Hmm...

"Is this it?"

Xuan and Sierra stood on the massive curved bridge, surrounded by hundreds of people, all of whom were selling their wares or enjoying the view of the lake. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Though instead of the wares or anything else, they stared at the massive black pagoda ahead, with the words ’Alchemy Association’ carved into the jade. It was fancy, and damn expensive. Xuan felt like if he did a quick heist and stole the letter ’A’ out of that sign, he’d become rich.

Maybe he should tell Yuelan to do that since she wanted to be evil? Heh.

"You’re thinking something improper again." Sierra tapped him on the back, then pointed at the pagoda. "It’s indeed what we’re looking for."

Obviously.

The two of them went ahead and approached the entrance to the pagoda. There was a bit of a queue, but even then, it only took a few minutes to get inside.

And despite what he was expecting, the entire first floor was just one massive library. Books and bookshelves everywhere he looked. More surprisingly, even with thousands of people being here, it was really quiet.

Eventually, they got to a part of the library that didn’t have as many people, and that was when a young woman suddenly bumped into Xuan, dropping some of her books as her glasses went flying off her face. Xuan caught the glasses as they were about to hit the ground, and then raised his brow at the woman.

"Watch where you’re going, lass."

"Sorry... I’m a bit of a klutz." She immediately started picking up her books and then tried to grab her glasses from his grasp. However, Xuan didn’t let go, feeling something off about this woman.

"Do I know you?"

"Ah? No, I don’t think so. I’m good with faces, so I would know," she responded, and tried harder to take her glasses back.

That was when Sierra chimed in:

"I can’t tell whether you’re an assassin or some kind of Sword Cultivator. Your footsteps don’t make any sound, but you have plenty of calluses. Do you want something from us?"

At her words, the woman’s whole demeanor changed. Her hunched back vanished as her back straightened. Her black hair, which was messy, was fixed with just a single sweep over to the other side, revealing her captivating crimson eyes.

And yet, the glare she was giving Xuan didn’t really give him the friendly encounter vibe.

"You’ve got a big bounty on your head. Come with me peacefully, and I promise I won’t kill you."

Ah.

"Didn’t we just get here? How do we already have bounties?" Xuan grumbled. "How much?"

"There is no price on your head. Merely respect for taking it. The Heaven Faction’s representatives might reward me though."

Oh?

Xuan had nearly forgotten that he had made an enemy of the Demonic Faction as well as the Heaven Faction. This really took him back, since it had been nearly two months now that he had become their enemy, alongside Yuelan.

Though...

"How did you find me? Is there some kind of tracker on me and Yuelan?"

"As if I’d answer that." The woman snarled, then pulled out several thin green needles, which she immediately tossed at Xuan.

Though despite what she was expecting, Xuan didn’t try to stop the needles from hitting him. In fact, he went ahead and raised his hand, causing every single one of those needles to pierce his forearm.

The poison-tipped needles spurred the poison deeper into his bloodstream, causing his arm to immediately begin to rot. And yet, despite his arm rotting and seeming like it would fall off, Xuan was unfazed.

After all...

[Poison Qi - Intermediate - 8.52% → 43.99%]

"Wow. That’s some pretty strong poison," Xuan said, his body adjusting to the poison very quickly and eventually expelling the rot in the form of a burp. "Got any more of that poison? I didn’t expect to level up my Poison Qi Type so quickly."

The woman was startled. In her dozens of years of working as a bounty hunter, she had never seen such poison immunity. But if he was resistant to her poison, what else did she have left?

As if on cue, she pulled out a sickle and vanished from sight, reappearing in front of Xuan. This was his first actual time going head-to-head with someone in a while, since Gabriel didn’t really count.

So seeing someone this feisty and up close made Xuan focus that much more. She swung the sickle in an arc, and despite her being a low-level Spirit Lord, he managed to dodge effortlessly.

And to ensure that it wasn’t luck, Xuan continued dodging all of her next attacks, to the point that she grew frustrated at her inability to hit him.

On the other hand, Sierra had already lost interest in the fight. Since it was a quiet section in the library, no one really paid much attention to them either. As for the categories over here, they were all romance.

Sierra wasn’t the most interested in romance. Honestly, she felt like she might be bad at it. The little seduction she tried on Xuan had backfired, as he went ahead and scattered all of their clothes across the forest.

So maybe she was just doing it wrong? Was romance not just being seductive? Sierra had no idea, so she decided to pick out a romance book written by a cultivator, and after sitting down in the corner, she began reading it.

And as for Xuan and the assassin woman, they had had enough. The woman abruptly stopped fighting, sheathed her sickle, and then, with a massive pout on her face, stormed out of the Alchemy Association.

Once Xuan could no longer see her figure, he just stared at the open space in disbelief.

"What the fuck was that?"

He had met plenty of women by now, and he’d gotten tons of impressions from them. But was there someone who tried to kill him, then ran away?

What level of special in the head was this?

Right as he was about to continue pondering over it, Xuan heard a bell, followed by a loud voice thundering through the whole pagoda.

"The Alchemy tests have started! If you want to become an Alchemist, come sign up!"

Ah.

Well, wasn’t that perfect?