"Is the choice that hard?"
Peng Sisi spoke lightly as she pulled a cigarette from her pocket and lit it.
Duan Ming hadn't expected this woman to smoke too.
"Is that what Meng Jie wants, or what you want?"
"That's not important." Peng Sisi exhaled a puff of smoke. "What matters is your choice."
"If that's how you plan to invite me, then I refuse."
Duan Ming turned his gaze back to the lake.
He was a little lustful.
That was only natural for a man, after all.
If he weren't lustful, wouldn't there be a problem carrying on the family line?
But the education he had received since childhood wouldn't allow him to do something like that.
Okay, to be honest, he had hesitated a little at first.
But in the end, he had still chosen to refuse.
After all, he was no saint.
He had never considered himself an upright gentleman, either.
On top of that, the woman was drop-dead gorgeous.
But something like that really was out of the question.
"What, do you think I'm that kind of woman?" Peng Sisi looked at Duan Ming with a perfectly serious expression.
"Not really." Duan Ming didn't know how to respond.
Rumble-!
Dark clouds filled the sky, and a thunderclap rang out over Jiang City.
"Is it going to rain?" Peng Sisi looked up and pressed the convertible roof switch.
Whoosh-!
Rain poured down in torrents, soybean-sized drops soaking Jiang City in an instant.
White mist hung over the lake. People still out rowing in the middle paddled back for all they were worth, cursing as they went. "This damn weather! One little fart and it starts raining this hard."
"I won't join the Heaven and Earth Society, or the Demon-Slaying Alliance either. At least, not for now."
"All right, then. It seems you really have no intention of joining, but I hope you'll change your mind someday." Peng Sisi started the car. "Where are you going? I'll give you a ride. Even if you don't join the Heaven and Earth Society, we can still be friends, right?"
"Take me to the black market. I need to buy something."
"Sure."
Peng Sisi naturally knew where the black market was.
Along the way, she was the one who began paying attention to Duan Ming in the passenger seat.
She had the feeling that this young man was no ordinary person.
She felt her first impression had been right: this young man didn't like groups and preferred to go his own way.
The strength Duan Ming had displayed lately was simply too astonishing.
Leaving Qi aside and considering his fighting skills alone, she doubted any of the fourth-year students could match him.
The black market was located in Jiang City's old district.
There were people here day and night, mainly selling stolen goods.
Besides those, there were also the bodies of monsters.
The bodies of some monsters had considerable medicinal value.
Other monsters had their bones made into ornaments after they died.
Prices varied according to how rare the monster was.
Some ornaments made from monster bones could even sell for over a million.
Where there was demand, there was a market. Nearly every city had a black market like this one.
The relevant authorities turned a blind eye to it. As long as there was no danger, they tacitly permitted these under-the-table transactions.
After wandering around the black market, Duan Ming still hadn't found a suitable blade.
"You want to buy a blade?" Peng Sisi hadn't left, instead continuing to wander around the black market with Duan Ming.
"Yeah."
"But your Power of God is a blade. There shouldn't be a better weapon than that one." Peng Sisi didn't quite understand what Duan Ming was doing.
"But the problem is, I can't use my Power of God whenever I want."
"What, is the activation condition difficult?"
"The activation condition isn't difficult. The problem is the restriction. Once I use that blade, I have to take a life, or it'll take mine instead." Duan Ming's gaze lingered on a stall. "I just don't know whether an ordinary animal's life counts."
"What's this?" Duan Ming picked up a pitch-black, toothlike object from the stall.
"A Snake-Tiger Beast's tooth." A masked man wearing a hat slowly raised his head behind the stall. "It's very useful. Want to buy one?"
"A Snake-Tiger Beast?"
Duan Ming was curious how this guy had gotten his hands on the tooth of such a powerful monster.
But not asking where an item came from was a rule of the black market.
This was no ordinary monster. It could easily destroy a building several stories high; even Du Qinggang would probably have a hard time against one.
"It doesn't look fake. This would make a good protective charm. Wear it, and ordinary monsters won't dare come close once they smell its aura."
"You seem to know your stuff, miss." A gloomy voice came from the man's throat.
"How much?"
After hearing Peng Sisi, Duan Ming decided to buy it for his third uncle.
Although it couldn't ward off stronger monsters, it would still work against ordinary ones.
"This much!" The man held up one hand.
Duan Ming knew it definitely wasn't five thousand. This thing couldn't be that cheap.
So it was fifty thousand!
Although his pockets were fairly full after he received the eighty-thousand-yuan bounty, spending fifty thousand in one go was a bit much for him.
"Fifty thousand is far too expensive. An ordinary adult Snake-Tiger Beast has sixty teeth. If you sell one for fifty thousand, wouldn't the teeth alone fetch three million?"
Peng Sisi's words made the middle-aged man hesitate.
"Looks like you really are an expert, miss. All right, I'll count this as my first sale of the day. Twenty thousand, and I can't go any lower!"
"All right, twenty thousand it is."
Duan Ming agreed at once.
A single tooth was as long as a face.
He could imagine how big that Snake-Tiger Beast must have been.
But hanging such a long tooth around the neck seemed a little inconvenient.
It looked like he would have to have it worked into a pendant.
After leaving the black market, the two returned to the car.
The whole city was dark and gloomy, as though it were evening.
"You can head back first. I'm going to have this thing worked on."
"What, are you trying to get rid of me?" Peng Sisi said as she started the car. "I've been wandering around with you all morning, and I haven't eaten yet. Aren't you going to treat me to a meal?"
"Then let's go to a restaurant nearby."
"Let's go to the new district. I'll take you to an upscale restaurant."
Duan Ming paused. Why did he feel like he was about to be fleeced?
"Don't worry, it's my treat," Peng Sisi said with a smile.
"I said I'd treat you."
When the car reached an old street, Peng Sisi suddenly stopped and looked at Duan Ming. "Do you hear something?"
"Do I?"
Duan Ming shook his head. He had been thinking about something just now and hadn't paid any attention to the sounds outside.
Peng Sisi rolled down the window and stuck her head out to look.
Faint screams could be heard.
"I hear it now."
"Come on, let's take a look."
Peng Sisi hurriedly pulled open the car door.
It was clear she had a strong sense of responsibility.
After pulling out the car key, Duan Ming also hurriedly opened the door and followed her.
Rows of old buildings stood nearby, looking as though they dated back to the last century.
They rushed into an alley, and after several turns, Peng Sisi and Duan Ming stopped at the same time.
Ahead, at a corner, a two-meter-tall figure was slowly dragging a corpse along the ground.
The monster's skin was black all over, and it had a humanoid shape. Its two huge arms were very long. An ordinary person's hands reached their thighs, but this monster's hands dragged all the way down to its ankles.
"It's a kid!" Peng Sisi's pupils abruptly contracted.
"A kid?"
Duan Ming looked at Peng Sisi, then at the back of the monster, which stood over two meters tall.
You fucking call that a kid?!