Demon, come and cultivate for me.

"Hurry, hurry, don't stop... What's wrong? You can't take it after only six tries?"

"Someone outside is calling for help, didn't you hear it?"

"Who cares..."

Before Zhao Ji could finish speaking, Zhou Chu pushed her away.

"I hear what sounds like a fight breaking out outside." Zhou Chu quickly put on his clothes and picked up his sword.

Being abruptly interrupted, Zhao Ji was extremely displeased and gritted her teeth, saying:

"Which thief is causing trouble again? If we catch him, we'll tear him limb from limb."

"Hurry up and get dressed, then follow me." Zhou Chu didn't respond to her.

When the two arrived at Chen Xiangzi's room, they found it in complete disarray, with tables, chairs, beds, cabinets, and various decorations all destroyed.

In addition, there were scraps of paper scattered all over the ground.

Chen Xiangzi covered her arm, and blood kept seeping from between her fingers.

The silent man stood to one side, gripping the hilt of his sword, staring down at the scraps of paper on the ground, without uttering a word.

"How are you? Are you badly injured?" Zhou Chu asked as he stepped forward.

"I got a few cuts from the knife, but it's nothing serious," Chen Xiangzi said, raising her hand to check the wounds on her left arm.

The wound was so deep that the flesh was turned inside out and the bone was visible.

Zhao Ji went back to her room and brought back a small porcelain medicine bottle, which she handed to Zhou Chu, indicating that he should apply it to Chen Xiangzi.

Zhou Chu opened the small porcelain medicine bottle, and a strange smell wafted out.

He sprinkled the white powder inside onto Chen Xiangzi's arm wound.

As soon as the powder came into contact with the wound, Chen Xiangzi grimaced in pain, and large beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

Within just a few dozen breaths of applying the medicine powder, the wound stopped bleeding and began to heal slowly.

The pained expression on Chen Xiangzi's face gradually disappeared.

In a short while, the wound had healed completely, leaving only a white mark.

"Luckily, Chi Dingzi intervened in time, otherwise my wound wouldn't be on my arm, but on my neck." Chen Xiangzi pulled up his sleeve to cover the injured area and said in a low voice:

"The thieves from last night have followed us."

At this moment, the innkeeper ran up with several waiters.

He was about to go to sleep at home when his waiter came to report that there was a fight at the inn, so the innkeeper rushed over.

In the lobby downstairs, the shopkeeper first saw the waiter whose soul had been extracted by Wang Ji. The waiter looked like he had fallen ill; his mouth was crooked, his eyes were slanted, he was drooling, and he could not walk steadily.

The shopkeeper asked him what had happened, and he opened his mouth and made a bunch of strange noises that no one could understand.

Meanwhile, another waiter on night duty secretly told the manager that this waiter had been called up by a guest from room sixteen of the "Heavenly" tier, and after coming down, he ended up like this.

The shopkeeper recounted the incident to Zhou Chu and the others.

Zhou Chu made a quick decision and ran towards room number sixteen, which was not far away.

He kicked open the door, but the person inside had already vanished.

Upon seeing the open rear window, Zhou Chu knew that the guy had sensed something was wrong and was making a hasty escape.

As the saying goes, it's not the thief you should fear, but the one who has his eye on you.

Now that the group is being targeted by thieves, they have to be on guard against any potential attacks, which is unpleasant for anyone.

Zhou Chu wanted to jump out of the window to chase after him, but Chen Xiangzi stopped him.

Chen Xiangzi said, "The thief is missing a wisp of his soul, he's like a madman, only thinking about revenge. We don't need to chase him, he'll naturally come looking for us. As long as we are fully prepared, we can just wait for him to take the bait."

After listening to Chen Xiangzi, Zhou Chu thought that what he said made sense, so he gave up the pursuit.

The group then went to the innkeeper and asked about the appearance of the guest in room number sixteen.

Although the shopkeeper only glanced at him, he was deeply impressed by Wang Ji's appearance.

This fellow had triangular eyes, a short stature, and carried a heavy burlap bundle on his back.

Such a distinctive feature would leave a strong impression on anyone who sees it.

Zhou Chu memorized the shopkeeper's description and then sent the shopkeeper away.

The shopkeeper hesitated for a moment and said, "Look at the damage to the furniture and furnishings in this house..."

Chen Xiangzi snorted and said, "I almost lost my life staying at your shabby inn. It's good enough that I'm not asking you for compensation. What face do you have to ask us for compensation for our losses?"

If word gets out, will you still be able to do business?

The shopkeeper's face turned pale and then red, and he didn't know how to refute her.

At that moment, one of the shop assistants whispered a few words in the shopkeeper's ear.

Upon hearing this, the shopkeeper immediately changed his demeanor, repeatedly apologizing to Zhou Chu and the others, blaming himself for saying the wrong thing.

After rearranging a room for Chen Xiangzi, he went downstairs with the staff.

Wang Ji gave the waiter a five-tael silver tip, and when he booked the room, he paid fifty taels of silver, all of which the waiter saw. He then told the manager about it.

Fifty-five taels of silver is more than enough to make up for this loss, and I doubt that person would dare to come back and ask for it back.

Upon careful calculation, this wasn't a loss at all; in fact, there was a profit to be made.

Furthermore, what the guest said makes sense.

It's already bad luck to encounter something like this in a store, so it's really unreasonable to ask them to pay for compensation on top of that.

Once word gets out, business really won't be possible.

Nothing happened that night. Zhou Chu was the first to get up and get ready, waiting downstairs at the inn for the others to get up.

Before long, Zhao Ji, Xu Yuan, and Chen Xiangzi came down with their luggage.

Only the taciturn fellow remained nowhere to be seen.

Xu Yuan went upstairs to call him, but there was no response. Xu Yuan gently pushed the door open, but the room was empty, and the bundle was still there.

None of the four had any idea where the silent fellow had gone.

When I asked the shop assistants, they all said they didn't know where he had gone.

The group waited in the shop for about half an hour, discussing whether to leave him a message so he could chase after them, when the taciturn man returned.

He was still dressed in red, his hand gripping the hilt of a sword.

He just had a big burden on his shoulders.

He tossed the bundle onto the table in front of them and said, "It's settled."

Chen Xiangzi opened the bundle, and everyone looked inside. They saw that it contained pen and ink and a stack of white paper, and immediately understood what he meant by "solving the problem".

Zhou Chu asked him how he caught the man.

The man remained silent and went straight upstairs.

As Zhou Chu watched his retreating figure, he felt no resentment whatsoever.

This guy truly lives up to his reputation as the top assassin of Yan; he's got some skills.

The rest of the journey went very smoothly.

The plains of Qi, though stretching for thousands of miles, lacked scenic landscapes.

But here you'll find bustling trade routes and endless fields, offering a unique charm.

More importantly, this place is much more peaceful than the Yan Kingdom, with few evil spirits causing trouble.

The people of Qi were engaged in farming and commerce, and the country was thriving.

After traveling for a few days, Zhou Chu and his group arrived in the territory of the State of Lu.

The State of Lu had many craftsmen who were skilled at crafting all kinds of exquisite instruments.

The flying boat that Zhou Chu encountered on his way to the capital of Yan was from Lu.

Besides flying boats, the State of Lu had many other eye-catching new gadgets.

Examples include wooden oxen and flowing horses that could travel a hundred miles a day after carrying hundreds of kilograms of goods.

A wooden kite that can carry people through the sky.

There are even puppets and other instruments that can move freely like people, which is dazzling.

What puzzled Zhou Chu was why these amazing artifacts hadn't been popularized in other countries.