Only I am Venerable

"Trying to run?"

Qin Li sneered. He reached out and made a grasping motion at the back of the young man in white. In the sky, a massive energy hand seal, invisible to the naked eye, suddenly appeared. It was like transparent water in the air. WHAP! It seized the young man by the waist and, with a twist, snatched him back as he was desperately trying to flee.

The white-robed young man’s face was ashen. His followers were petrified, standing frozen with disbelief in their eyes. The grab Qin Li had just executed completely surpassed their understanding of combat techniques!

Shangguan Shiyu watched Qin Li’s casual grab with immense envy in her heart, but she was also happy for him. ’This,’ she thought, ’is my husband’s true skill.’ Even for Martial Artists at the Shattered Void realm, performing such a feat so effortlessly would be an extremely difficult task.

Even she would consider it a great achievement to succeed just once in ten tries. Yet Qin Li had simply made a casual grab. The space hadn’t been torn, but he had deftly snatched the person back without even injuring him. ’This... this is real skill!’

"Speak. Are you going to empty out the rest of what’s in your ring yourself, or should I do it for you by destroying this Storage Ring?"

The white-robed young man felt cold sweat drenching his back. ’I thought I was dead just now!’ In that instant, it felt as though that irresistible force could have crushed him to dust with a mere twitch of a finger. Now, the young man lay slumped on the ground as if completely drained, panting heavily. He looked at Qin Li and said, "I come from an Ancient Sect in the Mysterious Land. Friend, must you be so ruthless?"

"Are you looking down on us, the Female and Male Thieves?" Qin Li squinted, staring coldly at the young man. However, he didn’t push him too hard, as he didn’t want anyone to know his true intentions.

"Hmph, what’s so great about the Mysterious Land? My wife and I have pillaged countless places like that! Hurry up and hand over everything in the ring! Otherwise, I’ll take your life!"

The white-robed young man gritted his teeth and tipped the ancient scroll out of his ring. Along with it came a longsword of ancient design. He said with a pained expression, "This sword was forged by the great master Ou Liangzi during the Ancient Era. It’s priceless. I’ll trade it for our lives..."

Qin Li reached out, and both the sword and the scroll flew into his hand. The white-robed young man’s face fell, but all he could do was watch in anxious silence, unable to say a word.

Qin Li, feigning nonchalance, casually tossed the scroll to Shangguan Shiyu. "Honey, don’t you just love these ancient scrolls? Here, hold on to it. Maybe it’s a Treasure Map, and we’ll find some treasure left behind from ancient times!"

Shangguan Shiyu pouted and said, "This thing looks like a fake. It’s probably worthless. If you threw it away, no one would even bother to pick it up!"

The white-robed young man nodded repeatedly, not daring to seem too eager. He stared hopefully at Shangguan Shiyu, though inwardly he was screaming, ’You’re a goddess! Throw it away, quickly! Otherwise, my father will beat me to death!’

But then, he heard the damn country girl—no... the female thief—mutter to herself, "Still, it could pass for an Ancient Scroll. It might be good for fooling some rich people who like antiques but don’t know any better. Yes, I’ll keep it!" With that, she casually stored it in her Storage Bracelet.

At that moment, the white-robed young man felt like dying. If they had recognized the scroll’s origin at a glance, he wouldn’t have minded so much that it was stolen.

The locations on the scroll were all unknown. Within his Sect, no one had been able to decipher it despite thousands of years of research. This time, a spy from his Sect had reported anomalies in the four great perilous lands and drawn pictures of the three where arrays had appeared.

His father, the Sect Leader, discovered that these arrays were very similar to the ones on the Ancient Map. So, he had his son bring people here with the scroll to make a comparison, hoping it might uncover some world-shaking secret.

Deep down, however, he hadn’t taken it too seriously. Otherwise, how could he have so easily let his son venture out with the scroll?

But these damn Female and Male Thieves were clearly just two thugs pretending to be sophisticated! This was obviously a product of the Primordial Era, yet they treated it like a fake from the Ancient Era... The white-robed young man lamented inwardly, ’Where in the world can you go to find any justice?’

Qin Li fought to suppress his joy, maintaining a straight face as he went and collected the various treasures the young man had dumped out. Although these things were worthless in Qin Li’s eyes, he had to put on a greedy act to maintain his cover, so he gathered them all up.

Then, he waved his hand dismissively as if shooing away flies. "Scram, all of you. Are you sticking around hoping I’ll treat you to dinner?"

The white-robed young man kept his head down, but a venomous light flashed in his eyes. This was his first time venturing into the Mortal Realm, and he had suffered such a massive loss. He seared the man’s face into his memory, vowing to find him and get his revenge!

「After the group had left,」

Qin Li unsheathed the Treasure Sword the young man had handed over in an attempt to distract him.

Qin Li had heard of Ou Liangzi’s fame before. The last time one of his swords, Cold Ice, had been auctioned, it fetched a sky-high price. By now, his own sword, Blood Drinking, was well-known. If he ever encountered a true expert and had to use his sword, his identity could easily be exposed. As for the other Treasure Swords he had acquired, he had mostly given them away to the disciples of the Qin Family and those close to him.

So, in Qin Li’s eyes, this white-robed young man was a true God of Fortune. It was as if he knew Qin Li needed a Treasure Sword to conceal his identity and had obediently delivered it right to him.

The sword slid from its sheath almost silently. Once fully drawn, it burst forth with a brilliant radiance. Though ten thousand years had passed, the blade was still as clean as new. Its edge was perfectly uniform and incomparably sharp, and its shimmering light exuded a biting cold.

Qin Li looked at the spot above the hilt, where two small characters were engraved, spelling out "Moonlight."

It seemed "Moonlight" was the sword’s name. Qin Li gave it a casual swing. The Moonlight Sword immediately flashed with a brilliant radiance, like the glow of the moon. Qin Li was satisfied with the Treasure Sword’s weight, balance, and length.

He looked at Shangguan Shiyu and chuckled. "It seems this ’baleful land’ of the Qin Family is actually my treasure trove. See? Another great haul today!"

Shangguan Shiyu smiled gracefully, unable to resist rolling her eyes at Qin Li. "You’re just spouting nonsense," she chided. "Couldn’t you have picked a better name? ’The Female and Male Thieves’ sounds absolutely dreadful!"

Qin Li sidled up to her, grinning. "Then what should we call ourselves? The Mandarin Duck Bandits?"

"Pah!" Even with her calm and noble bearing, Shangguan Shiyu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at Qin Li’s teasing.

Qin Li dropped the joking tone and said gravely, "It seems this business with the four great perilous lands of Yellow Sand City isn’t so simple. Counting the one we have and the one those four people mentioned, that makes five maps already! I estimate there can’t be more than ten of these maps in total. What do you think will happen if we manage to collect them all?"

Shangguan Shiyu’s eyes narrowed. Just as she was about to speak, she exchanged a look with Qin Li and said, "It seems this place is destined to be anything but quiet today. Someone else has arrived."

Qin Li nodded. He took Shangguan Shiyu’s hand, and with a flicker, the two of them vanished from the ruins.

「Just as they vanished,」

The four people they had encountered at the tavern that morning appeared. They split up and searched the area carefully, but they couldn’t find what they were looking for.

The thin old man wore a very ugly expression. He stroked his beard continuously, his brow deeply furrowed. Though he said nothing, anyone could see that he was in a terrible mood.

Meanwhile, the square-faced, middle-aged man in the yellow tunic kept his head bowed in guilt. He hadn’t expected his slip of the tongue to be overheard by someone with an agenda.

After Qin Li and Shangguan Shiyu had left, the old man had suddenly felt that something was amiss. While the food and wine at the tavern weren’t exorbitantly expensive, it was definitely not a place an ordinary person could afford!

And that young man with the country girl—though they looked perfectly ordinary, their bearing, their mannerisms, and even the subtle aura they exuded were anything but. How could they be commoners?

What’s more, seven or eight other people had left immediately after the couple. This made the old man even more suspicious. In his eyes, that Ancient Map was countless times more valuable than any Treasure Sword from Master Ou Liangzi.

This was because the Mysterious Land where their Sect resided, as well as the branch sects they had established, had all been found using that very map!

Therefore, in the old man’s view, not a whisper of this information could be allowed to leak! He would not hesitate to kill that young man and woman if necessary!

Unfortunately, by the time they got outside, both the couple and their followers had completely vanished. It wasn’t until they saw the white-robed young man and his entourage returning—one person being supported, another being carried, all of them looking utterly dejected—that the old man’s group of four was able to follow their trail back to these ruins in the most prosperous part of Yellow Sand City.

But by the time they arrived, the man and woman were already gone.

The square-faced, middle-aged man in yellow lowered his head and whispered, "Senior Brother, it’s all my fault. Please punish me!"

The old man sighed. "What’s the use in punishing you? Let’s just hope they weren’t intentionally targeting us."

"So... should we keep looking for them?" the square-faced middle-aged man asked cautiously.

"No! We leave for the Soul-Devouring Swamp at once. That’s the only place where an array hasn’t been discovered yet. We’ll go see if we can find it and what happens when all four arrays have appeared. In any case, we must protect that map. I have a feeling the map in our possession is definitely related to the arrays in these four great perilous lands!"

The old man spoke with narrowed eyes, then waved his hand. "Let’s go!"

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