A Life and Death Duel requires a signature on a specialized contract, but unlike a standard match, it is a terminal affair. Only the death of one participant can end it; surrendering is not an option.
After signing, the two men walked to the center of the grotto. Manager Ma's cloudy eyes swept over them. He didn't bother repeating the rules. "In a Life and Death Duel, it ends when one party dies. Begin!"
Immediately, Li Cang flicked his wrist, tossing out a foot-long pair of scissors. With a pointing motion, the tool zipped toward Lin Haoming. Unlike Guo Xin's clumsy use of a flying knife, Li Cang had fully refined this mid-grade magic tool, controlling it with fluid grace.
Lin Haoming was ready. As the scissors closed in, he tapped his storage bag. The Tortoise Shell Shield manifested, interposing itself perfectly. A crisp clang echoed as the scissors were deflected.
"A mid-grade defensive tool!"
"This guy is loaded!"
The surrounding managers gasped. Even Situ Ping and Zhou Zhiye were startled by Lin's wealth. They assumed these were more ancestral leavings and were already mentally calculating how to kill Lin later and seize them.
Li Cang, realizing his opponent wasn't the pushover he expected, grew serious. He pointed at his flying scissors again. Suddenly, the tool split in two—transforming from a pair of scissors into two separate blades that circled around to strike Lin from opposite flanks.
Li Cang sneered, waiting for Lin to panic. But as one blade hit the Tortoise Shell, the other was intercepted by a flash of green light. It was another mid-grade magic tool: a flying sword.
"Where did he get all these tools?" Li Cang started to feel a flicker of doubt. However, he told himself that controlling two magic tools at once would drain Lin's spiritual power rapidly. He called his blades back to merge them, hovering them defensively in front of him.
Lin Haoming didn't wait. He retracted his shield and pointed at his flying sword. It streaked toward Li Cang as a blur of green light. Li Cang countered by opening his scissors wide, catching the blade between the shears.
"Hahaha! Lin Haoming, watch me strip you of your weapon!" Li Cang roared.
But Lin Haoming simply formed a hand seal. The Sub-Mother Sword glowed brilliantly. A hidden, smaller blade—the sub-sword—shot out from the mother blade at point-blank range.
Li Cang was less than ten feet away. He had no time to react. The green streak pierced his heart. He collapsed to the floor, eyes wide with disbelief as his life faded.
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The Target on His Back
Lin Haoming felt no joy in this victory. He had adapted to killing, but he knew he had shown too much wealth. Both Zhou Zhiye and Situ Ping now looked at him like a fat sheep ready for slaughter.
Lin collected Li Cang's scissors and the hundred spirit stone stake. He didn't hand them to Situ Ping immediately. Instead, he smiled and said, "Senior Brother Situ, I will pay you a personal visit later this evening."
Situ Ping couldn't force him to hand over the loot in front of everyone without looking like a tyrant, which would drive his subordinates toward Zhou Zhiye. "Fine," he replied with a fake smile. "I'll be waiting."
Lin knew the smile was a lie. He could no longer stay in the Blood Refining Sect. To survive, he had to leave.
But leaving was risky. Without a sect, getting Foundation Establishment Pills—which he would surely need in multiples given his poor aptitude—would be nearly impossible. Outside, he'd be a rogue cultivator; if he tried to buy pills with his spirit stones, he'd likely be robbed and killed. Yet, staying meant being hunted by two late-stage Qi Refining experts.
He hurriedly distributed the month's stipends and left the Stupa Grotto. He didn't return to his cave; everything important was already in his storage bag. Instead, he headed straight for the market. He needed to convert all his remaining spirit stones into pills before he fled.
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An Unexpected Opportunity
He arrived at Wang Chen's grotto, but only a 4th-level shop boy was there.
"Where is Senior Brother Wang?" Lin asked urgently.
"He's inside talking business," the boy replied.
Moments later, Wang Chen walked out with a burly man. Both looked disappointed.
"Senior Brother Wang, I'm truly sorry," the man said, bowing. "If you had asked me to take over your shop two months ago, I would have said yes. But now... I simply can't." The man glanced at Lin and left.
Lin's ears perked up. Take over the shop? It seemed Wang Chen was looking for a replacement before his own seclusion.