Missing Qing Chen

Why would the people from Huotang come here?

That's the strangest thing.

According to the Federation's historical records, the Fire Pit people have left the Great Snow Mountain in the southwest quite a few times, after all, their adult Divine Child must complete the "Horn Cutting Ceremony".

However, the number of times the Huotang people came to the Central Plains can be counted on one hand.

After the girl charged into the wolf pack, the originally ferocious wolves began to flee.

Qing Yi noticed that the black knife in the girl's hand cut through the wolf, as if she could cut the wolf open without exerting any effort.

It's like a candle meeting a hot blade; it crumbles at the slightest touch.

Qing Yi recalled the legend of the hearth. Someone once said that there was a black longsword given by a god in the hearth, which had always been in the hands of the Great Elder of each generation.

This is even stranger. In my memory, the Great Elder of the fire pit should be an old man. How did he become a young girl?

The Qing family has information on that old man; Qing Yi has seen his portrait.

At this moment, people jumped off the vehicles one after another in the fire pit caravan. Qing Yi turned around and saw the Great Elder in the portrait walking towards the crowd with an unhappy expression.

Beside the Great Elder were Li Ke and Li Yunjing...

Just now, Qing Yi saw Li Ke in the convoy and became convinced that this was reinforcements.

However, Qing Yi Yigen had no time to savor the joy of their long-awaited reunion. He anxiously exclaimed, "Quick! Mr. Yun Jing, the Master has been chased into that snowy forest in the north! He's in great danger!"

Li Ke subconsciously looked at Li Yunjing, his face pleading.

He knew very well that he and Qing Yi could not save Qing Chen in this situation; Li Yunjing had to step in.

Li Yunjing frowned. This was the first time he had seen Li Ke like this. He figured that the boy named Qing Chen must be very important to Li Ke.

He left everyone behind and trudged through the snow towards the northern snow forest.

As that figure moved with lightning speed, the accumulated snow spread out like waves.

Qing Yi little relieved, but he was surprised to find that after he shouted, not only Li Yunjing ran towards the snow forest, but also the Great Elder of the Fire Pit and that girl!

What's going on? What are these people doing?

Li Ke pulled Qing Yi along to follow.

"Why are you here?" Qing Yi asked, puzzled, as he ran. "It seems like when I called you before, you were still in the southwest. You said you couldn't come over, and you couldn't help me either..."

Li Ke thought for a moment and whispered to Qing Yi, "After I finished calling you, Uncle Jing and I encountered a fire pit in the southwestern wilderness. Their Goddess was performing the Horn Cutting Ceremony and was trying to kill me."

"Huh?" Qing Yi aback. "Then how did you end up hanging out with them?"

Li Ke said in a low voice, "That Goddess... she might have a good relationship with you, sir."

"Huh?" Qing Yi was stunned.

Li Ke said, "After she guessed that I was the master's disciple, she gave me a lot of apples and divine beef from the Great Snow Mountain. Then I said that the master supported my participation in the Shadow Struggle, and asked them, 'Isn't this the perfect time to complete the Horn Cutting Ceremony? Should we kill a Shadow Candidate to complete the Horn Cutting Ceremony? It should be in line with the Goddess's prestige.'"

Qing Yi: "..."

Li Yunjing will not help Qing Yi in the Shadow Struggle, because Li Yunjing doesn't care about such things at all. He only wants to protect Li Ke and help him grow up healthy.

But isn't the fire pit just the place where a bigwig from a conglomerate needs to be killed?

The Shadow Candidate, isn't he just a big shot in the conglomerate?

Li Ke continued, "Originally, the Fire Pit Great Elder disagreed, saying that the Central Plains was quite dangerous for them, and if someone were to harm them, it would be difficult for them to leave. But Uncle Jing promised that the Li family would not harm them this time. Moreover, I told that the Goddess sister that the master really liked you as a student, so she brought the people from the Fire Pit here."

Qing Yi understood. So the Huotang people had been tricked into coming to the Central Plains by Li Ke!

He wanted to use the Fire Pit, a force he had no connection with, to help him eliminate his rivals in the Shadow Struggle.

Is this what a knight is like...?

But now is not the time for Qing Yi to be happy; he only wants to know if his master is safe and sound.

The crowd surged into the snow-covered forest in a mighty procession.

But all they saw were a few scattered wolf carcasses.

Following the wolf pack's tracks, everyone ventured deeper into the snow-covered forest, eventually witnessing the final battle between Qing Chen and the wolves.

The wolf carcasses appeared to radiate outwards in a circle, with more carcasses appearing closer to the center.

Anyone with combat experience can tell that this is a place where someone fought to the death.

The opponent stood in the center of the circle, fighting the wolf pack to the very last moment, without moving or running away.

The wolves are certainly no match for a C-Class expert, but the problem is that there are just too many wolves here. They can overwhelm an expert with sheer numbers. Even B-Class expert would die if surrounded by hundreds of wolves.

Qing Yi froze upon seeing this scene. He looked around frantically, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Sir!? Sir, where are you?!"

Li Yunjing walked slowly around the battlefield. "There are wolf footprints where the pack left, and also the footprints of several humans. Qing Chen lost, but he may not be dead yet."

There is no body of Qing Chen here, so the other party most likely needs Qing Chen to continue living.

Before he could finish speaking, the Great Elder said to Qin Yiyi, "Young lady, there must be some kind of conspiracy involved here. The Central Plains people are known for their many conspiracies; it's best for us Fire Pit people to stay out of it. Let's go back to the Southwest Snow Mountains. As for the Horn Cutting Ceremony, how about I find you a more impressive prey..."

There was also something swirling inside the fire pit.

If the Divine Child can kill a high-ranking official of the Federation during the Horn Cutting Ceremony —the kind that everyone knows about—he will have a lot of face when he returns to the Snow Mountain.

The Shadow Candidate undoubtedly meets this criterion.

In the wilderness and within the Federation, there are not many forces that dare to take action against Shadow Candidate, but the Fire Pit group of 'savages' who don't understand the rules are one of them.

Anyway, the Federation is unlikely to send troops to the snowy mountains to encircle and annihilate them.

At this moment, Qin Yiyi shook her head and followed the wolf pack's footprints northward. "I don't care whether the Horn Cutting Ceremony is prestigious or not, I just want to save him. Great Elder, I won't say anything about chasing him alone now. Please help me, and I'll go back to the Fire Pit and Goddess in peace from now on."

The Great Elder asked, "You and that boy...?"

Qin Yiyi shook her head. "I just like him and want to save him."

In the adult world, everyone is restrained.

Of all the people Qing Chen encountered, whether in the Inner World or the Outer World, Qin Yiyi was always straightforward; she either liked someone or disliked them.

To catch up with Zi and Qing Chen, he trekked alone to the Great Snow Mountain.

When Huotang found her in the snow-capped mountains, she was almost completely exhausted and nearly starved to death deep in those snow-covered mountains.

Perhaps she was overestimating herself, perhaps she was impulsive, perhaps she was just a little girl, but for her everything was simple, without any need for self-interest or entanglement.

The Great Elder, following behind her, was so angry he almost jumped up. "What a terrible thing! Why save him! We have so many young men at our hearth!"

As he spoke, the bone necklace around the Great Elder's neck swayed back and forth, making him appear unusually irritable.

Is it reasonable for the Fire Pit Saintess to go to such lengths to save a knight?!

At this moment, Li Ke looked at Li Yunjing.

But Li Yunjing shook his head and said, "I would go looking for him even without you asking. These people may not have gone far. Maybe we can save Qing Chen."

Li Yunjing wouldn't help Qing Yi participate in the Shadow Struggle, but Qing Chen was the one who helped Old Master Li Xiurui fulfill his dying wish, and he couldn't just stand by and watch him die.

After saying that, he also headed north in pursuit.

Strangely, after running north for ten kilometers, the wolf pack's tracks suddenly turned west.

Li Yunjing and the others chased westward, and only at dusk did they find that all the wolves had jumped off a cliff and died.

There was no Qing Chen, no trace of humankind.

The person who kidnapped Qing Chen, and Qing Chen himself, seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Li Yunjing frowned. "There was an airship that met them halfway and took them away."

A sense of foreboding rose in Qing Yi's heart. The airship was flying at an extremely high speed in the airspace, which was definitely beyond what they could catch up with on the ground.

More importantly, once the other party leaves in an airship, it means that it will be very difficult for them to find any clues about the other party.

Why did these people go to such lengths to capture Qing Chen and get him to leave?!

At first, Qing Yi thought someone wanted to kill Qing Chen, but now it seems that's not the case.

Why not kill Qing Chen? This is a question that many people have in mind.

Yan Chunmi maintained her best pace and trekked more than 100 kilometers across the snowfield.

It was already late at night when she finally saw the town in the distance.

This third-tier actress has never looked so disheveled; her hair is a mess on both sides of her face, and she doesn't even bother to tidy it up.

The town remained bustling, and the shouts of gamblers could still be heard throughout.

The people living here are all outlaws of the Federation. Perhaps one day the Federation will no longer tolerate the existence of this town, and they may die.

Therefore, everyone lived a reckless life, indulging in the moment and living for the moment.

Yan Chunmi quickly entered the town. She grabbed a man and asked coldly, "Who in this town has a satellite phone?"

There is no signal here; you must use a satellite phone to contact the outside world.

She knew very well that there were many powerful people mixed in here, buying and selling intelligence, so she was sure she could find a satellite phone.

However, the desperados chuckled when they saw Yan Chunmi: "Oh, so there are refugees who have escaped here. What, trying to contact the outside world to get rescued using a satellite phone? Call me 'brother,' and I'll tell you who has a satellite phone."

Click.

Yan Chunmi snapped the man's neck, then looked at the next person. "Does anyone have a satellite phone?"

The outlaws were stunned. Only then did they realize that the creature that had fled to the town was not some helpless little rabbit, but a dragon that had crossed the river!

The outlaws tried to run away, to get as far away from this menacing figure who had just barged into the town as possible, but they hadn't gone more than a few steps before Yan Chunmi caught up with them one by one and knocked them to the ground.

Yan Chunmi stepped on the face of a desperate criminal and calmly asked, "I'm asking, who in this small town has a satellite phone? You have three seconds."

She was already getting impatient. A powerful new boss had just arrived, and she was planning to curry favor with him and become a big shot in the Qing family. But now this new boss was being deliberately hunted down.

At times like this, anyone who wastes her time will have to pay the price.

"The Longevity Inn!" a desperado exclaimed. "The Longevity Inn is where they usually trade intelligence. If they want to send information out, they must have satellite phones!"

Yan Chunmi walked towards the Longevity Inn, where chaos erupted.

Ten minutes later, Yan Chunmi used a satellite-encrypted phone to call Shadow. The call was quickly answered, "Boss, my new boss is being hunted by a suspected A-level expert. The attacker knows his disguised identity and has a very clear target. I'm not sure if he's still alive, but he's likely in grave danger."

This sentence is short, but it contains enough information.

Her meaning was clear: she wanted to tell Shadow that he had an inside man.

The person who can plant an inside agent next to Shadow must be a truly important figure.

Shadow: "Understood. Operation code 8271. You are granted special privileges, allowing you to mobilize the town's spies."

After saying that, Shadow hung up the phone.

He looked expressionlessly behind him, where more than forty assassins, just captured from the lakeside, were hanging on execution racks.

The shadow said calmly, "Kill them all. I'm too lazy to interrogate them."

Everyone around Shadow could tell that their boss was angry.

There's another chapter coming up, I'm writing it now.