Archfiend

Chapter 67: An Old Friend

 “Isn’t this too much?” The old man truly became solemn this time. This cultivator Xu was bound to be in a position that surpassed others, or perhaps he was in a place that caused Daomaster Floatingcloud to be wary. The first time he saw this card, it had targeted a traitorous cultivator. Only cultivators that had committed great crimes had the right to be inscribed on this card, yet for the first time, a Qi Condensation cultivator had been listed on it!

“Surprised, aren’t you…” The mystery man’s voice was rough. “I was too. Fifty years ago… Wang Buzhi was on this card because of a Foundation Establishment pill. Vermilion Snow was just on this card because of the Heavens Law’s bloodbath. There have been several thousand lives… and now, for the first time, a Qi Condensation cultivator is on this card.”

“However, this Black Kill Order is for your eyes only. After all, the status of a Core Formation cultivator compared to ours, in the disposal of a Qi Condensation cultivator, is already violating the ‘Cultivation Antitrust Law’. Be on guard… against the Foundation Establishment heavyweights at the Provincial Cultivation Court. Those that come from it are either noble cultivation lineages or from the powers. They are the true elite that the Chinese government has nurtured since childhood. A single one is selected from among ten million people, and there are twenty major law enforcement officials of the High Cultivation Court. And that’s not even mentioning the chief grand justice and the deputy of China’s supreme court… Those two are great Core Formation masters… Even if Master is the nation’s senior, he doesn’t dare to, nor is he capable of, making this public.”

“Except to the Chinese government, none of them will pay respects. Thousandedge, by no means can you do this yourself. If you’re captured by them, the patriarch won’t be able to help you. Your future prospects will end here.” The man reminded once more, “As the Chinese government’s eyes and ears, their gazes have never relaxed in the slightest on the cultivation world…” He sighed, “When that time comes, even if you captured Xu, Daomaster Floatingcloud won’t dare to receive you.”

The old man didn’t say a word and said indifferently after a while, “What’s the point of saying these things now?”

The man’s voice went silent for several seconds. “You… If you’re caught, even if you have to do it yourself, you must not be captured by the Cultivation Court’s law enforcement machines… You should understand Daomaster Floatingcloud’s resolution. Death check… If he’s alive, I want to see a person. If he’s dead, I want to see a corpse.”

The old man’s gaze was like a blade. “Very well. If that’s the case, wait… Even if all that’s left of him is a head, I will undoubtedly carry out this task.”

……

The air outside the room was rather clean and refreshing. It caused Xu Yangyi who had just come out from below to feel the heaviness of the atmosphere inside the room. A calendar hung on the basement door, and he looked at it nonchalantly and laughed, “Has it actually been a month already?”

He walked straight up to the fifth floor yet didn’t enter, listening to the faint shouts that came from within. He pushed open the door and saw a group of eleven or twelve-year-old kids. There were around ten to twenty of them, and they were matching taiji forms together, move for move.

If the kids were practicing, then according to reason, Zhou Tingting should’ve been instructing. However, she wasn’t here at all. On the contrary, she was standing at the end of the room, discussing something with a boy around seventeen or eighteen who was decked out in designer brands. 

He was somewhat familiar.

Xu Yangyi looked at him for a full three seconds and walked over with a chilly smile.

“Sir, it’s inappropriate of you to make a purchase from me here… Really! In any case, my Zhou Clan has been around even before you came. Just ask anyone! We’re one of the top three clans in Bai County, too! Because my parents have passed away, you want to buy my dojo?” Zhou Tingting’s face was flushed red in anger. She didn’t seem the least bit like a girl. “Forget about buying it! And you’re really just putting up a million? Are you insulting me?!”

“Hehe, if it weren’t for your underground spirit cave that I care about, how could I be willing to purchase your crummy land! Is a million still not enough? You think yours is equal to an A-rank spirit cave? If yours was A-rank, I would’ve given you a 100 million on the spot!” The youth waved the check in his hand and provocatively swayed it back and forth in front of Zhou Tingting, in leisure. He said somewhat impatiently, “The most I’ll cough up is 1.2 million. If you won’t sell, then forget about it. You think I won’t be able to find someplace to cultivate?”

In disappointment, Zhou Tingting’s gaze followed the check that fluttered back and forth. She gritted her teeth. “1.5 million!”

The youth yawned. “1.2 million!”

“1.4 million!”

“1.2 million!”

“1.3 million!”

The youth disdainfully stowed the check into his trousers pocket and made to leave. Just as he turned around, he suddenly froze in place as if he were a nail. 

Xu Yangyi was advancing towards him, carrying the shred of a smile on his face.

“Chatter… Chatter…” The youth’s teeth began to tremble like he was spasming. Never did he even expect this in his dreams! How could he even chance upon this monster by running here to this place?!

“You… D-D-Don’t you come over!” Losing his bearings, he shrieked and actually hid behind Zhou Tingting, drawing the suspicious gazes of all the little kids. His voice warbled. “H-How could you be here?! How is this possible?!”

Xu Yangyi walked right in front of him, laughing as he carried his already somewhat dirtied school uniform. He made a hooking gesture with his finger.

“Didn’t you ask me why I didn’t ask your name last time? So, c’mon, tell me. What’s your name?”

Upon hearing these same words, the youth’s face completely paled. His entire body shuddered like he was having a stroke, and his teeth chattered. At this time, Zhou Tingting who was standing in front of him wordlessly moved to the side, laughing with the full knowledge of what was possibly coming. “Sir, I’ll go pour two cups of tea for the you two. Both of you can take your time and chat.”

Xu Yangyi leisurely sat down in a chair and beckoned. “What? Don’t recognize me?”

“I do…” The youth’s throat seemed to hold a walnut, and pain was born in his diaphragm. How could he not recognize this man? For the rest of his days, he would never forget the man who had nearly taken his life back then!

“Sir… how could…”

“How could I be here?” Xu Yangyi was a tad thirsty, and Zhou Tingting just happened to come bearing two cups of warm tea. He laughed as he took a cup, his eyes flashing with a barely disguised killing intent. “Is there a pretty quiet place here?”

The youth was the one-horned toad that had escaped from Sanshui City’s Venture Pharmaceuticals!

Zhou Tingting pursed her lips. Even she felt something and lowered her head, her voice hushed. “Does sir require more quietness?”

“Quiet to the extent…” Xu Yangyi smiled as he set down his tea, and it echoed with a light thud. “that if he shouts, no one will be able to hear.”

Boom! Xu Yangyi’s voice couldn’t be considered loud but nor could it be thought of as light. In the next second, the youth was kneeling on the floor, all four of his limbs on the ground. He dared not raise his head at all. He said shrilly, “S-Spare me… spare my life…”

Dazed, Zhou Tingting stood in place. She was a young woman. She could only be a young woman that had come in contact with the true world through the internet. She was a little girl that hadn’t even left Bai County. She simply didn’t have the knowledge of what a true demon slayer was. 

At this instant, she couldn’t help but feel her body grow cold. She suddenly realized that she and the man before her were intrinsically different. He was a true lone wolf. As for her, she was only a sheep draped in wolf’s skin.

“Sir…” Her lips trembled, and she looked at Xu Yangyi with terrible complexity and then towards the youth who was kneeling on the ground and shivering from head to toe. She said softly, “Y-Y-You don’t have to kill him, right… H-He just moved here two years ago…”

Xu Yangyi clasped his tea with both hands. Regarding such surviving innocence, he didn’t know whether to snort in disdain or praise her for maintaining this purity.

She couldn’t have known about how he had once killed a berserker that murdered a number of people. Moreover, she couldn’t be aware that the mountains of corpses and seas of blood of 7,000 people below Heavens Law’s Fengyi City branch was because of a single demon’s desire.

He only used his gaze to calmly sweep over the youth’s whole body without a shred of emotion, as if he was looking at a commodity. His gaze was penetrating like a blade.

“I-I can be sir’s demon familiar!” The youth seemed to hesitate for ages and gritted his teeth. “I-I’m willing to let you enter my qi sea and leave your personal brand…”

“Heh…” Xu Yangyi’s hand pinched the youth’s chin and expressionlessly brought the other’s terrified face to a distance only ten centimeters away from his own. He laughed coldly. “Is my life worth just your brand?”

Xu Yangyi waved his hand in passing. The other didn’t dare to raise his head, and Xu Yangyi said apathetically, “Since you hid the truth about that berserker, your crimes were destined to persist even into your death.”

 He brandished his hand and severed all sound within a meter of his surroundings. Purity was something to to be preserved.

A wet pool had already coalesced before the youth. It was the cold sweat perspiring from his whole body like a spring. Upon hearing these words, his face became deathly ashen. 

How could Xu Yangyi be here?

He had over fled over 2,200 kilometers from Sanshui City! From the west to the northeast! How could he actually even be capable of running into Xu Yangyi after two years?

Xu Yangyi had killed the berserker… Afterwards, he graduated at Fengyi City! Heavens knew how long of a sigh the youth had taken when he had read about Vermilion Snow’s great upheaval at Fengyi City. Xu Yangyi should’ve definitely died...

It was Vermilion Snow! Ranked ninth on the Heavenly Demon Ranking! How could a police captain not be dead?!

And yet… here he was, still standing right in front of him!

“But.”

Swish! The youth suddenly raised his head, and Zhou Tingting took a step back in fright, looking incredulously at him.

At this moment, the muscle on the fair-skinned youth’s face seemed to shift about endlessly like it was alive. Warts emerged and disappeared on his face continuously. His eyes were somewhat reddened and a light-yellow secretion flowed out from his forehead, mouth, and eyes.

The toad-demon had actually been so frightened that he nearly assumed his demon form? She gasped coldly, glancing at Xu Yangyi with indescribable fright, not daring to say one word more. Who in the world… was this person?

“Prove your worth.” Xu Yangyi gently caressed the lid of his teacup. The action appeared to be nothing special, yet it caused the youth’s body to tremble as he looked at Xu Yangyi. “I won’t kill your value.”

Not waiting for the youth to respond, Xu Yangyi laughed, using a voice that only the two of them could hear to say faintly, “I was able to survive from Vermilion Snow’s claws. Take a guess. How much do I hate demons?”

“You have three seconds.”

Life or death was hanging in the balance! The youth almost didn’t even think about it and immediately said with reddened eyes, “I have a secret art, it can form a dimensional space within the body!”

“Three.” Xu Yangyi picked up his lighter and gently brushed the table, not lifting his eyelids.

The youth’s sweat poured out like broth. “I have 10 million in savings and in my checking! I haven’t taken a fraction of it! I’m also willing to become sir’s demon familiar!”

“Two.” Xu Yangyi raised an eye, lightly pressing down on the lighter’s flint wheel. The clicking sound was like the reaper’s knell.

“You! You can’t do this…” The youth’s voice quivered, and a light-yellow liquid bubbled out of his seven apertures, simply beyond control. “I-I haven’t really broken any cultivation laws!”

“One.”

“I have a field of Dew Congealing Grass within my body!!!” As the youth screeched these words, he seemed to be stripped of all his bodily strength, limp on the floor like a toad.

A faintly discernible smile emerged at the crook of Xu Yangyi’s mouth. There were some things, such as talent, that were innate. For example, like how to force others to truly come to heel. 

This was something that he desired!