Chapter 58: Starting Today, I

"Brother, what kind of nonsense are you talking?"

Guan Tong's face darkened; he growled, "I want to kill you? Who told you that? Which bastard is sowing discord between us?"

"Is there not?" Chen Mu's expression remained unchanged; he smiled faintly, picked up his cup, and swirled it. "Then what about the poison in this wine?"

"... Poison in the wine?"

Guan Tong's face turned pale with shock. "Impossible! How could there be poison in the wine!?"

He grabbed the wine flask, tilted it to his lips, and drank several large gulps, then set it down and exhaled, "If there's poison in the wine, let it kill me first!"

Chen Mu smiled.

Without the "Wolf Howls at the Moon," he might have believed Guan Tong's act.

Since acquiring the "Wolf Howls at the Moon," Chen Mu always sniffed his food before eating.

If he detected any deviation from the food's natural scent, he would not touch it.

The wine Guan Tong poured for both of them came from the same flask—fragrant, mellow, and smooth.

On scent alone, Chen Mu found no issue.

Yet the smell in Guan Tong's cup was different!

How could the same wine have a different scent?

Guan Tong kept urging him to drink!

And when he urged, his heartbeat quickened slightly!

Taken together, these small details proved the wine Chen Mu drank was poisoned!

Guan Tong wanted to poison him?

Chen Mu couldn't understand why.

He decided not to think further—just confront him directly.

"Perhaps the boss's cup isn't poisoned, but mine? Not so sure~"

Chen Mu stood, held his cup, walked to Guan Tong's side, and placed it down. "Could the boss please drink this cup of wine too?"

Boom~

Guan Tong slammed his fist on the table and leapt up, eyes blazing with fury. "Chen Mu! What do you mean? Out of nowhere, you accuse me of wanting to harm you! If I wanted to kill you, why invite you here for wine?"

Before the word "?" left his lips, Guan Tong suddenly struck—a palm shot toward Chen Mu.

Thud!

Thud!

Almost simultaneously, Chen Mu's right hand turned pitch-black and lashed out.

Both struck each other's heart with swift, forceful palms.

Palms met!

Chen Mu stood motionless, expression unchanged.

Guan Tong's face turned instantly pale, then crimson, then iron-gray, finally deathly white.

At the same time, his entire body staggered backward uncontrollably.

But after only two steps back, Chen Mu reached out, grabbed him, and held him rigid in place.

"You… you…"

Guan Tong's eyes bulged, his face ashen, his heartbeat stopped—he stared fixedly at Chen Mu, trying to speak, but only managed one syllable before his head slumped sideways, dead.

His heart meridians shattered completely!

Mutual palm strikes.

Guan Tong had aimed for Chen Mu's heart too—but the moment his palm touched Chen Mu's body, the power dispersed through the One Cauldron Body, diffused evenly across his entire frame.

Throughout the entire exchange, Chen Mu merely trembled slightly, felt a faint numbness, and not even a twinge of heart pain.

The One Cauldron Body's defense was strong enough to resist even an Innate Realm cultivator—how could Guan Tong break it?

In contrast, Chen Mu's full-power palm struck Guan Tong's heart and shattered his heart meridians instantly.

【Corpse detected. Retrieve?】

"Yes!"

The card in hand, Chen Mu immediately checked it.

Memory Card!

It recorded Guan Tong's memories from the past three years, up to his death.

He used it directly, reading the most recent memories; his brow furrowed slightly.

"Guo Jinnian?"

"Innate Pill? Lower-grade Spirit Weapon?"

"So Guan Tong was bribed by the Guo family to move against me!"

"But why would the Guo family want to kill..."

"Huh? The mastermind behind the Xiao Yao Pills in Nan Yun City is the Guo family?"

"No wonder..."

As Chen Mu read Guan Tong's memories, he understood—and was stunned, even moved.

The Guo family was the sole distributor of Xiao Yao Pills in Nan Yun Prefecture!

Chen Mu was cracking down on drugs in the East District of the Outer City—the Guo family had no choice but to eliminate him.

Fearing Chen Mu might have an Innate Realm "master" behind him, the Guo family turned to Guan Tong.

Guan Tong, equally wary, chose poison.

The poison was applied to the bottom of the cup—colorless, odorless, just a tiny speck.

It dissolved into the wine, completely invisible, impossible to detect.

Chen Mu wouldn't die immediately after drinking it, he wouldn't even feel anything.

Only after an hour passed would it take effect, seeping into the meridians of the four limbs and hundred bones, leaving a person's muscles powerless.

Once the meridians were affected, the circulation of internal force would be blocked along with them.

Under this double overlay, not even one-tenth of his full strength could be brought to bear.

Brother Guan Tong's plan was to drink wine and eat meat for an hour, then along the road Chen Mu took home, he would arrange for two bandits to cross paths with him from the side.

At night, with Chen Mu swaying as he walked, would bandits who normally robbed on sight really hold back from acting?

The moment they moved, the moment Chen Mu resisted, the bandits would inevitably stab him!

What Brother Guan Tong wanted was for Chen Mu to die at the hands of those bandits.

As a precaution, he had also left a fallback: if the bandits failed, Brother Guan Tong would have his trusted subordinates disguise themselves as remnants of the Green Snake Gang and rush in to "avenge" them.

In short, to obtain the Innate Pill, Brother Guan Tong had sold Chen Mu out!

Whether a genius or an Innate Realm "master," his connections in the Town Martial Office were only so-so.

None of it could stop Brother Guan Tong from breaking through to the Innate Realm!

It was also by reading the memory that Chen Mu learned Brother Guan Tong had already reached the ninth layer of the Postnatal Realm.

"What a pity."

Stopping the memory reading, Chen Mu drew in a deep breath to steady his mind.

Brother Guan Tong wanted him dead, so he'd just have to send Brother Guan Tong off to meet his ancestors.

The two of Brother Guan Tong's subordinates guarding outside the house had to be dealt with as well.

The two clashed palms, Brother Guan Tong died, and the commotion was so slight that Brother Guan Tong's two trusted subordinates outside didn't notice at all.

But afterward…

"Wait!"

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck Chen Mu's mind.

"I know Brother Guan Tong's memories, I have a human-skin mask, and I can do 'voice mimicry'—can I temporarily take 'Brother Guan Tong's' place?"

Light burst from Chen Mu's eyes as his mind spun rapidly.

Brother Guan Tong's death could only be counted as a temporary easing of the predicament.

The Guo family was the real big trouble!

Once they learned of Brother Guan Tong's death, the Guo family would surely come after Chen Mu again.

This time, the Guo family might just strike directly!

Impersonating "Brother Guan Tong" and temporarily acting as the gang leader of the Great Saber Gang would at least buy some buffer time.

The agreement between Brother Guan Tong and Guo Jinnian was within half a month.

Once that half month passed, if "Brother Guan Tong" then went missing, another ten days to half a month could be stalled…

Thinking of this, Chen Mu decisively stripped off his own clothes first, then stripped Brother Guan Tong's and put them on himself.

During this process, he activated "voice mimicry," first using Brother Guan Tong's voice to laugh heartily, "Haha, how about it, brother, I didn't trick you, did I?"

Switching to his own voice, "Not bad, not bad! Gang Leader, do you still have any of that exotic beast meat? Give me a jin, I'll take it home for my older brother and sister-in-law to try?"

Switching back to Brother Guan Tong's voice, "If it were anyone else, naturally there'd be none left. But since you've opened your mouth, brother, of course there is!"

Switching to his own voice, "Thanks, Gang Leader! Here, Gang Leader, I toast you."

Switching back to Brother Guan Tong's voice, "You little punk, are you trying to get me drunk so you can hog the exotic beast meat all to yourself?"

Switching to his own voice, "Gang Leader, you're wronging me here—penalty drink, you must take a penalty drink."

Switching back to Brother Guan Tong's voice, "Hahaha!"

……

One person playing two roles.

In no time, Chen Mu had changed into Brother Guan Tong's clothes, taken out the human-skin mask and put it on, transforming into Brother Guan Tong's appearance.

He also adjusted his hairstyle, released his aura, and fully activated his eighth-layer Postnatal Realm cultivation.

A "Brother Guan Tong" indistinguishable from the real thing was successfully born!