Chapter 79: Discussion

Chapter 79: Chapter 79: Discussion

"Alright, Little Hai, we should get going. Let’s not keep your cousin Ye Xing any longer." His second aunt, Ye Xiuying, patted her son’s head with an amused smile and turned to Ye Xing. "Axing, we’re heading to the martial arts hall now."

"Okay." Ye Xing smiled and nodded.

While his second aunt, Ye Xiuying, took his cousin Cheng Xiaohai to the martial arts hall in Luoxian County, Ye Xing headed for Zhu Dazhuang’s house.

Zhu Dazhuang’s house wasn’t far from Ye Xing’s ancestral home. They were in the same village, and his place was just two alleys away.

Several large water tanks sat in Zhu Dazhuang’s yard, each one filled with grass carp. The fish were brimming with vitality, swimming back and forth and sending water splashing everywhere.

At that moment, Zhu Dazhuang was feeding the grass carp.

"Axing, you’re here."

Seeing Ye Xing walk in through the gate, Zhu Dazhuang quickly put down the feed and ran over.

"Okay," Ye Xing said. "Take me to see the surveillance footage!"

"Alright." Zhu Dazhuang immediately led Ye Xing to the monitoring room on the second floor. He pulled up the surveillance footage, and the video began to play.

The lighting in the surveillance footage was poor; it was clearly nighttime. A man dressed in all black appeared on screen, hopping the wall into the yard and moving stealthily. His face was covered by a black cloth, revealing only a pair of shifty eyes that scanned the area. He then began rummaging around the yard. After a long search, he finally found a small, half-full bowl of leftover grass carp feed by one of the water tanks. He quickly scooped the feed into a bag and climbed back over the wall, completely ignoring the grass carp in the tanks.

From the moment the man entered the yard to when he climbed back over the wall, the entire incident took about ten minutes.

"That scumbag, stealing from my own home. It’s a good thing I locked up the rest of the feed, but that little half-bowl of grass carp feed was still worth thousands. This was my mistake. I was careless. How about this, Brother Xing? Just deduct the cost from my salary. This is on me," Zhu Dazhuang said, his head hung low.

"Haha, why would I deduct from your salary? You think I’m worried about a few thousand bucks? Besides, we’re good brothers. No need to be like that." Ye Xing laughed and patted Zhu Dazhuang’s shoulder. "You’ve been working yourself to the bone lately. This isn’t entirely your fault. Someone’s targeting us!"

"Targeting us?" Zhu Dazhuang paused, startled. "Brother Xing, are you saying someone has their eye on our grass carp?"

"Yes, but to be more precise, they’re after my recipe for the grass carp feed!" Ye Xing’s gaze sharpened as he pointed to the monitor. "Look at this guy. As soon as he entered the yard, his objective was clear: find the feed. He completely ignored the grass carp in the surrounding tanks. Keep in mind, a single one of our fish is worth anywhere from several hundred to over a thousand. A common thief would have definitely snagged a few. But this person didn’t even give them a second glance. He found the grass carp feed and left immediately. If I’m not mistaken, he took the feed back to study it. He wants to analyze the ingredients and reverse-engineer the recipe."

"Then what do we do? What if they actually manage to figure out the recipe?" Zhu Dazhuang started to panic. "If that happens, Immortal Flavor Old Fish will be everywhere! How will we make money then? That damn bastard, openly trying to steal our livelihood! What are we going to do?"

"Haha, relax. They won’t find anything significant. The most they’ll detect are proteins, starches, and some Chinese medicinal herbs. As for recreating the recipe from that? It’s pure fantasy." A slight smile touched Ye Xing’s lips.

’The recipe’s magic comes from the small amount of Demon Beast Meat mixed into the feed. On a compositional level, Demon Beast Meat is basically identical to ordinary animal meat—just protein and the like. What sets it apart is that Demon Beast Meat contains a trace of the Essence of Heaven and Earth’s Primordial Qi. And Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi is colorless, odorless, formless, and intangible. It can’t be seen or touched; it exists as a special type of Energy. With humanity’s current level of technology, detecting it is utterly impossible. Therefore, even if they take the feed to a lab for analysis, the composition report will just list starch, medicinal herbs, and animal meat.’

"It’s great they can’t figure it out. But we should still be more careful." Zhu Dazhuang thumped his chest. "Brother Xing, don’t you worry. I swear I won’t let anyone steal a single speck of feed again. The second I’m done feeding the fish, I’ll take all the leftovers back to my room. I’ll nail the door and windows shut, slap on a deadbolt. Never mind a person, not even a fly will get in!"

"Yes, reinforcing the door is a good idea. But our main priority right now is to catch the thief. I don’t like being watched all the time!" A cold glint flashed in Ye Xing’s eyes.

Involuntarily, a trace of formless killing intent radiated from him, chilling to the bone.

Zhu Dazhuang, standing beside him, scrambled back in fright. His eyes were wide with terror, and a chill shot straight down his spine.

On the Martial Arts Continent, Ye Xing had fought in one battle after another, claiming dozens of lives with his sword. It was only natural that he had developed a sliver of killing intent. While it wasn’t very strong, to an ordinary person like Zhu Dazhuang, it was absolutely terrifying.

"Dazhuang, are you okay?" Ye Xing snapped out of it, quickly withdrawing his killing intent and reining in his aura.

"I’m fine, I’m fine. But Brother Xing... you were terrifying just now," Zhu Dazhuang said, still shaken.

"Sorry, I got too lost in thought," Ye Xing said apologetically. "It’s just... the enemy is hidden while we’re exposed. I was trying to figure out how to catch the thief."

"Oh!" Zhu Dazhuang scratched his head in frustration. "But the thief’s face was covered. We have no idea what he looks like. It’ll be really hard to catch him, won’t it? Should we call the police?"

"No. We shouldn’t call the police for something like this. Whether they could even catch him is one thing, but getting the police involved would only make things more complicated. Plus, we’re exposed while they’re in the shadows. We don’t know if this thief was acting on someone’s orders, and we have no idea who we’re up against. Reporting it rashly would only put us at a disadvantage." Ye Xing’s eyes glinted as he spoke in a low voice. "Actually, catching him won’t be that difficult. We just need to wait. He’ll walk right into our trap."

"Walk right into our trap?" Zhu Dazhuang asked. "Brother Xing, you mean he’ll come back?"

"Yes. He only got away with less than half a bowl of feed. When his research yields nothing useful, he’ll get frustrated. He’ll definitely look for another opportunity to steal more for his analysis," Ye Xing said gravely. "All we have to do is wait for him to walk into the net."

"Alright! If that scumbag dares to show his face again, I’ll... I’ll beat the living crap out of him this time!" Zhu Dazhuang said, seething. After all, the feed had been stolen on his watch, and he was bottling up a lot of anger about it.

"No, you probably can’t handle him alone. From the looks of it, the guy is quick and nimble; he’s definitely a trained fighter. You might not be able to subdue him." Ye Xing said, "How about this: I’ll give you an assistant. I’ll have Erhei come help you catch him."

"Deal. With an extra person, it’ll be foolproof. Two against one, there’s no way we can’t take that scumbag down," Zhu Dazhuang huffed. "Brother Xing, you should get Erhei over here quickly. I’m worried that bastard might come back as soon as tonight!"

"Okay." Ye Xing nodded. "I already brought Erhei with me. Look, the little fella is right here at my feet. You two can get acquainted."