Killing Intent on a Moonlit Night

"Not good. I'm being followed!"

Yang Xiao's heart jolted, but his expression did not change at all.

Pretending he had no idea someone was following him, Yang Xiao calmly carried the medicinal herbs and walked onward at an unhurried pace.

But Yang Xiao did not return directly to the residence. Instead, he turned left and right, constantly taking detours, deliberately choosing crowded places to walk through.

And yet that faint, almost imperceptible sense of being watched from behind remained there all along, lingering like a shadow, extremely well hidden.

Yang Xiao swept his gaze around, and only then did he realize that, without noticing, he had actually walked to the Drunken Immortal Inn.

Yang Xiao's heart stirred, and he quickly walked into the Drunken Immortal Inn.

"One serving of your signature pig trotters. Send it to Elegant Room D-3 on the second floor. Keep the rest as your tip."

"Oh, right. Which way is the latrine?"

Tossing a piece of broken silver to the waiter who came to greet him, Yang Xiao asked casually.

"Right away, sir. The latrine is in the back courtyard, turn left."

The waiter beamed with delight and was just about to lead Yang Xiao to the back courtyard, but Yang Xiao had already strode away.

The waiter did not think much of it. He weighed the piece of broken silver in his hand, then happily went to the kitchen to make the arrangements.

Outside the Drunken Immortal Inn.

In some hidden corner.

A man wearing a bamboo hat and dressed in a black robe stared coldly at the entrance of the Drunken Immortal Inn for a long time, yet still did not see Yang Xiao come out.

The man immediately sensed something was wrong. He gripped the saber at his waist and quickly walked into the Drunken Immortal Inn.

"Please come in, sir, you—"

A waiter immediately came forward to greet him.

"I'm the friend of that man from just now. Where is he?"

The man lowered his head, his voice hoarse, and roughly described Yang Xiao's appearance.

The waiter naturally did not know who Yang Xiao was, and could not help looking blank.

But after the man tossed him a piece of broken silver and gave a description...

The waiter immediately slapped his forehead. "So you're that gentleman's friend, sir. That gentleman seemed to have gone to the latrine. It's been quite a while, you—"

Not good!

The man's heart sank. He shoved the waiter aside, strode to the latrine in the back courtyard, and kicked the wooden door open.

"What the hell are you doing!"

The fat merchant squatting over the pit instantly flew into a rage.

But after meeting the man's icy gaze, the fat merchant's face changed drastically. He hurriedly lowered his head, not daring to even breathe too loudly.

"Damn it, that little brat actually got away?"

The man's eyes were dark and gloomy. "But you can run from the monk, brat, not from the temple!"

Hmph!

The man stormed off in fury, his figure soon vanishing into the vast sea of people.

A long while passed after that...

Only when there was not a single person left in the back courtyard...

A silent figure finally climbed slowly down from the big tree at the corner of the courtyard wall.

"That person probably wasn't sent by Uncle Mute. Uncle Mute is plotting something major and fears having his identity exposed. It's impossible, and there's no reason for him to send someone to follow me and deal with me."

"Could it be that dead old man of mine offended someone while he was alive?"

Yang Xiao's expression did not look good.

Although he had luckily escaped this time, that person clearly knew Yang Xiao and knew his roots. This matter definitely would not be dropped so easily.

"Forget it. No matter who you are, as long as I break through to Bronze Skin, even if I can't defeat a First Blood expert, with Nine Cicada Auditory Arts and Spirit Cicada Transformation, protecting myself shouldn't be a big problem."

Yang Xiao did not leave through the front entrance of the Drunken Immortal Inn. Instead, he climbed over the wall and left, taking constant detours along the way.

A moment later, Yang Xiao's figure appeared in the marketplace near the Drunken Immortal Inn.

By the time Yang Xiao left, he had a heavy string of meat in his hand, as well as a basket of fresh vegetables.

"Vegetables are cheap enough, and pork isn't exactly expensive either. A whole pig is only about one tael of broken silver. Beef is actually ten times the price of pork, and venison is a hundred times more expensive than pork..."

Seeing that the hundred taels of silver he had gotten from Uncle Mute had been completely spent in a single round, Yang Xiao could not help feeling somewhat pained.

But the moment he thought of that enemy hidden in the dark, an enemy whose identity he did not even know...

Yang Xiao immediately understood that no matter how much money he had, if he had no life left to spend it, it would still be useless.

"With this much meat, fresh vegetables, plus these medicinal herbs worth ten taels, it should be enough for me to rise to the Bronze Skin realm."

Yang Xiao no longer hesitated, and soon returned to the very remote little courtyard of his family's home in the eastern district of the inner city.

After putting his things away, Yang Xiao did not hurry to cultivate. Instead, he found various tools, made a few simple traps, and set them up properly. Only then did he step into the inner room again and shut the door tight.

"Too bad my Qi-Observing Stealing Technique can only be used once a day. I've already used up today's chance."

Taking out the mysterious bamboo slip he had obtained from the Scripture Pavilion, Yang Xiao studied it carefully for a while, but found he could not make out anything at all. He could only set it aside for now.

However, Yang Xiao did not hide the bamboo slip on his person. Instead, he rolled it in dirt and used it as a shim under the table leg.

"This bamboo slip was already damaged to begin with, and now it looks even more utterly ordinary. It's perfect for propping up a table leg. No one would ever imagine—this thing is actually a treasure."

Nodding in satisfaction, Yang Xiao finally sat cross-legged and began circulating the Myriad Phenomena Heaven-Swallowing Art.

Soon, a phantom walked out from within Yang Xiao's body, floating in midair above the ground. Black and white radiance interwove across its entire body, making it seem both strange and sacred.

Yang Xiao was surprised to discover that although the phantom's face was still blurry, its features could now be faintly seen, making it look more and more like a "person."

It was just that the phantom's eyes were tightly shut. No matter how Yang Xiao tried to sense it, "he" showed no sign of opening them.

"This phantom seems to contain some mystery, but my time is limited. I don't have the leisure to study it for now. Raising my strength is what matters!"

Yang Xiao no longer hesitated. Controlling the phantom, he began madly devouring the flesh he had bought.

As the flesh continued to disappear, the phantom began growing clearer and clearer, and the features on its face became increasingly lifelike.

Crackle, pop!

Yang Xiao only felt his limbs and bones turn scorching hot, as if he had been plunged into volcanic lava. His whole body seemed as though it might burst apart at any moment.

"Not good!"

Yang Xiao's expression changed slightly, and he hurriedly had the phantom devour the seasonal vegetables.

At once, a comfortable coolness quietly appeared, continuously offsetting the blazing heat and savagery within his meridians.

Like this, who knew how long passed...

"Boom!"

Yang Xiao seemed to hear a thunderous explosion in his mind. An unprecedented sense of power instantly rose in his heart.

"Advanced—Bronze Skin realm!"

Yang Xiao abruptly opened his eyes and looked at the surface of his body, which was like Bronze Skin and was actually blooming with a faint glow. He was immediately overjoyed.

"As long as I take one more step forward, I'll be able to condense Iron Skin. At that time, I'll have the qualifications to attempt my first blood exchange!"

After breathing and circulating his qi for a little while longer, once he had adapted to the brand-new changes in his fleshly body, Yang Xiao was excited, but then suddenly sighed.

The Myriad Phenomena Heaven-Swallowing Art was heaven-defying. It was not like the Yellow Heaven Body-Forging Scripture, which had the hidden danger of berserk energy. As long as there was enough flesh and seasonal vegetables, Yang Xiao could advance all the way.

But advancing from the Cowhide realm to Bronze Skin had already cost no less than a hundred taels overall, perhaps even more!

Then wouldn't advancing from Bronze Skin to Iron Skin be even more exaggerated?

And from Iron Skin to blood exchange, how terrifying would the expenditure be?

"Since ancient times, the poor studied literature and the rich practiced martial arts. Martial arts truly aren't something ordinary commoners can afford."

For the moment, Yang Xiao had no quick way to gather wealth, so he could only sigh, open the door, and walk into the backyard. His gaze fell on the medicinal herbs at the foot of the courtyard wall.

Through feeling out his experience of advancing to Bronze Skin, Yang Xiao had already understood that medicinal herbs could also be devoured as seasonal vegetables and meat, and their effects were even better than directly devouring meat and seasonal vegetables.

But no matter how good the effects of medicinal herbs were, their cost was far too high. With Yang Xiao's current financial strength, he still could not afford them for now.

"My qi and blood are boiling throughout my body now. Though I can't see my lifespan, that sickly state has already vanished. I shouldn't end up short-lived."

After pondering for a moment, Yang Xiao summoned the phantom out of his body and began rapidly devouring the medicinal herbs at the foot of the courtyard wall.

In but a short while, all the medicinal herbs had been devoured completely, without the slightest residue remaining.

Even the large amount of discarded medicinal dregs left over from the decoctions Father Yang had brewed for Yang Xiao over the years were eaten clean by the phantom.

"After devouring so many medicinal herbs and medicinal dregs, I'm still in the Bronze Skin realm. It's only that my realm has become more stable, without the slightest sign of breaking through to Iron Skin..."

Yang Xiao could not help but smile bitterly.

Clearly, the Iron Skin realm was of vital importance. Once he broke through, his strength would also increase greatly, but the difficulty of this breakthrough was extremely hard as well.

Forget it!

It had only been a mere two days since he was reborn, yet he had leapt from a dying invalid into the Bronze Skin realm, able to easily beat three to five ordinary strong men. This was already very good.

A person ought to know contentment!

"The sky is dry, the air is parched! Mind your flames and candles!"

Clang!

Under the night sky, the night watchman carried a lantern blooming with faint light as he walked, using a wooden clapper to strike the copper gong.

His bright voice echoed through the deserted streets and alleys. Before he knew it, the night watchman had already reached Qinghe Ward, where Yang Xiao was.

Suddenly—

Whoosh!

As the night watchman lowered his head, he suddenly heard the sound of something cutting through the air beside his ear, and the phantom of a huge bat appeared on the ground.

"Ghost..."

The night watchman was so terrified his soul nearly flew from his body. Instinctively, he was about to scream, but then he suddenly froze.

Everything around him was deathly quiet. Where were there any bats?

"Maybe I... saw wrong?"

The night watchman was a little doubtful, but he did not dare think too much about it. He hurried away, and soon left the remote alley where Yang Xiao was.

What the night watchman did not see, however, was that on a large tree inside the little courtyard with red walls and green tiles beside him, a man dressed entirely in night clothes stood there, batlike.

The man stared coldly at the night watchman's back, his Adam's apple bobbing.

The way he looked at the night watchman was actually like he was looking at a heap of delicious, tempting flesh and blood!

"Important matters come first. I'll spare your dog life for now."

The man reluctantly withdrew his gaze from the night watchman, then suddenly leaped into the air. He was truly like a huge bat in the night sky, racing, leaping, and gliding over the beams of one mansion after another.

In just a short while, under cover of the night, the man landed silently inside the small courtyard where Yang Xiao was...