Half for Whoever Shows Up

"Ah!!!!!"

Lin Qingyang screamed wildly, scrambling toward the other side of the pool on his hands and feet.

"What happened? What happened!" Lin Yao flew out of the water, only to see the snake and start screaming along with Lin Qingyang.

The man and the sword huddled in a corner of the pool, staring in terror at the python as thick as a thigh.

"What are you screaming for? You're a sword. Go chop him up!" Lin Qingyang said speechlessly to the Windflower Sword hiding behind him.

"No way! It's disgusting!" Lin Yao said in revulsion.

"Your sword is still just as rude!" a sinister voice rang out.

Lin Qingyang froze for a moment before confirming that the voice had come from the python opposite him. He looked into its glowing red eyes.

"Chimei?" Lin Qingyang asked.

"It's me!" The python opposite him flicked its tongue.

Lin Qingyang was rather speechless. Chimei had probably deliberately chosen a Red-Patterned Python this time because he had been mocked for being small last time. But this way of making an entrance really made Lin Qingyang want to curse.

"Look, coming to see me in broad daylight-if someone spots you, I'll be in serious trouble!" Lin Qingyang said helplessly.

"This is all your fault! What have you been doing? I told you to kill him! Kill him! Do you not understand those words? What do you mean by saving him again?" Chimei demanded discontentedly.

Lin Qingyang looked unconcerned. "He was locked up in the Forbidden Abyss with guards watching him all the time. When would I have had a chance to act? Obviously, getting him close to me gives me more room to maneuver!"

Chimei sounded dubious. "Then now that he's in your hands, you can kill him, can't you?"

"Come on, man. I belong to a respectable orthodox sect, and I still have to get promoted to sect leader someday. How can I just go around killing people?" Lin Qingyang said.

"Then can't you arrange some little accident to kill him?" Chimei said, holding back his anger.

"I only got them to hand him over yesterday by making a military pledge in front of everyone. If something happened to him in my hands right afterward, I'd have a hard time explaining it!" Lin Qingyang replied.

"Not this, not that. Don't tell me you don't want to kill him?" Chimei said darkly.

Lin Qingyang looked at him and smiled. "What's the rush? I never said I wouldn't kill him!"

"Then get on with it!" Chimei said through gritted teeth.

"I already told you, I can't do it myself." Lin Qingyang paused before continuing.

"The best way now is for me to find a chance to take him out, and then you kill him. That way, you achieve your goal, and I'll have an explanation when I return to the Nine Skies Sect."

"Why should I help you? Under the terms we agreed on, this was your job in the first place!" Chimei was deeply unhappy with the last-minute change of plan.

"Forget it if you don't want to! Worst comes to worst, I'll just keep feeding Qi Mo," Lin Qingyang said.

"You're going back on your word!" Chimei snapped, his entire snake body suddenly surging close to Lin Qingyang as he glared at him furiously.

"Yes. So what?" Lin Qingyang chuckled, paying no heed whatsoever to the other's anger.

"Aren't you afraid I'll tell them you poisoned the sect leader?" Chimei threatened.

"How will you tell them? Slither up to them like this and talk? Guess whether they'll believe me or a talking snake," Lin Qingyang said disdainfully. "Besides, this is the Nine Skies Sect. I reckon you'd be cut down the moment you uttered your first word!"

Chimei fell silent. Based on what he had observed over the past few days, he fully believed that with Lin Qingyang's glib tongue, he could talk even the truth into a lie.

After a long while, Chimei finally said reluctantly, "Greenstone Mountain, the day after tomorrow. You'd better not play any more tricks, you cunning human!"

With that, a red light flashed, and the python that had been rearing in midair suddenly crashed into the water, splashing Lin Qingyang in the face.

Lin Qingyang wiped his face in distaste. Looking at the lifeless python corpse in the pool, he lost all desire to keep soaking and simply climbed out to get dressed.

"I was wondering why you insisted on getting Qi Mo. So you wanted to use him as bait!" Lin Yao said.

"How else would I lure Chimei out?" Lin Qingyang said.

He made it sound easy, but the thought of using Little White-Eyed Wolf as bait still left him feeling somewhat guilty. Since his spiritual power had yet to recover, Lin Qingyang had no choice but to walk back slowly. Lin Yao had also gone dormant again because his spiritual power was too weak.

Lin Qingyang wandered through the woods alone. Before he had gone far, he spotted someone crouching by the river, a large tail swaying gently behind him. Wasn't that Little White-Eyed Wolf?

Lin Qingyang approached with lighter steps, but Qi Mo detected him as soon as he drew near and whipped his head around to stare at him warily. Seeing that it was Lin Qingyang, he looked flustered and hurriedly hid his hands behind his back.

"Little White-Eyed Wolf, what mischief are you hiding out here getting up to?" Lin Qingyang asked, raising an eyebrow.

Qi Mo said nothing. Lin Qingyang glanced at the chicken feathers and bloodstains on the ground and said helplessly, "Stop hiding it. I've already seen."

Only then did Qi Mo bring out the half-plucked pheasant from behind his back, though his eyes held a guilty look, and he did not dare look at Lin Qingyang.

"Didn't Feng Shu give you anything to eat?" Lin Qingyang asked.

"He did," Qi Mo replied. By the standard for demon slaves, he received two steamed buns a day-not enough to fill him, but enough to keep him from starving to death. In the past, he had occasionally sneaked up the mountain to catch something to eat. Once, people from Ink Cloud Hall had caught him and nearly broken his legs. Demon slaves were forbidden from hunting without permission. At the thought, Qi Mo's heart sank.

But instead, Lin Qingyang asked, "Your hands healed, so you came running out to catch a chicken?"

Qi Mo froze briefly before saying, "They're fine now."

Lin Qingyang stepped forward to examine the pheasant. Its multicolored plumage was rather unusual. "Pretty plump, too. There are mushrooms under that tree over there. We can pick some to take back and stew with it."

Qi Mo looked at him in astonishment, but Lin Qingyang said as though it went without saying, "What are you looking at? Whoever shows up gets half. Were you planning to keep it all to yourself?" The Nine Skies Sect's food had always been light and bland, and Lin Qingyang had long been thinking of making something extra for himself.

"Stop standing there. Hurry up and clean the chicken," Lin Qingyang urged.

Still looking utterly bewildered, Qi Mo cleaned the chicken under Lin Qingyang's directions. Lin Qingyang did not sit idle either, picking a sizable pile of mushrooms and setting them on the ground. Qi Mo came over to inspect them, glanced at Lin Qingyang, then silently picked out the poisonous mushrooms and threw them away. Only then did he gather the rest in his clothes and follow Lin Qingyang back to the Clear Wind Pavilion's kitchen.

Looking at the primitive stove in the kitchen, Lin Qingyang found himself at a loss. Normally, all he knew how to cook was instant noodles. How was he supposed to use this thing? Beside him, Qi Mo had already deftly brought in dry grass from outside and stuffed it into the firebox. He lit it, added firewood, chopped the chicken into small pieces and stir-fried it with the mushrooms, then added water to let it stew.

Seeing this, Lin Qingyang simply sat down at the little table to the side and poured himself a cup of tea. "You can cook, too?"

"I helped out in the kitchen before," Qi Mo said as he fed more firewood into the stove.

"How old are you?" Lin Qingyang asked.

No one had asked him that in a long time. Qi Mo paused before saying, "Seventeen."

"How long have you been at the Nine Skies Sect?" Lin Qingyang continued chatting.

"Almost three years," Qi Mo answered.

"Did you have any enemies before?" Lin Qingyang asked.

"No," Qi Mo said.

"Think some more. Maybe you offended someone, or some demon," Lin Qingyang said. There had to be a reason Chimei was so intent on killing him.

"I was at Jin Yao Workshop the whole time before," Qi Mo said.

Jin Yao Workshop-Lin Qingyang had heard about it from Lin Yao. It was the largest demon slave trading center in this world. As merchandise waiting to be sold, Qi Mo really would not have had much chance to offend anyone. But if he had not offended Chimei himself, could it have been one of his relatives?

"Then do you have any other family?" Lin Qingyang asked again.

Qi Mo's hand paused as he added firewood. The flickering flames reflected in his amber eyes. After a moment of silence, he said, "Not anymore."

For a moment, Lin Qingyang said nothing. Looking at the thin young man before him and thinking of his fate in the book, his heart suddenly felt a little heavy.