Chapter 2370 — When Words Fail

It was not that Piao Huotai feared them; it was simply that Piao Huotai's foundation did not lie here. In these parts, his identity was that of the King of Gamblers, and he did not wish to stir up trouble—especially since, before setting out, his master had warned him that this region was full of hidden masters, and that it would be best not to make enemies over trifles.

But it was not that Piao Huotai wanted to make an enemy; it was because he could not let Chen Xi go.

Piao Huotai harbored a secret. To the outside world, he was regarded as a most lecherous man of extraordinary endowment, yet he himself knew full well that he was no man of extraordinary endowment at all—he was a demonic cultivator! What he cultivated was different from that of ordinary cultivators.

His master had once served a formidable elder of Miao territory, and that elder had himself been a demonic cultivator who achieved his cultivation through the ritual refinement of gu poison. The elder, however, had been wiped out by others; his master had swallowed his humiliation and lain low for many years, until at last he found his chance and made good his escape, fleeing to Southeast Asia, where he established his own school and founded a new sect—the Right Miao Sect!

Every member of this sect cultivated a mutated form of gu poison. Yet the materials his master had obtained back then were incomplete, riddled with flaws, and most who attempted the ritual refinement of this gu poison perished. Only Piao Huotai succeeded.

However, if Piao Huotai wished the gu poison within his body to grow ever stronger, he had to refine it with the blood of virgins. And so it was not lust that drove him at all, but a secret he could never reveal.

Once this gu poison reached great completion, it rendered the body impervious to blade and spear, to water and fire. Though it could not match the fearsome heights of that grand patriarch of old, it could attain half his power—and even that was enough to rival those who had mastered the Golden Bell Shield and Iron Shirt techniques.

And Piao Huotai, who had known countless women, recognized Chen Xi's uniqueness at a single glance! Chen Xi was no ordinary young girl, but a cauldron of the finest quality for cultivation. Such a cauldron was unlike ordinary girls, who served their purpose only on the first night of shared bed; Chen Xi could endlessly supply aid to Piao Huotai's cultivation.

Therefore, even at the cost of offending Wei Zhao, Piao Huotai had to possess Chen Xi—even if it meant fleeing to Southeast Asia and never venturing out again, he would not let slip this chance of a lifetime!

Of course, his outward identity as a man of extraordinary endowment was also a disguise to conceal that he was a demonic cultivator! And his identity as the King of Gamblers was a disguise too, merely to better seek out the young girls he used as cultivation resources!

In truth, the reason he could become the King of Gamblers was simple: he could command a kind of gu worm called the ear-and-eye gu. Though such gu worms were exceedingly difficult to refine, and at present only his master could refine them, Piao Huotai was able to use them.

The so-called ear-and-eye gu was a kind of flying gu worm, tiny in size, that danced through the air and spread out across a radius of a dozen meters or even several hundred meters around Piao Huotai. These flying insects were Piao Huotai's ears and eyes: whatever they saw or heard was transmitted back to him. Thus Piao Huotai's rise to become the King of Gamblers rested entirely upon these gu worms known as the ear-and-eye gu!

As for any talk of extraordinary endowment, it was nothing but a pretext—yet Piao Huotai never bothered to correct it. When the false is taken for true, the true is taken for false; true or false, it mattered not, so long as he could borrow the identity of the King of Gamblers to ceaselessly seek out young girls and refine his demonic arts.

"I don't care who you are. A casino has a casino's rules. She is already my spoil of war, and I will not let anyone take her away!" Piao Huotai made up his mind quickly and said flatly, "This way, please!"

Wei Zhao frowned. He had not expected Piao Huotai to refuse him face even after he had killed two men in a row. It seemed the man must have something to rely on—for in Wei Zhao's view, no man, however lecherous, could be driven to such a reckless disregard for his own life.

To fight a powerful enemy to the death over an ordinary girl was a thoroughly unprofitable affair. As the King of Gamblers of Southeast Asia, what kind of girl could he not find? Was he really so short of this one?

"Mr. Piao, I do not wish to be your enemy. But if you insist on opposing me, then I have no choice but to use force." Wei Zhao's voice turned cold and grim. How Piao Huotai conducted himself ordinarily was no concern of Wei Zhao's, but today the man meant to carry Chen Xi off by force, and Wei Zhao could only act.

"Oppose you? Are you worthy of that?" Piao Huotai sneered coldly. "An early-stage Earth rank, and a peak late-stage Mystic rank—two ants of men, and you killed them, and you think that makes you formidable? Or do you think you're giving me a show of strength?"

Wei Zhao's gaze sharpened slightly, a strange light flickering across it. He had not expected that even after he revealed his strength, Piao Huotai would still say such things. The only explanation was that Piao Huotai himself was very strong—or that his support lay in the peak late-stage Earth rank expert beside him!

From beginning to end, though Wei Zhao had instantly killed an early-stage Earth rank and a peak late-stage Mystic rank expert, the strength he had displayed was that of the mid-stage Earth rank. And so this was likely what had given Piao Huotai his confidence.

"When words fail, half a sentence is too many. Since that is how it is, then let us fight!" A surge of heroic spirit rose in Wei Zhao's heart. Though the black-clad guard behind Piao Huotai was plainly no ordinary peak late-stage Earth rank expert—his strength was evident enough, yet his true qi fluctuations were far stronger than Old Bi's, verging on surpassing the peak late-stage Earth rank strength of the Five Protectors of old—this man was a formidable foe, and Wei Zhao would by no means have an easy time crossing hands with him!

Therefore, as Wei Zhao spoke these words, he also secretly sent a message to Old Master Pi and the others via his phone. This was the phone Wei Zhao always used, and he was well practiced in blind typing, needing not even to look at the screen—the most basic skill from his days as an assassin.

"Piao Laoliu, go finish him off." Piao Huotai's brows furrowed slightly, as though he no longer wished to say another word to Wei Zhao.

"Yes." At Piao Huotai's command, the black-clad guard behind him sprang into motion at once. In that instant, before the battle had even begun, the domineering aura within his body erupted, surging to its very peak!

And then Piao Laoliu's figure bore down upon Wei Zhao, his right-hand claw turning a pale red—what martial technique it was, none could tell—as he reached to seize Wei Zhao. In an instant a fierce true qi fluctuation came surging toward Wei Zhao, and that powerful, domineering pressure made Wei Zhao's breath catch slightly...