Only I am Venerable

As he spoke, the middle-aged man shot forward like a bolt of lightning, charging at Qin Li. He drew back his fist and aimed a vicious strike at Qin Li’s chest. It was a ruthless move, clearly intended to kill him in a single blow!

But Qin Li was even faster. He dodged behind Shangguan Shiyu and yelled, "Wife, he’s trying to kill me!"

The middle-aged man recoiled in shock, pulling back his fist. He couldn’t bring himself to harm a woman with such a beautiful smile, even if she were just a village girl. Not to mention, she was the one his Young Master desired.

It’s far easier to throw a punch than to pull one. The man had intended to kill Qin Li with that strike, and while he hadn’t used his full power, he wasn’t holding back much either. The sudden retraction sent a jolt of discomfort through his Dantian, leaving him feeling utterly stifled. Fortunately, he had assumed Qin Li was an ordinary person and hadn’t infused the attack with Primordial Power; otherwise, that recoil alone would have been enough to severely injure him!

He had pulled his punch, but Shangguan Shiyu... struck!

Shangguan Shiyu’s graceful movements were as fluid as a flowing river, yet immeasurably faster. All the onlookers saw was a blur, and then the middle-aged man was sent flying backward.

THUD. He hit the ground and struggled for some time, but he couldn’t get back to his feet.

The entire group was stunned. The handsome young man in the white robes narrowed his eyes, his cold gaze fixed on Shangguan Shiyu and Qin Li. "To think, you two are fellow practitioners. It seems I was blind not to see it."

"Pah! Who’s a fellow practitioner with you?" Qin Li said with a look of disdain. He turned to Shangguan Shiyu. "Wife, let’s go. The chickens at home should be laying their eggs soon. If we’re late, the family next door will steal them. You did very well. As a reward, I’ll make you some fried eggs tonight!"

Shangguan Shiyu smiled sweetly. "Thank you, husband."

The pair’s exchange made the other group seethe with rage. If they couldn’t tell they were being toyed with by now, they had truly wasted all their years.

The white-robed young man sneered. "Do you really think I’m afraid of you? Elder Sun, go! Capture that woman for me! I refuse to believe they’re that powerful!"

When Qin Li saw this Elder Sun, he was amused. The man was an old fellow, perhaps in his fifties, with a pointy chin and sunken cheeks. He was short, scrawny, and in all honesty, his every move made him look more like a monkey than a man.

Elder Sun immediately noticed the mockery in Qin Li’s eyes. People with physical shortcomings often harbor a deep-seated insecurity, terrified that others will ridicule their flaws. Seeing Qin Li’s expression, Elder Sun flew into a rage. His body blurred into an afterimage as he pounced through the air toward Qin Li.

He moved as fast as a streaking meteor, appearing before Qin Li in an instant. He thrust out a withered palm, aiming a strike at Qin Li’s forehead.

An overwhelming power surged from the blow. If it landed true, even a massive boulder would be smashed to pieces, to say nothing of a person’s head.

Qin Li pursed his lips. "Elder Sun, that’s enough of your Divine Techniques!"

With a loud laugh, Qin Li retaliated. Though he moved second, his attack landed first. He launched a kick straight at Elder Sun’s chest. It looked like a simple, ordinary kick, yet Elder Sun found himself completely unable to dodge it. He could only brace for impact, instantly channeling all the Primordial Power in his body to his chest to endure the blow.

BAM!

With a muffled thud, Elder Sun was sent flying, landing hard on the ground. He spat out a mouthful of blood, his expression immediately turning haggard.

And that was with Qin Li using only a fraction of his strength. If he had used his full power, that single kick would have been enough to obliterate Elder Sun!

At this, the white-robed young man’s expression changed drastically. Elder Sun was the strongest among them, a cultivator who had reached the Human Venerable Realm. None of them could have imagined that these two seemingly ordinary people possessed such terrifying power!

How could they not realize they had picked a fight with the wrong people?

The white-robed young man had his subordinates help up Elder Sun and the other man. His voice trembled slightly as he said, "Let’s go!"

"Go? Did I say you could leave?" Qin Li looked at the young man with a smirk, his expression so smug it made one want to stomp his face into the dirt.

"What more do you want?" the white-robed young man said, his face ashen. ’My luck is absolutely rotten,’ he thought. ’I finally get to come out into the Mortal Realm for some experience. I wanted to be like my fellow disciples and try my hand at wooing some local beauties, but my very first attempt had to be on two terrifying monsters.’

’Even the strongest among us, Elder Sun, was defeated in a single move. I can’t help but remember what Father always said: the Martial World is treacherous, and even the Mortal Realm hides powerful experts.’ The white-robed young man now felt his father had been absolutely right.

"What do I want?"

Qin Li let out a sinister chuckle. "We, the infamous Female and Male Thieves, are always the ones doing the robbing! We’ve never been the ones to be bullied! Yet you, you little punk, dared to harass my wife. So tell me, how do you plan to resolve this? If I don’t like your answer, I won’t be letting you go. Let me tell you something: we, the Female and Male Thieves, have spilled enough blood to drown you several times over!"

Watching Qin Li spin this ridiculous tale, Shangguan Shiyu blushed and inwardly cursed him. ’He can really spout nonsense,’ she thought. ’The Female and Male Thieves? What a horrible name! Still... it is kind of new and exciting! Maybe being a robber is actually fun!’

"The Fe... Female and Male Thieves? Y-you’re bandits?" The white-robed young man’s jaw dropped. He stared, dumbfounded, at Qin Li and Shangguan Shiyu. His gaze, when it fell on her, was filled with pity and bewilderment. As an experienced connoisseur of beautiful women, even if he couldn’t see through Shangguan Shiyu’s Disguise, he could see the stunning light in her bright, clear eyes. But he never, ever would have imagined that these two... were bandits?

The feeling was like visiting a refined, high-class teahouse. The tea master is the picture of elegance and nobility, a transcendent beauty who seems utterly unapproachable. Then she opens her mouth and says, "I sell my body, not my skills..."

It was the kind of shock that could make a man want to cough up blood.

"What? Don’t I look like a bandit?" Qin Li cackled. "Do you think bandits write ’bandit’ on their foreheads?"

"Well... of course not." At this point, the young man couldn’t tell if these two were just toying with him or if they were actually the infamous Female and Male Thieves.

Besides, the very idea of bandits daring to rob *them* was something he would have considered unimaginable before today.

"Then hurry up and hand over your valuables! You got a death wish?" Qin Li’s eyes bore into the white-robed young man with a chilling intensity. ’This is getting more and more interesting,’ he thought.

’No wonder people love playing the villain while hoping everyone else is a hero,’ he mused. ’This feels pretty good!’

The white-robed young man felt a chill run down his spine under Qin Li’s icy gaze. He knew that even though the man seemed to be joking, he would turn hostile in an instant if he didn’t comply. According to the legends, weren’t all great outlaws notoriously fickle, turning on you faster than the flip of a page?

In his mind, the white-robed young man lamented his fall from a villainous young master who preyed on innocent women to a pathetic wretch being robbed. His subordinates, meanwhile, could only stand by, seething but too afraid to speak.

Even their strongest, Elder Sun, had been sent flying with a single kick, nearly killed. How could any of them dare to fight this man? ’If only Father were here,’ the young man couldn’t help but think. ’He would surely kill the male of this so-called ’Female and Male Thieves’ pair, and as for the female... he’d capture her alive!’

With that thought, he reluctantly began to pull things from his robes. He started with some gold and jewels, putting on a pained expression, but in truth, for people like them from the Sects of the Mysterious Land, such worldly valuables were of little consequence.

Qin Li sneered at the young man. "If you don’t want to die, stop wasting my time and take out something that will actually satisfy me. Who are you trying to fool with this garbage? I see... if I don’t teach you a lesson, you’ll think the Female and Male Thieves are pushovers?" As he spoke, Qin Li took two steps forward, and a faint wisp of Sword Intent locked directly onto the white-robed young man.

The white-robed young man’s strength was only somewhere between the Celestial Shattering and Celestial Integration Realms; how could he possibly withstand the pressure of Sword Intent? It scared him so badly he nearly wet himself. He hurriedly opened his Storage Ring and dumped all of its contents onto the ground: a large pile of gold and silver, a small number of Spirit Stones, and some Heavenly and Earthly Treasures.

At the same time, a very ancient-looking Scroll tumbled out by accident. The white-robed young man seemed to snap to his senses and snatched it back with lightning speed.

’A tempest was raging in Qin Li’s mind. Even he couldn’t believe his luck was this good. ’Could it be that everyone with an Ancient Map has gathered here in Yellow Sand City? Or do these people from the Mysterious Land have spies planted throughout the Mortal Realm, allowing them to get this kind of news immediately?’

’It seems the Qin Family’s own information network is still lacking. It’s likely that Sects like the Thousand Mechanism Sect and Sword Concealment Manor have already sent people here as well.’

As Qin Li’s mind wandered, he caught sight of the white-robed young man out of the corner of his eye. The man seemed to let out a sigh of relief before asking, "Um, here, you can have all of this. Can you spare our lives now?"

Qin Li narrowed his eyes. Shangguan Shiyu’s voice transmission echoed in his mind, "Husband, that man seemed to have put a Scroll back into his Spatial Ring!"

"Good girl, I saw it too!" Qin Li sent back. Then he narrowed his eyes at the white-robed young man and asked coldly, "Is there nothing left in that ring?"

"Nothing! There’s nothing left!" the young man insisted, but his eyes couldn’t help but flicker.

"Then how come I thought I saw, just now..." Before Qin Li could finish his sentence, the white-robed young man spun around and fled, leaving a trail of afterimages in his wake. His speed was so fast he was nearly a blur!