Chapter 18: The Trap Tightens  

Despite her cries, none of the four people before her showed any sign of pity—especially Qin Xiao, who immediately questioned, "Why would he keep you alive, then? Shouldn't this Zhang Lie fellow have killed you too? Why would he leave you alive? Tell me, why?"

Hearing Qin Xiao's accusation, and seeing the skeptical glances from the three corporation heads, Wang Xiaohua clearly sensed matters taking a turn for the worse.

"Qin Xiao, it's easy! He kept me alive so all of you would suspect me, to have me take the blame for his murder!"

"You, a scapegoat? No matter who this hunter is, everyone in the Blacksteel settlement would know my name. Wouldn't he know that, the moment Xiaotian died, he would be a dead man walking? What a foolish notion—is he a fool, or is he treating us like fools? And if this were the case, where's this Zhang Lie now?"

Qin Xiao was brash and arrogant, and his thoughts reflected that belief. He believed that anyone who had roused his ire within the Blacksteel settlement had no recourse but to wait for him to kill them. Furthermore, he believed that, if Zhang Lie truly were capable of killing Qin Xiaotian, then he wouldn't try to play such an obvious trick on him.

Wang Xiaohua was so agitated that she began to cry again. "Qin Xiao, Zhang Lie left on his own the moment he brought me back to the settlement. I'm sure he's still hiding somewhere!

Please, you have to believe me! I swear that I'm telling nothing but the truth. If you don't believe me, you can send your subordinates out to the venombane glade to have a look!"

"Oh, I will. At the very least, Xiaotian needs a proper burial!" Recalling how close she was to Qin Xiaotian, Qin Xiao suddenly felt less skeptical about her claims. After all, unless Wang Xiaohua was a fool, she would have no reason to collude with Zhang Lie. He would have to see the scene of the crime for himself.

He believed that, as long as he was there, he would easily figure out the truth.

"Qin Xiao, the venombane glade isn't very large, and it's a pretty easy place to find. Could I be allowed to remain here? After reaching the glade, go straight for about one kilometer. There, you'll be able to see the large hole out of which Xiaotian tunneled, and I buried his body inside!

"You'll need to start by finding a soulbloom flower. With its pollen, you can enter the glade. Zhang Lie mentioned that it isn't endemic to the venombane glade, so you shouldn't have a hard time finding one."

Wang Xiaohua could discern that Qin Xiao didn't completely believe her, so she didn't dare to leave the settlement with him. After all, he was notorious for his bad temper. If there were to be some unforeseen circumstance, she could well lose her life at his hands.

Wang Xiaohua looked timidly and pleadingly at Qin Xiao.

"Don't worry, Wang Xiaohua, I won't do anything to you until the truth is clear. Are you sure you don't want to go with me? This is your one chance at proving your innocence!" Qin Xiao narrowed his eyes, revealing a sudden killing intent.

Wang Xiaohua began to sob, "Please, Qin Xiao, don't force me to go! It's a very easy place to find, and once you find it, you'll surely understand that I'm innocent."

Qin Xiao leaned closer to Wang Xiaohua, until his eyes were directly facing hers. "You'd better not let me find out that you were part of this, or your entire clan will die with you."

He glanced toward her two guardians, glared at her, and then got up to leave. The three corporation heads did the same. In truth, they were now all very relieved that they had come to hear Wang Xiaohua's story. Ignoring the details of Qin Xiaotian's death, they had learned about this mysterious venombane glade, apparently filled with a bounty of riches. The location hadn't yet been developed, which meant an unlimited set of possibilities for turning it into a goldmine!

The four men each rushed toward the inn's exit.

Right before stepping outside, however, Qin Xiao commanded, "Listen up, you three. This venombane glade's something that my Xiaotian gave his life for, so don't you think about trying to steal it away!"

The three corporation heads, Zhou Qian, Li Jin, and Zhao Jia, couldn't help letting out a faint mocking smile at his words.

Zhou Qian even murmured, "Qin Xiao, do you really think that you have the capability to do that? Even if all four of us were to work together, we wouldn't be able to monopolize the location. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

He left before Qin Xiao could reply, and the other two corporation leaders shook their heads and followed suit, leaving Qin Xiao standing red-faced in the hotel lobby.

It took him a moment's thought to understand what they were saying: given the unusual circumstances, their every movement would be telegraphed and paid attention to. It would be impossible for them to secretly develop the location; the most they could do would be to develop it jointly.

He rushed out of the lobby, trailing behind the three corporation heads.

By the time Qin Xiao and his team arrived at the Moonlit Pond, those teams sponsored by the three corporations were already present. Not only that, Yun Bing's team and Chu Feng's team were also at the scene.

Everyone gathered underneath the waterfall at the Moonlit Pond. Qin Xiao glared at Zhou Qian, Li Jin, and Zhao Jia. However, the three of them each ignored his presence.

In truth, they had long since gotten used to Qin Xiao's brash behavior, and his threats meant nothing to them. The three corporations would, in order to avoid trouble, refrain from antagonizing him as much as possible, but if there were sufficient profit to be gained, they really didn't have much to fear from the Qin clan.

"Qin Xiao, aren't you greedy? You want to have everything for yourself! It's not possible for you to develop the location alone, so let's have all six of us enter together!" Chu Feng was the first to speak up. He spoke in a relaxed fashion, but his eyes showed no intention of giving in if Qin Xiao were to decline.

Yun Bing, standing not far away, didn't speak up, but her expression made it apparent that she felt the same way.

Damn the three corporations!?Qin Xiao cursed inwardly. To Chu Feng, he said, "You all make it sound so trivial, but Xiaotian died for this place! No matter what, my team has to be the first to enter, or none of us will!"

The other five teams all traded glances among themselves.

Then, Yun Bing stepped forward. "Since you clearly want to be cannon fodder, we'll let you head in first."

She was likely the only hunter in the entire settlement who dared to call Qin Xiao cannon fodder. Against Yun Bing, it was meaningless to talk back.

"Ready the soulbloom pollen! We're heading in!"

With Qin Xiao's loud roar, his subordinates immediately doused themselves with soulbloom pollen and rushed through the waterfall.

Just as the elites of the Blacksteel settlement were exploring the venombane glade, however,

another shock rumbled through the Blacksteel settlement. A horde of hunters were heading straight for the venombane glade, prompted by an anonymous thread in the Blacksteel settlement's forum.

The author of the thread had detailed precisely where this venombane glade was, as well as what he had noticed playing out within the glade.

Apparently, while he was hunting near the Moonlit Pond, he noticed the chase between Zhang Lie and Qin Xiaotian's team, and he had trailed them stealthily.

According to him, he followed them into an idyllic glade, where he saw Qin Xiaotian fighting against a horde of scorpions. He had hidden up a tree and, later, fell prey to the scorpions' paralytic poison.

It was this paralysis that had caused him to witness the truth behind Qin Xiaotian's death—how Zhang Lie and Wang Xiaohua had plotted together to destroy Qin Xiaotian and the rest of his team.

By luring them within the glade, Zhang Lie induced the scorpions to attack Qin Xiaotian's team, sapping them of strength and energy. Then, with Wang Xiaohua's help, he tricked Qin Xiaotian's team into giving up their soulshards.

Finally, the two of them split their ill-gotten spoils and planned out how to dodge responsibility for the deaths of Qin Xiaotian and his team.

The thread vilified both Zhang Lie and Wang Xiaohua, and immediately caused the penniless gamblers, who had staked everything on Qin Xiaotian, and who hadn't believed that Zhang Lie had been able to kill them all with his own strength, to go berserk.

No wonder Qin Xiaotian had lost despite his overwhelming numerical and genetic advantage! magic

The Blacksteel Inn, in which Wang Xiaohua was residing, was quickly swarmed with all sorts of hunters, but even this wasn't the end of the story.

The other "culprit", Zhang Lie, had himself made a thread on the forum!

According to Zhang Lie, Wang Xiaohua had been an untrustworthy ally. Not only had she not given him his fair share of soulshards, she had even shrugged off all the blame for the entire affair!

He promised that he had no intention of killing Qin Xiaotian; he had only wanted to live, and Wang Xiaohua was the one who had plotted the murder.

The anonymous thread agreed with Zhang Lie's self-indictment, and Wang Xiaohua's traitorous behavior had been all but confirmed in a few short minutes.

Subsequently, someone noticed that Qin Xiaotian's golden-pangolin soulshard had been listed on the trading post by an anonymous seller.

Furthermore, even his subordinates' soulshards had appeared as well. All these soulshards were listed anonymously and slated to be auctioned off.

The entire settlement was in an uproar.

At this point, Wang Xiaohua realized that Zhang Lie was trying to shift the blame onto her, and she immediately made her own thread to clear her name.

But given her naivete, how could she beat Zhang Lie in a verbal battle? Her name became smeared in a matter of minutes, and descriptions of what she did grew darker and bleaker.

In the end, Wang Xiaohua could only focus on one key point: the location of Qin Xiaotian and his team's corpses in the venombane glade. Afterwards, she stayed cooped up in her room in the Blacksteel Inn, not daring to leave, or even to post on the forum.

But even so, Wang Xiaohua's name had become irrevocably tarnished.

After all, Zhang Lie was allegedly just trying to live. On the other hand, Wang Xiaohua had been the one clamoring for the death of Qin Xiaotian and his team.

Someone like her, even in the ruthless dimensional world, would be scorned and despised.

Worst of all, what Wang Xiaohua didn't know was that the key evidence she was counting on—the location of Qin Xiaotian's corpse—would be what eventually doomed her and her clan.