Agreement

"Xiao Yan, go get their Storage Rings!"

Xiao Bai spoke softly to Xiao Yan, who was still standing there in a daze. Then he shouted toward the little room the blacksmith boss had entered earlier, "Come out!"

The boss of the Blacksmith Shop was hiding in the room, trembling like a sieve. Through the tiny hole in the window, he had seen everything clearly. The fiend outside had effortlessly killed every last member of the Ga Lie Clan who had come here.

Those were big shots of Wutan City! Normally, to people like them in the West District, such men were always high above, distant and unreachable.

Yet today, they had been slaughtered like chickens. No. Judging from that fiend's manner, this had been even easier than killing chickens!

Shaking all over, he walked out of the little room, ran all the way to Xiao Bai, and dropped to his knees, crying out anxiously, "Young master, spare me! Young master, spare me! This has nothing to do with me! I was forced by them too!"

Xiao Bai looked at him expressionlessly. A moment later, he said calmly, "Where is my cauldron?"

"It's in the shop out front. Please wait a moment, young master. I'll go get it right away, right away..." As he spoke, he watched Xiao Bai's reaction. Seeing that Xiao Bai said nothing, he hurriedly got up and ran outside.

"Bai Ge, you're just letting him off like that? If we'd been the weaker side today, our bones would've been buried here!" By then, Xiao Yan had already taken Ga Lie Bi's and Ga Lie En's Storage Rings and handed them to Xiao Bai, asking with some curiosity.

"Heh!" Xiao Bai gave a noncommittal cold laugh.

He took the Storage Rings Xiao Yan handed over and examined them in his hand. This was his first time personally holding such a thing. The Storage Rings were pure black, their surfaces somewhat rough, and they were slightly wider than the rings from his previous life.

He swept his Soul Strength inside. Of the two Storage Rings, one was a little larger, with about ten cubic meters of space, while the smaller one only had three or four.

The larger one should have belonged to Ga Lie Bi. What it held the most of was Gold Coins, roughly four hundred thousand. There was also a low Xuan class Qi Method, "Wind Fury Skill," and a low Xuan class Dou Technique, "Swift Wind Palm." The rest were just miscellaneous items.

The only things in the smaller one worth any money were tens of thousands of Gold Coins and a few Huang class Dou Techniques.

The things inside made Xiao Bai shake his head repeatedly. Wutan City was still too small. The Ga Lie Clan, one of the three great clans, only had this little bit of stuff among all its upper-level figures combined.

However, the Storage Rings and Gold Coins did happen to solve Xiao Bai's current needs. Alchemy was not something poor people could afford to learn. Those alchemists might be richer than the last, but that was only true for alchemists who had made it through and gained fame.

Most low-level apprentices with alchemy talent either had a good family background, a good teacher, or went to rely on a clan or sect. Otherwise, where would they get large quantities of medicinal ingredients to practice with and advance?

Xiao Bai placed all the useful things from the Storage Rings into the larger one and threw away everything useless. Only then did he slip the ring onto his hand.

He looked it over and nodded.

Not bad. With a Storage Ring, it would be much more convenient when he went out with Yao Lao in a few months.

After all, they were heading to the Tagor Desert this time. The first things they had to solve were water and food. Xiao Bai had no desire to carry bags big and small on his back when the time came. That would hurt his wise and mighty image far too much!

Xiao Yan stared eagerly as he put the ring on his hand, looking somewhat envious. After all, that was a Storage Ring. In the entire Xiao Clan, only his father and the Grand Elder had one. He had seen them since childhood, but he had never used one before!

Looking at Xiao Yan's expression, Xiao Bai was a little speechless. You were the future Flame Emperor, for heaven's sake. Could you have a little ambition?

Just then, the boss of the Blacksmith Shop stumbled back while holding a small cauldron. Panting heavily, he handed it to Xiao Bai and smiled obsequiously. "Young master, this is your cauldron. Please take a look!"

Xiao Bai took it and looked. It was a pitch-black little cauldron, with three legs, two handles, a round belly, and a lid. There were also several small holes on the lid. Rather than a cauldron, it looked more like an oversized incense burner.

He nodded. It had indeed been forged according to the blueprint he had given. Xiao Bai put the cauldron into the ring.

His gaze remained as still as an ancient well as he looked at the boss of the Blacksmith Shop and said softly, "You and I agreed that forging this cauldron would cost one thousand Gold Coins. That day, I paid half as a deposit, and on the day I collected the cauldron, I would pay another five hundred Gold Coins. Correct?"

The boss of the Blacksmith Shop swallowed. How could he dare take money now? He hurriedly said, "N-no... no, it was my honor that young master came to me to forge this little cauldron. How could I dare charge you? Back then, I was ignorant. I'll return the Gold Coins to you now... return them to you!"

As he spoke, he hurriedly lowered his head and tremblingly tried to take out money from the money pouch on his body to give back to him.

Xiao Bai paid no attention to what he was doing. He simply took out five hundred Gold Coins from the ring and placed them on the stone table beside him, saying, "Now the agreement between you and me can be considered complete."

Seeing Xiao Bai's actions, Xiao Yan thought Xiao Bai meant to spare this boss and said in confusion, "Bai Ge, you're just...?"

But before he could finish speaking, Xiao Bai's gaze turned cold. He pointed at the space between the boss's brows, and the boss, just like the members of the Ga Lie Clan, fell straight down.

After arriving in this world, Xiao Bai had always thought about it. This world was cruel to begin with, nothing like the peaceful and stable world of his previous life.

As someone whose outlook on life had been shaped in a peaceful and stable environment, what kind of mood would he be in the first time he killed someone? Would he panic, would his hands shake? Would his nature change drastically after killing someone?

He had thought about these things when he was bored in the past. But when this moment truly arrived, Xiao Bai discovered that he had overthought it before.

When things had already reached the point of either you die or I live, who had the time to think about such useless things?

Xiao Bai did not want to be a saint. He only wanted to survive, to live well.

He could have his own bottom line and not slaughter innocents indiscriminately, but he could not have too much pity either. Otherwise, in this world, he would find it hard to move an inch, and might even lose his life at times.

When this boss came back, there had been a split second when Xiao Bai hesitated over whether to kill him. But he had immediately suppressed it.

Perhaps he really had been forced. Perhaps he had been tempted by profit. But did any of that matter?

It did not. If he had been unable to defeat the Ga Lie Clan's people today, then perhaps tomorrow his corpse would have appeared on some barren mountain, gnawed by wild beasts. The world might not even have known that someone called Xiao Bai had ever come.

Thinking of this, Xiao Bai stood frozen in place, his mood somewhat complicated for a moment.

"Bai Ge...?"

Pulled back from his thoughts by Xiao Yan's call, Xiao Bai saw Xiao Yan looking at him with some concern and gave him a gentle smile.

"It's fine. Let's go!"

As he spoke, he took the lead and walked outside. Seeing that he did not seem to be in any trouble, Xiao Yan set aside his worry and hurried after him.

"Bai Ge, why did you still pay him before killing him?"

"That was an agreement between him and me, so of course I had to fulfill it. One thing is one thing, another is another. Keeping the agreement and killing him didn't conflict!"

After hearing that, Xiao Yan understood. Xiao Bai kept his word. Even if he and the boss had become enemies, a promise made before they became enemies still had to be carried out.

"Then, Bai Ge, what if there was someone you had promised something to before, but later he became your enemy, and if you fulfilled the promise, his strength would surpass yours? Would you still do it?"

Xiao Yan asked the question purely because he was a little curious. When it really came to that kind of situation, what would Bai Ge choose?

Yao Lao, inside the ring, also pricked up his ears. He was just as curious—if things reached that point, what would that brat Xiao Bai do?