Strike First

"This time, there are quite a few fat sheep. Big Brother is planning to oversee things personally too. He'll be here soon. Scarface, Black-faced Fatty, have you two finished your preparations?"

Ding Lao'er, broad and burly in yellow robes, sat boldly in the inn's main hall and questioned the scar-faced brute standing beside him, who was no less imposing than he was.

Scarface replied with a grin, "Don't worry. I've checked all of them out. There aren't any experts above the Da Dou Shi level."

"Mm. We put Muscle-softening Powder in their food too, and we didn't overlook the cups in their rooms either." The Black-faced Fatty, sitting cross-legged on a table, answered in a muffled voice.

"Are you sure there really aren't any Da Dou Shi-level experts? Muscle-softening Powder isn't that effective. Have you forgotten what you said last time? And what happened then..." Ding Lao'er frowned at Scarface.

"Can you stop bringing that up? It was just a mistake! I already told you, it was because of their Cultivation Method."

Seeing Ding Lao'er bring up that incident again, just like the Black-faced Fatty had during the day, Scarface's expression darkened with displeasure.

It was just one mistake. Why do they keep bringing it up every day?

"Hehehe, Scarface, you cost us several brothers last time. Don't misjudge them again this time and repeat the same mistake."

The skinny man beside them giggled, rubbing salt into Scarface's wound.

"Shut your filthy mouth. Have you forgotten the lesson from last time?" Scarface clearly had little patience for the skinny man. It was obvious the two did not get along well. "Or do you think your Blood Shadow Claw is tougher than my fists now? Think you can challenge me?"

The skinny man sneered and was about to retort, "You..."

"Enough. Stop arguing!"

A Gaunt Old Man, dry as wood and with his hair hanging loose, walked to the doorway leaning on a Pitch-black Metal Crutch. His voice was low and hoarse.

The skinny man, who had been ready to trade barbs with Scarface, immediately fell silent, losing all his earlier arrogance and troublemaking swagger.

No one else made a sound either. The hall grew somewhat cold and still. Only after the old man sat at the table did Ding Lao'er speak, easing the atmosphere.

"Big Brother."

"Mm. Are the preparations complete?" The old man first gave Ding Lao'er a slight nod, then turned to Scarface.

"They're ready."

"Call everyone over. Follow the old rules. Begin." Unlike the others, the old man did not waste words and directly announced the start of the operation.

At those words, the others nodded and were about to rise when they caught the smell of something burning.

Along with it came a growing wave of curses and shouting from the floors above and the courtyard.

They could vaguely hear cries of "Fire!"

At the shout, everyone in the hall's expressions changed slightly. Their targets tonight had all woken up!

"Damn it, who started the fire?" Scarface sprang to his feet and cursed.

"Maybe someone discovered our operation." Ding Lao'er spoke gravely.

But the moment he finished, the skinny man sneered, "Could it be that you made too much noise in the courtyard just now and caught someone's attention? I told you long ago to be more careful. Hehe, well, now we've got all this extra trouble."

Ding Lao'er clenched his fists, completely ignoring him as he looked toward the calm-faced Gaunt Old Man.

Once this job is done, I'll give this bastard a proper beating.

"Fine. So we've been discovered. It's no big deal. Scarface, Fatty, Lao'er, take your men and capture them directly." The old man's tone was as calm as still water, as though he did not take the matter seriously at all.

"Before they take Detoxification Pills, go quickly and come back quickly. Mm, send a few men to put out the fire as well." After saying that, the old man closed his eyes to rest.

In his view, it truly was no major issue. So what if those people had awakened? In such a short time, they could not recover their strength. Could they really resist his men?

The skinny man failed to stir up trouble and could only let it go resentfully.

Seeing this, the others said no more. They each led a group of men toward their designated targets, leaving only the Gaunt Old Man behind to guard the main hall.

Not long after Scarface and the others rushed upstairs, sounds of fighting and clashing weapons rang out from above.

In the shadows of the main hall.

Beneath his black robe, Xiao Ming stared intently at the gaunt figure in the center of the hall.

"This man isn't concealing his Aura at all. He's probably... a Five-Star Great Dou Shi! No wonder he's so fearless."

Xiao Ming pondered. This inn had flourishing business. During the day yesterday, aside from the group that had been captured, he had seen another twenty or thirty people in the hall.

Those who dared to stay at this inn were probably, like him, travelers passing through Green Rock Town from elsewhere, people with some confidence in their own strength.

Strength was a symbol of status. Thus, many people traveling the Dou Qi Continent never concealed their Aura. Of course, concealing it was not very useful anyway, since their presence would be exposed the moment they fought, unless they had a Cultivation Method that could hide it.

Displaying one's strength also earned respect from others, so why conceal it? Some were even afraid that others would not know their level, and would directly mark their rank on their clothes.

This custom had swept across the Dou Qi Continent and endured for a long time.

Through his observations during the day, Xiao Ming had discovered that among the twenty or thirty people who had checked in alongside him, there were quite a few Dou Shi, but aside from himself, there were no Da Dou Shi.

With the Gaunt Old Man's strength as a Five-Star Great Dou Shi, even if those people had not been drugged with Muscle-softening Powder, they would have found it difficult to resist.

Aside from the old man, Ding Lao'er was also a One Star Great Dou Shi. Scarface was a Nine Star Dou Shi, while the Black-faced Fatty and the skinny man were Seven-Star Dou Shi.

There were also some Dou Zhe subordinates.

"The old man is four stars above me. I can only strike first. Otherwise, once his men deal with the people upstairs, things will become much more troublesome. I just hope the people upstairs aren't foolish enough to have all been drugged."

Narrowing his eyes as he stared at the old man, Xiao Ming's thoughts raced.

Since he had decided on an ambush, Xiao Ming intended to hit him hard, preferably rendering the old human trafficker unable to resist in an instant.

His mind reached toward Ling, lingering within the Qi Cyclone in his body. Two flames suddenly leaped from his hands, one deep blue and the other pink.

Xiao Ming suddenly clapped his hands together, merging the two flames between his palms into a Blue-Pink Flame.

Separating his palms, Xiao Ming's ten fingers formed a series of extraordinarily nimble hand seals. In a short time, they changed more than twenty times before settling into a strange posture: the five fingers of both hands relaxed and straight, palms facing upward; his right ring finger hooked over his left ring finger, his right little finger hooked over his left little finger, and his left thumb pressed against the nail of his left ring finger.

As his fingers moved, the Blue-Pink Flame had already formed into a Pink-Blue Seal. The Dou Qi in Xiao Ming's body surged through his meridians like a raging flood, and wave after wave of abundant power spread throughout his body.

He poured the mobilized Dou Qi into the Pink-Blue Seal, and it rapidly expanded.

"Three Flame Ethereal Seal!"

At last, Xiao Ming roared inwardly. The instant the shout fell, he fiercely thrust the enormous seal from his palm, sending it down upon the skinny old man in the hall.

"Who is it?!"

Sensing an Aura, the old man abruptly turned and shouted, only to see a terrifying seal hurtling toward him.

Xiao Ming's movements had seemed incomparably complex, yet he completed them in an extremely short time. The Three Flame Ethereal Seal was not slowed in the slightest by its massive size.

By the time the Gaunt Old Man reacted and sensed the danger, the seal was already before him. It was clearly too late to dodge.

Feeling the scorching, destructive energy contained within the seal shooting toward him, the old man lost his earlier composure. A trace of helpless terror rose in his heart.

This power was simply too overwhelming. He even had a faint intuition that if the Blue-Purple Seal struck him head-on, he would likely be reduced to ashes.

Where did this bastard come from?!

Cursing inwardly, the Gaunt Old Man could only hastily hold his crutch horizontally before him. The Dou Qi within his body poured into it madly as though it cost nothing, and green Dou Qi rapidly seeped from the crutch, forming a Green Barrier around him.