Kill! Loot the Corpse!

Clang-!!!

A saber rang out with a force that could shatter stone and shake the heavens, suddenly echoing through the silent alley!

Dongfang Yueming had drawn his saber!

There had been no warning at all! He was as fast as lightning!

Alarm bells rang wildly in Scorpion's heart! But he remained disdainful! How fast could a Skin Tempering Realm brat possibly draw his saber?! He had even prepared to use his Venomous Snake Dagger Technique, which was on the verge of reaching greater mastery, to strike later but land first and kill his opponent in one blow!

He jerked up the poisoned dagger in his hand, ready to meet the attack!

But he was wrong!

Completely and utterly wrong!

The instant Dongfang Yueming drew his saber, his figure vanished!

Gale Movement Technique-perfection!

He seemed to turn into a streak of light too fast for the naked eye to catch!

Scorpion saw only a blur before his eyes, and his target disappeared from sight in an instant!

An overwhelming sense of danger engulfed him like an icy tide!

Oh no!!

He wanted to retreat! To dodge!

But it was too late!

A cold, swift flash of saber light, like the grim reaper's scythe, had already appeared silently at his neck!

Basic Thirteen Fast Saber Forms-perfection!

Speed! Speed taken to the extreme! A perfect combination of movement and saber techniques!

Scorpion barely had time to see a silver line, so fast it was a blur!

And then...

Puchi!

A faint but fatal sound.

His vision began to spin!

He saw his own neck, blood gushing from it... saw his own headless body... saw Dongfang Yueming's expressionless face as he returned his saber to its sheath...

Terror! Boundless terror! It filled the last of his consciousness in an instant!

He could not understand how a Skin Tempering Realm new student could possibly be... so strong?!

Thud!

His head hit the ground.

The headless corpse swayed, then crashed to the ground.

Blood stained the alley's bluestone paving red.

From drawing the saber to severing the head, the whole process flowed like clouds and water, completed in one smooth motion!

So fast... it took one's breath away!

Looking at the corpse on the ground, its head severed from its body, Dongfang Yueming slowly exhaled a turbid breath, his gaze calm and undisturbed.

Too weak, he judged impassively in his heart.

This so-called Scorpion had reached Lesser Flesh Refining, and his dagger technique had some skill to it, but beneath the crushing force of Dongfang Yueming's perfected movement technique and perfected fast saber technique, he could not withstand a single blow. He was not even qualified to make Dongfang Yueming take him slightly seriously.

He looked down at the long saber in his hand. When he killed Scorpion, it seemed to have briefly and lightly collided with his opponent's poisoned dagger.

Sure enough, an extremely tiny nick had been left in one spot on the blade.

"Alas, this saber... is only the most ordinary E-grade item, after all." Dongfang Yueming shook his head helplessly. "Looks like once I'm better off, I'll have to replace it with a handier, sturdier weapon as soon as possible."

Then his gaze fell on Scorpion's corpse.

According to the "rules" of this world, the spoils naturally belonged to the victor.

Let's loot the corpse and see, he thought. Though he did not hold out much hope for what an outlaw like this might possess, what if he found something unexpected?

For safety's sake, however, he did not touch the corpse directly. Instead, he used the long saber in his hand to carefully lift aside the clothing on Scorpion's chest.

Hiss, hiss!

The instant the clothing was lifted, a small scorpion, pitch-black all over, with an eerie blue poisonous gleam on its stinger, shot out from inside the corpse's clothing. Moving extremely fast, it headed straight for Dongfang Ming's wrist!

"Hmm?" Dongfang Yueming's gaze sharpened, and he reacted even faster!

His wrist flicked, and the saber flashed!

Puchi!

The poisonous scorpion was precisely cleaved in two! Dark green venom splattered onto the ground, sizzling as it corroded the surface.

"So he did have another trick up his sleeve. How insidious." Dongfang Ming snorted coldly, gaining a new understanding of these outlaws' despicable methods.

Only after dealing with the poisonous scorpion did he resume searching the corpse with the tip of his saber.

A moment later, he stopped, somewhat disappointed.

There was little to show for it.

Apart from a dagger smeared with venom and made of fairly good material, which seemed a little better than his E-grade saber, there was only a thin booklet sewn together from special beast hide.

Three characters were scrawled crookedly across the cover-"Venomous Snake Dagger Technique."

"That's it?" Dongfang Ming curled his lip. "This guy... was really poor! He didn't even have anything decent of value."

He picked up the Venomous Snake Dagger Technique booklet with the tip of his saber. It felt slightly sticky in his hand; the surface of the beast hide also seemed to have been coated with some kind of slow-acting corrosive poison. An ordinary person who leafed through it with bare hands would probably be poisoned without realizing it.

Yet when this small amount of poison came into contact with Dongfang Yueming's Jade Skin Realm skin, it was like a clay ox entering the sea, causing no reaction whatsoever. The powerful defense and resistance of the Jade Skin Realm were already enough to grant immunity to most low-level poisons.

He casually leafed through it. The dagger technique emphasized strange, tricky, and vicious moves, seeking to kill in a single blow. It did have some distinctive features.

When he finished reading the entire booklet, the system notification sounded in his mind, and an entry appeared on the panel: [Venomous Snake Dagger Technique (0/1, not yet initiated)].

"Interesting," Dongfang Yueming remarked. "If this dagger technique were trained to perfection and used with a poisoned dagger, it really would pose quite a threat in a sneak attack."

"Unfortunately..." He shook his head. "Compared to my perfected Basic Thirteen Fast Saber Forms, it's still far inferior. Whether in power, speed, or variations, they aren't in the same league."

Since it was of no use to him, keeping it would only leave a hidden danger.

Without hesitation, Dongfang Yueming set fire to the beast-hide booklet containing the Venomous Snake Dagger Technique.

Flames rose, quickly reducing the booklet to ashes.

Once he had done all that, he picked up the poisoned dagger from the ground, hefted it, and casually tucked it into the top of his boot-this thing might come in handy someday.

Then he lingered no longer. He turned and left the bloodstained alley as though nothing had happened.