"Did you kill him?"
Before Luo Chen could answer, Wang Yuan nodded to himself. "It seems you did."
Luo Chen nervously retreated as Wang Yuan walked over to the charred corpse and swung his large blade.
The scorched, unrecognizable head was casually cut off with a single stroke.
Wang Yuan glanced at the nervous Luo Chen and his storage pouch, his gaze appearing momentarily conflicted.
The night breeze was cool, and the blood-stained body felt even colder.
Luo Chen forced an awkward smile. "Brother Wang, I haven't finished reading that book yet."
As if recalling something, Wang Yuan's gaze softened, and his eyelids drooped once more.
"Go home early. The Dahe Market is dangerous at night."
"Yeah, yeah."
Luo Chen turned to leave but hesitated. He walked back and painstakingly hoisted the snakeskin bag filled with herbs onto his back.
It was all he had.
As Wang Yuan watched Luo Chen's figure nearing the alleyway exit, he let out an inexplicable sigh.
"Take this. Consider it payment for the head."
A black spike, about the length of a chopstick, landed at Luo Chen's feet. The spike was stained with fresh blood and bits of flesh.
"Brother Wang, you're too kind."
"Just go. Take the route through the woods, not the main road."
"Understood."
With a heavy nod, Luo Chen disappeared into the woods without looking back.
In the alley, Wang Yuan stood for a moment, holding three heads. Then, he slowly faded into the darkness.
Ah… ah…
Clink!
Exhale!
Luo Chen slumped against the foot of his bed like a dead fish, drenched in sweat. Even his undergarments were soaked through.
On the floor before him was another Soul-Breaking Nail embedded in his waist.
Gritting his teeth through the intense pain, Luo Chen grabbed a few bottles from nearby and poured their contents onto the wound.
These were healing medicines he had concocted himself, specifically for dealing with explosions during alchemy experiments. They had proven useful on many occasions.
Today, they were even more vital.
As the medicinal powder entered his wound, a cooling sensation spread before it was replaced by searing pain.
Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck…
Low growls of curses escaped his lips intermittently.
Luo Chen had never been this angry before. Not at the enemy who had harmed him, but at his own weakness.
If he were as strong as Wang Yuan, he wouldn't have ended up in such a state.
Finally, after bandaging his wound, Luo Chen sighed in relief.
Despite the pain, he limped into the living room, opened the snakeskin bag, and meticulously sorted the herbs onto different shelves.
These low-grade herbs couldn't be stored together for long, otherwise, their effectiveness would be greatly diminished.
His unsteady steps under the dim oil lamp seemed almost pitiful.
Luo Chen even felt that this scene closely resembled the moments in his past life when he returned to work sick right after surgery.
He muttered to himself, "There's no escaping a life of toil no matter where I go, no wonder I only lived to seventy-five in my last life."
After finishing everything, he finally had the chance to lie down on the bed.
The persistent pain in his waist kept him awake despite his exhaustion.
Feeling helpless, he could only find something else to do to distract himself.
"Let's see what that poor fool left behind."
Qi-refining cultivators' storage pouches were completely unguarded since they lacked spirit consciousness and couldn't set up restrictions.
Upon their death, the enchanting power imprint on the pouch naturally dissipated.
Luo Chen opened the pouch with the remaining bit of spirit power within him.
A pile of items spilled onto his wooden bed.
"Today was the market day, and this guy surely bought a whole bunch of stuff."
A low-grade robe, a box of calming incense, five bottles of fasting pills, one bottle of Qi-Nourishing pills, one bottle of Golden Chest Powder, and a stack of talismans.
There was also a heap of withered spirit herbs that took up most of the bed.