Trouble That Isn't Trouble

Wang Batian was an old hand after all. The instant a chill ran down the back of his neck, he almost instinctively swung his saber behind him to block horizontally.

With a thunderous clang, the two blades collided heavily, throwing off dazzling sparks.

He spun around sharply. At extremely close range, their blades locked together like snarling jaws, each man's strength traveling through the steel into the other's arms.

"I knew you'd launch a sneak attack! Did you think I had no guard up at all?"

Wang Batian made out the masked man's figure before him. The veins on his forehead throbbed wildly, and his bloodshot eyes seemed ready to drip blood.

He forced Feng Chen's saber away, unleashing every bit of the qi and blood of Body Tempering, Third Heaven. His whole body was like an enraged beast.

"You damned thief, give me back my son's life!"

Amid his roar, he unleashed a saber technique. His long saber carried immense force as it cleaved straight toward Feng Chen's head.

Feng Chen's face remained expressionless. Perfect Mastery Realm Meteor Step was ready to burst forth beneath his feet.

Wang Batian's saber crashed down, cutting only the air left behind after Feng Chen's afterimage faded. Feng Chen himself had already shifted sideways three paces in an instant.

After just one exchange, he had clearly judged the full extent of Wang Batian's strength!

His realm was indeed Body Tempering, Third Heaven, and his saber art was also an orthodox inheritance of the Wang Clan Martial Hall, at least at Minor Mastery. His strikes were ruthless and fierce.

But compared to Feng Chen, who was also at Body Tempering, Third Heaven, his strength was clearly a notch weaker, while his speed lagged behind by an entire tier.

Perfect Mastery Realm Giant Strength Art gave Feng Chen a steady edge over Wang Batian in raw power, while Perfect Mastery Realm Meteor Step made it impossible for Wang Batian to even brush the corner of his clothes.

Then he would end this quickly.

"Do you only know how to run? If you've got the guts, face me head-on and trade a blow!"

Wang Batian's saber struck empty air, carving a deep mark into the ground and sending shattered stones flying.

He pulled his blade free and rose with another furious roar.

"Run? What nonsense are you talking about?"

Feng Chen answered indifferently. His feet moved, and Perfect Mastery Realm Meteor Step activated once more.

Wang Batian did not see how he moved. He only felt his vision blur, and that gray figure had already circled behind him.

"What? Your movement technique is... Perfect Mastery Realm?"

Wang Batian whirled around. The instant he saw Feng Chen's position clearly, his pupils contracted sharply.

He had trained martial arts at the Wang Clan Martial Hall for his entire life, so he naturally knew what it meant for a martial skill to reach the Perfect Mastery Realm.

Under normal circumstances, at the level of Body Tempering, Third Heaven, no matter how gifted someone was, they could at most train a martial skill to Minor Mastery!

That was because simply improving one's foundational cultivation art and breaking through realms consumed vast amounts of time and energy. Ordinary people simply could not spare the effort to polish a martial skill to Perfection.

In an instant, Wang Batian understood that he could not defeat the person before him. He immediately looked at Feng Chen and shouted, "Spare me. I was wrong. I'll leave right now."

"Spare you? You're leaving just like that? You won't avenge your son?"

Feng Chen gave a cold laugh.

"What son? He wasn't my son." Wang Batian immediately denied it.

The vengeance for his two sons could be taken slowly, but if he died here as well, then everything would be over.

He added, "I can give you money, and my wife isn't bad either. You can have them all!!"

The corner of Feng Chen's mouth twitched. He had not expected Wang Batian to want to flee the moment he realized he could not win. But the more he acted like this, the less Feng Chen could let him go!

He raised the long saber in his hand high.

The most ferocious killing move of the Five Tigers Gate-Breaking Saber.

Fierce Tiger Throat-Severing erupted at once.

Saber light exploded through the air, turning into a dazzling snow-bright streak. Carrying Perfect Mastery Realm saber intent and the tyrannical power of Body Tempering, Third Heaven, it slashed straight down.

With a flash, the saber light swept past.

Wang Batian's head was cleaved off in a single stroke. It rolled twice across the ground before stopping atop a patch of withered yellow leaves.

His eyes were still forced wide open. His pupils had already scattered, yet his eyeballs still held the resentment and unwillingness from that final instant before death.

Even in death, he probably could not understand why this masked man, who was also at Body Tempering, Third Heaven, was so fast and so strong that he could not even withstand one move.

Feng Chen shook the blood from his long saber, stored it in his Spatial Ring, and immediately began searching Wang Batian's body.

He found a money pouch in Wang Batian's robes. Opening it, he saw gleaming broken silver and several neatly folded silver notes, adding up to exactly one hundred taels.

Other than that, there was nothing!

No secret manuals, not even a valuable accessory.

Thinking about it, that made sense. Wang Batian had come out to avenge his son, not to travel. He could not possibly carry all his family assets on him.

Still, a hundred taels was not bad. It plumped up his gradually drying purse a little.

Feng Chen straightened and quickly left the area.

He still had to see whether he could catch up to those people who had escaped earlier.

He pursued them all the way along the direction they had fled, reaching Green Mountain Village.

The moment he entered the village, he discovered that the situation was completely different from when he had arrived!

Of the dozen or so horses tied beneath the large tree at the village entrance, only a few remained, still chewing at the grass. The rest had already been ridden away.

The doors and windows of every household were tightly shut. Some had even braced their doors from within with wooden bars.

The entire village was as quiet as an abandoned one!

There was nothing to be done, then. At his current speed, it was not as though he could not catch up, but the others had fled along the main road on horseback, and their direction was uncertain. The odds of catching them were too low.

But it did not matter much. He had worn a black mask the entire time, and those people had never seen his face. Wang Batian, who had fought him at close range and seen his figure clearly, had already been cut down in the mountains and would never speak again.

That way, no one would know that he had done it.

This matter could be considered reluctantly settled for now. Once he was stronger, he would settle every hidden danger one by one.

Feng Chen immediately left Green Mountain Village and used Meteor Step to head toward Green Mountain Town.

Half an hour later,

he returned to the rented residence outside Green Mountain Town.

Rather than entering through the front gate, he habitually circled the surrounding alleyways first. Only after confirming that no suspicious person was watching the place did he vault over the wall into the courtyard.

Lin Qing'er had remained in the room the entire time.

She had shut both the courtyard gate and the main hall door tightly. Clutching the short saber Feng Chen had left her in her arms, she had sat by the bed for the entire afternoon!

When she saw Feng Chen jump in over the courtyard wall, she sprang up from the bed and ran over in a few steps. Tilting up her face, she asked anxiously, "Husband, how did it go?"

"Everything went smoothly. It's fine."

Feng Chen smiled and patted her head, gently rubbing the soft hair beneath his palm. Then he asked, "What about you? Did you practice Tiger Fist?"

Lin Qing'er shook her head embarrassedly, lowering her voice. "Husband, I was worried about you, so I didn't practice..."

"Haha, there's no need to worry now. Go practice." Feng Chen smiled.

"Got it, Husband!"

A smile returned to Lin Qing'er's face. She nodded vigorously, then jogged all the way to another empty room, planted her stance, assumed the Tiger Fist Stance, and began practicing earnestly.

Feng Chen returned to his room, sat down, closed his eyes, and carefully reviewed everything that had happened today from beginning to end!

Leaving town, hiding in a tree to fire a cold arrow, facing Wang Batian head-on—the results had all been confirmed.

There had been no omissions or problems in any part of it.

Wang Batian was dead. The Wang Clan Martial Hall would not know who had done it, and the people who escaped only knew that he was a masked man.

And what he needed to do next was very clear: continue cultivating and raise his strength as quickly as possible.

The stronger he became, the less these troubles would be troubles.