A Small Favor

The man in black died peacefully.

The moment the sword light reached him, he had actually tried to fight back.

He quickly formed a mass of black wind before his chest. It seemed to contain countless locusts, which frantically gnawed at Yue Wen's spiritual sense as he controlled the Flying Sword, trying to wrest it from his control.

As long as Yue Wen's spiritual sense faltered, the man could break through it. The Flying Sword would go out of control, and the sword light would dissipate on its own.

But to his shock, this young man who had suddenly appeared had a foundation in cultivation a hundred times stronger than that Immortal Gate disciple from earlier! His true qi was condensed, and his spiritual sense was powerful.

His vital energy, essence, and spirit had no weaknesses!

This was entirely a difference in Cultivation Methods. He could crush that Linjiang Gate disciple, so was he from an Immortal Gate of even higher standing?

The man in black thought of those famous, top-tier sects of the mortal world. He couldn't understand why someone of this caliber would come after him.

And someone like that had even pretended to be dead for ages just to ambush him!

Was he really that eager to see me dead?

Fine, then. You can kill me.

The True Dragon Dao Method circulated at breakneck speed, and waves of immense, majestic true essence poured into it. In the blink of an eye, the Flying Sword pierced straight through the man in black's chest.

Pfft—

A cloud of blood burst from the man in black's back.

Like the little demons from last night, he had no legal protection. The difference was that those little demons hadn't dared to do evil, so Yue Wen couldn't bring himself to kill them.

But against a wicked cultivator who had committed countless atrocities, he felt no psychological burden at all.

The sword pierced his heart, and the wicked cultivator fell to the ground. His eyes were full of unwillingness as he murmured, "I've never seen you before. Who sent you...?"

Yue Wen stood halfway up the slope and replied calmly, "I'm the owner of Yue's Cultivation Firm. The East City Cemetery hired me for a thousand yuan to clear out evil spirits."

"A thousand... a thousand yuan..." The man in black's eyes bulged as blood gushed from his mouth. His face was full of disbelief. "For a thousand yuan, you... I..."

Before he could finish, the man in black had already breathed his last.

Yue Wen waited a while. When the man still didn't move, he went over to get a good look at him.

He was a middle-aged man with deathly pale skin and a deeply sunken face. He looked almost like skin stretched over bones.

If Yue Wen had run into him on the street, he might have thought he was a frail, sickly patient. He never would have guessed that the man was a wicked cultivator who killed without batting an eye. Yet in this day and age, many people like him hid among the city's streets and alleys.

There was no Demon Suppressing Coin reward for killing him, but that didn't mean Yue Wen would get nothing out of it.

After confirming once more that the man was dead, Yue Wen began searching him. Wicked cultivators like this wandered from place to place, so any valuables they owned were probably on them.

Qi Dian was still unconscious, so whatever Yue Wen found would be his alone.

A long case for a fishing rod lay on the ground. It was empty, and had probably been used to hold the large banner that had been planted there. The wicked cultivator must not have had a Storage Magic Artifact, so he'd rolled up the banner and disguised it by putting it in the fishing-rod case.

That made searching him easier.

The banner looked impressive, but Yue Wen didn't dare take it.

It was obviously a wicked artifact. He had no idea what had been used to refine it. Whether he kept it for himself or tried to sell it, he'd be committing a serious crime. The wicked cultivator might have had no scruples, but Yue Wen was a respectable man with a family and a business. He couldn't do something like that.

First, he found a waist pouch on the man and opened it. Inside was a stack of cash, probably forty or fifty thousand yuan.

"Thanks, boss." Yue Wen thanked him and pocketed the cash without hesitation.

Next, he took the man's phone out of his pocket. He could see that someone had sent him a message, but Yue Wen didn't know the unlock code, so he couldn't see anything else.

That wasn't something his supernatural abilities could handle. It required technology.

He'd leave it for the Supervision Bureau to deal with when they came to clean up.

Then he found half of a skull carved from black gold in the man's chest pocket. It was finely made and had an antique sheen, with fine, scale-like patterns covering its surface. It didn't look like a wicked artifact, and Yue Wen had no idea what kind of treasure it was.

Though he didn't know what the skull itself was for, the material looked like Blackwater Dragon-Patterned Gold, an extremely precious immortal metal.

"I'll have it checked." After a moment's thought, Yue Wen pocketed the half-skull as well.

He searched the man from head to toe once more, but found nothing else.

For a rogue cultivator, having one or two magical artifacts was already a sign of wealth, so Yue Wen wasn't disappointed. Still, after finishing the search, he didn't hurry to rescue Qi Dian.

Instead, he went over to the body of "Zhang Wei."

The Cult Leader of the "Meow Meow Cult" was looking for him, and so was the wicked cultivator's employer. This Zhang Wei, who had died by accident, was merely an employee at an antiques shop with no cultivation at all.

Why?

The man in black had just revealed that Zhang Wei had once stolen something from that antiques shop. It had to be connected to that item.

Since all these people wanted to find his body, the item was probably hidden on him.

He had the chance to look now. Finding out what it was couldn't hurt.

Many of Zhang Wei's bones were broken. It looked as if he'd been in a rather brutal car accident. Yue Wen gave him a quick search but found nothing.

Bodies of people who died in accidents were always searched before burial. Their personal belongings would be sealed away and held for their families to claim.

Since Zhang Wei had been buried, there was surely nothing obvious on him. That was no surprise.

Those people still wanted to find his body, which meant they had probably already used all sorts of methods to check the belongings that had been sealed away.

But they'd found nothing.

Zhang Wei had been an ordinary person and couldn't use a Storage Magic Artifact. If the item hadn't been lost somewhere else, where could he have hidden it so well?

Yue Wen didn't rack his brain over it. He simply activated the Spirit Seeking Needle.

Precisely because Zhang Wei had been an ordinary person, everything on him was mundane. If anything gave off spiritual fluctuations, it had to be the treasure they were looking for. There wouldn't be any false leads.

This was exactly the right time to use the Spirit Seeking Needle to find a treasure.

The disk of the Spirit Seeking Needle shimmered and spun rapidly twice before pointing straight at the top of Zhang Wei's head.

"Inside his head?" Yue Wen narrowed his eyes. "No, in his hair!"

He reached out and yanked hard. Sure enough, part of Zhang Wei's center-parted hairstyle came off. It was actually a wig, fastened tightly in place!

Once the wig was pulled off, it revealed a head like a kiwi fruit, with only sparse tufts of hair. A thin piece of purple fabric fell out from between the wig and his scalp.

Zhang Wei had gone bald at such a young age?

His life really had been miserable.

Yue Wen picked up the fabric with a sigh. Its edges were torn, and its shape was irregular, as if it had been ripped off something. It felt like sheepskin. One side was purple and gold, the other black, and both sides were blank. A complex, bizarre emblem had been engraved in the lower-left corner of the purple-and-gold side.

Countless long, fork-tongued snakes coiled around a tiger with bared fangs. They seemed to be fighting, yet also entwining with one another, forming a round emblem.

The instant he saw it, Yue Wen's eyes narrowed, and his gaze filled with shock!

He had seen this emblem before...

And he would never forget it.

So the item Zhang Wei had stolen was connected to that place. No wonder so many people coveted it.

Yue Wen didn't dare look at it for long. He hurriedly tucked the cloth into his coat, planning to examine it more carefully once he got back. Then he put the wig back on Zhang Wei.

As if nothing had happened.

Only after all that did he stroll over to Qi Dian. He channeled true qi into his fingertips and pulled out the four steel needles from Qi Dian's body.

"Ah!"

The moment the steel needles came out, Qi Dian, who had been sealed in place, woke up. He cried out and sat bolt upright.

Still dazed, he saw Yue Wen in front of him and immediately said, "Yue Wen? Hurry, get out of here! Go find the Supervision Bureau. I'll hold them off! That wicked cultivator is probably a disciple of Flame Ghost Hall. His cultivation is powerful; we can't beat him!"

"Brother Qi, don't panic." Yue Wen patted his shoulder twice in reassurance. "I've already killed the wicked cultivator."

"You?" Qi Dian froze, apparently unable to believe it. "You killed him?"

"Over there." Yue Wen pointed at the corpse on the slope. The night was dark, but Qi Dian's cultivation gave him sharp eyesight. He could see the wicked cultivator's body at a glance.

Qi Dian's eyes filled with astonishment.

First of all, Yue Wen had actually managed it?

Even though Yue Wen was a minor realm above him, Qi Dian hadn't thought his fighting ability could surpass his own.

After all, Yue Wen was only a rogue cultivator.

According to the stereotype, rogue cultivators lacked Cultivation Methods, supernatural abilities, and magical artifacts... And in truth, they really did lack all of those things.

Second, Yue Wen had actually been willing to do it?

Old Huang had said it had only cost him a thousand yuan to hire Yue Wen. Killing Lantern Monsters was one thing, but was killing wicked cultivators really part of his job?

Why risk your life for a thousand yuan?

After a while, Qi Dian finally asked, "How did you do it?"

"I just..." Yue Wen made a gesture as if swinging a sword. "Did this."

He didn't want to reveal that he knew anything about "Zhang Wei," so he boiled the whole thing down to this: he'd seen Qi Dian in trouble, rushed over, and taken care of the wicked cultivator in passing.

"That was all?" Qi Dian looked slightly dazed, his shock beyond words.

"He was just a wicked cultivator in the Unity Realm. How hard could it be?" Yue Wen shrugged, his expression calm. "It was a small favor."

Good morning!

I'm posting this again because some people might have missed it yesterday. Before the book goes on sale, I'm planning to try a month-ticket raffle for a month.

If it goes well, I might hold these regularly in the future.

The raffle period runs from the day the book was released, October 20, until three days after it goes on sale in a little while. Anyone who casts a month ticket during that period can enter.

There are lots of prizes, so everyone has a chance.

I'm planning to send the prizes as red envelopes.

(Thanks to the operations team for all their hard work.)

[Activity Requirements]

Take a screenshot of the month-ticket receipt for this book. Post screenshots of all your month-ticket records from the publication date of I Have Seen Dragons through the third day after it goes on sale in the activity thread to enter the raffle. You're encouraged to cast your tickets in several batches. The last four digits of the ticket-receipt screenshot will be used as your raffle number.

[How to Find Your Records]

Qidian APP:

My Account—Month Tickets—Month-Ticket Commemorative Album—Screenshot of this book's voting records

[Prizes]

Grand Prize: 1 winner, 200 yuan

First Prize: 4 winners, 100 yuan each;

Second Prize: 8 winners, 50 yuan each;

Third Prize: 16 winners, 1,000 Qidian Coins each;

Fourth Prize: 32 winners, 500 Qidian Coins each;

Fifth Prize: 50 winners, 200 Qidian Coins each;

Consolation Prize: 80 winners, 100 Qidian Coins each;

There will also be 10 fan titles awarded to readers whose fan rank is at least a disciple in any book by Pei Bu Liao. (A screenshot showing your fan rank in any book is required.)

[Total Prize Explanation]

The maximum Qidian Coin reward per person is 3,000. Any Qidian Coins awarded to an individual beyond that amount will automatically be added to the general prize pool and redrawn.

(End of chapter)