Sheng Wubing

[You successfully killed Liu Ying, "Six Hands," one of the Three Evils of Guyang, and gained 400 cultivation points!]

"I told you not to move, but you just had to. You can't blame me for this!"

When Meng Qingshan saw the kill notification appear before him, he finally let out a long breath of relief.

If Liu Ying were still alive, he would surely have cried out in protest. "When did you tell me not to move? I was only trying to take out that manual!"

But none of that mattered. What mattered was that Meng Qingshan had never intended to let him live.

Come to think of it, if Meng Qingshan hadn't been cautious enough to eavesdrop on the three of them before entering,

and had barged in without thinking, facing the three of them working together, with their ranged attacks and close-combat tank, he might not have been able to beat them.

After learning that the three were murderous bandits, Meng Qingshan had initially wanted to avoid trouble and leave quietly.

But the rain was now coming down harder, and there wasn't a village or inn in sight along Kushui Road. If he spent the whole night getting soaked, even as a martial artist who had practiced internal cultivation, he couldn't be sure he wouldn't catch a chill tomorrow.

At that thought, he immediately took out the medicines he had bought in Jade Mountain City.

He mixed the powdered monkshood with aconite, lit it with a fire starter, then used the northerly wind to blow the poisonous smoke produced by the burning herbs into the relay station.

The three men had been restless and agitated earlier, with yellowed whites of their eyes—all signs of poisoning.

Fortunately, the three were careless and hadn't paid much attention to the smell, allowing Meng Qingshan to succeed so easily.

The relay station fell silent once more.

Meng Qingshan carefully put away the last of the monkshood and aconite powder, then sighed deeply. "All I wanted was to get out of the rain. Don't blame me.

"If I didn't kill you, you would have killed me. I only did this to protect myself!"

He gave the Brocade Cloud Saber a light flick, using a deft force to make it vibrate. The blood scattered at once, leaving the blade clean and gleaming like a mirror, as if it had just been washed in Clear Spring.

This was the "Vibrating Blade" move from the Nine Forms of Swift Saber. It was one of the few defensive techniques in the saber style, but Meng Qingshan found it very useful for cleaning blood and grime from the blade.

As he raised the Brocade Cloud Saber, the firelight revealed a fine crack on it, left by its clash with Jiang Pan's Mountain-Splitting Saber.

"If I'd trained the Nine Forms of Swift Saber to the second level, maybe the blade wouldn't have been damaged. I still have to return it to the Seven Mysteries Sect. It'd be hard to explain if I accidentally broke it. Sigh..."

Meng Qingshan sighed softly, a hint of regret in his eyes.

First, the saber was an item that triggered a quest.

Second, it wasn't easy to find a suitable saber these days. A Brocade Cloud Saber of this quality would cost at least twenty taels of silver at a weapons shop.

Then Meng Qingshan turned his attention to Liu Ying. The reason he hadn't killed him right away was that he coveted his skill with hidden weapons.

The man had blurted out where he kept his manual, so he was of no further use to Meng Qingshan. Leaving him alive would only be a threat.

As a gamer who put practicality first, Meng Qingshan would never leave himself with such a liability. He had made his decision at once and sent Liu Ying to reunite with his two elder brothers.

"Cough, cough."

Just as Meng Qingshan was about to search Liu Ying for the hidden weapon manual, a faint cough suddenly came from outside the door.

At the sound, Meng Qingshan stiffened. The hair all over his body stood on end, and he felt as if goosebumps had broken out everywhere.

He turned around and saw a figure standing in the doorway, which had been empty moments before.

The person held an old oil-paper umbrella, its brim pulled low enough to hide his face.

Over his clothes, he wore a black official robe with wide sleeves.

The dark robe had been washed until its color had faded somewhat, but it was very clean.

The rain was pouring outside the relay station, yet his clothes remained immaculate—not even a single water stain could be seen.

Even with an umbrella, Meng Qingshan knew he couldn't keep himself dry in such a downpour.

At the sight, two possibilities occurred to Meng Qingshan.

The first was that the man had already been inside the relay station before the rain began.

The second was that his internal energy was so profound he could dry the water from his clothes in an instant.

Either possibility was enough to show how dangerous this mysterious figure was.

Putting it together with the earlier conversation among the three men, Meng Qingshan formed a rough idea of what was going on.

He had always believed that it was better to strike first than sit and wait for death.

He immediately abandoned the idea of searching the bodies and called out to the person outside, "Friend outside, it's pouring. Why not come in and wait out the rain?"

After speaking, Meng Qingshan picked up the roast meat that "Six Hands" Liu Ying had set aside and put it back over the fire.