Chapter 149: Secret Arts (II)

Behind, Xing Rui stared wide-eyed as Lin Zheyu disappeared. It took him a moment before he muttered in disbelief, "S–so fast!"

He couldn't help but curse inwardly.

With that kind of speed, why did he bother tangling with us for so long? Was he just toying with us?

"Deacon, can you still catch up to him?" asked Xing Rui, turning toward the man.

"No. He's long gone. His speed is too great. Catching up would be difficult, and I can't maintain that state for long. Even if we did reach him, you wouldn't be able to deal with him," said the man, shaking his head.

The man's muscles quickly shrank, returning to their original form. However, his complexion had turned pale, and his aura weakened noticeably, dropping to the level of the first transformation of blood qi. That previous state couldn't last long; the longer he maintained it, the greater the backlash.

"Could we ask the high priest to take action against him?" asked Xing Rui unwillingly.

They had planned for so long, yet everything was ruined because of this man. His movement techniques were extraordinarily fast. With such speed and power in his techniques, if he were to strike from the shadows, no one below the fourth transformation of blood qi could withstand even a single blow.

"The high priest must not act right now. I've already risked much by infiltrating Songyi City to assist you. If too much commotion is caused here, the consequences will be beyond our control," said the man, shaking his head.

It wasn't that they didn't want to act; it was that they simply couldn't. The time wasn't right. Before the rebel army reached Songyi City and shattered the Great Wei Dynasty's protective fate over it, they dared not make any major moves. They could only make small covert maneuvers, laying groundwork for when the rebel army eventually arrived.

Hearing this, Xing Rui's expression grew grim.

"I didn't expect the Xu Family to hire someone of this level. Our plan will need some adjustments," said Xing Rui with a face that had turned ashen.

He glanced in the direction Lin Zheyu had fled, then turned to leave. The plan would have to change. Since the Xu Family had brought in such a formidable fighter, they would now have to guard against assassination instead.

***

Whoosh, whoosh.

In the dead of night, Lin Zheyu sprinted several kilometers in a straight line before finally stopping and slipping into the dense forest.

That man's aura felt familiar... I've sensed it somewhere before. That's right, it's similar to the aura that emanated from the demonic statue the refugees prayed to in Lion Valley!

After thinking it over, Lin Zheyu finally understood why it had felt so familiar. He hadn't had time to think during the battle, but now that he had stopped, the realization came to him.

If that man belongs to the Nine Nether Sect, then it all makes sense. They seem to possess a unique tracking secret art. Last time, after I snatched that Blood Pill in Lion Valley, one of those black-and-red-robed people marked me. Thankfully, I hadn't given him any chance to react back then. If he had used the same strengthening technique as that man tonight, I wouldn't have stood a chance,

thought Lin Zheyu.

Back when he faced that man from the Nine Nether Sect, he hadn't given the opponent a single moment to breathe. Fearing that the man might use poison, he had kept a constant watch on the black-and-red-robed cultivator's every move, striking immediately whenever the man reached into his robes.

Lin Zheyu suddenly remembered the medicinal pills he had taken from that man, two of which he had never managed to identify. They had simply been sitting there all this time, untouched. It was possible that one of them was the same type of pill the man had taken tonight.

First, I need to change my clothes and find a river to wash off any scent they could use to track me,

thought Lin Zheyu.

Instead of returning home, he headed toward a secluded forest on the outskirts. In a hidden corner of the forest, he dug up a small stash of clothes and medicinal powder. He had buried them there beforehand precisely for situations like this, his emergency preparations.

Lin Zheyu didn't know exactly how his enemies had tracked him, but changing clothes and removing any lingering scent couldn't be wrong. Finding a remote stream, he changed clothes, sprinkled deodorizing powder on himself, and concealed his presence within the forest without hurrying home.

Rustle, rustle.

The forest around him whispered softly with the sound of shifting leaves. Time passed. Dawn slowly broke, and a beam of golden sunlight stretched across the distant horizon. Morning had come.

Even with all the Nine Nether Sect's tricks, after a whole night, they shouldn't be able to find me anymore,

Lin Zheyu mused silently.

He leapt down from the tree, his figure flickering as he made his way back to his courtyard. Back home, he resumed his training and the study of the Toxicology Codex as though nothing had happened. Meanwhile, the esteemed families, the Xu, Xing, and Zhao clans, were in disarray.

"Brother, who do you think came to our aid last night? Could it have been the deputy commander?" Xu Jingwu looked at the corpses on the ground and asked with some uncertainty.

Beside him stood a man of similar height, broad-shouldered with a square-shaped face. The man was Xu Yunhu, the current head of the Xu Family and Xu Jingwu's cousin.

"No. The deputy commander was entangled with Xing Boxuan; he couldn't have intervened," said Xu Yunhu, shaking his head.

He was just as puzzled, unable to determine who had helped them the previous night. Regardless of who it was, the person had clearly stood on their side, so there was no need to worry too much.

"Perhaps it was a powerful cultivator who once owed the Xu Family a favor. Since he doesn't wish to reveal himself, there's no need for us to investigate further. When the Xing and Zhao Families arrive, we'll act as if that expert were someone we hired to help us. If they believe we've secured such a powerhouse, they'll definitely panic. We can use that chance to squeeze some benefits from them," said Xu Yunhu calmly.

In recent days, he had been losing hair from the stress of preparing to evacuate Songyi City. The martial artists he had tried to contact were either unwilling to help, impossible to locate, or demanded such outrageous prices that it would've been cheaper to simply make concessions to the Xing Family. He hadn't expected an unknown expert to appear out of nowhere last night and resolve his most urgent crisis.

That afternoon, Lin Zheyu went to find Elder Chen Peijun and informed him of Zhao Guanbin's death the previous night. He didn't mention that he was the one who killed him, and only that Zhao Guanbin had been slain by an unknown expert during the chaos.

Upon hearing the news, Elder Chen was momentarily stunned, and then quietly continued fishing as if nothing had happened. Yet unlike usual, he didn't stay until dusk; instead, he packed up early and went home.

Two days passed in the blink of an eye. No one from the Nine Nether Sect came looking for Lin Zheyu, and the esteemed families of Songyi City had not gone to war. From what Lin Zheyu heard, the families seemed to have reached some sort of agreement. He didn't know the details, but when he last saw Xu Jingwu, the man had been grinning from ear to ear.

Lin Zheyu's life gradually returned to its usual calm. Tomorrow morning, he would depart. His belongings were already packed, and he had entrusted the courtyard left behind by Master Liang Song to Senior Brother Han Mo.

All of his silver had been exchanged for gold. There were two hundred and seventy taels of it, plus eighteen taels of silver and thirty-six sets of medicinal herbs. He didn't need to carry much. A few changes of clothes, money, herbs, and some poisons and antidotes would be enough.

The black-silver gloves he had taken from the black-and-red-robed Nine Nether Sect cultivator had since been reforged by a craftsman from the Feihong Gang, and they were now his weapon of choice. With those gloves on, he no longer needed to fear the enemy's blades in combat. After mastering the Mountain Shattering Palm, the Sixfold Saber Technique had become redundant. With the black-silver gloves, Lin Zheyu had already abandoned his old blade.

After sharing drinks with his brothers of the Feihong Gang, the scent of alcohol lingered on Lin Zheyu's body, but his gaze remained sharp and clear. Following his attainment of the fourth transformation of blood qi, his physique had grown incomparably strong. Ordinary wine now felt no different from drinking water, and getting drunk was impossible.

He returned to his room, took four sets of herbs for the Blood-Nourishing Bone-Fortifying Decoction, grabbed a wooden basin, and then leapt into the darkness. It had been four days since his last limit-breaking session. Tonight, it was time to push his limits again.

Finding a desolate wilderness where no one was around, Lin Zheyu activated his blood qi burst technique at full force, his body shooting forth like a cannonball. His legs could withstand reckless use of the blood qi burst technique, but his palms could not, as each could only unleash sixteen Mountain Shattering Palms consecutively before reaching their limit.

Boom!

He sprinted wildly through the mountains, each step bursting with terrifying power and thudding heavily against the earth. At such an unrestrained pace, his blood qi would be fully depleted in just about four minutes. After five minutes, he stopped in a secluded part of the forest, his chest rising and falling with heavy breaths. Once his blood qi was spent, he began practicing his fist techniques amid the trees.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The dull, rhythmic sounds echoed through the forest. Combining the Barbaric Ox Fist with the Golden Goose Technique, he moved through the forest as deep, thunderous impacts reverberated from his strikes. His movements were swift and fluid as he darted through the woods, his fists slamming into tree trunks; each blow felling a tree with a crack.

As time passed, the momentum around him grew increasingly powerful. Lately, Lin Zheyu had been focusing on improving his other techniques and had grown somewhat lax in cultivating his momentum. He could feel it had declined.

This momentum was something born from his techniques, but Lin Zheyu still lacked the corresponding martial conviction to sustain it. Without establishing a domineering, 'I alone am invincible' martial conviction, any trace of neglect would cause the hard-earned momentum to wane.