My Cultivation Techniques Upgrade Automatically

Chapter 48: Chapter 48: Young Lady, You Wouldn’t Want...

”Stand still! Stand still!”

”Don’t move! If the knife slips, I’m not taking the blame!”

Inside the courtyard, nearly twenty thugs from the Black Scorpion Gang were scattered about, some sitting, some standing. They were eating and drinking at their leisure, playing drinking games and sparring, having the time of their lives.

On one empty side of the courtyard, a few other gang members were toying around, throwing gleaming, three-inch-long daggers for fun.

Their targets weren’t inanimate objects like straw dummies, but living, breathing people.

Refugees they had abducted from outside the city!

Under the threat of the flying daggers, the refugee was shaking like a leaf.

Watching the gang members deliberately feint their throws, a foul stench soon emanated from the refugee’s groin.

And in a corner near them, three or five corpses of other refugees were already piled up, all of them killed by a thrown dagger.

Two figures landed silently on top of the wall, observing everything happening in the courtyard.

Xue Hongling’s slender brows furrowed. Her face was grim as she watched the gang members kill for sport, a murderous intent surging in her eyes.

She had been hunting down and killing fiends from the Blood Slaughter Sect in the main streets and shops, and had never ventured this deep into the alleyways.

She never imagined that, besides the Blood Slaughter Sect, there were other villains so wicked they treated human lives as if they were grass, killing people for entertainment!

If she hadn’t overheard the ruckus of a gang fight from the inn’s backyard during the day—a fight supposedly related to the Blood Slaughter Sect—she wouldn’t have come here tonight searching for clues about them.

And she wouldn’t have met Wu Chen, nor would she have witnessed this scene.

Watching the gang members take pleasure in the suffering of others, bullying poor refugees.

Xue Hongling had only one thought: ’They deserve to die!’

SWISH!

After a few more feints, the refugee collapsed to the ground, completely limp. Having lost interest, the gang member flicked his wrist, and the dagger in his hand shot toward the refugee like a streak of light.

He was confident this throw would pierce the refugee’s eye socket.

If all went well, he would soon hear a delightfully agonized scream.

DING!

But a crisp clang of metal on metal rang out, and a brilliant spark flashed in the air.

He felt a sudden, sharp pain in his own eye socket as something hard pierced it.

There was a wet popping sound.

SPLAT!

A warm stream trickled down his cheek. The thug instinctively clutched his agonizing eye, his remaining eyeball staring blurrily ahead.

The refugee was gone.

In his place stood the figure of a young woman.

He knew something was wrong and tried to fight back.

But the pain in his eye socket was too intense. His mind was a muddled mess, he couldn’t even manage a scream, and all his strength seemed to have been drained away.

The force with which Xue Hongling had deflected the dagger had sent it flying back to nearly pierce through the back of his skull. He finally couldn’t hold on any longer, his legs gave out, and he collapsed, his breathing ceasing entirely.

It all happened in the blink of an eye.

So much so that when the thug fell, the others were still eating and drinking, having not reacted at all.

But Xue Hongling clearly had no intention of stopping there. Having grown up in the Blood Slaughter Sect, her methods were ruthless by nature, and killing was hardly something she found difficult to accept.

Especially when her targets were wicked men.

Even with her blade still sheathed, she struck the group down, leaving them with broken bones and torn tendons, dead on the spot.

”Her skills really are impressive.”

”A delightful sight to behold!”

On the wall, Wu Chen clicked his tongue in appraisal. He watched quietly as the young woman moved through the courtyard, making no move to intervene.

Instead, he let her vent her anger.

As someone on the verge of entering the Meridian Passage Realm, he could easily tell that among these thugs of varying strength, not a single one was a match for Xue Hongling.

Perhaps if there were sixty or seventy of them, all at the fifth or Sixth Layer of the Flesh Refining Realm, they might pose a threat to her.

Like making her wrist a little sore.

In the courtyard, Xue Hongling’s figure weaved through the chaos. Before long, all twenty of the once-arrogant and tyrannical thugs lay on the ground, lifeless.

She glanced at Wu Chen on the wall without a word, then walked over to the corner.

Wu Chen knew exactly what she meant. He leaped down from the wall and beckoned to the refugee who was still sitting limply on the ground.

”Go grab the food by the fire, say thank you to the young lady in the corner, and get out of here.”

”Thank you, sir!”

Having escaped death, the refugee reacted quickly. He did as Wu Chen said, stumbling over to the fire and scooping up a pile of food, then ran to Xue Hongling.

”Thank you, Grandma!”

Xue Hongling: ”...”

She didn’t say anything, but shot a glare at Wu Chen.

Wu Chen: ”...”

Wu Chen ignored her warning glare.

’I just told him to say thanks. Who knew the guy would add his own flair to it!’

The refugee bolted through the courtyard gate, his footsteps quickly fading into the distance.

Xue Hongling closed the residence’s gate and once again walked to the corner, remaining silent.

Wu Chen began his practiced work among the scattered corpses, first searching for Martial Arts manuals, then for silver coins.

Finally, he dug out their hearts and lungs.

Just like before, after tossing the Heart Orifices into the latrine, Wu Chen looked at Xue Hongling and said:

”On to the next one?”

Xue Hongling’s lips parted slightly. ”There are more?”

’Right. So you don’t know anything except how to kill members of the Blood Slaughter Sect, huh?’

It fit Wu Chen’s stereotype of a Blood Slaughter Sect disciple.

’Ruthless, even to their own people!’

”There are sixteen gangs in total in Black Stone City.”

Wu Chen shared what he knew with her. ”We’ve only taken out the two weakest. That leaves fourteen.”

”The other gangs are even stronger, and they act with even less restraint.”

”I’m afraid what they do is more than ten times worse than what you saw tonight.”

”Especially the Gold Tooth Gang. They run casinos, swindling people until their families are shattered and they’re forced to sell their sons, daughters, and wives.”

”The people of Black Stone City can’t even survive. That beast is the main culprit!”

Wu Chen was telling the truth, and just as he expected, he saw the expression on this ’heroine’s’ face grow colder and colder, the murderous intent in her eyes practically solidifying.

Her killing intent became harder and harder to suppress.

Wu Chen nodded in satisfaction. He knew that now, he’d have someone to do his dirty work for him.

”Lead the way!”

Xue Hongling’s voice was icy. She wished she could go to the remaining fourteen gangs’ headquarters right this instant and slaughter the whole lot of them.

”No rush.”

Wu Chen replied nonchalantly. He knew that at this moment, if he wanted to truly make this girl his workhorse, he had to play hard to get.

”No rush?”

After riling her up to this point, to suddenly pull back left Xue Hongling feeling a bit frustrated.

She looked at Wu Chen coldly. ”Do you know how many people will suffer if we’re even a quarter of an hour late?”

Wu Chen shrugged and pointed at the sky above. ”It’s too late. It’s the middle of the night. It’s useless to go now. Everyone who was going to disperse and go to sleep has already gone.”

”Besides, if you hadn’t stopped me earlier, I would have already taken out the third gang by now.”

Seeing Xue Hongling’s disbelief, Wu Chen started walking ahead. ”If you don’t believe me, I’ll take you to see for yourself.”

The two of them moved swiftly through the alleys, and just as Wu Chen had said, they visited the strongholds of several gangs in a row.

After eating, drinking, and amusing themselves, the gang members who were going to leave had already left.

After all, these thugs were still thinking people. They roamed every corner of Black Stone City and wouldn’t just stupidly stay in one place.

Seeing one empty courtyard after another, the embers of recently extinguished fires still warm.

Xue Hongling was filled with regret and shame.

If she hadn’t indiscriminately stopped Wu Chen at the beginning, they could have eliminated another den of vipers tonight, maybe even more.

”You don’t have to be so discouraged. By tomorrow, news that two whole gangs were wiped out will probably have spread to every corner of Black Stone City.”

Wu Chen tried to console her:

”They’ll definitely be scared. They’ll gather to discuss what to do. Even if they don’t, they surely won’t dare to cause trouble for a while.”

His words made Xue Hongling feel much better, but then her eyes suddenly lit up as she thought of something.

”Didn’t you say that Gold Tooth Gang runs a casino? They must still be gathered there at night. I’ll go kill them all!”

”No!”

Wu Chen refused sternly. ”Killing the small gangs will make them afraid, but only afraid. They’ll just think those two gangs provoked someone they shouldn’t have. In any case, they definitely won’t leave Black Stone City.”

”But if the Gold Tooth Gang is wiped out overnight, the other gangs will panic and might even scatter and flee.”

”You wouldn’t want these villains to flee the city and harm people elsewhere, would you, milady?”

Hearing this, Xue Hongling nodded and fell silent, her spirits visibly dampened.

She understood that she had caused no small amount of trouble tonight, disrupting Wu Chen’s plan to clean up the city.

He led the young woman on a winding path through the city for the rest of the night, clearing out a few witless thugs they stumbled upon so she could vent her frustration.

They continued until dawn was approaching and the sky was a hazy gray.

The two of them returned to the inn together.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

The sword hilt rapped against the inn’s main door a few times, revealing the sleepy-eyed face of the inn waiter.

He first saw Wu Chen, then his gaze shifted to the beautiful figure behind him, and he froze for a moment.

The inn waiter recognized the young woman; she was also a long-term guest at their inn.

It was just... he looked at Wu Chen again.

’Yesterday, he came back alone.’

’And tonight he comes back with a girl?!’

’This guy must have his strengths!’

At this thought, the sleepiness on the inn waiter’s face vanished instantly, replaced by a glimmer in his eyes.

He took a closer look at the young woman—she seemed completely drained. Then he looked back at Wu Chen, who stood with his head high and chest out, still full of vigor.

Such a scene.

The inn waiter couldn’t help but discreetly give Wu Chen a thumbs-up.

”Impressive!”