Ambushing Liu Xi

Seeing the Jia Lie Family members leave their seats, Xiao Yan rose as well.

"Sorry, senior sister. I won't be long. Wait for me~" Xiao Yan rubbed his nose and said confidently.

"All right." Xiao Yi Xian did not particularly mind, but she was curious about how Xiao Yan, a Two-Star Dou Zhe, intended to ambush a group clearly made up of two Da Dou Shi, four Dou Shi, and one Dou Zhe.

Xiao Yan put his bamboo hat back on, slipped quietly out of the auction house's back door, and hid in a dark alley.

The auction house's back entrance was deserted, but Xiao Yan was in no hurry. After leaving early, the Jia Lie Family members would still need some time to pay for and collect their purchases. They would only emerge through the back door in about ten minutes.

As it happened, only certain distinguished guests knew about the Mittel Auction House's back entrance. If Xiao Yan had not been desperately short of money a while ago and brought one of Yao Lao's pill formulas there to auction, his standing would never have been high enough to learn about it.

What had that formula been called... Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid? The Jia Lie Family had bought it in the end, too.

Buying a pill formula, buying a Beast Flame, and now, according to recent rumors, bringing in an alchemist from elsewhere-the Jia Lie Family really was planning far ahead.

"Unfortunately for them, though..."

Beneath Xiao Yan's bamboo hat, peach-pink flames burned in his eyes, giving off an eerie, dangerous air.

"They're out." Suddenly, Yao Chen's voice sounded in Xiao Yan's mind.

Several black-clad figures wearing bamboo hats filed out of the Mittel Auction House's back door, then split up and ran.

"Which one do we follow?" Xiao Yan asked Yao Lao. His target was clear: the First-Rank Alchemist the Jia Lie Family had hired. Killing him would not only bring considerable trouble down on the Jia Lie Family, but also put a complete stop to their plans.

"None of them. That alchemist didn't come out with them," Yao Lao declared confidently after sensing the soul imprints he had left on the black-clad figures earlier.

Xiao Yan froze for a moment, then realized what was happening and smiled. "Pretty clever. With the Jia Lie Family doing this, even a Dou Emperor would probably have let them get away today."

"Indeed. The last soul imprint is still inside the auction house. There's no telling when he'll come out."

"Let's wait a little."

What Xiao Yan had not expected was that this little wait would last until the auction ended.

By then, it was late at night. Quite a few attendees of the secret gathering chose to leave through the back door. Each had their own way of concealing their face, making them impossible for an ordinary person to tell apart at a glance.

"That one." Yao Lao precisely identified the alchemist Liu Xi, who was concealed among the crowd. To their surprise, he headed straight toward their dark alley, utterly oblivious to the danger awaiting him.

Instead, Liu Xi was lost in dreams of fusing with the Beast Flame and advancing to Second-Rank Alchemist.

He had to admit that Wutan City truly was his lucky land. Not only had he found the sheltered Jia Lie Family, willing to spend a fortune supporting his alchemy, but he had also obtained a second-rank pill formula and a Beast Flame in succession.

Every step of an alchemist's growth depended on resources. What he had obtained in Wutan City far surpassed anything he had received as his teacher's nominal disciple. It could all be summed up in one word:

Bliss!

Moreover, the Jia Lie Family had satisfied another of his great passions in life: women. They had not only given him several beautiful maids, but even let him bed one of their prized daughters.

That figure, that face-he could never have enjoyed anything like them elsewhere.

"Wutan City may be small, but its women are each more beautiful than the last." Liu Xi was still savoring the wonderful feel of that prized daughter on their first night together when it suddenly occurred to him that the other families seemed to have quite a few beauties as well.

Xiao Xun'er and Xiao Mei from the Xiao Clan, and the Ao Ba Family patriarch's daughter... Once the Jia Lie Family unifies Wutan City, I'll have to demand all those girls.

Monday night, the Jia Lie Family's prized daughter. Tuesday night, Xiao Xun'er. Wednesday night, Xiao Mei. Thursday night, the Ao Ba Family girl. Friday night, those pretty maids. Saturday night...

Who should it be on Saturday night? Liu Xi racked his brains. Suddenly, he remembered that the Xiao Clan apparently had a fair-skinned beauty named Xiao Yu at Jia Lan Academy.

Xiao Yu for Saturday night, then. I'll have her drop out and come back to be my concubine. As for Sunday... I'd better take a day off on Sunday.

I really do know how to balance work and rest. Marveling at himself, Liu Xi stepped into the dark alley. It was a shortcut back to the Jia Lie Family.

In his view, even if that powerful expert from earlier wanted to vent his anger on them, the Jia Lie Family's meat shields would surely have drawn him away long ago. Rather than skulk about, he might as well hurry back and refine the Beast Flame.

Unfortunately, Liu Xi had barely taken two steps into the dark, damp alley when a violent blow struck the back of his head. He lost consciousness on the spot and collapsed limply onto the wet earth.

"Does this guy not watch where he's going? He couldn't even see me standing right beside him?" Xiao Yan stared in exasperation at Liu Xi, blood streaming from the back of his head. He had been standing right there in the alley, yet Liu Xi had simply walked straight past him.

Seriously, he doesn't watch where he's going? What on earth was he thinking about?

Yao Lao emerged from the black ring and looked at the corpse on the ground, rather speechless himself. He had intended to use this ambush as a chance to give Xiao Yan some proper combat training. He had never expected this alchemist to be so feeble despite also being a Dou Zhe.

"We should find a chance to train in the Magical Beast Forest. A small city might not have any Dou Zhe good enough to spar with you, and choosing a Dou Shi would draw too much attention," Yao Chen said helplessly.

"All right." Xiao Yan nodded. He was genuinely curious about where his current abilities stood.

Taking a pair of gloves from his storage ring and putting them on, Xiao Yan searched Liu Xi's corpse. He soon found a poorly made storage ring. Once Yao Lao easily erased the lingering soul power on it, a small space of half a cubic meter appeared before them.

Liu Xi's storage ring did not contain much: a few fairly rare medicinal ingredients, several low-grade cultivation methods, three pill formulas Xiao Yan thought little of, and two jade boxes. One held the Divine Crow Flame they had bought at the auction, while the other actually contained the Foundation Establishment Spirit Liquid formula Xiao Yan had sold earlier.

After all its twists and turns, it had still found its way back into his hands.

Come to think of it, if the Jia Lie Family had not hired this alchemist, they would never have thought to buy a pill formula. If they had not bought a formula clearly beyond a First-Rank Alchemist's capabilities, they would never have thought to buy a Beast Flame to improve his abilities, and Xiao Yan would never have happened upon them.

Fate really did make fools of people...

Xiao Yan took out a Xiao Clan crest and tossed it onto the ground. Then he lifted Liu Xi's arm, dipped the dead man's finger in his still-warm blood, and wrote "Aoba" on the ground.

The frame-up was complete. Now it looked as though the Ao Ba Family had done the deed and tried to pin it on the Xiao Clan, only for Liu Xi to write their name before breathing his last.

"A real little criminal genius," Yao Chen quipped.

"Hehe." Xiao Yan put away Liu Xi's storage ring and slowly vanished into the night.