Sachet

The instant Hu Dadao finished speaking, Li Jun had already closed in.

This was the moment he had been waiting for.

A cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Refining surpassed him in both physical strength and reaction speed.

If he clashed head-on, he had almost no chance of winning.

But from the moment Hu Dadao chopped the great net apart, the situation had already slipped out of his control.

This net had originally been prepared to deal with Zhao Wenjie, but today he had no choice but to test it on Hu Dadao.

Li Jun executed the "Shadow-Folding Wandering Dragon Step," his figure drawing out a blurred shadow in the night.

Hu Dadao's head spun and his vision swam. The figure before him seemed to split into two or three.

He instinctively swept his blade horizontally. The edge tore through the air, but it only struck a lingering afterimage.

In the next instant, Li Jun's hand had already clamped around his wrist.

After learning the Fusang Hand, Li Jun's grip had become extremely strong.

This hand technique had originally been made for dealing with demon beasts. It emphasized breaking force with skill, overcoming hardness with softness; only then could it suppress certain rampaging demon beasts.

Li Jun's right hand locked Hu Dadao's wrist pulse, while his left hand slid up along the hilt, lifted, and twisted. There was only a crisp crack, and Hu Dadao's right wrist holding the blade was already dislocated.

The long blade fell with a clang.

With a hook of his toe, Li Jun flicked the long blade up and caught it in his hand. Following the motion, he turned, blade tip downward, and drove it straight into the upper root of Hu Dadao's right thigh.

"Ah!"

Hu Dadao let out a shrill scream, lost his balance completely, and crashed heavily to the ground.

He struggled to climb up, but the moment his right leg exerted even the slightest force, the blade churned inside his muscle. The pain made his whole body tremble, and cold sweat instantly soaked through his clothes.

"You little bastard... you damn well played dirty!"

Hu Dadao lay on the ground, one hand clutching his dislocated right wrist as he cursed at the top of his lungs.

That fierce, bearded face of his was now filled with savagery and disbelief.

Not even in his dreams had he imagined that he, an experienced demon hunter at the fifth level of Qi Refining, would fall into the hands of a brat at the third level of Qi Refining.

"Since you wanted to kill me, you should naturally have been prepared to be killed by me in return."

Li Jun crouched down and pushed the long blade embedded in Hu Dadao's leg another half inch deeper.

The blade bit three parts into the bone, and Hu Dadao hurt so badly his entire body arched up, the words in his mouth turning into a muffled howl.

"Who sent you?"

Li Jun's voice was very calm.

This was his first time leaving the sect, and he had never met this man before.

Since the other party had locked onto him from the start, he had clearly been acting on someone's orders.

Hu Dadao panted heavily, his bloodshot eyes fixed hard on Li Jun.

All of a sudden, he burst into laughter.

"Hahaha... Kid, you think I'll be scared just because you stabbed me? I've been making a living on the edge of the Hundred Thousand Mountains for over ten years. What kind of scene haven't I seen? With your little tricks..."

Li Jun did not wait for him to finish.

He took a sachet from his robes and held it in front of Hu Dadao's eyes.

The sachet was exquisitely made, its fabric fine Cloud Pattern Brocade, with a tiny flame pattern embroidered in the lower right corner.

This sachet was precisely the one Huang Yi had given him.

"You saw this, didn't you?"

Li Jun pointed at the flame pattern on the back of the sachet, his tone certain.

Hu Dadao's laughter stopped abruptly.

The thick flesh on his face twitched, then he immediately recovered that fierce appearance again.

"What dogshit thing is that? I've never seen it. I targeted you because you looked unfamiliar and I wanted to slaughter you for a bit of profit. Is that so strange?"

"Is that so?"

Li Jun watched his eyes.

Hu Dadao's gaze dodged for an instant.

In that instant, Li Jun knew he had guessed right.

During the day, he had visited no fewer than thirty stalls in Fire Pond Town, and at every stall, he had deliberately taken out this sachet.

Most merchants' gazes had lingered only on the Spirit Stones in his hand.

Only this Hu Dadao's eyes had changed the moment he saw the pattern on the sachet.

That had not been the reaction of greed for money.

It was the excitement of a hunter discovering prey.

"So what you had your eye on wasn't the Spirit Stones in my hand, but this sachet. You know what this pattern represents."

The bulging flesh on Hu Dadao's face trembled again, but he clamped his mouth shut and refused to speak.

Li Jun didn't ask any more.

He drew a silver dagger from his waist—the very one he had snatched from Liu Yan and the others earlier.

Li Jun pressed the dagger against Hu Dadao's left shoulder. The tip pierced through his outer robe and sank into flesh.

"I'll ask one more time. This pattern on the sachet—do you recognize it?"

Hu Dadao gritted his teeth, his cheeks bulging, his eyes rounded wide, but he didn't say a single word.

Expressionless, Li Jun pushed with his palm, and the blade tip sank into his shoulder.

Hu Dadao's whole body shuddered, but he forcibly endured it, only squeezing a muffled groan from his throat.

Blood seeped along the blade, dyeing his clothes a deep crimson.

Li Jun pulled out the dagger and moved to a second spot.

A third stab, a fourth, a fifth...

His movements weren't fast. Each time he stabbed, he paused for a moment, leaving Hu Dadao time to answer.

Every strike avoided the vital points, landing only in the places where the flesh was thickest and the nerves most densely packed.

Wounds like these weren't fatal—not even life-threatening—but the pain was clearer with every stab, deeper with every cut.

At first, Hu Dadao could still hold on, gritting his teeth without making a sound.

But by the seventh stab, he finally couldn't endure it anymore.

"Stop! Stop! I'll talk! I'll talk!"

There was a sobbing note in Hu Dadao's voice.

Even the toughest man couldn't withstand torture like this.

The fellow before him looked soft and frail, but when he struck, he was ruthless and vicious.

Especially those eyes—there was no anger in them, no pleasure, not even killing intent.

He was like those demonic beasts that possessed higher intelligence: vicious, clever, and exceedingly troublesome.

Hu Dadao knew he had run into a tough nut.

"I do recognize that pattern. It's the pattern of the Fire Kingdom's imperial relatives."

Hu Dadao gasped for breath, speaking in fits and starts.

"A few days ago, word came down from above, saying that people from the Azure Cloud Sect would appear in Fire Pond Town recently carrying sachets like that. They told us to keep a close watch, and once we found them, to capture them alive and take them away."

"Above?" Li Jun's dagger stopped in midair. "What above?"

"Dark Fragrance Hall in Fire Cloud City."

Hu Dadao panted, his voice growing lower and lower.

"They specialize in this kind of business. Of us traveling merchants who set up stalls in Fire Pond Town, six or seven out of every ten have registered with Dark Fragrance Hall. Usually, we do normal business, but when there's a job, we take one on in passing. Dark Fragrance Hall pays by the head. As long as we bring the person back, it's ten mid-grade Spirit Stones."

Ten mid-grade Spirit Stones?

Li Jun's gaze shifted slightly.

The five mid-grade Spirit Stones in his hand were already a considerable fortune in the eyes of an ordinary outer sect disciple.

Yet Dark Fragrance Hall's bounty for a single mission was actually ten mid-grade Spirit Stones.

They really were wealthy.

"What happens after they're captured alive?"

"That's none of my business. Dark Fragrance Hall only has us keep watch and catch people. After we catch them, we send them to the designated place, and someone will naturally be there to receive them. As for how they're dealt with afterward, how would small fry like us have the right to know?"

Hu Dadao watched Li Jun's expression, then hurriedly added:

"Everything I said is true! I'm just a fifth-level Qi Refining Rogue Cultivator. It's already good enough that Dark Fragrance Hall can make use of me. How could they possibly let me know any core secrets?"