Don't Scare Me in the Future

Qin Xiaopang looked at the corpses on the ground, then turned his gaze back to Li Banfeng. Li Banfeng said he had been terrified just now. Qin Xiaopang had no idea how to comfort him. "I was scared he was going to kill me, so I killed him. That way, he couldn't kill me," Li Banfeng offered by way of a reasonable explanation. Xiaopang felt this explanation was… completely airtight. Li Banfeng walked over to Lao Yanpao's corpse, untied the cloth pouch from his body, and counted their harvest inside. Ninety-one stalks of snake-spot chrysanthemum. That came out to nearly eight thousand dollars. "Was it really worth killing someone for less than eight thousand dollars?" Li Banfeng thought about the cost of living in Yaowanggou; human life didn't seem like it ought to be this cheap. Qin Xiaopang sighed. "You're an outsider, so you don't know the rules around here. Money is too hard to make and disappears too fast. In some out-of-the-way corners, people will murder someone for a hundred dollars. "Not to mention this is Bitter Mist Mountain, an extraordinarily wicked place. Here, human life is no different from weeds—neither is worth a damn." Li Banfeng handed the sack to Xiaopang. "Take this." Xiaopang shook his head. "You beat those two bastards to death. You're the one who avenged Lao Yanpao. His things rightfully belong to you." "Hold on to it for now. We'll talk about it once we're down the mountain." Li Banfeng pushed the bag into Qin Xiaopang's hands. Seeing that Li Banfeng was empty-handed, Qin Xiaopang asked, "Where did your flowers go?" "That's a long story." Li Banfeng drew a few black-and-white beads from his pocket. "Brother, do you recognize these?" Qin Xiaopang took the beads to inspect them, and his eyes instantly lit up. "These are snake-spot pills! I've seen them before. Where did you get them?" They truly were snake-spot pills. In fact, Li Banfeng had already guessed as much. Since he had been willing to bring them out for Xiaopang to see, he had already prepared a suitable explanation. "On my way down the mountain, I ran into an old lady. She said she was from a medicine house and wanted to trade her pills for my snake-spot chrysanthemums—ten flowers for one pill." Li Banfeng had originally planned to claim five flowers for one pill, but thinking it over, five flowers only covered the raw material cost, and no one would make a trade like that. Trading at double the material cost sounded far more plausible. Hearing this, Xiaopang stared at the snake-spot pill in his palm, examined it once more, and turned to Li Banfeng. "And you traded?" "I traded!" Li Banfeng nodded. "All of them?" "Every single one!" Li Banfeng said with a touch of pride. "Brother, would you say I struck a good deal?" "I'd say you… were probably swindled," Xiaopang said, handing the snake-spot pills back to Li Banfeng. "Brother, my eyes are clumsy, and I can't tell genuine pills from fakes, but I can read human nature. "A single snake-spot pill sells for at least ten thousand dollars, whereas ten snake-spot chrysanthemums only fetch eight hundred and fifty. Who on earth would trade with you on those terms? You were scammed, ninety-nine percent chance." "Is that so?" Li Banfeng smacked his lips and pocketed the snake-spot pills without further explanation. He couldn't explain anyway. He could hardly tell Qin Xiaopang that he hadn't gotten them from an old woman, but that they had popped out of a bronze lotus. Qin Xiaopang let out a sigh. "This trip to Bitter Mist Mountain has taught me a hard lesson. We're still too green. There are some fortunes we simply have no right to earn. I was tricked by that guy with the glasses, and you were tricked by that old woman. "Earlier, you said there was a place with loads of flowers. Was that real?" Li Banfeng scoffed. "Of course not. I saw them about to make a move on you, so I made up that place to bait them. "I originally hoped they'd follow me so I could finish them off on the road. I didn't expect them to insist on killing you first, so I had no choice but to send them on their way right here." Xiaopang nodded. "You really are sharper than me. In fact, you're far better at this than I am. Don't be down about it, though. Even if you lost your snake-spot chrysanthemums to a swindler, Lao Yanpao's flowers are all yours. Let's hurry down the mountain." Just as the two were about to leave the woods, flickering torchlight suddenly appeared in the distance. Xiaopang froze. "Torches." Li Banfeng's eyes darted around, realizing the situation had taken a turn for the worse. The newcomers were almost certainly accomplices of Gold-Rimmed Glasses—very likely that bald man. The bald man wasn't much of a fighter, but he had numbers on his side. To defeat them, an ambush was essential. Li Banfeng told Xiaopang, "Find a place to hide, as fast as you can. Wait until I make my move before you strike. I'll go hide the bodies first." Qin Xiaopang said, "I'll help you hide them!" "There's no time! Forget the bodies!" Li Banfeng dragged the corpses of Gold-Rimmed Glasses and Hu Gaozi deeper into the woods. Xiaopang watched in distress; the trees were so sparse, where could anyone possibly hide two bodies? Li Banfeng couldn't find a hiding spot either, but the torches were drawing nearer and nearer. Seeing Xiaopang climb into a tree, Li Banfeng stepped out of his line of sight, took out his key, unlocked the door to the Portable Abode, and tossed the two corpses inside. Keeping dead bodies in his living quarters felt thoroughly unlucky, but he had no other choice. Stepping out of the Portable Abode, he put the key away, crouched down in the tall grass, and watched in silence. The bald man strode into the woods first, carrying Caoye over his shoulder. Caoye had been tied up tightly, weeping and wailing the entire way. Behind him, two men carried Youtao. Youtao was battered and bruised all over. Had her chest not been faintly rising and falling, Li Banfeng might have suspected she had already been beaten to death. Caoye and Youtao were dumped onto a patch of open ground. One of the bald man's lackeys stepped forward and pinched Caoye's cheek. "Don't cry now! What's there to cry about? I know how to handle myself—I promise it won't hurt a bit!" As he spoke, the lackey moved to lay hands on Caoye, but the bald man snapped, "Cut the shit! Didn't I tell you? Wait till the boss gets back!" "Always waiting for the boss…" the lackey grumbled. The bald man stepped forward and kicked him. "Around me, never mind a woman—even if it's a single grain of rice, the boss eats first!" The lackey didn't dare utter another word. Another lackey spotted Lao Yanpao's corpse. "Third Brother, did the boss do this to the old bastard?" The bald man told the other two lackeys to keep watch over Caoye and Youtao while he went over to inspect Lao Yanpao's body. "Judging by the blade marks, Second Brother did this. But the old guy is poisoned, which is definitely the boss's handiwork." The bald man smugly explained the difference in style between Gold-Rimmed Glasses and Hu Gaozi to his subordinate. Li Banfeng had no interest in listening to their stylistic distinctions, because Gold-Rimmed Glasses and Hu Gaozi were already dead. He cared about only one thing right now: they had split up. The bald man and his three lackeys were divided two and two. Sickle in hand, Li Banfeng crept cautiously toward the two lackeys guarding Caoye and Youtao. One lackey was groping Youtao, trying his best to take advantage of the opportunity. The other had thrust his hand into Caoye's clothes. Hearing her cry too loudly, he hastily gagged her mouth. *Closer. Just a bit closer.* Li Banfeng possessed no ranged attacks. To pull off a successful ambush, he needed to get close enough. Visually, about twenty meters remained—still a bit too far. A few more steps, down to fifteen meters. *A little closer.* *Snap!* Li Banfeng stepped down slightly too hard, and the dry leaves crunched beneath his foot, making a faint noise. Holding his breath, he froze behind a tree, motionless. The two lackeys had probably noticed. The ambush seemed to have failed. If all four rushed him together, he would have to find a way to weather the initial assault before calling Xiaopang down to back him up. If all else failed, he would just flee. It wasn't as though he was particularly close with these two women anyway. After a few moments of deliberation, Li Banfeng heard no further movement. Peeking out from behind the trunk, he was astonished to discover that the two lackeys were still occupied fondling Youtao and Caoye, having paid him no attention whatsoever. The innate trait of a Dwelling Cultivator—Neglect. Not neglecting others, but being neglected by others. They had overlooked Li Banfeng's presence and paid no mind to his footstep. In a wild, deserted forest, a cracking twig was hardly unusual, and their attention was entirely consumed by the two girls. Since neither had noticed, Li Banfeng pressed forward. With ten meters left, he abandoned stealth entirely. Darting out from behind the tree, powered by the speed of a journey cultivator, he was behind one of the lackeys in less than a second. Before the man could even register Li Banfeng's face, his throat was slit with a sweep of the sickle. The other lackey scrambled behind Caoye. Li Banfeng shoved Caoye aside and swung his blade again. The sickle struck the man's flesh, throwing off a shower of sparks without breaking the skin. Youtao yelled, "He's a body cultivator!" This bastard possessed natural armor! Li Banfeng swung the blade again, but it still failed to pierce the skin. By this point, the bald man and the remaining lackey were already rushing over. Li Banfeng was in dire straits; he was about to face a siege by three men. Seized by terror, Li Banfeng trembled all over, his eyes rimmed with red. The bald man looked down at the dead lackey on the ground, then shifted his gaze to Li Banfeng. "Well, aren't you a little mongrel? You really are a son of a bitch," the bald man sneered, tilting his head as his eyes glinted with chilling malice. "You dare touch my men? Today, I'm chopping off both your hands, scooping out your brains, and making you eat them yourself!" Hearing that, Li Banfeng spun on his heel and ran. But he wasn't fast enough. As he reached the base of a tree, his path was blocked by the naturally armored body cultivator. The bald man and his other lackey strolled up behind him at an unhurried pace. Li Banfeng's face twisted in sheer terror, his knees buckling as though he were about to drop to the ground. The bald man strode forward step by step until he reached the foot of the large tree. The faint smirk on his face looked ghastly and cruel. "Kneel. Make it look nice, and I might give you a quick death. Down on your knees! I told you to kneel! Are you deaf? Can't you hear me—" *Thud!* A dull thud cut him off. Xiaopang plummeted from the branches above. The bald man had no clue why Xiaopang had dropped out of the tree. Even less could he fathom why Li Banfeng had chosen to flee straight toward this very trunk. Xiaopang's axe slammed square into the lackey's head. Fractured bone and scattered brains splattered across the bald man's face. The bald man's cruel smirk vanished instantly, for he realized Li Banfeng had raised his sickle. As a Martial Cultivator, the bald man's reflexes were lightning fast. He immediately raised his dagger, sank into a horse stance, and braced himself to parry with all his might—only to collapse to his knees in excruciating agony. Li Banfeng's sickle remained held high, but raising a blade and swinging it were two entirely different things. He had raised the weapon with his right hand while delivering a vicious kick to the groin with his left foot in one seamless motion. Given how obligingly the bald man had lowered himself into a horse stance, the strike proved devastatingly effective. The bald man dropped to his knees. Inwardly, he cursed Li Banfeng with every ounce of his being: *How can this bastard fight so dirty?!* Only the naturally armored lackey remained. Like everyone else, this lackey had held out on Bitter Mist Mountain for a full day, and his physical condition was far from ideal. Xiaopang, however, was in much better shape. The resilience of a Food Cultivator proved far sturdier than that of a body cultivator. Raising his axe, Xiaopang hacked down repeatedly with brute force. The lackey clung stubbornly to his natural armor until he could sustain it no longer. Xiaopang cleaved straight from his left shoulder down to his right ribs, tearing half his torso away. At the same time, Li Banfeng hooked the blade of his sickle beneath the bald man's chin. The bald man's jaw trembled as he stammered indistinctly, "I just… I just wanted to scare you! I didn't want to kill anyone! I wouldn't kill anyone, I really wouldn't…" "You just wanted to scare me?" Li Banfeng blinked, asking with total earnestness, "Is that true?" "It's true!" The sickle hooked beneath his chin kept him from nodding, but his eyes were filled with desperate sincerity. "Don't do that anymore in the future. I get really scared," Li Banfeng earnestly advised him. Hearing this, the bald man saw a glimmer of hope. "I'll never scare you again, never ever…" Before he could finish, Li Banfeng drew his shovel, drove it straight into the bald man's skull, and pried off the top of his head.