Can a Scholar Be Called a Villain

Chapter 38: Transferring bloodlines

“You’re Tang Can? That Hidden Weapon Super Genius that defeated Yan Si Lu in ten moves?” Murong Xing had an amazed expression as he quickly darted to Tang Can’s side, sizing him up.

Tang Can had a bitter smile as he cupped his hands and greeted, “This servant’s name is Tang Can, I greet the princes.”

“Hahaha! No need for formalities, I’ve sparred with that Yan Si Lu fellow before, you seem to be quite skilled for your age!” Murong Zhan chortled cheerfully as he sensed the weak aura emanating from Tang Can’s body, he couldn’t gauge how strong he was at all.

“How do you know each other? Tang Can, weren’t you constantly following the Poisonous Old Ghost around?” Murong Jue asked in curiosity.

They chatted as they walked towards the centre of the barracks. Seeing that the match was over, the crowd gradually dispersed to search and dig for the Dragon God crystals.

“Hahaha, I’ll explain. I travelled to a small village a few months ago, the village where Tang Can lived and met him while he was searching for materials. From then, we became familiar with each other and eventually became good friends.” Murong Jing explained with an expression of pride.

“You guys didn’t see how messy Tang Can’s house was, his drunkard father was really disgusting, it’s impossible for all of you to imagine how tough it was for Tang Can to cultivate in that environment!”

Tang Can smiled as he patted Murong Jing’s back, laughing indifferently, “It’s all in the past.”

They chose to continue their conversation within a tent as servants prepared alcohol and food for a hearty feast.

Murong Jue grabbed onto Tang Can and asked with a low voice, “Ai! Little bro, do you sell that thing, the chrysanthemum needles? I want to buy a few!”

Tang Can shook his head with a bitter smile, “My apologies, fifth prince, the materials of the Storm Chrysanthemum Needles are truly hard to source, and I only have three sets with me. One is with my father, the second is with my master, and I’ve kept the last one for my own personal safety.”

With disappointment hanging on his face, Murong Jue returned to his seat with furrowed brows.

Murong Jing mocked from the sidelines, “Hahaha! Murong Jue, you’re too greedy! You’re thinking of getting some from brother Tang when even I don’t have any?”

“Hmph!” With a cold snort, Murong Jue chose to ignore Murong Jing.

“Drink up, drink up.” Murong Zhan tried to mediate, “Seventh brother, why not play a song to help lift the mood?”

But just as he finished speaking, a man rushed into the tent, it was a scout.

He seemed anxious, yet excited as he prostrated himself the moment he entered, speaking to the people in the tent, “Your highnesses, something happened!”

Murong Zhan was the first to stand with an anxious expression, while Murong Jue was the first to ask, “What happened? Did you all manage to dig out a Dragon God crystal?”

A hint of purple flashed past Tang Can’s eyes before quickly disappearing. Only after confirming that there weren’t any hidden weapons on the scout that was standing only three meters away from him did he calm down.

“No, someone was murdered.” The scout spoke, “Yao Qi was murdered!”

Everyone was dumbfounded.

Murong Jing asked, “Yao Qi, that lucky kid that got invited into the Moon Fire sect?”

“That is correct, Le Qing Qing from the Moon Fire sect was the murderer.” The scout answered as he knelt.

“What? Why did Le Qing Qing kill him? It’s not like Yao Qi could threaten his position in the Moon Fire sect even if Yao Qi found the Dragon God crystal! His father, Yue Wu You is the sect leader of the Moon Fire sect!”

A strange look flashed past Tang Can’s eyes as a thought appeared, his expression quickly changing into shock.

Can it be?

“Le Qing Qing murdered Yao Qi and retrieved the Dragon God Crystal from his corpse! As of right now, Le Qing Qing has already succeeded in refining the Dragon God Crystal and increased his cultivation! He’s already at the peak of the Origin realm! He will enter the Manifestation realm at the age of 19 years old the moment he absorbs a mortal form and become the eighth prodigy in Yan!”

“What?”

Everyone was shocked!

Le Qing Qing murdered Yao Qi and obtained the Dragon God Crystal!

Not only did the Dragon God Crystal not disappear upon absorption, but it could also be transferred to another person!

Then, did that mean that they could do the same?

Their expressions changed dramatically, Murong Jue was amazed, Murong Zhan was overjoyed, Murong Xing was deep in thought, and Tang Can was frowning.

The scout slowly left the tent.

Murong Jue was the first to speak, “It might be impossible for us to find it, but we might be able to snatch the crystals for ourselves! Let’s go, quickly! Before someone else beats us to it!”

Murong Xing shook his head, “Within the current five people, no, I mean four¹, only the ‘Two-faced Three Stabs’ Wang Xiao Qi doesn’t have any backing. Considering that no one would dare to touch the Liu clan and the Moon Fire sect, most of the people here should be chasing after Wang Xiao Qi, we might not have a chance.”

“But what if we were successful?” Murong Jue spoke as he walked out of the tent, gathering Li Kai and his servants to start his pursuit of Wang Xiao Qi.

And so, Li Kai followed behind Murong Jue towards the inner parts of the valley with a dumbfounded expression.

On the other hand, Murong Jue delegated his forces, the weak stayed behind to continue digging while the strong went after Wang Xiao Qi.

Murong Zhan shook his head, choosing not to participate in the chase. Turning to glance at Murong Xing, he sighed, “Fifth brother is still too hasty.”

Murong Xing laughed powerlessly, he was also powerless against his own blood-related brother. The two of them had the same influence and were both supported by the army, which was why the soldiers under their influence had followed Murong Jue the moment he left.

On the other hand, Tang Can felt that something was fishy, but he couldn’t pinpoint what it was. After all, he wasn’t especially close with them and he chose not to participate.

And at this moment, Wang Xiao Qi was running for his life in the mountains.

His appearance was dishevelled, his clothes tattered and his expression pale as he lamented, “What an idiot I am, I should’ve left this valley the moment I had found the Dragon God Crystal and all of this wouldn’t have happened. Now that they’ve sealed up the valley, I can’t even run away anymore.”

He laughed bitterly and his face crumpled as he quickly hid in a cave that was abandoned by a dog-like demonic beast. He curled up his body as much as he could as he suppressed his breathing.

Just an hour ago, he was still eagerly digging for crystals with another group that he had just met. Then, three men appeared suddenly and stopped upon noticing him, after comparing his appearance with a piece of paper in their hands, they stared at him with strange expressions.

Wang Xiao Qi knew what that gaze meant, he had seen it countless times before, and he had a similar appearance himself countless times before.

That was greed!

That was uninhibited greed!

The kind of greed that wanted to steal everything.

He immediately reacted and threw out eighteen of his darts, killing the acquaintances that were around him instantly and severely wounding the three people that were about to attack him. After some torture, he finally extracted the reason why they had looked at him with that expression.

He was in danger!

He was undoubtedly in danger!

There were at least thirty thousand people searching for him within his valley right now, and he needed to immediately escape from this place!

He never would’ve expected the Dragon God Crystal to be extractable from corpses without even losing any percentage of its power.

As of right now, he needed to immediately escape from this place, find a location to seclude himself and raise his cultivation before anything else.

He didn’t even dare to think about the remaining Dragon God Crystals anymore.

But he quickly fell into further despair the moment he arrived at the edge of the valley. All of the roads leading out of the valley were sealed by powerful influential forces, the army, the Liu clan, the Moon Fire sect, and even some of the influential forces on the wanted list who were boldly waiting for him on the path.

He could only retreat.

But this made it even more dangerous for him.

His mind was filled with fear and regret as he hid in the cave, he regretted his actions.

But before he could finish cursing each of the influential forces at least once, he suddenly felt impending danger. Before he could even react, a sword light descended from the skies and struck the cave he was in.

The cave instantly collapsed as the aftershock of the sword light’s energy reverberated throughout the vicinity, destroying everything in the area. Dust and dirt danced in the air as stones fell on his body.

His silhouette quickly dashed towards the exit as eighteen darts shot out from his hand.

His full strength was behind this one move, he was praying for just a second.

But then, he watched as another ray of sword light flew towards him.

He could neither block nor dodge.

That sword aura was solemn and arrogant.

It resembled a white crane that soared above the clouds.

It pushed away the eighteen darts and shot into Wang Xiao Qi’s forehead.

With just a gentle tap, a slight touch, the sword light disappeared.

And Wang Xiao Qi’s corpse remained where he stood, no longer moving.

He had died the moment he came into contact with the sword light.

It was such a powerful move, belonging to such a powerful assassin!

“Hahahaha! It was Wang Xiao Qi after all! Li Yi Fan, you’re amazing!”

1. In case you forgot, the fifth person to have obtained the Dragon God Crystal was one of the prince present in this feast. lol.