Qian Renxue had finally been trained into exactly what he liked

Slaughter City, inner city.

Blue-violet light shrouded the streets, and the air smelled of blood, cheap alcohol, and photinia blossoms.

Qian Renxue crossed the main thoroughfare and headed deeper into the inner city.

After fifty victories, the looks around her had changed.

Before, they had been hunters sizing up prey. Now, they held more wariness.

Yet despite that wariness, some eyes still held something else.

Men vastly outnumbered women in Slaughter City. With her looks, there were always people staring whenever she walked down the street.

Qian Renxue looked straight ahead, keeping her Spiritual Power extended.

A drunk staggered toward her, wearing what he thought was a charming smile as he reached for her shoulder. "Little sister, all alone? Let me take you..."

Qian Renxue turned slightly, slipping clear of his hand as platinum light gathered at her fingertips and traced a sharp arc beneath the streetlights.

The drunk's hand was still outstretched. The next instant, it fell off at the wrist.

"Aah!!"

The scream lasted only a second. Qian Renxue slashed back, cutting open his throat.

The whole thing took less than two breaths.

Qian Renxue withdrew the Angel Blade and looked down at the corpse, her tone flat. "You have already given me cause to kill you."

Cheng Ran said, "...Nice. You've even learned that line."

Almost at once, the watching eyes around her turned away.

A few people even quietly shifted farther from her.

Qian Renxue turned into a narrow alley deep in the inner city.

The entrance was barely wide enough for two people abreast, and dark green moss covered the stone walls on either side.

At the end stood a black iron door, a skull set into it with dark red gems embedded in its eye sockets.

This was Slaughter City's black market, and it was larger than she had imagined.

A long, narrow underground passage stretched in both directions. Ghostly blue torches lined the walls, their dim light leaving every face half-lit and half-shadowed.

Every few paces stood a stone chamber, with all manner of merchants sitting inside and various wares laid out on stone counters.

Soul Bones, weapons, bottles and jars-there were things even Cheng Ran could not identify.

The instant Qian Renxue entered, at least a dozen gazes fell on her at once.

Walking alone, her youthful face, exquisite features, and graceful curves beneath her fitted clothes were all temptations.

But no one made a move.

The black market had its rules. Anyone who attacked here would make an enemy of the entire black market.

Qian Renxue walked down the passage, looking from side to side like a curious child.

Cheng Ran offered occasional comments. "That Soul Bone seller on the left-a Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone? Seven thousand years at most. That sheen on the surface was stained on with blood."

As she passed a stone chamber bearing a sign that read "Ever-Hard Powder in stock today," a scrawny old man revealed a mouthful of yellow teeth. "Young lady, want something good? Satisfaction guaranteed."

"No."

"Don't rush off. I have other good stuff I don't put on display."

He pulled a small dark red bottle from beneath the counter and gave it a mysterious shake. "Rub this on yourself, and any man within a hundred feet who smells it will go into heat. Level seventy or eighty, it doesn't matter. One sniff and he'll be on his knees calling you big sister."

Qian Renxue gave him an expressionless look, then pointed at the Identity Card at her waist. "I have fifty victories."

The old man choked, laughed awkwardly twice, and shrank back. "Oh, you like using force..."

"..." Qian Renxue continued onward.

She had spent six years undercover in the Heaven Dou Empire and was accustomed to the intrigue and deception of the imperial court, but Slaughter City's darkness came in a different form: direct and savage.

She paused as she passed one stone chamber.

A dark red curtain hung over its entrance, not fully drawn, leaving a gap.

"Lord Evil God, what do they sell there?"

Cheng Ran cackled. "Aw, don't get yourself in a rash. That's just a chicken farm. Once a bird gets big enough, it finds all kinds of woods. It's perfectly normal in Slaughter City."

Qian Renxue vaguely understood. The tips of her ears reddened, and she hurried past.

When she reached the second-to-last chamber at the end of the passage, she suddenly stopped.

The chamber was tiny and tucked out of the way. Almost no one stopped there.

A Masked Woman sat inside, with only a dark purple wooden box before her.

The box stood half-open. Inside lay a blood-red medicinal herb shaped like a coiled dragon or snake, its surface covered in fine ice crystals and giving off a faint bloody glow.

Qian Renxue's pupils contracted. "This... this is crystal blood dragon ginseng!"

Cheng Ran's voice rang out in her sea of consciousness. "Hmm? You recognize crystal blood dragon ginseng?"

Qian Renxue spoke very softly. "Lord Evil God, didn't you tell me that you needed three things to reconstruct your body: ten thousand year saint soul grass, crystal blood dragon ginseng, and Sea God's Light?"

She had already done her research back at Spirit Hall, while Lord Evil God was asleep.

Qian Renxue had searched Spirit Hall's treasury catalog then. It contained neither herb.

Spirit Hall's treasury held countless Heavenly Treasures, but these herbs were exceedingly rare. Only a handful of records had appeared over the past thousand years, and those specimens had long since been consumed.

All she could do was silently memorize the illustrated descriptions of the herbs.

Qian Renxue suppressed her surging emotions and approached the stone counter without betraying anything on her face.

The Masked Woman raised her head, studying her through the veil. "You have a good eye, young lady."

"How much?"

"I'm not selling it for Bloody Marys." The Masked Woman shook her head. "I need someone's head."

"Whose?"

"Li Cang, leader of the Blood Hand Gang. A level-eighty Soul Saint. All I want is his life."

Qian Renxue's gaze rested on the crystal blood dragon ginseng. Without a single word of bargaining, she said, "Deal."

Surprise flashed in the Masked Woman's eyes. "Are you sure you can do it? I'll be in the black market for the time being. You can bring Li Cang's head to me whenever you like."

Qian Renxue nodded, turned, and left the chamber.

Only after she had left the black market, passed through the narrow alley, and returned to the Inner City streets did Cheng Ran speak again. "Xiao Xue, do you know anything about Li Cang? A level-eighty Soul Saint with an entire gang behind him, and you dared accept?"

"I don't." Qian Renxue's tone was calm. "But I know that's crystal blood dragon ginseng, something Lord Evil God needs. Since I found it, there's no reason to let it slip away."

If Cheng Ran had possessed a body at that moment, the corners of his mouth would probably have curved into a √.

Qian Renxue had finally been trained into exactly what he liked.

Night fell.

Slaughter City's inner city was even more frenzied than during the day.

Drunken laughter, sounds of fighting, and women's screams filled the streets.

Qian Renxue changed into a neat, fitted white outfit and tied her golden hair into a ponytail.

Her clothes whiter than snow, she walked along the brightly lit Inner City streets like a starkly out-of-place streak of white light.

"Turn left up ahead. The Blood Hand Gang's headquarters is at the very end."

Following Cheng Ran's directions, Qian Renxue passed through two narrow alleys and reached the end of a dead end.

A heavy iron door stood before her, with two guards posted outside.

The guards froze briefly when they saw Qian Renxue, then broke into ill-intentioned smiles. "Little beauty, did you come to the wrong place? This is..."

Qian Renxue did not answer. The Angel Blade condensed in her palm, two streaks of platinum light flashed at once, and two heads hit the ground.

She kicked the iron door open.

Beyond it lay a spacious courtyard where more than thirty desperadoes were drinking and gambling. Everyone froze when the iron door was kicked open and a golden-haired girl in white walked inside.

"Who's there?"

"Which one of you ordered delivery?"