Finding a Shill

Xiao Mo blinked. Seeing the young woman's evasive expression, he immediately realized something was fishy.

At that thought, he swiftly pulled back the pill he had been about to hand over.

"Miss, if that's the case, then this won't do."

Their conversation had already drawn a crowd of onlookers.

As soon as they heard his words, someone in the crowd began stirring up trouble.

"See? I told you it wouldn't work! The Xiao Clan has fallen completely into decline. They can't sell their medicine, so they want to give it away to build a reputation, but they won't even guarantee there's nothing wrong with it."

"I advise all of you not to buy anything from them. Every last one of them must have a heart black as coal. There's bound to be something wrong with everything they sell."

Those words immediately whipped up the crowd, and quite a few people began chiming in.

His eyes flickered. He had already seen through their routine.

His gaze swept across the crowd's faces before quickly settling on the man who had first started heckling.

The man secretly exchanged a meaningful glance with the woman, then lifted his head slightly to look toward the Jia Lie Family Market.

Xiao Mo clearly spotted a figure hiding by the entrance.

Seemingly noticing his gaze, the figure swiftly slipped inside and vanished without a trace.

"Tsk, tsk. Interesting."

It seemed these two had been sent by the people across the way specifically to make him look bad.

He had experienced plenty of this in his previous life. He had nearly ruined his shop just trying to sell a few things. His rivals' schemes and false accusations had cost him more than half his customers.

Now that he faced the same situation, he certainly wouldn't fall into the trap again.

With that, he drew a knife and slashed his own arm.

The sudden spray of blood startled everyone around him, and they all hastily stepped back half a pace.

"I know him! He's Xiao Mo, a disciple of the Xiao Clan. Is he going crazy? Get out of the way before he stabs you!"

The crowd immediately scattered backward.

But they shared the same roots, after all. Even though he had moved to the Douluo Continent, these people had the same habits as those from his previous life.

They loved watching a spectacle.

Although they had backed away, they still lingered around to watch the show, as though utterly oblivious to the danger.

He was speechless. Wherever he went, why couldn't people shake this love of watching a spectacle that was carved into their very bones?

After cutting himself, he quickly put the knife away.

Then he took out a pill, broke off a little piece, and popped it into his mouth.

"See for yourselves. How's the effect?"

With that, he swallowed it.

The very next second, the wound on his arm healed at a speed visible to the naked eye.

An uproar instantly swept through the crowd.

Even the fellow hiding behind the Jia Lie Family Market looked shocked. Abandoning his concealment, he quickly poked his head out to look their way.

Xiao Mo raised his arm and waved it before the crowd.

"If you don't believe me, come feel it. See whether I'm playing a trick on you or whether my arm really has healed."

Someone soon stepped forward and touched his arm, and their eyes immediately lit up.

"Damn, his arm really has healed!"

At those words, a keen gleam immediately appeared in many people's eyes.

Even rejuvenation powder wasn't a miracle medicine that could regrow skin. How could it possibly restore his arm in an instant?

That left only one possibility: this medicine was extremely potent, far stronger even than the rejuvenation powder the Xiao Clan had originally sold.

"May I try it?"

Someone suddenly spoke from within the crowd, and a woman wearing a gauzy veil stepped before him.

The sight of her finally let him breathe a sigh of relief.

He could tell from her figure alone that she was Xiao Xun'er.

Xiao Xun'er wore a thin veil over her face and had changed into dark blue clothes. Nothing about her appearance revealed that she was a Dou Zhe.

She gently extended her arm toward him.

"Could you let me try it too?"

He immediately nodded. In the distance, Xiao Yan rushed over, his face drenched in sweat, and quickly crouched beside him.

Xiao Mo took out the knife and paused. If he made this cut, would the brotherly bond between them start to fray?

After all, this was his brother's woman. He really couldn't bring himself to cut her.

After a moment's thought, he simply handed the knife to Xiao Yan beside him.

"You two are close, so do it yourself. I'm afraid Xiao Xun'er will come back and kill me if I hurt her."

When it was time to back down, he had to back down. Above all, he absolutely couldn't offend the protagonist.

He shrank back a little. Looking at that lotus-white arm, Xiao Yan hesitated for a long time too, unable to bring himself to cut it.

If he left a scar on Xiao Xun'er's arm, his sin would be grave indeed.

As the two kept hesitating, neither able to make the cut, the onlookers began growing impatient.

"Damn, neither of them dares to cut her! They must have secretly rigged that earlier trick. There's no way that pill has such powerful healing properties."

"Exactly! I say they're both frauds, out to swindle honest people like us. Hurry up and beat these frauds to death!"

The crowd began heckling again.

Seeing their indecision, Xiao Xun'er shot them a fierce glare, snatched the knife from Xiao Yan's hand, and slashed her own arm.

The cut was a full ten centimeters long, and blood instantly flowed all over her arm.

Xiao Yan panicked. He nearly blurted out Xiao Xun'er's name, but the sharp-eyed, quick-handed Xiao Mo clapped a hand over his mouth.

"Don't say anything."

With that, he hurriedly took out a pill and handed it to Xiao Xun'er.

Although he estimated that half a pill would be enough, she was Xiao Yan's sweetheart, after all. If a scar really remained, Xiao Yan would blame him for the rest of his life.

Once she swallowed the pill, the wound soon stopped bleeding.

Xiao Xun'er took a clean white cloth from her pocket and wiped the blood from her arm.

The next second, her perfectly unblemished arm was revealed to everyone.

The contrast between the hideous wound moments before and her now smooth, fair arm instantly left every heckler rooted to the spot, dumbstruck.

Not one of them uttered another word.

Xiao Xun'er picked up the brush from the table and promptly wrote down a false name and false information.

Then she took a pill from the two men's pockets.

"There, I've left you my information. Consider the one I just swallowed your reward. I'll be taking this one."

With that, she slipped through the crowd and soon vanished from everyone's sight.