A Way

Since they were going to run away anyway, Chen Luo planned to use this last chance to find two useful brains.

The Imperial Clan's brains might possess powers he knew nothing about.

"Burial Site? There is indeed an exit there, but I went to check during the day. Government Soldiers are guarding it." Chen Laosan

"You just take me there. I'll figure out the rest."

What Chen Luo wanted now was accumulation. Among the dead Imperial Clan members, there might be genuine experts. This world's Upper Limit was very high; it would be difficult to reach the peak by himself alone. Crippled Ma thought he was a genius, but only Chen Luo himself knew that he was no genius at all.

He had known his Upper Limit on the first day he practiced martial arts.

He had mastered Black Tiger Fist so quickly entirely because more than a hundred "friends" inside his head had helped him.

Among those friends were the "geniuses" Crippled Ma had spoken of.

Even the brains of unknown Jianghu Wanderers were so useful. The brains of the Imperial Clan would definitely be even better. At the very least, the guards protecting Imperial Clan members could not have been weak! He was guaranteed to find a genuine genius at minimum. It was a deal with nothing but profit and no loss—he had to do it.

"Alright."

Chen Laosan did not ask further.

Staying behind to await death was definitely not an option. Those Important Figures above would not listen to their explanations. If someone unreasonable truly came, then this Uncle and Nephew pair would die for nothing. Chen Laosan was not used to gambling his life on someone else's mercy, and Chen Luo did not like it either.

Thus, the Uncle and Nephew pair quickly decided to run away.

Picking up the backpack that had long been prepared beside him, Chen Laosan pushed open the door and looked to either side. After confirming that no one else was around, he quickly ran toward the outer city. Chen Luo followed close behind, never falling even half a step back.

Outside was pitch-black.

It was already 3 to 5 AM. Dawn would come soon.

Before long, the Uncle and Nephew pair arrived at the corner of the city wall.

Chen Laosan also knew of a gap in the wall for leaving the city, and he brought Chen Luo there. When they arrived, several beggars were still sleeping nearby. Seeing them approach, the beggars did not ask questions. They merely turned over and continued sleeping.

Those active at night were either grave robbers or cat burglars. Beggars also made their living within the city, so they knew the rules of the night.

"Go."

Chen Laosan led the way, quickly passing through the gap and climbing out.

Once outside the city, Chen Laosan did not pause for even half a step. Relying on his memory, he ran toward Barren Mountain Ridge, where they had buried the corpses before.

The Uncle and Nephew pair both moved swiftly and encountered no mishaps along the way. Before long, they arrived at Barren Mountain Ridge.

"It's up ahead."

Chen Laosan briefly checked his bearings and identified the spot.

"Third Uncle, where is the Imperial Clan corpse you mentioned?"

Chen Luo looked around but could not find the burial opening. Compared with Chen Laosan and the other two old hands, Chen Luo still had a considerable gap to make up in the Corpse Burier trade.

"Over here."

Chen Laosan led his nephew over quickly. Brushing aside the pine needles above, he soon found the place where they had hidden the token.

Corpse Buriers all had their own secret methods, so they were not worried about being discovered.

Chen Laosan took an iron shovel from his bag and dug a few times. Sure enough, he unearthed a hard token. Chen Luo picked it up and examined it carefully for A Little while, discovering that there were no mechanisms on it. It was simply an ordinary Identity Token.

Chen Laosan continued digging below, and soon unearthed that unusual Imperial Clan corpse.

Several days had passed, and the corpse had already begun to rot. The moment it was dug up, it released a pungent stench. Even the Uncle and Nephew pair, born into the Corpse Burier trade, found it hard to endure.

"Be careful. This corpse was probably poisoned Before Death."

Seeing Chen Luo jump into the pit and reach for the corpse, Chen Laosan immediately warned him from the side.

"I know."

As he spoke, Chen Luo took out the Deerskin Gloves he had prepared long ago from his sleeve and put them on.

With a light touch of his hand, the familiar interface immediately appeared the instant his palm came into contact with the corpse.

'Dead Person's Brainwaves detected. Damage Degree: 99%. Read?'

It's this severe?

Chen Luo frowned.

This Imperial Clan corpse had decayed even more severely than he had expected. Almost nothing good was left. But since he had come all this way, he naturally could not let it go. Chen Luo selected two and released two good-for-nothings, then grabbed the Imperial Clan corpse and began to "borrow" his brain.

A thread of energy flowed through his palm and into his body, quickly entering Chen Luo's Sea of Consciousness.

Along With the new Brainwaves merging in, all the "brains" stored in Chen Luo's consciousness retreated. This newly entered brain immediately seized the central position, becoming the most valuable among all the Brainwaves Chen Luo possessed.

Chen Luo was greatly surprised. He had not expected this brain with a Damage Degree of 99% to still possess such extraordinary qualities. It was clear that this man had not been ordinary Before Death. He just did not know how Eunuch Wei and the others had killed him.

"Xiao Luo, have you thought of a way yet?"

Third Uncle's voice sounded from behind him, interrupting Chen Luo's Thoughts.

He also knew that now was not the time to study the new Brainwaves. Suppressing his curiosity, he began considering a way out.

"Which direction is the Checkpoint?"

Chen Luo decided to go take a look first. If there were no experts, or if their numbers were small, he thought he could try forcing his way through.

Eunuch Wei was dead anyway. Killing a few more guards would make no difference. As the saying went, when debts piled high, there was no point worrying; when lice swarmed over you, you stopped feeling the itch.

"Follow me."

Chen Laosan put the items back into the backpack and led Chen Luo to the Checkpoint.

They hid far away, in a recessed hollow.

From there, they could see the guards patrolling at the Checkpoint in the distance. By the torchlight, they could see roughly twenty people gathered there. Every one of them held a weapon, and none looked easy to deal with.

This is troublesome.

Chen Luo assessed the terrain and the disparity in their numbers, decisively abandoning the idea of forcing his way through. He might be able to try against three or five people, but with more than twenty, there was no way he could kill them all at once. If archers were lying in wait in the dark, he might even meet his end here.

"Third Uncle, wait here for now. I'll go look around nearby."

Leaving those words behind, Chen Luo changed direction. He planned to check the cliffside over there.

Barren Mountain Ridge was like a natural wall. Apart from the Checkpoint blocked off by guards, every other place was sheer cliffs and Natural Chasms, leaving almost no possibility of escape. Chen Luo checked several spots and found every path cut off. Looking down, he saw bottomless abysses stretching ten thousand fathoms below.

Poisonous Mist coiled through them—the kind where the bottom could not be seen at all.

In the low-lying terrain without a Checkpoint, escaping directly from here was almost impossible.

After making a circuit, Chen Luo returned to where he had started. Seeing him come back, Chen Laosan immediately stood up.

"There's one more way we can try."

After sitting down, Chen Luo spoke before Chen Laosan could open his mouth.

By then, the sky outside had already begun to brighten.

Dragging things out any longer would be dangerous.

Someone like Eunuch Wei had been missing for so long that some people in the shadows might already be making their moves. As the targets Eunuch Wei had intended to silence last night, the Uncle and Nephew pair were undoubtedly the prime suspects.

"What way?"

"Find someone."

"What sort of person?"

"People who make their living in the mountains."

On his way back, Chen Luo had indeed thought of a way to Escape to Heaven.

Though it was somewhat risky, he felt that with his skills, he could give it a try. Since forcing their way through would not work, they had no choice but to take a risk. Qingya County was probably already in chaos by now. With no way back and no way past the Checkpoint, the Uncle and Nephew pair could only seek help from others.

Just as they knew Qingya County like the back of their hands, the people most familiar with this area of Barren Mountain Ridge had to be the nearby Mountain Bandits.

They might not be able to find a way out, but that did not mean those Mountain Bandits could not.

If they lacked even that bit of ability, the Imperial Court would have wiped them out long ago.