Kill Ma Qianli

"An Niang, your cooking is as good as ever."

In the room, Ma Qianli drank and ate while holding his lover, An Niang, in his arms, his hands roaming over her.

"As long as you like it, Brother Ma."

"I do not have much skill, but when it comes to cooking, it is the one thing I can put on the table."

An Niang covered her mouth with her slender hand, her eyes narrowing into crescents as she smiled.

"By the way, Brother Ma, who made you angry again?"

"How did you know someone made me angry?"

"Oh, listen to you. When you came in, your face was black as the bottom of a pot. How could I not tell?"

"Haha, An Niang is attentive."

"Come to think of it, you know this person too."

"I know him too? Who is it?"

Hearing this, An Niang became even more curious.

"Do you remember coming here a few months ago, when you gave me some food?"

"You said then that although it looked crude, it tasted delicious, and its business would surely boom in the future."

"I kept that in mind and went to watch for a few days. Just as you said, business got better by the day."

Ma Qianli spoke slowly.

"I was so angry today because of that stall owner."

After saying that, Ma Qianli viciously drained a cup of wine.

An Niang hurriedly advised, "Brother Ma, too much anger harms the body. Drink less."

Yet the more An Niang tried to persuade him, the more Ma Qianli drank.

He even pulled An Niang into drinking with him.

Unable to refuse, An Niang could only clink cups with him, one cup after another.

After a jar of wine was emptied, An Niang collapsed first, with Ma Qianli following right after.

Gradually, thunderous snores from Ma Qianli filled the room.

Amid those resounding snores, the closed door quietly opened.

A figure stepped in from the darkness and slowly approached the wine table.

He first went to An Niang's side, found the right acupoints, and inserted several silver needles.

Already drunk, An Niang fell into an even deeper sleep. At this point, even if someone beat gongs and drums beside her ears, she would not wake.

When he came before Ma Qianli, the figure did not act at once. Instead, he took Ma Qianli's pulse.

"So that was it. He injured his heart and lungs by forcibly breaking through."

Chen Xun understood.

With the trait [Lesion Awareness] and the mastered [Green Pouch Medical Art], Chen Xun saw through the hidden dangers in Ma Qianli's body with only a brief pulse reading.

Chen Xun then took out more than a dozen silver needles and began inserting them into Ma Qianli with deliberate precision.

Of course, he was not eliminating the hidden dangers in Ma Qianli's body. He was amplifying and activating them.

Without Chen Xun, the wine Ma Qianli had drunk would not have harmed him.

But after Chen Xun's handiwork—

"Pfft!" The drunken Ma Qianli suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood.

He slowly woke, only to feel his heart pounding violently, as if it were about to leap from his chest. He could barely breathe, and every breath felt as though knives were slicing through his lungs.

"What is happening to me?"

Then he saw Chen Xun, who had deliberately stepped in front of him.

The moment he saw Chen Xun's smiling face, Ma Qianli's pupils shrank sharply, his face full of disbelief. "You? How are you here?"

"That's right. It's me."

"I came here, of course, to see you off."

Chen Xun smiled, his expression wanton and exhilarated.

"Oh, and you were right before. I killed the Yu Qiang and Yu Sheng brothers."

"Now, I have come to kill you too."

"Tell me, when someone finds your corpse tomorrow, will anyone suspect that I killed you?"

That rhetorical question made Ma Qianli's eyes split with fury.

"You... you are vicious."

"Pfft!" In his rage, Ma Qianli spat out another great mouthful of blood.

He tried to struggle to his feet, only to find that he did not have a shred of strength left in his body.

"Do not struggle. Just wait slowly for death."

"Do not worry. It will not take long."

Chen Xun said unhurriedly.

Sure enough, just as Chen Xun had said, before three minutes had passed, Ma Qianli's face turned pale and he began gasping for breath.

"Save me. I was wrong. I will never dare again."

At death's door, Ma Qianli stretched a hand toward Chen Xun and begged.

Chen Xun watched coldly. "You do not know you were wrong. You only know that you are about to die."

Thus, under Chen Xun's gaze, Ma Qianli died with his face twisted in agony.

"Too easy for you."

Afterward, Chen Xun carefully felt around Ma Qianli's body.

Yet he found only a piece of broken silver and several dozen copper coins.

"Poor bastard."

After muttering a complaint, Chen Xun put the money back.

It was not that Chen Xun looked down on such a small sum, but that he feared arousing suspicion.

If Ma Qianli had carried more money, Chen Xun could have taken some without anyone knowing.

Patting his hands, Chen Xun did not continue searching the room and simply left.

After carefully closing the door, Chen Xun turned and vanished into the night.

The next day, at noon.

An Niang slowly woke, clutching her head.

"What time is it? Hiss, my head hurts so much. I should not have drunk so much yesterday."

Holding her head, An Niang swayed as she rose.

Suddenly, she froze, her entire body stiffening in place.

"Brother... Brother Ma?"

Her voice trembled, and so did her body.

Blood—congealed blood covering the table.

A corpse—a corpse that had begun to stink, with flies circling around it.

"Ah!" A scream shattered the silence.

"You two were drinking the entire time yesterday?"

The constables and coroner arrived, and An Niang was interrogated on the spot by the chief constable.

"Y-Yes. This servant drank with Brother Ma, and then this servant got drunk. This servant knows nothing at all about what happened afterward."

An Niang answered tremblingly.

"Is that so?"

The constable was only half-convinced by An Niang's words.

"Chief, the coroner has made a preliminary determination of the cause of death."

At that moment, a constable ran over and whispered into the chief constable's ear.

"Oh? What was the cause of death? Poisoning?"

"No. According to the coroner, it seemed that an old internal injury flared up, and he died of illness."

The chief constable abruptly looked at the constable and asked in a low voice, "Are you certain?"

"That is what the coroner said. He said the deceased already had hidden injuries, then drank heavily, causing them to flare up. Without prompt treatment, he vomited blood and died quickly."

"Is that so?"

The chief constable could not help but fall into thought.

"Have you identified the deceased?"

"Yes. He was a branch leader of the Wild Wolf Gang, named Ma Qianli."

"The Wild Wolf Gang again?"

"The Wild Wolf Gang has truly had a run of bad luck. A branch leader died earlier, and the murderer still has not been caught. Now another one has died, and he drank himself to death. There is not even a murderer this time."

The chief constable sighed.

"Oh, right, Little Qin, go to the Wild Wolf Gang later and inform them."

"Yes, Chief."

At the Wild Wolf Gang, Gang Leader Jiang Tianlang was handling gang affairs when one of his subordinates hurried over with bad news.

"What? Ma Qianli is dead?"

"How did he die?"

Jiang Tianlang asked in surprise.

"Reporting to Gang Leader, according to the constable who came to report it, he drank himself to death."

"Drank himself to death?"

"Useless trash."

Jiang Tianlang laughed in anger and cursed.

Several days later, Ma Qianli's family buried his body.

No one connected Ma Qianli's death to Chen Xun.

First, the yamen issued an official document confirming that Ma Qianli had died because excessive drinking triggered a relapse of an old injury.

Second, Li Mingyuan had just spoken up for Chen Xun. Chen Xun had no reason to specifically come and kill Ma Qianli.

Thus, Chen Xun shook off suspicion and cultivated in peace.

And on the very day Ma Qianli was buried, Chen Xun's cultivation smoothly reached the First Blood-Qi Transformation Limit, and he prepared to break through.