Enemies on a Narrow Road

Green Forest City—specifically West City—hadn't seen this much excitement in a long time...

At the crack of dawn, the guard squad under Ten Thousand Eternity Commerce had charged all the way from the most prosperous North City into the poverty-stricken West City...

Steward Qiu's face was dark as thunder as he stood in the middle of West City's main street, his hawk-like eyes sweeping back and forth, eyeing everyone like a thief.

Yesterday, they'd pieced together the Human Skin Map fragments, but when they tried to reassemble them afterward, they found the edges of many fragments didn't quite match. The missing parts were tiny, but who knew if those crack-like gaps held crucial details...

Unfortunately, all the Corpse Collectors had died yesterday, and the Three Mountains Gang's bodies had been reduced to ashes in a great fire. There was no point arguing anymore, so naturally, his anger had to be vented on yesterday's little thief. Who knew if that scoundrel had held something back, tearing off a dozen noodle-thin strips...

When something went wrong, a scapegoat had to be found. Otherwise, this black pot would land squarely on him, the steward, and he'd be in deep trouble...

So Ten Thousand Eternity Commerce not only sent their own guard squad but also threw money around West City like crazy, hiring local underworld bosses to hunt down anyone who seemed suspicious...

To the public, they said a thief had stolen new goods from Ten Thousand Eternity Commerce...

For a time, the whole city was in an uproar...

But none of this had anything to do with Qin Yang. Early in the morning, a local thug knocked on his door, asked a few casual questions, recognized "Brother Wang" as a well-behaved kid who'd grown up here, and didn't pay him any more attention...

Qin Yang cheerfully saw the thug off, then stepped out himself to watch the commotion, wandering his way over to South City.

His cover as the West City general store clerk was probably unusable for a while. Thinking about the map in his head, Qin Yang felt an itch like a cat was clawing at his heart...

Of course, more importantly, he'd nearly been killed. If he didn't find some way to get revenge, he'd absolutely lose his mind.

Going head-to-head with Ten Thousand Eternity Commerce was out of the question...

The best plan was to sneak into the place marked on the map, clean out the treasure there, and let those bastards go through all that effort and danger only to end up with nothing, so furious they'd suffer a qi deviation...

Well, that was just a fantasy. He was only at the sixth layer of Qi Nurturing, and before this, he'd been too poor to even afford basic Qi Nurturing Pills. Weak as he was, going there would just be feeding himself to the enemy...

Qin Yang shook his head and sighed, patted his money pouch, and felt a bit more confident. Now he had to head to South City, buy pills to boost his cultivation, and buy Magical Artifacts to arm himself—that was the real priority.

As for the mess in West City, he'd better not get involved for now. It was a shame the Three Mountains Gang bastards were all dead—his stress-relief business was done for, and his steady Corpse Touching pipeline was cut off too.

He used to look down on those low-class little skills and bits of knowledge, but now he realized they could save his life—and the path to them was gone.

Every time he thought about it, Qin Yang felt a pang of regret.

He hurried all the way to South City and found the Fence Shop he remembered. The shop was in a remote spot, the whole street deserted of any living soul. As he stepped inside, a young man with a half-dead look glanced up at him.

"Taking goods?"

"Selling what?" The young man drooped his eyelids, listless, and continued dozing behind the counter.

Qin Yang chuckled and slapped all the Storage Bags he hadn't unloaded yet onto the table in one go.

"Can you handle this?"

"Huh?" The young man straightened up instantly, eyes wide as he stared at Qin Yang. "Daoist friend, you... you..."

"Can you handle it?" Qin Yang asked again.

"I can." The young man stood up, looking at Qin Yang with a strange expression. Over a hundred Storage Bags? When did Green Forest City get such a ruthless Divine Thief? With skills like that, why steal low-grade Storage Bags? "Let's tally the price."

"Low-grade Storage Bags, market price five hundred for one spirit stone. These are decent quality, I'll give you four hundred. Total of one hundred twenty-eight, discounted to fifty-one thousand two hundred. Call it fifty-two thousand. That work?"

"No problem."

"Here's five hundred twelve Third Grade Spirit Stones. Count them." The young man moved fast, stashing all the Storage Bags in a few breaths and handing over a small cloth pouch.

Qin Yang opened it to find a pile of spirit stones cut to fingernail size, white in color but noticeably denser than First Grade Spirit Stones. Even without touching them, he could feel the rich spiritual energy inside.

He tucked the pouch away and turned to leave.

Just as he stepped out, he saw a friendly-looking Little Fatty walking in.

Qin Yang glanced at him and noticed Little Fatty making a strange gesture at the shopkeeper.

He'd seen that gesture just last night—it was a sign to identify oneself. Outsiders wouldn't understand it. Qin Yang narrowed his eyes, sizing up Little Fatty. This guy was nothing like the scrawny little thief from last night...

So how did he know that gesture? In Green Forest City, anyone qualified to be a thief and stay alive had real skills, and few had seen their true faces. Meeting someone meant using gestures to identify yourself.

But Qin Yang knew the truth—the owner of that gesture was long dead. He'd buried the guy himself.

That lock-picking skill book he had? It came from that very gesture's owner.

No one else knew that Divine Thief was dead, but he did. Running into two people impersonating him couldn't be a coincidence, right? If they didn't know the gesture's owner was dead, would they dare be so blatant? Qin Yang silently marked Little Fatty in his mind and walked away.

After Qin Yang was far off, Little Fatty stared at his retreating back, eyes flickering.

That guy was disguised!

And his walk and silhouette looked awfully familiar...

"What's that guy's deal?" Little Fatty glanced away and asked the shopkeeper casually.

"No idea. Must be new in town. Had a lot of goods." The shopkeeper didn't elaborate, but his smug grin made it obvious he'd just made a killing.

"What did he sell?" Little Fatty didn't rush the transaction, instead sliding over five Third Grade Spirit Stones.

"You know the rules. Can't talk about that." The shopkeeper pocketed the stones without a change in expression.

"I know. My mistake." Little Fatty put on a serious face, slipping another five Third Grade Spirit Stones into his palm...

"One hundred twenty-eight low-grade Storage Bags." The shopkeeper took the stones and muttered under his breath.

Little Fatty's eyelid twitched—he was startled too...

How many people had this guy robbed? After a moment, Little Fatty finished his own transaction and stepped out, following the path Qin Yang had taken. When he reached a street corner, his peripheral vision caught a small cloth pouch in the trash against the wall.

He picked it up and found a note inside.

Opening it, Little Fatty's expression shifted instantly.