Chapter 64: Coo. Coooo.
Killing intent flickered in the old innkeeper’s eyes as he watched Xu Qing leaving. However, he didn’t make a single move, and eventually, Xu Qing disappeared around a distant street corner. Only then did the killing intent gradually dissipate. At that point, the head of a huge anaconda dropped down from the rafters, making cooing sounds that made it seem like it was speaking.
“Why didn’t I kill him?” The old man rolled his eyes. “The young fellow fights dirty. Plus he seems dangerous. I have the feeling that unless I used a trump card—“
“Coo. Coooo.”
“You’re the piece of trash!” the old man snapped. “Your whole family is trash! Eat, eat, eat. All you freaking do is eat! Fine. Go ahead and eat.”
The anaconda struck, its jaws clamping onto the corpse of Daoist Rat. Swallowing the body, the snake slowly retreated into the rafters.
Meanwhile, Xu Qing headed through the night back to the Violent Crimes Division. After turning in Daoist Rat’s head, he pocketed the 15 spirit stone bounty, then headed through the dawn light toward a little shop run by some common citizens. There, he had a bowl of soymilk and some flatbread. At the urging of the shopkeeper, he decided to splurge a bit, and bought three eggs. After finishing the eggs, he went back to his dharmaboat. [1]
He had earned more than just the 15 spirit stone bounty. He also had Daoist Rat’s sack, which contained one spirit stone and some miscellaneous items. Based on what he knew of prices in the Port District, Xu Qing was confident he could sell those items for three spirit stones.
“This is definitely a good way to make money.” With that, he started working on his cultivation.
The day passed, and soon it was nighttime. That was when Xu Qing opened his eyes. He had another night shift, and yet, as the moon climbed, he headed back in the direction of Plankspring Way. Since waiting for opportunities seemed to be profitable, he was going to make the same gamble as the night before.
After arriving, he walked around a bit, then stationed himself in the same spot as before, keeping his eyes on the inn from the shadows. This time, it didn’t take long for someone to appear. However, it wasn’t a wanted criminal, but rather, the old innkeeper. He walked right out of the inn and up to Xu Qing, his expression grim.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t do something if you came back to cause trouble, young fellow?”
“No,” Xu Qing said calmly.
“You...” the old man growled. For a moment, he seemed to be at a loss for words, until he gritted his teeth and said, “What exactly are you planning to do? Come lurk around here day after day?”
Xu Qing said nothing for a few breaths’ worth of time. Then he looked at the man and said, “I need to make money.”
“Yeah? So do I!” Tentacles began to burrow out from within the old man’s eyes, and his forehead split. At the same time, a cold and sinister aura spread out from him. “If you keep this up, there won’t be a single customer who dares come to my inn. You’ve already caused business to drop.” Glaring at Xu Qing, the old man continued, “Therefore. You will leave this place. Now!”
Xu Qing thought about it and realized what the old man said made sense. If he kept waiting for criminals in this spot, then soon people wouldn’t dare to come around. Nodding, he walked a bit further down the street and found a new hiding place.
The old man had assumed Xu Qing was leaving the area. Instead, he simply switched hiding spots. This caused veins to bulge on his skin, and he nearly laughed out loud with rage. Instead, he said nothing as his forehead continued to split, until his entire head separated into two parts. Where his head had once been was now a mass of red, like blood, and shockingly, it was full of fleshy, bloody tentacles.
The ghastly tentacles writhed as the man then stalked toward Xu Qing.
As terrifying fluctuations rolled out in all directions, the anaconda stuck its head out, while at the same time, numerous ropes appeared and slowly amassed around Xu Qing.
Xu Qing’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the old man walking toward him.
“This is a public street,” Xu Qing said, “not your inn. I abide by your house rules and won’t cause problems for anyone inside. But it would be completely unreasonable to expect me to leave them alone after they left. Don’t tell me that your room fee includes the guarantee of safety in public?”
Xu Qing looked at the old man. From what he could sense, the man seemed to be reasonable, so he expected a reasonable answer.
The old man stopped walking. “It does include a guarantee of safety. You have a problem with that?”
Xu Qing thought about it for a moment, then took out a sum of what appeared to be 200 spirit coins, and handed them over.
The old man stared in shock.
“Since you guarantee safety,” Xu Qing said, sounding very serious, “I’d like to book two nights in one of your rooms. Now you’re in charge of keeping me safe.”
The old man stared at the spirit coins, then looked back up at Xu Qing. After a long moment passed, he let loose a frustrated sigh. The two halves of his head stitched back together, and he looked at Xu Qing with a helpless expression.
Some distance away in the inn, the anaconda suddenly said, “Coo. Coooo....”
“Shut up!” the old man snapped, looking angrily at the snake. “I know what he said makes sense!”
As it turned out, the old man was a reasonable person. Everything Xu Qing said made sense, and the old man... couldn’t find a way to argue with him. Xu Qing hadn’t broken any of his house rules, and had also paid a fee of spirit coins. If the old man stuck to what he’d said previously, then he did have to guarantee his safety….
Thus, the old man could only stand there feeling increasingly helpless.
He looked at Xu Qing.
Xu Qing looked back.
After glaring at each other for a short time, the old man sighed. “How about I give you information about two people on the bounty list? It should be enough for you to track them down. In exchange, you stay away from here.”
The old man took out a jade slip, imprinted it with some information, and then handed it to Xu Qing. Keeping the spirit coins, he turned and walked back to his inn without so much as glancing over his shoulder.
As he left, the ropes in the area vanished. As for the anaconda, it nodded at Xu Qing as if in greeting, then disappeared.
Looking at the jade slip, Xu Qing saw two addresses, as well as the names of two criminals. After committing the information to memory, Xu Qing took the time to remove some undetectable powder from the walls next to him, and scattered some poison-neutralizing powder on the ground.
After, he walked back to his previous hiding spot. Waving his right hand, he neutralized the poison powder he’d left on the ground and in the air. Finally, when all traces of his presence had been removed, he plucked seven or eight weeds from the ground. Those weeds wouldn’t survive anyway, thanks to having been coated with five different types of poison.
Earlier, he had made sure that both of his hiding spots had all sorts of poison powders set up around them.
The old man was infected with thirty-seven types of poison, but didn’t present any symptoms at all....
Xu Qing looked at the inn through narrowed eyes before finally turning to leave.
After he was gone, the old innkeeper’s calm expression disappeared. Looking anxious, he quickly started rummaging through his collection of medicinal pills. After consuming about ten different types of poison-negating pills, he quickly performed an incantation gesture, causing the sack Xu Qing had given him to burst into flames.
The spirit coins inside vanished.
“This young fellow is so ruthless! He covered the whole street in poison! And he even poisoned the spirit coins he gave me!” The truth was that there were two reasons he had agreed to compromise with Xu Qing. The first was that Xu Qing really had made sense. The second was that... the old man had been just about to lose control of the poison that had seeped throughout his body. Actually, the latter was the more important of the two reasons.
“He’s so young, yet this is how he acts.... Once he grows up, he’s definitely going to be a fiendish killer among humans.”
From the rafters, the anaconda made some cooing sounds.
“You like him?” the old man asked. “Yeah, he likes you too. Didn’t you notice? The first time he saw you, he was looking at you. Specifically, the area where your gallbladder is.” The old man chuckled coldly.
The cooing sounds stopped.
***
As the night grew deeper, Xu Qing sped through the streets. There was no way he would take the old man’s information at face value. After some thought, he took out his identity medallion to send a voice message to someone in particular. Then he continued on his way.
The first location was somewhat remote. After arriving, Xu Qing staked out the place for a time. Eventually, he determined that though someone had been staying here in the past, they were no longer around.
With that, he went to the second location. This place was a bustling gambling hall. Finding a spot across the street under the eaves of a building, he observed the place coldly. According to the information in the old man’s jade slip, there was a criminal named Sun Dewang who had recently come ashore and was spending time at this gambling hall. He wasn’t human, and was in the ninth level of Qi Condensation. He spent most of his time on the Forbidden Sea engaged in piracy and related activity. He was quite well known, and had connections to a group called the Sea Ghosts. They were actually one of the most active groups of pirates on the open seas. The bounty on Sun Dewang’s head was quite high, being 40 spirit stones. And it was offered by a group of about a dozen merchant ships. It was obvious how vicious of a character Sun Dewang was.
Because of that, Xu Qing wasn’t going to take action casually. After watching the place for about an hour, he saw all sorts of people go in and out, and was able to overhear many of them conversing. The patrons included poor people, rich people, people who were high-spirited and full of mettle, and others who were despondent and bitter.
Even after confirming that there were no high-level spirit power fluctuations in the area, Xu Qing decided to stay outside.
About four hours later, when the sun was coming up, he finally spotted his target.
Sun Dewang was a fat man in a brocade garment, who looked like a rich old landlord. As he emerged from the gambling hall, he barely took two or three steps before looking directly at Xu Qing hiding in the shadows. His eyes narrowed with alarm.
Advancing directly toward Xu Qing, he growled, “What a rotten day. I lost all my freaking money gambling, and now some damn bounty hunter thinks he’s going to get my head? How dare some pitiful runt in the seventh level of Qi Condensation come after me. Are you tired of living? Get ready to bleed!”
As the light of dawn spread, Xu Qing’s eyes glittered coldly, and he shot into the open.
1. There are two words in Chinese that are commonly translated as ‘soymilk.’ The type of soymilk referenced here is more like a soy broth or soup. It’s heartier than the type of soymilk common in western countries, and is commonly eaten for breakfast in China. ☜