Seizing the Treasure (Thanks to Old Baoyu for the alliance leader reward)

After returning to the Merit Transmission Hall, Chen Yuan first called Zhang Xiaoyi over.

"Find some idle street toughs to watch the four city gates. The moment they spot Duan Kun, the 'Ghostfang Saber,' one of the Blackwater Gang's Five Protectors, leaving the city, notify me immediately."

Zhang Xiaoyi nodded repeatedly. "Rest assured, sir. This time, I'll definitely find a few reliable people."

He was still blaming himself over what had happened with Wei Yidao last time.

He had found a greedy, unreliable fellow, and in the end, his young master had needed to clean up his mess. He truly was useless.

"Don't be so nervous. They only need to watch the gates; it doesn't even count as tailing him. Anyone whose eyes aren't blind can do it. Just don't reveal the Heavenly Wolf Gang's identity."

Zhang Xiaoyi nodded and immediately ran off to make arrangements.

But this time, he had learned his lesson. He could not trust those people too much.

So he planned to hire three idle men for each gate, without any of them knowing the others existed.

That way, even if someone slacked off, at least one out of the three should be reliable, right?

If all three slacked off, then he was simply unlucky.

Chen Yuan had Zhang Xiaoyi keep watch on Duan Kun of the Blackwater Gang because he wanted to take something from him.

Before seizing the divine artifact, the more trump cards Chen Yuan had in hand, the better.

However many cultivation methods and martial arts he possessed, Chen Yuan's time was limited. In less than two months, Jiang Kaitai would begin the blood sacrifice for the divine artifact.

Therefore, before then, besides increasing his own strength, Chen Yuan needed to gather a few more trump cards.

Duan Kun possessed something Chen Yuan wanted.

As one of the Blackwater Gang's Five Protectors, Duan Kun, the "Ghostfang Saber," had Blood-Shifting Realm cultivation.

The Blackwater Gang's Five Protectors were all formidable, every one of them in the Blood-Shifting Realm.

Hu Laosan had not been wrong when he said that the Blackwater Gang's Five Protectors were stronger than the Heavenly Wolf Gang's Three Elites.

It was only that Chen Yuan and the other two were still young, while even the youngest of the Blackwater Gang's Five Protectors was already forty.

In the original storyline, after the Seven Kill Stele was blood-sacrificed, the Heavenly Wolf Gang was destroyed, and the Blackwater Gang naturally occupied all of Linked Mountains City without shedding a drop of blood.

With no rivals left, the Blackwater Gang grew increasingly arrogant and tyrannical, committing every manner of evil. Thus, there was a storyline in which players fought against the Blackwater Gang's Five Protectors.

During that storyline, Duan Kun revealed one of his trump cards: Guanyin's Tears, a high-grade concealed weapon crafted by the Divine Mechanism Pavilion.

The Divine Mechanism Pavilion was renowned throughout the martial world for its concealed weapons and mechanisms, and controlled the divine artifact, Divine Mechanism Hundred Refinements.

Every concealed weapon produced by the Divine Mechanism Pavilion possessed terrifyingly powerful might.

In the original storyline, there was only a single memory belonging to Duan Kun regarding the Guanyin's Tears in his possession.

Someone had pawned a fragment of a mechanism at a Blackwater Gang pawnshop, and Duan Kun discovered the Divine Mechanism Pavilion's mark upon it.

Following the trail, Duan Kun learned that a servant who had fled the Divine Mechanism Pavilion lived outside Linked Mountains City. The person who had pawned the item was that servant's son.

Since they had a mechanism fragment, they might possess a complete concealed weapon.

With a try-it-and-see attitude, Duan Kun brought his men to slaughter the entire family, and truly did find Guanyin's Tears in their home.

The events in that memory flashed by very quickly, without any exact date or information on where that servant from the Divine Mechanism Pavilion lived.

Based on the rapidly flashing images from the storyline, Chen Yuan determined that Duan Kun should have obtained Guanyin's Tears during this period before the blood sacrifice of the Seven Kill Stele.

As long as Duan Kun led men out of the city during this period, there was a ninety-percent chance that he was going to seize Guanyin's Tears.

After arranging for Zhang Xiaoyi to keep watch, Chen Yuan began another period of secluded cultivation, practicing the Surging Waves, Flowing Clouds Formula.

Opening every acupoint throughout his body only counted as getting started. To truly cultivate the Surging Waves, Flowing Clouds Formula to mastery, he still needed to constantly stimulate his acupoints, temper his meridians, and expand his dantian.

Only when a thought could make the inner force in every acupoint throughout his body instantly swell and surge, filling his dantian in an instant and erupting with the vast power of raging waves, would the Surging Waves, Flowing Clouds Formula be considered mastered.

He cultivated in seclusion peacefully for over thirty days, until Zhang Xiaoyi finally brought news.

Duan Kun had led men out through the south gate!

Over those thirty days, Zhang Xiaoyi had not slackened in the slightest.

Afraid that the idle men watching the gates would loaf around, he paid them every day, rotated them every few days, and sometimes even pretended to casually stroll by the gates himself.

The instant someone reported that Duan Kun had left the city with men, Zhang Xiaoyi hurried without pause to report it to Chen Yuan.

After changing clothes, Chen Yuan found a conical hat and placed it over his head.

"Find me a horse."

Once Zhang Xiaoyi had prepared the horse, Chen Yuan immediately gave chase.

The east and west sides of Linked Mountains City had main roads, and the passing merchant caravans almost all used the eastern and western gates.

The north and south sides had only small roads. Merchant caravans rarely traveled them; they were mostly used by people from nearby villages.

Duan Kun had ridden out with around ten subordinates. Chen Yuan examined the hoofprints on the ground and followed their trail.

About fifteen minutes later, faint commotion came from ahead.

It was a courtyard built beside a small stream, now surrounded by seven or eight Blackwater Gang members carrying weapons.

Two corpses, one male and one female, lay on the ground, blood covering the entire courtyard.

A bald, burly man in his forties held a broad, heavy saber over half a man tall.

The blade was pitch-black, its edge like serrated wolf fangs—savage and vicious. He was Duan Kun, the "Ghostfang Saber," one of the Blackwater Gang's Five Protectors.

Holding the Ghostfang Saber, Duan Kun lightly patted the face of a boy around seventeen or eighteen years old lying on the ground. He grinned viciously. "Kid, hand over the Divine Mechanism Pavilion's concealed weapon like a good little boy, and I'll let you die quickly. Otherwise, I've got plenty of ways to make you confess even about wetting the bed as a child!"

The cold blade pressed against the boy's face, making him shudder. His body trembled without stop, and his eyes were filled with fear and regret.

He regretted not listening to his parents and insisting on going to Linked Mountains City for fun.

After seeing the prosperity of Linked Mountains City, he had wanted to eat everything and buy everything, but his pockets were empty, with only a few copper coins to his name.

His family did not have much money, but he remembered that there seemed to be some miscellaneous metal pieces at home. His father had always treasured them and forbidden him from touching them.

The boy instinctively felt that they were valuable, so he stole the smallest one and pawned it, receiving more than two hundred copper coins. He spent the entire day eating and drinking to his heart's content in the city.

Who could have thought that this single act would bring ruin upon his entire family?

Just then, a Blackwater Gang member emerged from the house, holding a box as he shouted, "Boss! I found it!"

Duan Kun was overjoyed, but before he could speak, the thunder of galloping hoofbeats suddenly rang out.

At the same time, a crisp saber cry sounded.

The Blackwater Gang member was still holding up the box, but his head had already flown into the air.

Chen Yuan snatched the box and tucked it into his robes. He leaped down from his horse, his broad conical hat concealing half his face completely.

Duan Kun froze for a moment, then flew into a rage. "You dare steal my things? You're courting death! Kill him!"

At his command, the remaining Blackwater Gang members immediately surrounded Chen Yuan and charged him.

Chen Yuan flicked his wrist. The instant the Wild Goose Feather Saber left its sheath, a dazzling streak of saber light cut across the sky, startling as a swan in flight and incomparably swift.

"Pfft!"

With a soft sound, a spray of warm blood blossomed from the neck of the first gang member to charge in. His momentum did not stop, but his body had already gone limp as he collapsed.

Duan Kun's expression changed.

What a fast saber!

Behind Chen Yuan, a gang member thrust a spear diagonally toward him. Chen Yuan sidestepped the attack, then fiercely pulled and yanked with his left hand. The immense force dragged the man off balance, sending him staggering toward Chen Yuan.

The next moment, Chen Yuan's left hand coiled like a silken spirit serpent, instantly breaking his wrist, twisting his elbow, and shattering his bones.

Coiling Silk Shattered Jade Hand!

Amid a series of crisp cracks, the Blackwater Gang member's left arm and throat bones were instantly crushed, and he crumpled to the ground.

Killing two men in an instant, Chen Yuan weaved among the gang members. The Wild Goose Feather Saber in his hand resembled a blooming crimson flower, gorgeous and dazzling, yet brimming with lethal intent.

Whenever that saber light, like autumn waters and a startled swan, flashed past, blood bloomed from another person's body as he fell to the ground.

In almost the blink of an eye, Chen Yuan had killed four of the eight Blackwater Gang members present!

"Spread out! I'll deal with him!"

Duan Kun roared as he swung the Ghostfang Saber, sending a gust of fierce wind howling toward Chen Yuan.

Duan Kun had not acted at the start and instead let his subordinates surround Chen Yuan because he wanted to test Chen Yuan's background.

Duan Kun appeared crude and brainless, but he was actually careful beneath that rough exterior, with a deep and calculating mind.

This man had come alone and still dared to steal his things. He most likely had something to rely on.

Thus, Duan Kun had wanted his men to probe him first, find his weakness, and then kill him.

But he had not expected this man's saber technique to be so vicious. Beneath its splendor lay killing intent, and it was so fast that each strike nearly claimed a life.

Duan Kun intended to keep this Divine Mechanism Pavilion concealed weapon as a trump card for himself. He had never planned to hand it over to the gang leader.

That was why all the men he had brought were his trusted subordinates. Now that half of them had died at once, Duan Kun's heart bled.

The Wild Goose Feather Saber in Chen Yuan's hand trembled with a ringing cry. Facing Duan Kun's heavy, forceful slash, he neither dodged nor retreated, instead meeting it head-on with a downward strike.

In an instant, the Surging Waves, Flowing Clouds Formula within Chen Yuan circulated at high speed. Within his three hundred and sixty-five acupoints, every trace of inner force gathered, finally transforming into an incomparably mighty surge that erupted forth.

As the saber descended, waves of force churned. In an instant, it was like rolling blue waves, its might boundless!

Autumn Waters, Startled Goose—Wave-Treading Slash!

Gathering surging-wave inner force and striking with the force of treading upon waves, this slash unleashed ultimate power. It was not merely fast; it also carried an overwhelmingly fierce and powerful force.

A deafening boom like a great bell rang out. Duan Kun felt as though he had slammed into a wall of bronze and iron. The webbing between his thumbs and forefingers instantly split open, blood streaming down.

The core Blade Intent of the Autumn Water, Startling Swan Saber Art had only one word: speed. The entire art did not contain many moves.

Aside from several basic variations, the essence of the whole saber art was condensed into three strikes.

Those three strikes were the Wave-Treading Slash, Autumn Wind Slash, and Startling Swan Slash.

With Chen Yuan's current understanding of the Autumn Water, Startling Swan Saber Art, he could already unleash eighty percent of the power of the most basic of the three, the Wave-Treading Slash.

Duan Kun was horrified, his expression drastically changing.

The cultivation method and martial arts he practiced were actually quite ordinary, but he had been born with Divine Power. When he wielded the Ghostfang Saber, martial artists of the same realm could only evade him; almost no one dared to meet his attacks head-on.

Who would have thought that this person's saber technique was not only swift and ruthless, but that his strength would also be so great?

Before Duan Kun could react, the Wild Goose Feather Saber in Chen Yuan's hand had already descended in a succession of strikes. Countless saber shadows came at incredible speed, forcing Duan Kun back step by step until he could barely hold the Ghostfang Saber.

Duan Kun roared, swinging his saber horizontally with both hands before suddenly releasing it. He actually hurled the massive Ghostfang Saber directly at Chen Yuan.

The instant Chen Yuan knocked away the Ghostfang Saber and his front was left wide open.

The muscles all over Duan Kun's body abruptly swelled, and he pounced toward Chen Yuan like a giant bear, clawing at Chen Yuan's chest!

Metal-Rending Hand!

Chen Yuan extended his left hand, using Silk-Winding Force to dissipate the force inch by inch. Duan Kun felt as though his claw had struck cotton; no matter how he changed his movements, he could not touch Chen Yuan's hand.

The next moment, Chen Yuan tightly gripped Duan Kun's palm. Pull, yank, twist, wrench—Shattered-Jade Force suddenly erupted, and an overwhelmingly fierce power crushed Duan Kun's hand into a twisted mass!

Duan Kun let out a miserable howl. He tried to pull back his hand, but Chen Yuan held him tightly.

The next instant, saber light flashed past, and Duan Kun's head fell to the ground.

At the instant his head hit the ground, Duan Kun seemed to glimpse Chen Yuan's face beneath the conical hat. His eyes widened abruptly, as though he could not rest in peace.

PS: Duan Kun is a character submitted by reader Mr. Yao.