Chapter 38
Hunt in the Dark
The dark night was like a pitch-black curtain that enveloped the entire black street.
There was only a little light coming out of shops on the big street. It looked even more sinister at night.
Walking on the dark street, Lin Shen looked at the shops on both sides and pursed his lips.
This was his third time coming to the black street.
The first two times were to buy the Condensing Liquid, but this time, his main purpose was to get back the deposit from Lurking Snake.
In order not to appear too abrupt, Lin Shen deliberately waited five days after Zhou Zhihai’s death before visiting Lurking Snake again.
He remembered the location of the alley very clearly. Soon, he arrived at the iron door and reached out to knock on it.
After a round of questions and answers, the man guarding the door moved aside and let Lin Shen in.
It was the same dim bar. As usual, there were only over half a dozen customers.
Behind the counter was the same bartender who had received Lin Shen last time. He was meticulously wiping a transparent glass.
Lin Shen went straight to the bar counter and knocked on it. He feigned a hoarse voice and said,
“Mission D2201 is misinformed!”
The bartender stopped wiping, glanced at him, and took out a document from under the bar counter. He flipped through it for a while before nodding.
“The information is indeed wrong, but there’s no need to continue the mission. The person who issued the mission is already dead. According to the rules, 30% of the mission deposit will be given to you as compensation.”
Lin Shen frowned. “If the information is wrong, shouldn’t my compensation be half of the deposit?”
The bartender glanced at him but said nothing.
“Damn this profiteer!”
Lin Shen cursed under his breath and said, “Give me the deposit and compensation!”
The bartender quickly counted the spirit coins and handed them to him.
Lin Shen counted the coins and realized 30% of the deposit was as many as 40,000 to 50,000 spirit coins.
“Is the down payment half of the mission reward? Damn these profiteers!”
After cursing Lurking Snake again, Lin Shen put away the spirit coins and left the bar without looking back.
After walking out of the alley, Lin Shen didn’t leave the black street immediately. Instead, he rushed to the shop that sold Condensing Liquid.
After breaking through to Qi Transformation Level 8, the cultivation progress of every 100ml of Condensing Liquid had decreased sharply to less than 1%. On average, 300ml of Condensing Liquid could only increase the cultivation progress by 1%.
Lin Shen only had less than 12 liters of Condensing Liquid left. After absorbing all of it, his cultivation progress would increase by at most 40%. It was far from enough for him to break through again.
There was still a huge gap in cultivation resources, and he needed to buy a large amount of Condensing Liquid.
…
In a dark corner of the alley,
Hao Tu leaned against the wall and stood with his arms crossed. His fingers kept tapping his arms, and his eyes were filled with impatience.
A few minutes later, a figure suddenly appeared a short distance away. After looking around for a while, the figure seemed to have spotted Hao Tu and slowly approached him.
After seeing the other party’s face under the moonlight, Hao Tu couldn’t help but curse softly.
“What took you so long? Where have you been?”
“Calm down. I went to look for a target.”
Dai Geng smiled obsequiously but involuntarily began to complain.
“I don’t know what the Boss is thinking. He actually asked us to come to the black street to catch out prey. The cultivators here are all smart. They can’t be easy to catch!”
At the mention of this, Hao Tu felt his dissipated anger surge again. He lowered his voice and scolded,
“Why do you have the nerve to say that?
“If you hadn’t killed a student from Willow Academy the other day and attracted the Martial Enforcement Hall’s attention, we wouldn’t have gone to such a remote place to look for prey!”
Dai Geng cringed and said embarrassedly, “How would I know that kid was a student of Willow Academy…”
After a pause, he said indignantly,
“Speaking of which, another student from Willow Academy died a few days ago, and that goddamn Martial Enforcement Hall actually suspects that we did it. Damn it! If I find out who dared to frame us, I’ll definitely make him suffer!”
Hao Tu snorted coldly.
“Mind your own business first. Don’t forget what Boss said. If we can’t hand over the prey tonight, we’ll make up the numbers!”
Dai Geng shuddered at his words and swallowed involuntarily.
Seeing this, Hao Tu despised Dai Geng inwardly. He didn’t care about the latter anymore. Instead, he said coldly,
“You said you were looking for a target. Did you find a suitable one?”
“Yes!”
Dai Geng quickly nodded and gestured for Hao Tu to follow him. Then, he turned around and led the way.
Not long after, the two arrived at a shop more than 200m away.
“Target’s in there now.”
Dai Geng pointed at the shop. Through the gap in the open door, they could vaguely see figures moving inside.
Hao Tu sized it up carefully and quickly recalled it was a shop that sold medicinal pills. He had visited it a few times in the past, and Dai Geng was a regular customer here.
“The last few times I came to buy pills, I had a chat with the shop owner. He told me a guy had come twice to buy more than ten liters of Condensing Liquid. Although that guy used a Face Changing Pill, it was most likely the same person, so he left a deep impression on the shop owner!”
“Is the target you’re talking about the person who bought the Condensing Liquid?”
“That’s right!”
Dai Geng nodded heavily, a sinister smile appearing on his face.
“Only Qi Transformation cultivators would use the Condensing Liquid. If the two of us work together, we can easily handle that person!”
Hao Tu pondered for a moment, and a faint light flashed in his eyes.
the Condensing Liquid was a by-product of the Condensing Pill. It was true. Only Qi Transformation cultivators would use it to aid their cultivation.
Moreover, because of the side effects of reducing one’s lifespan, only cultivators who had been stuck at the ninth level of the Qi Transformation Stage for many years and had no hope of breaking through would take the risk to use it. If they could break through to the Long Breath Stage, their lifespan would be extended.
In other words, the target that Dai Geng mentioned was most likely a Qi Transformation Stage Level Nine cultivator!
He and Dai Geng were both at that cultivation level. If the two of them fought against one, it wouldn’t be difficult to kill that person.
Hao Tu quickly made up his mind and nodded decisively.
“We’ll do as you say!
“Let’s take action after the target leaves the black street!”
The black street was a gray area with chaotic order. It was very suitable for killing people in the middle of the night, but it was also because of this that Hao Tu didn’t want to make a move here.
Who knew if someone wouldn’t try to still their reward after they took out the target?
They didn’t want to work so hard but only let others benefit from it.
Just in case, it was better to attack outside the black street!
Dai Geng naturally understood this point and nodded heavily.
After confirming their goal, the two of them relaxed a little.
Recently, the higher-ups had been pressing them because they urgently needed a large number of cultivator corpses. However, they had been hiding everywhere because of the pursuit of the Martial Enforcement Hall and didn’t have the time to find prey.
In the end, they had no choice but to run to the black street.
The target in front of them was the first prey they had found since coming here!
As long as they captured this prey and handed it to the higher-ups, they could buy themselves some time.
Thinking of this, Hao Tu and Dai Geng heaved a sigh of relief.
When they looked at the shop again, their eyes were filled with cold killing intent.