Glutton

Whoosh—

Along with that sharp cry came a dazzling rainbow of light in midair. Its brilliant glow illuminated the surrounding area, turning everything within several hundred meters as bright as day. Then came a rolling rumble of thunder!

Only after that did a figure descend amid the flashes of lightning and thunder, dressed in white and drifting down gracefully.

"Qi Dian of Linjiang Gate is here! Who dares cause trouble?"

Crack!

A thunderous boom rang across the sky as Qi Dian made his dazzling entrance.

"Now that's flashy." Yue Wen couldn't help marveling from below. As expected of an Immortal Gate disciple.

Even the spectacle of his entrance was beyond what loose cultivators like them could manage.

Seeing Qi Dian soaring through the air amid a dazzling display of light and sound, the black-clad man's eyes flashed with wariness. He immediately yanked the enormous banner from the ground, raised his arm, and swung it through the air!

Whoosh—

The banner stirred up a murky, sinister wind that turned into a black ribbon and shot toward Qi Dian.

Qi Dian flipped his hand and drew a long sword in midair. It gleamed with cold light, clearly no ordinary weapon. He channeled it to produce three feet of swordlight, intending to cut the sinister wind in two!

Boom!

The sword gleam collided with the sinister wind, then suddenly quivered and shattered. The wind exploded into a cloud of black mist, and Qi Dian was sent tumbling straight to the ground. He landed flat on his back, limbs akimbo, and passed out.

His entrance had lasted less than three seconds.

Qi Dian had gone down just like that.

"So it was all just for show?" Yue Wen covered his face with a hand.

The scene had been chaotic for a moment, but with his cultivation backing him, he'd seen it clearly.

The sinister wind stirred up by the black-clad man's banner had carried a chaotic mental attack. Qi Dian's sword gleam had been sharp, but as soon as it touched the wind, he'd lost control of his technique. His spiritual palace had lost its clarity, the sword gleam had dispersed, and his true energy had fallen into disarray. That was why he'd been knocked to the ground in a single blow.

He'd been unconscious ever since.

"Damn." Even the black-clad man seemed surprised. "So he was just a nobody."

Qi Dian had come at him with such force that the man had been nervous for a moment. Why would there normally be a cultivator stationed in the cemetery east of the city? He'd thought the Supervision Bureau had sent people specifically to ambush him.

If you're that weak, why make such a flashy entrance?

The black-clad man raised his hand again. Four black steel needles shot through the air and pierced Qi Dian's limbs, pinning him to the ground and forming a makeshift seal.

"Heh." He gave a vicious grin. "Since you're an Immortal Gate disciple, I won't kill you just yet. Linjiang Gate may not be a major sect, but it's operated in River City for years, so it should have quite a few assets. I'll kidnap you and extort them first, then strip you of your divine powers and magical artifacts. After that, I'll refine you into a corpse puppet. That'll put you to good use. Heh heh heh..."

Listening to the man's wicked laughter, Yue Wen had a pretty good idea of who he was dealing with.

Qi Dian had called him an evil cultivator as soon as he arrived. The man had also used techniques like corpse summoning and mind control, and his way of doing things left no room for doubt.

Righteous cultivators recognized two kinds of evil cultivators. One had cultivation talent but practiced wicked Cultivation Methods that harmed others in exchange for greater power. The other had no cultivation talent, but could still embark on the path of cultivation by paying certain prices—and those prices usually meant falling into evil ways.

Neither kind had a place in a civilized society.

Every last one of them was a desperate criminal who stopped at nothing.

The black-clad man seemed to belong to the first kind. His methods were sinister and dark, but he still looked human overall.

Evil cultivators like him couldn't operate in the open. They could only make a living taking jobs from the underworld. Today, he was probably helping his employer summon corpses here to find the "Zhang Wei" they wanted.

Yue Wen's thoughts raced as he considered what to do.

If he kept sitting by and doing nothing, the black-clad man would finish the job and leave with Qi Dian. Yue Wen might stay safe by hiding until the end, but Qi Dian would surely suffer.

If he went out and fought the black-clad man, he didn't seem to have any guarantee of winning. He'd never encountered an evil cultivator before. He didn't know the man's cultivation level or what tricks he might have.

If he secretly called the Supervision Bureau, the man might notice—and even if he didn't, it would take time for Bureau agents to arrive.

After mulling it over, Yue Wen looked at the figure in overalls standing in front of him. His eyes suddenly lit up as he came up with a plan.

The black-clad man had placed a temporary seal on Qi Dian's soul to keep him from waking, then turned back to the group of corpses before him.

He still had a proper job to finish.

Even evil cultivators who ignored every rule still had to complete the jobs they accepted. If they lost their credibility, they'd lose the support of the underground forces. They couldn't survive through normal channels, let alone cultivate.

So in some respects, evil cultivators followed the rules more closely than righteous ones did.

He sent the other party a voice message. "A righteous cultivator just tried to stop me. I've taken care of him. Send me any other information you have on the target."

The other party quickly sent back another long message, all about "Zhang Wei."

Then they added, "I hope you work faster. My patience is limited."

"Don't worry, boss." The black-clad man declared confidently, "With all this information, if I can't identify the target, I'll eat shit!"

He put away his phone and confidently looked at the five figures standing in front of him. "Zhang Wei, a lifelong bachelor who graduated from River City Technical College, got drunk during military training and publicly urinated outside the women's dorm, insisting he was showing everyone his 'weaponry'; gave a can of surströmming to the girl he liked as a confession; wore stockings in his dorm and took selfies to sell online as 'worn once,' only for the buyer to turn out to be his roommate; worked at an antique shop after graduation; and, just before he died, stole an important item from the shop while working overtime... Step forward!"

With that, he flashed a confident smile and watched the five restless corpses, waiting for the target to step forward.

Since they'd already walked several steps forward, the corpses had all reached the bottom of the slope, quite close to him now. He could make out their bloodied, unrecognizable faces, which seemed to still bear the pain and struggle of their final moments. He liked that look...

Clap. Clap.

Before his smile had lasted long, two of the corpses took a big step forward at the same time.

"..."

Silence.

A sinister wind swept fallen leaves across the hillside. The black-clad man stared at the figures in front of him with his mouth hanging open, at a loss for words.

He couldn't believe it.

Huh...?

Only after a long moment did he mumble, "There can be two of them?"

Could there really be two such weirdos in the world?

And they were both called Zhang Wei, and both buried here... He began to wonder if he'd learned his corpse-summoning technique wrong.

This was way too bizarre!

At least there were only two corpses. He could bring both back to the employer. Still, remembering how he'd just bragged, the black-clad man felt a little uneasy.

Would the employer think he was some kind of glutton?

"Huh?" The puzzled black-clad man looked the two corpses up and down, then suddenly frowned.

One corpse wore overalls and had parted hair, its face impossible to make out. The other was dressed fairly neatly and had its head bowed, face hidden. From its general build, it seemed like a handsome man.

It also seemed a little more carefree than the other corpses.

It stood out.

He eyed the handsome corpse, which stood head and shoulders above the others, and hesitated. "Was that one there just now?"

As he pondered, the "corpse" suddenly lifted its head, revealing a handsome face with bright eyes and elegant brows. It grinned at him. "You've got a pretty good memory."

"A living person?!" The black-clad man jolted in alarm and sprang backward.

In all his years of playing with corpses, this was the first time one had ever scared him.

But it was already too late.

The handsome "corpse" in disguise was Yue Wen. Worried that he might not be able to beat the black-clad man in a direct confrontation and rescue Qi Dian, he'd quietly blended in among the "Zhang Weis."

Taking advantage of the chance to move forward, he'd closed the distance between himself and the black-clad man.

Now was the perfect moment to strike!

Sword Control Art!

A flash of cold light shot from Yue Wen's wrist. The sword gleam streaked through the air like Hou Yi shooting down the sun, moving with incredible speed! If the distance between them had been greater, the black-clad man might have had a chance to dodge. But now they were less than seven paces apart.

Beyond seven paces, the Flying Sword was fast.

Within seven paces, the Flying Sword was fast and true!

Whoosh—