"I'm telling the truth.
Killing is against the law.
I never kill people!
I have always been a law-abiding citizen!" Xu Jinchang continued to argue.
"The aura of resentment and malice upon you is very deep.
Ordinarily, when people see someone in Taoist robes, they show subconscious respect.
Yet, you showed BenZuo not a shred of courtesy.
Not only that, you dared to snatch BenZuo's cigarette, throw it on the ground, and even intended to smash me with an ashtray.
You are so lawless, yet you claim to be a law-abiding citizen.
Do you want BenZuo to issue you a Good Citizen certificate?"
Xu Jinchang's eyes darted around.
The sudden shift from being the butcher to the meat on the chopping block left him momentarily dazed.
"You slapped me first!
That's why I picked up the ashtray to scare you, I didn't actually intend to hit you...
And you even elbowed me afterwards..."
Xu Jinchang defended himself desperately.
"I won't pursue this anymore. You can go!"
Xu Jinchang felt he had already lowered his status and posture to the absolute minimum.
He hadn't even referred to himself as ' Young Master,' which he felt gave Tao Bai plenty of face.
"You aren't even dead yet;
Where would BenZuo go?"
"No! No!"
Xu Jinchang shouted.
"You can't kill me!
I am the Young Master of Wucheng!"
The other three wealthy scions also hurriedly shouted out their fathers' titles.
Tao Bai listened and smiled.
"So, you are allowed to kill others, but others aren't allowed to kill you?"
"Right!
In Wucheng, it has always been us killing others!
No one can kill us!
No one has the guts to kill us!!"
Xu Jinchang screamed hoarsely.
"If you dare kill me, your whole family will be buried with me!"
"If you dare touch me, your whole family will die a horrible death!"
"Dare to touch me, and you're dead!
My dad won't let you off!"
"If I die, not a single one of your family will escape!"
...
Lying on the ground, the three other young masters also hurled threats at Tao Bai.
"It seems you all have quite the background and power."
Tao Bai sighed,
"Even now, you dare to utter ruthless threats against BenZuo."
"Do you dare to kill us all?!"
Xu Jinchang roared.
"You may leave, friend."
Tao Bai said, looking at Xu Xiao,
"It might get a bit bloody later.
Or, you can call the police."
"I didn't see anything.
The senior may do whatever he wishes.
This junior will take his leave first."
Xu Xiao spoke and left without turning his head back.
He had read some xianxia novels and knew that in this situation, he could only address Tao Bai as 'Senior.'
The brief exchange earlier was merely Tao Bai playing around.
If Tao Bai had truly struck with intent, Xu Xiao feared he wouldn't have lasted a single move.
The gap between a mortal and a cultivator was simply too vast!
Just then, several people in the area were already dialing their phones.
Time was tight.
Tao Bai had to resolve this quickly!
With a few rounds of Xuan Ice Arrows, the dozen people on the ground turned into a dozen corpses.
Tao Bai first summoned the Blood-Link Mill to collect their soul bodies, then brought out the Qiankun Gourd to absorb twenty masses of thick, malevolent energy.
Of the twenty masses of malevolent energy, five were particularly dense, hovering like black ink over the factory district.
The full moon hung high, and a clear breeze brushed past, curling up the ash on the ground.
A dark cloud chased the white jade disc that was sprinkling down its cold, clear radiance.
Tao Bai lit a 'True Dragon Prosperity(Zhenlong Shengshi)' cigarette.
*Whoosh~~~*
After finishing the smoke, he teleported to a wasteland several kilometers away.
He summoned the Blood-Link Mill from his body and interrogated the four young masters.
He learned that the other three came from families with immense wealth, while Xu Jinchang had both money and power.
Usually, the other three followed his lead.
Of course, their fathers were also guilty of numerous crimes, but they operated more covertly and weren't easily discovered.
However, since they hadn't provoked Tao Bai, he smoked a cigarette, thought calmly for a moment, and abandoned the idea of seeking them out to replenish his stock of Resentful Blood, Sha Qi(Malevolent Energy), and wealth.
He'd deal with it if he ran into them!
Let it be fate...
While the resentful blood of villains is good stuff, and killing them carries very little karmic debt, excessive killing would somewhat cloud one's state of mind.
He wouldn't refuse Resentful Blood or Sha Qi if it came to him, but as for Yin Marrow...
He would leave it to chance!
Fortune and misfortune have no gates, but are called upon by men themselves;
The rewards of good and evil follow like a shadow.
Since they provoked BenZuo, they brought it upon themselves!
...
On the other side, after the police rushed to the abandoned factory, they found no one there.
Only a few empty cars were parked on the grass, and all the callers were unreachable.
Lu Anliang（卢安良） immediately ordered the area sealed off.
Leading men into the factory for a carpet search, the cyber-crime unit found evidence of the four young masters' crimes in a lit office—
The computers stored numerous videos and photos of people being tortured to death.
The level of cruelty and perversion was so intense that a young, chubby cyber-police officer nearly vomited on the spot.
While dry heaving uncontrollably, he cursed,
"Fuck their grandmothers!
These scumbags were the ones who called the police, asking us to save them?!"
Several rookie officers heard this and leaned over.
After watching just one clip, they vomited right then and there!
Instantly, the office was filled with the sour stench of vomit.
The fat officer, enduring the incredibly foul smell, typed furiously on the keyboard, copying all the hidden, encrypted videos and photos onto a specialized USB drive.
Judging from the data, four or five people had been tortured to death by this group of a dozen...
"What's wrong? What is that terrible smell?"
Lu Anliang stepped into the office.
"Little Fatty, find anything?"
"Captain Lu, look at this..."
Lu Anliang watched for a few moments, his expression turning grave.
He hadn't imagined such things could happen in Wucheng!
No wonder there had been no leads on several previous missing persons cases...
Was this considered picking up a merit for free?
Or just hard labor?
After all, the ringleader was the Wucheng Lord's son...
And now they were completely missing...
The factory surprisingly had no surveillance cameras installed!
This was truly a thorny issue...
...
Tao Bai drank a few mouthfuls of Malevolence-Dissolving Wine and meditated in the crook of a tree until 5:00 AM the next morning, then flew on his sword toward Lanling cheng(cheng means city).
About an hour later, high in the sky, he took out his N95 phone, snapped a photo, and sent it to Gui Nianqiu with the caption:
[Miss you].
This location was exactly where Tao Bai had emerged from the spatial rift.
The difference was that it had been night then, and now it was day.
Back then, it was just a silhouette;
Now there were more details.
Looking at the building, a suspicion arose in Tao Bai's heart:
Why does it look more and more like Earth Eye Peak?
Tao Bai flew past it and found an uninhabited forest to land.
As soon as he landed, he received a reply from Gui Nianqiu:
[Tao Gege, why are you sending me this kind of picture? \Shy. Where are you? \Question]
[Lanling City]
[I miss you too \Shy]
[I might have to stay in Lanling City for a few days, waiting for the fish to bite.
By the way, have you encountered any confusion in your cultivation these past few days?]
[No. While you were away, I started practicing meditation and breath regulation.
Circulating Qi through the microcosmic and macrocosmic orbits, I feel my object-control ability has improved a little...]
[That is excellent. When I get back, I'll have to properly test your depth(skills).]
[Hehe, I also want to see if Tao Gege has grown and improved these past few days!]
[Oh, I have grown a lot...]
[By the way, today is the Lantern Festival. Remember to eat tangyuan!]
[I only have an appetite for your tangyuan.]
[Then do you want to fly back to eat them?]
[One thousand one hundred kilometers... about five hours... Sure!]
Tao Bai chatted as he walked.
Before long, he arrived at the Baidi Le KTV, a few kilometers away, located next to the Jiangnan Dream Island.
It had small private rooms with excellent soundproofing, very suitable for whispering and discussing matters.
However, it wasn't business hours yet.
This KTV operated from 12:00 PM to 2:00 AM.
After teleporting out of the KTV, he strolled around the area.
He hadn't received any texts from Lord Ba, nor did he encounter anything new.
At 2:00 PM, Tao Bai mounted his sword and took off again.
He pulled out his phone for navigation and flew rapidly toward Nancheng at a speed of 250 kilometers per hour.