Master, What Dao Do You Cultivate?

Chapter 59: What Does "Ripping Off Customers" Mean?

By the time Yu Ye rushed back from the Northern New District, the sky was already dimming. Afraid of running into Master on the main road, he chose to take a smaller path back. Along the way, Yu Ye kept thinking about Master's soul perception.

Yu Ye: I didn't expect Master's condition to be this serious. Is there any other way to help him replenish his soul?

Mad Ye: Do you remember Sang Feng?

Yu Ye: What does he have to do with this?

Mad Ye: You could give your Master the same medicine Sang Feng gave you, and that might help him replenish his soul.

Yu Ye: Huh?

Mad Ye: What? You're worried about your Master's life and death, and you're still hesitant? You've already failed to attack your Master twice. What's one more attempt to sleep with him?

Yu Ye: No way! I... I can't do that. The key is that I don’t know what Master thinks. What if Master has a solution or a confidante? Wouldn't I be harming him?

Mad Ye: Tsk, I'm actually quite curious about what Zhang Huai Min meant by "suffering some hardship."

When Yu Ye returned to the shop, he found that the lights were still off. It seemed Master hadn't returned yet.He had just parked the car and hadn't even pulled the curtains when he heard a knock at the door. A burly man in a black leather trench coat walked into the store.

"Excuse me, do you have any second-hand meridians?"

Yu Ye saw that he was a customer and turned around, pointing:

"On the outermost shelf. Feel free to pick whatever you want."

The man in the leather coat walked over to the shelf, casually grabbed a meridian, and came back, reaching into his pocket, seemingly to take out money.

"Alright, I'll take this one."

Yu Ye sensed something off. Normally, when people came to buy second-hand items, they would at least inspect them. After all, these were second-hand items, especially artificial meridians. If you didn't check, you couldn't be sure there weren't hidden flaws.

Mad Ye: Be careful!

The man’s demeanor as he approached felt wrong, and Yu Ye started to become cautious.

Whoosh—

The high-strength steel retractable saber pierced through the leather coat and shot out toward him. Yu Ye quickly drew the molecular blade soft sword given to him by Master and blocked.

Clang—

Sparks flew as the weapons collided, and Yu Ye could feel the man’s tremendous strength. He didn’t try to fight head-on but instead used his momentum to pull back with a reverse Cloud-Cutting Step, retreating to the edge of the stairs.

That attack had clearly been an assassination attempt. He wasn’t sure if the man was sent by another guild, but his robust physique made it seem like he was targeting the meridians.

As Yu Ye was thinking, he suddenly noticed that the man who had just attacked him was standing motionless in place, still in the position of stabbing with the saber, his body trembling uncontrollably.

The man seemed to be in a state of panic:

"You! What did you do..."

Before he could finish, a dark red laser beam shot down from the ceiling behind him, cutting across his neck from an unseen angle.

The man trembled and fell to the ground, his head rolling away from his body as blood quickly poured out.

Yu Ye was stunned by the sudden turn of events. He hadn’t even figured out who had sent the assassin, and yet the man had been decapitated for no reason.

It all happened in the blink of an eye.

Before he could comprehend what had just occurred, the drainage groove in the shop’s floor automatically opened, and the cleaning robot behind the counter started processing the spilled blood.

"It seems like Master’s store's defense system was activated. It’s so powerful. No wonder Master said that as long as it’s not a Grandmaster, we don’t need to worry."

Mad Ye: This is a defense system? This is a slaughter system! First, there’s the prosthetic nerve disruptor, and judging by the strength, it doesn’t seem like it’s for civilian use. Then there’s the laser blade hidden in the ceiling, silently cutting through the blind spot. The most absurd part is the cleaning process!

Yu Ye: This guy might have been sent by another guild to assassinate us. They probably realized Master is a threat. No wonder Master said I shouldn’t leave the shop during this time. He was probably afraid I’d run into these guys outside.

Mad Ye: Assassins like this wouldn’t work alone. There might be accomplices outside.

While Yu Ye was still thinking, he heard a familiar voice outside the shop, this time humming a tune:

"Today's flowers are a different kind of red~ different kind of red~"

Today, Ji Qinglin had basically finalized a cooperation intent with the Four Seas Trading Group. Though he had encountered some setbacks with Qian Feng and lost a bit, overall it had been a successful day, so he was in a good mood.

However, as soon as he pushed open the door, he saw the body on the ground, decapitated, with blood pooling into red flowers. And standing not far away, holding a molecular blade soft sword, was Yu Ye.

"Master, you’re back!"

"Uh... did I open the door wrong? Yu Ye, are you alright?"

Ji Qinglin paused for a moment but quickly reacted, closing the door and walking over to check on Yu Ye.

"I'm fine, Master. The shop’s defense system activated quickly. The guy didn’t even have a chance to strike before he was decapitated."

Ji Qinglin walked over to the body and said:

"I almost forgot it was the shop’s system. I thought you had ripped off a customer."

"…"

Yu Ye inserted the soft sword back into its sheath and walked over to Master, explaining what had just happened. He added:

"Master, the defense system in the shop is too strong. This guy probably wasn’t weak, but he came in unprepared and was killed in an instant."

Ji Qinglin picked up the high-strength steel retractable saber and handed it to Yu Ye. Then, he reached out and ruffled her hair:

"Good, quick reaction. Actually, when I’m here, the system is in defense mode, which makes it easier to capture a prisoner for questioning. I was worried you might hesitate in a life-or-death moment because of your lack of experience, so when it’s just you here, the system is in kill mode."

"?"

Mad Ye: No prisoners, just protecting you. Is this him doing something nice for you, or does he think you’re weak?

Yu Ye’s apricot eyes widened. She hadn’t expected Master to think of this for her.

"Master, he didn’t have any identification on him. He’s probably a hired assassin. Do you have any idea who it might be?"

"At times like this, anyone might strike at the Xindong Street Commerce Guild. But if they attacked us, it means that the events in the meeting room that day have likely spread to some extent."

Yu Ye nodded:

"Since he's an assassin, he’s probably a wanted criminal. I’ll look into it."

Although she couldn’t search based on his appearance, from the weapons he used and his tattoos, Yu Ye was eventually able to identify him:

Name: Jiao Yang

Alias: Unrestrained

Common Techniques: Initial Sun Stab, Fierce Sun Slash

Criminal Record: A fugitive, wanted for robbing and killing multiple convoy guards. After going into hiding, he has been missing.

Just as Master and Yu Ye were reviewing the information, a message popped up in the lower-right corner of the screen from an unknown sender called "Two Watermelon Knives":

"Mr. Huang Silang, are you available for a private assassination mission? The reward is generous!"

Ji Qinglin glanced at the message and furrowed his brows slightly. Since his mission completion rate was 100%, he often received such private assassination tasks. He would usually reject them because the payment wasn’t guaranteed, and it was easy to get caught up in unnecessary conflicts.

But now, as an undercover police detective, he could agree to the task and pass the information along to Cui Sanmei to fish for more leads.

After all, the last time he used her equipment, Jiao Yang was one of the wanted criminals he had handed over that month. Adding one more valuable piece of information wouldn’t hurt.

Ji Qinglin made a decision and asked Yu Ye to reply:

"If the money is right, we can talk. But you’ll have to tell me who the target is."

Not long after, "Two Watermelon Knives" sent a reply:

"5000 red coins, Xindong Street Commerce Guild Elder Ji Qinglin."

Mad Ye: I think we can try a third attack on the Master. Who cares who gets the money?