16: Chapter 16 Double-crossing

Li Zhengyang hung up the phone and casually blacklisted the number.

Half an hour later, the car stopped at the foot of North Mountain.

Li Zhengyang paid the fare and got out. He was familiar with this place, having just swept through it yesterday.

Today, he took a different path, heading straight for the North Mountain Mineral Vein Belt.

Inside the city, at the Speed Loan Treasure company.

Feng Tiezhu stared at his disconnected phone, expressionless.

Beside him, Qian Long wiped away some sweat.

"Let's go," Feng Tiezhu said, stuffing his phone into his pocket.

"Where to?"

"To find someone."

The two of them first went to his residence, but finding him not there, they made a trip to the agency.

In the lobby, a bunch of idle martial artists who hadn't managed to grab any missions were still smoking and swearing.

Feng Tiezhu walked over, pulling a bill and a photo from his pocket.

"Hey buddy, let me ask you something. Have you seen the guy in this photo? Where did he go?"

The bearded man pocketed the money. "North Mountain. He just registered at the front desk and took a bunch of North Mountain missions and bounties."

Feng Tiezhu nodded and turned to leave the lobby.

"Old Feng, he went to North Mountain. Are we going into the wilderness too?" Qian Long felt a bit apprehensive.

"You wait in the car. I'll go fetch him." Feng Tiezhu got into the driver's seat and started the engine.

Paid to do a job, he would go wherever the target was.

On the outskirts of the North Mountain Mineral Vein Belt.

Li Zhengyang cleared out a Black-Bristled Boar nest.

A C-rank mission: ten third-rank demonic beasts.

The Mountain-Splitting Spear Arts was indeed useful. In a situation that would have originally required a head-on clash, a single thrust now, combined with the Collapse Technique, directly shattered the demonic beast's skull, saving two-thirds of his astral qi.

Storing the ten boar tusks into his ring, he continued walking deeper.

The Rock-Spine Beast from the bounty mission was up ahead.

Just as he crested a steep slope, the sounds of fighting came from ahead.

The clashing of blades, mingled with the muffled booms of blood-vitality collisions, was not far away—at most two hundred meters.

Li Zhengyang had no interest in other people's business, so he changed direction, preparing to bypass them.

Just then, a figure stumbled out of the woods.

It was a woman in her twenties with short hair. Her combat suit was torn in several places, and her right arm was bleeding.

Though she stumbled as she ran, her speed wasn't slow—she had the foundation of an 8th Rank Martial Artist.

As soon as she rushed out of the woods, she saw Li Zhengyang.

In this desolate wilderness, meeting another living soul was no easy feat. The woman glanced back; the sound of snapping branches echoed from the woods—her pursuers had arrived.

Her eyes darted around, and reaching into her clothes, she pulled out a cloth bag.

"Catch!" the woman shouted, tossing the cloth bag toward Li Zhengyang.

"Brother, you're here!" After shouting this, the woman forced a breath and darted toward a pile of rocks on the right.

She was shifting the trouble onto him.

Li Zhengyang didn't budge, merely glancing at the cloth bag.

Three people rushed out of the woods.

The leader was a bald man, bare-chested, with a scorpion tattooed on his chest. He held two mountain-splitting axes.

The astral qi overflowing from his body was visible to the naked eye—a Great Martial Master.

He was followed by two lackeys, one holding a saber and the other an iron staff, both High-Rank Martial Artists.

The bald man's eyes swept over the oilcloth bundle on the ground, then looked at Li Zhengyang.

"Kid," the bald man pointed his axe at him, "are you with that woman?"

From their attire, this group was clearly not a legitimate squad.

The woman stopped behind a rock, panting and looking back, waiting to see Li Zhengyang fight to the death with the three of them so she could find an opportunity to escape.

"This thing," Li Zhengyang stepped on the cloth bag, "I had no intention of keeping anyway."

He looked down at his toes.

"But using a piece of trash to make me your cannon fodder? I'm quite unhappy about that."

None of those present quite understood the meaning of his words.

Li Zhengyang moved.

Ignoring the bald man opposite him, he spun around, and the mountain-piercing spear flew from his hand.

Collapse Technique.

The long spear turned into a silver streak.

The woman's chest was pierced by the spear, pinning her directly to the rock.

Her eyes widened, her head slumped, and she died.

The bald man's eyelids twitched.

Killing one of their own?

No, these two didn't know each other at all. Who on earth starts by killing the person who threw the item?

Before he could figure it out, Li Zhengyang walked over, pulled the spear out of the rock with one hand, shook off the blood, and turned to face the three of them.

"Now, it's your turn."

"Fuck! Acting tough all by yourself?" The lackey with the iron staff swung it in a wide arc and smashed it down.

Li Zhengyang took a step forward to meet the iron staff, flicking the spear shaft upward.

Twist Technique.

The spear tip twisted along the iron staff like a drill, sending sparks flying.

As the two forces collided, the iron staff flew out of the lackey's hand. Seizing the momentum, the spearhead thrust forward, piercing his throat.

The lackey with the saber attacked from the side, slashing toward his ribs.

Li Zhengyang didn't dodge. Releasing his protective astral qi, the saber struck the barrier, numbing the attacker's wrist and bouncing the blade back half an inch.

"Great Martial Master!" Seeing the externalized astral qi, the saber-wielder was scared out of his wits and turned to run.

The long spear swept horizontally, the shaft slamming into his back and snapping his spine.

The man crashed to the ground, barely breathing.

Two seconds.

Two High-Rank Martial Artists were dead.

The bald man's face darkened.

As a fellow Great Martial Master, he could tell this opponent was troublesome.

"Friend, which path do you walk?" The bald man clanged his two axes together with a loud clang. "We're all out here for money. It was just a misunderstanding. Now that it's cleared up, there's no need to fight to the death."

Li Zhengyang smiled.

"What a coincidence, I'm out for money too. That bag of yours looks pretty stuffed—I'll take it."

The bald man was enraged. "Don't push your luck!"

Stomping his feet hard against the ground, the power of a 1st Rank Great Martial Master erupted. Dirt flew everywhere as he charged forward like a tank.

He slashed horizontally with the axe in his left hand and chopped vertically with the one in his right, sealing off all room to dodge.

Facing this style of fighting, a head-on clash would be the most disadvantageous.

Li Zhengyang didn't block. He took half a step back with his left foot and tilted his body to the side.

The two axes swept down right past his face, the wind from the blades blowing his hair backward.

The bald man's attack missed, leaving his front wide open.

Mountain-Splitting Spear Arts, Thrust.

Li Zhengyang gripped the end of the spear with his right hand, concentrating his entire body's strength onto a single point.

The spear tip scraped along the axe handle, flicking upward toward the chin.

The bald man reacted extremely quickly, violently jerking his head back, but the distance was too close.

The spear tip sliced a half-inch deep gash across his throat, and blood spurted out.

Clutching his neck, the bald man stumbled backward, his eyes filled with horror.

As he retreated, Li Zhengyang advanced.

The spear stayed right in front of the bald man, less than half a meter away.

The bald man swung his axes in defense, but an inch longer meant an inch stronger; his axes couldn't get close.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Three consecutive thrusts, each heavier than the last.

By the third strike, the axe in his left hand was knocked flying.

Li Zhengyang shifted his stance and whipped the spear with all his might.

Crack.

The sound of fracturing bones was crisp and pleasant to the ear.

The bald man spat out a mouthful of blood and flew sideways, crashing to the ground and rolling several times before stopping.

As he struggled to get up, a foot stepped onto his chest.

The spear tip was aimed directly at his right eye.

"S-spare..."

Pfft.

The spearhead plunged in. Li Zhengyang couldn't be bothered to listen to nonsense.

From the moment the cloth bag was thrown to the four corpses on the ground, less than two minutes had passed.

Li Zhengyang retrieved his spear and wiped the blood dry on the bald man's clothes.

He bent down to pick up the oilcloth bundle and opened it to take a look.

Startling Cloud Step.

Yellow-grade high-rank movement technique.

To him, it was just a little bonus.

He walked over to the bald man's corpse, yanked off his backpack, and unzipped it. It was filled with various beast cores and herbs.

A rough estimate was about three hundred thousand.

For bandits who robbed other robbers, they always carried hard currency.

Behind the bushes fifty meters away.

Feng Tiezhu froze there, his hand gripping a tree trunk, not daring to take a single step forward.

He had just arrived, right in time to witness the bald man's axe being knocked away, followed by his ribs being shattered by a spear whip and being pinned dead to the ground.

He had seen the entire process.

He knew the bald man. A bandit from the northern part of the city, nicknamed "Poison Scorpion," a 1st Rank Great Martial Master.

Quite a few squads had died at his hands, and Feng Tiezhu had fought him before, finding themselves evenly matched.

Yet just now, Poison Scorpion didn't even have the chance to fight back in front of that kid.

What was even more terrifying was the kid's moves.

Swift, decisive. They weren't flashy forms, but killing techniques.

This was a vocational school student?

A 4th Rank Martial Artist?

Which idiot compiled this data?

I actually came to collect a debt from someone like this?

Li Zhengyang emptied the contents of the bag into his space ring and searched the pockets of the other three.

He didn't leave behind a single thing worth taking.

Having finished looting, he stood up.

He turned his head and looked toward the clump of bushes fifty meters away.

"The one behind the tree," Li Zhengyang spoke. "Have you seen enough?"

Feng Tiezhu's heart leaped into his throat. He had been spotted.

Run? Or go out?

If he ran, Poison Scorpion's fate was right before his eyes.

Forcing down the urge to flee, he stepped out from behind the bushes.

He spread his hands to show he had no weapons.

Li Zhengyang looked at the man who was missing a pinky finger.

He had never seen Feng Tiezhu.

"Are you with them?" Li Zhengyang walked forward, holding his spear.

"No," Feng Tiezhu swallowed hard, his voice hoarse. "Just passing by."

"Passing by?"

"Yes." Feng Tiezhu glanced at the corpses littering the ground. "I didn't see anything."

Li Zhengyang sized him up. A 2nd Rank Great Martial Master, dressed shabbily.

"Do you have any money on you?" Li Zhengyang asked.

Feng Tiezhu froze.

"Cash, cards, valuables." Li Zhengyang tapped the ground with his spear tip. "If you're passing by, you pay a toll. Do you know the rules?"

In his dozen or so years of debt collecting, he had always been the one asking others.

This time, someone was asking him.

Feng Tiezhu was very straightforward.

He pulled out his wallet and threw it over.

Inside was over ten thousand in cash and several cards. "There's another thirty thousand in the card. The PIN is six eights."

"Very sensible." Li Zhengyang pocketed the wallet. "Scram."

Feng Tiezhu turned and left immediately.

After walking several hundred meters, his back was drenched in cold sweat.

He returned to the car at the foot of the mountain.

Qian Long was leaning against the seat back, smoking. Seeing him return, he stubbed it out.

"Old Feng, did you find him?"

Feng Tiezhu started the engine and slammed the gas pedal to the floor.

"Found him."

"Did you get the money back?" Qian Long asked.

Feng Tiezhu didn't say a word.

Qian Long probed, "You didn't get it back? He didn't pay?"

"I paid him," Feng Tiezhu squeezed the words through his teeth.

"Huh?"

"I paid a forty-thousand toll. Shut up."

Deep in North Mountain.

Li Zhengyang continued walking forward. What he had just looted amounted to about three hundred and fifty thousand.

Still not enough.

He tapped on his phone to bring up the system panel.

[Detected cultivation technique: "Startling Cloud Step"]

[Quality Assessment: Yellow-grade high-rank]

[Required consumption: 50,000 great xia currency.]

"Learn!"

A wave of dizziness hit him, and information about the Startling Cloud Step flooded his mind.

Ten breaths later, he had mastered the Startling Cloud Step to perfection!

Li Zhengyang had no intention of resting.

He hadn't made enough money, so why rest?

The mountain wind blew, and a low growl echoed from nearby.

From the grass ahead, a dark red leopard leaped out.

A third-rank demonic beast, the Red-Lian Leopard.

It was extremely fast.

This creature wasn't on the mission list.

But it was the perfect chance to test his new movement technique.

...