Chapter 42: Halfway to the Goal

Twilight.

A corner of the shanty town.

It was remote, pitch-black, and silent here.

Du En arrived quietly, hiding himself to observe.

He had already killed four people in a row, spreading the favor evenly; hall masters from both the new and old gangs had been struck down.

Witnessing this, many of the scattered, terrified gang members spread the news; the other hall masters were already anxious, and upon hearing the rumors, they naturally fled immediately.

The old fox Ning Caize, however, had already sensed something amiss and was filled with worry, fearing that when he reached the corpse-burying wasteland, he would again stumble upon some gang leader who had died in a bizarre and miserable way.

Du En only nodded slightly, asking as if he were concerned: "Speaking of which, have the stewards really not made a single move?"

Because things were moving much faster than before, Ning Caize and the others were not mentally prepared, and subconsciously, they were like newly hatched chicks, following closely behind Du En.

Given how much that guy loathed him, if he were truly fishing in the dark, he would surely be unable to resist jumping out to target the somewhat suspicious-acting Du En.

If that were known, he would likely suffer the consequences!

Fortunately, Du En interrupted him in time before he could finish the word "hiding."

This left the beasts, who would usually be scared off by Du En and his group, feeling somewhat bewildered; especially the grey jackals of the same pack, who could not fathom how these two kin of theirs had changed so drastically after just one night.

Xu Ran sighed long and hard, nodding as he said: "A season of many troubles. Just last night, I don't know if that evil cultivator started killing again, but people died regardless. However, there was nothing obviously bizarre, just cruel and violent."

Though he had just had this thought, he could not help but smile bitterly.

Wei Ming, unaware of the situation, spoke up like this while sitting in the cart on the road.

After bidding Du En farewell, Xu Ran glanced at the others on his side, not feeling that it was his imagination.

The plan for this operation was actually very simple: find a few suitable targets who were somewhat prominent and had status in the shanty town, slaughter them, and see if it could be framed on an evil cultivator, thereby inciting the stewards to take action.

To this end, at the start of the operation, he had wandered around for a while without covering his face.

Du En, flicking his whip, spoke silently: "Since they didn't come, isn't that just right?"

"Looking at it this way, even if I pull off a stunt like this, they likely won't take action to dig out and hunt down the hidden evil cultivator."

Liu Qixiang naturally dared not commit crimes in the face of the wind, and he did not come to collect protection fees this morning.

However, this operation carried risks.

The most eye-catching of all were the four headless corpses.

"Du En, your creativity is not bad."

"Looking at your expressions, is there something wrong with today's corpses?" Du En asked directly.

When Du En returned quietly to the small courtyard at the hour of dawn, it had already returned to peace.

That was true; the fewer troubles, the better.

To tell the truth, this could not be considered unexpected.

"Sigh~!"

"Who knows? Anyway, on our side, since the foreman came back yesterday, except for a few moments, he has been hiding..."

Du En muttered to himself.

"These guys really don't care about anything."

Because it was not suitable to continue killing, Du En came here to observe.

The two grey jackals pulling the cart, having eaten the leftover innards of the strange owl stewed by Du En and his group, were quite full. Walking on the path at this moment, watching the other scavengers—those carrion-eating beasts—fighting for food, they could not help but hold their heads high and look down upon them with disdain.

Of course, not everything remained as it was.

Simply put, the corpses had all been searched, and their clothes were in disarray!

"This doesn't look evil at all. You all have quite a lot of nerve; aren't you afraid it really was done by an evil cultivator?"

Du En interrupted his speech.

Dozens of corpses were laid out there.

So he walked over to examine them, touching them with a shovel.

Xu Ran, that hardworking lad, was naturally among them now, and he could not help but speak up with a strange tone that made one not want to respond.

"Hmm, you and we cannot be delayed here; let's end the chat here for today."

However, since someone had already set the pattern, it was normal for him to take over now.

He first threw two owl skeletons for the grey jackals to gnaw on, then straightened his clothes and wrapping cloth, picked up the shovel, and stepped onto the wasteland with composure.

The path here was also unobstructed, and he naturally reached the corpse-burying wasteland quickly.

They thought optimistically.

Already in an unusual state of mind, they were all shocked to the core upon seeing the jackal-drawn cart.

The two sides passed each other, each harboring different thoughts.

Hearing this, the corpse-haulers had their spirits pulled back, all appearing depressed and unhappy.

The clamor reached its peak, then quickly faded.

The stewards might be loose on the surface but tight in secret, fishing in the dark.

"That guy was quite aggressive yesterday, but after being scared off by you, Boss, I thought he would come to block the door again this morning!"

He inexplicably felt as if someone's gaze held a hint of regret.

Fortunately, they had secretly moved their spirit stones to a new hiding place last night.

A secondary, incidental goal was naturally to use this to intimidate the Green Clothes Gang and curb the rot of random protection fee collection, so as to avoid it spreading to his side and disturbing his cultivation environment.

The cart was pulled by the grey jackals; pedestrians found it unlucky and were somewhat afraid of the fierce beasts, so they consciously avoided it. Thus, the journey was basically unobstructed, and they headed toward the wasteland at a speed much faster than before.

Therefore, they met the corpse-haulers who had just emerged from the path along the way.

As for the others, they were caught in between, subconsciously feeling something was wrong, but they had not concretely realized it, and at the same time, they were somewhat concerned about why Liu Qixiang had not appeared.

"But there wasn't one either."

Hearing this, the corpse-buriers immediately understood where their vague unease had come from, and Ning Cai even felt a sense of relief, as if a stone had fallen from his heart.

In an instant, the momentum of the Green Clothes Gang, which should have been flourishing, was temporarily interrupted.

But it did not happen.

This person is truly terrifying!

The beasts were even more afraid of the corpse-burier Du En and ran even further away.

He was also feeling uneasy, and upon bumping into Du En's side, he subconsciously assumed he was alone with them, so his speech became casual, and he actually dared to speak of the overseer like that.

As for the large group who had witnessed it directly last night and were scared out of their wits, they one after another chose to quit the gang, hoping that this would allow them to avoid disaster.

After the sun rose, everything looked, unexpectedly, as it had always been.

Du En thought silently.

Because the Corpse Affairs Steward He Bo would definitely be implicated this time!

He had been standing here for a while; within the radiation range of the three gangs in the shanty area, the clamor seemed to be growing more intense, yet he still did not see any sign of the stewards.

It was just that none of the four hall masters killed by Du En had gone missing, yet none of them remained in the state they were in when they first died.

Actually, too few were killed; even if one wanted to frame it on evil cultivators, it was not quite enough to scare people.

He was only afraid that those arrogant and domineering fellows would change their nature and target the six of them, cooking up some conspiracy.

Someone must be harboring evil intentions!

Sigh~ Why are we corpse-transporters not as united as the corpse-buriers?

Xu Ran also came back to his senses, secretly baring his teeth and thinking it was a close call; he had almost blurted out that the overseer was hiding behind closed doors.

Even though this fellow was actually quite shrewd and had other schemes in his heart, at this moment, seeing that Du En had already finished his actions but was still standing there motionless, he should have appeared.

Because it was a bit too much.

The three gangs, or rather, the Green Clothes Gang, were now in a state of panic; no matter how the gang leader urged them, the people below all chose to tuck their tails between their legs.

We are truly clever!

Right now, his cultivation technique had been mastered, and his body, through much eating and training, had become even more solid and robust; although his cultivation was still at the early stage of Qi Refining, he could still try it on these corpses he had killed himself, as he knew their backgrounds well.

Disemboweling!

(End of this chapter)