Chapter 26: Taking on a Sect Alone by Oneself_1

"Attendant Student, could you come here for a moment!"

Qin Niu called over the bookstore's assistant.

Here, one-on-one service was provided, so any customer interested in purchasing any Cultivation Technique secret manual could call over an Attendant Student at any time to inquire.

"Esteemed guest, would you like to purchase this Insect Control Technique?"

The one who came over was still the same Attendant Student who had served him last time.

His attitude toward Qin Niu was noticeably more respectful. You can't judge a book by its cover; this young man just bought a Cultivation Technique worth five Silver Money.

For a rich young master, five Silver Money is merely a month's pocket money.

But for a poor country person, five Silver Money might take five or six years to save, or even longer.

The young man didn't even blink when paying, leaving a deep impression on the Attendant Student.

"Is Green Demon someone's nickname?"

"Please wait a moment, I will ask the Appraiser."

The Attendant Student, with limited knowledge, obviously didn't know either.

Larger bookstores all have their own Appraisers; often the owner would act as one. If any Cultivation Technique acquired turned out to be a Fake Cultivation Technique, the consequences would be very serious.

The scale of the Supreme Ocean was so large, there should be more than one Appraiser.

After all, there are multiple fields in Cultivation Technique secret manuals, and many Appraisers only specialize in one field.

For example, an Appraiser responsible for evaluating Cultivation Techniques might not be very good at plant cultivation techniques.

The Attendant Student quickly returned, accompanied by a thin, long-bearded elder. He wore a green robe adorned with the embroidered badge of the Supreme Ocean and the Appraiser's badge on his chest.

He obviously seemed much senior to the Attendant Student.

"Esteemed guest, this is Master Liu, our Supreme Ocean's Appraiser specializing in Insect Control and plant cultivation techniques. You may directly consult with Master Liu about any questions you have."

The Attendant Student introduced the identity of the thin elder.

"Master, good to see you. May I ask if you know the origin of the Green Demon's bee breeding scripture?"

Master Liu stroked his beard and spoke in a clear voice, "Of course. All cultivation and insect control techniques pass through my evaluation to ensure there are no issues before they are put up for sale. Green Demon is an infamous Insect Master. In his early years, his parents died, leaving only him and his three-year-old sister. The brother and sister, young and without support, suffered under the bullying of the local villagers. His own uncle, in an attempt to seize the family's property, bullied him the most.

Green Demon was often locked in the backyard by his aunt, who wouldn't give him food until he had chopped three loads of firewood.

His sister was required to wash clothes and learn embroidery, earning money for her aunt's household.

Whenever Green Demon was tired from chopping wood, his greatest pleasure was to observe the insects in dark corners and the wasps flying into the backyard to build their nests.

One time, his aunt's family lost a silver bracelet, and Green Demon also disappeared for five days. Perhaps because his sister was still in his aunt's hands, Green Demon came back on the sixth day.

His uncle and aunt hung him from a beam and tortured him to find out where the silver bracelet had gone, but he just clenched his teeth and kept silent.

Later on, it was said that Green Demon often talked to the wasps, and his aunt's family thought the child had gone mad.

Green Demon soon turned fifteen, and his sister was thirteen, growing up quite pretty.

People began to come forward with marriage proposals.

Since their parents had died, the brother and sister were tightly controlled by their uncle and aunt's family.

For fifty Silver Money, his aunt actually sold Green Demon's sister to a family for a ghost marriage—a most vicious type of marriage, where a living person is wedded to a deceased, followed by a burial alive.

As it was a ghost marriage, the wedding took place at Midnight.

However, when the groom's side came to pick up the bride, they discovered that Green Demon's uncle's family of five had all died violently. Their bodies covered with large swollen bumps oozing pus from the wounds, it was terribly gruesome.

Only Green Demon and his sister were missing.

That was just the beginning. Gradually, more and more villagers started to die violently, their deaths eerily similar to that of Green Demon's uncle's family.

The villagers then realized that the Green Demon had come to seek revenge on them.

Later, someone reported to the authorities, and the Green Demon's sister died when she fell from the mountains while fleeing from the soldiers. It was said that the Green Demon also fell off a cliff, his whereabouts unknown.

It was seven years later, on the anniversary of the Green Demon's sister's death, that the villagers witnessed a truly horrifying scene. Swarms of bees appeared in the village, stinging everyone they encountered, regardless of age, and even the livestock could not escape.

After being stung, a person would not die immediately but instead green pus would ooze from their wounds, and their body would slowly turn into pus until they died, seven days later.

This method of death was even more terrifying than being slowly sliced to death.

People from the neighboring villages discovered something was wrong and entered to investigate, only to find in horror that the entire village of over two hundred people, including the chickens and dogs, had all turned into green pus.

The government sent people to investigate and suffered attacks from an unidentified swarm of bees, presenting the same symptoms as the dead villagers, with green pus oozing all over their bodies. Moreover, treatments from doctors were completely ineffective.

Among the officials, there were skilled individuals who, after inspection, believed that there must be an Insect Master controlling the situation from behind the scenes, seeking revenge on both the villagers and the authorities.

The government dispatched a large number of troops and experts into the mountains to search for the perpetrator.

They encountered endless swarms of bees, suffering heavy casualties. The leader of the local Seven-Star Sect, enraged, personally led experts from the sect into the mountain to hunt down the Green Demon lurking in the shadows. Unexpectedly, hundreds of dark green, strange bees that were immune to swords and spears, and possessed extremely strong capabilities to break defenses, flew out from beneath the cliff. The Seven Stars Sect Leader was stung by one of these strange bees, howled for seven days, and then died in violent convulsions.

This matter alarmed the higher sects, which sent out top fighters to deal with the situation, and they ultimately slew the Green Demon in a cave below the cliff.

It was said that an astonishing number of bee swarms were found beneath that cliff, endless in number.

After killing the Green Demon, the top expert from the sect left with his head as a trophy.

That cliff became forbidden territory, with woodcutters, hunters, and herb pickers daring not to come within ten miles of it, or else they would be attacked by the swarms of bees.

Master Liu, in order to appraise an Insect Control Technique, actually found out so much about the book's author's past experiences, which showed the rigorousness of the Supreme Sea's book collection.

"This volume of the Green Demon's Bee Rearing is his Insect Control Technique and breeding insights he left behind. Many people avoid his techniques like the plague because he was deemed a demonic cultivator. I personally think there's no need for this. Whether it's a cultivation technique or skill, neither possesses intrinsic good or evil—it depends on how one uses it after learning."

After speaking, Master Liu nodded towards Qin Niu and left on his own.

"Ten pieces of silver money are indeed a bit expensive, but let's buy it!"

Qin Niu had only spent five pieces of silver money on a cultivation technique, but to his surprise, acquiring an Insect Control Technique cost him ten pieces of silver money.

The price was truly not cheap.

However, the poisonous bees bred by the Green Demon were formidable enough to leave the local government helpless and even kill the leader of the Seven Star Sect, which showed that his bee-rearing techniques must be exceptional.

If he studied it carefully at home, he should be able to gain something from it.

As for challenging the entire Black Tiger Gang alone after mastering it, he, being a conscientious person, dared not entertain such thoughts.

After paying, Qin Niu left the Supreme Sea, satisfied with the two volumes of techniques he had acquired.

He still had ten pieces of silver money left and decided to buy weapons first.

If he had any money left, he would then buy a low-grade Contract Charm.

The weapon shop was located at the very back of the market square.

Nearly seventeen or eighteen weapon shops were set up here, and from a distance of more than ten meters away, one could hear the clanging sounds.

Most weapon shops had been passed down through generations.

There were also some apprentices who, after studying for ten or twenty years and mastering their skills, set up their own businesses.

Qin Niu looked at each one in turn.

Chopping knives, short swords, longswords, bows, arrows, axes, spears... all eighteen types of weapons could be found here.

There were also many exotic and rare weapons.

For example, steel hooks that could be worn on the hands, and hidden blades that could be worn on the feet, and so on.

These hidden blades were typically concealed within the soles of shoes and had a mechanism inside. During a fight, stomping forcefully would extend a hidden blade from the tip of the shoe, allowing one to kill an enemy with an unexpected strike from the foot.