Castrated

The contents of the storage pouch were indeed as Yue Qianchou had said. After probing it with her divine sense, Qu Ping'er wore a face full of astonishment and asked doubtfully, "Where did you get so many spirit stones?"

Yue Qianchou smiled without answering her directly. He merely held her gently and said, "Protect yourself well." Then he turned and walked out resolutely. Qu Ping'er called after him reluctantly, "I'll wait for you."

Yue Qianchou did not tell her that he lived next door. Nor did he return to his own room. Instead, he went straight to Guan Yu's room and pushed open the door. Guan Yu had returned and was fiddling with a huge pile of things on the table. Seeing Yue Qianchou arrive, he nodded with a broad smile. Having money to shop lavishly clearly felt quite good.

"Eh! Why do you smell like a woman?" Guan Yu flared his nostrils and sniffed Yue Qianchou as he approached.

Yue Qianchou had matters on his mind and could not be bothered with that question. "How long does it take to get from here to Fu Xian Island? I want to go there as soon as possible."

Guan Yu froze, and his expression gradually darkened. If Yue Qianchou went to Fu Xian Island, he would naturally need to use the Fu Xian Token. Once it was used, Guan Yu would basically never have another chance to return to Fu Xian Island. Yet his life-bound Primordial Spirit was in someone else's hand—what could he do? He sighed and said, "Hundred Flower Valley has a shop belonging to Fu Xian Island. Every day, they send people back and forth on flying artifacts to transport goods. Show the Fu Xian Token to the shop manager, and they'll naturally take you there."

After pondering briefly, Yue Qianchou made up his mind. He patted Guan Yu on the shoulder and, without caring whether he was willing or not, directly sent him into his own space. The things on the table were swept in as well.

Then a long, slender tube appeared in his hand. He had bought it outside. While wandering the market earlier that day, someone had suddenly grabbed him furtively and asked whether he wanted something good. Yue Qianchou had asked what it was, and the man had pulled him aside before taking out this thing and telling him that it was called Immortal Down. It had been specially made to deal with cultivators—put plainly, it was knockout smoke made specifically for cultivators. It worked extremely well against cultivators below the Core Formation stage.

Yue Qianchou had been overjoyed. The two had immediately run out into the wilderness and caught several wild beasts to test it on. Sure enough, its effects were extraordinary. In his delight, Yue Qianchou had loudly declared that the man was a talent, only to accidentally collect the man into his own space as well.

The tube had tiny wax-sealed holes at both pointed ends and a fuse around its middle. Yue Qianchou took out a flint and struck it alight, igniting the fuse. The fuse trailed sparks into the tube, followed by a soft puff from within. The tube grew faintly warm in his hand.

Yue Qianchou nodded in satisfaction. Carrying it, he entered the corridor. After checking that no one was around, he quietly crept to Liu Zhengguang's door. Listening carefully and hearing no movement inside, he twisted off the sealing wax at both ends of the tube, slipped one end through the crack in the door, put the other end into his mouth, and gently blew.

Inside, Liu Zhengguang was sitting cross-legged in meditation. Given his cultivation, he had actually heard some movement outside. But after concentrating and probing, he found no one, so he paid it no mind. Mainly, he had grown used to being arrogant and had never suffered a setback in the Cultivation World. Besides, he had never heard of anyone from the Righteous and Demonic paths daring to cause trouble at Hundred Flower Inn in Hundred Flower Valley.

A wisp of green smoke slowly drifted through the crack in the door, gradually spreading through the entire room. Liu Zhengguang's nostrils twitched slightly as he sat cross-legged. What is that? It smells so fragrant. Then he felt the True Qi circulating within him grow heavy and sluggish. His brows furrowed, and when he opened his eyes, he saw green smoke filling the room.

No matter how inexperienced Liu Zhengguang was, he realized now that he had been set up. Alarmed, he had barely climbed down from the bed when the world began spinning around him. He opened his mouth to shout, but before a sound could emerge, darkness suddenly swallowed his vision. With a bang, he collapsed to the floor.

Yue Qianchou had been standing guard outside the whole time. He was not worried in the slightest; even if he were discovered, he could hide inside the golden pearl. Hearing the sound of someone falling inside, he thought, It worked. He pressed his palm against the door and exerted a little force. With a snap, the bolt inside sprang open.

With his current cultivation, opening a door was child's play. Besides, doors like this in the Cultivation World were only for show to begin with. Bolting them shut could not keep anyone out; the sound of the bolt being opened merely served as a warning to those inside. But the person inside had already fainted.

Pushing open the door, Yue Qianchou slipped inside quickly. After seeing Liu Zhengguang sprawled on the floor, he shut the door again. He strode over and, without another word, raised his foot and kicked the man lying on the ground. Still not satisfied, he kicked him several more times, cursing as he did so, "You dared to court my girl? You're asking for death!"

After feeling somewhat better, he removed the storage pouch from Liu Zhengguang's waist, opened it, and sent his divine sense inside to investigate. Sure enough, he found a jade slip exactly like the one Qu Ping'er had described.

When he probed the jade slip with his divine sense, layers upon layers of restrictions made it impossible to examine. Only the first layer had been unlocked, presumably the one Liu Changqing had opened. It contained a huge list of strange medicinal names, none of which Yue Qianchou had ever heard of.

He could not tell whether it was real or fake. After storing it away together with the storage pouch, he immediately began searching the room from top to bottom, not even sparing the bedding on the bed.

Once he had confirmed that nothing else was hidden, he stripped all of Liu Zhengguang's clothes off and inspected them one by one with care. He still found nothing.

"This guy's skin is so smooth and tender. No wonder he dared to seduce my girl." Yue Qianchou muttered as he looked at the naked Liu Zhengguang on the floor. If he had not feared bringing trouble upon Qu Ping'er, he would have killed Liu Zhengguang right then and there.

Yet he was truly unwilling to let him live. His gaze fell upon Liu Zhengguang's manhood. Yue Qianchou rubbed his nose and gave a cold laugh, then glanced at the sheathed sword hanging beside the bed and went over to draw it.

"Ping'er, I really can't rest easy around this sort of man! I can only castrate him." Yue Qianchou sighed. At the mention of Qu Ping'er, his brows furrowed again.

Liu Zhengguang had only told Qu Ping'er about the pill formula. Now that it had been stolen and he had been castrated, the Liu grandfather and grandson would likely suspect Qu Ping'er first. That would not do!

Watching blood pool across the floor beneath Liu Zhengguang's lower body, Yue Qianchou's tightly furrowed brows relaxed. Smiling faintly, he took a brush from the brush rack nearby, dipped it in the blood on the ground, and scrawled several large slanting characters on the wall: "Liu Changqing, I will repay the hatred of my family's extermination another day. By chance, I encountered your grandson, so I first collected a little interest."

After finishing, Yue Qianchou walked out unhurriedly and shut the door behind him. When he passed Qu Ping'er's room, he suppressed the urge to go in again.

After leaving Hundred Flower Inn, he headed straight for the shops around the plaza. He had seen Fu Xian Island's shop while wandering around during the day, and that was naturally where he was going now.

When he reached the market, he thought that he did not know when he would be able to return again. So, as he walked, he examined the goods on the stalls. Whenever he found something that might prove useful, he bought it and tossed it into his storage pouch without even bargaining over the price.