Chapter 34: Don't Scare Me Again

Qin Xiaopang looked at the corpse on the ground and then at Li Banfeng.

Li Banfeng said

Qin Xiaopang didn't know how to comfort him either.

"I was afraid he would kill me, so I killed him; then he wouldn't be able to kill me," Li Banfeng offered a reasonable explanation.

Xiaopang felt that this explanation... couldn't be faulted.

Li Banfeng walked over to the corpse of Old Lao Yanpao, untied the cloth bag from his body, and counted the harvest inside.

Ninety-one snake-spotted chrysanthemums; calculated out, they could sell for nearly eight thousand yuan.

"Is it worth killing for less than eight thousand yuan?" Li Banfeng thought about the prices in Yaowang Valley; human life shouldn't be this cheap.

Qin Xiaopang sighed: "You're from the outside, you don't understand the rules here. Money is too hard to earn and disappears too quickly. In some remote places, there are people who kill for a hundred yuan,

let alone here in Bitter Wushan, an extremely sinister place. In a place like this, human life is just like grass—worthless."

Li Banfeng handed the bag to Xiaopang: "You take this."

Xiaopang shook his head and said: "Those two bastards were killed by you; you avenged Old Lao Yanpao, so his things should rightfully belong to you."

"You hold onto it for now, we'll talk when we get down the mountain." Li Banfeng handed the bag to Qin Xiaopang.

Qin Xiaopang saw Li Banfeng's hands were empty and asked: "Where did your flowers go?"

"That's a long story," Li Banfeng took out a few black and white beads from his pocket, "Brother, do you recognize this?"

Qin Xiaopang took the beads and looked at them, his eyes immediately lighting up: "This is snake-spotted elixir. I've seen this before. Where did you get it?"

It really was snake-spotted elixir.

Actually, Li Banfeng had also had similar speculations.

Since he was willing to take it out to show Xiaopang, he had already prepared the corresponding explanation.

"On the way down the mountain, I met an old lady. She said she was from the pharmacy and wanted to trade elixir for my snake-spotted chrysanthemums—ten flowers for one elixir."

Li Banfeng had originally intended to say five flowers for one elixir, but after careful thought, five flowers would only cover the cost; no one would trade like that.

Trading at a price double the cost was clearly more reasonable.

Upon hearing this, Xiaopang stared at the snake-spotted elixir in his hand, then turned to ask Li Banfeng: "You traded?"

"I traded!" Li Banfeng nodded.

"You traded all of them?"

"I traded all of them!" Li Banfeng said with a smug look, "Brother, would you say I did good business?"

"I'd say this business of yours... you were probably swindled," Xiaopang returned the snake-spotted elixir to Li Banfeng, "Brother, my eyes are dull, I can't tell the real elixir from the fake, but I can tell the truth from a lie.

A single snake-spotted elixir sells for at least ten thousand; ten snake-spotted chrysanthemums only sell for eight hundred and fifty. Who would trade with you like that? You were ninety-nine percent swindled."

"Is that so?" Li Banfeng smacked his lips, put the snake-spotted elixir away, and didn't explain further.

He couldn't explain; he couldn't tell Qin Xiaopang that this wasn't traded from an old lady, but popped out of the copper lotus.

Qin Xiaopang sighed and said: "Coming to Bitter Wushan this time, I've understood one truth: we are still too green. There is some money we really aren't qualified to earn. I was cheated by that guy with glasses, and you were cheated by that old lady.

You just said there's a place with a lot of flowers; was that true?"

Li Banfeng sneered: "Of course that wasn't true. I saw them about to make a move on you, so I made up that place to trick them.

I was hoping they would follow me so I could make a move on the road, but I didn't expect these two to want to kill you first, so I had no choice but to send them on their way here."

Xiaopang nodded: "You're still better than me. Actually, you're much better than me. You don't have to be sad; your snake-spotted chrysanthemums were cheated away, but Old Lao Yanpao's snake-spotted chrysanthemums all belong to you. Let's hurry down the mountain."

Just as the two were about to walk out of the woods, they suddenly saw firelight flickering in the distance.

Xiaopang was startled: "It's a torch."

Li Banfeng's eyes shifted, realizing the situation was bad.

The newcomers were likely accomplices of the man with gold-rimmed glasses, very possibly that bald man.

The bald man's combat power wasn't much, but he had many people around him. To defeat them, one must have an opportunity for a sneak attack.

Li Banfeng said to Xiaopang: "Find a place to hide, as fast as you can. Watch for me to make a move, then you make a move. I'll go hide the corpses first."

Qin Xiaopang said: "I'll hide them with you!"

"There's no time, don't worry about the corpses."

Li Banfeng dragged the corpses of the man with gold-rimmed glasses and the Tiger Bai Bai Gaozi toward the depths of the woods. Xiaopang watched anxiously; the woods were so sparse, where could one hide corpses!

Li Banfeng couldn't find a place to hide the corpses either, but the torches were getting closer and closer.

Seeing the little fatty climb a tree, Li Banfeng moved out of his line of sight, took out the key, opened the door to the Suishenju, and threw the two corpses inside.

Putting corpses in his living quarters, Li Banfeng also felt it was bad luck, but it was a last resort.

Leaving the Suishenju and putting away the key, Li Banfeng hid in the grass, watching quietly.

The bald man carried Mao Caoye and walked into the woods first.

Mao Caoye was tied up tightly, crying and shouting the whole way.

Behind him, two men carried Oil Peach.

Oil Peach was covered in wounds; if her body didn't still have a slight rise and fall, Li Banfeng would have even suspected she had already been beaten to death.

Mao Caoye and Oil Peach were thrown into an open space. One of the bald man's followers stepped forward and pinched Mao Caoye's cheek: "Don't cry, why cry? I'm a man who knows his limits, I guarantee I won't hurt you!"

As he spoke, this follower was about to make a move on Mao Caoye. The bald man shouted: "Don't mess around, didn't I tell you to wait for the boss to come back?"

"Everything has to wait for the boss..." the follower complained.

The bald man stepped forward and kicked him: "With me, don't talk about a woman; even if there's a single grain of rice, the boss eats it first!"

The follower didn't dare to make a sound. Another follower saw Old Lao Yanpao's corpse.

"Third Brother, this old thing was done by the boss, right?"

The bald man had the other two followers watch Mao Caoye and Oil Peach, while he went to Old Lao Yanpao's corpse to examine it.

"Looking at this knife wound, this should have been done by Second Brother, but this old thing was poisoned; this is indeed the boss's technique." The bald man explained the difference in techniques between the man with gold-rimmed glasses and the Tiger Bai Bai Gaozi to his follower with great pride.

Li Banfeng was in no mood to listen to him talk about these differences, because the man with gold-rimmed glasses and the Tiger Bai Bai Gaozi were already gone.

He only cared about one thing now: they had split up.

The bald man and his three followers had split into pairs.

Li Banfeng held his sickle and carefully approached the two followers guarding Mao Caoye and Oil Peach.

One follower was groping Oil Peach, eager to take advantage of the opportunity.

The other reached his hand into Mao Caoye's clothes; seeing Mao Caoye crying too hard, he quickly covered her mouth.

Closer, get closer to them.

Li Banfeng had no long-range attack methods; to succeed in a sneak attack, he needed to be close enough.

Visually, it was still twenty meters; a bit too far.

A few more steps, visually only fifteen meters.

A little closer.

Crack!

Li Banfeng's footsteps were a bit too heavy; stepping on dry leaves made a sound.

He held his breath and hid behind a tree, motionless.

Those two followers must have noticed; the sneak attack seemed to have failed. If the four of them surrounded him together, he would have to think of a strategy to withstand the first wave, then let Xiaopang come down to assist.

If it really didn't work, he would just run away; anyway, he wasn't that close to these two women.

After thinking for a moment, Li Banfeng didn't hear any other movement.

He looked at the two from behind the big tree and was surprised to find that the two followers were still taking advantage of Oil Peach and Mao Caoye, not noticing Li Banfeng at all.

Residential Cultivator talent—Neglect.

It's not neglecting others, but being neglected by others.

The opponent neglected Li Banfeng's existence and didn't pay attention to his footsteps.

In the wild mountains and forests, a "crack" sound was normal; their attention was all on the two girls.

Since they hadn't noticed, Li Banfeng continued to walk forward.

With ten meters left, Li Banfeng no longer snuck.

He suddenly rushed out from behind the tree; relying on the speed of a traveling cultivator, in less than a second, he arrived behind one of the followers.

That follower hadn't even seen Li Banfeng's appearance before his throat was slit by Li Banfeng's knife.

The other follower hid behind Mao Caoye. Li Banfeng pushed Mao Caoye aside and swung his knife again. The sickle hit his body, sparking, but it didn't even break the skin.

Oil Peach shouted: "He's a Martial Cultivator!"

This guy had a natural suit of armor!

Li Banfeng swung his knife again, still not breaking the skin, and at this moment, the bald man and the other follower had already rushed over.

Li Banfeng's situation was bad; he was about to face a siege by three people.

In his fear, Li Banfeng trembled all over, his eyes reddening.

The bald man looked at the follower dead on the ground, then looked at Li Banfeng.

"Good for you, you dog bastard, you really are a dog-raised thing," the bald man tilted his head and looked at Li Banfeng, his eyes flashing with cold light, "You dare to touch my people? Today I'm going to chop off both your hands, then scoop out your brains and make you eat them yourself!"

Upon hearing this, Li Banfeng turned and ran, but he wasn't fast enough. When he ran under a tree, he was blocked by the Martial Cultivator with his own armor.

The bald man, with his follower, chased after him from behind, unhurriedly.

Li Banfeng was so scared his features shifted, his knees bent, and he seemed about to kneel on the ground.

The bald man walked toward Li Banfeng step by step, until he reached the bottom of the big tree. His slightly smiling face looked extremely ferocious:

"Kneel, kneel nicely. I'll let you die quickly. Kneel quickly, I told you to kneel, are you deaf? Can't you hear me..."

Bang!

The bald man heard a muffled sound.

Xiaopang jumped down from the tree.

He didn't know why Xiaopang would jump down from the tree.

He would know even less why Li Banfeng would run under this tree.

Xiaopang's axe landed right on the follower's head; shattered skull and scattered brains splashed all over the bald man's face.

The bald man's ferocious smile disappeared because he discovered Li Banfeng had raised his sickle.

As a Martial Cultivator, the bald man's reaction was very fast. He immediately raised his dagger, squatted into a horse stance, and parried with all his might, then, amidst a burst of intense pain, knelt on the ground.

Li Banfeng's sickle was still raised, but raising a knife and cutting someone were two different things.

He raised the knife with his right hand and kicked the crotch with his left foot; the movements were done in one go.

Plus, the bald man was very cooperative, actively squatting into a horse stance, so the effect of this strike was very obvious.

The bald man knelt down.

He cursed Li Banfeng in his heart: Why is this bird-man so insidious?

There was still one follower with his own armor left.

Like everyone else, this follower had persisted on Bitter Wushan for a day, and his physical condition wasn't very good.

But Xiaopang's condition was better than his; the resistance of a Food Cultivator was tougher than that of a Martial Cultivator.

Xiaopang raised his axe and hacked fiercely, one blow after another.

This follower kept using his armor to hold on, until he couldn't maintain it anymore and was hacked in half by Xiaopang from his left shoulder to his right rib.

At the same time, Li Banfeng used his sickle to hook into the bald man's chin.

The bald man's jaw trembled, and he said unclearly: "I just wanted to, wanted to scare you, I didn't want to kill anyone, I wouldn't kill anyone, I definitely wouldn't..."

"You wanted to scare me?" Li Banfeng blinked and asked very seriously, "Is that true?"

"It's true!" The bald man's chin was hooked, so he couldn't nod, but his gaze was very sincere.

"Don't do this in the future, I was really scared." Li Banfeng earnestly advised the other party.

Upon hearing this, the bald man saw hope:

"I won't scare you again, I never will..."

Before the bald man could finish, Li Banfeng took out his shovel, shoveled into the bald man's skull, and pried open the skullcap.

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(End of chapter)