Three Mountains Falls

Old Ghost Hei's gloomy face carried a strange smile, making Qin Yang's scalp crawl.

"Old Ghost Hei, if you have something to say, say it."

Old Ghost Hei said nothing. He merely rubbed his fingers together and stared at Qin Yang.

Qin Yang's face darkened. He took out one hundred and one Spirit Stones, paused, then took out another nine hundred and placed them in Old Ghost Hei's hand.

Old Ghost Hei was an outstanding middleman. He had worn that funeral robe for decades without dying, and when it came to information about ghosts, no one was better informed. Since he had said this, he must have noticed something. Qin Yang might as well fill his belly in one go and make him happily spill the news.

Sure enough, after Old Ghost Hei put away the Spirit Stones, the wrinkles on his old face seemed to smooth out considerably, and some of his gloomy aura dispersed with them.

"You're a man who knows the rules, little brother! Then I won't beat around the bush either. With so many Ghost Soldiers, there can't be another place near Green Forest City besides the Nether Acacia Ghost Tomb that has them. Those two hundred-odd Ghost Soldiers were all sunk in slumber. You must have spent a fortune using Spirit Incense to get those poor ghosts drunk. But I saw that some of the ghosts were wearing clothes with special markings. They belonged to Dole Ghost King's subordinates in the Nether Acacia Ghost Tomb. Little brother, you wiped out one of their strongholds in one stroke. Outside, it's fine—but once you enter the Nether Acacia Ghost Tomb, heh heh..."

Qin Yang gave a dry laugh, cupped his hands in thanks, then turned and left.

Now he finally understood where those words Imperial Concubine De had come from. That unsatisfied female ghost really had been a concubine—and a Ghost King's concubine at that...

Destroying a Ghost King's concubine's ghost nest was far more serious than destroying one of the Ghost King's strongholds.

If Old Ghost Hei learned the full story, that old ghost would surely sell the news for a handsome price...

Luckily, Qin Yang had been cautious and made the deal in disguise. Otherwise, he would have to flee immediately. A Ghost King—anyone who dared call himself a Ghost King had to be at least two major realms above him. One fart could blast him to death more than ten times...

Following a side road, he hurried all the way back to West City. He burned his clothes and wig, removed his disguise, then with a shake of his body grew three inches taller and returned to his original appearance. His hunched body straightened as well. After bathing and changing clothes, he once again became the young owner of a general store.

It happened to be time to open for business. When he opened the front doors, there were hardly any people on the street. Only the shopkeeper from the tavern across the way sat outside his own entrance, cradling a purple clay teapot and taking an occasional sip.

"Yo, Boss Qin, opening early today..." The shopkeeper waved in greeting before continuing to lean there and bask in the sun.

The shopkeeper's surname was Li, and his name was quite imposing—Li Gang. He was a smiling fat man, but he haggled over every last penny and was miserly to the extreme, a typical iron rooster. Still, he had a real knack for business. Though West City was such a rundown, out-of-the-way place, his tavern and inn business had always been good.

"Shopkeeper Li, why are you so free today? Not preparing anything?" Qin Yang opened his doors. Seeing that there were no customers, he casually chatted with shopkeeper Li.

"Ha..." Shopkeeper Li took a sip of tea and let out a long sigh. "Prepare my ass. Didn't you hear the screams outside last night? It was simply too horrific. If there's any business today, that'll be a miracle. Everyone's taking detours. Who'd come to this dump in West City just to save a couple coins?"

"I exhausted myself too much making talismans yesterday, so I went to bed early. What happened?" Qin Yang asked casually, without betraying a thing.

"Those Running Three Mountains people were slaughtered clean in a single night. Not one survivor was left. They say blood flowed like a river at the scene, and all the people in charge were tortured to death alive. Their screams sounded like pigs being slaughtered—you could hear them clearly from several streets away."

"What about the City Guard?" Qin Yang's heart skipped a beat...

The Three Mountains in Running Three Mountains referred to the three mountains near Green Forest City. They were rich in resources and had few demon beasts. Though they were dangerous, people in the Qi Cultivation Stage could still scrape by inside, digging up Spirit Herbs and searching for resources. Those hundreds of miles of mountains were enough to support quite a few cultivators.

Running Three Mountains referred to those who entered the mountains to dig for resources. In West City, however, the channels for Running Three Mountains had been monopolized by a group called the Three Mountains Gang. Anyone in West City who went Running Three Mountains had to sell the resources they dug up to them. Otherwise, they could not survive in West City.

And unfortunately, the person who had come to Qin Yang yesterday to have his worries resolved was the contact between him and the Three Mountains Gang—the Three Mountains Gang's Third Chief. The main reason his worry-resolving jobs had grown stranger and stranger over the past year was that most of them came from the Three Mountains Gang...

Originally, he had merely helped people deal with corpses that had died of plague, strange poison, or other causes that made others afraid to touch them carelessly—dangerous, exhausting work. Now he had become an expert cleaner who helped people sweep up loose ends and wash away bloodstains. He had to admit...

Money was a good thing.

Now that the Three Mountains Gang had been wiped out, it was definitely because of those two clients from yesterday.

Though the Three Mountains Gang was not especially powerful, its leaders were cultivators at the peak of the Qi Cultivation Stage, and it was said that there were people behind them. Yet now they had been destroyed just like that, without the slightest attempt at concealment. The moment Qin Yang heard this, he knew the Three Mountains Gang had botched their attempt to play Yellow Sparrow behind the mantis. They had provoked someone they could not afford to provoke—or rather, learned something they should not have learned and taken something they should not have taken...

Qin Yang was lost in thought, and shopkeeper Li did not notice. He simply continued talking to himself.

"What the hell would the City Guard dare to manage? Do you know who did it? People from Ten Thousand Eternity Commerce in North City. The Three Mountains Gang broke the rules and took something they shouldn't have. They deserved to die. Even the City Lord's side wouldn't dare casually provoke people from Ten Thousand Eternity Commerce. The Three Mountains Gang must have had lard blind their hearts, reckless fools. They say their Third Chief, that Big Dumb, died the most miserably. The moment they met him, he was dismembered and chopped into several hundred pieces. I suppose the people from Ten Thousand Eternity Commerce thought Big Dumb had no value either, just a pure thug. So he died right at his own front gate. Tsk tsk, truly miserable..."

"That's it? Nothing else?"

"Who said that's all? The people from Ten Thousand Eternity Commerce haven't left yet, and Boundless Dao Academy sent two disciples over too. They say the two groups nearly started fighting. Later, who knows what happened, but they didn't fight in the street. Tell me, with disciples of Boundless Dao Academy here too, who in the City Guard would dare interfere? The Three Mountains Gang's territory has been sealed off now. No one has even collected the corpses inside..."

"We can only consider ourselves unlucky."

"Isn't that the truth? With them stirring things up like this, hardly anyone dares come to West City today. Business has plunged off a cliff. What can small merchants like us do except count ourselves unlucky? I'm losing at least three or four hundred Spirit Stones today..." Shopkeeper Li sighed repeatedly. As he counted on his fingers, his face twisted with pain...

Qin Yang gave a dry laugh and turned back into his store.

After returning, he thought it over and secretly felt puzzled. What had those two clients fought each other to a standstill over, only to be finished off by someone else? If it had been something ordinary, would Ten Thousand Eternity Commerce and the disciples of Boundless Dao Academy be this frantic?

Damn it, no wonder Big Dumb had been so agreeable yesterday. So they had gotten their hands on something good...