I Can Strengthen Infinitely-Chapter 44 - 43: The Mastermind Behind the Scenes

"Pretending to be mysterious is worse than dying." Qin Yuesheng transformed his fist into a palm, firmly grasped the copper iron rod, and no matter how hard the big man tried, he couldn’t pull it away even a bit.

Crack!

Qin Yuesheng yanked hard, directly pulling the big man towards himself.

He immediately struck with a tiger-shaped punch, hitting the opponent’s face and directly caving in his nose.

Not giving the big man any time to react, Qin Yuesheng slapped the big man’s head to the ground, while simultaneously driving a knee into his face.

After two successive heavy blows, the big man couldn’t take it anymore, swaying as if about to fall.

Seeing his eyes glow green, Qin Yuesheng knew this person was inhuman, and he did not hold back, unleashing a series of deadly moves, soon leaving the big man’s body riddled with holes, lying lifeless on the ground.

Wow!

At the moment the big man’s body hit the ground, a large quantity of granular black mist scattered from his body, which upon closer examination turned out to be black sand.

As the black sand suddenly rushed towards him, Qin Yuesheng quickly retreated, putting distance between himself and this strange entity, meanwhile retreating beside the Celestial Demon Blade, which he held ready.

Due to not wanting to reveal his identity, Qin Yuesheng did not carry the Evil-Subduing Saber with him tonight.

Encountering such an eerily suspicious thing suddenly, he couldn’t help but feel a bit anxious, unsure if relying only on the Celestial Demon Blade would suffice.

Fortunately, the black sand did not envelop Qin Yuesheng initially, and it gave up the chase, instead reversing direction and floating towards the waterside pavilion, disappearing inside the building.

With this example, Qin Yuesheng became much more cautious dealing with the remaining green-eyed figures.

As expected, after killing these people, identical black sand floated out from their bodies.

"There’s something seriously wrong with that waterside pavilion." Watching all the black sand fly back to the pavilion, the joyous chatter that previously came from its direction suddenly ceased, leaving an abrupt, eerie silence.

The candles and lanterns inside the pavilion extinguished one by one, and in just a few blinks of an eye, the entire pavilion merged into the night without any trace of light.

Qin Yuesheng’s expression grew increasingly grave; if he still couldn’t grasp the situation, he would truly be hopelessly dense.

"I didn’t expect there to be an enigma here." Qin Yuesheng thought to himself.

Earlier, Bai Hao had given him the Seven-Star Treasure Manual, which mentioned that some outlying areas were prone to the birth of eerie forces. Over time, they could evolve into entities entirely distinct from ordinary specters, called enigmas.

Meaning they were difficult to describe, explain, or investigate.

Enigmas mostly appear in the form of buildings. Storytellers often narrate tales of scholars on their way to the capital for exams encountering temples, ruined shrines, rich mansions, or farmhouses, spending the night, only to wake up the next day finding themselves in the middle of nowhere with no trace of any buildings around.

That’s an encounter with an enigma.

Stories may end well, but in reality, the mortality rate for those who enter enigmas is dangerously high; unless you possess special abilities to handle enigmas, ordinary people face certain death if they venture inside.

The Seven-Star Treasure Manual records special skills against such eerie forces, including the "Soul-Shattering Roar," but Qin Yuesheng hadn’t learned it yet. He knew well enough that the enigma wasn’t something he could handle, and approaching recklessly would only lead to death.

Looking around at those like Du Beilun, who had a vacant smile, Qin Yuesheng approached one person and delivered a slap. As Qin Yuesheng’s hand rose and fell, red handprints visibly appeared on their faces.

The pain jolted them out of their daze, each bewildered as to why they were in such a place.

Having saved them was already more than enough kindness; Qin Yuesheng had no intention of taking them along. He had his own matters to attend to, so he hoisted Du Beilun and Xu San onto his shoulders and swiftly departed.

...

Hulao Stronghold.

Once renowned within Meteor Mountain, this stronghold is now deathly silent, littered with limbs, severed heads, and bloodied clothes.

Overturned fire pans and spilled oil have allowed the flames to start consuming the wooden stronghold, causing flames to surge skyward on Three-cone Peak, with blistering heat radiating.

"Don’t grab that, it’s mine!"

"You already took the jade necklace, don’t fight me for that Glazed Horse."

"Finders keepers."

"Screw you!"

The few surviving bandits frantically scavenged anything valuable from the small buildings where Xu San used to live, but all they found were worthless trinkets, nothing significant.

They didn’t know, however, that the truly valuable items were either stored in the stone vault of Hulao Stronghold or had been packed and taken away by Xu San.

Qin Yuesheng carried two people up to the small building and as soon as he walked into the room where Xu San lived, he saw three ragged mountain bandits rummaging through shelves and cabinets.

"I didn’t expect there would still be some stragglers." Qin Yuesheng put down Xu San and Du Beilun, walked forward, and quickly eliminated the threats. These bandits were used to looting and idling, never hoping they could turn over a new leaf and start anew.

Sending them on their way was the most correct course of action.

After swiftly dealing with those bandits, Qin Yuesheng found some rope to tightly bind Xu San and then slapped him awake.

The moment the man saw Qin Yuesheng, his first reaction was to flee, but Qin Yuesheng had anticipated this, and directly stomped him to the ground, with the Celestial Demon Blade right at Xu San’s neck: "Remember what happened just now? If I hadn’t saved you, you’d be a dead man by now."

"Thank you, brother, thank you, brother, I will definitely repay your great kindness and virtue in the future."

Qin Yuesheng: "Tell me, who sent you to intercept the Mountain Guardian Escort Agency’s goods?"

"It was the Fierce Tiger Gang and the Flood Dragon Gang," Xu San replied without hesitation.

Qin Yuesheng increased the force of his foot a little: "I want to hear the truth, so you’d better not make things up."

"The truth, I’m absolutely telling the truth, there’s no fabrication." Xu San nodded towards a direction with his head: "Brother, do you see that cabinet over there, the third level has a hidden compartment, inside it contains the Fierce Tiger Gang’s Bone Forging Skill and Muscle Hammering Skill. If it weren’t for them hiring me with this, I wouldn’t have recklessly asked the four wolves of Huang Feng for help to intercept the Mountain Guardian Escort Agency’s goods."

Seeing Qin Yuesheng’s mask, Xu San added another sentence: "If I had known the Mountain Guardian Escort Agency had a master like you, no matter how many guts I had, I wouldn’t have taken this job."

Qin Yuesheng found the hidden compartment, didn’t bother with it, and simply split the cabinet with the Celestial Demon Blade, and sure enough, there were two cultivation techniques inside.

The Outer Forging Realm has three stages, so Outer Forging Martial Artists need three types of cultivation techniques corresponding to the tendons, bones, and skin.

"Why did the Fierce Tiger Gang and the Flood Dragon Gang want you to intercept the Mountain Guardian Escort Agency’s goods?"

"That, I don’t know, you should know these two gangs have strong backing, right? They came to us themselves, we’re just a small operation at Hulao Stronghold, how could we dare to refuse."

"Where is that batch of goods from the Mountain Guardian Escort Agency now?"

"The first day I intercepted it, it was taken away by people from the Fierce Tiger Gang. I’m not really clear about the specifics."

After a series of questions, there was no more value to extract from Xu San, so Qin Yuesheng swiftly ended him with a single strike while he was off-guard.

Hulao Stronghold was notorious throughout Jingli Dao for doing all sorts of misdeeds, and Xu San, as the bandit leader, was especially heinous. Letting such a person go wasn’t something Qin Yuesheng could stomach; taking him to the authorities for judgment would be a hassle, it was easier to simply cut him down.

Xu San’s belongings were not much of interest to Qin Yuesheng, but even small gains add up, so he took them along.

Leaving Meteor Mountain and arriving outside Cyan Yang City, Qin Yuesheng took out the prepared water bag and removed the mask while also taking off his bloodstained combat outfit.

Underneath that clothing, there was another combat outfit, which was precisely Qin Yuesheng’s disguise.

In this way, aside from a few close servants, no one else knew Qin Yuesheng was the so-called Rakshasa Swordsman.

Carrying Du Beilun over the city wall, he casually tossed him into an inn run by the Du family, and Qin Yuesheng quietly returned to the Qin Mansion.

Cao Zhengchun had been waiting outside Qin Yuesheng’s residence, and upon hearing movement from inside, he immediately knew that the young master had returned from his outing, and couldn’t help but let out a sigh of relief.

Aside from Qin Yuesheng himself, no one knew the extent of his strength. As the Hospital Guard promoted by Qin Yuesheng, Cao Zhengchun relied on Qin Yuesheng as his pillar. If he wanted to live comfortably, he naturally had to hope every day for Qin Yuesheng’s safety, so he could enjoy the benefits.

Placing the Celestial Demon Blade under the bed, Qin Yuesheng sat at the bedside in contemplation.

Even though the Fierce Tiger Gang and the Flood Dragon Gang were weak in Cyan Yang City, far inferior to the three great sects and five major families, they had the solid backing of Jiangnan’s titans. Be it the Twelve Linked Rings or the Gold and Silver Pavilion, they possessed strength unimaginable to common folk.

Why would the two gangs supported by these mighty forces be secretly targeting the Qin family’s Mountain Guardian Escort Agency?

Could it be that the Qin family had already caught the attention of these powerful forces?

If this were true, it would be devastating news for the Qin family.

"The Twelve Linked Rings are bandits, the Gold and Silver Pavilion are merchants, the collusion between bandits and merchants never bodes well. It seems I need to start preparing in advance," thought Qin Yuesheng, looking at the Rakshasa mask in his hand.

Qin Yuesheng’s biggest trump card was the super auxiliary tool, which required a large amount of All-Purpose Essence to use. Currently, in Cyan Yang City, Inner Cores have been inexplicably sold out early, impossible to find.

For ordinary people, that’s the case, but Qin Yuesheng figured he could still find a way to secure a batch of Inner Cores in Cyan Yang City.

A batch that ordinary people couldn’t buy, but he could request directly.