Want to Make a Bet?

Half an hour later...

The sounds of slaughtering grew intermittent. Along the banks, houses were engulfed in raging flames.

Smoke billowed toward the sky, only to be blocked by a massive isolation formation. It lingered above like a thick fog on a gloomy day, obscuring the glow of the formation's light.

Dark shadows moved through the area, leaving not even a chicken or dog alive.

The waters of the Nether Creek flowed with a soft gurgle.

Somewhere downstream...

A young woman wearing blood-red robes, with blue hair and a pair of horns, slowly crouched down. Her face was hidden behind a golden mask as she fished a Shadow Soul Stone out from the edge of the Ruoshui.

She held it up high to admire it, revealing her snowy, flawless neck.

Within her emerald-green eyes, a brilliant light flickered.

Beside her, a man in black—one of the three seventh-rank lesser demon generals—bowed his head and said, "Your Majesty, we've searched everywhere, but we still haven't found that girl."

The woman continued to stare at the Shadow Soul Stone, remaining silent.

The man in black hesitated for a moment before speaking again. "Could she have escaped? Or perhaps she wasn't here to begin with?"

The woman’s gaze shifted slightly, her eyes as cold as frost, but her voice was high-pitched and clear with a hint of sharpness. She said lightly, "Has everyone been slaughtered?"

The man in black replied with certainty, "Not even a chicken or dog remains."

Thoughtfully, the woman murmured to herself, "How fresh. For a Shadow Soul Stone to float into such a remote place... interesting."

The man in black frowned slightly and stole a glance at the stone in her hand. "Perhaps someone threw it intentionally, or it was dropped by accident."

The woman’s expression shifted instantly. She glared at him. "Did I ask you?"

The man in black quickly lowered his head.

"Useless trash."

The man didn't dare make a sound.

The woman gripped the Shadow Soul Stone and let her arm fall naturally. Her wide, embroidered blood-red sleeves hid the stone from view. She paced over to the man in black and stopped, speaking in a sinister tone.

"I'm curious—did you buy your marquessate with money?"

The man lowered his head even further, his body trembling.

It wasn't fear, but rather the shaking of muscles under extreme tension and force.

"Marquis Yongxin, if the old marquis knew his son was such a fool, do you think he would crawl out of his grave in anger?" the woman continued to mock him.

The man in black gritted his teeth, his eyes turning red. He said stubbornly, "Your Majesty, you can say whatever you want about me, but I will not allow you to insult my father."

The woman didn't get angry; instead, she laughed, her words piercing. "You are the one insulting your father. You are the one dragging his name through the mud."

The man in black remained defiant. "I will not bring shame to him."

The woman dropped her affected, mocking tone and said deeply, "Then prove it to me."

"I will!"

The woman stepped past him and paced forward, saying casually, "Gather everyone. Count them, check them, and keep your eyes wide open."

Hearing this, the man called Marquis Yongxin understood her meaning instantly. His humiliation remained, but a new anger flared.

"Men!"

"Marquis!"

"Summon back everyone who's still breathing."

"By your command!"

Soon, all the black-clad men began to gather from all directions toward a single point. Xu Xian and Chi Ji were naturally among them.

"Something's wrong."

Even the somewhat dim-witted Chi Ji realized something was off. Panicking, she asked, "What do we do?"

Xu Xian's eyes darted around as his thoughts raced, simulating the upcoming events in his mind.

Run?

There was a massive formation; it wouldn't be easy to get out.

Fight their way out?

The little book spirit had already scouted this demon formation. Even a power at the eighth stage would find it difficult to break easily.

With Xu Xian's current strength, relying on Wait and the Green Lotus Sword Song wouldn't be enough to tear it open. He would have to sacrifice the Sword Tower. But if he brought that out, he would have to kill every single witness, or it would lead to immense trouble.

Hide?

The place was only so big. How could they hide? He could avoid divine sense detection, but he couldn't escape the naked eye.

If they couldn't find who they were looking for, they would surely dig three feet into the ground to find them.

Blend in?

Then he would have to throw Chi Ji out. But the prerequisite was that she didn't sell him out. Otherwise, they would just keep searching. To put it bluntly, with the way they were searching, even hiding underground would be useless.

Alternatively, he could quietly kill her and hand her over. Once the other side saw the corpse, they would likely retreat.

That was the safest option.

However...

More than any of that, Xu Xian wanted to kill them all.

This was an entire town of people. Not a single soul had been left alive; they hadn't even spared the children.

"Are we running?" Chi Ji couldn't help but ask again.

Xu Xian glanced at her, having reached a decision. He said with a playful hint, "If I kill them all, you should be able to give me a lot of money, right?"

Chi Ji was stunned. "Huh?" She thought she had misheard him.

Kill them all?

With what?

She didn't deny that the youth before her had some tricks and wasn't weak. Over the course of the night, he had stealthily killed no fewer than ten of the enemies. Three of them were even at a higher cultivation stage than him.

But that had mostly been through trickery.

The other side had cultivators at the seventh stage lesser demon king stage. Two in the early stage and one in the late stage.

How could he kill them?

"You don't believe me?"

Without a second thought, Chi Ji nodded. "I don't."

Xu Xian narrowed his eyes slightly. "Want to make a bet?"

Chi Ji asked in confusion, "A bet... on what?"

"If I kill them all, you give me one million Shadow Soul Stones."

One million?!

Xu Xian was asking for the lion's share, which truly startled Chi Ji. That was one million. Even for the Crimson Demon Palace, that wasn't a small amount.

They could produce it, but it would be a significant blow to their resources.

Still, if he really could kill them all and they could return alive, it wasn't impossible...

But could he really do it? Why was he so confident?

"Is it a deal?"

As if possessed, Chi Ji nodded. "Fine."

Xu Xian smiled slightly. "Then it's a deal."

Chi Ji swallowed hard and asked tentatively, "And if you lose? What do you give me?"

Xu Xian looked at her as if she were a fool and said nothing.

"I'm asking you!"

Xu Xian rolled his eyes. "Isn't it obvious? If I lose, I'll be dying right alongside you. What else could you possibly want or need? You're being silly."

Chi Ji was left speechless.

Xu Xian wanted to kill these people for three reasons.

First, he didn't like them.

Second, for the money.

Third, also for the money.

To be blunt, Xu Xian had come to the Demon Abyss specifically for wealth—Shadow Soul Stones and the Spirit-Suppressing Seal. Those two things.

Before coming, he had planned to dive into the Nether Pool and just start digging. After all, with a goal of one million tons, what kind of business could earn that much?

But tonight, after experiencing the nether water personally, he had wavered.

He didn't even dare to fish things out of the water. How was he supposed to dig things out from beneath it?

Therefore, he had to make two preparations. He would dig if he could, but if he couldn't, he would have to earn it himself. How? Robbing was obviously the fastest way.

He had done the math. A Shadow Soul Stone about the size of a fist weighed roughly ten kilograms. Ten thousand stones would be one hundred tons. One million tons would be one hundred million stones. That was ten thousand groups of ten thousand, or one hundred groups of one million.

A steady stream adds up. If he could kill all these people and strip them of everything, he should be able to get several tens of thousands of stones. Adding the one million in commission, he would have loaded more than one percent of his progress bar.

If he did this a hundred times, wouldn't he have enough?

It wasn't bad. All things considered, it was simpler than collecting beast bones.

However, though he thought this way, Xu Xian still had to weigh the pros and cons.

While Xu Xian was lost in his grand daydreams, the group was gathered in a corner of the town, and several experts made their appearance. Even the woman in red sat leisurely on the gateway of the small bridge, looking down at them.

"What do you actually plan to do?" Chi Ji asked.

Xu Xian responded lazily through his divine sense, "I told you—kill them all!"