Chapter 22: Born in the Jianghu.
The incense still lingered in the Dragon King's Hall, and Xue Ling breathed carefully.
The hall, while not small, wasn't endless either.
Just as Xue Ling was pondering the relationship between the Grand Tutor's salary and the price of the gold-threaded gloves, Fang Bie's seemingly nonchalant remarks about the general made Red Fox hold her breath.
"Are you here to cause trouble?" the charming woman wearing the Red Fox mask said, a hint of chill in her voice.
"No, no," Fang Bie said with a smile. "Isn't this just interest?"
"Is there something wrong with your dagger, sister? Or is there something wrong with the gold-threaded gloves?" Fang Bie paused, his expression unreadable, but beneath the mask, his dark eyes held a gentle smile.
"Or perhaps both."
Red Fox sheathed the dagger. "I'm done with your business,"she said, putting the gold-threaded gloves back into a crystal box, and ignored Fang Bie again.
Fang Bie smiled and walked away, taking Xue Ling with him.
Xue Ling looked somewhat bewildered, but at this point, how could he not have known that something was wrong with Red Fox's offering?
After taking a few steps, Xue Ling whispered, "How did you tell? How could I not see anything at all?"
Yes, how did he tell? Fang Bie had examined the wrought iron rod. Red Fox had been able to cut the wrought iron piece by piece with his fish-slicing dagger like sausage, and the gold-wire gloves had indeed blocked the dagger's cuts.
Everything was fine.
Besides, a dagger that could cut through iron like mud cost a thousand taels of silver, which was probably not expensive for a truly generous jianghu person. After all, gold is easy to come by, but a weapon is hard to come by. Xue Ling knew how much a handy weapon could benefit one in the jianghu.
As he thought about this, Xue Ling remembered Yue Pingshan's Mars Sword. That ruby-encrusted sword was considered a famous sword of Huashan. If it weren't for the embarrassment and Fang Bie's lack of intention to swallow it, he would have left it to Yue Pingshan.
It looked like the Mars Sword could fetch at least a thousand taels.
As for the Rolex he was still wearing, if it could fix the problem of easily slicing his fingers, then perhaps it could actually fetch three thousand taels. After all, such a strangely concealed and sharp weapon could only be crafted by the skilled craftsmen of the Western Regions.
Fang Bie chuckled, "It's just a trick. How can a charlatan survive without a few tricks?"
Xue Ling nodded, half-comprehending.
Well, she hadn't noticed at all.
Fang Bie then took Xue Ling a few more steps through the crowd, then stretched out a finger and waved it in front of her face. "Ask you a question."
Xue Ling nodded, "Go ahead."
Fang Bie inserted his finger into the nostril of the Monkey King mask, scratched it out, and then pulled it out, asking, "Do you dare to lick it?"
Although there wasn't any sticky mucus on his finger, indicating that Fang Bie's nostrils were relatively clean, the gesture alone was still quite disgusting.
Xue Ling was completely annoyed. "Aren't you disgusting?"
Fang Bie smiled. "Look, I dare you."
He licked his finger without hesitation, which made Xue Ling shudder.
"Did you notice?" Fang Bie asked.
"Noticed what? Did you notice that you're a disgusting pervert?" Xue Ling said without hesitation.
"Not really." Fang Bie smiled. "Didn't you notice that I used my middle finger to pick my nose, but ended up licking my index finger?"
Xue Ling was stunned.
She really hadn't noticed, because her core concern had always been that Fang Bie was disgusting. As for which finger was disgusting, why did she care?
She really couldn't lick it anyway.
"Right," Fang Bie continued, "were you focused solely on the sharpness of the fish-slicing dagger?"
"Didn't you consider that the two sides of the fish-slicing dagger are not the same sharpness?"
Xue Ling looked at Fang Bie. The red fox in the distance was no longer visible in the crowd. "But why did she do that?"
"That gold-wire glove can indeed block the cuts of ordinary weapons," Fang Bie said. "But when it comes to weapons that can cut through iron like mud, or weapons infused with profound internal energy, it's powerless. It's still valuable, but it's not easy to sell for a hundred taels."
"Don't underestimate that hundred taels. A hundred taels is a huge sum. You have to know that for a normal mission, getting ten taels of silver is a great honor."
Only ten taels of silver for killing a person? A life is really cheap that way. But thinking back, at a monthly salary of four taels, if a head could fetch ten taels of silver, that would be Xue Ling's two years' wages. Besides,
killing is so fast, it takes only the blink of an eye to kill someone.
Xue Ling instantly understood the value of the assassin profession. Ning Huaiyuan had only offered a reward of fifty taels of silver because the mission had been issued by the Huashan Sect, who hadn't specifically flagged the traitor's danger, having already dispatched their more capable Yue Pingshan to hunt down Ning Huaiyuan. Furthermore, it was worth noting that nearly a month had passed, and the Hive hadn't yet delivered the reward for Ning Huaiyuan's mission.
This made Xue Ling instantly realize the true face of those wicked capitalists who withheld their wages.
"To be able to sell cut-resistant gloves that protect against ordinary swords for the price of gold-wire gloves that can protect against divine weapons—that's the value of that fish-slaying dagger." Fang Bie continued, "They say one enters the Jianghu, one's fate is at their mercy, but how deep the waters are, you have to experience them yourself to know."
Xue Ling shook his lip slightly. "Aren't you my age?"
Yes, this guy was clearly around the same age, but Xue Ling felt like a complete rookie in front of him.
The Jianghu was so treacherous, yet he treaded with ease, not even the backs of his shoes getting wet by the winds and waves.
"I was born in the world of Jianghu." Fang Bie said with a smile.
The vast ocean of floods appeared before his eyes. This was the first scene he saw when he came to this world.
He had just ended his life in another world. Because of a sudden cardiac arrest, he died at the university's award ceremony, but when he regained his life, he was in another ocean.
Then the woman in emerald green clothes rescued him, but was unwilling to take him away.
"I'm not a good person."
He Ping said this to him at that time.
"You will end up badly if you follow me."
Fang Bie still remembers his answer at that time.
"I have nowhere to go."
"I want to survive."
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(End of this chapter)