121: Chapter 121 Last Meal, Mysteries of the Inner City

Crack!

Hu Ye's consciousness slowly cleared, and he woke up.

"Ugh~ ah~" Hu Ye cried out in pain; he had been woken by the agony.

He hurt everywhere.

"Ah! Who is it?!" Hu Ye's mind instantly cleared, and he shouted, the scene before him making him feel as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

At some point, he had appeared in a remote, ancient mountain forest, and a bonfire was lit before him.

A burly, black-clad, masked man was roasting a chicken over the fire.

And on the fire was a small Medicinal Pot.

Grumble~

Hu Ye's stomach let out a timely groan.

"You're awake?" the man in black turned his head and asked.

"Me? I... mmph..."

Hu Ye's head ached a little. He tried to cover his head with his hand, but felt nothing.

He looked down and instantly became terrified.

His arms were gone—no, his legs too!

He gritted his teeth and said, "You, what did you do to me?!"

Despair instantly filled his mind.

With his legs and arms gone, he was crippled!

Li Qing reached out helplessly, saying, "You like to struggle when you're asleep, so I could only make you behave."

Hu Ye's eyes were bloodshot: "You motherfucker!"

Li Qing picked up the roasted chicken and waved it in front of Hu Ye: "Want to eat?"

"Hmph!" Hu Ye said nothing, only staring at Li Qing's face with cannibalistic eyes.

If he had all his limbs—no, even three limbs—his right arm would have been shattered when he sparred with this person.

If he had three limbs, he might still think of begging for mercy, but now he was a human pig.

What was there left to live for?

Li Qing said helplessly, "There's no other way. To be honest, to make it easier to bring you here, the lighter you were, the better."

Hu Ye snorted coldly: "Three Vibrations Power's third stage, you are Zhuang Jin."

Li Qing nodded: "That's right, I am."

At this moment, Hu Ye suddenly opened his mouth wide, stuck out his tongue, and then tried to close his mouth.

Whoosh!

Li Qing instantly appeared before him and shoved a wooden stick into his mouth.

"Want to bite off your tongue to commit suicide? No problem, as long as you help me answer a few questions."

Hu Ye, however, was full of shock: "You, you're not Zhuang Jin, this footwork, you... you are, Li! Qing!"

Li Qing sighed, pulled down the black cloth, revealing a face that Hu Ye had previously taken no notice of.

"Li Qing!!! Ah!!! You hid yourself so well! Mmph!!!" Hu Ye roared.

"Sigh~ speak properly," Li Qing said indifferently.

"Tell me, who is 'Young Lord'?" Li Qing tore off a large bite of chicken, "If you tell me, I'll give you a last meal."

Hu Ye said coldly, "I won't say anything."

With that, Hu Ye closed his eyes and remained silent, appearing resigned to his fate.

"So 'Young Lord' is Bai He," Li Qing suddenly said.

Hu Ye's eyelids twitched, and his body trembled.

Li Qing smiled: "So it really was him. I said you held back a bit when you sparred with him before."

After he finished speaking, Hu Ye finally broke his silence, opening his eyes and looking at Li Qing with a desolate expression.

"You hid yourself so well."

"I merely have 'a little bit' of talent," Li Qing said, making a small gesture with two fingers.

"Continue, what is the objective of the White Dragon Cult and the Four Great Families?"

"Heh, I don't know, I'm just a small fry."

"Is that so?" Li Qing didn't press further.

Suddenly, the scent of traditional Chinese medicine wafted over.

"Oh, my medicine is ready."

Li Qing took out a small box from his懷 and pulled out a pure white, spherical piece of meat from it.

Hu Ye was startled: "The gall of a Four-Horned Pomfret, what are you going to do with it?"

Li Qing: "Of course, I'm going to refine medicine."

He threw the fish gall into the Medicinal Pot, and immediately a fragrant aroma spread, mixed with a hint of Demonic Qi.

Hu Ye seemed to have lost his soul, staring blankly at Li Qing boiling the medicine.

Under the control of the medicinal ingredients and the heat, the trace of Demonic Qi in the air was slowly eroded away as time passed.

After a long while, Hu Ye felt thirsty: "Do you have anything to drink?"

"Yes." Li Qing didn't make any demands, simply took out a bottle of wine and poured it into Hu Ye's mouth.

"Ten-Year Osmanthus Brew, it tastes good." Hu Ye seemed to have accepted his fate.

"I want chicken."

"Here." Li Qing shoved a chicken leg into his mouth.

After a long time, once Hu Ye had eaten and drunk his fill, he said with a complex tone:

"Is this the secret primer for the third stage of Dragon Gall Power?"

"Mm." Li Qing replied without turning his head.

Hu Ye looked up at the sky and sighed: "Three Vibrations Power's third stage, both fist techniques and footwork at Major Achievement, and also Dragon Gall Power, defeating the three of us in a short time..."

"Heh, I didn't lose unjustly. Ask whatever you want."

Li Qing glanced at him in surprise. Had he given up so easily?

He asked, "What's going on with the Merchant Alliance?"

Hu Ye shook his head: "I only know they secretly traffic Medicinal Pills and weapons. All the pharmacies are tentacles of the Inner City noble families.

Besides that, they also sell to other cities, which is why the White Dragon Cult and Black River Bandits guard the river sections. I don't know the specific profit shares.

Anyway, orders came down from above, telling us to hunt other Martial Artists of the Huajin realm as much as possible during this period."

Li Qing interrupted: "I mean, why did your families conspire to kill the City Lord?"

Hu Ye shook his head: "I don't know."

Li Qing was a little disappointed. A Huajin Martial Artist's knowledge was too limited, and Hu Ye was clearly not part of the core group.

"However," Hu Ye added, "I suspect there's someone behind the Four Great Families."

Li Qing asked in surprise: "Someone else?"

"Otherwise? Do the Four Great Families have the guts to secretly traffic Medicinal Pills? Give them a hundred times the courage, would they dare?

Without the Qiyun Sect, or certain individuals within the Qiyun Sect, nodding their approval, who would believe it?"

Li Qing nodded, deep in thought: "The City Lord is a Qiyun Sect Disciple, and the Four Great Families are also lackeys of the Qiyun Sect. Interesting."

Is the Qiyun Sect having an internal strife?

However, to have reached the point where the City Lord was ambushed and his whereabouts are unknown, it seems the Qiyun Sect is quite unstable~

Li Qing was startled. No, Fang Lingling had only recently joined the Qiyun Sect!

He asked, "Then what's the internal situation of the Qiyun Sect like?"

Hu Ye said speechlessly: "How would I know? But even though the Four Great Families dared to unite with us to ambush Hua Yunsheng, they've always been secretive about it, and they maintain a delicate balance with the City Lord's Mansion, which may or may not know the truth. The Qiyun Sect's internal situation should be stable."

Li Qing nodded. He was overthinking things. In fact, Fang Lingling had sent Li Qing a few letters since joining the Qiyun Sect, none of which mentioned internal turmoil within the Qiyun Sect, so it should still be within certain limits.

"That's good then."

Li Qing asked again, but couldn't get any more information.

For example, the Merchant Alliance's next actions? He didn't know.

The White Dragon Cult's stronghold? Hu Ye was an unregistered, part-time member who joined halfway, so he didn't know.

The secret primer was still boiling. Li Qing walked up to Hu Ye.

"Next, let's begin the experiment."

"Experiment?" Hu Ye's face changed. He had thought Li Qing would give him a quick end.

Li Qing said indifferently: "It's not easy to catch a Huajin Martial Artist, so we should make good use of him!"

Or rather, this was his true purpose in bringing Hu Ye here, and the other information was actually secondary; he didn't really care that much about it.

Although he had extracted a lot of useful information, now was the main event.

Ignoring Hu Ye's face, which had turned from pleading to resentment.

Li Qing's mind stirred.

[Intimidation] activated!