Chapter 342 - 1 Billion Bounty

Yi Xiaoyao let out a soft sigh. ‘What a chaotic world,’ he thought, while also admitting the man before him, Xiong Bao, at least had some sense.

Otherwise, if the man had kept pestering him, Yi Xiaoyao wouldn’t have minded stooping to his level just for some peace and quiet.

After hearing Xiong Bao’s command, the Shopkeeper immediately pulled a box out from under the counter. He removed a thick stack of documents—all of them were Bounty Orders.

RUSTLE RUSTLE RUSTLE. The man began flipping through the stack of Bounty Orders with practiced, astonishing speed.

Soon, the Shopkeeper’s hands stilled, and he pulled a single sheet from the stack.

All eyes in the tavern turned to him, curious about the bounty amount, waiting for the Shopkeeper to announce it.

“Yi Xiaoyao, bounty…”

The very instant the Shopkeeper announced the bounty, Yi Xiaoyao choked on his wine.

“One million!”

As the Shopkeeper finished speaking, he held up the Bounty Order for everyone in the tavern, including Xiong Bao, to see.

The next moment, the tavern erupted in boos and jeers.

“Tch!”

“Only one million!”

“On Exile Island, a bounty that low means you’re at the bottom of the food chain.”

On Exile Island, your bounty represented your strength and status. The higher the bounty, the greater your power and position.

Take Xiong Bao, for example, the man standing before Yi Xiaoyao’s table. Everyone was so afraid of him because he had been exiled from Great Xia with a massive thirty-million bounty on his head.

“Hahaha! So you’re just some punk with a one-million bounty, and you dare act all high and mighty in front of me?”

Xiong Bao roared with laughter. He slammed a foot down on Yi Xiaoyao’s table and leaned in. “Kid, do you have any concept of what my thirty-million bounty means? Do you have any idea how huge the gap is between my thirty million and your one million?”

At his words, the rest of the crowd’s laughter grew even more frenzied.

Yi Xiaoyao’s brow furrowed. He hadn’t expected the Bounty Order on Exile Island to be the same one issued back when he first entered the Chaotic Alliance Domain.

Seeing Xiong Bao’s massive foot planted on the table, a chill washed over Yi Xiaoyao’s face.

“Xiaoyao.” Yun Mengling grabbed Yi Xiaoyao’s hand, which was about to move, and whispered in his ear, “Let’s just switch tables. There’s no need to fight over this.”

Hearing her words, Yi Xiaoyao’s resolve wavered. ‘I just came here for a meal. Killing someone over something so trivial would ruin my appetite.’

More importantly, he had killed far too many people back in the Chaotic Alliance Domain and had, without realizing it, developed a bloodthirsty nature.

Now that Great Xia was at peace, he needed to break this habit. Otherwise, it would surely cause him no end of trouble when he reached Great Yu’s Eight Desolates in the future.

With that, Yi Xiaoyao gave a faint nod. He and Yun Mengling stood up, preparing to move to another table.

“A word of advice,” Yi Xiaoyao said calmly to Xiong Bao as he left. “Sometimes, the amount on a Bounty Order doesn’t tell the whole story.”

Xiong Bao just laughed again. “But it’s more than enough to prove that I can take your woman for myself.”

Then, Xiong Bao reached for the veil on Yun Mengling’s face. He had seen her delicate, jade-white hands when she’d grabbed Yi Xiaoyao. He was absolutely certain it was a woman.

“Let’s see what kind of woman this punk has with him!”

Before the words even faded, Xiong Bao ripped the veil from her face.

The entire tavern went dead silent. Every eye widened, and every gaze was drawn to her as if by force, staring intently at Yun Mengling’s devastatingly beautiful face.

GULP!

The sound of people swallowing audibly filled the air.

On Exile Island, you had to be one of the strongest to possess a woman—they were rare treasures. Besides, the female Bounty Hunters exiled here were almost all coarse and burly. How could any of them compare to Yun Mengling?

And so, upon seeing Yun Mengling, everyone would have likely gone wild if Xiong Bao hadn’t been there.

As for Xiong Bao, his face was a mask of pure ecstasy.

“What a haul! What a haul! To think such a beautiful woman would show up on Exile Island, and I, Xiong Bao, was the one to find her!”

Drool dripped from the corners of his grinning mouth as his laughter boomed. “This little beauty is mine!”

“Little beauty, you’re coming with me to serve me well!”

With that, he reached out a thick, brutish arm to pull Yun Mengling into his embrace.

Yun Mengling’s expression changed, but before she could even try to dodge, Xiong Bao’s arm froze in mid-air.

“I don’t think this is your great haul. This is the great disaster you’ve brought upon yourself after throwing away the chance you were given.”

A glacial frost covered Yi Xiaoyao’s face. His lips parted, and a voice dripping with Killing Intent reached Xiong Bao’s ears.

By now, Xiong Bao’s face was a mask of terror as he stared in horror at the cold-eyed Yi Xiaoyao.

He had the distinct sensation that his body was… leaking.

But before Xiong Bao could even react, his towering body slowly split in two, from head to toe, and collapsed to the ground with a THUD.

“Shopkeeper,” Yi Xiaoyao said, “get us a room. And have our food and wine sent up.” Staring at the corpse, he had completely lost his appetite.

The Shopkeeper, jolted from his stupor, nodded vigorously and led Yi Xiaoyao and Yun Mengling toward the guest rooms upstairs.

The entire tavern was dead silent. Everyone stared, mouths agape, at Xiong Bao’s corpse.

This was a top-tier expert with a thirty-million bounty… killed just like that? So inexplicably?

Only after Yi Xiaoyao disappeared up the stairs did the tavern explode into an uproar.

“How did Xiong Bao die? I didn’t even see what happened!”

“It must have been that kid with the one-million bounty!”

“What? He killed a thirty-million-bounty man like Xiong Bao that easily? Does that kid really only have a bounty of one million?”

These were the same people who had just been mocking Yi Xiaoyao. Now, every single one of them was drenched in a cold sweat.

No wonder Yi Xiaoyao had warned Xiong Bao that the amount on a Bounty Order doesn’t tell the whole story.

Immediately, someone rushed out of the tavern and ran off.

“Look! Someone’s gone to report this. Now we’re in for a good show!”

“That guy who just left… he must have gone to report to Lord Dragon King, right?”

“Xiong Bao was Lord Dragon King’s right-hand man. With him dead, there’s no way Lord Dragon King will just let it slide.”

Seeing someone run off to deliver the news, the expressions of the tavern patrons all turned gleeful with anticipation.

Then, they began to gossip about the aforementioned Lord Dragon King.

“Speaking of which, Lord Dragon King is the strongest person on Exile Island. A ninety-eight-million bounty… who can possibly compare?”

“Don’t forget, Lord Dragon King was personally captured and escorted here by the Third Lord of the Imperial Army Mansion himself.”

“That kid who killed Xiong Bao just picked a fight with Lord Dragon King. He won’t live to see tomorrow.”

Meanwhile, high above Exile Island, a giant bird with a Beast Hide Scroll tied to its claw was feebly beating its wings.

This giant bird was a Transporting Eagle, a creature used specifically to carry the condemned to this place of exile.

A Transporting Eagle’s flight speed was, of course, no match for Yi Xiaoyao’s Little Hei. For one of these birds to fly from Great Xia to Exile Island would take at least ten to fifteen days.

Often, a Transporting Eagle carrying a person would die of exhaustion long before reaching Exile Island. This one, though it had made it to its destination, finally plummeted from the sky.

“Look! A Transporting Eagle is falling!”

“That Transporting Eagle actually made it to the island. It must not have been carrying a person, which means it’s bringing news from Great Xia.”

Seeing the Transporting Eagle fall, the inhabitants of Exile Island all rushed toward it.

They then untied the Beast Hide Scroll from the eagle’s claw and discovered it was a new Bounty Order.

In the next moment, everyone gasped, pointing in utter horror at the amount written on the Bounty Order.

“Ones… tens… hundreds… ten millions… hundred millions… One billion!!”

“What? A one-billion-coin bounty!!!”

“This person… his name is… Yi Xiaoyao!”