Chapter 2: Initial Display of Exceptional Talent

  "A chance to defend?"

  Deke's mouth continued to laugh wildly, laughing so hard that tears flowed out. He stood up with a loud laugh, picked up the heavy black axe weighing fifty kilograms beside him, and asked the other robbers in an unbelievable tone: "Brothers, he actually wants to give me a chance to explain?"

  The other bandits and mercenaries burst into loud laughter, completely disregarding Lega's words.

  "If you don't explain, it means you agree."

  Lei Ga's expression turned serious as he said, "If you have any last words, I can wait for you to finish."

  "My last words are: Go die, you little rabbit!"

  Deke let out a loud roar, one hand overturning the table and the other swinging his axe, ready to strike first. Before the blade arrived, a fierce gust of wind preceded it, splitting the overturned table in two. The axe was hidden among the flying wooden splinters, chopping straight towards Rega's forehead.

  Lei Ga calmly took a step back, his right hand somehow already grasping the hilt of the long sword behind him. The next instant, the long sword flashed out of its scabbard and met the opponent's sharp axe with a simple horizontal slash. Although the horizontal slash was just the most common basic move in a warrior's sword technique, his speed was incredibly fast, the sword body seeming like a flash of light, leaving only a faint afterimage on people's eyelids.

  "Your last words have been received, you can die now." Rega said calmly as he sheathed his sword.

  Deke's eyes widened, frozen in place, and within half a second, his gaze changed from ferocity to shock, then to dullness. A thin line of blood appeared on his neck, its color more eye-catching than the red aura surrounding his body. The bright red blood sprayed out along the bloodline, misting everywhere, and Deke's entire head rolled off his shoulders, with blood gushing out completely.

  After a few more seconds, the headless body crashed to the ground.

  That effeminate mercenary let out a shrill cry first, he hadn't even had time to grab his weapon, and his powdered face was already splattered with blood. "I'm disfigured! I'm disfigured!" He exclaimed as he touched his face several times, only then realizing the blood came from Dirk.

  The fight seemed to have not even started yet, but it was already over. The other bandits and mercenaries who were quick on the draw had only just managed to grasp their weapons when Dek's head had already rolled across the floor several times. Looking at the blood-soaked ground, everyone felt a chill run down their spines - they couldn't believe that a boy in his teens, slender and weak-looking, could instantaneously kill a level 5 fighter.

  At this time someone whispered: "That sword seems..."

  "Shut up!" Someone rebuked him in a low voice, and he immediately fell silent.

  The girl covered her mouth, suppressing the shock in her heart, and stared tightly at the long sword behind Leika: "Little brother, we'll meet again..." He gritted his teeth and said to the stunned crowd: "Let's go!"

  A group of bandits hastily lifted up Dirk's corpse and fled the Black Crow Tavern like their lives depended on it. They didn't bother to pick up Dirk's head, which was supposed to be proof of completing a bounty hunter's mission.

  Lei Ga didn't chase after the fleeing robbers, but instead turned around and walked to the bar counter, finally revealing a childish smile on his face: "Boss, can we hand in our mission here?"

  "What's the mission?"

  The tavern owner cautiously peeked at the messy corner and, after a brief moment, cleared his throat in an affected manner: "If your mission wasn't received at the Violent Crow Tavern, I'll have to charge a 50% handling fee."

  Lei Ga was taken aback: "Isn't it thirty percent?"

  The tavern owner crossed his arms over his chest, with an expression of indifference: "In other taverns it's thirty percent, but within three hundred miles around the tavern there is no second tavern, so I charge fifty percent. I'm a reasonable businessman, if you don't want to pay fifty percent, then take his head to another tavern and complete the task!"

  Lei Ga frowned: "Can't you give me a little less?"

  "A bit less? You started a fight in my tavern and you still owe me for the broken tables, chairs and stools!" The tavern owner sneered.

  "The table and chairs are broken by Deke, but it can also be counted on me."

  Lei nodded: "Also, I want to buy some other things in your tavern, let's settle the bill together."

  It's not uncommon for bounty hunters to splurge at the tavern after completing a job. The tavern owner has seen many overnight successes get drunk, gamble away their winnings and end up as thieves. However, he was skeptical that a 14 or 15 year old boy would drink. "What do you want? Summer Red? Emperor's Smile? Or perhaps a glass of milk?"

  Lei Ga raised his eyes and scanned the wine cabinet for a while, shaking his head: "I want a bottle of coagulant, a bottle of restorative potion, and my antidote is also gone."

  The tavern owner was taken aback for a moment, then rolled his eyes: "Are you kidding me? This is a tavern! How could we possibly have pharmacy stuff? Have you ever seen a mercenary bandit come to a tavern to buy hemostatic agents to drink?"

  Lei Ga said without raising an eyebrow: "I'll pay double the price."

  "Oh dear, I just remembered that our store has expanded its sales scale and happened to get a new batch of coagulants, restorative potions, and antidotes." The tavern owner quickly bent down and started rummaging around, producing dozens of bottles from under the counter with a crisp clinking sound.

  "No hurry."

  Lei Ga rubbed his belly and said: "I'll eat something first, I've been hungry for two days."

  The tavern owner poked his head out, looking at the young man in front of him with a puzzled expression, as if to confirm whether the person speaking was indeed the same youth who had just killed five level fighters in an instant.

  Lei Ga slowly picked up a stool that had fallen over beside him and sat down: "Boss, bring some food."

  "Aren't you afraid those people will call for backup and come back to kill you?" The tavern owner couldn't help but ask.

  Lei Ga said, "If it's just a temporary gathering of twenty or thirty people like them, that's nothing. If they want to go back to their base to find the good hands, then they'll need more time, enough for me to have a meal."

  The tavern owner raised an eyebrow and finally stopped talking.

  A few minutes later, the aroma of meat soup wafted from the direction of the fireplace. The tavern owner was quietly calculating the price of broken wine cups and plates while clearing up various things. His hands and feet were quick and skilled, with a strange precision and elegance to his movements, as if he might jump up and dance at any moment, having grown accustomed to helping people clean up after themselves.

  Before long, the chaotic scene was put in order by him.

  Lei Ga drank milk, the firelight shone on his dusty face, yet couldn't hide its beauty, no expression could be seen. The firelight also shone on the laboring body of the tavern owner, casting a shadow that lightly swayed on the opposite wall with peeling plaster.

  Lei Ga was a bit strange, the tavern owner had grayish white hair, with a few strands of silver at his temples, and his eyes were always habitually slightly narrowed, as if he had experienced many hardships. However, on his face, there was always a greedy expression of a cunning merchant. When he rolled up his sleeves, several pale scars appeared on the dark skin of his arms, extending from the back of his hand to his arm, apparently he had also done some bloody work in his youth - There was only a shallow layer of second-tier fighter's aura on his body, probably because he was old and couldn't keep up, so he washed his hands and ran to this chaotic Crow Ridge Old Town to open a tavern.

  "What's your surname, boss?"

  Ley suddenly asked, and then quickly added: "If this is also considered information that needs to be paid for, then forget it."

  "Thank you."

  The tavern owner was carefully wiping the bloodstains on the floor, while scolding without turning his head: "I'm not shameless to that extent!"

  Xie Pu... was completely unknown, at least to Laga who had been a bounty hunter for less than half a year. The name sounded like that of an ordinary tavern owner. Laga chuckled and asked: "How long have you been here? Although there's an absolute order in the industry to protect taverns, don't you ever worry about those fugitives suddenly going crazy and committing robbery or murder?"

  "Nonsense! Immature kid..."

  Shepard's voice came from afar, apparently having finished what he was doing: "The tavern has had an incident. The offender will not only be pursued by the entire Mercenary Association, but even local bandits won't let him off."

  "Why?" Lega asked curiously.

  "If something happens at the tavern, the Mercenary Association will send people to investigate, collect evidence, analyze... until it reopens, which will take at least a few months. During this time, where do you want them to go for fun? Don't you want their lives?"

  Xie Pu walked to the pot, picked up a spoon and tasted it, making a few satisfied "tsk" sounds: "Just wait a little while longer and you can drink it. Of course, if you're afraid I'll poison you, I can drink half the pot first." His tone was somewhat sly.

  "It's all right."

  Lei Ga explained with certainty: "From the moment I drew my sword until now, the only one who hasn't been staring at my sword is you. Moreover, you just said that the tavern is under the absolute protection of the Mercenary Association. Therefore, by the same logic, the tavern owner must also abide by all the principles set by the Mercenary Association. Since you don't covet and aren't brave enough to covet my sword, it's even more impossible for there to be any other reason for poisoning."

  "You little guy's analysis is quite reasonable..."

  Xie Pu returned to the back of the wine counter, starting to wipe down the cups that had been collected. He chuckled softly and said: "I'm a legitimate businessman... For a small tavern like mine, it's already good enough to survive, who dares to think about forging legendary weapons like Cang Yue Sword?" After finishing speaking, he put down the cup and walked towards the direction of the wall furnace.

  As soon as the words of Che Pu Na's Cang Yu Jian fell, Lei Ga's body shook involuntarily and he reflexively reached back to grasp the hilt of his sword. The Cang Yu Jian was his greatest secret; he had originally thought that no one would recognize this sword, at least that's what its original owner had told him.

  But he immediately let go of his hand, and the whole person also returned to calmness. After a silence, Leica finally asked: "You can see that it is a legendary weapon, but how do you know its name?"