23 020: Ask about the knife in the hand before everything, late night racing (next week's update will be changed to 12 noon)_1

With a smile, Chen Dengming untraceably pulled out a low-grade spirit stone and handed it to the cultivator while making an effort to converse with him.

"Immortal Master, this is merely a token of my sincerity, not worthy of respect... This was given to me by an Immortal Master of the Gold Word Workshop. I am just a small Innate; I have no use for it."

The glow from the spirit stone was very evident in the dark.

The saying goes, "Money makes the world go round." The intense expression on the cultivator's face softened, becoming more relaxed. Chen Dengming's icy gaze also warmed, and he proceeded to take the peace offering with a relaxed manner.

"Not bad, you know how to curry favor. What future do you have with the Gold Word Workshop? It's a wise choice to follow Mr. Ming of our Hutong Street. You say, you don't know how our conflict started?"

Seeing that Chen Dengming was puzzled and his attitude was sincere and humble, the cultivator was satisfied and nodded. As they walked, he began to explain the situation.

"The conflict between our two groups is a long-standing one, but this time Gold Word Workshop went too far. They blamed the death of one of their old cultivators on our Hutong Street and repeatedly troubled us…"

"Oh?"

Chen Dengming's heart stirred.

Could it really be a coincidence? The old cultivator?

As he walked and listened, he began to have some doubts.

The old cultivator mentioned by the other party was found dead in a small grove on the north side of the gathering place. Initially, it was estimated that he died about a month ago and that he died in his own place of cultivation.

This fits perfectly.

Time of death, place of death, age of the deceased, all matched.

It was the old cultivator who died at his hands just over a month ago.

He hadn't expected that Gold Word Workshop would blame the death on Hutong Street.

During this time, there had been many disputes between the two forces, and Hutong Street had actually carried the blame for him.

But now, the leader of Hutong Street has taken notice of him because of the waist card given to him by Fairy Luo. This was becoming troublesome.

Chen Dengming was not a fool. These guys had blocked his way from the moment they appeared, clearly with malicious intent. It was fine now that he hadn't met the leader.

If they did meet, and the leader made any requests or forced him to switch sides to Hutong Street, he would have to agree even if he didn't want to. At that point, he would be entirely at their mercy.

As for the waist card of Luo family given by Fairy Luo, he knew its limitations best. He didn't have any relations with Fairy Luo.

Although other cultivators speculated about his relationship with Fairy Luo, as long as they were Smart and careful, they would think from his mortal status and come up with many ideas, and they wouldn't necessarily be cautious.

Therefore, he has to leave immediately to survive. It's simply impossible to please both sides.

Almost at the moment when Chen Dengming made his decision, the cultivator next to him who was preparing to talk to him also sensed hostility.

This cultivator hadn't fully lowered his guard. His expression changed, and he prepared to activate the talisman and charms he had been holding.

However, just as he began to mobilize his spiritual energy, he felt an arthritic pain in his palm where he had accepted the spirit stone. This caused his spiritual energy to become stagnant.

In that instant, a shadow suddenly sprang out from Chen Dengming's ear, biting down on the cultivator's cheek.

The cultivator only felt a 'bite' like pain on his cheek, and then his whole face lost all feeling. But that wasn't the end of it. He saw a flash of BroadSword Qi boomed up and forth and harshly sliced through his neck.

The intensity of this blow was such so violent that the cultivator's neck fell off instantly. His whole body didn't even sway a bit before a gush of blood spurted out.

Everything happened so fast that it made people's eyes spin.

The two Innates who were following along only felt that one moment the 'new boy' was laughing and talking with their Immortal Master.

The next moment, he abruptly drew out his sword and beheaded their Immortal Master. They didn't even see the blood centipede before the sword was drawn, and the Immortal Master's head was already flying in their stunned gaze, with the blood splattering on their faces.

This kind of shock made them pause for a moment.

During this brief pause, Chen Dengming roared up. His eyes turned extremely cold, as if he was a completely different person. He drew his sword and killed, his broad chest muscles bulging, and the sword qi from the broken sword boomed up, and in an instant, another Innate's head was sliced off.

It was only then that the third Innate shocked himself back to his senses. His first reaction was not to fight to the death, but to yell in horror and retreat.

"Take my sword!"

Chen Dengming boldly advanced, roaring and summoning an indomitable spirit. He took a big step forward and swung his sword again. The amazing sword qi was like a raging sea wave, crashing against the long sword that the enemy was blocking with force.

With a bang, sparks flew everywhere.

The swords clashed.

The third Innate spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, his long sword shattered inch by inch, and his palm split open. Even before he could fall back, Chen Dengming flashed.

The broken sword trembled, and the blade slid across the enemy's neck, cutting through the flesh, gliding over the cartilage and blood vessels. The sound and sensation of the blade entering the flesh and gliding over were particularly clear to Chen Dengming's ears and palms.

The sword light rose, and the sword shadow fell.

In the rain of blood and whirlwind, three people died to the broken sword in Chen Dengming's hand.

The most threatening cultivator among them didn't even get a chance to perform his most effective spiritual energy body protection and talisman and charms. He was directly killed on the spot.

Chen Dengming looked at the 'thump, thump' falling bodies, at the inconceivable gaze of the cultivator, and his palm tightly gripped the familiar hilt of the broken sword.

Blood spilled, and vengeance fulfilled!

Without saying a word, a sword was drawn against each other. The sword in hand would do the talking!

For a moment, he seemed to have again experienced the feeling from the past years where he dueled alone in the dark city with his sword. All the unhappiness he had being called a mortal and looked down upon by cultivators these days seemed to have been vented out at this moment.

"The spiritual stones from Chen aren't so easy to collect..."

He drew a long breath, his sharp gaze slightly relaxed, picked up the cultivator's money bag and looked at it. His face turned dark.

"Pauper! Not even a single spirit stone! Not enough to pay the interest on the loan of my spirit stones."

Sensing someone approaching, he quickly bent over and retrieved the Spirit-stone Gu from the cultivator's hand that he himself had given. He also dug out the talisman that the other party was tightly clutching in his hand, picked up the cultivator's severed head, wrapped it quickly in a patched cloak, leaped over the alley with a surge of energy, and quickly left.

In a short while, several figures appeared at the end of the alley. Seeing the corpse on the ground, some people gasped in surprise, while others had greedy eyes, staring at the money bags on the two Innate corpses. However, seeing the headless body of the cultivator, they all calmed down.

In the chaotic gathering place of loose cultivators, murder and being murdered was indeed extremely common.

Almost every day someone would die, with Innate being killed the most frequently. Who hadn't seen a dead person?

But this time, someone had killed a cultivator from Hutong Street. If it was someone from Gold Word Workshop, then things around the gathering place would probably get even messier in the coming days.

Chen Dengming took a deep breath, leaped up, and quickly returned home.

He quickly dug out another spirit stone that he had hidden, and then took out the Reed Beetle Gu and Loach Gu that he had refined from various corners.

Then he unveiled the cultivator's head wrapped in his cloak, letting the Blood Centipede Gu suck out the poisoned blood from the face, preventing anyone from suspecting anything. Then, using the cultivator's blood, he wrote a line on the wall.

He turned around and bolted out the door.

Just at this moment, his neighbor Xu Wei seemed to hear the noise. She opened the window and saw Chen Dengming leaving the house with large and small bags in his hands, her face surprised.

"Mr. Chen, what are you...?"

Chen Dengming paused for a moment, glanced at Xu Wei's swollen but pretty face, hesitated for a moment, and chose to warn her.

"The conflict between Gold Word Workshop and Hutong Street is likely to worsen, Miss Xu, you'd better find a safer place to live in..."

"Move? Where to?"

Xu Wei was surprised, drooping her head in confusion, "Where to move? I... don't have any spiritual grains to exchange for a better home... Besides the shabby houses, only an Immortal Master is eligible to live in a better place in the city..."

Chen Dengming sighed inwardly, he looked at Xu Wei deeply, "I plan to leave the gathering place for a while. Take care of yourself, Miss Xu."

Having said that, Chen Dengming turned around and left hurriedly with his bag.

"Leave? Leave the gathering place?"

Xu Wei watched Chen Dengming's strong retreating figure, an impulsive thought made her want to shout 'Take me with you'.

However, she could not bear to voice it out and just called out, "Mr. Chen, wait..."

Chen Dengming turned around, and suddenly, a shadow attacked. He was taken aback and instinctively caught it with Spirituality. The fragrance wafted into his nose. It was a money bag embroidered with mandarin ducks.

"This?"

Chen Dengming looked at Xu Wei in surprise.

He saw her cheeks become slightly red, her eyebrows wrinkled lightly, "I don't know what trouble you're in that made you decide to leave the gathering place. But as they say, it's crucial to prepare money to escape. Although I am of humble birth, I understand this well. These spiritual grains are my savings, they are all clean money. I hope you can use them. There are demonic beasts outside the gathering place, you must be very careful..."

As she said the final four words 'be very careful,' the window closed with a 'bang'

Chen Dengming held the shrunken purse in his hand, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. He tried to return it, but seeing the now closed window, he had to give it up.

He wasn't in a difficult situation now. However, he found he couldn't reject such a sincere gift.

It reminded him of when he had just arrived and had been huddled under her eaves. She had casually given him a meal.

He still remembered the taste of that cold rice, even more than any delicacy he had ever had. Because that meal contained a unique ingredient—sincerity! Perhaps this is the only thing that still gives off warmth on the cold and cruel path of cultivation.

Sometimes, it's not a disgrace to seek help from friends in times of trouble.

It's really shameful when you're in trouble and find yourself with no friends to ask for help.

Thinking that Xu Wei said she had no money to move and yet is willing to give him money to escape, he felt mixed emotions and could only shout from afar.

"Thank you, when I return one day, I will repay you doubled!"

...

"When you return one day, maybe I won't need it anymore... I won't need it..."

Behind the window, Xu Wei looked happy one moment and worried the next, her pretty face was emotional. She was charming and captivating.

In the end, she didn't shout out, 'Take me with you'. The impulsive but presumptuous words.

It wasn't just lack of courage, but also confusion.

She was unsure if he would agree and even if he did agree, she didn't know if the future would be good or bad. It was unknown.

After all, they were just ordinary neighbors. Even though she had thought about teaming up before, Chen Dengming didn't think much of her let alone now that she was trapped.

On the path of cultivation, there were probably countless people like her and him, always missing out on each other...

...

...

(Another update of nearly six thousand characters, it's very tiring)