Lüshui Beggar was a beggar.
"What's given is given" was the opening move for Give an Inch and Take a Foot, a Beggar Cultivator technique.
When a beggar of great renown suddenly popped out with "what's given is given," any person in their right mind would assume he was using a Beggar Cultivator technique.
Yet Chu Shaoqiang knew very well that Lüshui Beggar was no Beggar Cultivator.
Wang Fuqi had been duped. Anything Lüshui Beggar had touched with his own hands was something Wang Fuqi should never have touched again.
His right hand was already festering with rot. Wang Fuqi acted decisively: pulling out a dagger, he severed his right forearm at the elbow.
Lüshui Beggar laughed. "Didn't cut off enough."
Indeed, he had not cut off enough. The forearm was severed, but the rot continued spreading up his upper arm. Terrified, Wang Fuqi swung the blade again and cleaved it off from the shoulder.
Lüshui Beggar chuckled once more. "Cut too late."
Though the upper arm was gone, Wang Fuqi's body began to rot, the lesion spreading rapidly across his torso.
With drooping eyelids, Chu Shaoqiang said, "Lü Huazi, you've arrived quite early."
Lüshui Beggar smiled and said nothing.
At his side, Critick said, "We didn't want to come this early either, but your friend was so foolish that he offered up his life on his own. We couldn't very well pass up such a cheap deal."
Chu Shaoqiang frowned slightly. "Foreign devil, this isn't your turf. No one would even notice if you died here. You still have the nerve to talk business with me?"
Critick shrugged and fell silent.
Business.
The crux of his words lay in that very concept. Those words had not been spoken for Chu Shaoqiang's ears. Critick was not certain whether that person was present, but this was the cue he could offer.
The business had begun.
Lüshui Beggar chuckled. "My disciple wasn't wrong. This partner of yours really is a bit dim."
Wang Fuqi cried out toward Chu Shaoqiang, "Master Chu, save me! Gurgle, gurgle..."
Bang!
Before he could finish, Wang Fuqi's vocal cords rotted away, leaving only a low, raspy rattle.
He was beyond saving; Chu Shaoqiang knew that full well.
In the blink of an eye, Wang Fuqi's body rotted completely through and collapsed, sending pus splashing all over Chu Shaoqiang.
If that pus seeped into Chu Shaoqiang's skin, it would be enough to claim his life as well.
Lüshui Beggar sighed. "You and he make quite a pair. Neither of you is very bright."
Chu Shaoqiang looked at Lüshui Beggar with a sneer. "Judging by what you amount to now, you haven't changed much from back then. If the Outer States hadn't stepped in back then, I wouldn't have suffered such a massive loss at your hands!"
A layer of lime sloughed rustling off Chu Shaoqiang's body, falling to the ground along with Wang Fuqi's pus. Chu Shaoqiang himself remained completely unscathed.
Lüshui Beggar was not surprised. Chu Shaoqiang had always been cautious; keeping his guard up at all times was only natural.
Seeing this, Critick immediately popped a blister on his face, sending green fluid flying toward Chu Shaoqiang.
With a flick of Chu Shaoqiang's sleeve, fine lime dust precisely intercepted the fluid from the blister.
"Your disciple is just as arrogant as you. You at least carry some weight, but he's completely out of his depth." Chu Shaoqiang did not bother sparing Critick a second glance.
Lü Huazi chuckled. "He's a young man who hasn't seen the world. Facing a prominent figure like you, it's only natural he'd panic a little."
Critick kept popping blisters, continuously spraying fluid toward Chu Shaoqiang.
He truly appeared somewhat panicked, but this was part of his plan. He only wanted to precipitate the battle between Lüshui Beggar and Chu Shaoqiang as quickly as possible.
Fishing in troubled waters—the water and the fish were both here. As for the Inner States people and the local spirit, he could not care less.
Faced with Critick's repeated provocations, Chu Shaoqiang naturally would not remain purely on the defensive. The lime on his body turned into a dense mist and billowed toward Lüshui Beggar and Critick.
Lüshui Beggar warned Critick, "Get out of the way if you don't want to die."
Critick dodged swiftly. Lüshui Beggar rubbed his nose and sneezed, the violent gust blowing away the lime dust.
At the same time, the boils on Lüshui Beggar's body welled up layer upon layer, splitting open one after another. No pus oozed from the fissures; instead, a plump, round little head poked out, its pair of oversized eyes peering in all directions.
It was the head of a dragonfly. One dragonfly-like lesion after another crawled out of the boils, fluttering its wings as it took flight.
Lime dust could hardly block lesions as large as dragonflies, and even killing a portion of them would be futile; if even a single dragonfly landed on him, it would pose an immense threat to Chu Shaoqiang.
Unperturbed, Chu Shaoqiang untied his scarf and tossed it into the air.
The scarf expanded rapidly, coated in a layer of adhesive like flypaper, catching and gluing down every single lesion.
While trapping the dragonflies, Chu Shaoqiang secretly manipulated lime dust to close in on Lüshui Beggar.
Lüshui Beggar burped; his stomach churned.
A surge of sour gastric fluid rose from his belly. He spat out a portion to coat his entire body, and held another portion in his mouth to seal off his nose and mouth.
This was a defense devised specifically against Chu Shaoqiang's lime. Shielded by the acidic fluid, Lüshui Beggar withstood the lime and rapidly closed the distance to Chu Shaoqiang.
With a foundation as a Martial Cultivator and the fact that his opponent dared not touch him, close-quarters combat made victory virtually certain.
Less than five meters from Chu Shaoqiang, a burst of flames suddenly engulfed Lüshui Beggar.
A Fire Cultivator?
The rolling flames melted the carapace formed from hardened pus, and layers of venom began seeping into Lüshui Beggar's body.
A Poison Cultivator as well!
A viscous liquid seeped from Lüshui Beggar's body, on the verge of extinguishing the flames, when a basin of cold water dropped from the sky, dousing the fire a step ahead.
Who had helped Lüshui Beggar?
This assistance was completely unnecessary.
Just as Lüshui Beggar was bewildered, an aged voice sounded by his ear: "Having accepted my water, stand still!"
A Service Cultivator!
Once you accepted something from a Service Cultivator, you had to pay them recompense. The Service Cultivator had not forcibly taken Lüshui Beggar's life—knowing the beggar's prowess, he merely used a technique to forcefully freeze Lüshui Beggar's knees.
Lüshui Beggar's knee joints grew stiff, as if petrified, leaving his legs unable to bend or move.
The Fire Cultivator swiftly enveloped Lüshui Beggar in raging flames. Relying on his formidable cultivation, Lüshui Beggar forcefully snapped his own knee joints, caused the bones to regenerate and knit back together instantly, and leapt clear of the Service Cultivator's control.
The moment his feet touched down, Lüshui Beggar landed squarely in a quagmire, sinking from his ankles to his waist in an instant.
A Mud Cultivator too?
Counting Wang Fuqi, who had just been killed by Lüshui Beggar, Chu Shaoqiang had brought five helpers.
All five had remained hidden in the shadows, their presence masked by Chu Shaoqiang's magical artifacts, such that Lüshui Beggar had not detected a single one.
The moment he sank into the mud, Chu Shaoqiang approached, carrying a small bag of cement.
This bag of cement was custom-made for Lüshui Beggar. Sprinkled over his body, it would set rapidly, hardening Lüshui Beggar completely and denying him even the chance to turn into pus and escape.
Just as the bag of cement was about to be dumped over his head, with Lüshui Beggar having nowhere left to dodge, Chu Shaoqiang suddenly felt a chill in his palm. His grip caught only empty air.
Where was the cement?
How had it vanished into thin air!
Hidden behind a tree, Li Banfeng faintly heard the glove praise, "Fine craft."
"He Jiaqing?" The first person Chu Shaoqiang thought of was He Jiaqing, because he had just suffered at He Jiaqing's hands in Wuqin Township.
"Jiaqing, come on out! I saw you long ago," Chu Shaoqiang bluffed, having no idea where He Jiaqing actually was.
He Jiaqing did not fall for it. While the rest were still ganging up on Lüshui Beggar, he dumped the entire bag of cement directly onto the Mud Cultivator.
The Mud Cultivator writhed frantically, trying to break free from the cement. The material was devastating to him, destroying his physical structure directly.
He Jiaqing splattered cement all around, sending Chu Shaoqiang's helpers scattering to avoid it.
Seizing the opportunity, Lüshui Beggar snorted two streams of mucus from his nostrils, sticking them fast to Chu Shaoqiang.
Chu Shaoqiang was shielded by lime and was not afraid of the mucus.
Nor did Lüshui Beggar intend to harm Chu Shaoqiang with it; he meant to use the mucus to pull himself out using Chu Shaoqiang as leverage.
Two pairs of pliers flew from Chu Shaoqiang's robes, plucking the mucus off his back by its roots.
Yet he was still a fraction too slow. Lüshui Beggar beat him to the punch, successfully leveraging the pull to break free from the mire.
Lüshui Beggar roared as pus sprayed wildly from all over his body.
Chu Shaoqiang had the means to withstand it, and the other helpers had ways to dodge.
Only the Mud Cultivator was in dire straits. Coated in cement, his movements were excruciatingly sluggish. He failed to dodge the pus; even though only a tiny speck landed on his forehead, his head felt as if it were splitting open with agony.
Not just felt like it—it truly cracked open!
Though Lü Huazi seemed to strike casually, every move was lethal. Under the excruciating pain, the Mud Cultivator's cranium split apart, and his brain boiled instantly, gushing everywhere.
Deprived of his brains, the Mud Cultivator stood frozen where he was, his life signs slowly fading away.
Yet his body was not entirely dead. Chunks of flesh sloughed off him, joining the remains of Wang Fuqi, the Scrying Cultivator, to transform into hundreds of "slugs" that squirmed in all directions. The trails of slime they left in their wake spread everywhere; the slightest touch would infect a person with Lüshui Beggar's lesions.
At this, even Chu Shaoqiang found it tricky to defend against. He scattered a circle of lime around himself to create a safe zone.
The Fire Cultivator was not afraid; whatever came, he burned.
The Service Cultivator was clever, hiding beside the Fire Cultivator.
The Poison Cultivator and the Fire Cultivator were generally not on good terms, so he refused to go near the Fire Cultivator. To escape the slugs, he moved beneath a willow tree.
Strange. It seemed there had not been a willow tree here a moment ago.
He sensed something was wrong; an ambush might be lurking near this willow tree. Lü Huazi might have brought more than just one helper.
The Poison Cultivator's way of dealing with ambushes was very simple: release poison immediately without checking. If he guessed right, it was a massive gain; if he guessed wrong, he lost nothing.
Layers of toxic mist swiftly rose from the Poison Cultivator. Just as it was about to billow into the canopy, two slugs carrying Lüshui Beggar's lesions slithered across the snow to the Poison Cultivator's feet.
The Poison Cultivator dodged quickly. Highly agile, he hopped lightly over a ring of light, evading the slugs on the ground.
Wait... why had he hopped over a ring of light?
Where had the ring of light come from?
When dodging danger, encountering something strange meant you had to avoid it, or you might trigger a trap—that was combat experience, and instinct.
Yet the Poison Cultivator could not comprehend why, upon jumping over that ring of light, it felt as though a layer of his skin had been flayed off.
Before he could realize who had attacked him, Li Banfeng suddenly materialized, his figure flashing past.
Such speed—this is a journey cultivator recruited by Lü Huazi!
Thoughts raced through the Poison Cultivator's mind as he instantly made his judgment:
The myriad wounds left across his body were because he had just been hit by the journey cultivator technique Treading Ten Thousand Rivers.
What the opponent was using now was Viewing Flowers on a Galloping Horse. He could not let him vanish from sight!
Enduring his injuries, the Poison Cultivator drew on his rich combat experience to lock his gaze onto Li Banfeng. His right hand swelled, concentrating all his venom into his palm, preparing to deal Li Banfeng a fatal strike.
He was a tenth-tier cultivator, just like Guo Jinshi and Tian Dasong, waiting to achieve a great merit to ascend above the clouds.
He had self-awareness. He knew he could not kill Lüshui Beggar, and the merit of rescuing Ge Junma would not fall to him either.
Yet if he could kill one of Lüshui Beggar's helpers, that would still be enough to ascend above the clouds and seize the next opportunity for ennoblement, and then—
Another pass of the ring of light...
A ring of light again...
That ring of light seemed to pull the Poison Cultivator into a nightmare.
While keeping his gaze locked on Li Banfeng, waiting for an opportunity to counterattack, and watching out for Lüshui Beggar at the same time, he never expected the ring of light to sweep past his feet again.
Before the Poison Cultivator could even fathom where this light came from, another layer of his flesh was stripped away.
This was a severe wound. As his body swayed, the ring of light suddenly swept back and forth beneath his feet several times.
One back-and-forth meant two passes.
Several passes were equivalent to being slashed over ten times by a thousand blades. Covered in wounds, the Poison Cultivator was momentarily paralyzed.
Using the technique Heart Arrowing Home, Li Banfeng hooked the Poison Cultivator's cranium with his sickle and dragged him back into the Portable Abode.
"Wife, this one is a Poison Cultivator. He's a bit spicy, so eat slowly."
How could the gramophone have any appetite now? "Husband, the battlefield is fraught with peril. You must take utmost care!"
Chapter 450