Horse Carving House

I stood a little ways away from the building where those supposed five men were. The wooden horse carving could be seen swaying slightly from side to side out front.

Lighting from the building leaked out, spilling just a little over into the streets. This city was underground after all. No sunlight would reach down here, instead the streets were illuminated by various kinds of man made lighting. They included both normal torches, lanterns and even a more special kind of light powered by spirit stones which emitted a cool blue light.

I peeked up a bit to spot the only natural lighting in this cave, overhead high up on the roof. Large green patches of luminescent moss lit up the "sky" as the only natural light here, but it's hardly strong enough to even light up their surroundings, let alone illuminate the streets of this underground city.

I closed my eyes and focused on scanning the area with my Qi. The man was quite right about the traffic in the area, it was low, only a few people were wandering the roads within a 100 meters.

'Are these people really worth an Earth Grade item?'

A Low-grade Human weapon would cost roughly 120 Low-Grade Spirit Stones, it would be around 1500 for an Intermediate-Grade, and 8,000 for a High-Grade. After 10,000 Low-Grade Spirit Stones people would usually switch over to Intermediate-Grade Spirit stones as one would equal 10,000 Low-Grades. From memory it would cost around 100 of them for a Low-Grade Earth tier weapon.

To jump from a Human tier weapon to an Earth tier weapon required the craftsman to have a huge leap in their skill. Human tier weapons were superior to their mortal counterparts since they were simply stronger. Earth tier weapons are even stronger than those, but the gap between a High-Grade Human tier weapon isn't so easy to cross. Typically someone would obtain their first Low-Grade Human weapon at Essence Gathering, well that should be when they start to progress unless they were rich or lucky to have one before..

Only when they become Heaven grade weapons do I truly believe them to be worthy of the name "treasures." It isn't purely a qualitative change, but an additional way to utilize them as well. At that point someone's Qi could be injected directly into the weapon.

Those gloves aren't weapons, instead they have a special purpose. Usually they won't be as expensive as weapons are, but even then if the ability is highly sought after and difficult to create then they might even skyrocket past weapons in terms of price. These gloves on the other hand are a bit too niche and in reality if thieves/perverts were good enough they wouldn't need them at all.

The disparity between these people and my reward is a bit too much though, how could 5 Essence Gathering Cultivators match up to this item? Does he have such an immense grudge against them that even this absurd price is fine? Or is it that he may be hiding something from me?

Wouldn't one of those High-Grade Human items be more than enough as compensation for someone? It might have been five people , but as long as 2 new Foundation Establishment cultivators come or a single 5th layer Foundation Establishment comes they would be fairly easy, no?

I didn't think about this much when he was explaining it to me, but on the way here I started to think about it. Something isn't right about his request. I looked around at my surroundings to realize this was also the only house with its light turned on nearby.

'This whole thing is probably a trap isn't it? That shop owner and these people are probably working together to kill random people who fall for it. It makes sense considering the odd random assortment of equipment.

Well, I'm still going to go there. I don't quite know when I'll have another chance to try out my weapon when all I'm doing is just wandering a sect instead of adventuring or something similar. It's just that now it'll be a little different in my approach. I'll have to be a little more cautious since he probably lied about their cultivation as well.'

Considering the size of the building I might be in the disadvantage with my weapon though. The building wasn't massive as it had to loosely fit between the two squeezing its sides. It did seem like there was just enough room to squeeze through the gaps and reach a back door if they even have one.

One didn't even have to think about it when they saw these houses, none of them were uniform, almost like a slum at times. Each one had different designs and many had differing materials. The house I was looking at had better quality ones then others, but it still couldn't compare to homes above.

This residential district that I was in must have been for those poor and desperate though as I saw quite nice and uniform buildings further within this underground city.

My scythe sweeps in large arcs, with the way I currently see it I won't be able to fight too effectively in that cramped building.I had to either lure them outside or hope that the rooms inside were large enough for me to fight effectively.

Or on the other I could simply change my fighting style with this weapon and adopt a more close ranged style instead.

I was never one of those sneaky people and probably never could be, but that didn't mean I wouldn't look for advantages or try out those methods. All throughout my past life I had tackled each and every one of my problems head on. I'll try my best to gain information first, plans are always nice but don't they immediately become discarded at the slightest minute change?

The building was two stories and had a few windows. One which was shut below and one shut above, but the last one had a sizable gap that could be peered through. I thought for a moment whether or not to see if I could get anything from looking in, maybe even using that window as an entrance.

'Alright, it wouldn't hurt to try. The worst that could happen is they spot me and I lose my undetected advantage.'

I walked up to the building as quietly as I could and as I came closer I could start hearing the chatter and laughter of the men inside.

At first I couldn't make out anything they were saying, but once I was within half a meter their voices became clear as I started to scale the side of this building.

"Hahaha! Who do you think Brother Chu has conned this time!? I hope they have plenty of treasure or money. That last bitch was loaded!"

"Hehe, I'm more interested in whether they're a woman or not. I want them to be plump and bountiful! Not like that skinny stick from last time."

"What's with you and women? It's all you think about, does treasure not matter to you at all?"

"Treasure is good and all, but I'd rather have a woman by my side."

"Really? Then why did you kill that last one?"

"Tch! My standards aren't that low! She had nothing to her, no legs, no ass, no chest, and no face! It's a miracle she survived so long with such a weak body. She probably stole that treasure she had, there's no other way."

"You might be right, she was quite physically weak, but damn did those hands hurt! Those white gloves she took off apparently kept those hands in check."

"Think on the bright side, all that treasure got you quite the sum of silver, gold, and Spirit Stones didn't it?"

"You know, if you really wanted a plumper woman we should have kept her and just fed her until she gained some weight."

"I-"

"What the hell are you two dumbasses doing?!"

"S-sir!" Both their voices sounded in unison.

"Did I really just overhear what I think I just heard?! Didn't I tell you two idiots that we have another coming soon?! If you're going to talk about that, at least say it in the back, instead of the front window! In fact it would have been better to not talk about that at all right now!"

"B-but sir, we haven't heard anything yet!"

"You two better change your conversation right now! We still have to let them think we're off guard."

"Yes Sir!"

'Well, they basically just outed themselves to me without realizing. That woman probably had a special condition '

I reached the window sill with the left shutter cracked open and peeked in. The gap wasn't large, but I could easily open the shutters more. I widened the crack just a little to check inside and after scanning the room from right to left I didn't see anyone, but it wasn't that I could see the entire room.

Seeing no one at first boosted my confidence a bit, but I made sure to use my Qi Sense now that there was a path in. I scanned, but it didn't take long before I found someone. In fact they were just on the right side of the window, but it seemed they weren't focused on the window.

The man had a cultivation still within the 3rd realm, but he was in the 7th layer. I guess the intel was right, but they are still quite high in the realm. I should have asked before.

I tried my best to silently, slowly, and smoothly open both windows to get a sneak attack. It might have looked like I was making no progress, but I was, I was just trying my very best to do it well. A shame that even after a couple dozen breaths of effort a squeak was still heard and then he audibly let out his curiosity.

Quickly, I released my hands and feet from the building's side, but instead of falling to the ground I simply floated a meter away. The expenditure of my Qi as a Foundation Establishment cultivator while flying is still rather extreme and especially so when in combat.

In a short flash my scythe appeared within my hands as I figured I was discovered. Now I was simply waiting for him to open the wooden shutters before I would pounce on him.

I expected both to be opened, but in the end he only opened one. It wasn't the more open one though, instead he chose the one I had less progress with. He opened it fully and widely.

At first he didn't even notice my existence, but soon became pretty surprised that I was floating in front of him. Using those moments I dived straight in heel first straight into his head. I had to maneuver myself so that I wouldn't crash into the other shutter, but in the end I still hit it if only a little with my weapon.

A few shards of wood flew in along with me only adding a bit of a dramatic effect.

The man's left cheek met my foot first hand. He was on the ground with his left hand clutching that cheek and lower jaw; meanwhile, his other hand was struggling to pick himself up with multiple groans and moans of pain to accompany it.

This room above was actually perfect for me to fight in, its width, length, and height was perfect for my wide arcs unlike what it could have been below. Without wasting this chance I raised my weapon high and in but a moment I swiftly struck.

I was actually only trying to slice up his neck, but the weapon was so sharp that his head flew off, rolled to the side, and a small pool of crimson colored liquid started pooling near his stump.

When that head finally stopped moving I felt a tingle through my hands that felt like it was coming from the scythe. In but a moment rapid and nonuniform stomps came up as a man.

"Brother are you okay? I heard a loud no-"

The man froze at the top of the stairs for a moment at the scene as he looked at me, but that didn't last long as he soon pulled out his sword.

"H-hey! Someone's here and they killed Brother Wei!"

He shouted before deciding to charge at me. He was smart enough to alert others, but not enough to wait for them.