Chapter 155: The Bizarre Undercurrents of Bianliu County

"This is the flavor, but it's still missing something."

Yan Jing wiped his mouth and spoke softly.

"Sister Hua."

"Yes—yes, my lord, I'm here."

Beside him, the woman missing an arm fought to suppress her terror, forcing a smile as she stepped forward.

"If you need anything, my lord, just give the word."

"Why isn't there any chili oil in these noodles?" Yan Jing asked.

"I—I'll add it right now..."

The woman trembled like a leaf in pure terror.

Just moments ago, a man had his arm broken simply because he hadn't answered Yan Jing's question fast enough. Only afterward did they realize Yan Jing had forgotten that the man couldn't speak.

Whether he had truly forgotten or was only pretending, no one could say.

Just like when he asked for food and drink earlier—if the woman had provided it immediately, would he have simply demanded something else? No one could say that either.

Even Old Master Liu couldn't tell.

He had previously thought his young master possessed plenty of tactical acumen but lacked a bit of decisiveness. After these past two days, however, he found he could no longer see through the young man.

But regardless, he was glad to see the young master like this.

In a place like Bianliu County, only this kind of ruthlessness could help a person live a little longer.

[Loyalty Level +2]

The chili oil was added to the bowl, but Yan Jing tossed his chopsticks aside. He was done eating.

The woman shuddered, having no idea what went wrong this time.

She kept her head bowed, not daring to look at Yan Jing at all, her legs trembling uncontrollably.

She clearly remembered that when they met last month, the young noble before her had been completely different.

Back then, he had babbled a bunch of nonsense, and she hadn't listened to a single word of it.

But the man sitting here now had severed her arm, and she was absolutely terrified of him.

"Sister Hua."

Yan Jing spoke softly once again.

"Here! I'm here!"

Sister Hua was on the verge of tears. Yan Jing's voice sounded like a malicious ghost to her ears, pushing her to the brink of collapse.

"Let me test you," Yan Jing said with a smile. "For your Prostitution Cultivation, what are the abilities from the Ninth Grade to the Seventh Grade? Tell me."

"The—the Ninth Grade enhances bedroom techniques... and increases strength through intimacy."

"Also... after the act, we have to forcefully extract either the partner's essence, energy, or spirit."

"The Eighth Grade... it improves flexibility, allowing for far more extreme contortions."

"Also, it provokes the partner's internal fire."

"The Seventh... the Seventh Grade..."

As she spoke, the woman burst into tears and slumped to the floor.

"Our Wanhua Fang no longer has anyone at the Seventh Grade... Please let me go, my lord, I really don't know..."

Yan Jing smiled.

"If you don't know, go call someone who does."

"Okay! Okay!!"

Calling two brawny men to her side, she hurriedly fled the room.

Watching this, Old Master Liu's eyes flickered. In his view, it was highly likely the woman had gone to fetch reinforcements.

Usually, once they reached the person in charge, they would sob bitterly and then twist the truth.

Glancing at the concealed joy in the eyes of the people on the floor, he figured they all thought the same.

He was currently at the Second Tier, and Yan Jing beside him should also be at the Second Tier. If the opposition sent five or more Second Tier experts, the two of them would likely have to flee.

He silently calculated the best escape routes in his head.

But Yan Jing just sat unhurriedly at the table, his expression completely calm.

Before long, someone knocked on the door.

Yan Jing gave a slight nod, and Old Master Liu spoke up.

"Enter!"

The door was pushed open.

Seeing the sight outside the door, the people sprawled on the floor were filled with horror. The joy in their eyes instantly morphed into despair.

A handsome man stood in the doorway.

Only his ramrod-straight upper body was visible.

From the waist, his body bent at a sharp ninety-degree angle, vanishing into the left side of the doorframe. It was as if his entire body was immensely long, and what was currently showing was merely the tip of the iceberg, painting a bizarre and eerie picture.

His upper body possessed three pairs of hands, which held a wooden tray.

Neatly arranged on the tray were the heads of the three people who had just left to call for help—two men and one woman. Their hair was a mess, and their expressions were frozen in terror.

"This is an apology gift from the higher-ups," the man said with a light chuckle. "Including everyone else in this room, they are all part of your compensation. You may kill them or slice them to pieces as you see fit."

As soon as he said this, the other people in the room instantly felt their hearts turn to ash.

"Good, very good!"

Yan Jing began to laugh. "I knew Miss Ruyan was a smart person. Does she have any other messages for me?"

"The higher-ups also asked me to pass on a message. They said, having accepted the apology, please return from whence you came. Wanhua Fang has already found a master, and that County Magistrate Ballot has been reserved by someone else."

The man wore a smile on his face, his skin excessively pale.

"Even with the Crop Plains backing you, this deal can no longer go through, I'm afraid."

"As for where you go from here, how high you climb, or how far you travel, it has nothing to do with Wanhua Fang anymore. Even if a deal falls through, courtesy remains. If you ever grow tired one day and come to Wanhua Fang asking for food and drink, it will always be available. But there is no longer any talk of master and servant between us."

Hearing this, Yan Jing smiled faintly.

"She really said that?"

"She did."

The man nodded with a smile.

"She's a smart person. Pity she isn't quite smart enough..."

Yan Jing whispered with a chuckle. He lifted his head and looked at the abnormally long man.

"Pass a message to Miss Ruyan for me too."

"The weather changes. Crossing the lake by boat before the waves rise is one price. But once the waves swell, the winds howl, and the waters rush, wanting to board the boat then... that will be an entirely different price."

Hearing this, the man smiled and nodded.

"I will make sure it reaches her."

"Then let's go, Master Liu! We've eaten our fill! Remember to bring the gifts they gave us!"

Yan Jing stood up.

"Right away, Young Master."

Old Master Liu got up and moved to guard in front of Yan Jing.

He looked at the immensely long-bodied man, a hint of wariness in his eyes.

In Minhu, physical mutations were the easiest way to gauge a person's strength.

This man was not simple. Even if he wasn't at the Seventh Grade, he was close to it.

This was Wanhua Fang's method.

If you came to their door without bringing something to the table, they would never treat you as a guest. But if you did bring something, yet it wasn't enough, they might speak politely to you, but they would ultimately place their bets elsewhere.

The man before them was precisely where they had placed that bet.

It was a clear statement: Wanhua Fang might not have a Seventh Grade expert right now, but they still weren't someone he could mess with casually.

Yan Jing strolled out the door, swaying his head casually. In his hand, a pair of White Jade Walnuts rubbed together with a sharp creak.

Nobody knew that his breakfast today wasn't about securing Wanhua Fang's ballot, nor was it about bringing Wanhua Fang to heel.

He had come for Old Master Liu's sake.

Now that his goal was achieved, this breakfast had been entirely worth it.

He glanced at the man's body outside the door.

It truly looked like a snake, twisting far into the distance before finally branching off at the legs.

He had a full three lower bodies.

Which meant this man had three pairs of hands, one upper body, a snake-like waist, and three lower bodies.

Interesting.

As the two of them walked out, they happened to see a guard hauling a wooden cart loaded with emaciated, withered men and women toward the exit.

The men and women were piled on top of the cart. Each of them was deadly pale with colorless lips, reduced to mere skin and bones. Even if they weren't dead, they were close to it. Bizarrely, their faces still wore expressions of joy.

Seeing Yan Jing and Old Master Liu, the guard smiled but didn't say a word.

This was the second point Wanhua Fang wanted to display.

Without you, Young Master Luo, did you think Wanhua Fang could no longer do business? They were operating just fine.

And business was no worse than before.

Yan Jing looked at the pile of people on the cart and mirrored the smile, also saying nothing as he led the old man out of Wanhua Alley.

"Where are we going now, Young Master?" Old Master Liu asked quietly. "Head back and wait for lunch?"

"How could we do that?"

Yan Jing's eyes widened, his tone completely adamant.

"That little wench! How dare she leave this young master without breakfast! I've decided, I'm going to let her stew for the whole day! We won't go back until dinner!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he noticed Old Master Liu's expression was a bit off.

Following the old man's gaze, he saw Fei Yu standing in the distance holding a rack of ribs, looking at him with a beaming smile.

"Remember to come home for dinner, Young Master!"

Seeing that Yan Jing had noticed her, Fei Yu sneered and walked away with the ribs.

Yan Jing looked at Old Master Liu, and Old Master Liu looked back at him.

Finally, "Young Master Yan" stubbornly laid down the law:

"I'm not going back for dinner either!!!"

"Mighty as always, Young Master."

Old Master Liu gave him a thumbs up.

There was still some time before lunch, so the two of them strolled down to the stream. This conveniently gave Old Master Liu a chance to recover a bit of his strength.

The stream in Bianliu County was vastly different from the streams in the Surface World.

The water was pitch black, coated in what looked like a thick layer of grease.

Only beneath that greasy layer was the water clear.

And that layer of black oil was where the essence lay.

Not only did it radiate weird energy, enriching the weird energy in the surroundings, but it also concealed numerous items that drifted down from upstream.

People had even fished out things that had drifted down from the Lake.

However, the thick oil couldn't be touched directly with one's body. Doing so would trigger severe mutations.

However...

Wherever there were people, there was commerce.

Looking around now, there were quite a few people standing in the stream, sporting over a dozen hands, numerous legs, or eight or nine eyes.

They were known as retrievers.

They were all people whose lives had been bought by higher-ups, forced to enter the stream to fish for items.

Over time, they had transformed into their current states.

Their limbs were nothing like the three pairs of hands on that immensely long man they had just seen.

These extra hands and feet couldn't be controlled.

Some sprouted from their chests as whole arms, while others emerged from their stomachs as half a palm. Still others poked out from their eye sockets in the form of two or three fingers.

The retrievers had no control over these mutated parts. They could only let them flail about of their own accord.

If they cut those parts off with a knife, they would simply grow back a short while later.

And they would return in greater numbers.

Even so, most retrievers still couldn't resist chopping them off.

Because they itched intensely.

Eldest Young Master Luo had been told all this by one particular retriever.

That retriever was the most unique one in all of Bianliu County.

He had entered the stream voluntarily to become a retriever.

"Brother!"

Yan Jing called out, looking at a retriever standing in the stream. "Will the Hand Fish Gang help fish some up?"

The retriever's face was densely packed with blinking eyes and wriggling fingers. Hearing Yan Jing's words, he turned around and said:

"We'll fish them, blegh—"

Before he could finish, two more fingers pushed out of his throat.

With practiced ease, he yanked the fingers out. Blood instantly poured down, but he still spoke:

"We'll fish them!"

"Three gui yuan each."

"Money up front. Delivery in half an hour."

"In half an hour, the overseer will be here."

"Give me a few good ones."

Yan Jing paid the gui yuan and received a few fresh Hand Fish.

They were a type of fish whose bodies were palms and whose tails were fingers.

It was said that retrievers upstream had chopped off their own hands, and soaking in the thick oil of this river, the hands had been given life.

The fish's eyes sat right in the center of the palms, looking both dull and repulsive.

However, some people found their meat delicious and loved this exact flavor.

Taking the fish, Yan Jing asked seemingly casually:

"Four-Hands isn't here today?"

Four-Hands was that uniquely special retriever.

"A lot of people have been looking for him lately. He got annoyed and went back inside to rest."

After saying that, the man reached back into the stream and resumed fishing for items.

Yan Jing watched for a while but didn't spot anything good.

A whole day's work probably wouldn't even earn five gui yuan.

But even so, these retrievers had to pay with their lives.

Splash!!!

Not far away, a retriever couldn't hold on any longer. Dragged down by the extra hands and feet on his body, he tumbled into the river.

A few bubbles surfaced on the water before everything quickly settled back down.

Moments later, a fresh batch of Hand Fish and foot fish spawned, scattering in all directions.

After waiting a little longer, the time was about right. Yan Jing called Old Master Liu, and the two headed back to South Main Street.

They arrived at a wonton shop.

"Young Master Luo!"

The shop owner looked to be in his fifties or sixties, slightly younger than Old Master Liu. He was as skinny as a monkey, which was why people called him Old Monkey.

He stood up and shook Yan Jing's left hand.

"Welcome, Young Master Luo. An honor to have you."

Yan Jing smiled, let go of Old Monkey's hand, took a few steps back, and started patting himself down to see if he was missing anything.

Soon, he began to laugh.

He realized that the White Jade Walnuts in his right hand were gone.

This was Old Monkey's skill.

As the king of thieves on South Main Street, half of the Thief Cultivators here had been trained by him.

When he was younger, he had a rule.

As long as someone could come into his shop, eat a bowl of wontons, and leave with all their belongings without him stealing a single thing, he would accept them as his disciple.

However, due to an accident, he had retired, and his cultivation base was largely gone.

Previously, Eldest Young Master Luo had sought him out to ask him to come out of retirement, but he had refused without a second thought.

"Old Monkey, it's been a long time."

Yan Jing accepted the Jade Walnuts that Old Monkey handed back.

"Two bowls of wontons. One with chili oil, one with double scallions."

"Right away, just wait a moment."

Old Monkey picked up a slotted spoon with his right hand and tossed several dozen wontons into the pot.

The stark white wontons tumbled in the rising steam, looking like little jade ingots.

"Old Monkey, in these parts, are you still this?" Yan Jing stuck up his thumb.

Old Monkey smiled and shook his head.

"How could I be? That was ages ago."

"Nowadays, I'm this."

Old Monkey stuck out his right pinky finger with a grin.

"Then who is this?" Yan Jing kept his thumb up.

"I think it's a youngster named Heaven Stealer."

"What a boastful name," Yan Jing chuckled.

"A youngster who hasn't seen the world. It's perfectly normal." Old Monkey laughed. "That County Magistrate Ballot you want is probably with him."

"How do you know I want a County Magistrate Ballot?"

Yan Jing blinked.

Old Monkey wasn't Wanhua Fang; his information shouldn't be that fast.

"Not only do I know you want the County Magistrate Ballot, I also know you've sought out quite a few people recently, one after the other."

Old Monkey swirled the slotted spoon through the water with his right hand. The wontons flew up one by one, landing into two bowls along with some broth.

"If you ask me, Young Master Luo, a person has to know when to concede."

"Anyone in the know realizes that the death of the Luo Family head involved more than just Baile Manor. But what can you do about them? Wouldn't you agree, Master Liu?"

Old Monkey looked over at Old Master Liu.

Old Master Liu was slightly surprised, not expecting Old Monkey to recognize him.

Yan Jing just smiled.

"I did indeed come this time to ask you out of retirement."

"It's impossible, Young Master Luo."

Old Monkey shook his head. "You're still young and have energy to burn. I'm old, and I've accepted defeat."

"What if I have this? Is it enough?"

Yan Jing pulled out the bag of Hand Fish. Even out of the water, the fish weren't dead; they were thrashing vigorously in the net.

Staring at the bag of Hand Fish, Old Monkey's eyes flickered.

Hand Fish were his absolute favorite, but ever since he lost his left arm, he had hardly eaten any.

Because no one brought them to him anymore.

Such was the fickleness of human nature.

Finally, he smiled.

"Young Master Luo, it's my good fortune that you remembered me. I will accept these fish; it would be unreasonable not to. But as for that matter, it's still a no."

"Then what if I add this? Is this enough?"

Yan Jing slammed his fist onto the table.

Old Monkey's gaze wavered, but he still shook his head in the end.

"It's still lacking a little."

"Then what if I add this?"

From the side, Old Master Liu placed the three severed heads he was carrying onto the table.

Staring at Sister Hua's head on the table, Old Monkey's eyes glinted.

Five years ago, the reason he lost his left arm was heavily tied to Wanhua Fang.

In the end, touched by the gesture, he let out a sigh.

"Young Master Luo, you're someone destined for great things, but I am old after all. Let's do this: I owe you a favor. If you have any use for me in the future, just say the word."

Hearing this, Yan Jing sighed.

"Since you've put it that way, then so be it."

He lowered his head and started eating his wontons.

Whether or not Old Monkey came out of retirement simply didn't matter.

The Dungeon's Stage A task of helping someone cross the threshold of entering the ranks finally had a path forward.

Everyone knew that the Old Monkey standing before them possessed the ability to help someone enter the Thief Cultivator path.