Outside the Moon Veil Nightclub, a young man in a long gown and mandarin jacket, wearing gold-rimmed half-frame glasses, stood with an air of refinement, gazing across the street.
A dense crowd stood there, most of them members of the Green Bamboo White Moon Hall.
The refined young man gave a mocking laugh and walked into Red Night, a nightclub across from the Moon Mantle Nightclub. He turned his head and asked:
"The Chen Family has really fallen on hard times. They're going after a Strange Entity, and Chen Jing has to go in person. Looks like that kid in the suit beside him is the one he's counting on."
Beside him, a stubbly-faced man pulled a sheet of white paper from his breast pocket. It was covered in tightly packed writing.
The refined young man took it from him and studied its contents. His brow furrowed slightly, then he broke into a carefree laugh.
"The Chen Family has moved so many assets. Looks like they don't plan to stay in Ping City. Tell the brothers to lie low and keep this place surrounded...
"Better yet, don't let that little brat Chen Jing get out!
"I'm going back through the side door to report to my father. We missed out on the Pei Family's fat prize, but this time our Sun Family can't afford to miss out..."
The stubbly-faced man cupped his hands. "Don't worry, young master. I'll keep watch here. You can leave without a concern."
"Good. I trust you to handle things."
Chen Family Mansion.
In the reception room, Chen Tianren brewed a pot of tea and poured a cup for each of the two people seated across from him on the sofa.
"Was the thing by the Li River really that much trouble?" Chen Tianren looked at the man in the suit sitting on the sofa.
His jacket was in tatters, and the white shirt beneath it had been torn, with several bright red streaks of blood staining its whiteness. But he didn't seem to be seriously hurt.
The man in the suit was Luo Wendi, who had just returned from outside the city. Yesterday, he had taken forty-eight men, equipped with eight heavy machine guns and forty standard-issue rifled guns, to the banks of the Li River.
Only thirteen of them had returned, and they were all badly injured.
Luo Wendi had maneuvered among Ping City's powerful for years, but he had never imagined that one day he could be sold out so completely...
The information Green Bamboo Gang leader Ran Shaohua had provided was that only a handful of demons, each around the strength of a Golden Skin Pass Martial Master, appeared near the "Yin-Nurturing Ground" outside the city. There might be a lot of them, but that was all.
None of that mattered. The scales of First Realm demons were nowhere near strong enough to withstand modern firearms like heavy machine guns.
But after he'd led his men there in a show of force, they hadn't found a single First Realm demon. Instead, only one enormous snake appeared, its entire body covered in black scales. It was about twenty meters long, and its body was impervious to blades and spears.
Bullets struck its scales with metallic clangs, then ricocheted off their sides. Their ammunition couldn't hurt it at all...
And the reinforcements Ran Shaohua had arranged in advance were nowhere to be seen. Even the narrow road back had been blown up...
Luo Wendi had just recounted every detail of what had happened to Chen Tianren. Jiang Ling, seated beside him and sipping tea, had remained silent the entire time.
"Ran Shaohua... Let him go. After the old man passed, I didn't have the ability to keep this enormous operation under control. But it still won't be easy for these people to bring us down..."
As Chen Tianren spoke, his gaze passed over Jiang Ling, who sat there serenely. He hesitated, and the latter noticed. Jiang Ling smiled faintly, took a sip of tea, and said:
"That kid Chen Jing found a martial talent suited to the Primordial Stance at the Black Sheath Hall a couple of days ago. Do you, as his father, know about this?"
Luo Wendi's thoughts raced. "Luo Bin?"
Chen Tianren looked puzzled. For the past few days, his priority had been arranging the old man's funeral, then consolidating the Chen Family's business operations. He had neglected to keep the dissolute brat Chen Jing in line...
"I did tell him to search for people suited to the Primordial Stance..." Chen Tianren frowned, thinking it over.
The Chen Family was weathering one calamity after another. After Chen Shuo's death, the dangers lurking within the family's once-vast foundation had gradually come into view...
A Southern Democratic Alliance commissioner was about to make a northern tour, Green Bamboo Gang leader Ran Shaohua had defected, and demons were running rampant. Ping City seemed on the verge of collapse.
Jiang Ling added at just the right moment, "This young man called Luo Bin has something special about him.
"I knew a former official of the Imperial Observatory, who once taught me the Qi-Gazing Technique.
"When I use it on Luo Bin, I see only a clear, pale-gold aura. It tells me that he has a fine character and a good heart. The Chen Family can trust him..."
A nameless fire rose in Chen Tianren. "Elder Jiang, what does this young man have to do with the mess we're in right now?"
Luo Wendi, meanwhile, sensed something unusual. He sat quietly on the sofa, docile as a great cat before the reserved and composed Jiang Ling.
It was hard to imagine that he was a ruthless man who had spent years with his life on the line, shedding blood and risking his neck for the Chen Family...
Jiang Ling knew he had said enough, and continued, "Yesterday, his understanding of the Primordial Stance was still crude and incomplete. This morning, he broke through to the second layer and entered the Golden Skin stage..."
"How is that possible?!"
"What?"
Chen Tianren suddenly looked up. His fingers froze around his teacup, his pupils contracting slightly as he stared at Jiang Ling's clear, bright old eyes. His breathing quickened.
Luo Wendi's eyes widened. He turned to Jiang Ling, searching his face for a reliable answer...
The eldest young master, Chen Du, had brought the technique back from Jinmen. After three years of practice, he had only just managed to enter the third layer. As for the other young members of the Chen Family, none had grasped its principles or made any progress.
How could someone go from knowing nothing to reaching the second layer overnight? That was like skipping the first layer of cultivation entirely...
A smile suddenly tugged at Luo Wendi's lips. "So the Eight Great Miraculous Arts in that old gentleman's possession in Tianhai can finally be passed down to someone in our ranks?"
Jiang Ling gave a slight nod without confirming or denying it.
Chen Tianren trembled all over. After searching for so many years without finding anyone suited to this technique, they had finally found someone just as disaster loomed.
Heaven hadn't let the Chen Family perish!
Chen Tianren suppressed his excitement and clasped Jiang Ling's hands.
"As long as we can keep this young man called Luo Bin with us, any price the Chen Family has to pay will be insignificant. But even if we get our hands on the Yellow Court Inner Landscape Origin-Returning Technique, none of us will be able to cultivate it...
"Still, according to the 'active factors' described in the former Great Li's Commentary on Extraordinary Techniques, the necessary factors for cultivating such a miraculous technique can pass down through the bloodline to one's descendants..."
"Doesn't that mean our Chen Family can prosper for another hundred years?"
Luo Wendi suddenly looked up, as though he had thought of something.
Jiang Ling was still sipping his tea with a faint smile. He interjected, "You're not so slow after all."
The gloom lifted from Chen Tianren's face. He had read of the technique's power in ancient texts. It was especially effective against evil things like Demon Ghosts, and the ceiling it offered was extraordinarily high...
Anyone who managed to cultivate the Yellow Court Inner Landscape Origin-Returning Technique could generally grow into a Great Martial Master of their own.
That alone would secure the Chen Family a foothold in this era, where Demon Specters infested the land. They might even establish themselves in Tianhai, the city known as the "Demon Capital," where evil creatures prowled everywhere!
Now all they had to do was bind this "martial talent" firmly to the Chen Family's ship.
Chen Tianren asked impatiently, "Elder Jiang, where is he now?"
"Right now... he's probably surrounded on all sides by the defecting members of the Green Bamboo White Moon Hall, the Sun Family's men, and a Strange Entity...
"It's not too late to go now. I can still sense that kid Luo Bin's qi. It remains centered and calm, which means neither he nor Chen Jing is in mortal danger."
Chen Tianren sprang to his feet, his eyes wide. "What?!!"
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