Chapter 84: Look Strong

Big Sister, Li Qian, and Xu Qin grimaced. They teamed up just like that?

Ye Guan smiled. “Great!”

Ji Xuan smiled and asked, “Do you know what could happen to you if you start working with me?”

“Are you saying that the Guanxuan Academy will target me?”

“Are you not afraid of the Guanxuan Academy?” Ji Xuan asked.

Ye Guan retorted, “Are you not afraid of the An Clan and the Ancient Heavenly Dragon Clan?”

Ji Xuan blinked a few times before she guffawed. “I’m not afraid! I’ve already offended them, anyway, so why would I be afraid of offending them again?”

Ye Guan nodded and agreed. “We’re on the same boat, then!”

Ji Xuan grinned. “You’re a pretty interesting swordsman!”

Ye Guan smirked and looked at Big Sister, Li Qian, and Xu Qin.

“I’m afraid I will have to withdraw from the Mercenary! Otherwise, all of you will be implicated,” he said. He was aware that the Ancient Heavenly Dragon Clan was the one targeting him this time rather than the An Clan. If he were to stay with them, he would only end up bringing harm to them.

Big Sister was silent for quite a while before she said, “Be careful!”

Ye Guan nodded and replied, “I will! Anyway, you guys should hurry up and leave!”

Big Sister’s expression was complex as she looked at him. “Take care!”

With that, she turned around and walked away with Li Qian.

Xu Qin walked over to Ye Guan. He took out a storage ring and placed it in Ye Guan’s hands. “There are three talismans in there containing Immortal-grade spells. I’m hoping that you’ll find them useful. Brother Ye, you have to be safe!”

“Thank you,” Ye Guan said with a smile.

“It should be me who should thank you,” Xu Qin shook his head and said, “All right, farewell, then! Take care!”

With that, Big Sister, Li Qian, and Xu Qin disappeared into the darkness of the night.

Ji Xuan suddenly asked, “What are your plans?”

“I have no plans,” Ye Guan replied, “I’ll just wait for them to come here, and then, I’ll bury them!”

“You’re that confident?”

“I expect things to progress in three stages. The first stage is that they’ll underestimate me because of my cultivation realm. We should be able to relax during the first stage,” said Ye Guan.

“What about the second stage?”

“They’ll realize that I’m stronger than expected, so they’ll start taking me seriously. I’m sure that those who are only trying their luck would have already retreated at that point. In other words, we would start seeing powerhouses during the second stage.”

“And the third stage?”

“The ordinary among the experts would have already abandoned the idea of taking my head at that point, and even the cream of the crop experts will start analyzing my prowess.

“If the mastermind behind the kill order wants progress during the third stage, they’ll have to do either of these two: increase the bounty or give up.”

“Wait, a third choice exists.” Ji Xuan laughed and pointed out. “They can come down here and chop your head off personally.”

“That’s right!” Ye Guan agreed with a nod.

“You’re too strong. I think there are only ten people who are strong enough to kill you throughout Sin Abyss,” said Ji Xuan.

Ten? Ye Guan frowned and asked, “Are the cultivators here that weak?”

Ji Xuan rolled her eyes at him and said, “Can’t it be because you’re too strong?”

Ye Guan was taken aback, but he soon chuckled sheepishly.

Ji Xuan shook her head and said, “You bastard, you’re fishing for praise by pretending to be humble, are you?”

Ye Guan quickly shook his head and said, “It hasn’t been that long since I arrived on the Zhongtu Divine Continent. I’m still not familiar with the powerhouses here, and I actually haven’t killed that many people yet!”

As he spoke, he couldn’t help but shake his head and laugh. This was Master Pagoda’s fault!

Master Pagoda had been reminding him every day about just how he was just a frog in the well, and he kept on comparing Ye Guan to the truly great clans of the Guanxuan Universe.

In the end, Ye Guan had gotten so wary of every cultivator who had a higher cultivation base than him that he started thinking that each and every one of them was as strong as Ye Guanzhi.

Ji Xuan chuckled and said, “The people I mentioned are ancient fogeys. It’s difficult to move their hearts with money alone, but it depends on the amount!”

“What if we’re working together?” Ye Guan asked.

Ji Xuan blinked.

She waved her hand in dismissal and casually said, “It’ll be a piece of cake!”

“I guess we won’t be in any danger as long as the mastermind doesn’t come down here to intervene, but if they do…” Ye Guan trailed off before saying, “Our collaboration will end by then!”

Ye Guan wasn’t shameless enough to ask a stranger to take on the burden of facing the An Clan and the Ancient Heavenly Dragon Clan with him. The two of them didn’t owe each other anything, after all.

A human being had to abide by some basic principles in life. They had to be less scheming and live a good life. In addition, it wasn’t like Ji Xuan was dumb enough to take on Ye Guan’s burdens.

Ji Xuan was bewildered to hear Ye Guan’s words, but she eventually revealed a smile.

However, she didn’t say a word in response. Ye Guan’s character was great, but she wasn’t dumb enough to put herself in a life-or-death situation for his sake. She wasn’t a love-struck fool!

They were adults, so it was only right for them to be pragmatic.

Ji Xuan seemed to have recalled something. “You’ll be in trouble because you killed those two Guanxuan students.”

Ye Guan was slightly confused and asked, “Why would I be in trouble?”

“You shouldn’t underestimate the Guanxuan Academy’s intelligence network. It’s pretty impressive. You guys didn’t cover up your tracks when that young man lured you guys over here.

”I’m sure the academy will easily pinpoint you guys down as the young man’s killer the moment they decide to launch an investigation,” Ji Xuan explained.

After a few moments of silence, she continued. “I’m afraid your friends will end up betraying you. They’re probably going to use you as their scapegoat.”

Ye Guan was silent.

“Are you going to get mad if they betray you?” she asked.

Ye Guan nodded. "Of course, I would get mad, I’m not a monk, after all!”

“Does that mean that you’ll regret saving them if they betray you?”

“No,” said Ye Guan.

“Why not?” Ji Xuan asked, seemingly confused.

Ye Guan made a sidelong glance at Ji Xuan and said, “I saved them because I can as well as because of my principles. I’ll get mad if they betray me, but I’ll never regret saving them. Self-preservation is humanity’s nature, so I won’t blame them for using me as a scapegoat. After all, we’re in a hostile and pragmatic world.”

“However…” Ye Guan trailed off. “Just like how I saved them, I can also take their lives. I will bury those who dare to bring harm to me!”

Ji Xuan boisterously laughed.

Ye Guan was baffled. Did I say something funny?

“You’re indeed an interesting swordsman! You know how to express gratitude and hold grudges, you have a bottom line, and you have the sincere heart of a child…

“Unfortunately, I’m not sure how long you can keep that up!”

Ye Guan was about to say something, but the two of them looked up and stared at the horizon.

A black shadow was making a beeline for them.

Ye Guan’s eyes narrowed, and he hurriedly said, “They’re coming! Lady Ji, hide!”

Ji Xuan nodded. Her figure blurred, and she vanished from sight.

The black shadow suddenly melted into the darkness.

Swoosh!

The black shadow crept up silently behind Ye Guan.

It was an ambush! As a seasoned veteran, the assassin was aware that ambushes had the highest chance of success. The assassin was also the type of assassin who would kill their targets first before spouting a bunch of nonsense.

After all, he was aware that assassins whose mouths would move first before their daggers wouldn’t last a long time in the industry.

The assassin was fast, but he was still too slow in Ye Guan’s eyes.

Ye Guan turned around and thrust his sword forward.

Clang!

Ye Guan managed to block the assassin’s dagger, which was just a few inches away from his forehead.

The black shadow was no more and was replaced by a black-robed figure.

A ray of sword energy was sticking out of the black-robed figure’s glabella!

“What a fast sword…” muttered the black-robed figure.

“I only used thirty percent of my power!” Ye Guan replied.

The black-robed figure was at a loss for words.

Ye Guan didn’t drag it out any further and slashed out with his sword.

Slice!

The black-robed figure’s skull exploded, causing brain matter to fly everywhere.

Ye Guan took the black-robed figure’s storage ring. He waved his hand, causing a pile of soil to swallow and bury the black-robed figure’s corpse.

He was serious when he said that he would bury his enemies.

Ji Xuan reappeared in front of Ye Guan.

Ye Guan examined the storage ring and discovered 1.2 million gold spiritual crystals inside of it!

He took out six hundred thousand gold spiritual crystals and handed them over to Ji Xuan. However, Ji Xuan shook her head and said, “You killed him without me, so you should keep everything.”

Ye Guan shook his head and insisted. “We had an agreement.”

“You’ll be just fine without me,” Ji Xuan said.

Ye Guan smiled and said, “It’s only a matter of time before we reach the third stage. The true powerhouses will turn up, and I will need your help by then. I also have something big!”

“You have something big?” Ji Xuan asked.

Ye Guan nodded, “Yes!”

“W-what’s big?” Ji Xuan stammered and froze. Her cheeks turned red as well, but she made sure to look calm on the outside. He seems to be a gentleman. I don’t think he meant something weird!

Ye Guan was truly not thinking of anything weird.

He smiled at her and said, "Just sit tight and watch my performance!"

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

“I—” Ji Xuan was about to say something, but she abruptly turned to her right with narrowed eyes. “Someone’s coming!”

“Hide!” Ye Guan exclaimed.

Ji Xuan’s figure blurred, and she vanished once more.

Ye Guan saw a young man strolling toward him. A broadsword was on the young man’s back, and he was holding a cucumber in his left hand. The young man casually walked toward Ye Guan while munching on his cucumber.

The young man’s chest was exposed, and the figure of a dragon and a tiger was tattooed on his chest, which made him appear intimidating.

Tattoos? Ye Guan frowned.

It seemed that he was about to face an adventurous young man.

The young man looked at Ye Guan and asked, “Are you Ye Guan?”

Ye Guan nodded.

The young man smirked and said, “Someone wants your head, and they’re offering thirty million gold spiritual crystals. I happen to be short of money recently, so I would like to borrow your head!”

Ye Guan peeked over the young man’s shoulder and asked, “You’re alone?”

“Why? Am I not enough?” jeered the young man.

Ye Guan glanced at the young man’s storage ring.

“Are you sure you don’t want any backup?”

The young man guffawed. “I’m more than enough for the likes of you!”

Swoosh!

The young man’s figure blurred, and he reappeared in front of Ye Guan with his sword raised up high.

Rumble!

The young man’s broadsword shattered space itself as it drew an arc toward Ye Guan’s head.

The young man was a Space Shattering Realm cultivator, and his attack was particularly vicious and speedy. One could easily deduce that the young man had participated in many life-or-death battles before.

Ye Guan sidestepped to avoid the broadsword, astonishing the young man. The young man was about to launch another attack, but Ye Guan’s sword had already pierced his forehead just as he had made the decision to move.

The young man’s expression stiffened. He stared at Ye Guan in disbelief.

“You’re… this strong?” he asked.

“You look so fierce, but to think that you’d be so weak…” Ye Guan trailed off. His gaze landed on the young man’s chest. “What’s up with that tattoo?”

The young man’s voice trembled. “Tattoos… they make me look strong!”

“Tattoos make you look strong?” Ye Guan frowned.

The young man nodded and explained, “Yes, I’m sure of it! I’ve tested it with commoners, and they would always get scared at the sight of me alone, so…”

Ye Guan didn’t know what to say.