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墨書 Inktalez
The thug was startled when he saw A Qi smile at him. Before he could even ask a question, he felt a sharp pain in his chest, and with a powerful kick from A Qi, he was sent flying, rolling out of the small shop upon landing.
The remaining thugs were horrified, but before they could react, they felt a blur in front of them as they too were kicked out by A Qi.
Outside, the Rogue Leader, who had been grinning maliciously while slowly approaching a few Vagrants to better enjoy their fearful expressions, heard the commotion behind him. He quickly turned around and saw a fist rapidly approaching him.
Buzz!
The punch landed squarely on his face. The Rogue Leader felt as if he had been struck by a charging rhinoceros; his rugged face instantly became a mess of flesh. Overwhelmed by pain, his vision went dark, and he promptly fainted.
Under the horrified gazes of all the thugs, A Qi's smile remained unchanged as he clapped his hands. For him, dealing with these incompetent lowlifes was hardly even a warm-up.
If it weren't for the fear of causing too much commotion and disrupting his plans, those lying on the ground would not be human but corpses. However, they were not in good shape either; A Qi's kicks had been quite forceful.
"Why aren't you scramming? Do you plan to stay for dinner?" A Qi asked curiously when he saw the thugs staring blankly.
The thugs snapped out of their daze and hurriedly rolled and crawled away from there. Two of them even remembered to drag their leader along.
As for revenge, it didn't even cross their minds. They had chosen this shop to extort because they noticed that only the Old Man was there without any backing. Now that they had provoked a Martial Cultivator, they certainly wanted to get as far away as possible; they didn't dare think about retaliation.
Moreover, even if they wanted revenge, they would have to wait until that kid left; otherwise, they would still end up suffering.
Unfortunately for them, they didn't know that even if they wanted to retaliate, there would be no opportunity. With those kicks earlier, A Qi had secretly infused them with hidden energy. The real pain would only begin once they returned home.
When the thugs had disappeared without a trace, A Qi nodded in satisfaction and gave a thumbs up to the several homeless children who were looking at him with admiration.
"Well done! I didn't have such courage when I was your age; impressive!"
Hearing such praise from Big Brother, the homeless children instantly became excited, their faces turning red as they rushed over to A Qi.
"Wow, Big Brother, you're amazing! You scared those bad guys away just like that!"
"What kind of skills did you use? How did you suddenly make several people appear?"
"If it weren't for you, we would have been caught by those bad guys!"
Surrounded by the little ones, A Qi found himself a bit flustered by their enthusiastic chatter; he had never dealt with such a situation before.
Fortunately, an old man came over to relieve his awkwardness. "Hey, hey, don't bother this young man. You were too reckless just now; do you even know who those people are? Are they someone we can mess with?"
The homeless children were still quite obedient to the old man, but upon hearing his scolding, one of them said, "But they wanted to beat you up and smash the shop!"
"If they smash the shop, then so be it. What if they hurt you instead? What would we do then? That's just foolishness!"
The children fell silent at once, recalling the fierce gaze of the thug leader from earlier; they felt a bit scared.
After scolding them, the old man turned back to A Qi with a smile. "Young man, thank you so much for your help just now. I don't have much to repay you with; how about I treat you to this meal?"
The old man asked this mainly to seek A Qi's opinion. Many Martial Cultivators care about their reputation; if they think he looks down on them, there would be no way to reason with him.
A Qi stroked his chin and thoughtfully said, "Old man, it seems like things aren't very peaceful here. Is the security in Qingyang City really that bad?"
"Isn't it?" Hearing A Qi say this, the old man sighed. "Business is getting harder and harder to do. I don't know what's going on. It used to be fine; as long as you reported it, the Guards in the city would come and handle it.
But in recent months, the lord's office hasn't been managing things at all, leading to more and more outrageous behavior like what just happened. They come demanding money every few days. If this continues, I won't be able to keep my business running.
I personally don't mind much; I'm old and my strength is waning. If I have to close up shop, it would be a good opportunity for me to retire. But these kids... they probably won't even be able to get enough to eat."
"Hmm?" A Qi was somewhat surprised; he didn't expect the old man to have such thoughts about running his shop. "What about these kids?"
"What else could it be? Their parents went out to gather herbs and died in an accident. In Qingyang City, there aren't many good livelihoods. We rely on outside merchant caravans for food and drink. Many people can only go into the mountains to gather herbs, and inevitably some don’t return, leaving behind orphans like these."
"Then if that's the case, why does everyone stay in Qingyang City? Wouldn't it be better outside?"
"Outside? Where is outside?" The old man looked somewhat confused. He had lived his whole life in Qingyang City, and in his impression of the world, outside the city was just wilderness and mountains; as for anything further away, he had no idea.
A Qi realized that his words were futile; how could he describe a bustling scene to someone who had never been to other cities? It would be a waste of breath.
However, he happened to need a place to stay, and this was an opportunity. So he smiled and said, "Old man, I don't think those people will let this go easily. How about this: since I've just arrived in Qingyang City and have nowhere else to go, I could work as an assistant here?"
"Ah?" The old man was startled and quickly waved his hands. "No, no! A small shop like mine can't afford someone like you, young hero! That would be a waste! Besides, I can't pay any wages for such a small business!"
"This doesn't matter; I don't need any wages. Just make sure I'm well-fed."
"This—" The old man hesitated. On one hand, he was indeed afraid those people would come back to cause trouble. On the other hand, just ensuring he was well-fed seemed like it wouldn't be easy given the amount this young man had eaten earlier.
However, when he glanced at the excited eyes of a few Vagrants, he realized that having this young man around would indeed be more beneficial than harmful. At the very least, the safety of a few unfortunate children was guaranteed.
"Alright then, but I’m afraid I’ll have to trouble you a bit." In the end, the old man made up his mind to keep A Qi.
"There’s no trouble at all; I should be thanking you, old man. So, how about it? I can start working right now. What do you need me to do?"
"First, let’s learn how to knead dough. Just so happens we’ve run out of dough in the shop, and I still don’t know what to call you."
"Just call me A Qi, is that alright?" A Qi followed the old man's movements, adding water to the flour and kneading it together.
"Not bad; you have a good sense for this. It looks like you'll pick it up quickly."
The small shop was still filled with steam, but now there was an additional young boy learning how to make steamed buns under the guidance of an elderly man, while a few curious little followers gathered behind him.
One of the basic principles for an assassin is that before completing any mission, one must first adapt to a new life for a while. Only when you can perfectly blend into that kind of life can you conceal that last trace of killing intent.
Everything is laid as groundwork for that artistic strike when the mission begins.
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