Greedy as You Are, Let Me Help You Spend Some

Zheng Fengyun clutched his wound. "Cui Lang, you've already slain the two cat demons today. Why kill me as well?"

"You've mastered the cultivation technique I gave you, but don't you like movement techniques? I can give you one, along with fist arts and palm arts. Every one of them is powerful enough to raise your strength to the next level."

"Once we return, I'll recommend you for constable. My position will be yours someday, and I can give you plenty of silver as well."

Cui Lang shook his head. "I've heard a saying: when a man is about to die, his words cannot be trusted."

"You can tell me now who else was involved in colluding with demons. I can give you a quick death."

Zheng Fengyun's face was full of despair. "Fine, I'll tell you. Come closer."

Suddenly, Zheng Fengyun swung his saber fiercely, condensing all his true essence into that strike and unleashing a saber aura half a zhang long.

Did he really think that being injured meant he could no longer fight?

Yet Cui Lang instantly appeared behind Zheng Fengyun and drove his saber through Zheng Fengyun's abdomen.

"Swimming Dragon Step? How do you know the Swimming Dragon Step?" Zheng Fengyun's eyes widened as he muttered to himself.

Cui Lang pulled out his saber. "I watched you use it so many times just now, so I learned a bit of it. It's quite useful."

Zheng Fengyun fell backward, his body twitching twice before he breathed his last.

Cui Lang quickly walked over to the corpses of the two cat demons and had the little flask devour their essence blood. Only then did he search Zheng Fengyun, finding nothing but a bottle of Blood Pills.

He crushed the Blood Pills outright and let the wind scatter them. Then he set a fire and swiftly departed under cover of night.

Ding Residence.

Ding Xiong sat in the main hall, waiting for Zheng Fengyun to bring back good news.

Song He leaned against the back of his chair. "No need to worry. Zheng Fengyun acted personally. They're only two demons that haven't formed cores yet, so he'll surely take them down as easily as turning his hand over."

"Once the demons are all killed this time, we won't have to worry about the higher-ups sending anyone to investigate."

Zheng Fengyun was at the peak of the Gathered Essence realm and was highly proficient with sabers, movement techniques, and fist arts. Those two demons could not possibly be his match.

Besides, Cui Lang had gone with him. Even if Cui Lang's martial strength was ordinary, he could at least hold them off briefly, so the demons would have no chance of escaping.

Ding Xiong closed his eyes. "I hope so, but I keep feeling my eyelid twitching. It doesn't seem like a good sign."

"With the demons gone, our Blood Pills will be gone too. When will we be able to break through?"

Song He said with a chuckle, "Let's steady ourselves first. It'll be good to clear away all the blood baleful aura from our bodies. With all the demons in the county gone, demons from elsewhere will soon sneak in. When that happens, we can do as before, intimidate them a little, and have them refine Blood Pills for us."

"Besides, even without Blood Pills, we still have plenty of silver. We can buy some nourishing pills, so it's not as if we have no chance of breaking through to the Pill Embracing realm."

He was quite satisfied with the current situation anyway. With all the demons gone, he would no longer have to live in constant fear, and none of the benefits they had enjoyed before would be lost.

Before forty, he had a chance to break through to the Pill Embracing realm. In the future, he might be able to go a step further. If he succeeded, perhaps he could even serve a term as a prefect. At that point, he would be able to learn more profound cultivation techniques and martial arts, and his strength would undergo earth-shaking changes.

Ding Xiong grunted. "We'll wait another hour. If there's still no news, we'll go take a look."

Riding a fast horse, Cui Lang quickly returned to the county town. He climbed over the city wall directly and headed straight for Zheng Fengyun's home.

Last time, he had not had time to visit Constable Li's home. Today, he would help Zheng Fengyun tidy up his study and storeroom.

After climbing into the Zheng Residence, he found it utterly silent. Everyone in the household was already asleep.

Cui Lang found Zheng Fengyun's study. He placed his hand on the window, released his true essence, and gave it a light lift. The window opened.

The room was pitch-black, but Cui Lang did not light a candle. He quickly began searching through the study.

"This is the Eight Desolations Slash?"

"And this is the Blazing Sun Technique?"

Cui Lang soon found two cultivation techniques and martial arts manuals, but he had already learned both. There was no movement technique he wanted, and he did not even find the fist arts or palm arts Zheng Fengyun had mentioned.

He had only secretly learned one move of the Swimming Dragon Step, not the complete technique. He had thought he might find it here.

He did find another bottle of Blood Pills, with three pills inside. Cui Lang took them all, intending to destroy them later.

"What sort of habit is this? Not recording cultivation techniques and martial arts manuals? So many martial inheritances have been severed this way."

After searching the study for a long time, Cui Lang found no secret chamber or anything of the sort. He decided to check the storeroom instead. Had Zheng Fengyun not said he had plenty of silver?

The moment he opened the door, a sword suddenly stabbed toward his brow.

Cui Lang tilted his head to evade it, but the sword followed him like a shadow, slashing toward his neck with extreme speed.

Just as his opponent thought Cui Lang could not dodge and was about to die, he saw Cui Lang stop evading and instead reach out to grab the blade with his bare hand.

Bang!

Cui Lang's fist struck the man's throat. Disbelief filled the man's eyes as he clutched his throat and slowly collapsed to the floor.

Why had his sword been caught barehanded by Cui Lang? Even though he had used all his strength, why had he failed to cut open Cui Lang's neck?

Dragging the corpse into the study, Cui Lang muttered softly, "When Zheng Fengyun told me to meet the demons before, you were the one following me, weren't you?"

"You're clearly not weak, yet you were willing to remain in Zheng Fengyun's residence as a steward. Looks like you took Blood Pills too. Then you deserve to die!"

He searched the corpse. There was no money or cultivation manual, but he did find a ring of keys, which still made Cui Lang quite pleased.

Cui Lang had deliberately not drawn his saber just now. Instead, he had used the Bloodfire Demon Body to withstand the man's sword, then killed him with his fists. He did not want to make too much noise and disrupt his visit to the storeroom.

There were no guards in Zheng Fengyun's household. Zheng Fengyun himself was already an expert, and he also had a steward he had personally trained. He had never imagined anyone would dare come to his home to cause trouble.

That made things much more convenient for Cui Lang. He easily made his way to the storeroom, unlocked the door, and slipped inside quietly.

When he saw what was inside the storeroom, Cui Lang could not help but sigh.

There were quite a few bolts of fine silk and satin, as well as some jewelry. There were even several chests of gold and silver.

Unfortunately, even after opening every chest, he still found no cultivation manuals, nor any treasured sabers or swords.

"You've been quite greedy. Let me help you spend some of it."

He did not touch the things that were inconvenient to carry. He found some banknotes instead and stuffed them all into his clothes.

Beneath one of the chests holding jewelry, Cui Lang also spotted a small box. So much jewelry had not even been placed in a separate box, so this had to contain something good. What was more, the box had a lock on it.

After looking over the ring of keys, he determined there was probably no matching key. Cui Lang coated his saber with true essence and gave it a light slash, cutting the lock cleanly apart.

When the box opened, it did not contain precious jewelry as Cui Lang had expected, nor cultivation manuals or a treasure map. It held only a palm-sized statue.

Judging by the material, it was neither gold nor silver. It looked more like bronze.

"What kind of statue is this? It looks like a demon?"