Serpent Ancestor

Bai Qiushui thought for a moment and then turned back, saying, "By the way, if Brother Ma enjoys gambling on stones, you're welcome to visit my Baidi City. The stones there are all first-hand, much better than the rejects in Chuyang City. In Baidi City, we gamble, but we don't cheat!"

Xu Hei paused for a moment, said nothing, and left straight away.

Watching Xu Hei's departing figure, Bai Qiushui's eyes showed a look of reverence.

Xu Hei's heroic act today had completely overturned his understanding.

Though young, Bai Qiushui was a rising star in the Bai Family and had experienced life-and-death battles, but he had never shown such brilliance in front of others.

The world's perception of him was limited to being the young master of the Bai Family with a perfect Foundation Establishment.

He had an arrogant personality, disdaining to use his status to oppress others and hating those who fawned over him. However, purely based on his own strength, a Core Formation Stage cultivator could crush him with a single finger.

But Xu Hei's actions today made him realize that even a Foundation Establishment cultivator could make a Core Formation Stage cultivator tremble with fear.

Bai Qiushui's eyes flickered.

"At your service, young master." A shadow appeared, bowing.

"Do we still have any Thunder Tribulation Pearls in the Bai Family?"

"This..." The shadow shook his head, "No."

"..." Bai Qiushui was speechless.

...

Chuyang City, core commercial district.

That night was a night of humiliation for the Heavenly Dragon Casino. Someone had come to provoke them, killed several members in public, forced the master to lose tens of thousands of Spirit Stones, and cut all the gambling stones in the outer area without a single complaint.

It was a blatant slap in the face!

The news spread, and the Heavenly Dragon Casino's reputation was utterly ruined!

If it were just a slap in the face, it would be one thing, but there were also rumors that the Heavenly Dragon Casino could manipulate the outcomes behind the scenes. On the surface, it was gambling, but in reality, it was cheating.

This was no longer just a matter of face but a matter of credibility!

Once the casino lost its credibility, no one would come to gamble. Although gamblers were foolish, they weren't foolish enough to give money away for nothing.

"Have you found out anything?" Liu Ruyan asked coldly.

"Master, I have already asked Elder Ding. He said that there have only been two inner disciples in Chuyang City recently. One left yesterday, and the other is reclusive and couldn't have caused such trouble," the old steward replied with a fist salute.

Elder Ding, Ding Quan, was the manager stationed in Chuyang City by the Heavenly Puppet Sect.

Thirty percent of the Heavenly Dragon Casino's profits went to him, making him their biggest backer.

Liu Ruyan's face darkened, "Then who could it be?"

"No need to think about it, it's not someone from our Heavenly Puppet Sect."

At this moment, a mechanical voice came from outside the hall.

A mechanical dog ran in, entirely yellow, only the size of a palm, but very fast and agile. It was Elder Ding's puppet.

"Greetings, Elder Ding!"

Liu Ruyan and the old steward quickly bowed.

Ding Quan loved dogs, and all his mechanical beasts were modeled after dogs. People secretly called him Ding Dog, but he didn't mind.

"Elder Ding, are you sure?" Liu Ruyan asked.

"Of course, I've already sniffed around. I remember the aura of every inner disciple of the Heavenly Puppet Sect, and there's none nearby!" the mechanical dog said with a smile. ꞦᴀɴȱβËꞩ

Liu Ruyan was first shocked, then her face turned completely dark.

"Notify all city gates to set up a Ten Thousand Mile Soul-Chasing Formation. I want to make sure that person can't escape!" Liu Ruyan said with a grim face.

"Yes!" The old steward immediately left.

"Apologies, Elder Ding, I have urgent matters to attend to. I'll take my leave first!" Liu Ruyan cupped her hands.

"Haha, no problem, business is important," the mechanical dog said with a smile.

Liu Ruyan hesitated for a moment and couldn't help but ask, "Once we catch that person, should we hand them over to Elder Ding, or..."

"Just kill them directly, no need to inform me."

The mechanical dog sneered and then disappeared.

Liu Ruyan, being extremely shrewd, already understood his meaning!

Thirty percent of the profits from the Heavenly Dragon Casino went to Ding Quan. How could he sit idly by while the casino's reputation was ruined? There was only one solution: catch the person, kill them, and set an example.

Whether that person was a disciple of the Heavenly Puppet Sect was no longer important.

With Ding Quan's tacit approval, that was enough.

As an elder of the Heavenly Puppet Sect, his status was high. Even if the sky fell, he would bear it. The casino only needed to handle the killing.

...

Chuyang City, the largest city in the Southern Region, had a no-fly formation in the sky and an anti-escape formation underground.

To enter or leave the city, one had to go through the city gates.

Only Core Formation Stage cultivators could ignore these rules.

Xu Hei stood at one of the city gates, his true self hidden in a bundle, and Ma Teng had already been swapped into the form of a skinny old man.

As for the people following him, Xu Hei had casually wandered around the city a couple of times and used a Body Swap once, shaking them all off.

After checking with a jade disk to confirm no one was following, Xu Hei planned to leave.

He mingled in the crowd, queued up, and after a routine check, was about to walk out of the city gate.

Suddenly, Xu Hei's eyes narrowed, and he stopped in his tracks.

Xu Hei could vaguely sense a thin membrane at the city gate, invisible to the naked eye. If not for his recent breakthrough and the surge in his Divine Sense, he wouldn't have noticed it.

Xu Hei recognized this thin membrane; he had encountered it before!

It was the same Divine Sense membrane he had encountered when leaving the Purple Mist Sect.

Anyone or anything passing through it would be marked with a Divine Sense imprint, hunted to the ends of the earth.

Including Xu Hei's true self.

"Is this the work of the Heavenly Dragon Casino?" Xu Hei squinted his eyes.

He switched to another city gate and carefully checked, but the result was the same.

Every city gate had this Divine Sense membrane.

Xu Hei had reason to believe this was the handiwork of the Heavenly Dragon Casino, but where did they get the guts to target him?

"Could it be the high-ups of the Heavenly Puppet Sect giving orders?"

"Forget it, I won't leave the city for now. I'll go back to the inn and wait for a couple of days."

Xu Hei made a decisive decision, abandoning his plan to leave the city. He found a random inn on the roadside and checked in.

In the inn, each cultivator had their own independent courtyard. Xu Hei took out four formation flags he had bought earlier and placed them in four directions, forming a simple shielding formation.

This formation couldn't block Divine Sense probes above the Foundation Establishment level but could serve as an alert, letting Xu Hei know if someone was watching.

At the same time, he sent out two puppets to rent cave dwellings three and five miles away, respectively.

This way, even if his true self was discovered, he could use Body Swap to escape, buying time to flee.

The fact that the other party dared to target him, knowing he had a Soul-absorbing Flag and Thunder Tribulation Pearls, showed they had great confidence. Xu Hei had to be cautious.

This situation was something Xu Hei had anticipated long ago.

Back then, he could have ignored the other party's schemes and left the city directly. If he had done that, perhaps nothing would have happened, and he wouldn't be in this passive situation now.

But Xu Hei didn't regret it.

If you asked why, there were only two words—peace of mind!

He had stormed in and humiliated the Heavenly Dragon Casino, offending so many people and taking a huge risk, just for peace of mind.

Xu Hei waved his hand, and a cold corpse appeared in the courtyard.

It was Ma Yuanyuan's body.

She had been killed by Xu Hei but had died at the hands of Ma Teng, the puppet.

"If it had been Ma Teng himself facing this situation instead of me, what would have happened..." Xu Hei fell silent.

As an observer, he couldn't empathize, but from Ma Yuanyuan's despair and pain before her death, he gained a bit of understanding.

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