Chapter 488: Anglers Never Go Home Empty-Handed

Chapter 488: The Angler Never Comes Home Empty-Handed

Zhou Xiao’s small, frail figure appeared, one hand leading the yin-yang beast dog, a fierce expression on his face.

His hair was somewhat disheveled, and there seemed to be scratches and bite marks on his wrist, with faint traces of blood.

The white fur of the yin-yang beast dog was also stained with blood, especially around its neck, clumping together in tufts from the gore.

His gaze fell on Qi Yuan: “You bastard, have you really gone mad?”

Zhou Xiao was somewhat surprised.

Although Huang Yanshou had sent Qi Yuan into the courtyard on the pretext of madness, that madness was feigned.

And now, this man was out catching mosquitoes with Chen Kangbao in the dead of night?

Was this real madness or fake?

Even more infuriating, the two were secretly plotting to kill him!

Plotting was bad enough, but they had to be so loud about it!

Didn’t they know his courtyard wasn’t far from here?

The yin-yang beast dog had heard everything long ago!

“I’m not mad.” Qi Yuan glanced at Zhou Xiao, catching the scent of a woman and a thick smell of death.

Zhou Xiao looked at Qi Yuan, a knowing expression crossing his face: “With my thirty years as the head of the madhouse, I can tell at a glance whether you’re mad or not. Seems… you’ve truly been scared out of your wits.”

Zhou Xiao frowned.

Whether Qi Yuan was mad or not didn’t matter.

What mattered was that he had to die, and not by Zhou Xiao’s hand.

After all, he was the Shen family’s live-in son-in-law; if he died by a beast’s claws, the Shen family would easily trace it back to him.

But if he died by a specter’s hand, then all would be well.

“Mad or not, you can live, but the man beside you… he’s dead for sure!” Zhou Xiao tugged at the yin-yang dog, his beady eyes fierce.

Today had been unsatisfying; he wanted to keep killing.

Beside him, Chen Kangbao trembled, clearly terrified: “Young master, what do we do?”

Qi Yuan’s gaze settled on the yin-yang beast dog’s powerful frame.

Well, as it stood, even at level 2, he probably wasn’t a match for this beast.

“Today’s lesson I’m teaching you is called ‘plans can’t keep up with change!’

The world changes every day; you never know which will come first—tomorrow or the unexpected.

See, your plan’s first step hasn’t even started, and the enemy’s already here.” Qi Yuan rambled on.

Chen Kangbao stood behind Qi Yuan, looking terrified of the dog, seeming to understand yet still repeating: “But what do we do now?”

“Simple. You go hug that big beast dog, and I’ll go kill the old man.” Qi Yuan said casually.

“Me?!” Chen Kangbao’s eyes widened in disbelief.

With his scrawny arms and legs!

Zhou Xiao watched this and couldn’t help but say: “A pair of true lunatics!”

“Yes, you.” Qi Yuan said seriously, “Don’t be afraid. I’ve just blessed you. You’re now incredibly strong. Just hold that dog down, and I’ll come save you after I kill the old man.”

“I’ve been blessed?”

Chen Kangbao’s eyes visibly lit up.

“Yes, hold the beast down!”

Chen Kangbao received the order, and his courage genuinely swelled.

He stared at the yin-yang dog beast, laughing heartily: “I’ve been blessed! You’re done for!”

With that, he strode boldly toward Zhou Xiao.

“Madman, a true madman!” Zhou Xiao sneered in disdain.

He was now certain that Qi Yuan had truly lost his mind.

Otherwise, how could he fabricate something like a blessing?

And Chen Kangbao was just as sick, actually believing it.

“Xiao Huang, eat him!”

Zhou Xiao shook the leash.

Qi Yuan couldn’t be eaten for now, but Chen Kangbao was fair game.

At Zhou Xiao’s command, the yin-yang beast dog lunged fiercely at Chen Kangbao.

That massive dark shape could easily be mistaken for a leopard.

Chen Kangbao’s expression was fervent, his eyes devoid of fear: “You little mutt, your grandpa here has been blessed by the gods! Face me!”

He then hurled himself at the yin-yang beast dog.

Zhou Xiao stood calmly, looking at him as if he were already dead.

The yin-yang beast dog, even on the mountain, could overpower an ordinary tiger.

With such a massive frame, any few ordinary men who encountered it would surely die, with no chance of survival.

How could Chen Kangbao, that pale, gaunt little old man, be a match for the beast?

“The gods empower me! Your grandpa is invincible!”

Facing the beast, Chen Kangbao roared and charged, colliding with its enormous body.

What happened next stunned Zhou Xiao: the fearsome beast was actually pinned down by Chen Kangbao.

Chen Kangbao’s face lit up with wild joy: “Pinned it! Pinned it!”

The blessing worked!

Seeing this, Zhou Xiao’s face showed disbelief.

He froze for a moment, then snapped back to reality, gripping the beast token to command the yin-yang dog to regain its fighting strength.

“Useless thing! Get up!”

He fumed in frustration, unable to comprehend.

But the yin-yang beast dog was held fast by Chen Kangbao, its roars and struggles futile.

And then, not far away, Qi Yuan’s eyes locked onto him.

In that instant, a wave of threat washed over him.

Zhou Xiao was now thoroughly panicked: “Don’t come any closer…”

A smile spread across Qi Yuan’s face, gentle and kind: “Don’t worry, I’m not a bad person. I won’t hurt you.”

For some reason, looking at Qi Yuan’s smile, Zhou Xiao felt a strange sense of calm, and the violent emotions from moments ago vanished without a trace.

Just then, Qi Yuan said, “Actually, I am a kitchen knife.”

Upon hearing this, Zhou Xiao was even more convinced that Qi Yuan had truly lost his mind.

Who would claim to be a kitchen knife?

How could a man of normal intelligence not outplay a madman?

With that thought, his mind was set.

That Chen Kangbao seemed to be hiding his true depth, but this Qi Yuan was nothing but a complete invalid.

Wouldn’t it be a simple task to fool a sickly madman?

“Can you get him to let go of the beast? That dog… won’t harm you!”

“No, I’m a kitchen knife. I want to cut vegetables,” Qi Yuan said, walking toward Zhou Xiao.

Zhou Xiao’s mind raced: “You want to cut vegetables? Come, I’ll take you to the kitchen—there are plenty of vegetables there.”

Watching Qi Yuan approach slowly, he felt no fear. He held a dagger in his hand, and he had once trained in martial arts, though he never truly entered the door. Compared to an ordinary man, his combat ability was still considerably higher.

But who could have guessed that suddenly, Qi Yuan’s figure would accelerate sharply.

A calm voice fell into his ears.

“You are my vegetable!”

A hand blade struck his neck with force. Intense pain, accompanied by dizziness, surged through him, and his consciousness extinguished in that instant.

And on his face was an expression of utter disbelief.

“You…”

Zhou Xiao’s words never came out. His body crashed to the ground.

Even in death, he never imagined that the worthless son-in-law could kill him with a single blow!

“Kitchen knife cuts vegetables. Experience gains a slight increase.”

A cold, mechanical voice sounded. Qi Yuan shrugged.

“This madhouse director is too useless—only fifty mosquito-power!”

Indeed, killing this director yielded only as much experience as fifty mosquitoes.

Qi Yuan couldn’t even level up from it.

He was still at level 2.

“Young master, I’ve got the beast pinned! Come quick—I don’t think I can hold it much longer!”

Chen Kangbao’s face was flushed red, veins bulging in his hands, as if he were using every ounce of strength he had.

“I’ll continue blessing you,” Qi Yuan said.

Though his power was gone, his eyesight remained. Not to mention, he could still see hidden information.

This Chen Kangbao still had some combat ability in him.

Hearing Qi Yuan’s words, Chen Kangbao was filled with renewed vigor.

“Another blessing?”

“This old servant feels full of strength!”

“Is this the young master’s blessing!”

“Please, young master, give this old servant more!”

“This feeling—it’s just too good!”

“…Don’t talk.”

Qi Yuan was speechless. He pulled a dagger from Zhou Xiao’s bosom.

“Focus on holding it down. Don’t let it hurt me.”

As Qi Yuan spoke, under the terrified gaze of the black-and-white beast dog, he drove the dagger deep into its neck.

Instantly, the beast seemed as if its throat had been slashed. It struggled even more violently. After a few breaths, the struggle weakened. It gasped for air, wheezing as if through a leak, and finally fell still.

“You have bravely slain the black-and-white beast dog. Experience increased.”

Qi Yuan pretended his system was dubbing for him again.

[You have reached level 3. Physical attributes improved.]

[You have reached level 4…]

…

[You have reached level 6. Physical attributes improved.]

The experience gained from slaying the black-and-white beast dog was far beyond what those mosquitoes could compare to.

In just a short while, Qi Yuan had reached level 6.

At level 6, his strength and physical attributes were still inferior to the beast dog’s, but with combat techniques, he could toy with it to death.

“Alright, the first step of our plan is complete—in a roundabout way,” Qi Yuan said.

Now that he had reached level 6, the force of a single punch could be quantified at six hundred jin.

An ordinary strongman was no longer his match.

“Young master is too powerful! We’ve completed the first step of the plan. Now we need to complete the second…” Chen Kangbao was saying, when suddenly his expression froze. “Oh no, young master! Wuwu, I’ve discovered a huge oversight!”

“Oh? What oversight?”

“The second step of the plan was to interrogate Director Zhou Xiao and find out the real culprit behind the scenes. But in the first step, he’s already dead. How do we interrogate him?”

“It’s all Grandfather’s fault—making a plan with such a huge flaw!”

Chen Kangbao looked as if he had lost his parents. His pale face grew even whiter, and the earlier joy vanished.

“It’s fine. This isn’t your fault,” Qi Yuan said. “Actually, finding the real culprit is simple. Whoever sent me here as a madman—isn’t that the one?”

Qi Yuan said calmly.

He wasn’t fond of using his brain.

But with his high intelligence and emotional quotient right here, a single thought was enough to spot the problem.

“The one who sent me here was Huang Yanshou, the second young master of the Huang family.”

From the memory of Qi Yuan, the son-in-law: when he returned to Ninghe County for the ancestral rites, Huang Yanshou had come forward to befriend him, offering silver and women.

Women—the son-in-law Qi Yuan was too timid, afraid of being discovered by the Shen household, so he dared not accept.

Thus, Huang Yanshou secretly took the son-in-law Qi Yuan to scale the widow’s wall at night.

The final outcome was obvious: a spectral disturbance occurred there. The widow died, and the son-in-law Qi Yuan had his soul stolen by the specter, went mad, and was sent to the madhouse.

“The Huang family—it’s actually the Huang family!” Chen Kangbao said with deep worry. “The Huang family is a prominent house in Ninghe County. They often give out porridge and do good deeds, winning the people’s hearts! Young master, if we want to deal with the second young master of the Huang family, we need to formulate a thorough plan! Otherwise…”

Chen Kangbao played the role of an advisor.

"You make the plans; I have to keep killing mosquitoes," Qi Yuan said casually.

With his strength still weak, a head-on clash with the Huang family would easily get him killed.

Qi Yuan, having played games, knew the value of playing it safe and developing slowly.

"Good!" Chen Kangbao felt trusted and invigorated upon hearing Qi Yuan entrust him with such an important task.

"Master, what about the corpse?" Chen Kangbao looked at the body on the ground, his face heavy with worry.

"Isn't that simple?" Qi Yuan pointed to the distant pond. "Isn't there someone fishing over there? He's been at it so long without catching a single fish. Perfect—just toss the corpse over there so he won't go home empty-handed."

As the saying goes, a fisherman never goes home empty-handed.

Qi Yuan saw that the fisherman, failing to catch any fish, would be mocked, so he decided to do a good deed.

"Good!" Chen Kangbao broke into a smile upon hearing this.

"Master, bless me quickly, and I'll hang this beast's corpse and the body on the fisherman's hook."

"Alright, go ahead. Finish up and then go to sleep. I'll need to sleep soon too."

Even after cultivating immortality, Qi Yuan still loved to sleep.

Now, in this world, he hadn't yet started cultivating, so he needed sleep even more to replenish his energy.

……

The next day at noon.

In the Madhouse.

Yamen constable Lin Qinghe, with a large saber at his waist, wore a stern expression.

He looked at the two corpses on the ground, then at the old man fishing: "Speak, what exactly happened? When did you find the bodies?"

A report had come in that day about bodies discovered in the Madhouse.

Such incidents were common.

Though Lin Qinghe felt a pang of reluctance, he could only pretend not to see or know.

After all, this world did not change according to his will.

But this time, the dead included the Madhouse director Zhou Mo and a beast, forcing him to step in.

"This isn't a corpse—it's my fish!" The old fisherman's beard trembled as he clutched Zhou Mo's body tightly, looking smug. "You've never seen such a big fish, have you? Heh heh, I, Wang Wei, caught it!"

Constable Zhou Hu grinned: "Chief, this guy was carrying Zhou Mo's corpse around early this morning, shouting everywhere that he'd caught a big fish. That's how people realized he was carrying Zhou Mo's body—scared the hell out of those Madhouse folks.

This guy's got a screw loose, fishing in the pond every day. Asking him probably won't get us anywhere."

Lin Qinghe nodded; he was just going through the motions with the questioning.

People with mental issues couldn't provide useful information.

They might even fabricate things and mislead the investigation.

Lin Qinghe crouched down to examine the corpses of Zhou Mo and the black-and-white beast dog.

"Zhou Mo died from a side palm strike crushing his throat, with a force of about two hundred jin.

Strange—how could someone of this strength kill a beast with a dagger?"

Lin Qinghe's eyes were filled with deep confusion.

A force of two hundred jin seemed decent, but to someone like him, who had trained since childhood, it was negligible—not even considered natural strength.

"Could it be that a Weapon Master held the beast down, letting the killer finish it off?"

"But why do that?"

"Why didn't the Weapon Master just kill the beast himself?"

These two corpses died in a truly bizarre manner.

Moreover, being able to physically restrain a beast meant the person was definitely a full-fledged Weapon Master.

Such Weapon Masters were few in Ninghe County, and most had no motive.

"Has anything unusual happened at the Madhouse recently?" Lin Qinghe asked a servant nearby.

"N-no…" The servant dared not meet Lin Qinghe's eyes.

Just then, a runner approached and whispered in Lin Qinghe's ear: "Chief, we found half a corpse in Zhou Mo's courtyard—a woman, a widow sent to the Madhouse a few days ago. She looked horribly mutilated, probably eaten by the beast."

Hearing this, a flash of murderous intent crossed Lin Qinghe's eyes, then vanished instantly.

He stomped hard on Zhou Mo's corpse.

(End of chapter)