If This is a Story, I must be a villain. 03

Hei Shanke silently placed his palm behind his waist as wisps of black energy subtly emerged from his palm.

However, when Hei Shanke made this move, he was still talking to Zhang San. Hei Shanke angrily shouted, "What exactly did you do?"

If someone had really transported cartloads of poison to the teahouse next door, how could they not know about it?

Zhang San stood atop the roof as if it were only natural and said, "It's actually quite simple. The well water used daily in the county government kitchen is drawn by the yamen runners from the well. I discovered the underground water flows from the teahouse towards the yamen. So there's no need to pollute this underground waterway. Make the medicine dissolve more slowly after some processing. Then, at the time when the yamen runners draw water, go to the backyard of the teahouse during that time window and massively dose it."

Hei Shanke immediately understood the rationale behind it.

He also clearly understood this required supreme calculating abilities and qinggong, and the opponent must have eyed them early on, even observing the daily habits of those mixed yamen runners.

Ruthless! Prudent!

Hei Shanke pondered with his saber in hand, but was still puzzled.

Even if there was poison in the well, how could he and his assassins, who were all cautious and prudent, not notice it when using the food and drinking water in the yamen?

Being cautious was the first tenet for the assassins of the Dark Building.

Hei Shanke also understood that there were indeed colorless, odorless poisons in this world, even some that couldn't be detected by many poison inspection methods. But there was no such thing as a perfect poison.

Those kinds of poisons usually weren't very toxic. They could handle people at the human level, but they were definitely not enough to poison his eight subordinates who were high-level Human Stage assassins!

"What poison is this?" Hei Shanke stared at Zhang San.

Zhang San slowly replied, "It's not poison, it's an anesthetic. Compared to poison, anesthetics have lower toxicity and are harder to detect."

"Impossible!" Hei Shanke firmly refuted, "Even if it's an anesthetic that can make Human Stage experts fall unconscious, there's no way it could avoid detection by my Dark Building's poison inspection methods!"

Zhang San retorted, "Senior indeed has rich experience, but who told you I put all the medicine in the well water?"

Hei Shanke was taken aback, not fully understanding Zhang San's meaning.

Zhang San meaningfully pointed at the dense fog around them.

Hei Shanke's pupils constricted. He immediately slashed out a blade aura to slice apart the dense fog, and suddenly discovered the truth.

It turned out there was a fine powdery dust pervading the dense fog that even Hei Shanke wouldn't notice without looking closely, especially since the dust was white and blended in with the fog. If Zhang San hadn't reminded him, no one would have been able to discover it at all.

Zhang San explained, "I consecutively put medicine in the well water for three days. Although it wasn't poisonous, it guaranteed accumulation in your bodies. The powder in the fog also isn't poisonous, but together the two are an anesthetic even lower Human Stage inner force can't withstand!"

Hei Shanke muttered to himself, "So all the ostentatious actions earlier, even that arrogant tone and words, were probably all in order to make us vigilant and focus our attention entirely on the attacker, so by the time the anesthetic took effect, it would be too late."

It turned out everything was scheme after scheme!

Vicious!

Ruthless!

It was nothing but machinations!

Now Hei Shanke believed the opponent's methods were definitely those of their underground world!

If Zhang San wasn't his current opponent, he even had the urge to applaud the other. After all, it was much harder to use these kinds of despicable poisoning tricks against upright orthodox heroes like Xiu Wangchou, no matter how high Xiu Wangchou's martial arts.

But...

As the palm he had secretly placed behind him earlier forced out more and more toxins, Hei Shanke's heart settled down a lot.

In the end, still too young. Thought the scheme had succeeded and became complacent.

And even revealed all the details in front of the enemy.

Hei Shanke was laughing loudly inside. He even wanted to mock the opponent: Didn't you say this was like a wuxia story written by a scholar? Don't you know that villains in those stories always die from being too talkative? You're still too young, boy!

Hei Shanke had even considered how he would launch a surprise attack the instant all the toxins were forced out.

But just as the last trace of toxins left his body...

Hei Shanke's inner laughter and joy abruptly stopped!

Hei Shanke was practically raging inside: What happened to my inner energy?

At the same time, as the dense fog gradually dispersed, Zhang San, noticing the subtle change in Hei Shanke's expression, laughed.

Zhang San's loud laughter sounded extremely mocking to Hei Shanke's ears.

Zhang San ridiculed, "Senior, weren't you just mocking me inside for being too arrogant, and even letting you secretly use inner energy to force out the poison? No, Senior. Do you really think I didn't see you secretly turn your left palm down and hide it behind your waist while we were talking?"

Hei Shanke could no longer restrain his fury and roared, "Just what did you do?"

Zhang San mocked, "Oh it's nothing much, just that I know the amount of my drugs could only anesthetize lower Human Stage experts. If I increased the drug amount and toxicity even a little, you all might have noticed ahead of time. As for Senior Black Mountain Guest, forcing out the poison with inner energy isn't difficult. Since you would dispel it in the end anyway, I made some preparations for when the poison gets forced out by inner energy."

Since it would be forced out in the end anyway, why not deplete some of the opponent's inner energy during the process?

Zhang San thought to himself: Properly controlling the dosage of Decimating Internal Energy Powder really does have wondrous effects.

For instance, right now Hei Shanke actually wouldn't fall unconscious from such a small dose of anesthetic in a short time if he didn't force it out with inner energy. But the first reaction of anyone poisoned is naturally to force the toxins out first.

However, when he used inner energy to force out the poison, the poison's effects also concentrated along with his inner energy, temporarily depleting twenty percent of Hei Shanke's inner energy with the originally scattered and very weak Decimating Internal Energy Powder in his body.

Despicable!!

Although it seemed inappropriate for someone from the underground world to call others 'despicable,' at this moment the underground boss who was both a Dark Building assassin and head only had these two words in his heart.

Then, before Hei Shanke's inner rage could subside, Zhang San took out a purple-misted, clearly poisoned dagger and spoke to Hei Shanke with utter concern, "As for why I wanted to deplete some of Senior's inner energy, of course it was because resisting the next poison requires a lot of inner energy. Senior must be extremely careful not to let this dagger touch you."

Zhang San's words were full of concern.

Calling him Senior over and over.

Every sentence was full of respect.

At this moment, Hei Shanke was so angry he almost spat out a mouthful of blood.