Night Raid

Night.

The Yam Herb Shop party had been arranged to rest in the eastern guest courtyard of Gao Manor.

This guest courtyard had been built specifically to receive herb shops and alchemists from other counties. The walls were not high, but the place had been exquisitely constructed. Several wind lanterns hung beneath the corridor eaves, their flames swaying softly in the night breeze and casting alternating light and shadow over the bluestone ground.

The bustle of the daytime herb gathering had faded, leaving only the occasional footsteps and the low conversation of patrolling guards.

Because Zhao Yiting had specifically instructed him before departing to protect Master Ge at all times, Lu Chen simply did not take a separate guest room and instead made a pallet on the floor in Ge Ye's room.

Ge Ye was quite dissatisfied with this.

"Am I some three-year-old child? Do I need someone standing guard while I sleep?"

He sat at the table, studying the Human Blood Pill he had borrowed from Apothecary Luo during the day by lamplight, his brows drawn tightly together.

After laying out his bedding, Lu Chen said evenly, "Captain Zhao instructed me not to leave Master Ge's side for even a single step."

Ge Ye snorted. "That brute Zhao Yiting only knows how to make a mountain out of a molehill."

Sun Shun stood beside them and quietly tried to persuade him. "Master, Gaolin County hasn't been peaceful these past few days. First there's the flower thief, then the Human Blood Pills..."

Ge Ye glared at him. Sun Shun's face fell, and he did not dare say another word.

Lu Chen glanced at the small porcelain bottle on the table.

The bottle had been sealed again, yet a faint smell of blood still seemed to linger in the room.

"Master Ge, have you found anything out about the Human Blood Pill?"

Ge Ye was silent for a moment before saying, "The refining method is crude, and the medicinal effect is violent. Taking it can indeed strengthen one's qi and blood in a short time."

He paused, disgust and disdain flashing through his eyes. "But its medicinal properties are impure."

"If someone greedily takes this thing because it is cheap, the medicinal power they cannot refine will settle into blood poison and corrode their internal organs. They will have no hope of advancement in the future."

Lu Chen's brows creased slightly. "Then this pill is ruining the future of Gaolin County's lower-class martial artists."

Though lower-class martial artists lacked resources, it was not as though none of them possessed extraordinary talent. With diligent study and hard training, perhaps they might one day achieve sudden enlightenment and still have a chance to become masters.

But if these Human Blood Pills flooded the market, any lower-class martial artist who took them would completely lose the possibility of becoming a master.

Ge Ye looked up at him, his expression growing unusually serious.

"You're not stupid after all."

"If this kind of pill spreads in large quantities, it really could destroy a batch of lower-class martial artists. Who knows whether demonic cultivators are causing trouble behind this, or whether someone is deliberately trying to muddy the waters in Gaolin County..."

The room fell silent for a time.

The night wind passed outside, and tree shadows swayed gently across the paper window.

After studying it for quite a while, Ge Ye finally put the porcelain bottle back into his medicine case and waved a hand. "Enough. Sleep."

As he lay down on the bed, he still muttered, "At my age, I still have to be tormented by you lot until I can't sleep in peace."

Lu Chen did not respond.

He sat cross-legged on his pallet rather than lying down immediately. Martial artists possessed abundant qi and blood, their stamina far surpassing that of ordinary people. With Lu Chen's current strength, he could remain awake for three days and nights at his limit.

After extinguishing the lamp, Sun Shun told Ge Ye, "Master, rest well," then withdrew.

The night gradually deepened.

Sun Shun, who stayed in the side room next door, had already begun to snore softly. Ge Ye's breathing also gradually steadied, as though he had fallen asleep.

Suddenly, Lu Chen's eyelids twitched slightly.

He did not open his eyes.

Yet his ears caught a faint sound.

Lu Chen's heart sank.

The qi and blood within him swiftly circulated, gathering in his palms and legs as he readied himself to strike.

The next moment, the lantern shadow outside the window flickered slightly.

A dark silhouette appeared beside the paper window.

The shadow did not immediately break through the window. Instead, it paused for a moment.

It seemed to be listening for movement within the room.

Lu Chen clenched his hand into a fist, his body silently tightening.

A few breaths later, a black needle as fine as a cow's hair slowly slipped through a crack in the window paper.

The needle tip trembled faintly, and a wisp of smoke drifted into the room.

Sleeping smoke.

Lu Chen's gaze turned icy.

He held his breath, his qi and blood surging within him to suppress the trace of strange odor that had entered his nose.

After waiting more than ten breaths and seemingly confirming that no one inside had reacted, the shadow silently vaulted in through the window.

A man in black landed in the room as lightly as a cat.

He was not tall. His face was covered with black cloth, and he held a narrow-bladed short knife. The blade had been painted jet-black, without the slightest reflection.

After entering, the man in black looked first toward Ge Ye on the bed.

But just as his toes touched the ground, his body paused slightly.

In the pitch-black room, a pair of eyes had opened, shining brightly as they stared straight at him.

The man in black's heart tightened.

Lu Chen moved in an instant.

He was like an Azure Dragon lurking in a deep pool suddenly bursting from the water. With a stomp of his foot, the pallet was flung up by the force of the wind, the thin blanket rolling through the air.

Azure Dragon Claw!

Lu Chen's right hand shot out like a dragon's claw, gripping directly for the wrist holding the knife.

But the man in black reacted even faster.

With a twist of his wrist, his short knife sliced past the gaps between Lu Chen's fingers. The blade moved soundlessly, though a cold gleam flashed and vanished in the darkness.

At the same time, his left palm suddenly struck out, aiming straight for Lu Chen's chest.

Bang!

Palm and fist collided.

Lu Chen felt a thick surge of qi and blood slam through his arm, its unbroken force crashing viciously into his shoulder and arm. His shoulder shook, and he actually slid several steps backward, his soles dragging two shallow marks across the floor.

Minor Blood Moving realm!

Lu Chen's heart sank.

This man's qi and blood were more powerful than his, and his force flowed on without end. If Lu Chen had not mastered his stance training, reshaping and strengthening his muscles and boosting his resistance to blows, that palm strike could have crippled his arm.

Surprise flashed through the man in black's eyes.

He clearly had not expected anyone else to be in the room.

But he was no novice.

In that brief exchange, he had already gauged Lu Chen's capabilities.

"A little brat at the initial Blood Moving realm."

The man in black's voice was hoarse and cold.

"I'll finish you in three breaths!"

Before his words had faded, he tapped off with his foot, closing in like a ghost. The short knife swept upward from below, driving straight for Lu Chen's throat.

Lu Chen did not dare meet it head-on.

His gaze chilled. He stamped heavily, turned his shoulders and back downward, and let his fist move like a dragon's body coiling around a pillar. Avoiding the blade's direct edge, he wrapped his right arm around the man in black's knife arm.

The blade grazed Lu Chen's sleeve, cutting a tear into it. Its icy edge nearly skimmed his flesh.

Taking the opportunity, Lu Chen's left fist suddenly smashed into the man's ribs.

The man in black took the punch and merely gave a muffled grunt.

The next instant, the short knife in his hand slashed horizontally.

The blade made no sound, but it drew a line of cold light as it sped straight for Lu Chen's neck.

Lu Chen's eyes narrowed. His feet shifted, and he twisted aside to evade it.

The blade grazed past his chest, slicing a long, narrow tear in his lapel.

Coldness swept over his skin. Lu Chen could even feel every hair on his neck standing on end.

He did not dare let his guard down in the slightest. His right hand shot out with the motion, his five fingers fastening around the inch pass at the man in black's knife wrist.

Iron Thread Grappling Hand!

This grip was not meant to truly lock him down, but to cut off the point from which he exerted force.

Just as the man in black was about to shift his blade with the momentum, Lu Chen's five fingers locked onto his wrist bone, abruptly disrupting his rhythm.

Seizing that instant, Lu Chen dropped his shoulder and back, then sent out the Azure Dragon Through-the-Arms Fist, smashing a punch toward the man in black's elbow joint.

Bang!

The man in black's arm trembled, and the short knife was forced half an inch off course.

"You're courting death!"

Anger flashed in his eyes. His qi and blood shook violently, blasting Lu Chen's fingers apart by force as he swung his knife down in reverse.

Lu Chen did not clash with him directly. With a turn of Azure Dragon Coiling Body, he slipped along the blade like a dragon winding around a pillar, while his left hand reached from a tricky angle to seize the man in black's shoulder socket.

The momentum the man in black had just raised was thrown into disorder again.

The sensation was immensely unpleasant.

Lu Chen's strength was clearly inferior to his, and his qi and blood were not as rich, yet whenever he tried to exert force and overwhelm him, the other man would always use two or three strange grappling moves to catch his joints, then hammer at vulnerable places like his shoulder, elbow, and wrist with the Azure Dragon Through-the-Arms Fist.

It made it hard for him to establish his own rhythm.

Very soon, three breaths had passed.

Disbelief appeared in the man in black's eyes.

He had assumed that an initial Blood Moving realm martial artist, even one who was somewhat alert, could be dealt with in two or three moves. Yet the man before him was like a slippery dragon in water, always managing to restrain him with moves beyond his expectations.

The man in black's heart sank.

He knew that he could not remain entangled with Lu Chen for too long.

His target was Ge Ye.

So he bypassed Lu Chen directly and rushed at Ge Ye, who lay unconscious on the bed, with his knife.

Lu Chen's expression changed drastically.

"Don't even think about it!"

He hurried after him, both hands shooting out at once.

One gripped the shoulder.

The other clamped the elbow.

He pushed the binding technique of the Iron Thread Grappling Hand to its limit. His five fingers coiled like iron threads, locking tightly onto the man in black's shoulder joint and elbow, trying to drag him back by force.

The man in black's body indeed halted.

But suddenly, Lu Chen's heart gave a violent leap.

Something was wrong!

The next instant, the man in black abruptly turned around.

His earlier charge toward Ge Ye had been a feint!

Qi and blood erupted explosively through his right arm. His shoulder and elbow shook at once, forcibly breaking free of Lu Chen's grapple. The short knife swept with his body, its edge carrying a chilling murderous intent as it slashed directly at Lu Chen's throat.

A savage grin surfaced in the man in black's eyes.

"Hehe, you fell for it!"

The blade was too close.

Too fast.

Every muscle in Lu Chen's body instantly tightened to the limit. He had no time to retreat and could only throw his head back with all his strength.

Swish!

The short knife narrowly grazed past his neck.

A cold, piercing pain shot across the front of his throat.

Lu Chen felt his throat go cold as several severed strands of hair drifted down. A shallow bloody line had already appeared on his neck.

Just a little closer.

Just a little closer, and his head would have been separated from his body.

Yet the man in black did not press his advantage and finish Lu Chen with another strike. Instead, he used the momentum of his horizontal slash to turn around.

With Lu Chen no longer blocking him, the man in black stepped forward and brought his knife down toward Ge Ye on the bed.