The Solution

Boss Chen had already despaired when Ye Yun opened the door. Unfortunately, Ye Yun had immobilized his entire body. He couldn't even bite his tongue to kill himself, much less move. By the time he regained control of his body, Ye Yun had already delivered him to the women.

"Ah!!!"

Ye Yun had barely closed the door when a terrible scream rang out from inside. He could imagine how wild things must be in there. Judging by the sounds, they wouldn't be finished anytime soon, so Ye Yun told Gu Dahai to keep watch and handed him the Meteorite Copper to look after before leaving. The lair of a major gang was bound to hold plenty of valuables, and settling these women would require a good deal of money. He needed to search the place thoroughly.

An hour later, Ye Yun returned to Gu Dahai and the others with three large chests floating along under his telekinetic control. By then, the women had calmed down, and even the blood on them had been washed away. The only proof of what had happened was Boss Chen's battered corpse, left behind in the room.

Seeing the women standing in an orderly line at the entrance under Gu Dahai's direction, Ye Yun nodded. "Let's go. The sun's about to set. We'll find somewhere to settle them for now and make arrangements tomorrow."

Gu Dahai thought for a moment. "Young Master, I know a place where we can put them up, though the conditions are a little rough."

"Lead the way. As long as they have somewhere to stay, that's enough. Tomorrow, we'll have the authorities send them home. Those who don't want to go back can have the money and valuables distributed among them. It should be enough for them to live out the rest of their lives comfortably."

Gu Dahai wasn't surprised by Ye Yun's decision at all. He had seen Ye Yun flying through the air and slaughtering his way through his enemies. Though he hadn't been fortunate enough to meet a cultivator like Boss Chen had, he had heard plenty of legends. The immortals in those stories had always seemed too distant for him to ever think Ye Yun might be one of them. Now that he knew Ye Yun's identity, everything made sense. After all, immortals could supposedly turn stones into gold. Apart from heavenly treasures and rare artifacts, how could mere money catch their eye? Knowing Ye Yun's strength was what made Gu Dahai willingly serve him. Losing to an immortal wasn't shameful; it was an honor—provided you survived, of course.

The place Gu Dahai had mentioned wasn't far from Boss Chen's lair. Since evening was drawing near and the streets were growing quiet, they reached it without any trouble.

It was a sprawling courtyard compound. Though it looked a little old, it was quite clean. When Ye Yun asked, he learned that it actually belonged to Gu Dahai. According to him, he had bought it from a wealthy merchant at a very low price, without resorting to any underhanded methods.

Ye Yun was curious. The compound was a little old, and its location was somewhat remote, but it covered a large area. Even the land alone would fetch a good price. The merchant had no reason to sell it so cheaply.

Gu Dahai chuckled. "Young Master, there's something you don't know. The merchant had a reason for selling it to me so cheaply. He bought the compound intending to build a mansion, but only realized afterward that the place had bad feng shui. His business started losing money as soon as he bought it. On top of that, his family was planning to move to another city, so he came to me and asked me to buy it."

Ye Yun nodded. That explained it. It had nothing to do with him, so he told Gu Dahai to settle the women in and then left. He still had other gangs to visit that night. He had discovered that these gangs, besides keeping money, also had some decent spirit medicines. He had found five at Boss Chen's lair alone. They weren't high-grade, but they were good enough for him.

After parting ways with Gu Dahai and the others, Ye Yun went straight back to the inn. He took a refreshing bath and changed his clothes before going downstairs to order a table full of food. He'd been busy all day and was starving. What puzzled him was that, despite killing so many people that day, he had felt no lasting discomfort. At first, he had been frightened and felt sick, but now he was back to normal.

If he couldn't figure something out, Ye Yun's usual approach was not to dwell on it. So when he couldn't understand what was going on, he stopped thinking about it. There was no point tormenting himself over a few worthless scoundrels.

After eating his fill, Ye Yun waited a little while. Once night had settled over the land, he rode his sword into the darkness, and the gangs large and small in Heyang City were hit hard. Those who hadn't committed grave crimes got off relatively lightly: at most, they were beaten and had a few bones broken, or lost a hand or a foot. But the gang leaders and anyone who had taken a life met King Yama that night, without exception, and their treasures were stripped from them.

With Gu Dahai, a local insider, providing the locations of the various gang hideouts, Ye Yun swept through Heyang City in just over two hours. Of course, the city's proximity to Qingyun Sect and its relatively good law and order helped. Otherwise, even with his considerable strength, Ye Yun would have struggled to sweep through every gang in the city in such a short time.

Ye Yun left all the money and valuables he had taken with Gu Dahai and the others, keeping the spirit medicines as payment for his trouble. That was what had kept him going. There were too many small gangs like these to wipe them all out, even if he had the ability to create clones. After all, wherever there was light, there would always be darkness.

After leaving Gu Dahai and the others, Ye Yun rode his sword to the haunted house Gu Dahai had told him about. What puzzled him was that, although the place looked gloomy and phosphorescent ghost lights appeared from time to time, there wasn't a trace of ghostly energy. That was hard to reconcile with a haunted house.

"Maybe the ghost is just hiding very deep," Ye Yun told himself. But once he landed, his hopes were completely dashed. He had found an extremely vicious poison here: Corpse Dissolving Blood Grudge.

Just as its name suggested, Corpse Dissolving Blood Grudge turned a person's body into blood. But it didn't wait until the victim was dead to start dissolving them. Wherever the poison reached, that part of the body dissolved. A mere touch was enough for it to race through the victim's bloodstream and spread throughout their entire body, dissolving them alive. It also caused hallucinations, so the victim died without even realizing what was happening.

There was such a vicious poison here. No wonder the authorities hadn't ventured inside. Even cultivators with only modest cultivation would struggle to withstand it. Fortunately, the poison quickly became ineffective once exposed to the air. Otherwise, this place would have become a dead zone.

"Since the authorities are already involved, there's nothing left for me to do. I'd better go back to sleep. I thought I'd get to see what a ghost was like, but what a disappointment!"