Approaching (Seeking Follow-up Reads)

Fang Shuwen did not turn his head.

But he could feel that the footsteps behind him maintained a distance of about twenty paces, neither hurried nor slow, impossible to shake off.

At the same time, the keen perception brought by his Snake Form Talent allowed him to discern the rhythm of those footsteps.

Steady, powerful, with the interval between each step landing being almost identical.

Whoever could achieve this was definitely no ordinary person!

A martial artist!

And a tough one at that.

Fang Shuwen's brows furrowed slightly; he neither sped up nor slowed down, maintaining his previous pace as he walked forward.

He quickly ran through a list of potential stalkers in his mind.

People from the Wild Wolf Gang?

It didn't seem likely.

Those two ruffians had died cleanly and efficiently, and since Zheng Shulan's second uncle was the chief of the Public Security Bureau and they had a figure like Lord Zheng holding down the fort, with the influence of the Zheng Family, erasing the cause of death for a few gang members would be a matter of minutes.

Therefore, it wouldn't be anyone from the Wild Wolf Gang.

Could it be that Guo Ziming was dissatisfied and had hired someone else?

Or perhaps, that so-called section chief of the Folklore and Antiquities Investigation Division, Lin Xiu?

The figures of both men flashed through Fang Shuwen's mind, and for a moment, he couldn't tell who had sent the person behind him.

"Interesting."

Fang Shuwen's lips curled up, and he decided to find an opportunity to "meet" his pursuer.

He changed direction, not heading toward the Zhao Estate, but turning into a narrower alley beside East Street.

The alley was deep, with towering walls on both sides and only a sliver of sky visible overhead.

The footsteps behind him paused for a moment, then followed again.

Fang Shuwen quickened his pace, weaving through the alleyways and specifically choosing the dark paths without streetlights.

Soon, he reached the end of the alley.

This was an abandoned vegetable market.

Half of the shed's roof had collapsed, revealing a few crooked wooden beams.

The terrain here was complex; if someone unfamiliar entered, they would easily be tripped up.

Fang Shuwen stopped and turned around.

"You've been following for so long, aren't you tired?"

The dark shadow at the mouth of the alley finally stepped out from the darkness.

The moonlight was faint, with only a single sliver of pale radiance leaking through the gaps in the collapsed roof, illuminating the man's face.

It was the face of a man in his forties, square-jawed, with thick eyebrows and a shallow scar on his chin.

He wore a grey cloth jacket with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing two thick, sturdy forearms.

His entire body exuded a fierce aura; one look was enough to tell he possessed martial arts!

"Fang Shuwen?"

The man's voice was hoarse, like iron rubbed by sandpaper.

"Someone asked me to invite you back for a cup of tea."

"Oh, invite me?"

Fang Shuwen smiled and said, "Your way of inviting is not very polite."

The man didn't waste words and took a step forward.

It was this step that made Fang Shuwen's pupils constrict sharply.

It was not an ordinary step.

When the man landed his foot, he left a shallow footprint on the bluestone floor.

It wasn't crushed; it was pressed firm.

The force had penetrated the stone slab, shaking away the surface dust and leaving a clear imprint of the shoe sole.

Bright Force.

And a Bright Force martial artist who had already trained their power down to their feet.

Fang Shuwen felt a slight chill run down his spine.

His current strength was at the level of three bone cracks, with a single-arm strength of seven hundred jin.

In terms of raw strength alone, he was not much different from someone who had just entered the Bright Force stage with their eight hundred catties of power.

But if he were truly to face a practitioner of Bright Force, he had no confidence of winning.

Thinking of this, Fang Shuwen suddenly accelerated his pace, charging into the ruins behind him.

A half-collapsed ceiling, slanted wooden beams, piles of rotten vegetable leaves and broken baskets, and several rusted flatbed carts.

These obstacles might be able to help him stall for a little time.

"Want to run?"

A cold sneer came from behind, carrying the contempt of a cat playing with a mouse.

"Do you think you can get away?"

The sound of footsteps suddenly quickened.

It was not running; it was a glide.

The footwork of a Bright Force martial artist was far faster than ordinary people imagined; every step taken was like sliding across the ground.

Fang Shuwen did not look back, but he could feel that presence approaching rapidly.

At most five minutes, and the opponent would catch up to him.

"Damn it!"

Fang Shuwen cursed under his breath, exerting force through his feet and darting forward.

The gaps between the wooden beams were extremely narrow; he slid through sideways, almost hugging the ground, his spine twisting at an incredible angle as if he had no bones.

His Snake Form Talent was displayed to the fullest at this moment.

A muffled grunt came from behind.

The man clearly did not have a body as flexible as his; blocked by the wooden beams, his speed dropped sharply.

Fang Shuwen took advantage of this momentary gap to widen the distance by another dozen steps.

But this was only temporary.

No matter how complex the terrain of the abandoned vegetable market was, it would eventually come to an end.

He had to come up with a solution before then.

"Little brat, you're quite slippery!"

"Your skills are even better than what others said!"

"You really do have secrets on you."

The man's voice chased after him, carrying a hint of irritation.

But irritation aside, his speed increased rather than decreased.

He no longer attempted to navigate the narrow gaps, instead smashing through the obstacles blocking his path.

A wooden beam as thick as an arm stood before him, but he did not even pause, throwing a punch that shattered the beam, sending splinters flying everywhere.

Fang Shuwen heard the sound of the wooden beam snapping behind him, and his heart sank.

This guy had started using brute force.

At this rate, the opponent would catch up very soon.

No, I must find a way to save myself!

Fang Shuwen's mind raced.

His hand reached into his bosom and touched the blue cloth bag given to him by Zheng Shulan.

Five pieces of Ghost Jade.

Among them, the dark green one had a concentration of exotic energy that far exceeded any piece he had absorbed before.

He didn't know if the energy inside was enough for him to deal with the enemy before him!

Fang Shuwen gritted his teeth and pulled the blue cloth bag from his bosom.

He ducked behind a pile of collapsed bricks and tiles, using the cover of night and the obstacles to quickly untie the knot.

The five pieces of Ghost Jade lay in the cloth bag, emitting a faint, cold light under the moonlight.

The largest, dark green one felt ice-cold to the touch.

The other four were slightly smaller and varied in quality, but each one was far superior to the inferior goods he had bought at the National Martial Arts Hall.

"Screw it!"

Fang Shuwen took a deep breath and gripped all five pieces of Ghost Jade in his left hand.

He did not know what the consequences of absorbing multiple pieces of Ghost Jade at once would be.

But at this moment, he could not care about that anymore.

He took out the five pieces of Ghost Jade, held them tightly in his hand, and covered them with the power of his blood and energy.

In an instant, Five distinct currents of cold erupted simultaneously from his palm.

It was not the gentle chill of before, but as if someone had plunged five ice blades directly into his veins.

The cold surged from his left palm, rushing up his arm to converge at his shoulder, before flooding into his chest, spine, and brain like a burst dam.

In a flash, A bloody scene manifested before Fang Shuwen's eyes.

It was as if five demons had emerged from the mountains, charging into a village to carry out a massacre.

Simultaneously, accompanying the hallucination, an extreme frigidity threatened to freeze his brain solid.

A thirst for blood and an urge to slaughter rose uncontrollably from the depths of his heart.

In that split second, Fang Shuwen felt he was on the verge of losing control.

Just then,

[Foreign energy detected, absorb?]