After leaving Blackstone City, Linley did not continue south along the main road.
Three consecutive assassination attempts had already shown that their enemies knew their route.
That morning, the group reached the banks of the Yulan River.
Linley spent ten thousand gold coins to charter a multideck ship.
The ship left the dock and headed downstream to the south.
Jenny stood at the bow, watching Blackstone City gradually disappear behind them. Keane paced around the deck, filled with curiosity about the broad river.
Haeru lay at the stern.
He disliked water, and all four of his paws kept gripping the deck. Bebe deliberately hopped around beside him, provoking constant low growls from Haeru.
"Quiet down," Linley said.
Bebe immediately stopped.
Doehring stood beside the ship's rail, his palm resting lightly on the wooden railing.
The river breeze blew past his moon-white robes.
"Are you planning to take the ship straight to the area around Chier County City?" he asked.
"I was." Linley looked ahead. "Now I've changed my mind."
"Getting off early?"
"Yes."
Doehring smiled.
"It seems you've grown used to being watched."
"They know we chartered a ship, and they'll know where we plan to dock."
Linley turned and walked toward the cabin.
"In that case, we won't go to the nearest river landing."
That afternoon, Linley had the ship's owner change their docking point.
The ship docked at a river landing farther upstream.
They were still more than a hundred li from Chier County City, and the small city of Red Sand was the only city nearby.
After disembarking, the group first rested in Red Sand City.
After lunch, they set out again.
Level fields stretched along both sides of the main road. The wind blew from the east, stirring up dust from the ground.
Linley rode on Haeru's back.
Jenny, Keane, and Lambert sat inside the carriage, while Bebe crouched on its roof. Doehring walked beside Linley, his divine aura completely concealed.
Ahead on the road, a hunchbacked old man slowly approached on an old horse.
The old man's hair was graying, and his body swayed with the horse's movements, as though he might fall off at any moment.
Linley glanced at him once, then looked away.
The two parties drew closer.
Twenty meters.
Fifteen meters.
The old man suddenly tilted to one side and fell off his horse.
At the same time, an extremely faint stream of pale green air drifted from his sleeve.
The east wind blew.
The pale green air immediately drifted toward Linley's group.
Linley breathed some in, and his head suddenly grew heavy.
The battle-qi inside his body also faltered slightly.
"Something's wrong."
He immediately held his breath.
A second breath of poison gas had already entered his body.
His Dragonblood Warrior bloodline suddenly surged.
A scorching power flowed through every part of his body. The poison gas that had just invaded him rapidly vanished, and the dizziness faded with it.
"Poison!" Linley shouted.
A small party happened to be passing behind the carriage.
The first knight swayed and toppled from his horse.
Then came the second.
The third.
They fell to the ground, black blood seeping from their mouths and noses, without even letting out a scream.
Hearing the noise, Jenny was about to lift the carriage curtain.
"Don't come out!"
Linley raised his right hand.
Wind magic power rapidly gathered.
The wind on the main road suddenly stopped for an instant.
The next moment, it reversed direction.
The pale green poison gas drifting toward the carriage was swept back, all of it surging toward the hunchbacked old man.
The poison gas swept over him.
He did not fall.
His formerly hunched body straightened as well.
"So it was you," Linley said coldly.
The old man's expression changed.
He had never imagined that Linley would survive after inhaling the poison gas.
Much less that Linley was also a wind mage.
"Go!"
The old man vaulted onto his horse and lashed its back hard.
The old horse bolted down the main road in pain.
"Haeru," Linley said.
Haeru pushed off the ground with all four limbs.
Whoosh!
The black figure vanished from the spot.
The old man had barely covered a hundred meters before Haeru overtook him from the side and blocked the middle of the road.
The old horse let out a terrified whinny, reared high, and threw the old man off.
The old man rolled once after landing, then immediately scrambled to his feet.
He looked up at Haeru, and fear finally appeared on his face.
A magical beast at the peak of the ninth rank.
There was no way he could escape that speed.
"Lord Lei!" the old man hurriedly shouted. "I was only hired by someone. Spare my life, and you can have as many gold coins as you want!"
Linley did not approach.
He stood beside the carriage, making sure Jenny and her brother had not inhaled any poison gas.
"Who hired you?"
The old man's eyes shifted.
"Let me go first, and I'll tell you."
Linley glanced at him.
"Haeru, finish him."
Haeru bared his fangs.
"Wait!" The old man hastily backed away. "A million gold coins! I'll give you a million-no, ten million!"
Haeru had already lunged.
The old man had only just raised his hands when a sharp claw swept across his chest.
Thud!
The old man's entire body was sent flying, his chest completely shattered, and he crashed heavily beside the road.
He twitched twice, then lay still.
Haeru walked over to the corpse, lowered his head to sniff it, then backed away in distaste.
Bebe jumped down from the carriage roof.
"He says this man reeks of medicine."
"Don't touch the corpse," Linley said.
Haeru immediately returned.
Doehring approached the corpse without reaching out, merely scanning it once with his divine sense.
"There's poison on both his clothes and his skin."
"What about his strength?"
"Around the sixth rank."
Linley looked back at the knights lying on the ground.
A sixth-rank warrior could use poison to leave people without even a chance to fight back.
If not for his unusual Dragonblood Warrior bloodline, he might not have withstood it so easily just now either.
Lambert stepped down from the carriage.
When he saw the old man's face from a distance, he suddenly stopped.
"Holmer."
"You know him?" Linley asked.
Lambert's expression was grim.
"Holmer, the apothecary from Chier County City."
He did not approach the corpse.
"This man only had the strength of a sixth-rank warrior, but he was extremely skilled with poison. Many years ago, he once poisoned a ninth-rank expert to death."
Keane lifted the carriage curtain, his face filled with shock.
"A ninth-rank expert?"
"Yes," Lambert said gravely. "The first madam has even brought in Holmer. She truly means to kill the young master and young miss."
Jenny's face was somewhat pale.
She looked at the innocent knights who had died beside the road, her hands slowly clenching.
"To keep Keane from returning, she doesn't even care about these people."
"What she cares about is the position of city governor," Doehring said.
Jenny turned to look at him.
Doehring made no further comment about Lady Weide and simply looked at Linley.
"The rest of the journey won't be peaceful."
"We're already close," Linley said.
"Are you planning to keep going?"
"Yes."
Linley looked at Jenny and her brother.
"We'll reach Chier County City before dark."
Lambert nodded. "The sooner, the better."
The group neither dealt with Holmer's corpse nor lingered there.
The carriage moved forward again.
Haeru walked at the very front, while Bebe continued to guard the carriage roof. Linley spread his spiritual energy over their surroundings, while Doehring watched both sides of the road.
No more assassins appeared that afternoon.
At dusk, a dark red city appeared ahead.
Its walls stretched into the distance, more magnificent than those of Blackstone City. Many merchant caravans and pedestrians passed outside its gates, and castle towers could be seen in the distance.
Keane lifted the carriage curtain and stared at the city.
"This is Chier County City?"
"Yes," Lambert said.
Keane took a deep breath.
"Starting today, I'll take back the position my father left behind."
Jenny glanced at her younger brother without speaking.
She knew the real danger was not over.
Linley's group arrived before the city gates.
The soldiers guarding the city spotted Haeru from afar, and their expressions immediately changed.
One of them murmured a few words to a companion. That soldier turned and ran, clearly going into the city to report.
The remaining guards did not stop them.
"Please enter, everyone."
Linley rode Haeru into Chier County City.
They had only passed two streets when a group of people emerged from a luxurious hotel ahead.
At the head of the group was a poised, elegant lady.
She wore a magnificent robe and a warm smile. More than a dozen guards and nobles from the city followed behind her, making for an imposing procession.
Lambert's gaze turned cold when he saw her.
"First Madam."
Lady Weide's gaze first fell on Lambert, then swept over Jenny and Keane.
The smile on her face did not change in the slightest.
"Lambert, it's been a long time."
She took a few steps forward.
"These two children must be Jenny and Keane. You've both grown so much. Jenny looks more and more like her mother, and Keane is no longer the little boy he once was."
Neither Jenny nor Keane responded immediately.
As though she had not noticed their coldness, Lady Weide turned to Linley.
Haeru lay beneath Linley, his golden eyes fixed coldly on her.
Lady Weide's steps paused almost imperceptibly.
"And this gentleman is?"
"Big Brother Lei," Keane said. "He protected us the whole way."
"Ah, Mr. Lei."
Lady Weide's smile grew even warmer.
"Thank you for escorting the two children back, Mr. Lei. It's getting late, so please come back to the castle with me first, everyone. Tonight, I'll hold a welcoming banquet for Jenny and Keane."
Linley looked at her.
Holmer had just died outside the city.
Yet this woman acted as if nothing had happened.
"All right," Linley said.
Lady Weide turned to lead the way.
The guards and nobles clustered around them as they headed toward the city lord's castle.
Doehring walked beside Linley.
"A nice smile," Doehring said flatly.
"A pity she overdid the act."
"What about tonight's banquet?"
Linley looked ahead at Lady Weide's retreating figure.
"Let's see what she plans to say first."
The setting sun shone on the streets of Chier County City.
Pedestrians on both sides moved out of the way.
Jenny and Keane had finally returned to the city their father had left behind.
But the first thing awaiting them was not inheriting the position of city lord.
It was a banquet that had long since been prepared.