Chapter 35: A Successful Retreat and Substantial Gains

Chapter 35: Chapter 35: A Successful Retreat and Substantial Gains

After patting him down for a while, Su Chen looked a bit disappointed. Aside from over a dozen silver notes, he hadn’t found the man’s martial arts manual. Truth be told, he really coveted the Third Boss’s martial arts. After all, this was the first Power Training Martial Artist he had ever encountered; the value of the techniques he carried could easily be imagined.

Unwilling to give up, he searched the body again, this time stripping the man completely bare. Unfortunately, there was still nothing.

Giving up hope, Su Chen stood up. Under the awed gazes of the crowd, he walked over to the remaining bandits.

"Hand over your money, and I will let you go," Su Chen said flatly, wanting to make up for his failure to find a martial arts manual by taking from these men.

Hearing that their lives could be spared, the bandits reluctantly and painfully handed over their money. Su Chen collected several dozen taels in scattered change. After tucking the money into his robes, he ignored the crowd’s stares and picked up the Third Boss’s broken blade.

Just as he was about to leave, one of the bandits asked weakly, "Didn’t you say you would let us go?"

Hearing this, Su Chen glanced back at him and left them with a single sentence: "I did let you go. It’s them who won’t let you go now."

The bandits were left speechless.

Watching Su Chen leave, Yan Que immediately called out, "Thank you for your help, sir! I am Yan Que of the Broken Blade Sect. If you ever need anything, you can find me at the Broken Blade Sect..."

After saying this, Yan Que turned his gaze toward the bandits.

"Don’t, don’t kill us." The bandits wanted to weep but had no tears. They had just escaped the wolf’s den, only to fall into the tiger’s lair. Actually, they had been in the wolf’s den and tiger’s lair this entire time.

"Where are our goods and our people?" Yan Que asked in a deep voice.

"They are in the forest. We can take you there, as long as you let us go," one bandit offered.

Yan Que didn’t reply, instead ordering his people to do a headcount.

"Wait, where is Junior Brother Su?" Fang Rou suddenly exclaimed, feeling a spike of anxiety. But soon, she spotted Su Chen in the crowd and instantly breathed a sigh of relief. It was a good thing Su Chen was fine; otherwise, she wouldn’t know how to explain it to Master Hong.

The headcount was quickly completed. Aside from a few injured Fang family Guards, the rest of the group was largely unharmed. Excluding their leader, the Third Boss, these bandits were inferior to the Fang family’s men in both numbers and strength, naturally failing to inflict much damage on them.

Following the bandits’ lead, Yan Que and the others soon found the captured members of the Fang family, along with a batch of goods. Furthermore, Yan Que learned from the bandits that they originally intended to release the hostages upon receiving the ransom. However, the Third Boss insisted on extorting them for more, which led to the recent confrontation.

"Master Yan, what should we do with these people?" an accompanying Martial Artist asked, looking at the bandits after the Fang family’s caravan had been rescued.

Hearing this, the bandits immediately tensed up. They hastily dropped to their knees and begged for mercy, using all sorts of bizarre excuses. However, Yan Que remained entirely unmoved. With a single command, the curtains fell on the bandits’ lives.

He certainly didn’t think Lianyun Stronghold would let them go just because the Third Boss had died. Since they had forged a mortal enmity with Lianyun Stronghold, there was no need to keep these men alive. In the end, Yan Que took action personally, cutting down the bandits one by one.

Worried that the people of Lianyun Stronghold might receive the news, Yan Que and the group immediately departed after taking care of the bandits.

***

Shortly after Su Chen and the others left, deep in Lianyun Mountain, within a stronghold.

"Report! Second Boss, bad news!"

A large man, who was currently drilling the bandits in the clearing, saw the man running over in a panic and roared, "What are you yelling about? Can’t you see I’m holding a training session?" With that, he rushed over and delivered a resounding slap, knocking the man dizzy and sending him tumbling onto his rear.

After a long moment, the large man asked in a deep voice, "Speak! What exactly happened?"

The man snapped back to his senses, clutching his cheek as panic instantly overtook his face. "It’s terrible! The Third Boss has been killed!"

"What did you just say?" The large man grabbed him by the collar, his tiger-like eyes blazing with murderous intent.

"It... it’s true. The Third Boss’s corpse is right at the stronghold’s entrance," the man gasped.

Hearing this, the large man forgot all his anger and sprinted straight for the entrance. As soon as he arrived, he saw a gaunt man standing there. He walked up and asked, "Brother, what about Third Brother?"

The First Boss didn’t speak; he only stared at the corpse covered by a white cloth. Seeing this, the Second Boss felt his heart skip a beat. He walked over and lifted the white cloth. His eyes instantly went wide with sheer fury. "Third Brother!"

Then, with bloodshot eyes, he asked, "Brother, who did this? Was it the Fang family? Was it?"

At those words, the grief on the First Boss’s face wholly transformed into towering rage.

"The Fang family! Fang Youwei! You killed my Third Brother and humiliated him like this! The day my Lianyun Stronghold breaches the city gates will be the day the entire Fang family is exterminated!"

***

At dusk, as brilliant sunset clouds scattered their light across the land, Yan Que and the others appeared outside White Stone City.

After leaving Lianyun Mountain, the group hadn’t dared to delay for even a moment. They rode their horses hard and finally made it back to White Stone City before nightfall. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, their faces bearing the joy of surviving a catastrophe. After paying the entrance toll, they headed into the city.

"Master Yan, Miss Fang, we won’t be following you back," someone spoke up to take their leave.

Yan Que nodded. "Thank you all for your hard work this time!"

The Martial Artists cupped their fists in response one by one, parting ways with Yan Que and the others.

"Take care, Junior Brother Su!" Fang Rou bade Su Chen farewell. Yan Que, watching from the side, had a slight shift in his gaze but said nothing.

Soon, the rest of the group departed, leaving only the Fang family members behind. Yan Que looked at Fang Rou and smiled. "Let’s go. We should head back, too."

Fang Rou nodded.

The group returned to the Fang’s home. When Yan Que recounted their experiences on Lianyun Mountain to Fang Youwei, the man was nearly scared out of his wits. Fortunately, Yan Que and Fang Rou had returned safely despite the fright, which allowed him to finally relax.

"Yan Que, it’s all thanks to you this time. Otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable," Fang Youwei said gratefully.

Yan Que waved his hand upon hearing this. "We’re all family, Youwei. There’s no need to be so polite. Besides, it was mostly thanks to that one-armed Martial Artist this time. To think this man was actually capable of killing a Power Training Martial Artist... his strength is not to be underestimated. Logically speaking, he shouldn’t be a nameless nobody. Could he be from outside White Stone City?"

Fang Youwei was familiar with almost all the Power Training Martial Artists in the vicinity of White Stone City, but he had never heard of a one-armed Martial Artist.

"No," Yan Que said, shaking his head. "This man should be from White Stone City."

"What makes you say that?"

"I previously heard from the Governmental Constables that a one-armed man had brought in the head of the wanted criminal, Liu Tong..."

***

After parting ways with Fang Rou and the others, Su Chen didn’t immediately head home. Instead, he made a trip to the Money Shop and exchanged the silver taels he had acquired for gold before finally returning.

By the time he got back, the sky had completely darkened. He entered his room and laid out his spoils on the table. A broken long saber, ten taels of gold, and sixty taels of silver.

As he stared at them, Su Chen’s body suddenly trembled. A rush of blood colored his cheeks, and he clutched his chest, coughing lightly several times.

He wondered if pushing the Turtle Shell Skill to its absolute limit could heal the injuries caused by the residual power lingering in his body.