Chapter 137: The Person Behind the Scenes!

Chapter 137: The Mastermind Behind It All!

Chen Yi’s words were not spoken without reason.

It was only when all the dust had settled, when the reward that should have appeared remained absent, that he had grown alert.

He waited a moment longer.

Still, no one emerged. Chen Yi cleared his throat and continued in a hoarse voice:

“Earlier, I helped you eliminate that black-clad man. You should be grateful to me. Shall we talk outside?”

“I think the Xiao family cannot repay kindness with ingratitude, can they?”

He glanced back and forth.

The narrow alley remained empty and silent, dead still.

Even the sound of his own breathing seemed to be the only thing he could hear.

“Are they not from the Xiao family?”

Chen Yi frowned slightly.

The Liu family?

He ventured further: “It seems the guests from Shzhou’s Liu family have arrived.”

“What? Why?”

“You don’t really believe the Xiao family killed Liu Jingzhi, do you?”

“Don’t let others deceive you with their schemes.”

After a long pause.

Chen Yi saw no one around, and let out a reluctant sigh.

This was the worst outcome he had feared.

—The mastermind behind it all!

“Not the Liu family, not the Xiao family, yet they still keep an eye on me. You really expect me to deal with that?”

“Is that so?”

“Shadow Guard!”

The moment the words left his lips, Chen Yi’s internal energy erupted instantly. He exerted all his might, employing the Starlight Butterfly Step, leaping onto the wall beside him, his body transforming into a black shadow, fleeing toward the magistrate’s office.

Almost the instant he moved, a cold, clear voice rang out behind him:

“Who are you? How dare you know I, the Shadow Guard, am acting tonight?”

A woman.

Chen Yi recognized her voice and turned his head to see, a short distance away, a three-story wooden building where two cloaked women, hooded and indistinct, stood watching.

“Hmph. At last, you’ve revealed yourself.”

But not in a way that was any better.

The woman’s spiritual pressure was far greater than his own, unmistakably a mid-third tier cultivator.

Precisely, she was a sixth-tier one.

The other woman’s cultivation was also formidable, not far behind the mid-third tier.

Upon seeing this, and after determining their positions, Chen Yi quickly reversed course and sprinted down the alley toward the main road.

As he ran, he called out: “Don’t chase me! If you do, I’ll shout your identities and objectives from here!”

To his surprise, the sixth-tier cultivator charged straight after him.

“Find death, then!”

Hearing the voice behind him, Chen Yi glanced back:

“You’re really not afraid?”

“Have the nerve, then!”

“Xiao family—”

The moment those two words were spoken, the woman’s eyes flickered, and she hurled three throwing knives.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

A faint explosion sound followed, prompting Chen Yi to dodge, only to see three daggers embedded in the wall beside him.

In an instant, he recognized those daggers as identical to the ones that had killed Sun Erhushi earlier.

“So you were the ones who killed that person!”

The woman said nothing, and again sent forth several daggers.

Three of them formed a character-like formation, racing straight for Chen Yi, while the other two darted in front of him.

In response, Chen Yi crouched low, avoiding the attack, ready to continue fleeing outward.

But at that moment, the woman employed some technique, her speed surging threefold in an instant.

While Chen Yi dodged the daggers, she closed the distance swiftly, extending her hand to draw a soft sword from her waist and thrust it directly at him.

The blade gleamed with a bright, sharp light.

Chen Yi swept his eye past it, switching his footwork, employing the “Dancing Dragon and Phoenix” style, ghostlike in his evasion.

But the sword curved midair, its blade slithering like a serpent’s fang, cutting an unnatural arc across his waist.

A sharp pain lanced through him.

Chen Yi’s eyes turned cold as he met her gaze.

His body tensed, his feet slammed into the stone slab beneath him, shattering it, and instead of retreating, he surged forward.

Then he unleashed a punch.

As his internal energy surged, he also stirred the primal energies of the earth and sky.

In an instant, a monstrous, overwhelming Fist of the Crushing Peak erupted, engulfing a radius of twelve feet.

—Crushing Peak: Earthsplit!

The woman, who had previously scorned him, found herself crushed beneath an unimaginable force, her feet staggering as if under a weight of ten thousand pounds.

“Fist technique immense, like a mountain peak!”

The woman’s eyes widened in surprise, and she quickly erupted her energy, raising her hand to block.

Boom!

The colossal force slammed into her reinforced arm, sending her flying, and also inflicted a severe injury to Chen Yi’s internal energy channels.

Chen Yi did not press the attack further. Instead, he retreated two steps, releasing his power, ensuring he would not suffer a second blow.

“Hmm.”

Chen Yi gazed at the woman leaning against the wall in the distance, a streak of blood staining her black scarf from her mouth.

The woman looked at him with uncertain eyes, her gaze catching sight of her left hand swollen and red to the naked eye, and a flush of anger rose in her.

“Just a third-rate cultivation, yet with a completed fist technique—surely your standing in the Xiao family isn’t low, is it?”

Chen Yi slightly steadied the chaotic spiritual energy within his body, his voice hoarse as he spoke:

“If I were a member of the Xiao family, you and your hidden colleagues within would already be dead.”

“Answer me one last time—will you let me go?”

“Hmph!”

“Impossible!”

The woman let out a cold sneer and launched herself forward, her blade flashing multiple times.

Clearly, she had learned her lesson and dared not engage in close combat with Chen Yi.

Chen Yi, too, understood this. He dodged while repairing his damaged meridians with spiritual energy.

At the same time, he couldn’t resist mocking her: “A martial expert of the Temple’s third rank, yet unable to even wield a sword—how utterly useless!”

“If I were you, I’d rather not be alive at all.”

“Better off dead by a soybean cart.”

The woman’s voice was ice-cold: “Once I exhaust your spiritual energy, we’ll see if you’re still sharp and cunning!”

“Can do—why not?”

“You, the head of the hidden Silver Flag Officer, dare to live like this. How can I not play it safe?”

Hearing Chen Yi’s words, the woman’s eyes darkened further. She struck out dozens of sword intents in rapid succession while asking:

“How did you come to know our identities?”

Chen Yi parried each one, “I not only know your identities—I also know the matters you discussed at Fengchun Pavilion yesterday.”

“Xiao Dongchen, right?”

“As for you, your voice sounds somewhat familiar. Let me guess…”

Before he could finish, the woman, clearly enraged by his words, darted forward again.

Not only that, she summoned another woman in black to join the fray.

“Attack together!”

“He knows too much—he must not be allowed to escape!”

When Chen Yi saw this, instead of anger, he felt a flicker of relief. He didn’t glance at the sword hovering just beyond reach; instead, he fixed his gaze on her shoulder and wrist.

When he saw the woman in black twist her wrist, sending out several sword flashes,

Chen Yi shifted his footwork, leaping forward with a Meteor Butterfly Step.

*Clang—*

The blade pierced his left hand, but his right hand whipped out a ceramic bottle to strike the sword.

Before he could see the result, Chen Yi sidestepped, then dodged the other sword flashes with a Dragon-Fenghuang dance, and quickly moved away.

“You…”

The woman was about to pursue, but saw the ground ahead filled with pinkish glow, and suddenly realized her predicament.

“Huan…”

Before she could finish the name, her eyelids fluttered, and she collapsed to the ground.

The sword slipped with a soft *ting* sound, landing several feet away.

“Miss!”

Hearing the voice, Chen Yi stopped a short distance away, his eyes briefly flashing with realization: “So it was them!”

The daughter of the Cui family—Cui Qingwu—and her maidservant!

No wonder Xiao Dongchen could exchange intelligence so silently.

Yesterday, he and the Cui family had been in the same private room.

But how could the Cui Qingwu, the heir to the ancient Cui lineage, have become the head of the hidden Silver Flag Officer?

Without further thought, another woman had stepped forward in front of Cui Qingwu, glaring at Chen Yi:

“You dare!”

“If you or anyone behind you makes a single misstep, you’ll face retribution!”

This threat…

Chen Yi believed it.

Even without considering the hidden forces, the Cui family alone was enough to shake the foundations of Shuzhou.

After a moment’s reflection, Chen Yi pressed his injured left hand, forcing the turbulent spiritual energy within to settle, and nodded with a smile:

“Of course, I wouldn’t dare incur the wrath of the Cui family.”

“You…”

Before the maidservant named Huan could say more, Chen Yi had already turned and slipped away.

“When she wakes up, tell her I owe her one life.”

The maidservant’s eyes flickered with irritation, but dared not follow.

After Chen Yi had moved far enough away, she finally regained her composure and stomped her foot.

“He’s seriously injured…”

“How could he trick me like that? It makes no sense!”

But he was already gone, and Huan, though annoyed, could do nothing.

Worried about Cui Qingwu’s safety, she merely shrugged and fled in another direction.

Not long after, Chen Yi pressed his left hand, still bleeding, and slipped into the Hundred Herbs Hall.

“This time, it was truly perilous.”

“If Cui Qingwu’s sword techniques were even a fraction stronger, I’d have dealt with her there.”

As he thought this, he rummaged through the cabinet in the darkness, retrieving silver needles and various herbs.

After lighting an oil lamp, he sterilized the silver needles with a torch, then inserted one into his left arm and another at his waist.

Simultaneously, he ground the herbs into powder and applied them to his wounds.

The gash through his arm, still bleeding, began to clot, while the waist wound was merely a superficial scratch.

Chen Yi exhaled slightly, relieved.

Without lingering, he withdrew three more silver needles and inserted them around the damaged meridians.

Then, he controlled the silver needle with extremely faint spiritual energy.

Sometimes turning left, sometimes turning right, using it to comb and clear the damaged meridians.

As Chen Yì was deeply attending to his own wound treatment, a voice sounded from not far off:

"You're quite the impertinent one, coming in broad daylight to fetch medicine and using needles to treat your own wounds—do you take this place for your own home?"

Chen Yì looked up and saw Liu Rong standing just outside the accounting room's entrance, smiling faintly.

"Just borrowing it for a moment, I'll pay you."

"I bet the mighty 'Blade Fiend' wouldn't be so stingy, would he?"

"Uh..."

Liu Rong, about to speak, was taken aback by his words.

After recovering, his smile gradually faded, and with the aged face from the disguise, his expression became somewhat serious.

"Who are you?"

"I, Liu, am hiding here, so no one should know."

Chen Yì continued manipulating the needle, his voice low and casual as he tended to his injury:

"Brother Liu, don't try any tricks; your injury is worse than mine."

"I can't possibly make things worse for myself just for some stranger."

Liu Rong paused again, scrutinized him from top to bottom, and his serious expression turned into curiosity:

"Using spiritual energy to control the needle?"

"I humbly ask, which immortal healer of the martial world are you, Senior?"

(End of Chapter)