Chapter 298

【FOUND A CORPSE. PICK IT UP?】

"YES!"

CARD ACQUIRED.

WANG HAOCHENG was still reeling from the shock and terror of two Earth Altar Realm experts being instantly slain, when CHEN MU had already calmed his slightly turbulent qi after using the Great Luo Turning Heaven Hand, his figure slowly descending to hover several meters before WANG HAOCHENG, gazing down at him with cold indifference.

"You call yourself clever, yet you're truly foolish."

CHEN MU spoke calmly, his voice low, yet each word struck like a hammer on WANG HAOCHENG's heart.

WANG HAOCHENG jolted awake from his daze.

The instinct to survive overwhelmed all else; he tumbled head over heels from the treetop to the ground, ignoring the pain, immediately prostrating himself fully on the earth, pounding his head toward CHEN MU's direction with thudding bangs, his voice trembling with sobs and terror.

"My lord, spare my life! My lord, spare my life! I am blind and foolish, my mind clouded by pig fat! Please, my lord, consider the roster…"

"No! I beg my lord to spare this dog's life! I will serve as your ox and horse…"

"Enough."

CHEN MU cut off his wailing, his tone still flat, "Sparing your life isn't out of the question."

At this, WANG HAOCHENG shot up, his eyes blazing with ecstatic relief after narrowly escaping death.

"Hand over all your wealth and treasures," CHEN MU stated his condition.

"Yes! Yes! Thank you, my lord! Thank you for sparing my life!"

WANG HAOCHENG was overjoyed, bowing his head like a pounding pestle—so long as his life was spared, wealth was merely external baggage.

…

Immediately, CHEN MU followed WANG HAOCHENG, who now moved like a bird startled by a bowstring, back to Santan Prefecture.

WANG HAOCHENG dared not hide a single thing, leading CHEN MU to three secret private residences he had purchased.

In the hidden chambers and cellars of these residences, they recovered large ingots of gold, silver notes, jewels and jade artifacts, as well as several high-quality pills and weapons, their total value exceeding hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

When entering the fourth residence, located in Chengxi and seemingly ordinary, WANG HAOCHENG, who walked ahead as guide, flickered a barely perceptible flash of cruelty and calculation in his lowered eyes.

He believed he had concealed it well, unaware that every shift in qi was fully perceived by CHEN MU.

The instant WANG HAOCHENG stepped across the threshold of the inner courtyard—

"Ssshh!"

A piercing, unmatched sword qi erupted without warning from CHEN MU's fingertip, faster than thought, instantly piercing through WANG HAOCHENG's occiput!

WANG HAOCHENG's body froze rigid; at the final moment, he sensed the lethal intent—but the gap in strength was too vast, leaving no time for any effective dodge.

With great effort, he twisted his head, his wide eyes filled with disbelief, shock, resentment, and venom, fixed unblinkingly on CHEN MU, as if unable to comprehend why the man had suddenly struck to kill.

Instantly, the light in his eyes dimmed rapidly; with a thud, his corpse collapsed to the ground, blood gushing steadily from the wound in his forehead, eyes still wide open in death.

【FOUND A CORPSE. PICK IT UP?】

"YES!"

…

"Stubborn to the end."

CHEN MU coldly barked, not even glancing at WANG HAOCHENG's corpse, continuing to stride into the residence.

Simultaneously, his true qi erupted violently outward, transforming into dozens, even hundreds of fine, razor-sharp invisible sword qis, as if alive, suddenly lashing out toward hidden spots—the rock garden, the side rooms, the shadowed corners!

Shhh! Shhh! Shhh~

"Ahh!"

"Ughh~"

"Spare me…"

Instantly, a series of short, shrill screams erupted throughout the residence.

The hidden warriors WANG HAOCHENG had secretly stationed, meant to delay CHEN MU and buy himself time to flee.

Among them were five experts at the Primordial Stage, from early to mid-level—before they even glimpsed CHEN MU's shadow, they were instantly slain by the omnipresent, pinpoint-accurate sword qis, wiped out in an instant.

【FOUND A CORPSE. PICK IT UP?】

"YES!"

Card after card acquired.

CHEN MU walked forward, expressionless.

Long before entering this residence, he had already sensed the hidden qi signatures within.

WANG HAOCHENG's petty tricks were child's play before CHEN MU.

"One Zhang Yao, one Wang Haocheng—most of their wealth is now in hand. Should be sufficient."

CHEN MU counted his gains, mentally calculating.

Next came the core mission: exterminating the Gold Coin Gang.

Killing five thousand elite members alone would be time-consuming and exhausting, but more importantly, it would inevitably alert the rest.

After all, these were five thousand living people, not five thousand pigs or sheep awaiting slaughter—once the death toll reached a certain scale, word would spread, the remaining members would scatter or go on high alert, making it impossible to wipe them all out at once.

To swiftly and thoroughly eliminate these targets, he needed "allies!"

…

Half an hour later, in the outer district of Santan Prefecture.

Outside an unremarkable courtyard, indistinguishable from surrounding homes.

A man with sallow skin and a blank expression lifted the coarse cloth curtain and stepped inside, head bowed.

The interior was simple, containing only an old long table.

Behind the table sat an old man with a goatee, reading by the flickering oil lamp, appearing quite at ease.

"Who is the target?"

Before Chen Mu, disguised as a yellow-faced man, could speak, the goateed old man didn't look up—he merely pushed a sheet of white paper and a brush across the table, his voice flat, as if asking about the weather.

Chen Mu did not take the paper or brush; instead, he spoke in a deliberately altered, hoarse voice.

"I wish to see your boss."

Hm?

The goateed old man's hand paused slightly as he turned a page, but still did not look up. "Rules cannot be broken. Write down your target, and the price will follow."

"My target is…" Chen Mu paused slightly, emphasizing his words, "five thousand people."

"What?!"

The goateed old man snapped his head up, his face showing for the first time a mixture of shock and disbelief. He scanned Chen Mu from head to toe, as if trying to determine whether he was joking.

"Are you serious?"

"Of course." Chen Mu's tone remained unchanged as he pulled a thick stack of silver notes from his chest and slapped them onto the table with a sharp "thwack." The top note bore a denomination of ten thousand taels.

"This is the deposit: two hundred thousand taels."

The goateed old man stared at the silver notes; his beard trembled uncontrollably. He finally realized—the seemingly ordinary yellow-faced man was serious.

Five thousand people!

This was undoubtedly the largest assassination contract the "Dark Moon Tower" had ever received in its centuries-long history!

That's right.

The "helper" Chen Mu had sought was precisely the organization active in the Southeast and Jiannan Dao regions, with a lineage spanning centuries, housing a Tiangong realm master within its ranks, and enjoying a strong reputation among assassins—

The Dark Moon Tower!

The Dark Moon Tower, like the Black Dragon Society, occasionally clashed with other assassin groups, but mostly kept to their own paths.

And as for targets, as long as the employer paid enough, even assassinating the Commander of the Zhenwu Bureau of a Dao was something they would accept!

"Huu~"

The goateed old man drew a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his shock, rose to his feet, and bowed to Chen Mu with solemnity.

"Wait here, sir."

Saying this, he turned and strode quickly into the back room.

Chen Mu focused his senses, hearing no voices—clearly, the man was using something like "tongxin bamboo slips" to communicate with his superiors.

Not long after.

The goateed old man reemerged from the back room, his gaze toward Chen Mu now carrying a new gravity. He spoke in a low, steady tone.

"Thank you for entrusting us with this business! We, the Dark Moon Tower, accept this contract!"