Wealth Blinds the Eyes

No one knew how much time had passed before night completely shrouded the entire town.

Noisy chatter and the clinking of wine cups still drifted up from downstairs from time to time.

The Soul Masters who had seen Dugu Feng take out Gold Soul Coins during the day had already secretly conspired together.

Two or three shadowy figures circled quietly around the second-floor window of the inn under the cover of darkness.

A short blade gently pried open the window. Several gazes pierced through the darkness and settled on the youth meditating inside.

Seeing Dugu Feng sitting still with his eyes closed, they were overjoyed, assuming he was completely unguarded.

"Move! End this quickly, grab the Gold Soul Coins, and leave!"

One of them shouted in a low voice, vaulted through the window, and thrust a poison-coated dagger straight at Dugu Feng's heart.

But just as the blade came within half a foot of his chest, the meditating youth abruptly opened his eyes.

A pair of emerald-green eyes opened in the dim room, studying their prey like a savage beast.

"You finally couldn't hold back. If you'd waited any longer, I would've fallen asleep."

"Damn it, this kid's tough!"

The leading Soul Elder saw that Dugu Feng looked thoroughly prepared.

He instantly understood that Dugu Feng had deliberately lured them upstairs.

But they had realized it too late. The entire room was already filled with the poisonous mist Dugu Feng had released.

"Are your lungs itching?"

Moonlight streamed through the window and fell across Dugu Feng's face.

A smile curled at the corner of Dugu Feng's lips, but it carried a sinister air.

One of the Soul Masters in the room instantly let out a miserable howl.

His skin rapidly turned bluish-black, and he began coughing violently.

The blood he coughed up was mixed with bits of flesh.

Their skin began to rot at a visible rate, as though their bodies had been thrown into concentrated sulfuric acid.

They tried to summon their martial souls and circulate their Soul Power to resist, but the moment their Soul Power moved, their meridians were burned and torn apart by the poison, causing their Soul Power to collapse completely.

The poison coursed through their blood, corroding their internal organs bit by bit from within.

Agonizing pain shot through their eyes, their vision gradually blurred, and though they tried to open their mouths, they could no longer make a sound.

Within only a few breaths, all of them collapsed to the ground.

On closer inspection, even the bones in their legs had been corroded away.

Despair seemed to linger in their empty eye sockets. After twitching a few times, they lost all signs of life.

Their bodies gradually melted away into pools of foul, blackened blood that seeped into the cracks in the floorboards.

There had not been much noise throughout the entire process. They had not even managed to send a cry for help out of the room.

Dugu Feng slowly rose to his feet and flicked his sleeves, as though he had merely brushed away a little dust.

He walked to the window and looked down at the pitch-black street below.

A few people had not entered and were still waiting downstairs for a signal that the others had succeeded.

A chilling smile appeared on Dugu Feng's lips as he raised a hand and sent out a wisp of poisonous mist.

The wisp drifted down on the night breeze, silently descending toward the people lying in wait below.

Several Soul Masters in the alley downstairs were craning their necks in anticipation.

"Why is there still no movement? Don't tell me something happened?"

"Relax. He's just a little brat. Even if he has some skill, he can't stand up to Boss Gu taking the lead. It'll definitely be over in no—"

Before he could finish, one man's expression suddenly changed. Both hands clutched tightly at his throat as his entire body convulsed violently.

The others followed right after him, likewise ravaged by Poison Breathing. Their piercing screams finally exploded through the silent night before quickly fading away.

The entire back alley returned to dead silence in an instant.

Inside the room, only several patches of blood remained on the floor, proving that living people had once been here.

Dugu Feng closed the window, shutting out the sounds outside.

He lowered his head and looked at the bloodstains on the floor, his expression calm and his heart utterly unmoved.

Dugu Feng picked up the money pouch from the ground. It had long since been soaked through with blood.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door.

A-Gou's voice came from outside.

"Sir, are you all right? I think I heard some noises just now."

Dugu Feng's gaze shifted slightly. He gathered the poisonous mist in the air, making sure not a trace remained.

Only then did he speak.

"It's nothing. I accidentally spilled some beast blood just now."

Dugu Feng opened the door.

He took out a Gold Soul Coin and handed it to A-Gou.

"Please clean the floor. This is your tip."

Dugu Feng had already retracted the poison from the blood.

Thus, he was not worried that anyone would be poisoned by accidentally touching it.

After giving his instructions, Dugu Feng left the inn directly.

With his strength, he could leave without anyone noticing him at all.

However, A-Gou still sensed that something was wrong.

He immediately told the innkeeper about it, and the innkeeper hurried to the room where Dugu Feng had been staying.

Looking at the blood on the floor,

his face could not help but twitch.

From his experience, this was no beast blood. It was clearly human blood—more precisely, corpse blood.

Then, the sharp-eyed innkeeper suddenly spotted a ring in the corner, its surface covered in blood.

He walked over and picked up the ring.

There was a jackal emblem on it.

"Gu Chuan! You old bastard, I told you long ago not to cause trouble at my inn. Now look what happened—you ran into someone tough and didn't even leave a whole corpse behind."

"Boss, what does that mean? Don't tell me this pile of stuff is—"

The innkeeper turned to glance at A-Gou, then said,

"Don't ask what you shouldn't ask. Didn't the guest already give you a tip? Clean it up quickly. And if you see that guest again, show him more respect."

Several days later, at the Great Soul Arena in Häagen-Dazs City, Hagen-Dazs Kingdom.

Dugu Feng arrived at the front desk to register.

He wore a cloak and a mask that covered only half his face.

"I want to register."

Dugu Feng deliberately lowered his voice, making himself appear to be nothing more than a dwarf.

He then took out ten Gold Soul Coins and placed them on the counter.

After the receptionist accepted the Gold Soul Coins, they took out a registration form for Dugu Feng to fill in.

After thinking for a moment, Dugu Feng simply wrote down Ouyang Feng.

As for his alias, he chose Western Poison.

After choosing his alias, Dugu Feng headed straight into the arena.

Before long, a burly man emerged from the iron gate on the other side of the Soul Arena.

"It's actually Ironblood. Looks like this guy must have failed his challenge against the Mad King. His points dropped so much that he fell straight from a Copper Rank badge to Iron Rank!"

Dugu Feng looked the burly man over. From the Soul Power fluctuations around him, he could tell that this man had already reached the Soul Elder realm.

"Level 41 assault-type Soul Ancestor, martial soul: Iron Hammer!"

Ironblood fixed Dugu Feng with a cold stare. A pitch-black iron hammer instantly appeared in his hand.

One white, two yellow, and one purple soul ring slowly rose beneath his feet.

Dugu Feng merely gave him an indifferent glance. At the referee's command, Ironblood immediately charged forward with his iron hammer raised.

"First Soul Skill, Heavy Strike!"

Ironblood raised his iron hammer, but the instant he came within ten steps of Dugu Feng, his body toppled over stiffly.

He could not move at all, as though all strength had been drained from his body in an instant.

"The referee can announce the result now, right?"

The referee overseeing the match had not even reacted yet. The fight had only just begun, yet it was already over.

"I declare the match over. Western Poison wins this match."