Chapter 66

Everyone in the room was grinning with bared teeth, their scalps tingling.

Why does the White Dragon Sect insist on establishing a foothold in Luo Shui City, when the city's large population makes it merely one suitable point for concealment?

The main reason is that there are many trading partners in Luo Shui City.

The Black Water Gang, De Zheng Ge, the Deputy Magistrate and Assistant Magistrate of Luo Shui City all have dealings with them.

Although their previous foothold was eradicated, these trading partners are still around, so Luo Shui City remains a tempting prize for them.

Once they take over, they just need to re-establish contact, and trade can continue, allowing them to easily gain silver and merit.

The man's name is Bai Li; in the White Dragon Sect, he spent lavish sums to grease palms and finally seized the task of rebuilding the foothold, becoming the helmsman of the new foothold in Luo Shui City.

Then everyone knows what happened: these trading partners had their heads lopped off by Shen Qing one after another within a month.

This feeling is like the White Dragon Sect people cooked a big pot of rice, only just taken a few bites, when the Embroidered Uniform Guard drove them away, but at least the rice is still there—come back and keep eating, and it'll be fine.

The result is, you come back and haven't even warmed your seat when Shen Qing pops out from nowhere, grabs the big pot of rice and walks off, even kicking your stove flying with a foot.

Before leaving, he even turns back and gives you a cold smile.

"Eat eat eat! Eat your mother eat!"

Shen Qing does this—can the White Dragon Sect not be furious?

If you don't want to play, then nobody plays!

At this moment, a sect member below speaks up: "I'm just a Fourth Layer Innate Realm cultivator—I can't possibly go."

"You, a Fourth Layer Innate Realm cultivator, can't go—then I, who just entered the Innate Realm, would be even less likely to go, right?"

For a moment, these low-realm cultivators all speak up in turn.

Originally, the White Dragon Sect's teachings were like wolfish culture—survival of the fittest was blatantly obvious, with lower realms bullied by higher realms being commonplace, but now it's reversed: low realm has become a lifesaver.

The ball is now in the court of the high-realm cultivators.

A man with a sword at his waist speaks unhurriedly: "You all know that Shen Qing's swordsmanship is extremely formidable; I, a sword user, could never be his match."

"As the saying goes, an inch longer, an inch stronger—so you, the spear user, go."

The spear-wielding man slams the table: "So I use a spear and thus deserve to die?"

He's so anxious he's about to draw his spear and stab someone.

At this moment, Bai Li slams the table hard: "Stop arguing—I'll go to Shen Qing's place!"

The sword-wielding man claps: "Wow, Helmsman Bai, you're going alone to find Shen Qing? Aren't you afraid he'll kill you?"

Bai Li glares at the man, pulls out a paper packet from his bosom: "You think I'm stupid? Of course I'm using poison."

The sect members exchange glances: "Poison? Will it work? How do you get close to Shen Qing? Where would you even get the chance to poison him?"

Bai Li sits up straight: "Mountain folk have their own clever schemes."

"I've long been investigating Shen Qing—he has four close aides, and his meals are generally handled by a man named Scholar."

"This Scholar buys delicacies for Shen Qing every day from Luo Shui City; if I make a delicacy, gain fame, and attract him to buy, that's all I need."

"I've already set up a food stall not far from the Hundred Households Office on the street, and it's already caught his attention—he'll surely come to buy sooner or later!"

Bai Li reveals a look of having everything under control.

"Although Shen Qing has good talent, great strength, formidable swordsmanship, superb footwork, and excellent archery, he can't possibly be all-powerful, can he?"

"He can't possibly not fear poison, can he?"

After being defeated so many times.

It's Bai Li's turn to win once, right?!

Luo Shui City Hundred Households Office.

Today, Qin Chuan visits Shen Qing again.

Qin Chuan sees Shen Qing in the courtyard and directly takes out a booklet from his bosom to hand to Shen Qing.

Shen Qing takes the booklet and glances at it a few times.

"What is this?"

"Swordsmanship—I heard you've been using the Wind-Kneading Blade Technique since Bai Yun County, but you're already a Grand Master, and still using this Wind-Kneading Blade Technique? That's too backward, so I found you a formidable blade technique."

"This blade technique is called 'Falling Thunder Nine Blades'; logically, only a Grand Master can learn it, but you're a twenty-year-old Grand Master, so ordinary reasoning doesn't apply—thus I found this blade technique for you."

Shen Qing truly lacks a blade technique; the Wind-Kneading Blade Technique is indeed outdated, and now he relies purely on brute strength.

He flips it open, glances briefly, his eyes light up—indeed, it's an excellent blade technique; it's overbearing to the extreme, and combined with Shen Qing's overbearing true qi, splitting corpses becomes even easier.

"Commander, you've really gone all out—this blade technique isn't cheap, is it?"

Although Shen Qing has only exchanged merit for medicinal pills in the Merit Pavilion of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the Merit Pavilion actually has many treasures—weapons, armor, secret manuals, all present.

If this blade technique were placed in the Merit Pavilion, it wouldn't cost less than five thousand merit.

So Qin Chuan has indeed gone all out—five thousand merit is no small sum for a Commander.

Qin Chuan smiles: "You capturing Wei Jing truly helped me a great deal; a mere blade technique—I still feel I'm getting the better end of the deal."

At this moment, a voice comes from outside: the Scholar calling.

"Boss, boss, a new porridge stall opened outside the Hundred Households Office—these past two days, lots of people have gone to eat; I tried it, the taste is really good—hurry and bring it back for you to try."

Only see the Scholar walk in holding a steaming bowl.

"Ah, Commander Qin, you're here too—then wait, I'll go buy you a bowl too; this taste is truly not bad."

Qin Chuan rises, straightens his clothes: "Forget it, I'll just leave first—there's a mountain of affairs at the Embroidered Uniform Guard; another day."

"As for Shen Qing, I'll leave first—wish you early mastery of this technique."

Having said that, Qin Chuan walks out—just as his front foot steps out, Shen Qing's back hand places the 'Falling Thunder Nine Blades' to one side.

In the short time of speaking, with the aid of Enlightened Heart and Clear Mind and the Innate Blade Immortal, Shen Qing has already completely mastered the Falling Thunder Nine Blades!

The Scholar places the porridge before Shen Qing, lifts the dust-covering plate—inside is a bowl of lean meat porridge.

Shen Qing picks up the spoon, scoops a spoonful, and stuffs it into his mouth.

Shen Qing's eyes lit up.

Whether the taste is good or not is not the point; after all, the scholar has become increasingly adept at tailoring to his own palate, and Shen Qing hasn't eaten anything unpleasant in a long time.

What made Shen Qing's eyes light up was that this porridge had substance.

After taking a mouthful, the innate poisonous constitution trait began to operate, frenziedly converting the toxicity into true qi.

Moreover, the toxicity of this poison is truly significant; Shen Qing roughly sensed it, and this poison should be specifically targeted at the Grandmaster realm, suppressing the use of Grandmaster realm true qi—if one does not normally use true qi, it's fine, but if one does, it will cause the true qi to explode, making the user suffer immensely.

Moreover, it is colorless and odorless, an extremely insidious poison.

Shen Qing continued to calmly drink the porridge, tasting the poison while beginning to think.

Shen Qing still trusted the scholar greatly, and his innate six senses did not trigger any alarm.

Furthermore, this poison is specifically targeted at the Grandmaster realm, so its value cannot be low, which also rules out the possibility that the poisoner intended to harm commoners as revenge against society.

Then the answer is almost upon us.

This person came straight for Shen Qing.

Thinking this, Shen Qing directly lifted the bowl and drank the remaining porridge down his belly, wiped his mouth, and rose to walk toward the outside.

"Scholar, where is this porridge stall located? Take me to see it."

"The taste is not bad."

"I want to properly 'thank' that shop owner."