Chapter 308: Old Woman, You Will Face Retribution

Chapter 308 Old Woman, You Will Face Retribution

Xia Chichi did not come to Kunlun this time with the usual fanfare of a large retinue of elite subordinates like Elder You and the others.

But if San Niang claimed that the Four Symbols Sect had no one here to receive her, she was not telling the truth.

Well, perhaps she managed too little and did not know how much Zhuque had painstakingly done.

It is quite difficult for an organization to avoid traitors. The Four Symbols Sect had once produced a traitor who fled into Kunlun. Zhuque, overwhelmed with tasks, could hardly waste time here searching for someone, so she sent her general Liu Tuzhang ahead, partly as a vanguard in Kunlun to gather other relevant information.

Even Tang Wanzhuang would send people here, crafting an entire act to build a villain persona. For the Four Symbols Sect, a demonic cult, it went without saying—half its members were wanted criminals without needing to act. Sending a clever one into Kunlun as a vanguard was only natural.

Liu Tuzhang, a strong expert at the ninth level of Xuan Pass and shrewd, had carved out a foundation here.

A city settlement always needs various necessities of life, with trade and production carried out by people. Relying on the sect’s resources, Liu Tuzhang gathered a group of subordinates, specializing in selling cloth from outside. He opened a cloth shop, keeping the business modest enough to avoid envy yet sufficient to support his people, living a comfortable life.

To this day, his subordinates did not know that Boss Liu was from the Four Symbols Sect.

But correspondingly, such a mode only meant taking root here, having a relative understanding of the city’s situation, and being able to receive sect members when they came. For intelligence, one could only secretly investigate a few key matters, unable to organize an information network like Ying Wu’s.

Still, it was enough, just slower.

Liu Tuzhang had investigated here for several years before finally learning that the traitor had opened a brothel as its owner on the east city’s brothel street. He had only recently reported this to Zhuque.

This was the prelude to Xia Chichi’s westward journey.

From the start, she had come to kill that madam, but could not get close. After five or six days of acting, she succeeded today.

The traitor had also let down her guard—who would have thought the sect would still be hunting her after so many years?

Xia Chichi knew that this brothel street likely had a common hidden boss, but Liu Tuzhang had not found out who it was. Who the hell could have imagined that the hidden boss would personally serve as a courtesan in one of the brothels, and it happened to be the one she chose!

Such a disguise was utterly brilliant…

An assassination mission that was not originally difficult suddenly became infinitely harder, and at first, Xia Chichi did not realize it.

It was not until the third day that she discovered this courtesan might be stronger than herself, but she was fearless, pretending not to know, and carried out her plan as scheduled.

After all, she too was hiding her identity, and the other party only saw her as a scion of a noble family seeking revenge on Yang Qianyuan. Their perceptions were both skewed, so the opportunity remained great.

Indeed, she succeeded in one strike.

But no matter how much she calculated, she never expected the other party to be a venomous spider, an expert in poison.

Xia Chichi had been cautious—she did not eat, drink tea or wine, making ordinary poison techniques hard to work. But pretending to be a man visiting a courtesan, you had to touch and brush against her, otherwise, the contact trigger could not be initiated. Who could have imagined that even the woman’s skin was coated with a slow, imperceptible poison, seeping into the body subtly through touch?

The villains here were utterly unreasonable—serving as a courtesan while coating her body with chronic poison, deliberately seeking amusement to kill every man who had been with her.

This kind of baseless madness finally got to Xia Chichi. Later, during their battle, although the pink mist was dispersed by her true qi, a minuscule amount still touched her, becoming the trigger that activated the latent poison within.

Xia Chichi moved stealthily through the alleys, reaching the back door of Liu’s Cloth Shop. Just as she leaped over the wall, her steps faltered, and she nearly collapsed.

A gust of wind brushed past, and she crashed into a familiar chest.

Xia Chichi smiled faintly, not moving, lazily leaning against him—so comfortable.

Zhao Changhe whispered, “You… are poisoned? I didn’t see you injured or poisoned earlier. When did it happen?”

Xia Chichi was about to reply when footsteps sounded in the courtyard. Liu Tuzhang and his men surrounded them, nervously drawing their swords at Zhao Changhe: “Who are you? Let him go!”

Xia Chichi said, “Stand down.”

Liu Tuzhang: “?”

Xia Chichi, enduring the strange sensation within her, looked up at Zhao Changhe’s restored face with a half-smile: “Not bad, Boss Zhao. After all these years in the martial world, you’ve learned to visit brothels, huh?”

Zhao Changhe watched the bewildered Liu Tuzhang retreat, his face stern: “Takes one to know one.”

Xia Chichi laughed, “I was on business.”

Zhao Changhe said, “So was I.”

“What business?” Xia Chichi cooed, “How does the gentleman want me to blow… something like that?”

Zhao Changhe was astonished: “You were still listening to the next room’s commotion even then?”

Xia Chichi smiled, “Someone entered the room next to mine, did nothing, had the girl play the zither, and didn’t say a word. Boss Zhao, do you really think your senior brother is a fool and wouldn’t find it strange?”

Zhao Changhe said sincerely, “Impressive, Chichi.”

It was not just her vigilance and sharpness; more importantly, it showed that even if Xia Chichi had not broken through the Secret Realm, she was surely at its threshold, just one step away. Otherwise, she would not have such keen hearing.

He trained fast, but Chichi, under the sect’s full resources, had not fallen behind—she was still stronger than him.

No wonder she escaped from the hands of the Human Roll without much effort… It seemed the venomous spider had not broken the Secret Realm either; her rank of fifty-eight was likely boosted by her poison arts. Her raw cultivation was not much stronger than those at the bottom of the roll, far inferior to Hu Lie.

“But at that time, I didn’t expect it was you next door.” Xia Chichi’s eyes grew misty, her voice turning into a murmur: “Do you know how overjoyed I was when I saw you flash through the alley during my headache-ridden escape? Is this fate, bringing us together from opposite ends of the earth, appearing just when I was in danger?”

Although San Niang had directed her here, it was indeed fate that they both came to the same place on business. And even more fateful was that, upon arriving and choosing a brothel, she saw Chichi and witnessed her current brilliance, surpassing the past.

Zhao Changhe could not help but feel moved, whispering, “Yes, this is our fate.”

“Then…” Xia Chichi’s eyes grew even more hazy, her cheeks already flushed. Her body, leaning against him, began to writhe slightly: “Does the gentleman want to blow…”

Zhao Changhe: :|

Xia Chichi giggled, “What a look… I’m still in men’s clothes, and you always get especially excited at times like this.”

Was it because of that that he got excited?

Zhao Changhe suddenly realized: “The poison you’re hit with is an aphrodisiac!”

“Yeah.” Xia Chichi said nonchalantly, “It might have been a bit troublesome… The poison from the venomous spider won’t be easy to antidote quickly. But heaven sent a human antidote to me, hehe.”

She stood on tiptoe and kissed him directly: “Such a good excuse, even the Venerable would forgive. Venomous spider, thank you, hehe.”

Zhao Changhe kissed back without hesitation, thinking to himself: Venomous spider, thank you too.

They kissed passionately, and Xia Chichi murmured, “Carry me into the room, the one on your right.”

Zhao Changhe quickly lifted her in a princess carry, kicked open the right door, and practically jumped onto the bed.

With a “bang,” it felt like hitting a wall. The lustful pair slid down against an air wall, landing on the floor.

Looking up with stars in their eyes, Zhuque sat on the bed’s edge, arms crossed, wearing a mask, her voice devoid of emotion: “You two have quite the plan.”

Xia Chichi, her belly full of aphrodisiac, nearly had it scared out of her: “V-V-Venerable, how did you come too?”

“What, annoyed that I’ve ruined your good excuse?”

Xia Chichi: “…I-I’m really poisoned.”

Zhuque leisurely pulled out a bottle of medicine: “The venomous spider’s trashy poison? Do you really think it can harm our Sacred Sect?”

Xia Chichi slumped entirely.

Zhao Changhe cried out in anguish: “Old woman, ruining fate’s bond—you will face retribution!”