Chapter 44

"Just wait. Once I train this body ** to its peak condition."

"Then... the entire ninja world will tremble beneath my feet."

Sasuke lowered his head, and no one saw the cold smile curl across his lips.

That smile concealed something deeper than revenge.

"Young Master, what are you..."

Old Zhou, the steward, stood in the doorway, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.

Lin Chuan was holding a hemp rope as he climbed the branches of the old locust tree in the courtyard, moving as nimbly as a monkey.

A circle of people had gathered beneath the tree.

Cui'er, the maid, covered her face and only dared to peek through her fingers. Fu Gui, the servant, stamped his feet in panic, muttering, "Don't do anything rash, Young Master."

Lin Chuan found the thickest branch, tossed the hemp rope over it, and tied a sturdy loop.

He looked down.

Everyone in the courtyard had their eyes wide open, their mouths hanging open wide enough to fit an egg inside. "Young Master!" Fu Gui shouted at the top of his lungs. "What are you doing?"

Lin Chuan ignored him.

He tugged on the rope to make sure it was secure, then leaned half his body out to test the height. "No, no."

He muttered to himself and tightened the rope some more.

Seeing what he was doing, everyone below broke out in cold sweat.

The Second Young Master usually did nothing but read and drink tea. He could not even be bothered to leave the courtyard. What had gotten into him today?

After adjusting the loop, Lin Chuan plopped down onto it.

—And started swinging.

The swing creaked as the branch swayed with it, dead leaves rustling down around him.

The courtyard fell silent for three seconds.

Then it erupted.

Cui'er lowered her hands, her lips twitching. "Young Master, are you... swinging?"

"What else would I be doing?" Lin Chuan swung his legs, looking utterly innocent. "This estate is stifling. Can't I find something to pass the time?"

Fu Gui stood there dumbfounded, feeling as if his brain had stopped working.

He had thought the Young Master was about to hang himself. He had nearly gone to have a coffin prepared.

But he had only wanted to swing?

Old Zhou rubbed his eyes and walked away, muttering, "I'm getting old, getting old. My eyesight's gone."

Lin Chuan swung higher, wearing a faintly amused smile.

His gaze swept over a certain corner beyond the courtyard wall.

Two people stood there, peering this way.

The one in black held ** in his hand, while the one in gray carried a bow on his back.

Both wore expressions as though they had seen a ghost. "Big Brother, that kid... is swinging?" the man in black asked suspiciously.

The gray-clad man's lips twitched. "I can see that."

"Should we still make a move?"

"...Wait a little longer."

Lin Chuan took in their expressions, and the curve of his lips rose higher.

He deliberately made the swing creak louder and even began humming a little tune.

The swing creaked along with his humming as it swayed back and forth.

The people in the courtyard looked at one another, none of them knowing what to say.

Finally, Old Zhou shouted, "Get back to what you should be doing! What are you all standing around here for?"

Only then did the crowd disperse.

Several hundred people had gathered at the city gate.

The wind made the banners flap noisily, whipping dust from the ground into people's faces until it stung. "They're here!"

Someone shouted, and the crowd immediately stirred.

In the distance, a group slowly approached.

At the front was a battered old carriage. The paint on its wooden frame had nearly peeled away, and no one knew how many times its wheels had been repaired. They creaked with every turn.

One corner of the carriage curtain lifted, revealing an aged face.

It was covered in wrinkles, and the hair at his temples had gone completely white.

Yet his eyes still retained the sharpness of his youth. "It's the old general!"

Someone in the crowd shouted until his voice broke.

The soldiers walking beside the carriage stood straight, the scratches on their armor gleaming beneath the sunlight.

Every one of them was a mark left by the battlefield.

The old man trembled as he stepped down from the carriage and took two steps forward with his cane.

His knees buckled, and he nearly fell to the ground.

A young soldier hurriedly supported him, but the old man waved him away, pushed him aside, and steadied himself.

He raised his eyes and looked ahead.

Some of the blue bricks on the city wall had already cracked, with moss growing between them.

When he was twenty, he had led troops out from here. With a wave of his banner, three thousand armored cavalry had followed behind him.

Now, upon returning, only two guards and a battered old carriage remained.

"General, this way." The captain guarding the gate bowed respectfully.

The old man did not move.

He stared at the city wall for a long time. His eyes slowly reddened, and at last, he closed them. "Let's enter the city."

His voice was hoarse, carrying an indescribable exhaustion.

The crowd parted to make way, and the carriage slowly passed through the city gate.

A young man chased after it and shouted through the carriage window, "Old General, the barbarians you killed back then are still buried in the wasteland to the north!"

The old man opened his eyes and stared at the young man for a long while.

His lips moved, but in the end, he merely raised a hand and patted the carriage window.

The wheels rumbled over the bluestone road, the clattering sound carrying far into the distance.

At the back of the crowd stood an old woman in plain clothes, tears streaming down her cheeks.

The young man beside her asked, "Mother, did you know the old general?"

The old woman wiped away her tears, her voice trembling. "Forty years ago, when he led his troops out, my husband was in his ranks."

"What happened after that?"

"After that, he was the only one who came back."

The young man fell silent.

The carriage gradually receded, turned past a street corner, and vanished into the setting sun.

Above the gate tower, an old eagle circled twice before landing on the battlements again.

It watched the direction in which the carriage had disappeared, tilted its head, then beat its wings and flew away.

As though even it knew that no more armored cavalry would ever ride out from this city.

The people at the entrance were completely stunned.

They had thought he was just some reckless kid who had come looking for trouble. Who would have expected that, the moment he made a move, he would knock their boss flat?

The leader lay sprawled on the ground, half his face pressed against the floor tiles, unable to even groan.

The lackeys beside him looked at one another, their calves trembling. "Anyone else got a problem?"

Lin Chen patted nonexistent dust from his hands, his gaze sweeping across their faces one by one.

No one dared make a sound.

The one who had shouted the loudest earlier now wished he could shrink his head into his neck.

"Fine. Since no one objects, I'll be leaving."

Lin Chen started walking out. As he passed the street vendor who had been blocked earlier, he casually tossed him a bill. "I'm buying all your skewers. Share some with the others."

The vendor stood there in a daze. By the time he came to his senses and wanted to thank him, Lin Chen had already gone far away.

A black SUV was parked by the roadside, its door open. Inside sat a girl wearing sunglasses. "All taken care of?" she asked.

"Just a few small fry. Nothing worth mentioning." Lin Chen opened the door and got in. "By the way, how did your investigation go?"

The girl removed her sunglasses, revealing a delicate little face. A smile tugged at her lips. "I found something. There are people behind that group, and—you'll never guess. They have some connection to the Lin Clan."

Lin Chen raised an eyebrow. "Interesting."

The car started and quickly vanished into the night.

Early the next morning, Lin Chen had just woken up when he heard a burst of crashing noises downstairs.

When he came down wearing a jacket, he froze.

Five or six people lay sprawled across the living room, all bruised and battered.

Standing in the middle of them was his younger sister, Lin Xiaowan.

The girl wore a tracksuit with her hair in a high ponytail. She was still holding a mop handle that she had apparently ripped off from somewhere, standing with one hand on her hip as she caught her breath. "Brother, you're awake?"

Lin Xiaowan turned and grinned at him, showing a row of little white teeth. "These people ** sneaked in this morning. They were acting all shady, so I could tell they were no good."

Lin Chen glanced over the people on the floor and could not help laughing. "You took them all down by yourself?"

"Of course!" Lin Xiaowan slung the mop handle over her shoulder, looking immensely proud. "I've trained before, you know. Not one of them could put up a fight."

One burly man on the floor struggled to get up, but Lin Xiaowan reacted instantly and kicked him right back down. "Stay put!"

The burly man sucked in a breath from the pain, feeling utterly aggrieved.

Their mission had only been to keep watch. Who could have known that before they even got near the door, they would be beaten up by a little girl?

Lin Chen walked over, crouched down, and looked at the burly man. "Who sent you?"

The burly man clenched his teeth and said nothing.

Lin Chen was in no hurry. He slowly stood up. "Fine if you won't talk. Xiaowan, I'll leave these people to you. Give them a proper 'welcome.'"

"Got it!"

Lin Xiaowan's eyes lit up. She swung the mop handle and cracked it across the back of the burly man's knee. "Aah—!"

The scream echoed throughout the entire courtyard.

Boom—

The ground beneath Lu Chen's feet exploded, and he turned into a blur.

Golden light wrapped around his fist as it smashed straight toward the figure opposite him.

The other man had no time to react before taking a heavy blow to the chest. "Pfft—"

Blood sprayed from his mouth as he was sent flying, rolling several times across the ground before finally coming to a stop.

The onlookers around them were all dumbstruck. "**, one punch?"

"That's Nagato's chief guard! He got sent flying just like that?"

"What kind of monstrous strength is that..."

Lu Chen shook out his hand and lowered his eyes to look at his fist.

In that instant, he had felt a strange force surge from within his body.

It was neither origin power nor spiritual power.

It was more direct and more ferocious than either of them.

It was as though the force of an entire mountain had been compressed into his fist. This is... the power of the supreme path?

He muttered to himself, a flicker of excitement flashing through his eyes.

The chief guard across from him struggled to his feet, blood still staining the corner of his mouth. "Kid... how could you possibly..."

"Shut up."

Lu Chen cut him off and took a step forward.

The chief guard instinctively took a step back.

The crowd erupted again.

The chief guard of the Nagato family had actually been forced back by a young man?

"Where is Nagato?"

Lu Chen asked.

The chief guard's expression changed, but he said nothing.

Lu Chen did not waste any words. He threw another punch.

This one was even stronger, the force of the punch gouging a trench through the ground.

The chief guard's pupils shrank as he desperately rolled to the side.

Boom—

The fist struck where he had been standing, shattering the bluestone slabs to pieces.

Fragments of stone flew everywhere, striking the onlookers and making them suck in cold breaths. "I asked, where is Nagato?"

Lu Chen asked again, his tone so calm that it hardly sounded as though he was fighting.

The chief guard swallowed.

He knew he could not stop him.

If that last punch had landed on him, he would have been crippled even if it did not kill him. "He's... he's at the martial arts platform."

Lu Chen turned toward the martial arts platform.

A group of people stood gathered there. In the center stood a man with his hands behind his back, watching this way.

He was tall and broad, dressed in a black-and-gold robe, his presence imposing.

"You're here."