After carefully examining it, Lin Yuan discovered that this internal cultivation art could only take him to the peak of the Third Rank Meridian Opening Realm.
He was not discouraged. This was only the first part, after all. As for what came afterward, he could slowly deduce it later.
He circulated the Primordial Chaos Limitless Art. As it completed its circuits, a wisp of scalding blood Qi appeared within him, traveling through his meridians and throughout his body.
Joy crossed Lin Yuan's face. Once his blood Qi condensed like lead and mercury, could be released and withdrawn at will, and his force united as one, he would be able to enter the Second Rank Strength Gathering Realm.
He pushed open the door and left his bedroom.
Hearing the movement, Lin Jiu, who was standing guard in the courtyard, immediately hurried over, his expression somewhat grave.
"Young master, you've finally come out of seclusion!"
"Half an hour ago, Commandant Shen sent word that something seemed wrong outside the city."
Lin Yuan's eyelid twitched at this. He immediately used the Flowing Cloud Steps to hurry over.
Quite a few people had already gathered atop the city wall.
Wu Wei, Wang Ruogu, and Shen Qing were all looking outside the city with grave expressions.
Lin Yuan strode over and asked.
"What's going on?"
Seeing Lin Yuan, Wang Ruogu hurried over and pointed outside the city.
"Young Master Lin, look over there!"
"It should be well past time to dig fire pits and cook, but there's not the slightest movement in Zhao Wuya's camp!"
Lin Yuan looked in the direction he was pointing.
Under the setting sun, wisps of cooking smoke rose from the bandit camp to the west.
By contrast, although figures seemed to fill the rebel camp to the east, there was not a trace of smoke or fire.
Lin Yuan narrowed his eyes, misgivings stirring within him as well.
"That certainly isn't right."
Shen Qing rested her hand on her saber's hilt, her expression somewhat grim.
"Half an hour ago, I sent a ten-man squad to investigate. They still haven't returned."
Wu Wei asked worriedly.
"Could Zhao Wuya be planning a night attack?"
At those words, everyone's expression changed.
After a moment's silence, Lin Yuan suddenly spoke.
"All right, stop guessing blindly. I'll go take a look."
With that, he stepped onto a battlement and leaped straight down.
"Young Master Lin!"
"Oh! You mustn't!"
Scared out of their wits, Wu Wei and Wang Ruogu cried out and rushed to the gap between the battlements to look down.
Shen Qing and the surrounding soldiers, however, were used to such sights and remained perfectly calm.
In midair.
Lin Yuan's fall abruptly halted. He stepped his left foot onto his right, rising more than ten feet while shooting several meters forward.
Immediately afterward, he stepped his right foot onto his left and rose again.
Maintaining this state, he shot into the distance in successive bursts, crossing the moat in the blink of an eye.
Atop the city wall.
Wu Wei and Wang Ruogu stared at each other, dumbfounded.
After stepping through the air dozens of times in succession, Lin Yuan abruptly paused, and a flash of red light suddenly appeared before his eyes.
[Martial arts: Flowing Cloud Steps (major accomplishment 1/200) (Human Grade)]
Delight stirred in Lin Yuan's heart as both his legs suddenly felt considerably lighter.
Whoosh!
He shot forward again.
This time, the distance he glided doubled, and he moved so fast that he left afterimages behind.
Halfway there, the fierce wind rushing against him made him shiver involuntarily.
He wrapped his long robe a little tighter around himself and lowered his head to look at the rebel camp below.
At that glance, his expression abruptly changed.
There were no living people inside the camp at all. They were all wooden stakes draped in outer garments!
Lin Yuan looked appalled. Zhao Wuya had actually fled?
There were still quite a few guards stationed around the camp's perimeter, however, and they were currently struggling to move several corpses.
The corpses wore the uniforms of the city defense troops. Presumably, they were the squad Shen Qing had sent out.
Lin Yuan's face abruptly darkened. His figure flickered repeatedly as he sped toward the central command tent.
Clang!
His saber left its sheath.
A three-foot-long streak of blood-colored saber Qi struck the roof of the central command tent with precision!
Riiip!
The tent instantly split apart.
Lin Yuan glanced down. It was completely empty.
That old fox Zhao Wuya really had fled with his army of thirty thousand!
"F-fled?"
Everyone stood rooted to the spot, wondering whether they had misheard.
Lin Yuan nodded solemnly.
Seeing that he was not joking, everyone immediately broke into smiles of relief.
"We held it! Ping'an County held!"
The soldiers slumped to the ground, weeping with joy.
Shen Qing threw a bucket of cold water over them.
"Zhao Wuya fled, but the bandit army is still here."
The cheers gradually died down.
Looking at the bandit army below the city, Wu Wei knotted his brows.
"Why would Zhao Wuya leave all the bandits here?"
Wang Ruogu stroked his beard, equally baffled despite racking his brains.
"By running away like this, hasn't he put the bandit army over the fire to roast?"
Lin Yuan, however, had a guess.
"Could it be that the bandits don't even know Zhao Wuya has fled?"
"These bandits were deliberately left behind to cover his retreat."
Hearing this, everyone thought the guess was very plausible!
The corners of Shen Qing's lips lifted slightly.
"In that case, we won't let him have his way."
Shen Qing took out paper and a brush, swiftly wrote several lines, then rolled the paper up.
Immediately afterward, she snatched up the stiff bow beside her, nocked an arrow, and drew the string.
Twang!
The feathered arrow tore through the air.
The few people atop the wall held their breath, leaning over the battlements as they waited quietly.
About half a quarter of an hour passed.
The previously noisy bandit camp suddenly fell silent for an instant. Then large numbers of bandits charged toward the rebel camp.
Before long, flames soared into the sky from the rebel camp, and piercing howls rang out intermittently.
The bandit camp erupted into turmoil. Abandoning their siege equipment, they fled north in a chaotic stampede.
"They're retreating! They've really all retreated!"
Wu Wei grinned so broadly he could not close his mouth.
Shen Qing also let out a long breath of stale air.
Just as everyone completely relaxed, a sudden tremor came from beneath their feet.
The dull, dense thunder of hoofbeats came from the distant horizon.
Shen Qing focused her gaze. When she saw the great banner bearing the character for "Qing" rising over the horizon, excitement coursed through her.
"It's the Qing Prefecture Army! Uncle Fu has brought reinforcements!"
Everyone cheered excitedly, and the joy of surviving a calamity spread through the crowd.
Elsewhere.
Cao Hu watched with an ashen face as cavalrymen poured over the horizon without end.
"Zhao Wuya, I'll fuck your mother!"
He hastily called to his trusted men beside him and plunged into the dense forest.
"Run!"
Like birds startled by a bowstring, the bandits scattered in every direction.
"Kill! Leave none alive!"
After loosing two successive volleys of arrows, the cavalry slowly raised their steel sabers.
The slaughter lasted from dusk until late into the night.
When Lin Yuan saw the reinforcements from the commandery city appear, he quietly left the city wall and returned to his residence.
The bandit uprising in Ping'an County had finally passed.
He now had time to cultivate properly as well.
The night passed without incident.
After a night of arduous cultivation, three more illusory internal organs had appeared within his body.
Not only that, his proficiency in the Primordial Chaos Limitless Art had also increased considerably.
His cultivation naturally advanced to the middle stage of the First Rank.
Next, Lin Yuan planned to see whether his current accumulation was enough to deduce the next move of the Heaven-Questioning Saber.
He sank his consciousness into the Epiphany Space.
Half a quarter of an hour later, Lin Yuan awoke in disappointment.
His accumulation was insufficient. He had wasted today's chance at an epiphany for nothing.
After eating the breakfast Yunniang had made, Lin Yuan was practicing the Flowing Cloud Steps in the courtyard when he heard movement from the front courtyard.
Before long.
Led by Lin Jiu, Shen Qing entered the rear courtyard.
The moment she saw Lin Yuan, she hurried over and spoke eagerly.
"Uncle Fu brought five thousand elite cavalry this time. Most of the bandits were killed on the spot, though several hundred or so escaped into the dense forest under cover of darkness."
"According to the cavalry's reconnaissance, Zhao Wuya's army seems to have headed north to Yun Prefecture."
Lin Yuan nodded to show he understood, then gave her a puzzled look.
"You came here first thing in the morning just to tell me that?"
Shen Qing slapped her forehead, then extended her hand with a solemn expression.
"I now formally invite you to join the Dragon Guard, on behalf of its person in charge in Ping'an County!"
She looked at Lin Yuan expectantly. This fellow was so powerful that it would truly be a shame if he did not join the Dragon Guard.
Lin Yuan shook his head indifferently.
"Sorry, I'm not interested."
All he wanted now was to cultivate properly, then go kill Zhao Wuya far away in Yun Prefecture.
After all, he had killed so many members of the Zhao Clan. Paper could not wrap up fire forever, and Zhao Wuya could not possibly let him off.
Shen Qing was about to try persuading him again when she saw County Deputy Wang Ruogu run in frantically, holding up his official robes.
Her heart jolted. Thinking something serious had happened again, she hurried to meet him.
But Wang Ruogu merely cupped his hands to her, then ran past her toward Lin Yuan.
"Young Master Lin, something terrible has happened! There's been a murder in the west of the city!"
Speechless, Lin Yuan waved his hand.
"Stop right there. Why are you coming to me about something like that?"
Lin Yuan turned to tell Lin Jiu to see the guest out, but Wang Ruogu's next words abruptly changed his expression.
"Young Master Lin, do you know a young girl named Xiao He?"