Long Regret That Human Hearts Are Not Like Water, Waves Arise from Calm Ground for No Reason

"Oh?"

"How so?" Lu Yang asked.

"The Wang Family was transporting what seemed to be... a batch of corpses." Even Sheng San's expression turned somewhat grim as he said this.

Lu Yang stared into his eyes, squinting. "Are you sure?"

Sheng San affirmed, "Absolutely no mistake. Seven or eight bodies, packed in wooden barrels, covered with hemp cloth, sprayed with filth, loaded onto the cart's enclosure, heading toward the East City Gate."

"They thought dousing it with filthy water would hide the stench of rot from others, but it can't fool me. Yang-ge, you know us beggars crawled out of piles of the dead. That particular smell—I'll never forget it."

Lu Yang nodded.

"The East City Gate, huh?"

Lu Yang muttered to himself, "There's a Mass Grave Mound outside the East City Gate. Even if someone discovered them, they could just claim they were burying the dead."

These great noble houses had long since bought out the lives of their servants; even their very existence was in the master's hands.

Even if they killed a person or two and buried them on the spot, the authorities wouldn't bother to investigate.

So why bother with all this disguise?

A terrifying thought suddenly surged in Lu Yang's mind.

"This Wang Family... could it be..."

Lu Yang suddenly grabbed Sheng San. "How long ago did they leave?"

Sheng San said, "Counting the time, they should have just left the city by now."

"Take this."

Lu Yang tossed the money pouch to Sheng San, turned into a gust of wind, mounted his horse, and rode straight for the East City Gate.

Watching Lu Yang leave, Sheng San's expression suddenly turned somewhat desolate.

Galloping all the way out of the city gates, Lu Yang spotted a convoy from a distance.

The direction they were heading was precisely the Lonely Mountain where the Mass Grave Mound lay.

Keeping his distance, Lu Yang followed unhurriedly behind.

He tailed them all the way to the Mass Grave Mound, but then the convoy suddenly sped up, veering off the mountain path toward the distant woods.

"Hmph! Just as I thought."

Lu Yang lightly flicked his horsewhip and accelerated to follow.

Chasing seven or eight li into the forest, the madly galloping cart ahead suddenly slowed and gradually came to a halt.

Lu Yang rode up to the cart and only then realized the driver had vanished.

A sense of foreboding instantly welled up in his heart.

He leaped onto the cart's railing in one swift move, enduring the stench as he lifted the hemp cloth covering the wooden barrel, wanting to see if it was what he suspected.

Suddenly!

Splash!

A nimble figure burst forth from the barrel, the cold gleam of a dagger's blade flashing as it stabbed straight at his chest!

Fortunately, Lu Yang reacted quickly, instinctively stepping back to dodge the lethal strike.

But before he could counterattack, several sharp sounds of air being split came from behind and diagonally ahead.

A few blades and sabers gleamed coldly, aimed straight at Lu Yang's vital points.

The speed of the strikes and the precision of their timing were beyond anything Lu Yang had ever seen.

"Houtian!"

Just from their aura, Lu Yang realized those men were all at the Houtian Realm!

"A fine trap to lure me in—the Wang Family sure thinks highly of me, Lu Yang!" He turned, drew his saber, and unleashed his perfected Mountain Splitting Saber Art, meeting the three head-on with the force of splitting a mountain. Where blade and sword clashed, brilliant sparks burst forth.

The three Houtian First Level martial artists were actually forced back by Lu Yang's single strike.

"A perfected saber art—you do have some insight!"

"Too bad your saber art is nothing but a low-grade, common technique!"

A drifting, elusive voice came slowly from all around.

The voice carried a hint of mockery and disdain.

"There's someone else?"

Lu Yang's expression tightened. Until now, he had never detected the presence of a fifth person.

This person's strength was clearly above the four who had just attacked him.

Facing four Houtian First Level martial artists at once, Lu Yang was already uncertain of victory.

And now, an even stronger opponent lurked in the shadows, ready to deliver a fatal blow at any moment.

In this situation, even his perfected Mountain Splitting Saber Art couldn't give him enough confidence.

"Sheng San, you bastard, you sold me out!" Lu Yang's heart blazed with fury.

If not for Sheng San's false information, he would never have fallen into the trap set by the Wang Family.

As the most critical link in the entire ambush plan, Sheng San had undoubtedly already sided with the Wang Family.

In his year as a constable, he had treated Sheng San quite well; he truly hadn't expected the man to betray him.

"Once I escape this ordeal, I will kill him!" Lu Yang's killing intent seethed deep within.

By now, the four Houtian Realm experts of the Wang Family had already encircled him again, blades and sword-light aimed straight at his vital points.

Lu Yang knew that while those four were inferior to him in martial arts, their numbers were overwhelming. Once they completed their encirclement, even without the hidden figure making a move, he would have no chance of survival today.

In a flash of lightning and sparks, Lu Yang immediately decided to break through in one direction.

"Rolling Stone Opens Mountain!"

True qi surged within him; the blade, at the Perfect level, carried the force of splitting mountains, weighing down with a thousand jun.

Crack!

The sword of Lu Yang's opponent snapped in two under his single slash!

The biting blade edge followed through, severing the swordsman's left arm. Amid a shriek of agony, blood sprayed wildly.

Lu Yang didn't linger to fight. He kicked the obstructing swordsman away and hurriedly fled into the distance.

"Where do you think you're going?"

From the dark forest, a palm strike came unexpectedly, descending from above.

The man's attack was extremely fast. By the time Lu Yang sensed something wrong, the palm's edge was already bearing down on his back.

There was no time to turn around now. In his haste, Lu Yang could only rely on instinct, swinging a blind slash behind him with his blade.

The hurried strike was knocked aside by the man's palm, but the palm, with half its force deflected, still landed solidly on Lu Yang's back.

Lu Yang felt a sharp pain in his back and couldn't help spitting out a mouthful of blood.

Yet he dared not slow his steps even slightly. Instead, he used the force of that palm strike to accelerate his escape into the distance.

That man, however, clung like a bone-deep maggot, rapidly closing in on him again.

"Heh heh."

"Our Wang Family's Smoke-like Net Steps is a High-grade Yellow Tier Movement Technique. If I let a brat who doesn't even know a Movement Technique escape, that would be a joke!"

Lu Yang didn't reply. He only gritted his teeth against the pain and ran headlong deeper into the woods without looking back.

That palm strike just now was at least from a Houtian Realm third-layer cultivator or above. The man's palm technique was also at least a Mid-grade Yellow Tier martial art. Before he finished cultivating the Returning Origin Art, he was no match for that person.

As the man drew closer and closer, and death seemed to loom right before his eyes, a faint smile curled at the corner of Lu Yang's lips.

Between two fingers of his left hand, a talisman had appeared without his knowing when. As true qi poured into it, a faint, hazy green light began to glow on the talisman.

All along, he had been trying to activate the talisman with his own true qi, but his qi was limited. Only now had he finally succeeded.

In an instant, the talisman blazed with green light. Strands of green radiance coiled around Lu Yang's body.

Lu Yang felt his steps lighten, and his fleeing speed instantly increased seven or eight times. The man who had been steadily closing in was left far behind in just a few breaths.

The man halted with a gloomy expression and let out a sigh.

"[Light Spirit Talisman]. I miscalculated. I didn't expect that little constable to have something like this on him."

"If I'd known, I would have brought a few talismans when I left the house."