At the winding mountain road.
Tires screeched.
A yellow taxi slammed on its brakes and stopped at the fork below the Liu Family's rear mountain.
Ling Xiaodong stepped out, his face grim.
He pulled a thick stack of banknotes from his coat and tossed it through the window onto the front passenger seat.
"Take it. Wait here for an hour."
Without looking back, Ling Xiaodong plunged into the narrow forest path leading halfway up the mountain.
His formidable mid-stage Elixir Force surged through him without restraint.
True Qi poured into the meridians of his legs.
Ling Xiaodong tapped a toe against the stone path and soared into the air like a bird.
Each stride carried him several yards.
The sharp mountain wind whipped across his face, but his eyes were already bloodshot with anxiety.
A sudden pileup on the city expressway had trapped the taxi for more than twenty minutes!
If that lunatic Bai Ye really had abducted Gu Qingshang and brought her to this godforsaken mountain,
Ling Xiaodong could hardly bear to imagine what might have happened during those twenty minutes...
That dim basement and its torture devices kept flashing through his mind.
Ling Xiaodong gritted his teeth and drove his True Qi to its absolute limit.
"Bai Ye... you fool with a death wish!"
"You'd better pray Qing Shang is safe and that you haven't laid a finger on her."
"Otherwise, I swear I'll wipe out your entire family. Not one of you will be left alive!"
Meanwhile, at the Liu Family Ancestral Grave.
At Chu Xuan's ringing command to "Open the coffin,"
four burly Liu Family bodyguards stepped forward, gripped the edge of the heavy red-lacquered lid, and pushed together.
The dull scrape of wood sounded painfully loud in the silent graveyard.
The Golden Phoebe coffin,