Chapter 531 - 531: The Scum Among Cultivators

Despite facing a Qi Listening Realm master alone, Zhao Yuan wasn't the least bit nervous.

'So what if he's in the Qi Listening Realm? My Cultivation might not be on his level, but I have Talismans, Magical Artifacts, allies, and the Witch Doctor's legacy as a massive power-up. How could I possibly be afraid of him?!'

Zhao Yuan took the initiative, drawing his bow and nocking an arrow. SWOOSH—he fired it toward the man in the gold-rimmed glasses.

"Petty tricks. You dare show them off before me?" the man in the gold-rimmed glasses said arrogantly.

And he certainly had the right to be arrogant. With a wave of his dagger, a sharp Sword Aura struck the incoming arrow. BOOM! The arrow was instantly blasted to dust.

"That was the arrow shattering. Next, it'll be your body!" the man in the gold-rimmed glasses snarled. Moving like a cheetah, he charged toward Zhao Yuan at incredible speed, intent on killing him to avenge his fallen comrades.

'So you think you're hot stuff with that Sword Aura? I have it too!'

Zhao Yuan raised the Wind and Thunder Whip and poured Wish Power into it. Fierce arcs of electricity flashed across the whip's thick, black body.

The charging man in the gold-rimmed glasses froze, stunned. "A Magical Artifact?!"

'He could tell at a glance that what the Wind and Thunder Whip was releasing wasn't Sword Aura at all! Besides, the power Zhao Yuan was displaying hadn't reached the Qi Listening Realm. There could only be one explanation for the phenomenon on the whip—it was a Magical Artifact, and a powerful combat-type one at that!'

'Kill him and take his treasure!'

The man in the gold-rimmed glasses made his decision instantly.

At this point, he was only four or five meters away from Zhao Yuan.

The man in the gold-rimmed glasses pushed off the ground, preparing to cross the final stretch and deliver a fatal blow to Zhao Yuan.

But he never expected that this was the very opportunity Zhao Yuan had been waiting for.

"Five Ghosts Binding Talisman!"

The Talisman he had been holding ready in his left hand activated.

Five small ghosts instantly appeared. Some grabbed his legs, others pulled his arms, and one latched onto his waist. All of this had a single purpose: to make the man in the gold-rimmed glasses freeze for just a moment.

Zhao Yuan succeeded!

The man in the gold-rimmed glasses hadn't expected this move. Held back by the Five Ghosts, his movements faltered. He struggled with all his might, but before he could break free, Zhao Yuan unleashed a Whip Skill from the Mountain-Breaking Fist style, viciously lashing out at him with the Wind and Thunder Whip.

"Decent strength, but you can't hurt me! I'll show you just how vast the gap is between the Marrow Cleansing Realm and the Qi Listening Realm! In my eyes, you are nothing but an ant!"

Despite being at a disadvantage, the man in the gold-rimmed glasses remained completely confident, not taking Zhao Yuan's attack seriously at all.

He raised his hand and blocked the Wind and Thunder Whip with his tactical dagger!

CLANG!

Amid the sound of a violent collision, the tactical dagger had firmly blocked the Wind and Thunder Whip!

The man's strength was shockingly no weaker than Zhao Yuan's; it might have even been greater! After blocking the attack, he prepared to seize the opportunity to counterattack.

Unfortunately for him, he had one thing wrong—the key to Zhao Yuan's strike wasn't its force, but its lightning!

With a series of loud CRACKLES, the lightning on the Wind and Thunder Whip, like hundreds of venomous snakes, swarmed toward the man in the gold-rimmed glasses.

"Ah… No!"

The man in the gold-rimmed glasses, who had been so confident and arrogant just a moment before, was now dumbfounded and panicked.

BOOM! The lightning surged into his body. Even as a Qi Listening Realm master, he was electrocuted so badly he couldn't stop trembling. His hair was instantly scorched, and the nauseating smell of burning flesh filled the air as multiple parts of his body were seared by the electricity.

He was a Qi Listening Realm Cultivator, after all. The blow wasn't fatal, and he managed to react in time.

He fought against the pull of the electricity, dropped his tactical dagger, and retreated, trying to escape the range of the Wind and Thunder Whip's current.

But at that moment, the Bone Woman attacked.

She rushed out from behind Zhao Yuan. With one swift, clean stroke of her blade, she lopped off the man's head!

The lightning on the Wind and Thunder Whip immediately subsided. The Bone Woman bent down, picked up the severed head, and raised it high. She then let out a customary roar: "The enemy is shamed! I shall strip him of his clothes!"

"What the hell?" Zhao Yuan exclaimed in shock. "Cutting off his head is one thing, but why do you have to strip his clothes too?"

Hao Li, who was fighting in the distance, couldn't help but burst out laughing when he heard this. "Little Brother Zhao, you're killing me!" he said. "That's Chikuzen Hakumei Rihachiro speaking Japanese. It means, 'I have taken the enemy's head!' It's not about stripping someone's clothes for some hanky-panky."

After Hao Li's explanation, Zhao Yuan finally understood what the Bone Woman had meant and felt a bit embarrassed. To cover it up, he immediately jumped into the fray, joining Hao Li and the others against the three remaining enemies.

After seeing their leader in the gold-rimmed glasses taken down so decisively, the three remaining enemies' morale plummeted. With Zhao Yuan and the Bone Woman joining the fight, the trio was instantly overwhelmed. They didn't last long before being finished off one by one.

Once the fight was over, Ying Ji and Cheng Haoyu began cleaning up the battlefield, checking for any survivors. Hao Li, meanwhile, wasted no time and started butchering the Raccoon Power.

The earlier gunfight and explosions had made a huge commotion. No matter how remote the area was, the noise must have carried. He had to hurry and finish butchering the Raccoon Power before any local villagers or the police arrived.

Ying Ji and Cheng Haoyu checked each of the bodies, confirming that they were all dead.

It was during this inspection that they discovered all of the men had an ant tattoo.

Zhao Yuan didn't recognize the tattoo, but Ying Ji and Cheng Haoyu identified it instantly. "These guys are the Ant Thieves!"

Zhao Yuan asked, "What are the Ant Thieves?"

Ying Ji explained, "The Ant Thieves are an organization. For the sake of their Cultivation, the people in this group will do anything—even something as depraved as murdering their own families. They wouldn't hesitate for a second!"

Cheng Haoyu took over, "The organization calls itself the Ant Swarm. They use that name for two reasons. First, they believe that everyone beneath the level of an Immortal is an ant, themselves included—only they see themselves as ants with ideals and ambition. Second, it's because their favorite pastime is plundering Ancient Tombs and historical sites!"

Ying Ji added, "Whenever the Ant Thieves hear that an Ancient Tomb or historical site might contain something related to Cultivation, they rush over to plunder it. Afterward, they destroy the site completely. Because their actions are so vile, everyone else in the Cultivation Realm regards them as degenerate bandits. So, they changed the 'Swarm' part of their name to 'Thieves,' and now everyone just calls them the Ant Thieves."

Cheng Haoyu sighed. "The Ant Thieves are not only a massive force, but they also operate in the shadows. No one knows where their headquarters are or who their leaders are. They're incredibly mysterious. Many in the Cultivation Realm have tried to exterminate them, but no one has ever succeeded. To think we'd run into them today."