Chapter 42

"This is..."

Yang Guang walked over to the corner, reached out, and picked up several medicinal herbs for cultivation that had been left there. He lowered his head to examine them.

Then he turned to look at him and smiled. "These are medicinal herbs for cultivation?"

Luo Qingchen didn't answer.

Yang Guang smiled, let the herbs slip from his fingers, and seemed to find them too dirty. He wiped his fingers several times against his chest before turning around with a beaming smile. "Looks like you take medicinal baths often, Brother Luo. Do you mix in fresh blood?"

Luo Qingchen stood at the doorway, still ignoring him.

Yang Guang didn't seem to mind. He glanced around again, walked over to the table, and actually reached out to pick up a piece of meat from the bowl and chew it.

"Mmm, delicious."

As he chewed, a look of utter enjoyment spread across his face.

Then he looked at him and smiled. "Brother Luo, you're really lucky to have Miss A-Yun sell herself to support you. I heard she gives you all the silver she earns. Is that true?"

Luo Qingchen's gaze darkened, but he still said nothing.

Yang Guang smiled faintly and reached for another piece of meat. Instead, he flicked the tray with his fingertip, knocking the whole thing off the table.

"Clatter!"

The food and steamed buns on the tray crashed to the floor.

The bowls and plates all shattered.

The buns rolled beneath the table, the meat landed face-down on the floor, and corn porridge spilled everywhere.

"Oh, dear. Sorry, I knocked it over by accident."

Yang Guang hurriedly apologized, then spread his hands with an innocent look. "This is bad. Brother Luo just had blood taken today, and you need to nourish yourself. Ah, it's all my fault for being so clumsy."

Luo Qingchen looked down at the broken shards and food on the floor. His face still showed no emotion.

"Brother Luo, I'm truly sorry."

Yang Guang walked to the doorway, patted him on the shoulder, and apologized again with seeming sincerity.

Luo Qingchen still didn't speak.

He weakly walked over to the table, slowly crouched down, then lowered his head and began picking up the food from the floor piece by piece.

Yang Guang stood in the doorway, watching his silent, humbled figure for a while. Then he suddenly smiled. "Oh, right, Brother Luo, would you mind if I went to Miss A-Yun's tonight? Actually, I'd wanted to go before, but I thought it might be unfair to you, so I held back. But now I think about it, you ought to be happy if I spend money at Miss A-Yun's. After all, she gives you all the silver she earns, doesn't she?"

Luo Qingchen kept his head down, picking food off the floor as if he hadn't heard a word.

"If you don't mind, then I'll go, all right? Don't worry, Brother Luo. We're brothers, so I'll be sure to treat Miss A-Yun tenderly."

Yang Guang finished with a beaming smile. When Luo Qingchen still didn't react, his smile vanished, and he hurried away.

By then, night had fallen outside.

Before long, the entire Hundred Fragrance Pavilion was shrouded in a cold, gloomy darkness.

At the entrance, two young women in thin gauzy dresses shivered in the cold wind as they called out to the occasional passerby.

Yang Guang glanced at them and went inside.

He went straight up to the second floor. At the doorway of the first room along the corridor, he paused, a cold smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

Then he headed straight to the far end of the corridor.

Creak...

The door opened.

Qingmei appeared in the doorway wearing a gauzy green dress, her figure alluring. She snorted. "I thought you weren't coming tonight. I figured you'd gone to see someone else."

Yang Guang shut the door, pulled her into his arms, and kissed her on the lips. "I promised I'd come tonight, so of course I came. No one else compares to you."

Qingmei said, "What if I have a customer tonight?"

Yang Guang smiled. "I got here first, so you're mine. Any customers who show up can wait outside."

Qingmei raised an eyebrow. "Have you paid me?"

Yang Guang laughed and grabbed her bottom. "I'm yours, so what does money matter? Once I've made it, what's a little silver worth?"

Qingmei snorted. "You'd better not lie to me! I've already given you all the silver I earned. If you dare deceive me, I'll fight you to the death!"

Yang Guang hurriedly raised a finger and swore, "If I deceive you, may I die a horrible death!"

Qingmei rolled her eyes and dropped the subject. "Did you go see that boy?"

Yang Guang lowered his finger and sneered. "I did. That boy's awfully cautious. His room's full of traps. No wonder he's survived this long."

"But now he's so weak he can barely stand. I deliberately embarrassed and humiliated him, and he didn't even dare make a sound. You should've seen it. I knocked over the food Zhao Yun gave him, and he didn't say a word. He crawled around on the floor like a dog, picking up the food to eat. Tsk, tsk."

Qingmei said bitterly, "Serves him right!"

Yang Guang smiled. "What, are you bitter because you couldn't seduce that boy?"

Qingmei gritted her teeth. "How am I worse than Zhao Yun? That blind fool, acting so high and mighty. He deserves to have his blood taken every day!"

Yang Guang narrowed his eyes and glanced out the window. In a low voice, he said, "Keep the light on in your room later. Don't put it out. I'm going to the back courtyard for a bit, but I'll be back soon."

At his words, Qingmei's heart gave a sudden leap.

That night, Chen Ju had said the same thing. But he'd never come back—he'd disappeared forever.

"You're going to take that boy's blood?"

she asked quietly.

Yang Guang said, "I'm not going to be the first to charge in. That boy looks weak now, but who knows what tricks he has up his sleeve? I'm just going to watch the excitement and get a better idea of the dangers first."

After a pause, he added coldly, "Of course, if someone succeeds, I'll go take some blood too. From the looks of it, that boy won't live much longer anyway."

Qingmei's lips moved, as if she wanted to persuade him, but she didn't speak.

She wanted him to hurry up and cultivate, to break through as soon as possible. Only then would he have a chance to take her away from this hellhole.

Half an hour later.

Yang Guang slipped out through the window and returned to the back courtyard under cover of darkness, without a sound.

He hid in the shadow of a large tree and watched carefully for a while. Seeing that it was still early and no one seemed to have come yet, he thought it over, glanced around, and headed toward his own room.

He decided it was safer to stay in his own room.

By now, he had naturally learned of the Heart-Plucking Monster.

Although the monster hadn't appeared for many days, no one could guarantee it wasn't hiding somewhere in the darkness, waiting to strike.

He didn't dare spend too long out in the dark.

Click...

He took out his key, unlocked his door, and went inside.

He had also set a few small traps behind the door and the window. He checked them carefully, but found nothing amiss.

The second thing he did after returning was check the silver hidden beneath the floorboards.

He went to the corner, took out a dagger, and pried up one of the floorboards. He felt around for the bulging money pouch hidden beneath it, then finally relaxed.

"That little slut Qingmei has saved up quite a bit of silver, but it's still not enough for me to buy blood for cultivation. I'll have to find a few more little vixens and get them to bring in more silver. Then..."

As he felt the money pouch in the hollow and plotted out his future, he suddenly felt a chill behind him.

He shuddered involuntarily.

He whipped around, and saw a fist packed with force rapidly swelling in his pupils!

"Boom!"

Before he could react, the fist slammed into his throat.

A sharp crack. His throat bone broke!

His vision went black. He opened his mouth wide, trying to shout, but no sound came from his throat. He tried to struggle, but for a moment, he couldn't muster any strength.

The next second—

A flash of cold light. A dagger plunged straight into his heart with a "pfft!"

His eyes widened. Trembling with terror, he reached out with both hands, trying to grab hold of something, but grasped nothing.

The dagger began to twist cruelly, grinding his heart to pulp in an instant.

Bright red blood surged from his open mouth. His vision began to blur...

In the final moment of his life, the wide pupils of his eyes clearly reflected the face that had been so meek and silent toward him just that evening.

At that moment, that face was as savage as an asura.