Chapter 35: Chapter 26 Bone-Tapping, Marrow- Suckingi
Translator: 549690339
Half a month later, the cultivators living in the slum area had all paid up what they could.
Those who didn’t, either had already moved away, or were already dead.
On this day, news arrived from the outside that the Patrol Team had captured the evildoer, at the expense of many casualties.
This made Xu Mu sigh, the timing was indeed impeccable.
“Greeting, Lord Jia!
“Greetings, Friend Jia!”
“No need to be formal, no need to be formal!”
On the street, the passersby frequently bowed and greeted Jia An, who was patrolling with a few followers.
Jia An smiled and nodded in response.
At this moment, he was brimming with confidence, at the pinnacle of his life. It was a stark contrast to his once disdainful appearance half a month ago.
“Brother Jia, we have arrived at Xu Mu’s residence!”
Ma Rui, who was leading the way ahead, said with a sycophantic smile.
By this point, he had thoroughly become Jia An’s lackey, despite his cultivation not being inferior to Jia An’s.
“Knock on the door! Get him out!”
With his hands clasped behind his back and belly pushed forward, Jia An said, appearing incredibly calm.
“Yes!”
Ma Rui nodded, stepped forward, and started banging forcefully on the heavy door, shouting, “Friend Xu, Friend Xu, we have matters to discuss. Please come out!”
Xu Mu opened his door, glanced at the group in front of him, then furrowed his eyebrows slightly.
“Friend Jia, what brings you here?”
“Hehe!”
Jia An changed from his earlier aplomb, slightly bowed his body, rubbed his hands, and said with a forced smile, “Friend Xu, sorry for bothering you again, but 1 need another ten lower-grade spirit stones!”
Xu Mu looked displeased, a look of resentment is barely noticeable through his laughter, “Friend Jia, do you think I’m a pushover?”
Although ten spirit stones are not a big deal for him now, if he gave in to their insolence this time, they would probably return in a few days.
They’re just out for a quick buck!
“Friend Xu, you are misunderstanding me!”
Jia An’s chubby face looked pitiful, “1 don’t want to make life difficult for you, Friend Xu. However, the higher-ups have given me a direct order! As you know, many of our men were injured when we captured the evildoer. We need to provide them with some compensation, right?”
“However, the Patrol Team has just been established and we don’t have many spirit stones, so we have to bother you, our wealthier friend!”
“If you don’t believe us, Friend Xu, you can come with me to the Patrol Team, and Lord Commander will explain it to you in person!” Jia An bowed and laughed dryly.
Xu Mu looked flustered for a moment, stayed silent for a bit, but finally decided to hand over ten spirit stones.
With his strength, it would just be too easy to kill these few people. However, doing so would likely stir up a hornet’s nest, attracting more attacks.
“I hope there won’t be a next time!” Xu Mu said coldly.
Of course! Of course!
Jia An took the spirit stones, put them in his pocket, smiled broadly, and nodded repeatedly.
“By the way, Friend Xu, why don’t you just go ahead and pay for Friend Lan as well? After all, you are soon to be family!”
Jia An had a lecherous smile on his face.
“Friend Lan has already moved out. If you want spirit stones, you should go to the marketplace and ask her!” Xu Mu said frostily.
A few days ago, Lan Shijin, using her connections, had already booked a ticket to leave. Additionally, there had always been an evildoer lurking in the slum area recently, so she decided to move to the inn in the marketplace with her daughter for safety.
Once the Flying Boat arrived, she would leave immediately.
“Well, that’s really… very lucky of her! Hahaha!” Jia An laughed.
Xu Mu ignored him, turned around, entered his house and slammed the door shut.
Seeing Xu Mu go in, Jia An, who had been laughing all this while, immediately removed his smile, revealing a scornful look on his face.
“No next time? Huh! He dreams. Wait, this is just an appetizer.”
Having finally found a fat sheep, Jia An wouldn’t be satisfied unless he fleeced him completely – to make up for all the humiliation he had endured, and for all the favors he had given out.
Inside the room, the Red Gold Sword suddenly materialized in Xu Mu’s hand. He slowly drew his longsword, and as his spiritual power infused the blade, thin trails of red veins began to appear on the originally pure white sword, emitting a scorching aura that spread throughout the room.
“I am not one for taking risks; 1 prefer to nip the danger in the bud!”
Looking at the longsword in his hand, Xu Mu uttered to himself.
Though ten spirit stones were nothing to him, they posed a terrible presage.
For the safety of his wife and daughter, such a presage must not exist.
Under the cover of night, Xu Mu left his home after instructing YingYing, and employed his Invisibility Technique.
With his body moving like a specter under the dark night, he avoided the Patrol Team by using his Invisibility Technique and then continued to hurry along after they had passed.
His destination was the camp of the Patrol Team.
Night
In the dwelling of the Patrol Team, the lights were still brightly lit.
Gurgle Gurgle!
In the center of the room was a large iron pot filled with bubbling soup and palm-sized pieces of monster beast meat.
The aroma lingered in the air, along with the rich scent of wine.
“Come on, let’s toast to Big Bro Jia! Without Big Bro Jia, how could we live like this! Monster beast meat and spiritual wine, eat and drink all you want! Haha!”
With red face, Ma Rui raised his glass, it wasn’t clear if he is this flushed due to the food or the alcohol, but even his tongue seemed to slur a bit.
“Right! Here’s to Brother Jia!”
The others followed suit, raising their glasses to Jia An.
“You’re all too kind! As I’ve always said, as long as there’s a bite left to me, I won’t let any of you go hungry!”
Jia An declared with great gusto.
When the round of drinks was over, he was beginning to feel a little tipsy.
“Alright, alright, don’t drink too much! We have to go out for our shift change soon!” Jia An reminded them.
“What’s the problem? Given your relationship with Captain Luo, even if we don’t go, no one dares say anything. Besides, those down-and-outs have already given their Spirit Stones, isn’t it? We don’t need to put up a front anymore!”
“Yeah! We used to have to put on a show, but now they’ve all settled down. Admissible to miss a few patrols!”
“You lot have oversimplified the issue!” Jia An took another sip of his drink and said with a feigned profundity.
“Big Bro Jia, is there something we don’t know?”
A few of them put their glasses down, pricked up their ears, and asked curiously.
“Nonsense! There are some things, especially those you lot wouldn’t know!” Jia An said arrogantly.
“Please enlighten us, Big Bro Jia! We promise not to tell!”
Ma Rui, licking his long face, poured a glass of Spiritual Wine for Jia An with a beaming smile.
“Yeah, yeah, we promise not to tell!”
Faced with the compliments of the others, Jia An was very pleased, and he lowered his voice, “Do you think Captain Luo has gone to such lengths just to collect a few Lower-grade Spirit Stones?”
“What else could it be? Over a thousand pieces a month is no small number!”
A few of them asked without understanding.
“Over a thousand is a lot to us but it’s nothing more than a hair for Captain Luo! What he really wants is to control the entire slum and turn it into free labor!”
“Free labor?”
A few of them still didn’t quite understand.
“I knew you wouldn’t understand. Let me give you an example! You know Xu Mu from our alley, don’t you?”
The others nodded continuously. They lived in the same alley, of course, they knew and had just collected Spirit Stones from him that day.
“The Sword Sect is currently gathering all forces for a counterattack against the Soul Forging Sect. We have received orders here too. I’ve already told Lord Commander, I’ll pay a visit to that old Xu Mu in a few days. Under the name of the Sword Sect, he must make pills for us for free!” Jia An said triumphantly.
Through Ma Rui’s tracking, he had learned long ago that Xu Mu could refine high-tier pills.
“What if he refuses?” A few of them asked worriedly.
A man’s fury, blood spraying five steps!
They could tell that Xu Mu was not any defenseless person.
“Refuse? Ha, ha! This order comes from the Clear River Sword Sect. If he dares to refuse, we’ll just arrest him, lock him up in the prison, kill the chicken to scare the monkey and let everyone knows how powerful our Patrol Team is!” Jia An disdainfully replied.
He had held a grudge against Xu Mu for a long time.
Why should he be able to make so many Spirit Stones easily by practicing a few stoves of pills, while I have to work day and night without even having enough to eat?
Previously, there hadn’t been any opportunity. Now that there was, he naturally wanted more.
“What if he runs away?”
“Run? Where can he run? Now the Flying Boats have all been requisitioned by the major clans, there’s no way out, unless he’s willing to carry his wife and children and cross the dangerous wilderness alone!”
H
Not even Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivators may dare to do this. 1 recon he doesn’t have the guts!”
“I hope he resists so I can just kill him directly and save us a lot of trouble! Once he’s dead, we may have a shot at his young wife. She’s quite tender! It’s just a pity that Mother and Daughter Lan have run away, otherwise…!”
Upon hearing Jia An’s words, a few of them unconsciously revealed smirks.
Compared to young ones, they preferred the more mature ones.
“Not just the old man, Old Man Zhang in the alley too, they all have to work for us for free in future!”
Just as they were having grand talks and fantasizing about a glorious future, they were completely unaware that a figure was hiding outside the door in the shadows, eyes filled with murderous intent.
This figure was none other than Xu Mu, who had silently infiltrated the place.
He had wanted to scout out information first, but as luck would have it, he had run into their conversation.
“Indeed, those who are doomed by Heaven can still survive, but those who have brought disaster upon themselves cannot live!”
Xu Mu’s eyes were frigid.
He hadn’t expected that, in just half a year, this former good neighbor had become so ruthless.
Power and ambition, they truly did corrupt!
“If that’s the case, 1 have no choice but to send you all on your way!”
Puff!
A clump of orange-red flame appeared in Xu Mu’s palm. Under his control, the center of the flame formed a vortex which began to rotate unceasingly.
As spiritual power was continuously poured in, the vortex spun faster and faster. The entire clump of flame, like a snowball, continuously attracted the fire elements in the air, desperately squeezing them into the center.
The flame turned from orange-red to dark red, and at the end, a strange blue light emerged from the core.
The tremendous power contained within this tiny fireball was so intimidating that even Xu Mu, its creator, was apprehensive.
It was like touching a line of dominoes. Once the fire was compressed to a certain extent, Xu Mu lost control of it.
Either empty his spiritual power to maximize the power, or throw it out now and ignite it.
To ensure the deaths of the men, Xu Mu had almost depleted half of his spiritual power.
The hot spiritual power was constantly steaming, and even Xu Mu himself could barely stand it. His Invisibility Technique also disappeared prematurely due to the violent fluctuation of spiritual power.
“Who are you? What are you doing there?”
A passing patrolman immediately noticed Xu Mu, who was hiding in the shadows and wearing a black facecloth.
He couldn’t wait any longer!
After casting an Amulet on himself for protection, Xu Mu immediately threw the compressed fireball into the room!
And he, after enhancing his Light Body Skill, ran desperately in the opposite direction..
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