Chapter 1319: Chapter 496: Fire Pit Changes Hands
The white cricket, with its round head and wide back, had six legs, its hind legs especially robust. It was caught between Zhou Xuan’s fingers, continuously struggling with strength.
Zhou Xuan flipped the cricket over and saw the creature’s mouthparts — a needle-like proboscis resembling that of a mosquito.
He found it very curious, sneering coldly at Ning Bukong, he said with a tone of mockery,
"Ordinary families, those small households, are most afraid of bugs and rats. There’s an old saying in the pawnshop business — insects gnaw, rats bite, leaving a bare plank with no fur, just a worn-out cotton-padded jacket.
If something of value in the house is chewed by bugs, it becomes worthless, let alone the Secret Realm of a Cultivation Disciple?"
"If the Secret Realm is plagued by insects, how can it remain good?"
Zhou Xuan squatted down, holding the white cricket, letting it slowly pass in front of Ning Bukong’s nose.
Ning Bukong’s rodent-like eyes never left the insect.
Zhou Xuan then asked, "Old Ning, tell me, there’s an insect living in your Secret Realm, what is this about?"
He had extracted others’ incense before but had never pulled an insect out from someone else’s Secret Realm.
"I... I... "
"Stop stuttering, just speak."
Zhou Xuan asked again.
"Master, maybe my cultivation is too low, a cricket entered my Secret Realm, and I didn’t notice it?"
This type of insect, called cricket, has many names. Some call it a fighting chicken, others call it an autumn insect, and its most elegant name is "Cuzhi," meaning its sound resembles a weaving machine.
"A cricket that big entered the Secret Realm, and you didn’t notice it?"
Zhou Xuan asked again.
"It’s just like in ordinary households, there are always three or five crickets hidden under those dilapidated walls and broken tiles. These creatures are small, and if they hide well, they are indeed hard to find."
"And your incense?"
Zhou Xuan asked again.
"Maybe... maybe it’s been completely eaten by that autumn insect... This strange insect, feeding on my incense, isn’t that uncommon."
Ning Bukong, with severed hands and feet, was in so much pain that he broke out in a cold sweat, yet he had to muster some energy to speak with Zhou Xuan.
Hearing up to this point, Zhou Xuan immediately put on a look of lament, pretending to beat his chest and stomp his feet, saying, "Old Ning, oh Old Ning, when exactly did I offend you?"
"..." Ning Bukong.
"If you hadn’t offended me, why are my hands and feet chopped off like a nobody’s?"
Ning Bukong, having suffered so much, only dared to complain in his heart and did not dare to rebel openly, respectfully saying, "Master has never offended me."
"Since you haven’t offended me, why are you treating me like a fool and deceiving me?"
Zhou Xuan suddenly looked cold, grabbing Ning Bukong’s ear, and said,
"The incense is the foundation of a Cultivation Disciple; even if it’s slightly disturbed, my organs would shift, and my blood would flow backward!
If your incense had been completely eaten by the autumn insect, how could you not discover that autumn insect hiding in your Secret Realm? Are you fooling ghosts?"
Zhou Xuan stood up, his face sinister, casting a sidelong glance at Ning Bukong from the corner of his eye, saying,
"Old Ning, I wasn’t that angry with you initially. After chopping off your hands and feet, it should have ended there. I should have shown you some mercy, but you played me... I told you, you only have one chance."
"Master, Master, that insect is my incense, that insect is my incense."
When Ning Bukong’s limbs were chopped off, he already knew the terrifying authority of Zhou Xuan. Now, with Zhou Xuan inadvertently revealing "to end it there," it meant grace to him.
Even insects strive to survive, let alone a person like Ning Bukong?
In the dual pressures of grace and might, Ning Bukong immediately spoke the truth, saying, "My incense had been extracted, and now the incense is the Heavenly Dome’s bestowal to me."
"So actually, this White Autumn Insect is your incense?" Zhou Xuan asked.
"Yes."
Ning Bukong said, "Within the Ancient Hall, without Fragrance Souls or Fire Insects, ordinary Incense Fire Disciples can’t use Divine Skills, unless they, like a few, bring a pig’s head and fill it with ’Storage Fragrance Worms.’"
"The insects are actually the incense."
Zhou Xuan gazed at the white cricket in his hand, immediately feeling that this autumn insect was not ordinary.
"It has some research value."
Zhou Xuan immediately put the white cricket into his clothes, then made a throat-slitting gesture to Manager Liu, the meaning of which was all too clear.
At this moment, Manager Liu was slightly worried. After all, Ning Bukong was a person from the heavenly realm. Although Mr. held a transcendent position and tormented him, chopping his hands and feet, those from the heaven realm probably wouldn’t pursue it,
but... if he took Ning Bukong’s life, wouldn’t the Heavenly Dome really hold them accountable?
"Hold me accountable? I still want an explanation from the Heavenly Dome, just kill him." Zhou Xuan urged impatiently.
Ning Bukong, scared pale, shouted, "Mr., you just said — you would show me mercy, and you also said you never lie."
"That’s right."
Zhou Xuan treated Ning Bukong’s severed hand like a soccer ball, kicking it hard into the hearth outside the hall, calmly smiling,
"Ning Bukong, you are a person without hands and feet. In the world, life is no more than eating, drinking, defecating, and sleeping."
"Your incense insect has been taken by me, you have no incense, and in the future, you’ll have no means to make a living. How could you find someone to take care of you?"
"Without someone to care for you, with no hands and feet, eating, drinking, defecating, and sleeping is extremely inconvenient, I, Zhou Xuan, am thinking for your sake, preventing you from living a lifetime in pain."
"Long pain... is worse than short pain."
"Zhou Xuan... you are a wre..." Ning Bukong was about to curse when Manager Liu raised his knife and brought it down.
