CLINK!
He probably hadn't expected that lifting the bolt would cause it to knock against the door.
The steel blade stopped immediately.
Bai Mo could imagine a furtive figure cowering just outside.
He would be wary of passersby on the street, yet also afraid of being discovered by the person inside.
Bai Mo didn't move. 'Shouting to attract the law enforcement squad and scare off the person outside would be a good option,' he thought.
But the person outside was heavily injured. Without knowing the full situation, startling him might make him do something desperate.
Finally, the steel blade moved again, and the bolt was lifted completely.
The door was pushed open gently, and Bai Mo's gaze sharpened.
The door hesitated for a moment before a figure in yellowish-brown linen darted inside, right under Bai Mo's watchful gaze.
Almost instinctively, Bai Mo flung a packet of powder.
POOF!
With a flick of his wrist—a move from his Intercept Mai Hand technique—the oiled paper package tore open, scattering the powder across half the room.
The intruder, especially, had no time to react. He had just entered when he saw a figure next to him flick his wrist, unleashing a cloud of powder while simultaneously leaping back.
Startled, he gasped, breathing in a lungful of the powder.
The man snapped back to his senses, grit his teeth, and without a word, swung his blade at Bai Mo.
Seeing the man's head and face coated in the powder, with more of it dissolving into the blood from his wounds, Bai Mo was no longer afraid.
'With that dosage,' he thought, 'even a bear would have collapsed by now.'
'This man can't possibly have the constitution of a Demon Beast.'
Bai Mo grabbed a nearby piece of furniture and started hurling it at the man.
With his strength, he had no illusions of actually injuring the man; he just wanted to stall for time.
BANG!
The intruder still had strength in his swing. He shattered the chair Bai Mo threw with a single slash, then did the same to the herb baskets and wooden barrels that followed.
The intruder was already hampered by his injuries, and now, having fallen for Bai Mo's trick, his movements became even more leaden. His swings grew slower and slower.
A smile touched the corners of Bai Mo's lips.
"You little bastard! You're courting death!"
The man twisted his thigh, and the wound there split open, gushing fresh blood.
His features were contorted in a savage grimace, which, combined with the powder caking his face, made him look even more terrifying.
"I'll throw you to the wolves on Celestial Barrier Mountain!"
Seeing the man regain a sliver of strength from the adrenaline, Bai Mo's smile froze.
But his eyes immediately turned cold. He snatched up a bronze pot and hurled it at the man.
"Go on, try and cut this!"
CLANG!
The blade struck the pot with a tremendous noise, making the intruder's eyelids twitch wildly in shock.
But he had no time to think. Bai Mo closed in instantly, and before the man could recover from the recoil, he struck out, his hand landing near the man's heart.
SQUIRT!
There was a deep, diagonal gash there, bleeding profusely. Bai Mo suspected it had damaged an internal organ.
Sure enough, his touch sent a straight line of blood squirting directly into his face.
"You...!"
The intruder's eyes bulged, and the veins on his temples throbbed violently. He was clearly in immense pain.
Suddenly, he mustered his last ounce of strength. His left hand snatched something from his waist and hurled it out the window.
The move was incredibly fast, executed with the skill of a common-world hidden-weapon master.
Bai Mo's reflexes were just as sharp. Almost instinctively, he thrust his palm toward the window, unleashing a wave of air.
THWACK! THUD!
Hearing the two distinct sounds, Bai Mo knew he must have hit it.
Seeing this, the man's will seemed to deflate. His body finally gave out, and he collapsed.
His eyes remained wide open. He gasped sharply a few times on the floor, then suddenly fell silent.
At the same time, a large pool of blood began to spread out from under his body.
But Bai Mo had no time to deal with that.
He climbed out the window, looked left and right, and found a piece of jade embedded in the wall of his neighbor, the one who sold Talismans.
The jade was halfway embedded in the plaster, a testament to the force with which it had been thrown.
Unfortunately for the thrower, Bai Mo's blast of air had altered its trajectory before it could get far, causing it to slam into the wall instead.
After some effort, Bai Mo managed to pry the jade free. He clambered back through his window and shut it.
Just then, he heard his neighbor shouting from outside, his voice laced with annoyance.
"Who's out there? Here to buy a Talisman?"
He waited a moment, but there was no response.
"If you're here for business, then state it! If not, don't come around making a racket! Waking people from their sleep for no good reason!"
When it finally went quiet outside, Bai Mo at last had a moment to examine the jade.
The piece in his hand was exquisitely carved with cloud patterns and a Demon Beast Bai Mo didn't recognize.
Unfortunately, it was clearly only one half of a whole. The broken edge was a complex series of ridges and grooves, suggesting it was a matching token.
There had to be another half that would fit it perfectly.
Bai Mo already had a good idea of who the intruder was.
The man's tone was exactly like that of a brutish henchman from a powerful family.
They loved to threaten the slaves they acquired by saying they'd be thrown into the mountains to feed Demon Beasts.
More importantly, they had actually done it—they'd thrown people into the mountains, both dead and alive.
'Thinking about the jade token even at death's door... This henchman was certainly loyal to his master.'
That was a rare quality.
Looking back at the henchman's corpse, Bai Mo was faced with a problem.
Suppressing his nausea, Bai Mo quickly searched the body.
He found seven Spirit Stones, a letter, some low-quality medicine, and a few other useless odds and ends.
Opening the envelope, Bai Mo read the letter.
"A favor from fifteen years ago. Now in peril. Come quickly!! Urgent! Urgent! Urgent!"
There was no signature, but Bai Mo let out a breath. He had a good idea who wrote it.
If one were to ask which major family in the city was in the most precarious situation right now, it could only be the Li family, who had built their fortune on Talismans.
According to his neighbor's gossip, countless people were just waiting to pick their bones clean.
That was likely why the Li family had sent this loyal servant to seek help.
Unfortunately, the loyal servant had clearly been ambushed. While searching the body, Bai Mo had counted more than a dozen wounds of varying sizes.
It was a testament to the man's endurance that he had made it this far.
Bai Mo also guessed why the man had chosen his place: it was a Pill Shop, and who knew how many life-saving Pills might be hidden inside.
It was the perfect place to heal and lay low.
The only unfortunate party in all this was him, the shop's owner.
'I've been dragged into the Li family's affairs.'
If what he held was truly a token for summoning aid, the Li family would undoubtedly come looking for it.
Bai Mo didn't know if the man had managed to cover his tracks on his way here.
If he hadn't, things would get troublesome.
'Judging by his hidden-weapon technique, he must have been a seasoned veteran. He shouldn't have left any obvious trails...'
Bai Mo could only try to reassure himself with that thought.
As for how to dispose of the henchman's body, that was another problem entirely.
Bai Mo regretted not having looked for a formula for something like corpse-dissolving fluid.
The powder he had used on the henchman was a common concoction in the Cultivation Realm, with Earth Dragon Root as its primary ingredient.
It caused total paralysis and weakness in its victims. While it didn't cloud the mind like Soporific Medicine, it had the advantage of being both potent and cheap.
Disposing of the corpse by himself would inevitably leave traces.
'I can't attract the attention of the law enforcement squad. If any of them have ill intentions, it'll be a disaster for me.'
'I'll have to ask Lanshan for help.'
After stuffing the body into a burlap sack, Bai Mo cleaned up the bloodstains on the floor.
He cleaned himself up, tidied the room, and sprinkled some deodorizing powder before finally heading out.
He planned to ask Lanshan for help, but in truth, Bai Mo had no idea where to find him.
So, he went straight to a tavern, ordered three vials of Mountain Bear essence blood, and asked the waiter to keep an eye out for Lanshan and his group.
"If you see them, please let them know that Shopkeeper Bai has a favor to ask."