Ask about the knife in your hand before asking, midnight speed (next week's update will be changed to 12:00 PM)

As Chen Dengming smiled, stepped forward, and tried to strike up a friendly conversation, he also unnoticeably produced a Low-grade Spirit Stone from his sleeve. He slipped it toward the opposing cultivator and chuckled.

"Immortal Master, please accept this tiny token of sincerity. It's nothing much. This was actually a gift from an Immortal Master at the Golden Character Workshop last time, and a humble Xiantian like me has no use for it anyway."

The glow of the spirit stone was quite striking amidst the nighttime gloom.

As the old saying went, money makes the mare go, and the cultivator's originally tight expression turned unnatural in an instant. It eased up somewhat, and the ice-cold gaze he cast toward Chen Dengming gained a few degrees of warmth. He reached out, took the bribe, and relaxed his posture.

"Not bad, you certainly know how to play the game. What kind of future is there in hanging around with the Golden Character Workshop? Running with Boss Ming over at Hutong Street is the truly wise choice. You said you don't know how we got into a conflict?"

Seeing Chen Dengming's baffled expression and earnest, humble attitude, the cultivator nodded in satisfaction and led the way while speaking.

"The friction and conflict between our two sides go way back, but this time the Golden Character Workshop went way too far. They actually blamed the death of one of their senior cultivators on our Hutong Street, and they keep coming over to stir up trouble."

"Oh?"

A thought stirred in Chen Dengming's heart.

Surely it couldn't be that much of a coincidence, could it? A senior cultivator?

He walked close behind, listening as the other man continued, and growing increasingly suspicious inside.

The senior cultivator from the Golden Character Workshop that the man spoke of had died in the grove just north of the gathering place. By a rough estimate, the time of death happened to be a month ago, and it had occurred right inside his own place of cultivation.

Did this not match up completely?

The time of death, the location of the death, and the age of the deceased all lined up.

It was precisely that senior cultivator who had died at his own hands over a month ago.

Never had he expected the Golden Character Workshop to pin that debt on Hutong Street.

The two factions had engaged in frequent friction over this matter during recent days, and Hutong Street had actually taken the blame on his behalf.

Yet now, that big shot over at Hutong Street had also set his sights on him because of the waist token Fairy Lüo had bestowed, which made things somewhat troublesome.

Chen Dengming was no fool. The moment these few Kalami appeared and blocked his front and rear paths, they clearly harbored malicious intentions. It would have been one thing if he hadn't crossed paths with that big shot yet.

Once he truly came face to face with the man, and the other party demanded something or forced him to switch sides to Hutong Street, he would have no choice but to agree whether he wanted to or not. By then, he would be entirely meat on the chopping block.

As for the Luo Family waist token given by Fairy Lüo, he was the clearest on what that thing was worth—its utility was limited, and he had no relation to Fairy Lüo whatsoever.

Although other cultivators speculated about his relationship with Fairy Lüo, anyone smart and careful would connect the dots to his mortal background and would not necessarily feel true hesitation.

Therefore, he had to break away and leave immediately right now to preserve himself. Trying to please both sides and play all angles was utterly impossible.

Almost the instant Chen Dengming's thoughts shifted and he made his decision, the cultivator walking beside him, who was just about to speak to him, suddenly sensed a trace of hostility.

The cultivator had never completely relaxed his guard in the first place. His expression shifted, and he moved to activate the talisman he had been clutching the whole time.

Yet just as his spiritual Qi was mobilized, the cultivator felt the meridians in the palm that had previously accepted the spirit stone swell with pain, causing the spiritual Qi inside his body to stall.

In that split second, a shadowy figure darted instantly out from Chen Dengming's ear and bit down hard on the cultivator's cheek.

The cultivator felt a sharp, stinging pain as if he had been bitten by an insect, and immediately his entire face lost all sensation. But that was not the end of it; his eyes only caught the flash of a surging blade light, which ruthlessly sliced across his neck.

How fierce was the momentum of that single strike? The cultivator's neck snapped off in response, his entire body not even swaying in the slightest before blood gushed forth like a pillar.

Things happened in such a flash of lightning, so fast it left one's head spinning.

The two Xiantian followers behind them felt that just the previous moment, the "new little newbie" had still been chatting and laughing merrily with their Immortal Master.

The very next moment, the man suddenly erupted with a blade stroke and chopped off their Immortal Master's head. They hadn't even caught sight of the Blood Centipede Gu before the Immortal Master's head was already flying through the air beneath their wide, shocked gazes, spraying blood all over their faces.

This terror left them stunned for a moment.

During that brief moment, Chen Dengming had already let out a loud shout, his gaze turning matchlessly sharp as if he had transformed into a different person. Brandishing his blade to kill, the muscles across his robust upper body bulged, and the sword Qi of the broken blade surged, instantly severing the head of a second Xiantian.

By this time, the third Xiantian finally jolted back to his senses in terror. His first reaction was not to immediately fight to the death, but to shriek in fright and scramble backward.

"Receive this blade of mine!"

Surging forward with the current, Chen Dengming let out a long whistle that whipped up a peerlessly formidable fighting spirit. He strode forward and slashed out with another blade stroke, the astonishing blade Qi like a raging ocean pounding savagely against the longsword the opponent raised to block.

Clang—sparks burst forth in an explosion.

Blade and sword crossed.

The third Xiantian spewed a mouthful of blood as his longsword shattered inch by inch and the webbing between his thumb and forefinger burst open. Before he could stumble backward, Chen Dengming's figure flicked.

The broken blade trembled, its edge brushing past the opponent's neck. The sound and sensation of the blade's edge biting into flesh and sweeping past cartilage and blood vessels were transmitted with exceptional clarity to Chen Dengming's ears and palm.

Blade light rose, sword shadow fell.

Amidst a storm of blood and flying shadows, all three perished beneath the broken blade in Chen Dengming's hand.

The most threatening cultivator among them hadn't even managed to successfully deploy his most effective spiritual Qi protection or his deadliest talisman to save his life before meeting a bitter end right on the spot.

Chen Dengming watched the corpses tumble to the ground one after another with thuds, gazing at the wide-eyed, incredulous expression of that cultivator, his hand gripping the familiar hilt of the broken blade tightly.

Hot blood spilled upon the earth, a quick and satisfying vengeance!

Drawing blades at the slightest disagreement, consulting the blade in one's hand before asking any questions!

For a moment, it felt as though he once again experienced the sensation of his past great battles in the lonely city, testing his blade against the world under the heavens. All the unpleasantness of these past days—being treated as a mere mortal by immortal cultivators who looked down on him from on high—was vented away right at this moment.

Chen's spirit stone isn't so easy to collect.

He let out a long breath, pulling back his sharp gaze slightly. He picked up the cultivator's money pouch to inspect it, and his face darkened involuntarily.

Poor ghosts! Not a single spirit stone! It's not even enough to cover the interest on the spirit stone they just borrowed from me.

Sensing through his vital energy that someone was approaching, he immediately crouched down to retrieve the spirit stone Gu he had handed over earlier from the cultivator's grasp, dug out the talisman the man had been clutching tightly in his hand, hoisted the cultivator's severed head, wrapped it swiftly in his patched cloak, and bounded away with a surge of his breath, vaulting over the alleyway to leave at speed.

Before long, a trickle of figures appeared at the entrance of the alley. Seeing the corpses on the ground, some gasped in shock while others flickered with greedy eyes, staring at the money pouches on the two Xiantian cultivators, only to calm down abruptly upon catching sight of the headless cultivator's corpse.

In the chaotic rogue cultivator gathering place, killing and being killed was truly nothing out of the ordinary.

People died almost every day, with slain Xiantian cultivators making up the vast majority. Who hadn't seen a dead body?

Yet this time, someone had actually taken down a Hutong Street cultivator. If the perpetrator was from the Golden Character Workshop, then for the next period of time, the gathering place would likely descend into even greater chaos.

Gathering his breath and leaping forward swiftly, Chen Dengming moved with the speed of the wind and lightning, quickly returning to his residence.

He rapidly dug out the other spirit stone he had hidden away, then fetched the bamboo-slice Gu and loach Gu he had refined from their respective corners.

Next, he unwrapped the cultivator's head from the cloak, letting the Blood Centipede Gu absorb the residual venom on the face to prevent anyone from noticing any clues. Then, using the cultivator's own blood, he smeared a line of words upon the wall.

He turned and bolted out the door.

Right at that moment, his neighbor Xu Wei seemed to have heard the commotion. She opened her window just in time to see Chen Dengming heading out carrying large and small bundles, her expression surprised.

"Young Master Chen, what are you doing?"

Chen Dengming paused slightly, glanced at Xu Wei's pretty face, which had already lost much of its swelling, and hesitated for a moment before offering a reminder anyway.

"The battle between the Golden Character Workshop and Hutong Street is only going to get more intense, Miss Xu. You'd best find somewhere else to take refuge."

"Find somewhere else?"

Xu Wei was taken aback, then lowered her gaze in a daze. "Where would I go? I... I don't have spirit grains to exchange for a better residence. Aside from the shacks, the only better residences in the city are places only Immortal Masters are qualified to inhabit..."

Chen Dengming sighed inwardly, casting a deep look at Xu Wei. "I'm planning to head out and take refuge for a while. Take care of yourself, Miss Xu!"

With those words, Chen Dengming turned and hurried off with his pack.

"Head out? Leave the gathering place?"

Xu Wei watched Chen Dengming's robust retreating back as an urge rose to the tip of her tongue, making her desperately want to cry out words like take me with you.

Yet when the words reached her lips, she forcefully swallowed them back, calling out only, "Young Master Chen, wait..."

Chen Dengming turned his head back. A shadow suddenly came hurtling toward him, giving him a start. He instinctively intercepted it with his spiritual rhinoceros finger-pinch, and a wave of fragrance assaulted his senses—it was an embroidered pouch bearing a pair of mandarin ducks.

"This?"

Chen Dengming looked over there in bewilderment.

He saw that the roots of Xu Wei's ears were flushed with a hint of shyness, her slender brows knitted slightly as she spoke. "This concubine doesn't know what kind of trouble you've gotten yourself into that forces you to leave the gathering place, but as the saying goes, a crisis in the martial world calls for urgent help, and one must prepare traveling funds before taking to the road. Though this concubine hails from humble origins, I understand at least that much. These spirit grains are some savings of mine, and they are all clean money. I hope you can put them to use. There are demon beasts outside the gathering place, so you... must be extremely careful."

By the time she finished the final four words—must be extremely careful—the window had already banged shut.

Chen Dengming gripped the shriveled money pouch in his hand, feeling a mix of laughter and tears, and wanted to return it, but seeing that the windows were all tightly shut, he had no choice but to let it be.

He was not in a difficult spot right now, yet he found he could not refuse this sincere gift.

Much like that meal she had casually given him when he first arrived as a newcomer and huddled beneath her eaves.

To this day, he still remembered the aroma of that cold meal, which somehow stuck in his memory more firmly than any delicacies he had ever eaten in the past. Because within that meal, there was something extra—sincerity! This was perhaps the only thing that still emitted warmth and a gleaming light along the cold and cruel path of cultivating for longevity.

Sometimes, seeking help from friends when in trouble was never a shameful thing.

The truly shameful thing was having no friends to turn to when trouble struck.

Thinking of how Xu Wei had just said she lacked the money to change residences, yet was willing to give him her money to flee, a tempest of emotions churned within him. He could only offer a distant farewell.

"Thank you. When I return another day, I will surely repay this twofold!"

"When you return another day, perhaps there will be no need to repay it... This concubine... will have no use for it..."

Behind the window, Xu Wei's expression flickered between joy and sorrow, her pretty face heart-stirring, refined, and moving.

In the end, she still hadn't called out that impulsive and presumptuous plea to take me with you.

It was not merely a lack of courage, but a profound sense of bewilderment.

She was bewildered as to whether the other party would even agree, and even more bewildered by the unknown future that awaited them whether he agreed or not.

The two of them were, after all, merely ordinary neighbors. While she might originally have had the intention to join forces, alas, Chen Dengming had looked down upon her, let alone now when she was already trapped in a desperate plight.

Along the path of immortal cultivation, how could there be any scarcity of such ill-fated souls where the concubine was willing, yet the young master was indifferent?

(Nearly six thousand words updated again, I'm working really hard!)