Chapter 85: A Fish that Escaped from the Net
KurazyTolanzuraytor Editor: Lucas
Duan Ling Tian felt regret.
If he had known earlier, he wouldn’t have saved 800,000 silver...
But now, for the sake of 800,000 silver, even his life was going to be lost.
Little Fei, Ke Er...
“We haven’t even done it yet, I don’t want to die!”
“Duan Ling Tian, looks like even the heavens want you dead. You didn’t even do your homework, and you wanted to use an offensive inscription to kill me? My defensive inscription, Crystal Wall Inscription, was granted to me by the former Li Clan Patriarch years ago. Who among the older generation of the Li Clan doesn’t know of this?”
Li Tai stepped forward. Every step he took seemed like an approaching death warrant to Duan Ling Tian.
Duan Ling TIan lifted up his sword once again and stood ramrod straight, staying completely silent as he awaited Li Tai’s arrival.
Even though he wasn’t a match, he would still put up a fight!
Death, even death needed to be a heroic death!
On his body, a fearless aura stretched out. That was the manifestation of his unyieldingness, to die rather than to submit.
Li Tai was moved once again.
The coldness in his eyes grew even deeper.
“If this kid doesn’t die, he will surely be a great disaster to me!”
Bang!
Li Tai’s palm strike moved like a shadow as it flashed towards Duan Ling TIan.
Whoosh!
The Violet Myrtle Flexible Sword in Duan Ling Tian’s hand swept out, moving to intercept Li Tai’s palm.
Pa!
Li Tai’s palm descended and slapped the sword flying. Its momentum didn’t not lessen one bit as it smashed towards Duan Ling TIan’s chest.
Above him, 110 ancient mammoth silhouettes appeared, their might like thunder, fully exploding forth with the strength of the eighth level of the Origin Core Stage!
Feeling the pressure that was approaching in the form of a suffocating aura, the corners of Duan Ling Tian’s mouth had a bitter smile.
“Am I going to die again?”
Om!
But in the next moment, the ear-piercing cry of a saber, accompanied by Li Tai’s shrill cry, caused Duan Ling Tian to feel as if he awoke from a dream.
Instantly, he felt a hand being placed on his shoulder and pulling him aside.
He focused his eyes to look.
Presently, the hand that Li Tai was using to execute the strike was completely cut off at the wrist, spouting out a steaming stream of fresh blood. His body was carried away by the force of inertia for more than ten meters.
Duan Ling TIan looked towards the person who saved him.
Clothed in a black garb that stuck tightly to his body and with a ghost mask on his face, the Crescent Saber in his hand was still dripping with Li Tai’s blood...
“Grade Eight Spirit Weapon!”
With just a glance, Duan Ling Tian discerned the Crescent Saber’s grade.
“Huh?”
Suddenly, Duan Ling Tian noticed that the eyes behind the ghost mask had a smile flash within.
So it was him!
Duan Ling Tian’s heart trembled.
“You’re from Ghastly Shadow?”
At this moment, after stopping his bleeding, the pale-faced Li Tai looked at the black-clothed person with a fearful expression.
The black-clothed person ignored Li Tai.
Instead he looked at Duan Ling Tian and asked, “Now, do you want to post the assignment to kill Li Tai? If there’s no need, I’ll leave.”
Duan Ling Tian rolled his eyes at the black-clothed person as he angrily said, “Of course I’m posting it! You were concealed at the side and watching the show, right?”
The black-clothed man laughed dryly and stepped out.
Above his head, 120 ancient mammoth silhouettes appeared instantly like nimbus clouds covering the sky. Their imposing manner shot up into the heavens.
“Nine... Ninth level of the Origin Core Stage!”
Li Tai’s face distorted.
“1,000,000, 1,000,000 silver... I’ll pay 1,000,000 silver to buy Duan Ling Tian’s life!” Li Tai said in panic.
A powerhouse at the ninth level of the Origin Core Stage, not mentioning how he had lost the use of his prominent arm, even if he was at full strength, he would still not necessarily be the black-clothed man’s match.
“As far as I’m concerned, his life... is far more valuable than 1,000,000!”
The black-clothed man gave Li Tai a reply.
Li Tai’s face turned grim.
Flee!
He didn’t dare to hesitate; he turned around and fled, transforming into a string of afterimages as he executed his movement technique to its limits.
However, the black-clothed man’s speed was even faster, seeming like a ghost as he caught up in the blink of an eye.
Om!
A white light flashed past.
Li Tai’s body jerked before flying out. His hand grasped his throat but was unable to stop his blood from spouting out.
The dignified Grand Elder of the Li Clan, his life ended in such a way.
Only now did the black-clothed man remove his mask.
It was precisely the medicine store manager!
Seeing the face of the black-clothed man, Duan Ling Tian wasn’t one bit surprised, as he had long ago noticed his identity.
But he was still shocked at his cultivation level.
Ninth level of the Origin Core Stage.
Such a cultivation, it was comparable to the Li Clan’s Patriarch, Li Ao.
“Manager, I’ve known you for so long, but I seem to not know your name.”
Duan Ling Tian’s eyes flickered as he stared fixedly at the black-clothed man.
“In the day, I’m called Bull Tang[1]. At night, I’m Tang Ying, codenamed Blood Crescent.”
Tang Ying laughed.
“Bull Tang?”
The corners of Duan Ling Tian’s mouth twitched.
No matter what, it was difficult for him to compare the decisive and ruthless Ghastly Shadow assassin from before with this name.
Abruptly, Tang Ying looked at Duan Ling Tian and asked, “The inscription you used before, was it the Blood Crescent Inscription?”
“Yes.”
Duan Ling Tian nodded.
“You inscribed it yourself?” Tang Ying asked.
“Yes.”
Duan Ling Tian nodded once more.
Tang Ying gave Duan Ling Tian a deep glance, and sized him up. “I really want to take you back, cut you open, and see what other secrets you have...”
Duan Ling Tian’s face froze. “That’s unnecessary.”
“I want some Blood Crescent Inscriptions,” Tang Ying abruptly said.
“Sure, but you prepare your own materials. Also, I’ll be taking 100,000 silver per Blood Crescent Inscription as my inscribing fee.”
Duan Ling Tian’s eyes flashed with a trace of cunning.
“You... so ruthless.”
The corners of Tang Ying’s mouth twitched, but he still said, “Agreed!”
Before Tang Yin left, Duan Ling Tian couldn’t help himself from asking, “In these past few days, were you always following behind me?”
Tang Ying rolled his eyes at Duan Ling Tian as he said, in an angry tone, “Did you think I’m you, someone with so much free time? I still have to take care of my shop in the day... I ordered my men to surveil Li Tai, and when he left Aurora City, I followed him. I was curious about why you were so confident in your ability to kill Li Tai.
“In the end, someone actually failed miserably. Hahahaha...”
As he finished speaking, Tang Ying couldn’t hold back his laughter.
The corners of Duan Ling Tian’s mouth twitched.
“No matter what, I still owe you my life, so I’ll do the first ten inscriptions for free.”
Duan Ling Tian wasn’t one who like to owe people.
“So generous? Then I won’t be stingy either; the assignment fee for killing Li Tai, consider it free.”
Tang Ying looked at Duan Ling Tian with a slightly surprised gaze, then his body moved like a ghost, disappearing from Duan Ling Tian’s field of vision in a few movements.
“Looks like when it relates to my life, I can’t be too stingy...”
This lesson was something Duan Ling Tian remembered deep in his heart.
Suddenly, Duan Ling Tian’s ears slightly moved and his face turned grim.
He noticed that a group of people was moving towards here from afar.
He didn’t have time to deal with Li Tai’s body. He flew up onto a tree and concealed himself there, overlooking what happened below.
After a short moment, seven youths walked over in large strides.
Crests were pinned on the clothes of these youths.
Wang Clan.
“Could it be the members of Triumph City’s Wang Clan?” Duan Ling Tian thought in his heart.
Around the Misty Forest, there were three cities, namely Aurora City, Aqua Mist City, and Triumph City.
The Nascent Soul powerhouse he met earlier in the Misty Forest, He Zu Dao, was precisely from Aqua Mist City’s He Clan.
A young man noticed Li Tai’s body and exclaimed, “Eh, there’s a corpse here!”
“Humph! You don’t have enough strength, but you dared to enter the inner area of the Misty Forest; serves you right that you died,” one of the people who walked over said disdainfully.
“No...He wasn’t killed by fierce beasts. Look, the place where his arm was cut off is smooth, and his throat was cut by a weapon,” one of the more careful young women said.
“It really is true. Eh, there’s a crest on his clothes.”
One of the young men walked up and wiped clean the crest on Li Tai’s body.
Immediately, many of them exclaimed, “Li Clan!”
These people noticing the identity of Li Tai didn’t cause Duan Ling Tian to feel panicked.
No one would think that he had the strength to kill Li Tai.
“Humph! So it turned out to be a member of the Li Clan. Serves him right.”
A blue-clothed young man seemed to be enraged when the Li Clan was mentioned.
“Yeah, the members of the Li Clan are so detestable. Wang Huai’s younger brother, Wang Zhen, came to the Misty Forest to hunt a Black Python the other time. At the critical juncture, it was a Li Clan youth and young girl who took their gains from behind them. Not only did they take all the benefits, they even killed the few outer court disciples of our Wang Clan that were still alive.”
“Luckily, Wang Zhen was born with a heart that was inclined sideways; otherwise, I’m afraid he would have become another wandering ghost of the Misty Forest.”
“Even then, Wang Zhen’s internal organs were still pierced through, and he is still recuperating...”
“If it wasn’t for Wang Zheng’s current body circumstances being unsuitable to travel, the Patriarch would have long since brought Wang Zhen to the Li Clan to identify the murderer and denounce his crimes.”
“Once Wang Zhen’s recovers, I want to go to the Li Clan as well. I want to see who is so vicious.”
......
The group of Triumph City’s Wang Clan disciples discussed.
Their casual discussion, however, entering Duan Ling Tian’s ears, causing him to be slightly moved.
Black Python?
Stealing gains from behind them?
The Li Clan youth and young girl these people were talking about, wasn’t it Ke Er and him?
“I didn’t expect that I’d have such ‘good’ luck,. Who would’ve thought that I’d bump into a person who had an inclined heart.”
Duan Ling Tian had the desire to spit blood.
According to his knowledge, a person who was born with an inclined heart was 1 in 10,000.
Although he had killed many people during his previous lifetime, he had not even once bumped into a person with an inclined heart.
In this lifetime, altogether, he had only killed just a few people, but he actually bumped into this type of a person.
Such lousy luck!
“What should we do with this old guy from the Li Clan?”
“I think we should send him back to the Li Clan... Like this, the Li Clan would owe our Wang Clan a favor, and maybe when the Patriarch takes Wang Zhen to identify the murderer, the Li Clan will look upon this favor and be willing to hand the murderer over to us.”
“You have a point.”
......
Seeing the Wang Clan group of young men and women taking Li Tai’s corpse away, Duan Ling Tian jumped off the tree and left the Misty Forest.
After returning to Aurora City, he didn’t return to the Li Clan straight away.
He instead went to the medicine store to look for Tang Ying.
“So anxious to see me. Did something happen?”
Tang Ying was slightly surprised when he saw Duan Ling Tian arrive.
“I want to post an assignment.”
Duan Ling Tian went straight to the point.
“Target?” Tang Ying asked.
“Wang Zhen...a member of the Triumph City’s Wang Clan,” Duan Ling Tian said slowly.
As far as he was concerned, Wang Zhen staying alive was a potential threat to him.
He had to be removed!
“Triumph City?”
Tang Ying frowned slightly. “In Triumph City, our Ghastly Shadow has another person in charge... That person doesn’t have a very good relationship with me, so I’m unable to cross my boundaries for this matter, but you can sneak into Triumph City yourself and go post an assignment at the Ghastly Shadow’s point of operations in Triumph City.”
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[1](TL Note – I know I’ve always been TL-ing names in Pinyin and this is slightly inconsistent. But I feel it sounds better than calling him Tang A Niu/Tang Ah Niu, which is the Pinyin of his name and means cow/bull. Btw small note to make the next few lines make more sense, the name A Niu 阿牛 is a common name people use in villages.)