Cultivator Robbers Close at Hand

Whoosh!

Only at this moment did Zhou Changwang finally relax completely, gasping for breath as he turned his gaze toward the person who had acted earlier.

"It's you."

Zhou Changwang stared at the figure who had intervened, his face full of surprise.

This person was none other than his neighbor at his rented residence, Qian Xiaoyue, an alchemy apprentice serving under an alchemist of Six Directions Pavilion.

"Are you all right?"

Qian Xiaoyue gave him a concerned look.

"I'm fine.

Thank you for earlier.

If it hadn't been for you, I truly would have been in danger."

Even now, Zhou Changwang still felt lingering fear when he thought back to it.

Though he had promptly used the Geng Metal Finger to kill the sword-wielding martial artist, the other person had already drawn extremely close. His spirit hoe had also broken. Had Qian Xiaoyue not suddenly acted and used a spell to slow that person down, he might not have been able to evade the other party's furious counterattack.

Much less use a Geng Metal Finger to pierce through the other party's head in the end.

"I was just... a little scared, and a little... unable to bear it..."

Qian Xiaoyue spoke softly. Looking at the two black-clad figures lying on the ground, a complicated expression appeared in her eyes.

"A little scared? Unable to bear it?"

Zhou Changwang froze, then glanced at the two corpses on the ground and hurriedly said, "This isn't a place to linger. Let's go back first and talk there."

Though he said that, he still rushed forward and swiftly searched the two corpses.

He did not care what the items were. Whatever he found, he stuffed into his cloth bag in one sweep. He did not even spare the two people's weapons.

Then, as though he had remembered something, he pulled off their masks.

Looking closely, he found one man and one woman. The woman appeared to be in her thirties. Though her face was somewhat pale in death, her delicate beauty was still visible; she could be called a rare beauty. The man beside her looked to be in his forties. His temples were slightly gray, his brows and eyes heavy, while his face carried a sinister cast.

"How... could it be them?"

The instant Zhou Changwang saw their faces clearly, he was struck by shock.

He actually knew these two.

They were a married couple of martial artists.

They also lived in this area, not far away at all. In fact, they lived right beside Qian Xiaoyue.

In other words, they were neighbors too.

"How could they..."

A chill ran through Zhou Changwang's heart. He had never imagined that cultivator robbers had been right by his side.

Meanwhile, Qian Xiaoyue had put away her earlier complicated expression. She stepped closer and sprinkled a little powder onto each of their wounds.

In an instant, the two corpses rapidly decayed until they were no longer human-shaped.

"This is Corpse-Corroding Powder."

Qian Xiaoyue explained briefly, then said, "Let's go."

Zhou Changwang hurriedly nodded, and the two swiftly headed toward their residence.

This place had not been far from where they lived to begin with, and before long, they arrived home.

Seeing Qian Xiaoyue walk straight toward her own room, Zhou Changwang hurried forward a step and asked, "Fellow Daoist Qian, what spell did you use just now?"

"Slowing Technique!"

Qian Xiaoyue answered.

"I noticed that earlier... you seemed to know something?"

Zhou Changwang was not stupid. Earlier, his mind had been thrown into turmoil, and he had not had time to think carefully.

But after walking all this way, he immediately noticed that something was wrong.

Qian Xiaoyue's expression in particular, along with her previous answers, all suggested that things were not as simple as they seemed.

"Come in and talk."

Qian Xiaoyue looked at Zhou Changwang and gave a slight gesture.

Then she entered her room directly.

Zhou Changwang hesitated briefly before following her inside. Before entering, however, he swiftly took a pill bottle from his robes, poured out a spirit pill, and swallowed it in one gulp.

This spirit pill was precisely the Vitality Pill Xu Zhong had given him earlier. There had originally been five pills. He had used four to restore his spiritual power while removing insects, leaving only this last one.

He needed this Vitality Pill to restore the spiritual power in his body.

Not only because the fierce battle just now had greatly depleted his spiritual power.

But also because he was wary of everyone right now. Even Qian Xiaoyue, who had helped him at the critical moment, was no exception.

He did not want to escape a tiger's den only to enter a wolf's lair.

Once the Vitality Pill entered his stomach, the spiritual power within his body began circulating on its own, rapidly absorbing the spiritual qi supplied by the pill.

Very quickly, he felt the Vitality Pill taking effect. The spiritual power in his body, which had been depleted by more than half, rapidly recovered as the pill dissolved within him.

Only then did he relax slightly.

Yet he still did not feel safe enough. What if?

What if she truly meant him harm, captured and tortured him, or took a fancy to his looks... So he hurriedly tore a strip from his clothes and casually tossed it before Qian Xiaoyue's doorway.

He needed to leave behind a clue.

If something truly happened, others could use the scrap from his clothing to suspect Qian Xiaoyue.

Only then did he truly follow her into the room.

Fortunately, Qian Xiaoyue did not notice anything Zhou Changwang had done. After entering, she immediately lit an oil lamp, then made a slight gesture and said, "Sit wherever you like."

Zhou Changwang nodded, but his eyes were studying everything in the room.

Like his own room, it had one table, one chair, one bed, and one cabinet. There were merely a few more small decorations, making it seem much fresher. What truly caught his attention, however, was the pile of Golden-Eared Spirit Leaves and Root-Making Grass beside the cabinet. He knew that both spirit materials were among the basic ingredients for making Talisman Parchment.

Thinking of the stall she had set up at the Rogue Cultivator Market yesterday, he understood.

It seemed that Qian Xiaoyue had truly made that Talisman Parchment herself.

"Fang Yu and Zhao Xifeng moved in next door to me one year ago."

Qian Xiaoyue began.

Zhou Changwang paused before realizing that she was talking about the married couple who had attacked him earlier.

"They claimed to be from Zhenlai Kingdom. At first, they were very warm toward me. Zhao Xifeng especially would often bring me homemade pastries, and we went from strangers to acquaintances."

Qian Xiaoyue spoke to herself, the complicated look returning to her eyes as she continued, "But by chance one time, I discovered that every so often, they would leave at night dressed entirely in black. Sometimes they returned quickly; other times, they would not return until deep into the night. And every time, they would have more things on them, one way or another... At that time, I guessed that they were very likely the legendary cultivator robbers."

Zhou Changwang nodded.

Cultivator robbers did not necessarily mean that the other party had to be a cultivator who wielded immortal arts. Some Innate Realm experts among ordinary people were not weak. With careful preparation, they could also assassinate Qi Refining cultivators in the early stage.

Take Zhou Changwang this time, for instance. If he had not cultivated the Geng Metal Finger to the minor accomplishment stage, allowing him to maintain the casting while moving violently, and if its casting time had not been only three breaths, he likely would have found it difficult to escape the pair's carefully planned assassination.

Outside Phoenix-Cry Cove Market, there were quite a few low-level cultivators like him who had no magic artifact to protect themselves. Some were even worse off than he was.