After Xia Li resolved the matter with Qiao Yuan and Lü Li...
Only then did the others come forward to chat with Xia Li.
"Impressive techniques, Fellow Daoist Xia. Your final series of attacks all contained predictive elements. I imagine that when you sheathed your blade, Qiao Yuan was already dead to a certain extent."
Zhu Song's sharp eye had seen right through it—though the final exchange between Xia Li and Qiao Yuan seemed evenly matched, Qiao Yuan's fate had actually been sealed.
"Fellow Daoist Zhu has even sharper eyes. I couldn't hide it from you."
"The technique you employed resembles a divine technique recorded by our Qi Xuan Sect—a great killing-path divine technique known as the Death-Seeing Demon Eyes."
"This is merely a minor path of mine. I wouldn't dare compare it to a great divine technique."
"Then, Fellow Daoist Xia, would you be interested in traveling together with us?"
"My apologies, I already have a goal in mind."
Xia Li still needed to study the black sandstorm and find a way through it to reach the Great Diamond Temple. He had no time to play friendship games with these people.
"Then may Fellow Daoist achieve your hopes. We've only just met and I have nothing good to offer, so let me extinguish the Nascent Soul resentment on you and eliminate Qiao Yuan's bloodline grievance."
Zhu Song immediately began casting a spell as if they were old friends. Xia Li immediately felt some kind of energy roaming across his body, so he had the Heaven Chip begin scanning.
But by the time Zhu Song finished his technique, the Heaven Chip still hadn't detected anything unusual.
"Done. From now on, others skilled in this path will have difficulty knowing you've killed Nascent Soul cultivators. And unless we speak of it, no one will know you killed Qiao Yuan."
"We disciples of aristocratic families and sects all leave behind an energy signature upon death that attaches to our killers, so that someone can avenge us in the future."
Zhu Song had turned Qiao Yuan's dying words into a fart.
"Fellow Daoist Zhu, I now have a suspicion... Could it be that you also found Qiao Yuan annoying but couldn't strike yourself? And you saw through my capabilities, so..."
So this was a borrowed-knife murder scheme!
"Well, about that..."
Zhu Song's smile shifted slightly.
"So just helping me eliminate future troubles isn't enough. You haven't paid for borrowing the knife yet."
Xia Li extended his hand. He'd almost thought Zhu Song was a good person, even helping him remove the consequences. But on second thought—this desert was huge. Without deliberately searching for his location, they would have been unlikely to meet.
Without Zhu Song, that lunatic Qiao Yuan might never have encountered him in the first place.
"Alright, what do you want? Just don't go overboard."
"Something that can interrupt enemy tracking techniques, I suppose."
Not fearing thieves stealing—fearing thieves plotting.
Xia Li was genuinely worried about the Heaven Alliance being shameless, using nuclear bombs to kill mosquitoes. That was Heaven Alliance's specialty, their traditional virtue.
Heaven Alliance not deploying Tribulation Transcendence cultivators to hunt down extraordinary newborns across the world was already considered restraint.
So having a way to hide one's aura and escape from high-realm cultivators was very important.
"How about this? A high-grade spirit artifact—the Purifying Vessel. Don't underestimate the quality. Its effectiveness is excellent. Even if you've just slaughtered a city, one wash with the Purifying Vessel and not a trace of blood aura will remain."
"Fine, I'll take this one."
"Wait! I also have a supreme-grade Purifying Vessel. I'll sell it to you for just a hundred thousand spirit stones—want it?"
Zhu Song hated losing out. Having Xia Li take something for free made him uncomfortable. He felt he had to earn something back, so he showed Xia Li a higher-quality Purifying Vessel.
"Give it to me."
However, he had underestimated Xia Li's shamelessness.
He felt it!
Xia Li was locking onto him!
That feeling of being locked on was like having a blade already at his neck.
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"The high-grade Purifying Vessel I can give you... but this supreme-grade one..."
"You borrowed my knife to kill someone from the Qiao Family. Even if the Qiao Family still won't let me go, you—the mastermind—won't escape either."
"What—you'd rather go down together with me just to take my things for free?!"
"You came to me on your own. Is that my fault?"
"Seventy thousand spirit stones!"
"Give it to me."
"Fifty thousand—that's as low as I can go!"
"Give it to me."
"Thirty thousand—this is my bottom line!"
Zhu Song was really regretting his decision now. Why had he taken out the supreme-grade Purifying Vessel?
Giving away the high-grade one was whatever.
But giving away the supreme-grade one genuinely pained him!
And Xia Li's response this time was even simpler. He pulled out his gun and started twirling it for fun.
"Give it to me."
"Fine, fine, fine... I'll give it to you!"
Zhu Song had no choice but to agree. He'd already offended Xia Li. Borrowing someone's knife meant being prepared for the knife to turn on you once discovered.
His sect often taught him this—the art of leveraging circumstances couldn't be used carelessly. What you borrow must be repaid.
"That's more like it. You stirred up this trouble for me—did you think you'd leave without satisfying me?"
Xia Li snatched the Purifying Vessel from Zhu Song's hand and put it directly into his Phase Ring.
"Now you can go."
"Listen to my advice, Fellow Daoist—a snake trying to swallow an elephant will choke. The high-grade Purifying Vessel was enough as an apology. The supreme-grade one was too much!"
"Are you saying if you get the chance, you'll come cause me trouble again?"
Xia Li raised his gun and aimed at Zhu Song's head. The cold woman named Xin Han immediately drew her sword and looked at Xia Li.
The previously harmonious atmosphere instantly dropped to freezing.
"Ten thousand spirit stones! Hand them over and I'll leave immediately."
"I mean, why are you clinging to those few spirit stones?"
"I can't get past it! The path I cultivate requires unobstructed thoughts. If my thoughts are blocked, I'll have difficulty progressing!"
Zhu Song said he could accept losses, but not total losses. That would affect him.
"You're something else. You'll get yourself killed eventually with this behavior."
Xia Li reached out and touched his Phase Ring to Zhu Song's storage ring, transferring thirty thousand spirit stones.
Since Zhu Song said thirty thousand was his bottom line, he'd go with that. At least it would prevent any future entanglement.
The moment Zhu Song sensed Xia Li had given him thirty thousand spirit stones, his entire expression immediately relaxed.
"Much better..."
His thoughts were now unobstructed. Though he'd been forced to bleed for his borrowed-knife scheme, he'd still made a profit!
He could accept not profiting, but he absolutely couldn't accept losing. For him, not losing was itself a form of winning.
"Then goodbye. I'd better stay far away from you."
Xia Li waved his hand and bid farewell. He didn't make Zhu Song and the others leave—he left. He couldn't afford to provoke them, fine!
"Wait, Fellow Daoist Xia!"
"What now!"
Xia Li's tone was very impatient.
"Since you didn't let me lose money, I'll give you some words in return. This is something strange I saw through qi-reading. In divination, Qi Xuan Sect isn't as good as Heaven's Mystery Pavilion. We read people, not heaven."
"Fellow Daoist, listen well..."
"Life is death, death is life. Both are illusions. Fortune and misfortune are intertwined."
"Don't ask me what it means—I want to know too. But that's what the energy patterns foretold. Also, my skills aren't refined. No guarantees, not absolute, not responsible. Listen or don't!"
By the end, Zhu Song was even adding disclaimers and issuing liability waivers, which left Xia Li quite speechless.
