"Big Brother, I’ve been watching this person for a long time. He stopped at many stalls, but he was mainly buying Demon Beast Essence Blood. Heh. Trying to throw people off the scent... clever, but not clever enough to escape my notice."

One of the shorter Male Cultivators sneered in a low voice.

"Right. Demon Beast Essence Blood isn’t cheap. This person must be carrying a lot of Spirit Stones."

The other two nodded. The tall, sturdy Male Cultivator in the middle thought for a moment before deducing.

"Big Brother, your deductive skills are incredible! I’m impressed! That’s right, I just saw him at Old Song’s stall. He pulled out a big handful of Spirit Stones without even blinking—almost twenty of them!"

The short Male Cultivator laid the flattery on thick, his voice full of excitement, as if a fortune was right around the corner.

A glint of greed flashed in the tall, sturdy Male Cultivator’s eyes as he said in a low voice,

"Twenty Spirit Stones? Looks like we’ve found a fat sheep... Still, for someone to spend so freely in the Black Market, he’s either a greenhorn or he has some powerful backing."

"Don’t worry, Big Brother. I took a good look at him just now. His aura is that of the Middle Stage Qi Cultivation, but my Qi Observation Skill—which has reached the Minor Achievement Level—tells me he’s only at the Fifth Layer Qi Cultivation!"

"Besides, he’s all alone—no attendants, no companions. He’s most likely a Loose Cultivator. And let’s be real, we ’Black Wind Three Fiends’ have been running this territory for so long. Why would we be afraid of a lone wolf?"

The short Male Cultivator chuckled, whispering dismissively.

"Second Brother’s Qi Observation Skill has been our greatest asset all these years; it’s the reason we rarely miss."

The other, a thin Male Cultivator, spoke for the first time, adding in a sinister tone: "Besides, most of the Demon Beast Essence Blood he bought was Mixed Grade stuff. He’s obviously not using it for refining Middle Grade Talismans or Elixirs. I bet he’s some half-baked Body Cultivator trying to temper his body with Essence Blood. Even if people like that have some skill, they’re never that strong."

The tall, sturdy Male Cultivator nodded slightly, a vicious glint in his eyes. "In that case, stick close to him. We make our move as soon as he’s a little ways out of the Black Market. No delays! And remember, if the fat sheep gets near the Ruins District, we back off. We can’t risk alerting the Law Enforcement Team."

At the mention of the "Law Enforcement Team," a flicker of fear couldn’t help but cross his eyes.

It had clearly left a terrifying, even nightmarish, impression on him.

The short Male Cultivator nodded in complete agreement. Knowing what lines to cross and what lines not to cross was the very reason they had survived this long.

He then licked his lips and said excitedly, "Big Brother is brilliant! Heh heh, once we slaughter this kid, not only will we get a haul of Spirit Stones, who knows what other treasures we might find on him."

The sturdy Cultivator laughed as well. "Good thing we didn’t have time to sell that batch of Essence Blood to Old Song. Otherwise, it would have just come full circle back to us, and we’d be out a good number of Spirit Stones. No sense letting Old Song take a cut for nothing."

The three exchanged glances, all revealing cold, sinister smiles. Every hand that a piece of fat passes through skims off a layer of grease. The fat sheep before them now belonged entirely to them, so naturally, the fewer hands involved, the better.

"Stick to the plan."

With that, the three quietly spread out and sped up, trailing the oblivious figure ahead.

As their robes billowed, their auras were faintly revealed: two at the Fifth Layer Qi Cultivation, and one at the Sixth Layer Qi Cultivation.

「...」

Lin Changheng had not been walking long through the mountain wilderness after leaving the Black Market Valley when his brows furrowed slightly.

He had obviously noticed the three tails following him.

At first, he wasn’t sure, but after he changed directions several times, the three Cultivators were still trailing behind him.

How could he not know he was being targeted by Tribulation Cultivators!

’I was so careful, making all those feints. I was completely inconspicuous, let alone flashy with my wealth.’

’I even used my sleeve to cover the Spirit Stones when I paid.’

’But I was still targeted. They’re following me, out for my money and my life...’

The ever-present smile on Lin Changheng’s face was suddenly replaced by a startling frost. His slightly narrowed black eyes glinted with a dangerous light.

As he glanced back while rounding a bend, he activated his Spirit Detecting Skill—the one he used most often and had perfected to the Great Success Realm. A hazy, strange light flashed in his eyes, and he immediately perceived the Cultivation of the three men trailing him.

They couldn’t hide from him at all!

’Just Middle Stage Qi Cultivation, and they dare to tail me for a robbery-murder?’

Lin Changheng sneered and deliberately moved behind a hillside, his figure vanishing from the sight of the three approaching men.

"Did he notice something? Trying to hide?"

The tall, sturdy Male Cultivator sneered dismissively.

He shot a look to his sides, and the three men, with practiced coordination, immediately split up. They drew their Magical Artifacts and closed in at full speed, intending to surround him from three sides.

If the fat sheep up ahead was scared, anxious, or nervous, he might make a mistake—focusing only on what was behind him while ignoring his flanks. He would easily give away his position and be ambushed and killed by the two men circling around.

The Black Wind Three Fiends had used this team tactic many times. It never failed, with at least an eighty percent success rate for a one-hit kill.

They didn’t even need a direct confrontation; their targets, the fat sheep, would be killed before they even knew what was happening.

It was a truly unjust way to die, without even a chance to fight back.

"Where is he?"

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but the tall, sturdy Male Cultivator deliberately controlled his speed. Only after confirming his brothers on both sides were in position did he grip his Magical Artifact and charge straight in.

But a quick scan of the area revealed no one.

’Where did he go?’

The area before him was dotted with trees, but their leaves were sparse and the trunks weren’t thick enough to hide a person. Everything was visible at a glance.

Just as he was wondering how a grown man could have just disappeared, he suddenly heard the RUSTLING sound of something cutting through the grass and leaves behind him.

"What nerve! You dare to strike first!"

The tall, sturdy Male Cultivator’s Spiritual Sense was sharp. He sneered, immediately moving his body while forming a hand seal with one hand. An earthy yellow barrier of light instantly appeared, completely covering him.

At the same time, a Lower Grade Water Curtain Talisman floated from his hand, transforming into a round, azure Water Curtain that fortified his defenses.

"THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!"

In the next moment, a dense series of impacts sounded like a rapid patter.

The tall, sturdy Male Cultivator, having just shifted his position and turned, saw three or four more Ice Cones striking his Water Curtain like lingering shadows.

The Ice Cones paused for a moment before tearing several large holes in the barrier, which then shattered in mid-air like broken glass.

Their momentum unabated, they slammed directly into the inner layer of the earthy yellow light barrier.

"BOOM! BOOM!..."

With successive impacts, the earthy yellow light barrier flashed wildly, dimmed extremely, and teetered on the verge of collapse. The Ice Cones, their power spent, also shattered one after another.

As the light barrier and Ice Cones shattered together, a shard of ice flew out with a WHOOSH, streaking across the tall, sturdy Male Cultivator’s face and leaving a bloody gash.

"A Middle Grade Ice Cone Talisman! You treacherous brat, you’re courting death!"

Feeling the sting of pain and seeing the blood on his face, furious that he had nearly been taken down so easily, the tall, sturdy Male Cultivator roared in anger.

"WHOOSH!"

He brandished a yellow cloth sack. It flew above his head and instantly swelled in the wind, its mouth alone expanding into a dark, gaping maw with a radius of seven or eight feet.

He aimed it remotely in the direction the Ice Cones had come from, like a man-eating maw!