounded like this, they would offer at least a word of concern, whether out of genuine sympathy or mere courtesy to keep up appearances.
Yu Xian, however, was different. He treated him like the plague itself.
"My apologies. I'll leave right away," Yue Feng said after hesitating.
After all, this truly was Yu Xian's home. During the hours he had been unconscious, had his enemies tracked him down, they very likely would have killed Yu Xian to leave no witnesses. Yue Feng was entirely in the wrong here.
He originally intended to scale the wall to leave. With his martial skill, clearing a wall of this height was child's play.
Yet, grievously wounded as he was, he leaped several times and failed to make it over. He could only offer Yu Xian an awkward smile before sheepishly covering his face, opening the front gate, and slinking away in humiliation.
Yu Xian shook his head and returned to browsing the internet.
Opening the bounty hunters' website, he saw that his avatar was indeed still pinned at the very top.
The bounty amounted to 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 rule crystals. Anyone who discovered a trace of him and notified the clients could receive a one-percent reward; if the clients actually located him through the tip, the informant would receive the full bounty.
This was a joint bounty posted by Nora and the other women nine years ago, which had stirred up a frenzied manhunt for Yu Xian back then.
It was said that anyone who bore even a thirty percent resemblance to him was bound up by bounty hunters and hauled before Nora and the others to claim the reward. One could imagine just how mad things had become.
Had Nora not used thunderous force to obliterate several bounty hunters who turned to robbery after failing to scam the reward, the situation would likely have spiraled even further out of control.
Naturally, Yu Xian had already changed his appearance by that time.
At first, he had merely made himself look plain. Yet no matter how ordinary his features were, they could not obscure the brilliant radiance that enveloped him like a bright moon; women invariably swarmed him like moths to a flame.
And so, hardening his heart, he turned himself into this hideous monstrosity, and sure enough, he was safe.
Granted, ever since then, most women who caught sight of him felt that their safety was in danger, their eyes had been soiled, and their minds defiled.
"Wangcai, are you tired of living?"
Yu Xian suddenly sensed people encircling the premises and looked up at the sky.
These were clearly the loose ends left behind by Yue Feng. He had no intention of wiping Yue Feng's ass, so he chose to threaten the Heavenly Dao instead.
The next moment, thunder rumbled and rain poured down.
Yu Xian was instantly soaked through like a drowned rat. He stared speechlessly up at the sky, letting the rain pelt his body without the slightest ripple of emotion.
Then, bolts of lightning crashed down, cleanly and decisively striking dead all the men in black closing in.
Yu Xian looked away and went back to surfing the net.
Most people might hate getting caught in the rain, but Yu Xian didn't mind. It wasn't like he could catch a cold anyway.
Besides, if he truly didn't want to get wet, the raindrops would automatically veer away from him; only when he genuinely didn't care could the droplets fall upon his skin.
The next day.
After finishing a peach around noon, Yu Xian set out with his fishing gear.
He wasn't especially passionate about fishing. The main appeal was that fishing allowed him to sit by the lake, along a path frequented by women heading to Jianglong Temple to pay homage to Buddha. He thoroughly enjoyed the sight of women scrambling to get away from him.
On the way, holding a peach and taking bites from time to time, he ambled down the street with a sway in his step. The women who saw him would pause, shock flashing in their eyes, likely unable to believe such an ugly human being existed in the world.
Then they would have a remarkably uniform reaction: averting their gaze and hurrying past him, desperate to distance themselves from this source of plague.
Yu Xian merely smiled at this—even if his current smile was atrociously hideous and the way he ate was enough to scare people half to death.
In truth, beyond his repulsive face, his physique was equally dreadful, completely eliminating any possibility of looking attractive from behind. He had intentionally given himself fat where he shouldn't have it—namely, a protruding beer belly.
Yet where he shouldn't be thin, he was gaunt. His shoulders, for instance, had bones jutting out, making him look deformed.
Coupled with uneven legs and arms like bamboo poles, every unappealing trait under the sun seemed woven into his form.
He sat down by the lakeshore and began to fish, tossing the stripped peach pit directly into the water for the fish below to scramble over.
The peach he was eating was no ordinary fruit, but a flat peach from a certain Mythical World.
If a mortal in this world ate a single one, they would likely ascend straight into a legendary Earth Immortal. To Yu Xian, however, it was genuinely nothing more than a snack fruit.
"In a few years, this lake should be able to produce some decent fish."
Sensing a carp snap up the pit, Yu Xian thought with an inward chuckle. When that time came, he would get serious and reel the fish up in one go.
Yet no sooner had his anticipation stirred than a bolt of lightning struck down, instantly blasting the pit-eating carp to death.
Clearly, the Heavenly Dao of this world had reacted instinctively, refusing to permit a carp to mutate into something like a flood dragon. After all, this was a mid-tier martial world, not a high-tier one; the emergence of a dragon would simply be too bizarre.
The problem was that Yu Xian had just felt a glimmer of anticipation when the Heavenly Dao struck the fish dead. The smile on Yu Xian's face froze solid. In that instant, his expression became even uglier; a passing woman who caught sight of that contorted face rolled her eyes back and fainted right on the spot.
"It seems I've been too agreeable, giving you the wrong idea."
Yu Xian muttered to himself. The next moment, he reached up and made a grasping motion toward the sky. Instantly, the Heavenly Dao of this world condensed from its ethereal state into a physical entity, resembling an enormous network composed of countless golden DNA helices.
With a shift of his thought, the thing swiftly morphed into a little golden dog and plunged into the lake.
Under his suppression, the little Heavenly Dao puppy could only paddle and splash around frantically in the water, not managing to scramble ashore until his anger subsided.
Its canine eyes darted a terrified look at Yu Xian. Just as it turned to bolt, Yu Xian pinched it by the scruff of its neck, seizing the very nape of its destiny. Sensible enough to cease struggling, it let Yu Xian dangle it in his grip all the way back to his spot.
Chapter 656