As the crowd advanced menacingly towards him, Monk was terrified. He scrambled backward, only to find his escape route blocked by a large boulder. Leaning against it, trembling, he looked at Li Xi and the others, then feigned composure. "I'm a guest of Viscount Jiadolo of the Lord's Mansion. If you lay a hand on me, the City Lord and other high officials of Kadu City will not let you off."
Li Xi chuckled, "Master Monk, you jest. You are the employer, and we are mercenaries. What could we do to you?"
Despite his words, Li Xi's forward steps did not slow.
Monk's pupils darted wildly, like raindrops on a banana flower. Watching Li Xi relentlessly advance, he felt like a naked man thrown into a group of burly men he hadn't seen in decades. No matter how much they said, 'I'll be gentle,' the outcome wouldn't change.
"Then what do you want now?"
Li Xi pointed to the spatial ring on Monk's finger. "We brothers worked hard for so long. Commander Xinis was gravely injured. We fought hard to defeat a level four Succubus and a level five Horned Demon. Look, my equipment is broken, and I've even sacrificed my body. Master Monk, shouldn't you offer more compensation?"
Li Xi's tone was questioning, but everyone could see he was demanding a handout.
If there was a price, Monk could relax. He wasn't afraid of them setting a price; he could afford it.
This man, whom he had initially thought was just a novice with slightly higher soul strength, someone who could only satisfy a succubus, turned out to be a true deep-sea leviathan, a great eagle hidden in a chicken coop. And he dared to claim he had won after arduous battles? Did they take him for a fool, for someone blind to the fact that he had toyed with a level five Horned Demon?
But Monk dared not voice these thoughts. Looking into Li Xi's eyes, even though they were as pure and white as moonlight and showed no trace of killing intent, Monk was still afraid.
He forced a smile that was three parts uglier than a cry. "It's only right. You've paid so much, I must give you ample commission."
He began to take things out of his spatial ring, but Li Xi didn't even glance at them. He continuously wiped his heavy sword with his sleeve, cleaning off the blood bit by bit.
With each wipe, Monk's face grew more pained, and with each pang of pain, he took out another item from his spatial ring.
But even as the items piled up, Li Xi remained unmoved.
After a long while, Monk stopped, clutching his spatial ring tightly, like a chaste maiden protecting her door against an intruder.
Li Xi finished wiping his sword and casually swung it. The whistling sound of the wind erupted, each gust striking Monk's face and piercing his fragile heart like a knife.
With a pained expression, Monk took out a combat puppet from his spatial ring, identical to the one that had been shattered by the Horned Demon, and placed it on the ground. Su Dan Novel Network
Upon seeing the tall combat puppet, Xinis and the others' eyes, and even their faces, lit up. They had witnessed the puppet's combat power before. Its fighting style was a bit monotonous, but it didn't know fear, fatigue, or retreat.
This level three combat puppet had a market value of at least five thousand gold coins, and even then, it was hard to find. Xinis and the others had long wanted to buy one but lacked the means. Now, one was placed before them, free of charge, leaving them in disbelief.
Just as Xinis and the others thought it was time to stop while they were ahead, Li Xi acted as if he hadn't seen any of it. Instead, he asked Xinis with mock seriousness, "Commander Xinis, I seem to have lost a spatial ring. Have you seen it?"
Xinis was taken aback, never expecting Li Xi to be so audacious. He showed a troubled expression. "This… this… Brother Li Xi…"
Seeing his hesitation, Li Xi knew he was still timid. He decided to take matters into his own hands. He pretended to search the ground with great concentration before walking up to Monk and forcefully pulling away Monk's hand, which was covering something. Li Xi saw the gleaming silver spatial ring revealed and smiled. "So, my Li family's spatial ring was picked up by you."
"Thank you."
With that, he yanked. With a 'crack' and Monk's scream, Li Xi removed the spatial ring from Monk's severed finger.
He extended his spiritual sense towards the ring, but it was like a city gate sealed shut, unyielding. Li Xi's spiritual sense couldn't open it.
Li Xi placed the spatial ring before Monk, who was clutching his finger and wailing. "Master, you've recognized my ring as your own. That's not very polite. Quickly unbind it, or I won't be so lenient."
Monk shot Li Xi a venomous glare, appearing determined to resist to the death. "Are you not afraid I'll report you to the Mercenary Guild when I return?"
Li Xi directly plunged his heavy sword into the mountain wall next to Monk's head, the blade disappearing into the hilt. Sensing the sharpness of the sword inches from his head, Monk began to sweat profusely, unsure if it was from fear of Li Xi or the pain of his broken finger.
"If you don't unlock my ring today, I guarantee I'll bury you here with the demons. When I return, I'll tell the Mercenary Guild that 'Master Monk died fighting demons for the continent, he was our hero, and my inability to recover his body is my failure'."
Li Xi smiled, but his gaze was colder than ten thousand years of ice. "How do you like that, Master? I assure you, no one will ever discover the secret of this place."
"Or perhaps I could say, Master died fighting a succubus. Compared to the previous story, this one might make the men of Kadu City envious of your fate."
"You… you…"
Monk trembled with rage, as if suffering from epilepsy.
Li Xi's expression turned grim. With a slight movement of his hand, the heavy sword plunged into the mountain wall shifted, pressing against Monk's neck. "Unlock it, and I promise to let you return to Kadu City alive. Refuse, and I'll kill you right now."
Monk looked at Li Xi as if he were his sworn enemy who had killed his father, a neighbor who had cuckolded him, the biological father of the child he had raised for twenty years. Monk's anger was indescribable. If anger were a sword, it could pierce the bottomless abyss!
Monk then looked at Xinis and the others, only to see them gleefully collecting the items Monk had taken from his spatial ring, completely oblivious to the scene unfolding.
At the brink of life and death, Monk could only submit to Li Xi's dominance. Humiliated, he erased his mark from the spatial ring. Li Xi eagerly dripped his blood onto it and instantly gained control of the ring.
As soon as he probed it with his spiritual sense, Li Xi was stunned. The spatial ring was larger than his house, at least two hundred cubic meters, filled with all sorts of materials and daily necessities.
A quick scan suggested the value of the items within was tens of thousands of gold coins.
The cold, frosty expression vanished, replaced by a warm, spring-like smile. "Thank you, Master, for helping me retrieve my ring. We mercenaries keep our word. We promised to escort you safely back to Kadu City, and we will. If anything happens, I'll be held accountable."
After these pleasantries, Li Xi, no longer interested in the old man, joined Xinis and the others in cleaning up the battlefield.
There wasn't much to clean up, only the bodies of minor demons and the Horned Demon. Speaking of the Horned Demon, Li Xi suddenly remembered the curse it had placed on him before dying.
"Commander Xinis, I'd like to ask you a question."
"Go ahead, Brother Li Xi."
"What was the purpose of the curse the Horned Demon placed on me before it died? I haven't felt anything unusual all day."
Xinis sighed deeply. "Brother Li Xi, this matter dates back to the Great Chaos. During the Great Chaos, a group of exceptional talents emerged among the races on the continent. These talents possessed immense power and often inflicted great damage on the abyss demons. Later, the abyss demons invented this curse. Its sole purpose is to mark other abyss demons, indicating that this human is a powerful opponent and must be killed. All demons who come near can sense this mark."
Li Xi pondered. "So, you're saying I'm a candle in the dark, and demons are moths drawn to the flame? As long as they see me, they'll come to kill me?"
"Yes, Brother Li Xi."
"Hahaha, I thought it was something serious. It's just this. Since I'm a mercenary, I live with my life on the line every day. Why should I fear demons seeking revenge? One comes, I kill one. Two come, I kill a pair."
With that, he swung his heavy sword, decisively hacking off the Horned Demon's two meter-long horns and placing them into his spatial ring. He had wanted such a collectible to adorn his room, and now was a good opportunity.
Seeing Li Xi's indifference to the curse, Xinis felt a heavy weight in his heart. Since the abyss invented this curse, the number of masters who died at their hands had increased exponentially. The abyss had issued an order: 'We can lose the frontal assault, but those bearing the curse must die.'
The number of people who could survive the abyss curse was dwindling. Each such person was a hero to the continent, but also a target the abyss sought to eliminate quickly.
Xinis guessed Li Xi's strength was around level six. But level six offered no grounds for pride before the abyss. The abyss had killed countless such individuals during the Great Chaos. If it were in the past, Li Xi surviving for a month would have been a testament to Lady Luck's favor.
"Are we going to take the Horned Demon's corpse back for a reward?" a mercenary couldn't help but ask.
The corpses of high-ranking abyss demons were excellent alchemical materials. The Horned Demon's body alone would fetch at least a thousand gold coins, far exceeding their mission commission. The minor demons were worthless individually, but there were many of them. Twenty silver coins each, and the ones scattered here would add up to several hundred gold coins.
Xinis looked at Li Xi. After all, the Horned Demon was Li Xi's spoils of war, and they had no right to make decisions.
Li Xi waved dismissively. "You can handle it however you see fit. Whether you claim to have picked it up or killed it yourself, it's fine. Just don't mention me, and do as you please."
"Brother Li Xi, what are you…?" Xinis didn't understand Li Xi's actions.
Li Xi pointed to the E-rank mercenary badge on his chest. "I'm just an E-rank mercenary. Where would I have the strength to kill a Horned Demon? I want to live a peaceful life and not attract undue attention."
Li Xi emphasized, "Low profile is king."
Xinis nodded perfunctorily. An E-rank mercenary like you? Even B-rank mercenaries aren't this strong. And you talk about being low-profile? Anyone who messes with you because they think you're E-rank will be the one who suffers.
However, undertaking missions with such a powerful ally was truly enjoyable. "Go and pack them up. Back there, say a passing master took care of it, and we got lucky."
"Alright, thank you, Brother Li Xi." The mercenaries excitedly began packing the corpses. This was pure profit.