The quick reactions from both Hou Qing and Lyu kept them from being stung by the hornets, but Qian on the other hand had begun to lose consciousness, and if it weren’t for Hou Qing pulling him along the way, he would have already passed out. His face and the places he had been stung had swelled up; even an ordinary hornet sting would cause some serious pain and inflammation, let alone these mutated hornets that were a hundred times more dangerous.
A single one of these stings could end an ordinary person’s life. Qian had about seven or eight swollen areas but—thanks to the foundation of his cultivation—he would not die just yet.
“They’ve gone back,” Lyu commented three miles later, signaling to Hou Qing that it was safe now that the hornets had finally returned to their nest before he kneeled down to check on Qian’s wounds. From his pockets, Lyu lightly tapped out some antidote powders he’d received from the sect onto each area and transferred some Qi into Qian through his palms.
A translucent liquid soon began to ooze from all of the wounds, and the redness of the swelling had also lightened. Qian, however, was still unconscious and his skin was yellowed with jaundice to show that his Qi was very weak.
“How long before he’ll wake up?” Hou Qing asked with a heavy voice as he sat to the side.
“The poison is already being relieved. He should wake up soon. But….” Lyu sighed.
“But what?” Hou Qing raised his eyebrow in curiosity.
“The poison of the hornets is stronger than anything I’ve seen. I have tried the antidote from the sect to remove the poison, but it’s not specific for this type so there will still be some of it remaining inside his body. Even once he does wake up, he’ll be weak,” Lyu explained after letting out another sigh.
Impatient, Hou Qing continued to question, “What level of cultivation would he still be able to use?”
Lyu shook his head. “It’ll be lucky if he can activate even a third of his normal Qi.”
“That f*cking little son of a bi*ch!” Hou Qing slammed his fist into the palm of his other hand while gritting his teeth in hatred. Never had he thought that such an unremarkable boy would escape from him, have one of his members killed in the river, and then have another poisoned by hornet stings to the point of unconsciousness.
Lyu was quiet. Some moments later, he hesitantly spoke, “Shixiong Hou, there’s only two of us left. The Python Toad is a tier four beast and its skin is also impervious to swords and spears. Plus the toxins that it releases will wither any plantation in the way. Without bait, we already had less than half the original chance of success for completing the mission. Let’s just return….”
Anger swelled within Hou Qing as he replied, “No. We’ve spent so much money on bribing those working at the Duty Talisman Hall to find us this comparatively easy yet rewarding mission. I thought we could complete this by sacrificing the life of a kid without any background, but who would have thought…. We’ve already lost one before even seeing the toad! If we count that kid as well, the sect will think that we’ve lost two people and they’ll consider our mission a failure if we were to return now. On top of that, there might even be punishments waiting for us, let alone any rewards. Besides, the elders will also likely think less of us, and any future advancements from that point on will become nonexistent.”
Lyu slowly lowered his head. He knew what Hou Qing was saying was the truth, and he himself was also unwilling to return just like that. Even if they were to shift all of the blame onto Fang Xing when they returned, there was a likely chance that the sect might not trust them in the future.
The two sat quietly opposite each other for some time, neither speaking a word.
Interrupting the silence, Hou Qing suddenly asked, “Can we still catch the kid?”
Lyu shook his head bitterly. “Nope. I didn’t think he would set a trap up for us by leaving his robes inside a hornets’ nest; he’s only got that one set of robes, is he going to be running naked in the forest? I was only able to track him before because of the stench of the mud, and now that he has thrown it away, I don’t have any clue as to his whereabouts.”
After another moment of silence, Hou Qing stood up with his sword and walked towards Qian.
“Shixiong Hou, what are you doing?” Lyu asked, surprised.
Expressionless, Hou Qing began to mutter, “Qian Tong. C-Ranked disciple. Came to the outer court from being a daotong. He has no authority, no power, no background, and has a bad temper that often gets him into fights. He sure has done plenty of dishonorable acts within the sect in the name of collecting cultivation resources. He doesn’t have a lot of friends, but he has certainly made plenty of enemies. If he were to die, while it may be a bit more troublesome than the kid dying, it wouldn’t be too bad.” As Hou Qing spoke, he gazed coldly at Lyu while his pupils shrank.
Lyu was stunned. He looked back at Hou Qing the same way he did when he had first met him: horrified.
Still watching Lyu coldly, Hou Qing swirled his sword in the air.
“I don’t want to see this. I... I have to use the restroom.” With a hasty wave of his hands, Lyu walked slowly into a nearby bush.
As Lyu walked out of sight, Qian—who had appeared to be sleeping the entire time—turned and sent a small Flying Sword soaring towards Hou Qing while screaming, “You bastard Hou! How dare you want to use me as bait!”
“I knew you were awake!” Hou Qing exclaimed. All five fingers of Hou Qing’s left hand spread open in front of him, and Qian’s sword that had been directed at him was halted mid-air by an invisible force and was unable to move even an inch farther. Hou Qing then closed his fingers as though to grab something before there was a pop, and the Qi surrounding Qian’s sword shattered while Hou Qing took hold of the weapon.
Oblivious to Hou Qing’s change of plans, Fang Xing had waited inside his safe spot for an entire hour after hearing the dreadful scream coming from the hornets’ nest. After he carefully traced back to the nest, he saw that the nest was on the ground along with a large number of dead hornets and the signs of people leaving in a rush.
Knowing that his trap had worked left Fang Xing rather pleased with himself, but since he still did not want to let Hou Qing go just yet, he began to follow their tracks instead. Fortunately, their tracks were rather obvious since Hou Qing had left in a hurry; the branches were broken where they had left behind footprints, and every few inches along the way there were more hornet corpses scattered on the ground.
Another hour had passed before Fang Xing finally found their earlier resting spot. Fang Xing waited behind the bushes for some time before he was certain they had all already left, and as he closed in he could see empty bottles of antidotes and some blood, causing Fang Xing to furrow his brows at the sight. The antidotes were expected, but where did the splatters of blood come from? The stings of those hornets couldn’t possibly cause this much bleeding.
In only a moment, Fang Xing’s eyes lit up. ‘Did they have an internal conflict?’
Fang Xing’s instincts told him that—based on Hou Qing’s personality—it wasn’t unlikely he would do such a thing to one of his own.
In the spur of the moment, Fang Xing decided that he would follow them closely in order to see exactly what their plan was. If by any chance they were still intending to complete the mission by killing the Python Toad, he would tail along to see if he could get lucky with some easy profits when both sides had been heavily wounded.