Boneblade was unconscious, his hands and feet bound. He was currently being carried on the shoulder of a burly man.

Next to the burly man was a hunch-backed old man in a black leather jerkin. Perhaps because of his back, the man didn’t bother wearing a mask. He had messy gray hair, a face full of wrinkles, and cold eyes. All-in-all, he had a somber and desolate air. The fluctuations he emanated made it obvious he was past the level of Sergeant Thunder and Captain Bloodshadow; he was in the seventh level of Qi Condensation.

Xu Qing had never seen someone with this kind of cultivation base in the scavenger basecamp.

As Xu Qing looked on, the man holding Boneblade growled, “Chief, this fog is coming at the worst time. What do we do about the other meat treasures?”

“It’s all the fault of this meat treasure,“ said the old man, glaring at the unconscious Boneblade. “We wasted a lot of time figuring out where he was hiding. Call everyone back here. We need to wait for this fog to disperse, then we can find the other meat treasures.”

“What is the big boss thinking?” the burly man grumbled. “Why can’t we just capture people in the basecamp? Why do we have to wait until they come to the forbidden region to grab them?” 

The old man snorted coldly. “The boss likes slow and steady profit. That’s something your pig brain can’t understand. If we started grabbing people right in the camp, how long do you think it would be before people stopped camping there?”

The burly man didn’t seem convinced, but also didn’t argue. Taking out a whistle, he blew it, and before long, two other black-garbed men hurried to them.

Xu Qing didn’t take any action. He just crouched in the treetop watching coldly.

After confirming that there were only four people in this group, and that they were getting ready to leave, Xu Qing glanced at the unconscious Boneblade.

If Xu Qing hadn’t stumbled onto this scene, if Boneblade hadn’t purchased insurance, or if it had been outside of the jungle, then Xu Qing wouldn’t have batted an eyelid. He wasn’t a saint, after all, and didn’t want to waste energy going around saving people.

But he did have his principles. If someone bought insurance from him, then it was his job to see them safely out of the forbidden region. What happened to them afterward wasn’t his concern.

Xu Qing suddenly shot into motion, leaving behind a streak of afterimages as he headed with arrow-like speed toward the burly man and Boneblade.

Because he had been concealed so perfectly, and because of his incredible speed, only the old man sensed him. The burly man and the other two had no idea he was coming.

The old man spun and waved his right hand, causing numerous ice blades to gather and shoot up. However, he was too slow.

By the time the ice blades shot over, Xu Qing was at the burly man, his hair whipping around him, the sharp blade of his dagger glinting, his eyes radiating killing intent.

His dagger slashed through the burly man’s throat. And though the man was in the fifth level of Qi Condensation, he had no opportunity to fight back. He didn’t even have a chance to scream before his head tumbled through the air.

Blood sprayed everywhere!

Boneblade began to fall along with the corpse, but Xu Qing grabbed him by his clothes and bounded away into the jungle. Tossing Boneblade off into the bushes, Xu Qing turned with cold eyes to face the three surviving enemies.

The burly man’s head and corpse, as well as the old man’s ice blades, were only now hitting the ground.

Everything went quiet. It was a shocking scene, and both the old man and his two companions were deeply shaken as they looked at Xu Qing.

“It’s the Kid!” one of the masked men in black said, his eyes wide.

“Shut up!” the old man shouted.

The masked man, realizing he’d slipped up, kept his mouth shut.

Xu Qing looked closely at the three of them. What had been said so far was already very revealing.

Looking grimly at Xu Qing, the old man said, “This has nothing to do with you, Kid. Get out of here, and I can pretend we never saw you.”

A breeze picked up, causing Xu Qing’s bangs to drift. Then it reached the old man and his companions, stirring some dead, crackling leaves along the way. With the breeze, the fog seemed to swell.

Xu Qing simply stood in place, not saying a word.

Boneblade was awake, but was feigning unconsciousness. When he heard the old man’s words, he suddenly got very nervous that Xu Qing wouldn’t continue to help him. Then he realized that if he dragged Xu Qing into the matter, it would force his hand, and give him only one option. Opening his eyes, he shouted, “Don’t listen to him, Kid! They work for the camp owner. A lot of the scavengers who have gone missing through the years were captured by him and sold to caravans to be turned into living treasures! It’s the camp owner’s biggest secret!”

The black-garbed old man narrowed his eyes, looked at Xu Qing, and said, “This is your last chance to mind your own business.”

Xu Qing ignored Boneblade. Whatever was the cause of this situation, it had nothing to do with him. To Xu Qing, everything was very plain and simple. If someone bought insurance from him, he would get them out of the forbidden region. What happened after that didn’t matter.

“He bought insurance from me,” Xu Qing said, sounding very serious.

The old man’s eyes glittered coldly, and a cruel smile played out on his face. Then he lifted both of his hands, and a glowing ring of red light appeared beneath his feet. Wind whipped inside the ring, slowly transforming into an extraordinary tornado.

“You lack experience, Kid. You gave me too much time. So… now you can die.”

He threw his hands out in front of him, and the tornado grew larger. Now it was possible to see that it was made up of countless blood-colored ice blades. At the same time, the other two black-garbed men grinned viciously and rushed toward Xu Qing from either side.

A look of despair appeared on Boneblade’s face.

In contrast, Xu Qing looked as calm as ever. As the two figures closed in from either side, and as the tornado of ice blades grew even larger, he quietly said, “I should thank you.”

The moment the words left his mouth, the two black-garbed men suddenly stopped in place.

Their skin started to turn dark, and terror filled their faces as streams of black blood oozed out of their eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

Both had been poisoned, and were now incapable of breathing. Their terror deepened, and instinct urged them to flee.

However, they took no more than a few steps before both coughed up huge mouthfuls of black blood. Then they staggered and fell, their bodies twitching, their expressions filled with agony as they let out torturous screams. Then they died.

Boneblade was shocked to the core, and the old man unleashing the magical attack was similarly stunned, so much so that his tornado destabilized. Then his eyes started bleeding black blood.

“You…” he said, his face falling. He couldn’t possibly finish his magical technique, so he shoved his hands out, causing the ice blades to explode prematurely.

Thanks to his shaken state, the explosion wasn’t very well-controlled, and Xu Qing easily avoided the attack. Then he watched as the old man turned and ran in the opposite direction.

As the man ran, he pulled out a medicinal pill and consumed it. Xu Qing did nothing. As Boneblade looked on in terror, Xu Qing just counted quietly.

“One. Two. Three.”

The moment he said “three,” the old man vomited black blood that contained rotting chunks of internal organs.

He staggered, his face pale, but he didn’t fall. From the look of it, he still had some energy to flee.

Seeing that, Xu Qing frowned and burst into motion after the old man. The old man looked back despairingly as Xu Qing launched a blow. The energy of his fist attack created the vicious face of a goblin, grinning fiercely as it bore down on the old man.

SLAM!

The old man shook violently as his clothing was ripped to shreds and his internal organs shattered. He was dead.

His corpse landed on the ground, the chest sunken in, the shattered flesh and bone deformed into the face of a goblin. It was truly a ghastly sight.

Theoretically speaking, once the seven types of poison powder combine in the wind, it should kill the victims within a few breaths of time. But he survived…. It seems I have some room for improvement.

Ignoring the terrified Boneblade, Xu Qing went to collect his spoils of battle. Then he sprinkled Corpse-Ravaging Powder on the three bodies.

Hissing and popping sounds filled the jungle as the corpses turned into pools of blood.

With those things done, Xu Qing looked at Boneblade. Boneblade was struck to the core with fear from everything he’d seen Xu Qing do. In fact, Xu Qing was the most terrifying entity in the world as far as he was concerned.

And when Xu Qing looked at him, he shook from head to toe.

Then, as he shook, he suddenly noticed that the skin on his hand was turning green. He nearly passed out.

“Fellow Daoist Kid, I-I… I got poisoned!”

“The wind in this area is filled with my poisons,” Xu Qing explained calmly.

“Antidote! I need an antidote….” Boneblade felt pain building up inside of him.

“There are no antidotes for my poisons.” Xu Qing looked at the Fog of Confusion, which was getting ever-closer, and then he looked at the despairing Boneblade. “I came to save you because you bought my insurance. I’m not someone you can manipulate with petty tricks.”

“Fellow Daoist Kid, I’m sorry. Really, it was my mistake. This hurts so bad! Look, I’m turning green….”

Boneblade trembled as he held his hands up. They were already turning greenish-black, which had happened to the two men in black garb, just before they started bleeding from all their orifices. Boneblade couldn’t have been more terrified.

Looking at him coldly, Xu Qing waved his hand, sending a package of medicinal powder over.

Boneblade grabbed it and dumped the entire thing into his mouth. Soon the green color began to fade, and yet, his face started to swell.

“What did you give me?” he said, feeling his face. “I’m swelling up. It feels numb….”

Xu Qing looked down at him.

“That was also poison.”