Chapter 7: Life as Cheap as Grass

Master Seda's face was livid, not knowing if it was because of Yilan's death, or because of Gao De's calmness after killing, or both.

"How dare you kill him? You people are all my apprentices, my private property, and only I have the right to decide your life and death."

"I know," Gao De nodded, showing helplessness on his pale face, and explained: "But he wanted me dead, so I had to let him die first."

"After all, I don't want to die yet." Saying this, he raised his head, looked directly into Master Seda's eyes, appearing very sincere.

"You killed my apprentice without my consent, that is encroaching on my property, and you have to pay with your life." Master Seda looked at Gao De coldly, unmoved.

"Dying at the Master's hands is better than dying at the hands of this villain," Gao De looked at the already stiff corpse on the bed and said: "Besides, he should be the one who truly wants to encroach on your property."

"Yilan told me himself yesterday that he wanted me dead. My life is cheap and not worth mentioning, but if it delays your progress in brewing magic potions, that would be a big mistake." Gao De said pointedly. This was his confidence in daring to night-stab Yilan.

Gao De could be sure that no matter what Master Seda thought about him killing Yilan, and what reaction he would make, it was absolutely impossible to let him pay with his life right now.

Because at this moment, he had an irreplaceable value to Master Seda—he was the only apprentice who had "survived" after testing the drugs so far.

If Master Seda wanted to successfully brew magic potions as soon as possible, the next drug test would definitely have to use him, Gao De.

Therefore, before the next drug test, Master Seda would absolutely not let him die.

The next drug test was the Sword of Damocles hanging over Gao De's head, and at the same time, it was his immunity card.

The facts were also like this.

For Master Seda, who had absolute power and strength, after discovering that Yilan died at Gao De's hands, not immediately erasing Gao De, but keeping on "talking nonsense" with Gao De, meant that Gao De had value to him, and was an existence he couldn't directly erase right now.

Gao De's purpose didn't stop there.

He caught his breath and spoke to Master Seda again:

"Master, Yilan disobeyed your authority first, and I resisted in self-defense afterward. Besides, I can also do the things Yilan did, and it will absolutely not affect my original work. Without him, Master, you will actually not have any loss, and you can save a mouth to feed."

"Resisted in self-defense, haha, you call this resisting in self-defense..."

"Inferior means of fighting for power!" After listening to what Gao De said, Master Seda scanned the "messy" room, seemingly having "understood" everything, and said coldly: "Even if Yilan deserved it, how to punish him is my business, not something you can decide. Your act of night-stabbing him crossed the line."

"You test drugs for me; if my magic potion is successfully brewed, you would have received no small benefits, and at that time I would truly take you as an apprentice..."

"But your cleverness means you won't have this treatment anymore."

"You will regret what you did today," Master Seda didn't wait for Gao De to react, snorted coldly, and turned to walk out, "From now on, you do his work, but all you can get is his work."

Clearly, Master Seda knew exactly what Gao De was relying on and what he was "seeking in his heart."

Watching Master Seda leave, Gao De didn't have any mental fluctuations because of his "threat."

Regarding the "no small benefits after the magic potion is successfully brewed" that Master Seda spoke of, Gao De first didn't believe at all that this old fox would be so kind; besides, he understood that the probability of this magic potion being successfully brewed was too low.

In Master Seda's eyes, Gao De's survival after testing the drug meant that he was infinitely close to success.

But Gao De knew the truth better than anyone: Master Seda was still far from success!

As for the so-called regret for what he did today, that was even less worth mentioning.

If he didn't resist, the next drug test would be the time of his death; why would he care about what happened afterward?

This night-stabbing of Yilan, seemingly reckless, was actually Gao De's careful consideration.

There was basically no consequence—his situation wouldn't be any worse anyway.

The gains were many: while solving a big trouble, he also prepared himself psychologically for "killing" to adapt to this cannibalistic environment.

Most importantly, he obtained the qualification to freely enter and exit the herb garden that originally belonged to Yilan—only by walking out could he have more opportunities to get rid of his current predicament.

As for the inexplicably activated crescent gemstone, it was an unexpected joy.

Swish! A basin of clear water washed away the last trace of blood in the room. Gao De reached out and wiped the sweat on his forehead.

Although Yilan's matter was temporarily put aside, the scene still had to be cleaned up; otherwise, it would be terrifying to be bloody, and the corpse would also rot after a period of time.

Master Seda didn't assign anyone to handle it, so Gao De, as the "murderer," consciously did the finishing work.

The room had been cleaned.

"His corpse should be buried in the back mountain," Amy, who volunteered to stay and help, said: "The apprentices who tested the drugs before were also buried there."

Gao De nodded, having no objection.

The two of them, one holding the legs and the other holding the shoulders, lifted Yilan's corpse.

Amy looked at the roommate who had been with him day and night and should be extremely familiar with, but now felt extremely strange, hesitated for a long time, and then said softly to Gao De: "I really didn't expect you to do such a thing."

He was a bit fearful, because after seeing Yilan's death, he instinctively felt a bit of fear toward Gao De.

For a murderer, most people are afraid.

"If someone wants to kill you, what would you do?" Gao De asked.

Amy was stunned, unable to think of an answer for a while.

He understood what Gao De meant, but he also knew that if he encountered such a situation, he would only be at a loss and definitely wouldn't be as decisive as Gao De.

"Let's go, you lead the way." Seeing Amy's fear of him, Gao De was no longer as careful as before.

After burying Yilan's corpse, Gao De and Amy returned to the herb garden.

At this time, it was just time for the apprentices to have breakfast.

The two of them had been busy for a long time, especially Gao De, who had killed and buried a body, consuming a lot of physical strength, and was already hungry, so they immediately rushed to the dining room.

The apprentices in the dining room saw Gao De enter, and the originally noisy environment immediately became quiet, leaving only the sound of chewing.

Witnessing Yilan's death with their own eyes still had a great impact on these apprentices who were still children in a strict sense.

At this moment, the apprentices looked at him like a tiger.

Gao De acted as if he didn't notice, took a breakfast by himself, and found an empty seat to sit down.

He took a big bite of the rye bread soaked in pea soup.

The texture was still as indescribable as before, but it wasn't as hard to swallow as before.

I don't know if it was because he was hungry, or because of something else.

Gao De swallowed his breakfast while reviewing his itinerary for today.

Although he killed someone in the middle of the night, today's work still had to continue.

In the morning, he was responsible for the cultivation of some herbs in the herb garden and feeding the little gray mice; in the afternoon, he was to brew primary spider venom potion; and in the evening, it was cultivation.

Day after day, a very fixed and boring itinerary.

After drinking the last sip of hot pea soup, Gao De got up, said goodbye to Amy, and walked toward the backyard.

That was the herb planting area in the garden.

In yesterday's time, through his roommate Amy, Gao De already had a rough impression of the terrain structure and area distribution of the herb garden, and could basically go to each area independently.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 8 =====