Chapter 353: Chapter 306: The Black Store
The sound of shoes scraping against the stone pavement could be heard, but having walked less than a hundred meters, Yang Xiao sensed something amiss. Not far from him, another faint presence, filled with stealthy footsteps, was quietly approaching.
There were no few in number, at least four or five people. Yang Xiao had not expected trouble to find him so soon. After a moment’s thought, Yang Xiao turned around and continued walking towards a deserted alley. With a thought, the Human Bone Staff appeared in his hand. He swiftly pulled out a thin overcoat from his backpack and wrapped it around the Human Bone Staff, making it look like an ordinary stick from the outside.
He had just entered the alley when footsteps followed close behind. Yang Xiao turned to face three figures appearing in front of him. All three wore masks and wielded knives and sticks, effectively blocking Yang Xiao’s retreat.
"What’s the meaning of this?" Yang Xiao asked with a smile that wasn’t a smile, as he lifted the lantern in his hand, "Even with a lantern, no respect, huh?"
"Quit the nonsense, hand over anything valuable in your backpack, or I’ll slaughter you," the leader barked threateningly, his long knife gleaming coldly under the scarce moonlight.
Suddenly, without warning, Yang Xiao swiftly dodged as an attack came from behind him. The strike missed, and the attacker stumbled, unsteady on their feet. Yang Xiao seized the opportunity, spinning around and smashing down with the Human Bone Staff, striking the assailant to the ground, where his mask also fell off.
The attacker was a stocky man, just over thirty years old, who now lay misshapen and crooked, struck dumb by the blow.
Yang Xiao was also surprised; he had not expected these men to be so weak. He had used only 30% of his strength, far less than when he fought the Staff Killing Elder from Yanhe Tian.
Seeing their attack fail, the other three men rushed forward. Yet apart from the leader who could exchange a few blows with Yang Xiao, the other two were swiftly floored by a punch and a kick. He no longer used the powers of the Human Bone Staff, as that would waste its potential; instead, he wielded it as an ordinary staff.
After a few moves, Yang Xiao caught the leader’s flaw, grasped the man’s wrist, and pressed down hard. The long knife fell from the man’s grasp, and as Yang Xiao mercilessly struck the man’s face with the staff, the man somehow managed to pull a pistol from his waist.
"Bang!"
The gun fired, with a dazzling flash of light, but luckily, Yang Xiao’s reflexes were quick, and the bullet passed beneath him. If the gun had been aimed just a bit higher, it would have been the end for Yang Xiao.
This gunshot, however, utterly enraged him. As he seized the long knife, he chopped down, severing the man’s gun-holding left hand. Before the man could even scream, another slice cut across, nearly decapitating him as it severed his throat.
The man fell to the ground, clutching his incessantly bleeding throat, struggling for a few seconds before he became utterly motionless.
One of his fallen accomplices saw this and scrambled up to run, but hadn’t gone far when Yang Xiao caught up and knocked him down with a backhanded slice. Stepping on him, Yang Xiao struck again and again, swiftly sending him to reunite with his brethren.
When Yang Xiao turned around, the only remaining person shrieked in terror and knelt before him, "Hero Master, Hero Master, spare my life, please!!"
Yang Xiao shook the blood from the knife and approached the man. These people were not merely after his wealth; they were after his life. "Who sent you to kill me?" Yang Xiao inquired.
"It’s... it’s the old shopkeeper of the Guo Family Inn. He said... he said a greenhorn checked into the inn and told us to rob him under the cover of night, and to do it clean," the man pleaded as he banged his head on the ground like smashing garlic, begging Yang Xiao to spare his life.
"So it’s a trap house, and that old fiend..." Yang Xiao resolved that once his business was complete, he would definitely return to slaughter him.
But the man in front of him couldn’t be left alive. As Yang Xiao was about to lift his knife, suddenly the sound of a watchman’s rattle approached from behind. A person wearing an old-fashioned gray gown and a Grudge Mask, with a night patrol bamboo rattle at their waist, appeared.
What surprised Yang Xiao was that this person also carried a lantern. The blood-red characters for "Peace" on the lantern were glaringly conspicuous.
"It’s the Ghost Slave on night patrol; we’re finished, this is the end..." The man who had been kowtowing to Yang Xiao suddenly went limp as the mask slipped from his face, pale as death.
Yang Xiao wasn’t familiar with this Ghost Slave business, but he understood that the person in front of him must be from the Peace Hotel, likely drawn here by the sound of the gunfire. After a moment’s consideration, Yang Xiao took out his own Character "Li" Mask from his backpack and, after removing his mouth cover, put it on.
Indeed, after seeing his mask, the newcomer stopped, and after a pause, simply turned and left.
Seeing that Yang Xiao also had a mask, the kowtowing man’s eyes bulged; he was a very young man, just over twenty, with a relatively handsome face and not the look of a violent Bandit. Yang Xiao handed the knife to him, "Go, kill that idiot who only knows how to laugh for me."
The man dared not disobey Yang Xiao’s order. Trembling, he took the knife over to the first stocky man whom Yang Xiao had knocked out, and with a steeled heart, hacked him to death.
After killing his companion, the man knelt on the ground, pleading to Yang Xiao with tears, "Hero Master, I’m not with them, I came here just to find a way to get into the Peace Hotel. My parents were harmed by vile people and died unnatural deaths. I... I want to avenge them, and only the Peace Hotel can help me."
"I arrived in the town several months ago. The situation here is complex, so I had to find a place to stay first. By chance, I joined Sun and his gang. Sun... he’s a murderer, and he also came to Xiang Ma Town to try his luck."
"What’s your name, where do you live? Who else is there?" Yang Xiao asked.
"My name is Ling Yanyu, I stay at the Nie Family Teahouse—it’s Sun’s stronghold. Now that you’ve killed everyone, only... only I am left."
"What is your relationship with the manager of the Guo Family Inn?"
"We cooperate, a partnership. He acts as our source of intelligence. Whenever someone who doesn’t know the rules arrives, he would inform Sun. After a successful heist, we’d hand over the goods to Old Guo for fencing, splitting the earnings fifty-fifty." Ling Yanyu, intimidated by Yang Xiao’s ruthless methods, spilled everything.
Under Yang Xiao’s coercion, Ling Yanyu retrieved a mobile phone from Sun’s corpse and sent a message to the old manager, signaling a successful score. They agreed to meet the next day for the old manager to inspect the goods.
Yang Xiao took the phone, wiped his bloody knife on Ling Yanyu, scaring him pale with his legs giving way. Yang Xiao scoffed, "Do you know who I am?"
"No... I don’t know, I’ve never seen Hero Master’s face, but surely you’re someone I can’t afford to offend," Ling Yanyu was very sensible, not daring to lift his head.
"Good to know. Today, I won’t kill you, but if you dare to speak of today’s events to anyone, and I find out..."
"I understand! I get it all! To know is to die!"
"Believe me, I have many ways to make you suffer more than death." Yang Xiao stopped wasting words, informed Ling Yanyu that he would come to the Nie Family Teahouse later to ask him some questions. Should Ling be missing or had lied, the consequences would be incredibly dire.
After saying that, Yang Xiao left without further ado. He still had to go to the hotel; that was the real business.
As expected, when Yang Xiao arrived, the lanterns at the hotel were already lit. Following their guidance, he reached another courtyard. The decorations here were clearly more exquisite and thoughtful than those of the Resentful Character Room. After placing the Dead Man’s Skin and Snake-head Cane into the storage locker outside the door, he carefully removed the silver paper wrapped around the cane—he couldn’t let the hotel take advantage of him.
Once all was prepared, Yang Xiao pushed open the door to the room. This time, it was Fierce Character Room No. 9. Although the room had been upgraded, the rules remained the same. Yang Xiao wrote a note and placed it into the Message Bamboo Tube, ready to have the first item, the Dead Man’s Skin, appraised and sold to the hotel.
Soon enough, the hotel provided a response: according to its ratings, the Dead Man’s Skin was classified as Resentment Tier Mid-First Grade, and a client of the hotel just happened to need a similar Resentful Eye, willing to pay 12 million.
While the price wasn’t high, it was still within Yang Xiao’s expectations, so he accepted the offer. After all, the bulk of his earnings would come later.
The evaluation and pricing for the second item, the Snake-head Cane, came shortly after. Classified as Fierce Tier Lower Third Grade, it was indeed the Magic Artifact of a Venerable Level Evil Cultivator. Yang Xiao found the assessment fair but was shocked to discover that the hotel’s buy-back price was only 5 million.
Less than half of what the Dead Man’s Skin at Resentment Tier Mid-First Grade was worth. Yang Xiao couldn’t stand this and demanded an explanation. He knew the hotel’s rules forbade bargaining; he only sought a reason, and the hotel charged an additional 1 million to answer.
Not wanting to face this issue in the future, Yang Xiao begrudgingly paid. He was determined to understand the valuation of these Resentful Eyes, so he’d know which items were worth thieving next time.
The reply from the hotel arrived promptly; it was a paper filled with writing. The first sentence already pointed out that the Snake-head Cane was from the Yu Yuan Sect, the protective Magic Artifact of a Venerable Level Heretic Cultivator known as the Staff Killing Elder. Although the cane’s abilities were strange, the side effects were too terrible, causing chronic poisoning and permanent loss of the right leg, limiting the artifact’s value significantly.
Another point was that the members of the Yu Yuan Sect were sinister and ruthless, valuing their sect’s artifacts highly. If they discovered that a Venerable One was killed and their artifacts were lost and sold, they would undoubtedly investigate.
In summary, the item was decent, but the weak dared not purchase, and the strong disdained it. For the hotel, acquiring this artifact was also problematic.
But since he was here, Yang Xiao didn’t want to take the item back with him. As the hotel said, it was a hot potato wherever it went. If the Drama Robe’s original owner took a dislike to him one day and reclaimed the cane, he’d end up just like the Staff Killing Elder.
Sell it, sell it. Tong Han was quite principled; Yang Xiao could just compensate her later with some extra money if needed.
After dealing with these trivial matters, Yang Xiao became focused. It was time to address the main issue: to inquire about the provenance of the Human Bone Staff in Huang Sanbing’s hands.
