Ninth Squad's station.
"Although the volume of transportation to the County Town has decreased significantly during this period, some necessary items still cannot stop. Especially since many businesses in the County Town are waiting for goods from here, there will be a batch of goods transported to the County Town tomorrow. Our Ninth Squad and Eighth Squad will be responsible for one of the convoys."
Almost all members of the Ninth Squad were lined up in the courtyard of the station. In front, Wang Sanyang was speaking with a serious expression.
"Everyone, get a good rest tonight. Be energetic tomorrow morning. This transportation mission cannot fail. Did you all understand?"
"Understood."
The Ninth Squad members replied loudly.
"Alright, you can all disperse now and prepare for tomorrow's mission."
After saying the last sentence, Wang Sanyang announced the disbandment of the squad.
The members of the Ninth Squad then dispersed on their own.
"Brother Sheng, do you think we'll run into the bandits who raided before during tomorrow's escort mission?"
As they walked outside, Xiao Shi approached Lin Sheng and asked with excitement on his Face.
"I don't know. It's best not to run into them."
Lin Sheng shook his head slightly and replied.
He clearly saw the excitement on the young man's Face.
He could pretty much guess what he was thinking. The incident of the Zhenshan Tower transportation team being raided had caused quite a stir, and basically the entire Zhenshan Tower's attention had been drawn to it.
If someone could, at this critical juncture, kill a few raiding bandits and be noticed by the higher-ups of the Hunting Beast Hall or the Zhenshan Tower, they might be transferred out of the Hunting Beast Hall and into other good halls. This would be much, much better than the hard life of entering Yangping Mountain to complete missions, living hand-to-mouth.
"Just follow me with Lao Zhou and the others during tomorrow's mission."
He still ended up saying something.
After all, he had a decent impression of these squad members under him. If they really encountered danger and he had the ability, he wouldn't mind protecting them a bit.
Leaving the station, Lin Sheng headed straight towards Song's Medicine Shop.
He planned to ask if there was any high-grade mortal beast blood and also purchase some poisonous herbs and flowers.
He bought a bamboo hat from a roadside stall and put it on his head, then walked into Song's Medicine Shop. As soon as he entered, he happened to run into the steward, Song Chuan, who was preparing to go out.
Seeing Lin Sheng's figure head-on, the shopkeeper was startled, but quickly recognized him and immediately stopped, a smile appearing on his Face.
"Better to arrive just in time than early. The customer has arrived at just the right moment. There just happens to be a high-grade mortal beast that was delivered, and I was about to go and claim it. If the customer isn't in a hurry, you can come with me."
"Is that so? That's perfect. I'll go take a look."
Hearing this, Lin Sheng's eyes lit up. He didn't expect that he would happen to catch a high-grade mortal beast this time.
After dissecting it and draining the blood, the quantity would definitely be enough for his body integration needs.
"May I ask what kind of exotic beast it is this time, Steward Song?"
Walking side by side, Lin Sheng asked.
"This time the high-grade mortal beast is relatively rare, it's a Human-faced Spider."
Steward Song said with a smile.
"Speaking of which, this Human-faced Spider wasn't found on Yangping Mountain, but was caught in one of our Song's Medicine Shop's medicinal fields."
"Human-faced Spider? In a medicinal field?" Lin Sheng was a bit surprised.
"That's right, it was found in our spider orchid medicinal field. Speaking of which, this Human-faced Spider even poisoned more than a dozen of our medicinal farmers to death. It kills people without making a sound."
Song Chuan sighed, seemingly recalling some unpleasant scenes.
"When our guards discovered this Human-faced Spider, it was Lying on the face of a herbalist, sucking, that scene makes one shudder just thinking about it."
"Luckily, while it was feeding, they shot it dead directly, otherwise it would have been really difficult to deal with this thing."
During their conversation, the two had already reached their destination.
On a flat cart, Lin Sheng saw the so-called Human-faced Spider in a half-human-high wooden box.
This was a large grey spider about half the size of a person. Although it looked big, its entire body was very slender and flat, even able to cling to the ground. On the back of the spider were patterns that were quite similar to a human Face.
This is also the origin of the name Human-faced Spider.
He had never seen an exotic beast like the Human-faced Spider, but there were some records about it in the hundred beast compendium. Of course, the content wasn't much, only saying that its body contained potent poison, and ordinary people would die upon contact. Even the silk it spat out contained potent poison.
The potent poison contained in its body ranked among the top among high-grade mortal beasts, far exceeding the toxicity of the Black Tiger Ape and the Green Flower Python.
"Integrating this Human-faced Spider into my body, then I can just make up for the third type of potent poison needed for the Three Corpse Soul Severing Palm."
Lin Sheng thought to himself. From the moment he heard Song Chuan say the name Human-faced Spider, he had already made up his mind that he must integrate it into his body.
"This is the Human-faced Spider inside. This type of insectoid exotic beast cannot compare in size to other exotic beasts, and the amount of blood it contains is not much. Therefore, if the customer wants its blood, the price will be doubled compared to the previous price."
Seeing that Lin Sheng had confirmed the Human-faced Spider, Song Chuan spoke directly.
"Okay," Lin Sheng nodded. The price offered by the other party was still within a reasonable range.
However, at this moment, a hoarse voice suddenly sounded from the side.
"It really is a Human-faced Spider. Song Chuan, I want this Human-faced Spider."
The speaker was an old woman wearing a grey tattered cloth robe and leaning on a curved walking stick.
The old woman had an ugly Face, and her grey hair was dull and lifeless, like weeds. Her dead fish eyes were slightly rolled outwards, and she was currently looking at the Human-faced Spider in the box with excitement all over her Face.
"Snake Woman, why have you come?" Seeing this old woman, Song Chuan frowned, a clear look of surprise on his Face, but he quickly thought of something.
"It must be that fellow Song Hai..."
"You don't need to worry about how I knew. Alright, now quickly wrap up this Human-faced Spider for me. I just happen to want to refine a batch of poison pills, and this Human-faced Spider has come at just the right time."
The old woman called Snake Woman didn't pay attention to Song Chuan's words, but urged him instead.
"This Human-faced Spider can be sold to you, but the blood on its body has already been sold to this customer, so Snake Woman, please wait a moment, I will first drain the spider blood."
Although Song Chuan seemed unwilling to deal with the other party, he seemed somewhat afraid of her, and paused before speaking.
"Hmm!?"
Hearing this, Snake Woman's gaze finally moved away from the Human-faced Spider and landed on Song Chuan. Her hoarse voice made people feel inexplicably chilled.
"I told you to wrap this Human-faced Spider for me, didn't you hear?"
"This..."
Song Chuan's scalp tingled slightly. Although their Song's Medicine Shop had the backing of the Hundred Herbs Hall in the city, and every force in the County Town had to show them some respect, this old madwoman in front of him was a complete lunatic.
She looked like an old woman in her sixties or seventies, but her real age was only in her early forties. What she cultivated was a poison technique, and she usually came into contact with all sorts of poisonous creatures, so she had long since become somewhat crazy and gone mad.
Moreover, her strength was not bad. Although she was only in the Forging Tendons Initial Stage Realm, her poison technique was impossible to guard against, and even ordinary Forging Tendons Late Stage masters were not uncommon to fall at her hands.
Her decent strength and her volatile temper that would poison others at the drop of a hat meant that even with the backing of the Hundred Herbs Hall, he didn't want to provoke her.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but curse that Song Hai fiercely in his heart.
However, his gaze still inevitably fell on Lin Sheng, with a look of apology on his Face.
"This customer, how about we just forget about this time? Next time there is high-grade mortal beast blood, I will definitely keep it for you first, and I'll give you a discount on the price..."
Although Lin Sheng was covering his Face, after several interactions, he could tell that the other party didn't seem very old and didn't seem very strong. So, comparing the two, he ultimately chose to have Lin Sheng take a step back.
"No need." Before the other party could finish speaking, Lin Sheng shook his head slightly and interrupted him. He looked at the hunched figure of Snake Woman, who was only about 1.4 meters tall, and cupped his hands.
"Senior, I only want the blood from this Human-faced Spider. If you want this blood, I can give you half. What do you think?"
His tone was neither humble nor arrogant, and his words were full of sincerity. Although he didn't know the background of this old woman, judging by Song Chuan's attitude, the other party clearly had some influence.
So, after a brief thought, he proposed this suggestion.
The required amount of exotic beast blood for body integration is related not only to the size but also to the grade of the exotic beast.
The higher the grade of the exotic beast, the more blood is needed. This was his experience from multiple body integrations.
As a high-grade mortal beast, plus its small size, he estimated that integrating it would require about 1/3 of its blood. Even if there was some discrepancy, buying half would be more than enough.
As for activating the second imprint, an exotic beast of the Human-faced Spider's size doesn't have many pounds of blood, and integrating it wouldn't increase the progress much, so giving some to the other party was nothing.
"Give me half? Hmph, you want half of something this old woman has taken a fancy to? A useless person hiding your Face, while I'm in a good mood, get lost now, and maybe I'll spare your dog life."
Hearing Lin Sheng's words, Snake Woman sneered as if she had heard a joke. Her hoarse and unpleasant voice was quite grating.
She didn't even look at Lin Sheng the entire time, but instead urged Song Chuan beside her again.
"No room for discussion then..."
Hearing this, Lin Sheng shook his head slightly and sighed softly, his tone becoming a little low.
"Discussion!?" As if she heard something unusual in his tone, Snake Woman sneered. Just as she was about to say something more, she felt a strong gust of wind coming from behind her.
"He dares to attack me!?" This thought immediately popped into her mind. She was both angry and amused, and immediately turned around and swung her staff. Although her body was hunched, her movements were incredibly fast, and her hand holding the wooden staff had already pressed something, activating the mechanism hidden within the staff that contained potent poison.
She hadn't put Lin Sheng in her eyes at all. Spending her days with various poisonous insects, while cultivating a poison technique, she also had her own methods of detection.
She could roughly determine the Realm of the people around her based on the poisonous insects on her body. When she came over just now, she had already determined that the cultivation Realm of this person hiding his Face with a bamboo hat was not high.
However, the expected scream of the other party suffering from potent poison did not sound. Instead, there was a cracking sound of wood breaking beside her.
Before she could react to what had happened, her turning gaze was already filled by a rough, large hand.
Bang!
With a muffled sound, Snake Woman's thin and short body was directly pressed to the ground by a slap.
"Then let's not discuss it!"
Looking at the thin figure completely pressed to the ground by him, he spoke indifferently.
He felt waves of force coming from his palm, struggling desperately.
Lin Sheng applied more force to his hand.
Crack...
He directly pressed Snake Woman's entire head into the muddy ground. The strength that had been constantly struggling completely dissipated, and she had clearly fainted.
Only then did he stand up and look at Song Chuan, who hadn't reacted yet, and said with a smile.
"Alright, the rule-breaking trash is out. Now let's continue our transaction."
"This..."
Song Chuan opened his mouth. Only then did he react. Looking at Snake Woman, who was buried in the ground up to her shoulders, he wanted to say something, but in the end, he only managed to utter a single word: "Good."
"It's a total of six hundred and thirty taels... Guest, you can give me 600 taels."
"Okay." Taking out a few banknotes from his Arms, Lin Sheng threw them over directly, then grabbed the Human-faced Spider from the box, which was already lifeless.
Six hundred taels was the price for the entire Human-faced Spider. Although the Human-faced Spider was not large, it was relatively rare among high-grade mortal beasts, so its price was relatively high among high-grade mortal beasts. This price was very reasonable.
Holding the Human-faced Spider, he looked at Snake Woman, who was still buried in the ground and not moving. He walked over and, frowning, felt around on her body, finding a few bottles and jars and a few banknotes. Seeing that there was nothing else, he hesitated for a moment, then ignored her and turned to leave.
Originally, he had planned to kill her directly, but considering that he was in Yangping Town and Song Chuan and others were watching, it seemed a bit inappropriate.
So, he would temporarily spare her life. Soon, his figure disappeared from the courtyard.
Song Chuan watched Lin Sheng's disappearing back, and finally his gaze fell on Snake Woman on the ground. For a moment, he couldn't make up his mind whether to go up and pull her out or what to do.
Just as he was hesitating, Snake Woman, who looked like a dead person on the ground, suddenly moved. She propped herself up with her hands and feet on the ground, like a spider, desperately pushing backward.
Finally, with a pop like pulling a radish, Snake Woman's head was finally pulled out.
At this moment, her facial features were flattened, and drops of blood dripped from her nose. Clearly, her nose was completely broken and stuck to her Face, making her already ugly Face even more hideous to behold.
"You... you dare to do this to me, I... I definitely won't let..."
On her hideous Face, a hoarse, unpleasant, and venomous voice sounded.
However, before she could finish speaking, the sound of a strong gust of wind came from behind her head, and the head that had just been pulled out was pressed into the ground again.
And this time, it wasn't just her head that was pressed into the ground; the powerful force actually hammered more than half of her body into it.
"Weeds must be rooted out, otherwise it won't work..."
The perpetrator clapped his hands and muttered. In an instant, he disappeared from the courtyard.
The one who struck was none other than Lin Sheng, who had gone and returned. Originally, he had truly intended to let the old thing go.
But after walking not far, he regretted it. Since he had already made a move, it was better to kill her. What if someone saw? Anyway, with the bamboo hat on, no one would know who he was.
And in the courtyard, Song Chuan and the others were still in a daze, taking a long time to react.