Paper Man

Shengye Ward, inside a mansion.

White Wave Gang Leader Zhang Ye had just paid a month's rent.

He had not paid any extra. They might have to move again next month.

Main hall of the inner courtyard.

Zhang Ye sat at the seat of honor.

A Dark-Faced Man sat below him to the left.

Behind him stood two equally burly men.

Their bearing and expressions were notably fierce.

"Gang Leader Zhang, we'll do it by the old rules. The grain and goods leave the city tomorrow morning. My men will take over at the south gate. This is the deposit." The Dark-Faced Man took out a gray cloth money pouch and handed it to Zhang Ye.

Zhang Ye, his face covered in a thick beard, looked at it hesitantly but did not take it.

"What? Don't tell me Gang Leader Zhang wants to raise the price again?!" The Dark-Faced Man's expression immediately darkened.

Their price for buying grain was already thirty percent above market value.

Over the past few months, the price had been raised twice in succession.

And Zhang Ye still wanted to raise it? Insatiable greed!

Zhang Ye hesitated inwardly, unsure whether he should say it.

Seeing Zhang Ye hemming and hawing, the Dark-Faced Man was instantly furious.

The Ai Mountain Bandits were a pack of desperadoes.

Having been manipulated and pressured time and again, killing intent surged in his heart.

They were nothing more than a gang of street thugs inside the city.

They might be good at underhanded schemes, but in a real fight with blades and blood, they could be wiped out with a wave of the hand!

"I'm not raising the price." Zhang Ye spoke up to quell the other man's anger. "I just want to change the payment method."

The Dark-Faced Man frowned. "Cash for goods. That was what we agreed on before. We can't pay for the goods in advance."

"You don't need to pay in advance. You only need to deposit both the deposit and the full payment at Datong Money House," Zhang Ye said.

"We don't accept cash when doing business at the White Wave Gang's base," Zhang Ye said sullenly.

The Dark-Faced Man looked at Zhang Ye in confusion.

What kind of strange rule was that?

Then he suddenly recalled a message sent by one of their informants in the city.

His expression immediately turned mocking. "I heard the White Wave Gang got played and suffered quite a loss. Don't tell me it's true?"

Zhang Ye's face darkened, but he said nothing.

"Heh heh..." The Dark-Faced Man immediately sneered.

The city's number one gang? What a joke.

They were just a rabble!

Zhang Ye's expression turned ugly, but he did not refute him.

"Want me to leave a few brothers behind to give you a hand?" The Dark-Faced Man grinned, pretending to be kind.

Zhang Ye's face flushed red as he reached for the Ghost-Head Saber.

Touching this saber, which he had recovered after losing it at the Ghost Market, the anger in Zhang Ye's heart slowly subsided.

His skills were inferior to another's. He could not blame others for mocking him.

Over the past few months, this was far from the first time he had heard such teasing and ridicule.

"We don't accept cash," Zhang Ye repeated dully.

The Dark-Faced Man gave a derisive snort and tucked the money pouch back into his clothes.

What a coward. He did not even dare to fight back.

Zhang Ye's grip on his saber tightened unconsciously.

Yet instead of the cold, hard feel of the hilt in his palm, he felt his hand swelling, like the congested, swollen sensation caused by blood rushing faster after getting drunk.

That familiar feeling again?!

For some reason, he even felt a strange sense of fondness toward it.

Suppressing his drowsiness, Zhang Ye smiled at the Dark-Faced Man. "Third Boss, you didn't bring anything valuable with you, did you?"

The Dark-Faced Man frowned at Zhang Ye and instinctively touched his chest. The payment for this purchase was hidden there.

Zhang Ye immediately smiled—a gleeful, malicious smile.

By evening.

The gang members at the White Wave Gang's secret base gradually woke up.

Zhang Ye glanced at the table beside him. As expected, the Ghost-Head Saber was gone again.

"Looks like I'll have to make another trip to the Ghost Market."

The Dark-Faced Man glared at Zhang Ye with an ugly expression.

Suppressing a laugh, Zhang Ye stood and stretched lazily. "We don't accept cash silver. Don't forget to deposit that down payment into Datong Money House later."

The Dark-Faced Man reached into his robe, and his face turned even darker.

To one side of the Zuo family estate.

Inside a bedroom pressed right up against the Zuo family's courtyard wall.

Seven or eight gray cloth money bags sat on the table.

In the pitch-black room, Chen Mu opened them one by one and poured out their contents, the delight on his face growing ever stronger.

"After holding back for a month, the harvest really was substantial!"

Ordinary gang members mostly carried a few copper coins.

The leaders, big and small, all had loose silver on them.

And there had even been an extra sucker tonight.

Chen Mu opened a bulging leather pouch the size of his palm and tipped it over.

The clattering of silver made Chen Mu's eyes light up with joy.

There were seventeen or eighteen taels of loose silver, but more importantly, there was also a Silver Note—one hundred taels!

Sure enough, just like fishing, he couldn't keep casting his net in the same spot.

He had to give them time to recover and let the fish grow.

"Unfortunately, Gang Leader Zhang is still stingy." Chen Mu rubbed the Ghost-Head Saber beside the table and could not help curling his lip.

"Why does this saber look familiar?" Chen Mu examined it. "Isn't this the one I sold at the Ghost Market?"

Gang Leader Zhang really was the sentimental sort. He had actually bought the saber back from the Ghost Market?

Chen Mu stroked his chin.

"What if I sold this saber directly to him?"

"No middleman. It would be good for both of us, wouldn't it?"

In the end, Chen Mu regretfully gave up on the tempting idea.

He was afraid that Big Beard Zhang would fly into a rage out of humiliation.

What if he decided he did not want it anymore?

"It's time to leave Qingshan County."

With this money, his personal savings had surpassed three hundred taels.

It was enough whether he hired Jie Jia or went to Nanyang Prefecture to settle down.

"The city is getting more and more dangerous." Chen Mu sighed. Even if he wanted to stay, he did not dare.

Over the past month, Malevolent Spirits had run rampant, criminals had committed murder, and all kinds of chaos had erupted one after another.

Qingshan County was already showing signs of disorder.

If foreign enemies invaded again...

Sigh...

As he sat lost in thought over his future, Chen Mu's ears suddenly twitched.

In the silent residence, he could faintly hear voices!

"Master, I've checked it out. Cold Moon Garden, where Eldest Young Master Zuo, Zuo Sheng, lives, is right behind this wall," a pale-faced youth with bluish lips said softly.

He wore a black Daoist robe. His face was so pale that the veins beneath his skin were visible. His right hand was wrapped in white cloth, faint bloodstains seeping through it.

"Yesterday at the County Office, the other families had already begun to waver. We were about to collect the silver and leave, but that Zuo Sheng had to interfere and create this mess." The Pale-Faced Youth wore a vicious expression. "People like him need a ruthless lesson!"

"Idiot! Are you trying to get your master killed?!" Qianshan Daoist rebuked in a low voice.

He had a full face and was in his forties.

His hair was neatly combed back, save for a single lock of silver-white hair that hung beside the right side of his face.

"Causing trouble for a direct descendant of the Zuo family is a warning to the Zuo family."

"Zuo Sheng is a ruthless bastard who hides his strength. Going after him is nothing but trouble with no reward!" Daoist Qianshan said impatiently.

Through secret channels, he had learned that Qingshan County's Exorcism Mirror had vanished, Malevolent Spirit incidents were becoming frequent, and County Magistrate Li Tai was recruiting capable people far and wide.

He happened to possess a few tricks. After displaying them a little, he had indeed fooled Li Tai.

He had been about to use the excuse of performing rituals to rake in money, only for the Zuo family to ruin everything.

"Forgive me, Master, forgive me!" the Pale-faced Youth said in panic.

"Forget it." Daoist Qianshan's face darkened.

"Zuo Sheng, then."

"He was considered the Zuo Family's foremost expert. Crippling him would be the perfect way to warn the others."

As he spoke, Daoist Qianshan pressed his palms together and began chanting under his breath.

His voice was low and rapid. Though he was clearly speaking alone, it sounded as if hundreds or thousands of people were whispering at once.

A mass of black mist the size of a human head appeared before them, gathering and condensing inward.

The black mist vanished, replaced by a pale Paper Man.

Fine black lines covered the Paper Man's entire body, like the meridians of a human body.

Its facial features had been hollowed out and cut with lifelike precision.

On its back was a blood-red character: "Xia."

The Pale-Faced Youth's face immediately filled with fear when he saw the Paper Man, and he instinctively took two steps back.

"Why are you running? Hurry up and feed the Paper Man some blood."

"Master, I..." The Pale-Faced Youth was instantly at a loss for words.

"Hurry!" Daoist Qianshan stared coldly at the Pale-Faced Youth.

The Pale-Faced Youth's scalp went numb.

Daoist Qianshan had more than one disciple.

Yet now, only he remained.

All the disciples who had dared defy him had vanished without a trace, neither living nor dead.

Gritting his teeth, the Pale-Faced Youth took out a dagger, untied the white cloth around his right hand, and viciously sliced open the wound that had yet to heal.

Thick blood slowly welled out.

The Paper Man floating in midair was like a cat that had caught the scent of blood.

It drifted leisurely over to the Pale-Faced Youth's palm.

A series of gulping sounds, like someone drinking water, rang out.

The Pale-Faced Youth's face grew even paler.

After quite some time, the Paper Man floated up from his palm, its pale body now transformed into a vivid red.

Daoist Qianshan looked at his pale-faced disciple and pulled a black pill carrying a pungent scent from his robes.

"You did well. Eat it."

"Thank you, Master, thank you, Master!" The Pale-Faced Youth swallowed the pill in one gulp.

Color immediately returned to his face at a visible speed.

His eyes brightened with energy, and his entire body became excited.

"Master's Ascension Pill has grown ever more miraculous!" the Pale-Faced Youth flattered him with a look of bliss.

Daoist Qianshan smiled at his disciple, satisfaction on his face, but there was not a shred of emotion in his cold eyes.

At that moment, the blood-absorbing Paper Man seemed to come alive, its entire paper body becoming animated.

"Goo, goo, goo..."

The little figure floated in the air, pointing behind them with its tiny hand as it shrieked and flailed.

Master and disciple whirled around.

In the darkness of the night, they saw a figure bent halfway over, sneaking along the base of the wall beneath the eaves toward the corner.

"Who goes there?!" the Pale-Faced Youth roared.

Chen Mu's entire body stiffened. He turned around and looked awkwardly at the two of them. "I just got up to use the toilet. Carry on, carry on."

"Didn't you say this was an abandoned house? How could there be someone here?" Daoist Qianshan glared viciously at his disciple.

The Pale-Faced Youth panicked and immediately barked at Chen Mu, "Who are you?!"

"Forget it." Daoist Qianshan suppressed his anger and cast Chen Mu a cold glance. "Go deal with him. Don't delay our business."

"Yes!" The Pale-Faced Youth looked at Chen Mu with a vicious grin.

His right hand brushed across his waist, and a soft, slender sword appeared in his grasp.

Chen Mu's mind raced as he calmly tried to persuade him. "It's the dead of night. Even the slightest sound will carry a long way."

"If we really came to blows, I'm afraid we'd ruin everyone's plans."

"Just you?" The Pale-Faced Youth sneered and calmly walked toward Chen Mu.

He had followed Daoist Qianshan across the land.

His Profound Yin Sword Technique was soft as water and hard as a whip. Countless so-called heroes had died beneath his blade.

Had the two not kept a low profile, they would have long since made a great name for themselves.

Chen Mu's heart tightened.

Strictly speaking, this was only his second time fighting someone trained in martial arts.

When he had taught the Ruffian a lesson before, he had barely felt anything.

When he killed Sheng Hong, he had not been prepared either. He had simply thrown stones wildly.

Now, watching the Pale-Faced Youth approach with a dark expression, Chen Mu felt uneasy. There are two of them. That's a bit too many.

He secretly glanced at Daoist Qianshan, who clearly did not take him seriously at all. Chen Mu relaxed.

It was good that he was not paying attention to him.

Chen Mu's scalp went numb as he glanced at the blood-red little figure floating in midair.

Watching the Pale-Faced Youth draw closer and closer, he gritted his teeth. I'll throw a dart at him. If that doesn't work, I'll run!

His right hand slipped into his sleeve and grasped an Iron Lotus Seed in his palm.

"Come on." The Pale-Faced Youth held his sword in his right hand and spread both arms before his chest in a welcoming gesture.

"Weren't you going to fight?"

"Come over here—"

Whoosh!

In an instant, a black shadow flashed past like lightning.

The Iron Lotus Seed in Chen Mu's hand shot out like a bullet from a gun, abruptly tearing through the air between them and piercing straight through the Pale-Faced Youth's left chest.

Splurt!

A spray of blood burst from the Pale-Faced Youth's back. "You... you!"

Pfft! Pfft!

Before he could finish speaking, two more holes appeared in his forehead and at the corner of his mouth.

Blood dripped down his chin.

The entire courtyard fell deathly silent.