"You should have begged for mercy sooner. Now it's too late! You were already injured and shouldn't have fought. Yet you insisted on showing off and fighting me just now. My Hidden Strength is even a little stronger than my master's.
So, your little heart probably won't hold out much longer! I'm truly sorry, but there's nothing I can do now." Xia Daoming spoke with an "apologetic" expression.
But in Shi Yingdeng's eyes, that "apologetic" look was no different from the smile of a soul-reaping messenger.
"My father will definitely find out. He'll kill you and avenge me!" Seeing that survival was hopeless, Shi Yingdeng's face finally twisted with ferocity as he glared at Xia Daoming with hatred burning in his eyes.
"You really are scum. Are you so eager for your father to go underground and find you?" Xia Daoming asked with narrowed eyes and a smile.
Shi Yingdeng froze for a moment, then suddenly realized that Xia Daoming's fighting strength was already no weaker than a Seventh-Rank Great Martial Master, while his father was only at the sixth rank—and advanced in years besides.
"No! No!"
Shi Yingdeng's heart instantly plunged into a bottomless abyss, filled with terror.
"But if he raised a scum son like you, then your father must be scum too. It'd be better for him to go down and find you sooner, so he doesn't keep harming decent people." Xia Daoming gave a cold laugh and poked the tip of his foot into Shi Yingdeng's sunken chest.
"Ah!" Shi Yingdeng let out a miserable scream, his eyes bulging as he died.
Although she had long known that her master was formidable and could not be judged by common sense, Liu Qiaolian was still dumbstruck to see Xia Daoming casually kill two Fifth-Rank Great Martial Masters in the blink of an eye. She did not recover for a long while.
Ironstone Town was just as Liu Qiaolian had said—the food and lodging conditions were quite poor.
There was only one inn in all of Ironstone Town.
The guest rooms gave off waves of damp, moldy stench, and the bedding looked somewhat filthy and disordered.
How could Liu Qiaolian possibly allow her master to stay in such a dirty, messy room? The moment she entered, she began tidying and cleaning it herself.
Xia Daoming told her not to bother and said they could simply pay the innkeeper more to have someone clean it again, but Liu Qiaolian thought they would not do a thorough job and still insisted on doing it herself.
Watching Liu Qiaolian—curvaceous and full-figured, with a ravishing face that could easily have entered a beauty pageant in his old world—busying herself around the room and spreading fresh sheets over the bed, Xia Daoming was filled with a thousand emotions.
In his previous life, with his circumstances, no matter how humbly he groveled, women like that probably would not have spared him a second glance. If one day they did look at him differently, it would surely be because they wanted him to take over as the fall guy.
But in this life!
No comparison, no comparison!
As Xia Daoming sighed inwardly, he took a small bottle from his robes.
When he pulled out the stopper, he saw that it held half a bottle of green droplets. A fragrant scent drifted out, refreshing the heart and mind and greatly invigorating the spirit.
Xia Daoming had found this small bottle in Lin Lu's robes.
Besides this bottle, Lin Lu and Shi Yingdeng had actually been carrying more than ten thousand taels in cash, giving Xia Daoming quite a pleasant surprise.
*What exactly is this? Lin Lu kept it hidden in his robes, so it must be something precious. And Lin Lu didn't feel like Jing Xuanying, the steward of Wu Family Fortress, whose qi, blood, and strength had severely declined. After enduring my sudden full-force strike, he was still able to flee quickly.
Lin Lu was already sixty, yet he still possessed such vigorous vitality. Could it be related to the green droplets in this bottle?* Xia Daoming turned the bottle in his hand, his nose twitching slightly as he pondered.
"Lian'er, come here," Xia Daoming called to Liu Qiaolian.
"What are your orders, Master?" Liu Qiaolian came before Xia Daoming, curtsied, and asked.
"Do you recognize this liquid?" Xia Daoming handed her the small bottle.
Liu Qiaolian looked at it, her delicate nose twitching slightly. A trace of surprise appeared in her eyes. "This liquid smells pleasant and is very refreshing, but I don't know what it is."
"If you don't know, then forget it." Xia Daoming put the bottle away and stopped dwelling on it.
In any case, he could ask Ji Wenyue after they returned.
Liu Qiaolian finally finished cleaning the room.
Not only did it look completely renewed, but the moldy smell had also been swept away. It was fresh and tidy.
After cleaning the room, Liu Qiaolian quickly had the waiter fill the wooden tub in their room with water. Then she tightly shut the door and attended Xia Daoming as he bathed.
After washing away the dust of the road and tossing several pills into his mouth, Xia Daoming sat cross-legged on the bed in high spirits and circulated the Dragon Serpent Art.
Liu Qiaolian gazed intently at Xia Daoming for a long while. Then she took out an Azure Lotus Vitality Pill, placed it in her cherry lips, and sat cross-legged to circulate the Dragon Serpent Art.
An Azure Lotus Vitality Pill sold for one hundred and fifty taels on the market.
In the past, Liu Qiaolian could never have brought herself to take one, but now she consumed a pill of this grade every seven or eight days.
That was only because her cultivation was too low, and taking them too frequently would be more than her meridians and body could bear. Otherwise, Xia Daoming would have had her take one every day.
After roughly an hour and a half, Liu Qiaolian felt pain in her meridians. She slowly opened her eyes and stopped circulating her qi, blood, and strength, while Xia Daoming was still cultivating with his eyes closed.
Seeing that Xia Daoming was still cultivating, Liu Qiaolian took a yellowed book from the bundle beside her, then rose and sat at the table where the candleholder stood.
She lowered her head and leafed through the book, sometimes furrowing her brows, sometimes pondering, sometimes tracing what seemed like disorderly patterns across the table with her fingers. At other times, she raised her head to look at Xia Daoming. As she looked, a flush gradually rose on her pretty face.
No one knew how much time passed.
Xia Daoming opened his eyes and saw Liu Qiaolian once more engrossed in that yellowed book. He could not help smiling knowingly as he slipped quietly out of bed.
"Master, have you finished your exercises? This servant will attend you to bed at once."
But the moment Xia Daoming's feet touched the floor, Liu Qiaolian noticed and hurriedly stood up.
"It's already the third watch of the night! I cultivate for a long time, so you don't need to wait for me in the future. Just go to sleep first," Xia Daoming said.
"How could this servant sleep before Master does? Besides, this servant doesn't feel sleepy when reading," Liu Qiaolian said.
"This book looks like ghostly scribbles. After just a few glances, I feel dizzy and my head aches. You've read it over and over countless times—how do you still find it so interesting?" Xia Daoming asked.
"This servant doesn't know why either. I just find this book especially fascinating. It's a pity that when this servant tried making and arranging formations according to the book at home, nothing happened.
Otherwise, if it were truly as the book says—if merely planting a few formation flags could keep those outside from seeing the people within, or prevent them from attacking their way in, or make them wander within like they had entered a maze and could not find their way out... how wonderful would that be!" Liu Qiaolian's face was full of yearning.
"Heh, what formation could possibly be that miraculous? Even if such formations existed, they would be the arts of immortals. How could some book you picked up at a market stall possibly contain them?" Xia Daoming said dismissively.
Ever since Xia Daoming had begun living with Liu Qiaolian, he had often seen her holding this yellowed book and reading it with rapt attention.
Out of curiosity, he had taken it and looked through it, only to find it covered in ghostly scribbles, along with diagrams resembling the Eight Trigrams and Nine Palaces from his old world, as well as miscellaneous ancient writings on such matters.
Seeing that the book looked somewhat old, Xia Daoming had thought it was an heirloom passed down through the Liu family and had specially studied it for a while. The result was that his head hurt from reading it, while everything in the book still looked like nothing but chaotic, disorderly ghostly scribbles to him, without the slightest pattern.
Only later, after asking Liu Qiaolian, did Xia Daoming learn that she had bought this yellowed book at a roadside stall in a northern market town while traveling as a peddler.
That left Xia Daoming both amused and exasperated.
Yet Liu Qiaolian was utterly fascinated by it and would take it out to read from time to time.
After seeing it often enough, Xia Daoming no longer found it strange.
It was only because the two of them were traveling far from home tonight, alone in the same room, and it was already the third watch while Liu Qiaolian was still reading this book that he happened to say a few more words about it.
"Yes! Master is right." Liu Qiaolian nodded somewhat dejectedly, but she still carefully rolled up the book and put it into her bundle.
Seeing that Liu Qiaolian was clearly a little dispirited, Xia Daoming felt somewhat guilty. He quickly smiled. "I was only saying it casually, so don't take it to heart. Everyone has different hobbies and interests. As long as you like it, that's what matters."
"Yes, thank you, Master. This servant understands." Seeing Xia Daoming comfort her, Liu Qiaolian's mood visibly improved. She smoothed her hair and gave him a radiant smile.
"Then let's sleep. If we don't, dawn will be upon us soon." Looking at Liu Qiaolian's delicate, blooming beauty, Xia Daoming's heart stirred slightly, and he reached out to pull her into his arms.
That night, the two embraced as they stayed at the small inn.
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