You Bastard

After giving Di Yi a simple lecture, Xu Bai explained his countermeasure.

Di Yi listened for a long time, only to realize it was another task involving a sneak attack. His mood immediately dampened, but after a few words of protest, he obediently followed the Beast Tamer's orders.

Night fell.

Outside the small courtyard.

"Are you sure this is the place? Did you see clearly?"

"No mistake, it's definitely this one!"

Under the cover of night, a thin, small figure nimbly vaulted into the courtyard. Had Xu Bai been there, he would have recognized this figure as the person who had been tailing him all day.

After landing, the small figure scanned his surroundings like a rat. Seeing nothing but a large, slowly swaying stalk of Blue Silver Grass in the distance—and no guard dogs or similar threats—he let out a sigh of relief.

He poured some oil into the door crack and carefully pried it open, allowing a tall, burly man to step inside.

"That brat is quite clever to live in a place like this. If you hadn't noticed him today, we might never have known there was such a fat sheep in Huangshan City."

The burly man clicked his tongue, sweeping his gaze across the courtyard with eyes glowing like a hungry wolf.

He paused, then asked uncertainly, "Are you absolutely sure that brat has a spatial soul tool? This place doesn't look like it has any wealth to speak of."

"Don't worry, I saw it clearly. The kid bought things at a shop, then went into an empty alleyway, and when he came out, the items were gone."

The small figure lowered his voice, his tone filled with excitement and greed. "I followed him the whole way. I watched him use this method at several shops, and he was empty-handed by the time he got home. Isn't that proof enough that he has a spatial soul tool?"

"In that case, it's time for us brothers to strike it rich!"

The greed in the burly man's eyes intensified.

As the two reached the door and prepared to push it open, the small one hesitated. "Say, what if this kid is a student from the academy? I asked around this morning; he lives here all by himself. That doesn't seem like something a normal kid would do."

"Are you stupid!"

The burly man slapped the back of the small one's head, looking at him with disdain. "If he can use a soul tool, obviously he's a soul master. But even if he is, it doesn't matter. By your own account, the kid is at most ten years old. At that age, becoming a first-ring soul master would already be considered a heaven-sent talent."

"But a first-ring soul master is nothing more than a stray dog before a Great Soul Master of the assault system like me."

"If the kid hands over the spatial soul tool, fine. But if he dares to resist, don't blame me for being ruthless!"

As he spoke, a fierce glint flashed in his eyes.

Hearing this, the small one finally felt at ease. He took a wire from his robes and opened the door in a few quick motions.

The two entered quietly.

The room was pitch black, though faint moonlight filtered through the window, outlining the contours of the interior.

"Nothing good here. Go check the bedroom and see if the brat is asleep," the burly man ordered, and they both moved toward the bedroom.

However, neither of them noticed that in a dark corner of the living room, a pair of eyes suddenly snapped open, glowing with a faint golden hue in the dim reflection.

Entering the bedroom, the burly man walked slowly to the bed and saw that the quilt was laid out perfectly flat in the darkness.

He reached under the quilt to touch it; the residual warmth was still there, clearly indicating the occupant had left only moments ago.

"We've been discovered!?" The burly man was shocked and glared at the small one behind him. "Did you expose us while you were tailing him!?"

"No, I stayed far behind him the whole time. There's no way I could have been spotted..." the small one stammered, a sense of dread rising in his heart for no reason.

The burly man, however, was in no mood to listen to excuses. He stomped his foot, and two soul rings—one white and one yellow—rose from beneath him. At the same time, a stone hammer appeared in his hand, which he slammed heavily into the ground.

Seeing this, the small one hurriedly activated his martial soul, and a single white soul ring rose slowly.

His martial soul was a rat, and after the transformation, he looked even more shifty and rodent-like.

The light from the soul rings instantly illuminated the room, revealing its current state to the two of them.

Densely packed iron needles and flying daggers were floating in the air, surrounding them completely, as if they could be turned into sieves at any moment.

Seeing this, the burly man laughed in frustration, a look of resignation flashing in his eyes.

"Damn it, I've been had!"

Cursing, he watched his soul rings flicker as he raised his stone hammer to unleash a soul skill.

But the dense swarm of needles and blades in the air would not grant him the time for a wind-up.

In the next instant, white light flashed, the burly man was instantly decapitated, and he inadvertently became a human fountain.

"S-Senior, Senior, spare me! Please spare me!"

Blood splattered onto his face, instantly shattering the small one's psychological defenses. He collapsed to his knees, his face twisted in terror.

He never imagined that the little brat he had been tailing was such a ruthless character.

To kill a Great Soul Master in an instant—only a Soul Venerable could do that.

But a Soul Venerable under ten years old... was that even human?

"Spare you?" Xu Bai's playful voice rang out from outside the bedroom. It was a childish voice, but to the small one, it sounded like the whisper of a demon. "First, tell me: besides you two, who else knows what you were planning to do tonight?"

"Senior, no one else knows about this besides us," the small one blurted out. He paused, feeling that wasn't enough, and added:

"In our line of work, we pride ourselves on secrecy. Even if we succeed, we... we never tell anyone else."

"In that case, there's no need for you to stay alive!"

As the voice faded, the iron needles in the air trembled, poised to fly.

"Senior, wait! I remember now, there are two others who know about tonight!"

The short man spoke at breakneck speed, slamming his head against the ground, his entire body coiled tight.

"Who?"

"It's... it's my eight-year-old son and my eighty-year-old mother. I told them about it before I left..."

The short man spoke sheepishly.

"Do you take me for a child, thinking I'm easy to fool?"

"I would never dare, Senior! I truly have an eight-year-old son and an eighty-year-old mother at home, and a wife who is critically ill. If not for the need to provide for them, I would never have walked this crooked path."

"I can swear upon my Martial Soul that I will never speak of today's events. If I do, may my Martial Soul shatter and bring me death."

"If I die, they won't be able to survive either. I beg you, Senior, for their sake, spare my life."

Having said this, he broke into bitter tears, his wailing so sorrowful that it would break the heart of any listener; he looked truly pathetic.

However, Xu Bai merely let out a cold snort. "You might not speak of it, but you could write it down. Are you still trying to play me for a fool?"

"I am illiterate!" Hearing this, the short man sensed a glimmer of hope and hurriedly spoke up.

"Illiterate?" Xu Bai, hidden in the shadows, curled his lips into an amused smile. A very interesting meme from his past life came to mind, and he stepped slowly out into the open.

Di Yi followed closely by his side.

Hearing the movement, the short man instinctively looked up. Upon noticing Di Yi beside Xu Bai, he was so terrified that his liver and gallbladder felt as if they were splitting; he mentally slapped himself several times.

He had truly been blind this time, kicking a steel plate.

Xu Bai glanced at the short man kneeling on the ground, feeling a momentary sense of daze.

In this instant, he truly grasped the underlying logic of this world.

The weak are prey to the strong; the powerful are supreme.

Quickly steadying his emotions, Xu Bai spoke indifferently, "I am a kind-hearted person, and I cannot bear to witness the suffering of the world. Since you are in such a miserable state, it is not impossible for me to spare your life, but that depends on the will of heaven."

The short man was overjoyed. "Senior, please tell me how to consult the will of heaven!"

Under normal circumstances, if the other party said something like this, it meant he likely wouldn't die.

He heard Xu Bai continue, "Since you say you are illiterate, I will write down six characters for you to choose from. If you pick a character that means 'death,' you die. If you pick any other, you live."

With that, he tugged on Di Yi's tiger tail, ignoring the creature's resentful gaze, dipped it into the burly man's blood, and slowly wrote on a clean patch of ground.

Once finished, the short man crawled forward quickly and saw the six characters written on the ground: Death, Perish, Pass, Decease, Collapse, Expire.

Short man: ?????

He jerked his head up, staring at Xu Bai in disbelief.

Xu Bai, however, spoke with a beaming smile, "What are you looking at? Choose."

Short man: "You bastard..."