Sneaking over to Ah Yin's side

Flender lowered his hand, lazily closed his eyes again, and said unhurriedly, "If you want to buy it, pay up. If not, please leave."

"Then how much is this dagger?"

Ye Qiu waved the dagger in his hand.

Flender didn't even lift an eyelid.

"One hundred and fifty Gold Soul Coins."

Ye Qiu continued, "Can't you make it a little cheaper? If you do, I'll take it."

"Pay if you're buying. If not, leave."

Flender remained unmoved and waved his hand leisurely.

"All right, one hundred and fifty it is!"

Ye Qiu nodded,

then quickly turned around and hung the item in his hand back on the nail by the door.

"Wait..."

Eyes still closed, Flender called out to Ye Qiu in an offhand manner. He held up three fingers and raised the price on the spot. "Sorry, the dagger costs three hundred Gold Soul Coins now."

"Fine, three hundred it is."

Ye Qiu smiled and casually tossed Flender a money pouch.

Then he turned and stepped out of the shop.

"Hm?"

Flender reflexively raised a hand to catch the pouch and was visibly stunned. He hadn't expected Ye Qiu to agree so readily.

But soon,

he realized something was wrong.

The pouch in his hand was clearly nowhere near heavy enough to hold three hundred Gold Soul Coins. It didn't even contain a hundred and fifty; it felt more like fifty!

Flender quickly opened his eyes and saw that what hung on the nail by the door

was a dagger!

Two hundred minus one hundred and fifty came to exactly fifty Gold Soul Coins!

"Heh..."

Clutching the pouch containing fifty Gold Soul Coins, Flender couldn't help laughing in anger.

"What nerve!"

"You actually dared to swindle me, Four-Eyed Cat Owl Flender!"

"Let's see what you're capable of!"

Before his words had faded,

wings sprang out behind Flender, and he shot out of the shop like a cannonball. He stood in the street and looked both ways... but there was no sign of Ye Qiu at all.

"Hm?"

Flender frowned, beat his wings, and quickly rose into the air.

But even looking down from above, his eagle eyes couldn't spot Ye Qiu on any of the surrounding streets.

How strange. Could I have misjudged him? Is that fellow actually an old geezer?

Flender muttered inwardly.

But as he looked at the fifty Gold Soul Coins in his hand, the more he thought about it, the angrier he got. He immediately began circling above the shop, searching the area...

He refused to believe a whole person could just vanish into thin air.

"..."

The facts were just as Flender had expected.

Ye Qiu had vanished into thin air.

It was thanks to Flender's reluctance to spend money that he had opened his shop in a relatively quiet, out-of-the-way place. Otherwise, Ye Qiu wouldn't have been able to disappear so completely unnoticed.

At that very moment,

Ye Qiu had already appeared in Nuoding City.

He had no interest whatsoever in the Dragon Whisker Needles inside the Plate Crystal. He simply didn't want Tang San to get them, so he had bought the crystal and stuffed it straight into the Crystal Love.

For now, he couldn't return to Suotuo City,

so Ye Qiu planned to start from Nuoding City and make his way toward Holy Soul Village.

Traveling through the Soul Master World was only to save time.

He was making his way to the vicinity of Holy Soul Village ahead of time for the same reason...

He would have to make the trip sooner or later anyway.

As for Suotuo City, there was no hurry; he could return that night. That was also when the Great Soul Arena was at its liveliest.

Peach Blossom Village lay southwest of Nuoding City.

Holy Soul Village, where Tang San lived, was due south of the city.

Nuoding City itself sat at the three-way junction of the two great empires and the Star Dou Great Forest. The forest lay south of the city, which meant... Holy Soul Village actually wasn't very far from it.

Ye Qiu reckoned

this was also an important reason Tang Hao had chosen Holy Soul Village as his hiding place.

The three-way junction was already a place where fish and dragons mingled,

not to mention that one side was a lawless zone like the Star Dou Great Forest.

If people from Spirit Hall ever did come to kill him, Tang Hao could take Tang San into the Star Dou Great Forest as quickly as possible to lie low.

Perhaps he had learned a lesson from Ah Yin's sacrifice.

If only he had been as cautious back then as he was now,

how could Ah Yin, a Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor who could command countless Blue Silver Grass and other plants to serve her, have been reduced to a burden?

They could have hidden in the Star Dou Great Forest, kept their heads down for a few years, then come back out...

By then, Spirit Hall might already have been in turmoil.

They could have quietly returned to the Clear Sky Sect with their child.

After all, without Ah Yin's sacrifice, Bibi Dong couldn't have killed Qian Xunji so easily and begun the Rakshasa Nine Trials.

Unfortunately... there were no ifs.

Besides, as her husband, Tang Hao ought to have understood his wife Ah Yin's abilities.

But none of that was Ye Qiu's concern.

One way or another, he was determined to claim both the Blue Silver Emperor and the Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone!

Even though he already had a Sage Body capable of regenerating severed limbs and could already fly, making the Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone completely useless to him, no matter what, even if it were only a Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone, he would never leave it to Tang San...

Before long,

Ye Qiu had arrived near Holy Soul Village.

There was still half an hour until dusk, and nightfall was even further away...

Rather than approach Holy Soul Village rashly, Ye Qiu went around it and made his way south, feeling his way toward the Star Dou Great Forest.

He didn't know exactly where Tang Hao had placed Ah Yin,

but in Ye Qiu's view,

since Tang Hao had chosen the Star Dou Great Forest as his escape route, Ah Yin would surely be somewhere along the path he had to take to retreat.

That was, in the direction of the Star Dou Great Forest.

On top of that, Ye Qiu knew the cave where Ah Yin was kept was concealed by a waterfall...

With that,

Ye Qiu had narrowed down Ah Yin's actual location as much as he could!

A waterfall required a river and hills to form, and terrain like that was uncommon.

Ye Qiu believed

that as long as he searched along the river, he would find it before long.

"..."

When it came to doing bad things, Ye Qiu was tireless.

He kept searching until night fell before finally stopping.

"..."