"Leader!"
Closing the door behind him, Wang Hao assumed a dull-witted expression and looked at Leader Zhao. That was how the body's previous owner had always acted.
After all, he had possessed this body and still had to spend some time in the assassin organization. Naturally, he couldn't act too differently from before, or at least couldn't be too conspicuous about it in the short term.
"Is it urgent?"
When Wang Hao arrived, Leader Zhao's expression turned solemn, and he asked in a deep voice.
"Not especially!"
Recalling the previous owner's memories of Leader Zhao, Wang Hao immediately understood why he had asked and gave him a measured answer.
At the same time, Wang Hao's stomach rumbled right on cue, announcing his hunger.
Leader Zhao was taken aback by the thunderous sound, then burst out laughing. "Haha... if it's not urgent, we can talk later. Eat first. My treat tonight. A Lan, go keep this brother of mine company. With a build like his, he'll make tonight unforgettable for you!"
Leader Zhao breathed a sigh of relief and resumed his carefree manner. As he spoke, he pushed a woman in green out of his arms and toward Wang Hao.
Following the previous owner's habits, Wang Hao sat down on a stool without a word, grabbed a pair of chopsticks, and dug into the dishes on the table.
He hadn't eaten for two whole days, and his life-and-death battle with the deputy leader had consumed a great deal of his strength. He had long been on the verge of collapsing from hunger.
A Lan, the woman in green whom Leader Zhao had pushed over, had intended to drink with Wang Hao. But to her surprise, he had eyes only for the food and wine on the table. He ignored her completely, not even giving her a proper look.
She held a cup of wine, unsure whether to drink it or not, and felt terribly awkward!
"Xiao San, tell me honestly. Do you dislike women and prefer men instead?"
Across the table, Leader Zhao raised an eyebrow at the sight and studied Wang Hao with a strange expression.
At those words, the expressions of both A Lan and the other woman in the room changed.
In their line of work, they naturally knew that some customers had extremely abnormal, perverse sexual preferences, liking men rather than women. Such people had been called Lords Longyang since ancient times.
And in their experience, the stronger a customer was, the more likely he was to have such tendencies. This fellow was exceptionally burly.
Perhaps he really was a Lord Longyang!
At the thought, A Lan unconsciously shifted to the side, a trace of barely concealed disgust in the depths of her eyes.
She didn't want to accompany a perverted customer like that tonight!
Leader Zhao's question caught Wang Hao off guard, and he nearly sprayed the food from his mouth. After finally managing to swallow, he glanced sideways at A Lan and said, "I don't like women with small breasts."
He was a thoroughly practical man with extremely strict standards for women's looks. In his mind, a woman's bosom came first, her figure second, and her face third.
After all, on Earth before he transmigrated, there had been the utterly unreasonable skill of makeup, which could turn even a man into a beauty. Douyin had been full of cross-dressing masters, and several of them had nearly turned him gay.
Besides, once the lights were out at night, there was hardly any difference between a beautiful face and an ugly one. They were all the same.
That was why he had relegated looks to third place!
Compared with a face that could be devilishly transformed, a figure was much more real. Whether by day or night, by sight or touch, it could be appreciated, so it deserved its place in second.
As for the bosom, that was extremely important. Not only could it offer enjoyment to the eyes and hands, it could also save a huge sum on milk powder for future children.
Premium milk powder was quite expensive, after all. Whether he could avoid that enormous expense in the future depended on the size of his partner's bosom.
With implications so far-reaching, there was nothing wrong with ranking it first!
Of course, Wang Hao also admitted that he was a creature who appreciated beauty and still placed great importance on a woman's face.
But after meeting top beauties like You Lian and Dongfang Bai, who had everything one could want in a bosom, figure, and face, he found A Lan and the other beauty much more ordinary.
Though the two women were quite pretty, they fell far short of top beauties like You Lian and Dongfang Bai, so naturally he couldn't muster any interest in them.
Besides, I, Lord Hao, am starving to death right now. How could I be in the mood to pay you any attention?
Wang Hao's assessment that her breasts were small made A Lan's pretty face darken, and her eyes nearly spat fire. Had she not been mindful that he was one of Leader Zhao's men, she would have kicked him.
My assets might not be substantial, but they aren't bad either, all right?
"How are they small... all right, I suppose they really are small to you!"
Leader Zhao was stunned. He had measured them with his own hands, and one hand could barely contain them. But after seeing Wang Hao's truly palm-leaf-fan-sized hands, his face twitched, and he could only agree with Wang Hao's assessment.
It couldn't be helped. One of Wang Hao's hands was as big as two of his, so what he could barely grasp in one hand really was nothing much to Wang Hao.
The man was telling the honest truth. There was nothing wrong with that!
"A Lan, come back and keep me company instead!"
Seeing A Lan sitting there in such embarrassment, Leader Zhao felt sorry for her and called her back.
Relieved, A Lan hurriedly returned to Leader Zhao's side. That had been far too awkward.
Even so, the atmosphere in the room grew considerably more subdued.
Wang Hao didn't care. He simply continued gorging himself on the food and wine, while secretly using the force-circulation technique he had known in his previous life in the Primordial World to speed up his digestion and absorption.
It was a little trick everyone in the Nine Li Tribe knew, one that maximized the speed at which they digested and absorbed food, allowing them to eat more.
After all, the Nine Li Tribe cultivated bloodline power, which represented "essence," and had a tremendous need for food. The more they ate, the more nutrients and energy they could obtain, thereby speeding up the cultivation of their bloodline power.
Of course, it was only a little trick by the standards of the Primordial World. In a low-martial world like the Smiling, Proud Wanderer, it was an extraordinary Secret Method.
With the Secret Method in operation, Wang Hao ate ten times as much as usual. The table had been replenished with food and wine nearly ten times.
"Ah, that hit the spot!"
Having once again polished off a table full of food and wine, Wang Hao patted his bulging belly, which looked as though he were ten months pregnant. He was thoroughly content and in excellent spirits.
"Are you full?"
Leader Zhao, sitting across from him, looked rather unhappy. Food and wine at the House of Red Delights weren't cheap. Although he had a modest fortune, ten tables of fine food and wine at once were more than he could comfortably afford.
Just like that, thirty percent of his wealth was gone.
How could he possibly look happy?
But he had already announced that the meal was on him, so he couldn't go back on his word.
There was nothing for it. He had chosen this road himself, and he would have to see it through even if he had to crawl on his knees!
"About ninety percent full!"
Patting his big belly, Wang Hao answered truthfully.
"Hiss!"
A Lan and the other woman, who were just as dumbstruck, couldn't help sucking in a breath of cold air. They had stopped drinking with Leader Zhao after Wang Hao finished the third table, because none of the three were in the mood anymore.
After that, they had stared blankly as Wang Hao wolfed down table after table of food and wine. He had now finished the tenth.
Yet this fellow actually said he was only ninety percent full. Where the hell had he sprung from?
Leader Zhao nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood and felt like cursing his mother.
You spent thirty percent of my entire fortune and you're only ninety percent full? Doesn't that mean I can only afford to feed you three times?
How did I never notice you could eat so much before?
Or perhaps the fellow had always held back before, and had only eaten and drunk so shamelessly this time because Leader Zhao was paying.
At that thought, Leader Zhao felt even more aggrieved. How had he ended up with such a super foodie under him?
At the same time, he secretly resolved never to treat the fellow to a meal again.
Even if he did, he would only treat him to the very cheapest steamed buns!
"A Lan, you two go and rest. I have important business to attend to today, so I can't play with you."
Taking a deep breath and suppressing his grievance, Leader Zhao gestured for A Lan and the other woman to leave.
The mark Wang Hao had left on the city gate was the highest-level signal, after all, so something serious must have happened. Matters of this kind weren't suitable for the two women to hear.
"Then please get some rest early too, sir!"
Neither A Lan nor the other woman was stupid. They understood that Leader Zhao didn't want them to hear the conversation that followed, so they tactfully left the room and closed the door behind them.
"Tell me what happened."
Glancing at Wang Hao, who sat there with his big belly sticking out and a blissful look on his face, Leader Zhao forcibly suppressed the urge to beat him up and asked in a deep voice.
At the mention of business, Wang Hao's expression also turned solemn. "Dongfang Bubai of the Sun Moon Holy Cult came to attack us the night before last. He slaughtered the entire stronghold alone with his sword. Only the deputy leader and I survived. Afterward, the deputy leader tried to kill me to silence me over this treasured sword and a pill, but I killed him instead."
With that, Wang Hao took out the Ziwei Sword, concealed in its ragged hemp wrapping, and pushed it in front of Leader Zhao.
He had worked out this story over the past two days. It was nine parts truth and one part lie. In any case, the deputy leader was already dead, so even if Leader Zhao investigated afterward, he wouldn't find anything.
He intended to claim the Great Rejuvenation Pill for himself. That way, he would have a good explanation when he used the system to rapidly improve his strength later.
After all, the Great Rejuvenation Pill was a sacred medicine of the martial world, capable of cleansing the sinews and purging the marrow. It wouldn't be too much for it to transform someone like him, whose aptitude had originally been abysmal, into a cultivation genius.
As for the Ziwei Sword, he wasn't worried that Leader Zhao would pocket it. For one thing, it was a soft sword, the hardest kind to control, and the slightest mistake could cause its wielder to injure himself.
Even the Sword Demon Dugu Qiubai, the Crape Myrtle Soft Sword's first owner, had failed to master it completely, giving rise to the words, "Having accidentally injured a righteous man, I cast it into a deep valley."
Second, in an outsider's eyes, the Ziwei Soft Sword was merely exceptionally sharp. They would be completely unable to sense the trace of spirituality nurtured within it, and could not understand the divine sword's true value.
With that being the case, there was naturally no need to fear that someone would pocket it.
He was certain that this was Dugu Qiubai's Ziwei Soft Sword because the two ancient characters for "Ziwei" were engraved on its hilt, the blade was a purple soft sword, and Dongfang Bai was Dugu Qiubai's disciple.
With all those clues together, if Wang Hao still couldn't guess the divine sword's true origins, he didn't deserve to call himself a fan of Old Master Jin.
"Dongfang Bubai? Why did he come after us?"
Leader Zhao frowned, then took the Ziwei Soft Sword and drew it. At once, a faint purple glow suffused the entire room. The blade seemed shrouded in a purple halo, and its edge gave off an utterly peerless keenness.
"What a sword!"
At the sight of the Ziwei Soft Sword's blade, Leader Zhao's eyes lit up. His heart burned with desire, and even a trace of greed arose in him.
He was a swordsman himself, after all, and naturally yearned for a fine sword. Now that an unparalleled treasured sword lay before him, how could he let it pass him by?
"Swish, swish, swish..."
Acting on impulse, Leader Zhao naturally wanted to test the divine sword he had obtained. He launched into a sword routine, but had only reached the second move when his expression changed drastically. He flung it away as though bitten by a snake.