The One-Eyed Man Retreats, Bounty Booklet

The Wind Shadow Wolf understood, its figure suddenly blurring as two silhouettes darted off in different directions. At the same moment, A'Man roared and charged toward the nearest tall, thin man, his bear paws whipping up a whistling gale.

"Move!"

Seeing this, the one-eyed man did not hesitate in the slightest and bellowed.

The battle erupted in an instant.

Xiao Qing did not join the fray; he turned and ran, not to flee, but to charge toward the Black Water Turtle by the pool.

The Black Water Turtle, sensing something was wrong, was just about to retract into its shell when it saw a human child rush before it.

"Don't think you can get away!"

Xiao Qing took out a bottle of Rage Mushroom powder and dumped the entire contents onto the Black Water Turtle's head. If he could get the Black Water Turtle to join the fight, the pressure on Xiao Feng and the others would be reduced!

At first, the Black Water Turtle didn't know what the powder Xiao Qing had poured was, and out of curiosity, it took a sniff, successfully inhaling the Rage Mushroom powder into its nostrils.

In the blink of an eye, the Black Water Turtle's eyes turned red. It no longer retreated into its shell, instead thrusting its head out and attacking the surrounding Soul Masters crazily, including Xiao Qing who stood beside it.

Fortunately, Xiao Qing reacted quickly, using the Soul Skill "Rock Armor" brought by A'Man to successfully withstand the water jet shot out by the Black Water Turtle.

"Rock Armor" could increase Xiao Qing's defense by 70%, but his speed would decrease by 30%.

For Xiao Qing to use "Rock Armor" normally, he had to rely on the speed boost from "Wind Shadow."

He turned to look at the battlefield; Xiao Feng and the Phantom Shadow were entangled by three Soul Grand Masters, while A'Man was fighting the tall, thin Soul Elder alone, temporarily holding his own.

However, the one-eyed man had already broken through the interception and lunged straight at Xiao Qing.

"Kid, you can't run!"

The one-eyed leader's third soul ring lit up, his right arm swelling to twice its size as a rock-like gray color surfaced on his skin.

This was his third soul skill, Rock Arm Heavy Strike, which had once shattered the skull of a century-old soul beast with a single punch.

Xiao Qing did not dodge; he unleashed "Wind Shadow," letting the Phantom Shadow block the one-eyed leader's movement to gain a five-minute speed boost.

Relying on the remaining 20% boost, Xiao Qing could barely maneuver around the one-eyed leader, but this was not what Xiao Qing wanted.

Xiao Qing controlled his direction, constantly leading the one-eyed leader toward the edge of the pool.

The moment Xiao Qing returned to the pool, the entire body of water suddenly exploded.

A water column half a meter in diameter shot into the sky, hitting the one-eyed leader squarely in the chest. The one-eyed leader let out a miserable shriek as he was sent flying backward, snapping two small trees before hitting the ground, his chest clearly caved in.

This was the Black Water Turtle's soul skill, Water Cannon Impact. Xiao Qing had been afraid of it being unleashed earlier, which was why he had kept Xiao Feng and A'Man interrupting its charging process.

The remaining four mercenaries were stunned, turning their heads in unison to look at the fallen one-eyed leader.

The one-eyed leader propped himself up against a tree trunk and coughed up a mouthful of blood, his aura instantly wilting.

Except for defense-type Soul Masters, the bodies of normal Soul Masters were quite fragile, let alone after the Water Cannon Impact from the Black Water Turtle, which had been charging for so long.

"Hiss, kid, I underestimated you. I didn't expect you to actually make the Black Water Turtle cooperate with you!"

The one-eyed leader wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and spoke to Xiao Qing in a tone of resignation.

Xiao Qing did not reply to the one-eyed leader, continuing to stand his ground. He had just glanced over; the battlefield was now dominated by Xiao Feng and A'Man.

The group of Soul Masters had lost their offensive rhythm because the one-eyed leader had been distracted.

Taking advantage of the current momentum, Xiao Feng and its Phantom Shadow did not stop, continuing to pounce, while A'Man also launched a charge.

The one-eyed leader realized that if the fight continued, he would likely lose one of his brothers here.

"Kid, we admit defeat! I am willing to compensate for your losses, as long as you let us go!"

Therefore, the one-eyed leader barely hesitated, immediately surrendering and showing weakness to Xiao Qing.

Hearing that the one-eyed leader offered compensation, Xiao Qing did not relax; he gripped his long blade, his eyes constantly scanning the Soul Masters before him.

Seeing Xiao Qing watching him vigilantly, the one-eyed leader chuckled and had a burly man take a wooden box out of their pack.

"Kid, this wooden box contains a two-hundred-year-old mountain ginseng. That should be enough to buy the lives of the five of us, right?"

As the one-eyed leader spoke, he opened the wooden box to show Xiao Qing.

"Do you have my wanted poster? I want to see my portrait."

Xiao Qing did not immediately respond to the one-eyed leader, bluntly shifting the topic to the wanted poster.

However, the one-eyed leader had dealt with people for a long time and naturally understood that Xiao Qing not refusing immediately meant he was open to the idea.

"Old Third, the booklet recording the wanted individuals is in your hands, right?"

The one-eyed leader stared at Xiao Qing and shouted loudly to the person behind him.

At this moment, a burly man took the booklet he had dug out of the pack and ran forward to hand it to the one-eyed leader.

"Boss, here."

The one-eyed leader took the booklet, flipped to the page with Xiao Qing's wanted poster, and shook it toward Xiao Qing.

"Kid, the thing you wanted!"

"Put the wooden box and the booklet on the ground, and I'll watch you retreat!"

Xiao Qing understood that he didn't have the strength to keep all of them here, and now that they were offering him a way out and had produced decent compensation, he decided to take it.

Rather than continuing this death match, it would be better to just go along with it; after all, neither side had formed an irreconcilable blood feud.

"Listen to this little friend, we are retreating!"

The one-eyed leader politely pushed the wooden box and the booklet forward, then signaled for the people behind him to fall back.

The people behind the one-eyed leader had no objections to this; they were well aware that if the fighting continued, the leader might not die, but they certainly might.

They did not trust that the two soul beasts beside Xiao Qing understood the meaning of restraint.

Once the one-eyed leader and his men had completely vanished from Xiao Qing's field of vision, Xiao Qing let out a secret sigh of relief and hurriedly had Xiao Feng control its Phantom Shadow to go forward and retrieve the booklet and the wooden box.

However, to prevent them from doubling back to track him, Xiao Qing did not return directly to the tree hole.

Instead, he rode on Xiao Feng and, with its Phantom Shadow in tow, circled through the forest several times. Once he was certain that no one was following, Xiao Qing opened the wooden box to take out the old mountain ginseng.

He tossed the wooden box aside at random and returned to the tree hole with the ginseng and the booklet.

Back in front of the tree hole, Xiao Qing took the booklet from his cloth bag and opened it. Every page of the booklet was a bounty, and every page featured a face.

The further he flipped through the booklet, the higher the bounties became, and the more generous the rewards to be gained.

Xiao Qing quickly flipped to his own entry; his bounty was located about one-fifth of the way through the booklet, and the reward was only Gold Soul Coins.

It was a bounty notice featuring a portrait of a six or seven-year-old child, whose features bore a seven or eight-part resemblance to Xiao Qing.

If it weren't for the fact that Xiao Qing had spent too long in the Star Dou Forest fighting alongside Xiao Feng and the soul beasts, which had added a hint of murderous intent to his brow, the portrait on the bounty notice would have looked even more like him. Still, this showed just how "attentive" Matthew was toward him; there was no one in Clear Spring Village capable of such portraiture.

Below the portrait was a line of small text: The survivors of Clear Spring Village have crowdfunded a bounty of one hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins, seeking only to bring Xiao Qing back alive.

Xiao Qing did not close the booklet; he needed to know what the rewards were for the bounties further back and how much they differed from his own.

The further Xiao Qing flipped, the more astonishing the bounty rewards became: storage Soul Tools, thousand-year soul bones, rare treasures, high official positions and generous salaries...

The value of these items had long since exceeded one hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins; some were things that could not be bought with money at all.

"Looking at it this way, my bounty of one hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins isn't all that precious. It's just that my current strength is weak, leading them to think I'm a soft persimmon and that these one hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins are easy to take."

One hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins could certainly attract some desperate outlaws, but Xiao Qing was not a piece of meat waiting to be slaughtered. Now that he had Xiao Feng and A'Man, even if he encountered a four-ring soul master, Xiao Qing had the confidence to handle it!