Night fell once more.
Qingyang City sank into an eerie dead silence.
The streets that had bustled with noise by day were now utterly deserted. Every household had its doors and windows tightly shut. Even the stray dogs that usually loved prowling at night seemed to have scented the killing intent in the air, tucking their tails and hiding in dark corners.
Only squads of Wang Family guards carrying torches marched in neat formation as they patrolled the empty streets. Their armor gleamed, their blades were drawn, and their cold iron boots struck the bluestone pavement with crisp taps—tap, tap, tap—like funeral bells tolling in everyone's heart.
In the east of the city stood Black Cloud Martial Hall.
The place was brightly lit, as clear as day.
Guards were stationed throughout the hall, every three steps a sentry, every five steps a watchman. Their powerful auras wove into an invisible net that sealed the entire martial hall tight as a watertight wall. Any bird that tried to approach would be shot into a cloud of blood by sharp arrows in an instant.
Inside the main hall of the martial hall.
A tall man built like an iron tower, with a savage scar across his face, sat upright in the seat of honor. He wore heavy black iron armor and had not removed it even indoors. He was Wang Family's chief guard commander, Wang Hu.
"Stay sharp, all of you!" Wang Hu's voice boomed like a bell through the hall. "The Family Head has ordered that even if we have to dig three feet into the ground tonight, we must drag out that little bastard from the Chen Family! Whoever dares slack off will be killed without mercy!"
"Yes!" Dozens of guards answered in unison, their voices shaking the rafters.
Wang Hu nodded in satisfaction, a bloodthirsty gleam flashing through his eyes. He greatly enjoyed this feeling of power in his hands. He even held some disdain for Family Head Wang Wei's caution.
A brat whose feathers had not even grown in yet had luckily killed that wine sack and rice bag Wang Fugui, and the Family Head had been frightened into this state?
Ridiculous!
In his eyes, so long as that brat dared appear before him, he could crush him to death with one hand!
He raised the strong liquor on the table and drained it in one gulp. The fiery liquid slid down his throat into his stomach, making him feel as though every drop of blood in his body had caught fire.
Yet he did not notice.
Within the shadows of the beam above his head, a figure nearly fused with the darkness was quietly looking down upon everything in the hall.
Chen Chen.
Like a venomous snake lying in wait, he had concealed every trace of his presence, slowing even his heartbeat and breathing to an extreme degree.
He drove the Nine Nether Soul Refining Art to its limit.
His formidable Spiritual Power brought his perception of the surroundings to an unimaginable level. He could clearly "see" the strength of every guard's blood and qi, "hear" their faint breaths and heartbeats, and "sense" every gap and flaw in their patrol routes.
He had long committed Uncle Fu's intelligence map to memory.
Black Cloud Martial Hall's visible defenses truly could be called a wall of bronze and iron. But every fortress had its weak point.
And that weak point was the long-abandoned dry well in the martial hall's rear courtyard.
According to Uncle Fu's intelligence, beneath that dry well lay underground waterways built in Qingyang City decades ago. Most had already collapsed, but one passage could barely lead to the vicinity of the martial hall's kitchen.
This was Chen Chen's route of infiltration.
He waited.
Patiently waiting for the right moment to arrive.
Midnight.
The night was at its deepest, and people were at their weariest.
Even the most strong-willed martial artist would show a trace of slackness after remaining highly tense for so long.
Now!
Chen Chen's figure drifted down from the beam like a weightless fallen leaf, landing soundlessly in a shadow at the back of the hall.
He alerted no one.
Slipping through the gap during the guards' shift change, he melted into the darkness of the rear courtyard like a wisp of green smoke.
He found the dry well.
Without the slightest hesitation, he lifted the heavy well cover and leapt down.
Below the well was a nauseating stench mixed with rot and mildew.
Holding his breath, Chen Chen felt his way forward through knee-deep filthy water.
The underground waterway was narrow, dark, and stifling.
But to Chen Chen, it was a hundred times safer than the brightly lit martial hall outside.
Before long, he found the exit marked on the map.
It was a drainage outlet sealed by iron bars, located inside the woodshed behind the kitchen.
With Chen Chen's current Ninth Level of Body Tempering strength, snapping several heavily rusted iron bars took no effort at all.
Like a civet cat, he silently slipped into the woodshed.
The shed was piled high with odds and ends. Only an old servant in charge of tending the fire was dozing with his head on the table.
Chen Chen did not kill him.
He went around the old servant, pushed open the woodshed door, and officially entered the interior of Black Cloud Martial Hall.
At that moment, he was like a ghost walking through the heart of enemy territory.
His target was clear.
Wang Hu!
According to the intelligence, after midnight, Wang Hu would return to his room to rest for two hours.
And his room was on the third floor behind the main hall.
Keeping to the shadows along the walls, Chen Chen moved like a phantom.
He pushed the Seven Shadows Step to its utmost limit. With each step, the afterimage he left behind nearly merged with the darkness, impossible to distinguish with the naked eye.
Along the way, he encountered two patrols of guards.
But his powerful spiritual perception always allowed him to predict their routes in advance and find the perfect angle to evade them.
Those guards never even knew that death had just passed by their side.
Outside Wang Hu's room on the third floor.
Two Blood Guards, their auras fierce and imposing, stood at the door like guardian deities.
Their temples bulged high, their eyes flashed like lightning, and they vigilantly swept their surroundings.
Peak Sixth Level of Body Tempering!
There was absolutely no way to force his way in.
A cold gleam flashed in Chen Chen's eyes.
He did not approach. Instead, he ducked behind a rockery planter at the end of the corridor.
From his chest, he took out an item.
It was a hollow bamboo tube containing several Poison Bees that had been knocked unconscious by sedatives.
He had specifically asked Uncle Fu to prepare them during the day.
He aimed the bamboo tube toward the distant door, circulated his blood and qi, and gave a gentle blow.
"Bzz..."
Several tiny black dots, almost too faint to notice, silently flew toward the two Blood Guards.
The Blood Guards were extremely vigilant, but they guarded against people and killing intent. They never expected an attack to come in such an unforeseen way.
A Poison Bee landed on one Blood Guard's neck and lightly pricked him with its stinger.
"Hmm?"
The Blood Guard only felt a slight pain in his neck, as though a mosquito had bitten him, and instinctively slapped at it.
But he quickly realized something was wrong.
An intense wave of dizziness surged over him like the tide.
"Not good... there..."
He only managed to utter two words before his body went limp.
"Third Brother!"
The other Blood Guard's expression changed drastically, and he was just about to sound the alarm.
Chen Chen's figure had already shot out from the shadows like a cannonball!
The steel blade in his hand drew an arc of death beneath the moonlight.
The Blood Guard only had time to raise his blade across his chest.
Clang!
A deafening crash rang out!
How terrifying was Chen Chen's strike, infused with the peak strength of the Ninth Level of Body Tempering!
The fine steel saber in the Blood Guard's hand snapped in response!
The blade's remaining force did not lessen as it savagely cleaved into his chest!
[ Ding! Killed a Sixth Level of Body Tempering martial artist. Cultivation Points +60! ]
Chen Chen kicked aside the corpse without pausing for even a moment, then slammed directly through Wang Hu's door!
Inside the room, Wang Hu had just removed his heavy armor and was preparing to go to bed when the sudden upheaval left him dumbfounded.
When he saw the young, cold face of the intruder, his pupils suddenly shrank to their limits!
"Chen... Chen?!"
"Commander Wang, your time to die... has come!"
Chen Chen's voice was like a judgment pronounced from hell.
He raised his blade once more.
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