Killing Dao Fruit
Chapter 204 - 201 Cunning as I am, I actually met my match?

Chapter 204: Chapter 201 Cunning as I am, I actually met my match?

A middle-aged beggar with a knife at his waist and an ordinary old man carrying a trunk were guided by the Treasure Ship into the spacious "Earth Character" building, as grand as a palace.

Yet behind Old Man Zhong, his own son Xiao Zhong was missing, and instead, a little wooden puppet holding a measuring stick had taken its place on his shoulder.

The puppet vaguely resembled Xiao Zhong in appearance.

"Ahem, Senior Brother Zhong, we really are on a lucky streak. It’s only been a day since we set out to sea, and His Highness King Jing has walked right into our palms.

Is this not a case of ’seeking shoes for ages only to find them effortlessly’? Haha..."

The moment the wretched beggar Shen Jiantong saw their mission target Zhou Jinghuan, he couldn’t contain his delight.

"Indeed."

Father Zhong gently stroked his grizzled beard, nodding slightly.

He seemed to see nothing amiss with his junior brother’s statement.

It appeared that Zhou Jinghuan, the third realm’s peak Dao General, was nothing more than a lamb to the slaughter in their eyes.

Upon hearing this,

the faces of the four men who had arrived earlier changed in unison, and the atmosphere in the great hall instantly tensed, as if swords were drawn and crossbows aimed.

Only the wooden puppet on Father Zhong’s shoulder continued to sing its nursery rhyme in a stiff, ominous child’s voice:

"One, two, three, wooden man..."

The repetitive nursery rhyme echoed persistently in the great hall, growing more and more eerie and horrifying.

’Is this... Sword Cultivator Shen Jiantong and Yan Master Father Zhong from the No-Life Dao’s evil list?

They have arrived rather quickly, only half a step behind me.

Yet they seem just like two mages at the True Qi realm. They haven’t even figured out the relationships among the four men in the hall, so where does their confidence to command life and death come from?

How could a mage who has cultivated to the True Qi realm be a fool?

But this puppet...’

Having recognized who they were, Wang Yuan focused on the familiar-looking puppet on Father Zhong’s shoulder and the wooden ruler in its hand, his expression becoming serious.

Because in the Unsightly Observation, what was originally an ordinary puppet suddenly transformed.

It became a monster cobbled together from wood, gears, bones, flesh... twisting and turning, with eyes that kept moving, seemingly more than just an inanimate object.

Even weirder was the wooden ruler in the puppet’s hand.

On it were written eight characters: Wealth, Sickness, Separation, Righteousness, Officials, Robbery, Harm, and Origin, seeming to be a carpenter’s Luban Ruler.

To the common eye, the wooden ruler might appear ordinary.

But in Wang Yuan’s eyes, it emitted countless tiny red threads, writhing like taeniae.

Teeming and layered, it seemed to turn the entire Great Yan Treasure Ship into a nest of a colossal spider, and likewise for the surroundings of everyone present.

Just now, all of Wang Yuan’s "Ghost Ears" lost contact at the same time, probably because of the bizarre combination of the puppet and the Luban Ruler.

Undoubtedly, it was a "Deceit Object," and its "living" trait far surpassed its counterparts, existing somewhere between "Deceit Object" and "Weird."

Most likely, it was the reliance of the two True Qi realm mages.

Without any hesitation, Wang Yuan immediately switched the ownership of the Heart Communication Conch back to himself and reset its duration of effect.

It was just a matter of spending more "Yin Morality," something he could afford.

Now, he just had to wait for them to come within a three-zhang radius to understand the intricacies of this "Deceit Object," discover the method to counter it, and calm the situation.

"Who are you scoundrels, daring to disrespect His Highness King Jing?"

Before Zhou Jinghuan, who was treated like prey, could speak, Zheng Bangjie, whose identity had not yet been revealed, stepped forward and berated them loudly and righteously.

Zheng Bangjie had thrived while juggling the dual identities of "Assassin" and "Great Sea Merchant," benefiting from both the White Path and the Black Path.

Nobody had ever managed to take advantage of him and live to tell the tale!

In fact, outsiders only knew that the merchants who had traveled with him the previous year had all died off one by one.

But who knew that it was Zheng Bangjie who had secretly made his move, taking over their businesses, his net worth increasing more than tenfold overnight.

It was only natural for him to stand with the Killing Temple and the Great Sea Pirate Mr. Wufeng.

The unexpected arrival of Wang Yuan made Zheng Bangjie vigilant, but these two arrogant individuals invoked the first crisis of failure he had ever felt in his career.

Zhou Jinghuan had to die by his hand.

Yet the two men didn’t even deign to look at him directly. Shen Jiantong turned to look at Wang Yuan, who was dazzling in fine garments, and the graceful Lady Peach Fairy by his side, and sneered:

"What I, Shen, despise most in life are you rich folk with your entourages of concubines!

We’ll keep only Zhou Jinghuan alive; the rest of you riffraff can go ahead and die first!"

Clang——!

His sword unsheathed from his waist, he stepped forward and, like lightning dashing through thunder, shot rapidly towards Wang Yuan.

Caught off guard, Wang Yuan was astonished.

Were these villains not following the script?

Shouldn’t the normal sequence be a grand battle between good and evil, coming to a head when they were all exhausted, leaving those inconspicuous "riffraff" to clean up the mess?

When it got to you, why is it different from what we agreed upon?

Should we really trust a villain who specializes in eliminating all unstable factors first?

"Moreover, there’s no security for a distinguished guest’s arrival, bad review, Treasure Ship!"

But Wang Yuan completely understood the operating mechanism of the Great Yan Treasure Ship.

As the saying goes, every cunning merchant is actually eyeing the customer’s principal.

As long as a person dies on the Treasure Ship, everything the customer had naturally becomes its own. Why wouldn’t it do that?

The Treasure Ship would probably love for everyone to perish together; naturally, it would not set up any additional security measures for VIPs.

This lavish golden welcome effect should be more aptly called the "Taunting Aura."

Provoking enmity is indeed something it’s good at.

——Come hit me, fool!

Just as Shen Jiantong made his move, no one realized that the puppet had sung for the third time after appearing: "One, two, three, wooden man."

In such a close-range ambush, the powerful Divine Power Skills that still required mantra chanting were far less useful than Military Skills.

Within ten steps, Military Skills are genuinely faster than Daoist Skills.

While Wang Yuan was drawing his sword to face the enemy, he suddenly felt his body grow heavy, and his leg joints seemed to be rusted parts, no longer as agile as before.

Boom——!

Initially intending to dodge nimbly, he could now only block with his sword from above, barely managing to bear Shen Jiantong’s powerful and heavy strike, almost breaking the deck.

He also instantly realized that this "Sword Hero" Shen Jiantong, who was only briefly mentioned in the intelligence, was actually skilled with a sabre?!

How sly!

He exclaimed,

"Lady Immortal!"

Lady Peach Fairy, whose body was also rigid, immediately turned into a gust of yin wind and rushed into Wang Yuan’s body, allowing him to lunge forward, narrowly avoiding Shen Jiantong’s following second sabre strike.

And at the moment of impact from this external force, Wang Yuan unexpectedly found his rigid body regaining its initial agility.

The threads entwined around him in his Unsightly Observation loosened abruptly.

"It’s the power of that Deceit Object!"

Zhou Jinhuan, Tang He, and Zheng Bangjie also discovered abnormalities in themselves, their bodies starting to grow numb from the feet up, changing their complexions drastically.

In the midst of battle, Wang Yuan didn’t tangle with Shen Jiantong any further.

Instead, he decisively powered up his legs and transformed into a shadow, charging straight towards Father Zhong and the puppet, eight zhang away.

The essence of the Heart Communication Conch is an active Divine Skill, Telepathy. It can communicate with any kind of weirdness or Deceit Object; it’s merely a question of how much information is obtained.

Just need to step within three zhang of the opponent, then you can listen to taboos, finding strategies to defeat the enemy.

Otherwise, with the entire Treasure Ship becoming the enemy’s lair, there is no escape from their schemes, no matter where you hide.

For ordinary people, a distance of five zhang is not short, but for a Daoist Soldier, it’s just a stride away.

However.

Just as Wang Yuan was staring intently at the puppet and had just stepped within a three zhang range, what the Heart Communication Conch said left him suddenly dumbfounded.

"Taboo: Be careful! Do not look directly at the opponent, and do not approach within three zhang of the puppet..."

Wang Yuan: Uh...

Damn it, idiot!

You’re the one who said that it only works when close to the three zhang range of the opponent, and then you tell me not to get close to three zhang?!

But before Wang Yuan could reprimand the Heart Communication Conch, he heard the puppet sing once more: "One, two, three, wooden man," and his body started to stiffen again.

Countless invisible red threads, like worms, swiftly wrapped around him again.

From feet, to legs, to waist... the situation was deteriorating rapidly, much faster than when he was beyond three zhang away.

Just then, the sound of wind approached from behind.

Wang Yuan twisted his upper body, preparing to use the external force from Shen Jiantong to break free from the binds.

But he hadn’t expected the beggar-dressed sabre expert to suddenly flash him a grin.

Accompanied by a chilling coldness rising from the bottom of his heart.

Wang Yuan saw the man suddenly open his mouth.

A streak of gleaming silver three-inch sword light shot out from his belly.

Crackle——!

Like a thunderclap from the sky, the entire hall lit up for a moment, and then, in the blink of an eye, it pierced through Wang Yuan’s chest!

Hundred-Step Flying Sword!

For a Sword Cultivator, reaching the True Qi Realm without being able to use Yin God Sword meant they could still employ the Hundred-Step Flying Sword, which is incredibly powerful within a hundred steps.

What’s real may sometimes be false and what’s false may sometimes be real. A beggar known as "Sword Hero," yet skilled with a sabre, was essentially a true Sword Cultivator?!