The Black-Clothed Man hugged the ground like a silent black python, sliding along the wall to Qin Yang's door. With a flick of his wrist, the ribbon wound around it moved like a living thing, slipping through the crack beneath the door...
Inside, Qin Yang was staring blankly at his Doppelganger. Now that he had a substitute, the crucial question was how to escape smoothly...
To his surprise, while lost in thought, he saw a black ribbon creep in through the door crack. It slowly wriggled up along the edge of the door, wrapped around the door bolt, and gradually pulled it open strand by strand...
The entire process was soundless. Even the sound of friction vanished, because the ribbon lifted the door bolt as it pulled...
Qin Yang quietly watched the scene and immediately grinned. Just when he was sleepy, someone brought him a pillow. His luck had not been particularly good lately, but at critical moments, there was always a hero ready to lend him a hand...
He had just been wondering how to escape safely. Now there was no need to think about it. A little thief had come calling; once he stirred up some trouble and made a big enough commotion, the difficulty of escaping would plummet from hellish to ordinary...
"What a fine good person, delivering his own head from a thousand miles away..." Qin Yang softly sighed as he watched the door bolt slowly open...
His disguise was complete, and so was the Doppelganger. He was only one final step away from escaping when this petty thief came to provide an assist. If that did not make him a good person, what did?
This fellow could not hear anything inside. He probably thought everyone within was sleeping like the dead...
Just as the door was about to open, Qin Yang tore down the Autumn Cicada Talismans from all four walls. They were nearly useless now, but to avoid leaving any traces behind, he casually stuffed them into a Storage Bag.
Then, after hesitating briefly, he took out another Storage Bag and filled it with the tools he used to dispose of corpses, some First Grade Spirit Stones, a piece of tattered clothing, and assorted odds and ends. He hung it from the Doppelganger's waist...
Once he was done, Qin Yang sat in a chair, hidden in the darkness, quietly watching the door open.
Creak...
A faint sound of the door opening rang out. The door did not open all the way, only leaving a wider crack. Then a Black Shadow slid in along the floor, and the door shut again in the blink of an eye...
After entering, the Black Shadow slowly rose to his feet. Only then did the Black-Clothed Man suddenly notice Qin Yang sitting in the corner, staring at him with wide eyes and a faintly amused smile...
The Black-Clothed Man froze without moving. He looked at the Doppelganger standing against the wall, then at the Tricky Ring around its neck, and a faint smile appeared on his face as well.
One stood, one sat, and they stared at each other for quite a while. Finally, the Black-Clothed Man could not hold back any longer and spoke in a low voice with a raspy smoker's growl.
"A flood has washed into the Dragon King's temple. I did not know a fellow brother of the trade was here. I broke the rules this time, so I offer my apologies first. Please give me a dock where I can send word. Another day, I will provide you with a Boat Message free of charge as compensation."
The Black-Clothed Man raised a hand and made a bent-finger gesture. It looked as though one of his fingers was missing. Then he slowly took a step back, prepared to open the door and flee at any moment...
What he had said was thieves' cant. Once a target had fellow practitioners on it, no one else could touch it—at the very least, not before the first group had left. Otherwise, if everyone suddenly ran into one another, they could all be exposed.
A dock was a place to receive messages, while a Boat Message was information on fat sheep. Taking that step back indicated concession: you do well, I do well, everyone does well. As for the hand gesture, it was how he announced his identity.
Outsiders would not understand much of those words, much less the gesture. But Qin Yang had spent a year scraping by in the west of Green Forest City. He had seen plenty of Triangle Nine Floors and carried plenty of corpses belonging to the lowest of the low. How could he not understand...
Just as the Black-Clothed Man was about to reach the door, Qin Yang suddenly chuckled.
"Your mind turns pretty fast..."
"I leave, you stay. This was an accident. If you are dissatisfied, I'll send you two Boat Messages another day..."
Qin Yang rose to his feet, and a wave of True Essence suddenly surged from his body. As if sensing that fluctuation, the Tricky Ring around the Doppelganger's neck began to turn slowly, as though awakening...
"Don't act rashly! It won't do either of us any good!" The Black-Clothed Man's voice held a trace of alarm. He recognized the Tricky Ring; if it exploded, experts from Ten Thousand Eternity Commerce would arrive immediately.
"Can you smell the Mind-Calming Incense?"
"Hm?" The Black-Clothed Man retreated another step. The ribbon around his wrist slowly slipped through the door crack, ready to open the door at any time...
"There is Mind-Calming Incense outside the door, and there is Mind-Calming Incense inside as well, but the two formulas differ slightly. If you inhale both, the effect will surge tenfold. It is far stronger than your Third-Rate Incense, and at least it does not have that obvious sickly-sweet scent..."
The Black-Clothed Man stopped moving, secretly startled. After sensing carefully, he realized that his head had grown heavy without his noticing, while weariness washed through his body. Soundlessly, his entire body had gone limp, and he wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and sleep...
Damn it, the boat had capsized in a gutter...
This guy was formidable. He actually knew I had figured it out. Where exactly did he come from? He had actually infiltrated the Corpse Collectors and swaggered in here to steal the map...
"Brother, I concede. I yield. We both came for the map. I have it now, including the unassembled fragments. Let's leave this place first and discuss the rest later. Keeping things like this does neither of us any good."
With a flip of his hand, the Black-Clothed Man took out the assembled portion of the Human Skin Map and displayed it. He was telling Qin Yang that he had bargaining chips too—and heavyweight ones at that.
Qin Yang nodded, a brilliant smile spreading across his lips. He had gotten the map? That was simply wonderful...
They opened the door and went out. The Black-Clothed Man went first, with Qin Yang following behind. Just as he was about to step through the doorway, the Black-Clothed Man paused. "Brother, can you give me the antidote first? I can barely hold on. I can give you half the map..."
"Fine." Qin Yang casually answered, tossing the Black-Clothed Man a black pill.
The Black-Clothed Man, in turn, tossed over half of the Human Skin Map.
After both sides had received their items, the Black-Clothed Man lightly sniffed the pill and swallowed it in one bite...
However...
The instant Qin Yang stepped out the door, the ribbon around the Black-Clothed Man's wrist shot forth, whipping toward Qin Yang to bind him...
Qin Yang bared his teeth in a grin. With a turn of his wrist, five Burning Talismans and five Fireball Talismans appeared at once. With a flick, all ten talismans flew out simultaneously...
Fireballs the size of human heads exploded, blasting apart the walls. The Burning Talismans transformed into towering flames, igniting everything around them. Inside the room, sensing the violent fluctuations, the Tricky Ring spun rapidly before exploding with a bang, blasting the Doppelganger into fragments...
"You bastard..." The Black-Clothed Man was both shocked and furious, stamping his feet in rage. This time, his voice was no longer that raspy smoker's growl, but the sharp voice of a young man...
As the ribbon was about to wrap around him, Qin Yang let out a loud shout.
"The map is yours!"
As he spoke, he flung half of the Human Skin Map toward the burning flames. With his other hand, he repeatedly slapped Wind Travel Talismans and Autumn Cicada Talismans onto himself, his body rapidly retreating.
The Black-Clothed Man stamped his feet in fury, but he could not bear to let the Human Skin Map be destroyed. The ribbon flying through the air abruptly changed direction, darted toward the Human Skin Map, and snatched it back.
In the blink of an eye, when he looked again, Qin Yang had already vanished without a trace...
Outside the Three Mountains Gang, an angry roar rang out. A figure came speeding through the air, standing atop a flying sword...
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