Proving one's path through killing—this kind of merit is poisonous!

Chapter 6 Double Kill
"who?"

Just as Gu Jinhe was about to draw her knife and enter the house, a sharp shout suddenly rang out behind her.

Without hesitation, Gu Jinhe turned around and threw the knife in her hand, which struck him squarely in the heart.

Before Li Qiu could even react, Gu Jinhe took his life. He lay on the ground, his eyes wide open, dying with resentment.

Gu Jinhe walked up to Li Qiu, about to squat down and take out the knife, when she suddenly heard the system's voice...

Congratulations, host, on unlocking the mission: thwart the evil cultivator's conspiracy.

This task consists of several smaller tasks, and you can get generous rewards for completing them!
Mission 1: Stop two evil cultivators from taking away the village's young girls.
Task progress: 1/2
Reward: Your cultivation level will be raised to the second level of Qi Refining.

As Gu Jinhe looked at the new task, some uncertainties were answered at that moment.

No wonder the "immortal" demanded that the villagers offer up young girls; he was an evil cultivator!
In addition, she discovered that although the system's tasks seemed random, each task it issued was actually related to the people she encountered.

For example, Li Qiu, whom she had just killed, was identified by the system as a "subordinate of an evil cultivator".

As for the other one...

It was Chen Qiao!

Just as Gu Jinhe was debating whether to rush in or wait for them to come out, her father's voice rang out behind her.

"Youngest sister?"

Gu Jinhe sighed helplessly; it seemed the noise had indeed alerted them.

Now that's great, she doesn't have to worry about it anymore!
But she didn't turn around immediately. Instead, she squatted down and removed the knife from Li Qiu's body. Instantly, blood gushed out from the wound.

She used Li Qiu's clothes to wipe the blood-stained knife a couple of times before getting up and looking at the two of them.

With red eyes, Gu's father stared intently at Li Qiu's corpse, whose chest bore the same wound as Gu's mother's.

His eyes were bloodshot as he demanded, "Gu Yaomei, did you kill your mother and your brother?"

Seeing Gu Jinhe nod, he became enraged and lost his temper. He grabbed a wood-chopping knife from the side and was about to chop at Gu Jinhe.

"How dare you! You beast..."

He truly regretted not killing that brat before leaving home!
Gu Jinhe didn't take her father's attack seriously. She caught his hand holding the woodcutter's knife with her left hand and stabbed him hard in the heart with her own knife in her right hand.

"Bang!"

As the sound of the machete hitting the ground rang out, Gu's father knelt down, staring at the knife in his chest, his eyes filled with disbelief.

It's no wonder he and Gu's mother could become husband and wife, even their deaths were the same.

"Gu...Gu Yaomei...you murdered...your father, murdered your mother, killed...your brother! May you be struck by lightning and die a horrible death!"

"Don't worry, I won't die even if I wait another five hundred years!"

Now that she has embarked on the path to immortality, achieving eternal life is one of her goals.

She knelt down, pulled the knife out of Gu's father's chest, watched him breathe his last, then stood up and looked at Chen Qiao, who was hiding not far away.

Chen Qiao hid behind a wooden stake in the yard.

Upon meeting Gu Jinhe's gaze, he felt a chill in his heart and quickly stepped out from behind the wooden stake, kneeling down on the ground.

"Gu..."

He was about to call them by their names, but after seeing the tragic deaths of Li Qiu and Gu's father, he swallowed hard.

Then, suppressing his fear, he kowtowed several more times, begging for mercy: "Miss Gu, if you kill them, you can't kill me!"

"Give me a reason." Gu Jinhe raised an eyebrow and looked down at Chen Qiao. Seeing a glimmer of hope, Chen Qiao quickly pledged his loyalty: "If Lady Gu tells me to go east, I will never go west. If you tell me to go into the river, I will never fish. Just spare my worthless life."

As the sun took away the last ray of light and darkness finally fell, Gu Jinhe's heart became increasingly restless.

The darker it gets, the more tired the villagers patrolling the road out of the village will become, and the more relaxed their defenses will be, thus increasing her chances of leaving the village.

She thought for a moment, then suddenly asked, "How much do you know about that evil cultivator?"

Since the system's main task is to "thwart the evil cultivator's conspiracy," she will inevitably have to come into direct contact with him.

Chen Qiao and Li Qiu, chosen by the village chief as laborers, were responsible for delivering the village's young girls to the evil cultivators every day. They could be considered the people most familiar with evil cultivators.

I just hope this person can divulge some useful information...

"Evil cultivator?"

Seeing Chen Qiao's stunned expression, Gu Jinhe explained, "It's the immortal you were talking about."

Chen Qiao suddenly realized what was going on, then hesitated before asking, "Miss Gu, if I tell the truth, will you spare my life?"

Knowing he had reservations, Gu Jinhe readily promised, "As long as what you say is valuable, I won't kill you this time we meet."

But who knows, we might not meet again!

The system only says "stop the evil cultivator's men from taking away the village girls," but does "the village girls" refer to just her, or to all the girls?

If she really lets Chen Qiao go, and he turns around and captures other women to offer to evil cultivators, will the system still consider her mission successful?
She didn't know, but what she wanted was a must, a must-have outcome.

Moreover, if he were to expose her to the evil cultivators, she would be in danger.

Gu Jinhe lowered her eyes, concealing the coldness in them.

This person cannot be kept!

Chen Qiao was unaware that Gu Jinhe had already decided to kill him. After breathing a sigh of relief, he told her what he knew.

"That immortal..."

He had barely opened his mouth when he realized something was amiss. He glanced at Gu Jinhe's expression, and seeing that she wasn't angry, he changed his words, saying, "That evil cultivator came to Niujiao Village a month ago, claiming to be a disciple of the Qingyun Sect. The village chief initially thought he was just a charlatan and wanted to dismiss him, but the evil cultivator's ability to retrieve objects from thin air convinced him..."

This idea also existed in the original owner's memories, but strangely, she couldn't find any images related to this memory.

It seems like everyone in the village is telling the story!

Realizing this, Gu Jinhe suddenly asked, "Has anyone else in the village seen what you just said?"

Chen Qiao thought for a while before shaking his head: "It seems there really isn't. Everyone heard it from Wang Mazi, and it spread like wildfire, so naturally everyone knows."

"Okay, get up and continue."

"Yes." Chen Qiao stood up and continued, "...If any family wants to offer their daughter to the evil cultivator, they must report to the village chief in advance, and then Li Qiu and I will go to their house and take her to a desolate mountain in a wooden sedan chair."

"Which barren mountain?" Gu Jinhe interrupted him again and asked.

As Chen Qiao thought for a moment, he replied, "The mountain that Wang Mazi's family has been abandoned for more than ten years, you have to go south of the village to Wang Mazi's house, then go to the mountain behind his house, and finally cross a mountain pass."

After he finished speaking, he paused and added, "But the village chief instructed that we could only leave them halfway up the mountain and wait until dawn to retrieve the sedan chair."

"So, you haven't met him either?" Gu Jinhe immediately grasped the key point in the question.

Upon hearing this, Chen Qiao's heart skipped a beat. He had barely stood up when he suddenly knelt down again...

(End of this chapter)