Chapter 456: Terrifying Cunning

“Stop him! Hold him back!”
As the young man in fine robes was about to rush out of the shop, with chaos unfolding outside, the people inside the shop snapped out of their shock at having their storage ring thrown away. One after another, they began to shout. Though they didn’t understand the young man’s intentions, keeping him there couldn’t hurt.
A silver glow appeared as a silver-white spirit sword was thrust forward, hitting him in the chest the moment he stepped out of the shop. It then pierced through him as easily as through tofu.
Pfft…
A gush of bright red blood sprayed high as the spirit sword was pulled out.
“Take the spiritual materials and run!”
The young man in fine robes shouted with all his strength before collapsing to the ground. The killer rushed forward, ignoring the possibility of threats behind him, and quickly searched his body. Those behind also forgot that it would be easier to search if they dealt with the person in front first, and rushed in one after another.
Nearby, the storage ring thrown by the young man kept changing hands. Almost no one who got it could keep it for more than a minute.
Blood kept splashing, and in no time, dozens of corpses lay outside the spiritual materials shop.
Those who couldn’t get close to the young man or the storage ring began to focus on what he had said before dying. “Take the spiritual materials and run”—undoubtedly, he was warning those who had the Snow Red Grass to leave this dangerous place as soon as possible.
But now, the storage ring containing the Snow Red Grass still hadn’t fallen into the hands of a powerful person; it kept changing hands. More importantly, those who obtained the ring all had motives—and even actions—to steal the Snow Red Grass and kill the young man. Almost all of them were his enemies, so there was no reason for him to warn them to leave.
Undoubtedly, there was only one possibility regarding whom the young man was warning: there were his companions nearby, and those companions might be waiting for the right moment to reclaim the storage ring.
Suddenly, the herbal merchants outside regained some sense and began to retreat. They were all successful herbal merchants in various cities and prefectures—none of them fools. They knew they were just taking a chance to see if they could be lucky, not staying outside to wait for the Snow Red Grass to appear and try to steal it, as they didn’t have the strength for that.

If the young man in the imperial robes’ companions were right beside him, there was no doubt that when it came time to act, anyone in the way would have to be dealt with immediately—after all, they were also accomplices in killing the young man in imperial robes, and there was no reason not to kill them. Anyway, hopes were already slim; it was far better to watch from a distance than to die so close without even knowing how. Moreover, even if the young man’s companions weren’t around, once only one of the warriors fighting over the storage ring remained, they would undoubtedly have to break through. Anyone in the way would still be slain with a single sword strike.

With the herbal merchants taking action, the streets suddenly became turbulent. Dozens of men in black emerged silently from hiding places, their spirit swords swinging without hesitation at the herbal merchants who tried to retreat to safer areas to watch. The lead man in black reached the entrance in just a few moves; with a single swing of his sword, a warrior who had just seized the storage ring fell headless, and the ring was instantly taken by him.

After obtaining the storage ring, the lead man in black quickly retreated. The surrounding warriors attacked in unison, but none could withstand his strikes. With each step he took, one or two lives were lost at his hands.

Soon, the smell of blood grew stronger.

“Everyone, retreat ten meters—or face certain death!”

From behind the counter, the sixth elder of the Spirit Material Shop suddenly jumped out and rushed to the entrance.

By rule, once the Snow Red Grass left the shop, it had nothing to do with the Spirit Material Shop. If it was stolen or robbed, no one could blame the shop. But usually, when auxiliary cultivation materials left the shop, many were robbed at the entrance, yet no one had ever died in such large numbers right there.

Having hundreds killed in one go at the entrance was definitely not good news for the Spirit Material Shop.

Inside the shop, all the warriors who had reached the Mental State phase moved together and rushed toward the entrance. If the shop’s people intervened, it would surely force those who had seized the ring and those trying to steal it to retreat ten meters away—beyond the range of their mental control.

Although Lin Dong’s mental control extended beyond that distance, he realized that the lead man in black was a strong opponent. Almost instinctively, he channeled his spiritual energy into his legs, ready to speed up—only to be pulled back by Yun Lan.

“Wait!” Yun Lan said firmly. “Throw the storage ring out of the gate and let your companions steal it. This method is too crude; it can’t even be called a method. That buyer is essentially dying for nothing.”

Lin Dong calmed down, striving to steady his racing heart. Through his mental observation, he could see clearly the strength of those men in black—each one was a warrior at the sixth or seventh level of the Mental Realm, while the leader was even a powerful fighter at the second level of the Mental Reversal Realm. Such strength was more than enough for them to successfully leave using the storage spirit ring. Anyone who wanted to stop them would undoubtedly need to be stronger than them. If such a force really existed, Lin Dong was sure that even if he and Yun Lan joined forces, as long as the opponent sent a few people to distract them, they could still escape successfully.

If those men in black hadn’t been intercepted by an even stronger force, the time they spent waiting in the shop would have been enough for the leader to slip away unnoticed. Once they left the range of his mental perception, it would be impossible to track them.

“I suspect there’s no Snow Red Grass in the storage spirit ring,” Yun Lan said, explaining while keeping an eye on the outside situation, seeing Lin Dong’s anxiety. “The real buyer, having offered nearly ninety million silver taels at once, must know for sure that the Snow Red Grass will end up in his hands. That means the real buyer must have planned his escape long ago during the days when the spirit material shop posted the notice. He certainly wouldn’t be so foolish as to use such a useless method. It’s likely all part of his plan.”

“Part of his plan?” Lin Dong suppressed his impatience and pondered. “You mean all these reactions outside are part of his calculation?”

“Very likely!” Yun Lan nodded firmly.

“In other words…” Lin Dong’s mind raced. “First, throw out the storage spirit ring to deliberately provoke a scramble outside. Then, the young man in fine clothes rushes out to seek death. Maybe even deliberately say those words to urge his companions to leave, luring those who have no chance of finding the spirit ring to scatter and revealing the ambushers waiting outside the street. After that, use these men in black’s killings to force the people in the spirit material shop to intervene… But why do this?”

Yun Lan’s gaze suddenly shifted toward the warriors who rushed out of the shop.

Lin Dong’s heart stirred, and almost simultaneously with Yun Lan, he thought of a possibility.

The real buyer, or perhaps the Snow Red Grass, could very well be among these warriors.

Although they couldn’t figure out how the young man in fine clothes managed to swap things, only this possibility could explain his strange behavior.

“The Snow Red Herb has been swapped; it’s in the hands of the warrior who rushed out just now,” Lin Dong suddenly shouted loudly, his voice shaking the roof beams. If that were the case, with thirty or forty warriors rushing out and the Spirit Materials Shop intervening by ordering everyone to stay ten meters away, at least half of them would be able to reach the periphery and blend in with the onlookers. By then, as long as there were people outside to cover for them, even if someone started searching for those who had been in the Spirit Materials Shop, they would already be nowhere to be found.

As soon as Lin Dong spoke, most of the warriors immediately stopped in their tracks. They weren’t fools—his words clearly pushed them into a dangerous situation.

The scene at the entrance where they had fought over the young man in fine clothes was still fresh in their minds. The madness of those who had stolen his body even though they knew the storage ring was no longer on him made them doubt nothing—that the onlookers would kill them without hesitation, then swarm over one of them in groups of several or even dozens to search them thoroughly.

“Damn it!”

Lin Dong’s words also reminded the lead black-clothed man, who was in the same precarious position. He quickly sent spiritual energy into the storage ring to check, and immediately roared in fury. Inside were hundreds of wooden boxes.

Anything placed in the storage ring couldn’t be lost unless the ring itself was lost. No one, after obtaining the Snow Red Herb worth nearly ninety million silver taels, would waste time putting it into one of hundreds of wooden boxes just to figure out how to escape.

Undoubtedly, these boxes didn’t contain the Snow Red Herb. They were placed in the storage ring as a trap, a trick to distract those who stole it from discarding it. Those who could steal the ring were undoubtedly among the strongest, and having them distract attention would provide significant cover.

Yet, despite knowing this, the lead black-clothed man couldn’t bring himself to throw the storage ring into the crowd surrounding him.

He couldn’t give up even if there was only a sliver of a chance. Moreover, even if he did throw it, many would doubt his motives, as they hadn’t seen what was inside the ring. Their first reaction would likely be to suspect he had already swapped it. In other words, even if he threw it, it would only distract half of the crowd—the trouble would still remain. It was better to take the risk.

The man in black at the forefront hated the planner of this scheme to the core, yet he couldn’t help but admire the man’s cunning. With this storage ring, it was certain he wouldn’t lose it.
The warriors who rushed out first with the intention of seizing the Snow Red Grass became victims instead of thieves at the mere words of Lin Dong, as they were unable to turn back in time. One after another, they screamed under the slashes of swords and blades…
Lin Dong, the mastermind behind this, had no time to feel ashamed of his selfishness; his focus quickly shifted to those stealing the bodies of the slain warriors.