"Clang!"
The moment the weapons clashed, the old man's expression changed drastically. Without thinking, he abandoned his twin swords to avoid having his arms broken and retreated rapidly.
Unfortunately, he couldn't completely avoid it in the end, and the tip of the broadsword left a deep, bone-revealing wound on his chest, almost disemboweling him.
The massive guandao, carrying terrifying force, sank completely into the bluestone ground, demonstrating the sheer ferocity and Tyrannical Dao of its impact.
That wasn't all. Wang Hao unleashed his immense strength, drawing his greatsword and unleashing a devastating attack that Sweep Away a Thousand Troops, continuing his assault on the old man and Feng Lun, who was being protected behind him, bringing both of them into his attack range.
Stop him!
The old man was terrified. With a roar, he grabbed the obese Feng Lun and rushed into the room, clearly no longer daring to fight Wang Hao.
That guy was just pretending to be weak to lure Feng Lun out, which is why he suddenly exploded.
The guards around him only then realized what was happening and rushed forward with their knives, seemingly intent on killing Wang Hao on the spot.
At the same time, the two middle-aged guards who were besieging the woman in black also changed their expressions drastically, and immediately wanted to abandon the woman in black and surround and kill Wang Hao.
Unfortunately, the woman in black was no fool. She decisively unleashed her ultimate move, her steel spear dancing like a phantom, concealing boundless killing intent, forcing the two middle-aged men to stop and prepare to counter.
Those who block my way shall die!
Seeing the crowd blocking his way, Wang Hao flew into a rage, unleashing a flurry of blows with his greatsword. He unleashed ten Sweep Away a Thousand Troops in quick succession, instantly clearing the once crowded courtyard of people, leaving only a few scattered individuals on the outermost edge who had not yet been killed.
As for the others, they had become mangled corpses scattered on the ground, and the stench of blood instantly filled the air, making people want to vomit.
This scene not only stunned the woman in black, but also caused the two middle-aged guards to change their expressions drastically, revealing fear and apprehension.
They realized they had underestimated the big guy again!
How on earth did Feng Lun manage to provoke such a vicious person?!
Realizing Wang Hao's ruthlessness and strength, the two middle-aged guards exchanged a glance and both decided to prepare to flee.
They knew that Feng Lun had left escape routes in every room, so they didn't need to worry about Feng Lun's safety; they only needed to save their own lives.
There's really no need to stay here and fight to the death!
But before they could escape the battle, an extremely terrifying sharpness suddenly appeared behind them. At the same time, the woman in black opposite them also showed joy and launched another fierce attack on the two, preventing them from escaping.
Helpless, the two middle-aged guards could only hold their weapons and prepare to withstand the terrifying attack from behind.
Clang! Clang!
The broadsword slashed fiercely at the two men's weapons, sending them flying. Then, the sharp blade sliced through the two middle-aged guards, leaving them frozen in place.
Ignoring the two middle-aged guards, Wang Hao curiously sized up the panting woman in black and tentatively asked, "Are you Miss Zhou Xueyi?"
Feng Lun had already revealed the woman's name, so she must be Zhou Xueyi he was looking for.
Originally, they wanted Lin Zhennan to go find this girl, but unexpectedly, she came to them on her own.
"Quickly capture that scoundrel Feng Lun! There's a secret passage in the room; don't let him escape!"
Zhou Xueyi, the woman in black, called out to Wang Hao, panting heavily, her expression very anxious.
After all, this was the closest they had come to Feng Lun in three years, and they had to eliminate him as soon as possible.
If it weren't for the previous outbursts that had exhausted her inner strength, leaving her unable to even stand, she would have already personally charged in with her spear.
"Don't worry, he can't escape!"
Wang Hao smiled confidently, knowing he hadn't come alone.
"Bang!"
"Ah!"
As soon as Wang Hao finished speaking, a spherical figure crashed out of the room and landed heavily on the ground, letting out a pig-like scream.
Immediately afterward, another gaunt figure flew out of the room and crashed to the ground. It was Feng Lun and the old man who had previously fled into the room to escape through the secret passage.
"Young master, I have accomplished my mission and intercepted these two scoundrels!"
Old Cheng strode out of the room with a grin, clearly the two people who had just flown out were his doing.
Before rushing over, he and Wang Hao had already discussed it. Wang Hao would attract everyone's attention from the front, while Old Cheng would use his superb lightness skills to sneak into the room in the chaos and prevent Feng Lun from escaping through the secret passage.
Just now, he had launched a surprise attack and defeated the heavily injured and weaponless old man, kicking him and Feng Lun flying together, thus completing his mission.
Wangcai suddenly appeared out of nowhere, standing arrogantly beside Wang Hao, looking just like a wild and untamed wolf.
"Hero, spare my life! Hero, spare my life! There must be some misunderstanding between us. Although I am lustful, I only love women who are virgins. I have never harmed another man's wife. The death of your wife has absolutely nothing to do with me. I am willing to offer a million taels of silver to spare my life!"
Despite the excruciating pain, Feng Lun scrambled to his feet and knelt down, begging for mercy and hoping Wang Hao would let him go.
He felt truly wronged at that moment. He was a clean freak and would never touch those so-called married women, and he had absolutely no memory of Wang Hao!
So there's definitely some misunderstanding here.
This startled Wangcai, who was pretending to be powerful. It darted behind Wang Hao, its tail tucked tightly between its legs, only its head peeking out as it stared at Feng Lun, who was kneeling and begging for mercy.
Ignoring the foolish and cowardly idiot, Wang Hao looked down at Feng Lun, who was kneeling on the ground, with a forced smile and a cold glint in his eyes.
"One million taels! Prefect Feng, you certainly know how to make money!"
Wang Hao was now almost certain that this guy was colluding with the Japanese pirates and was responsible for selling the supplies they had looted. Otherwise, how could a prefect like him have earned a million taels of silver in just three years?
While there was a saying these days that a prefect could earn 100,000 taels of silver in three years, producing a million taels at once was still far too exaggerated.
"Young master, don't be fooled. This man is treacherous and cunning, and he will hold a grudge for every little thing. Even if there is a misunderstanding today, he will certainly not let you off the hook later."
Zhou Xueyi, who was standing to the side, thought that Wang Hao was tempted and became very anxious. She quickly tried to dissuade him.
These words enraged Feng Lun, who was kneeling on the ground, and he quickly tried to explain.
"Tonight, brave warrior, your face is covered by a black veil, so I, Feng, have not seen your face at all. Even if I want to take revenge later, I have no target, so you don't need to worry about that. And if you have a million taels of silver, where in the world can't you go? I, Feng, don't have the ability to hunt you down all over the world."
"You're quite clever, but unfortunately you haven't used that Manifest Force for the right thing!"
Wang Hao looked at Feng Lun kneeling on the ground again. Sure enough, these days, those who can become traitors are all smart people!
If it weren't for the fact that he wanted to win over Zhou Xueyi later, and that this guy's collusion with the Japanese pirates violated his taboo, he would have been somewhat tempted by her words!
"Since this is a misunderstanding between us, I might let you off the hook, but I don't lack money; I only have a fondness for rare and exotic treasures, you understand?"
Wang Hao's heart stirred, and he began to have some thoughts about this guy's family background.
If they managed to get so many treasures from the Black Tiger Gang last time, Feng Lun's family must be even wealthier. If we could get our hands on some of those, we'd be set for life.
"I understand! I understand! Brave warrior, please follow me!"
Feng Lun was overjoyed and quickly nodded in agreement. He then scrambled to his feet and led Wang Hao to retrieve the treasure.
"Clean this place up, and while you're at it, Stronger that old bastard to bolster your courage. Otherwise, with your current state, forget about breaking through to the Super-First-Rate realm; you'll be lucky if you can even maintain your strength without regressing. Wangcai, bring them along later."
Before leaving, Wang Hao gave Old Cheng a solemn speech, which could be considered a well-intentioned reminder.
He also knew that this guy was terrified by his previous massacre of Japanese pirates. Although he had recovered somewhat after a few days of rest, he was still deeply traumatized.
The most obvious manifestation is that one's courage has weakened considerably. If a martial artist has lost his courage, he will inevitably not make any progress, and may even regress.
Old Cheng looked at him with a rather complicated expression.
Seeing that Wang Hao had actually agreed to let Feng Lun go, Zhou Xueyi was unwilling, but she was too exhausted to even stand and could only watch helplessly as Wang Hao and Feng Lun left.
Wang Hao wasn't worried about Zhou Xueyi and Old Cheng getting hurt. After all, after that commotion, almost all the guards in the inner courtyard of the mansion had been killed, and he had also killed three of the four highly skilled guards, leaving the remaining one severely injured.
If anything goes wrong, then Old Chen and Zhou Xueyi don't deserve to live.
Feng Lun was pragmatic enough to realize that with the inner courtyard guards and the four personal bodyguards all dead, he had no power to resist. So he didn't dare to play any tricks and led Wang Hao directly to a secret room.
This is a treasure room containing hundreds of boxes of varying sizes, with a dozen luminous pearls inlaid on the top, illuminating the interior of the secret room as bright as day.
Wang Hao casually used his knife to pry open a large box about four feet square, from which a golden light reflected out – it was a whole box of gold.
Judging from the size of this box, it must contain at least 100,000 taels of gold, and there were ten such boxes in the secret room.
If it contained only gold, it would be one million taels of gold, which would be ten million taels of silver.
Besides the gold, there were also hundreds of chests of varying sizes in the secret chamber, which must have contained priceless treasures.
The total value of these items is probably tens of millions of taels of silver. This was the first time Wang Hao had realized that officials could be so lucrative.
Of course, this was mainly because Hangzhou was an important port in Jiangnan, and Feng Lun colluded with Japanese pirates, which allowed him to amass such wealth in just three years.
No wonder the Great Ming Imperial Court was so poor in the end that it couldn't even afford to pay its soldiers' salaries; it turned out that the money had all been embezzled by these officials.
Meanwhile, while Wang Hao's attention was drawn to the treasures in the secret chamber, Feng Lun carefully moved to a wall and pressed his hand against a brick that looked no different from the surrounding ones.
Before he could exert any force, a blade flashed out, and a fat, big-eared head flew into the air.
"I knew you wouldn't behave!"
Wiping the blood off his broadsword, Wang Hao sneered. He then used the knowledge of mechanisms he had learned from the Eastern Heretic to carefully examine the secret room. After confirming that there was no danger, he pressed the hilt of his sword against the brick that Feng Lun had previously tried to press.
As the knife handle was pressed down, the wall immediately flipped over, revealing the other side, which was then resealed and looked no different from the previous wall.
"So that's what the mechanism is!"
Wang Hao understood.
This kind of mechanism is quite common. If Feng Lun had actually pressed down that brick, his entire body would have been flipped to the other side, separating him from the secret room he was in, thus allowing him to escape.
Wang Hao pushed the wall but couldn't budge it. He turned around to check the entrance he had come in through, and sure enough, it was also sealed off, sealed with Hundred-Forged Refined Steel.
Clearly, once that mechanism is triggered, the secret chamber will be sealed off, and since it's located several meters underground, there's no way to leave.
It's clear that Feng Lun brought him here with ill intentions; he truly is a treacherous and cunning person.
Unfortunately, what Feng Lun didn't know was that since Wang Hao used his Dao Comprehension Function to comprehend the Eastern Heretic's Grandmaster, his mastery of traps and mechanisms was unparalleled, and he sensed something was wrong as soon as he entered the secret chamber.
Therefore, he kept a close eye on Feng Lun and decisively killed him when Feng Lun made any unusual moves.
" Hundred-Forged Refined Iron! Too bad it can't stop me!"
Wang Hao knocked on the sealed iron gate at the entrance, smiled disdainfully, and began to hack and slash with his large broadsword.
The Hundred-Forged Refined Iron was indeed of good quality, but it was far inferior to the great Guan Dao he wielded, which was made of Thousand-Forged Refined Steel.
With Wang Hao's superhuman strength and incredible stamina, he unleashed over a thousand consecutive strikes within a quarter of an hour, finally breaking through the iron gate in front of him.
"Is this guy out of his mind? Why did he put such a thick iron door?"
Looking at the iron gate, which was ten feet thick, Wang Hao couldn't help but complain.