Chapter 249 - 247: Exposed
The instant his voice fell.
The middle-aged woman who had been cowering behind Elder Zhan, a fellow prisoner being escorted into exile, suddenly shot a terrifying, cold glint from her eyes.
She moved.
She was like a completely different person from her previously frail and sickly demeanor.
Her right hand, which had been hidden in her sleeve, shot out like lightning, carrying a fierce gale that seemed to tear at space itself as it plunged straight for the vital point of Elder Zhan’s heart from behind.
The angle of the attack was incredibly devious. It was fast, precise, and ruthless!
It was a long-brewing, unannounced strike, clearly intended to be a fatal blow and extinguish the old Grandmaster’s life completely.
"Hmph?"
Every hair on Elder Zhan’s body stood on end.
A Grandmaster’s intuition for danger alerted him in an instant.
But he was, after all, grievously injured, and his reaction was half a beat too slow.
Moreover, he never would have imagined that the greatest threat came not from the enemies attacking him head-on, but from the person behind him who seemed the most harmless of all.
In that split second, he had no time to turn and block.
He could only rely on the instincts honed over decades of life-and-death battles, frantically gathering his remaining Inner Qi to his back.
At the same time, he twisted his body violently, forcing the vital point of his heart half a foot to the side.
He also poured his remaining strength into his left arm, attempting to parry the fatal palm strike with a backhanded elbow strike.
RIP!
The sound of tearing flesh.
Elder Zhan’s reaction had been incredibly fast, but he was ultimately a fraction too slow.
The claw-like strike didn’t hit his heart directly, but it landed viciously on his left shoulder blade.
PFFT!
Elder Zhan grunted, the color draining from his face instantly as he could no longer suppress a mouthful of blood, which he sprayed violently.
A bone-chillingly cold Qi Strength frantically burrowed into his meridians through the wound. Everywhere it passed, his blood and Qi froze, and his meridians throbbed with excruciating pain.
As if struck by a heavy hammer, he staggered forward a dozen steps. His left arm hung limply, his shoulder blade was severely damaged, and he had almost lost all feeling in it. His injuries had gone from bad to worse.
Having succeeded in one move, the "Big Sister" disguised as a prisoner spoke with a mocking tone, "I’ve warned you all before not to let your guard down at any time. Now that you’ve suffered a setback, you finally remember me?"
The "Second Brother," who was barely holding on in a perilous situation, heard her and yelled, "Yes, yes! You’re right, Big Sister. Hurry and lend a hand, I can’t hold out much longer!"
The Big Sister snorted coldly and said no more. Her figure blurred, and she joined the fray like a phantom, her palms flying as she went straight for Chen Li.
Her palms moved unpredictably, creating layers of afterimages that descended upon Chen Li’s major acupoints like an inescapable net.
It was an incredibly profound and esoteric Capture Palm Technique of astonishing power.
Her Cultivation was actually that of a Divine Hall Grandmaster.
"I’ve been expecting you."
Chen Li wasn’t surprised in the slightest.
Of the Eight Generals of Wind Gate, only six had appeared. Including the sixth who had disguised himself as Sun Yizhou, that made seven. There had to be one more lurking in the shadows.
He immediately changed his Staff Technique. The Qiankun Ruyi Staff swung out with a wave of dense Qi Strength, sending the flustered Second Brother flying backward, his blood and Qi in turmoil.
Then, he turned his full power on this Big Sister.
The Qiankun Ruyi Staff in his hand transformed into a black bolt of lightning, condensed to the extreme—a simple, incomparably precise straight thrust.
There was no splendid radiance, no earth-shattering roar.
The staff’s tip cut through the air with a soft "HISS," but its speed surpassed what the eye could follow, aiming directly for the Big Sister’s glabella, which was exposed by her lunge.
Attack a point she must defend!
Seeing that her sneak attack had failed, the Big Sister’s expression changed drastically.
She hadn’t expected Chen Li to be not only immensely powerful but also so meticulous in his thinking.
She waved her palms, conjuring a sky full of palm shadows in an attempt to block.
But how could she possibly withstand the full power of Chen Li’s Void Transformation Grandmaster Cultivation?
With unstoppable force, the staff’s shadow tore through the claw shadows and struck her right arm with perfect accuracy.
CRACK!
The sound of bone breaking was clearly audible.
The Big Sister grunted repeatedly, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth as she staggered.
In just a few moves, she had been completely suppressed, only able to parry with no way to retaliate.
Seeing this, the Second Brother, who had been sent flying, gathered a breath of True Qi, roared, and charged forward again, joining forces with the Big Sister against Chen Li.
Chen Li was now unleashing his full strength, fighting two against one, and had the Big Sister and Second Brother completely suppressed.
No matter how desperately they fought or how well they coordinated, they couldn’t budge him in the slightest.
Five moves later.
BAM! BAM!
Two heavy thuds rang out almost simultaneously.
Chen Li tapped his staff against the Big Sister’s chest and swept it across the Second Brother’s waist.
Like kites with their strings cut, the two flew backward, spraying blood, and crashed heavily to the ground. It was impossible to tell how many bones they had broken. Their breathing was faint, and they had completely lost the ability to fight.
The small courtyard fell into a dead silence, with only heavy panting and suppressed groans remaining.
The murmuring of the river became clear once more.
The Big Sister’s face was ashen. She struggled to lift her head and rasped, "Stop! We admit defeat. We’re... we’re willing to offer the two thousand taels of gold the Sun Family gave us this time, and the two hundred thousand taels of silver we swindled from the Zhou Family, to buy the lives of our eight siblings."
Chen Li stood with his staff, his gaze as cold as ice. He slowly uttered two words: "Not enough."
The Big Sister froze. "Then... what else do you want? As long as we can do it..."
Chen Li’s tone was flat. "An object of Divine Sense."
The Big Sister looked troubled and said bitterly, "Such treasures are rare in this world, and almost all of them are already owned. At the end of the day, we’re just swindlers in the Jianghu. We may seem glamorous, but in reality, we’re like rootless duckweed. How could we possibly have such a divine item..."
"I know where to find one."
Chen Li cut her off. "You just need to go and find it for me."
A flicker of hope appeared in the Big Sister’s eyes. She quickly asked, "Where?"
Chen Li formed a sword with his fingers and sliced through the air. His Inner Qi condensed without dispersing, leaving two words hanging in the air.
Yun Ya.
"Go to Jiangzhou City, to the Yun Family. Bring me this item."
The Big Sister’s expression shifted uncertainly. Finally, she gritted her teeth. "...Fine. We agree."
Chen Li said no more. From his sleeve, eight black, longan-sized Elixirs with a pungent smell shot out, landing precisely in the Big Sister’s hand.
"Take them. Without the antidote, you will certainly be dead within three months."
Only after watching the eight of them take the medicine did Chen Li turn and walk over to Elder Zhan, who was being supported by Zhou Qingyi. "Elder Zhan, how are your injuries?"
Elder Zhan’s face was ashen. He coughed and said with a wry smile, "Thank you for your help, Patriarch. This old man’s injuries are quite severe. It will take a long time of quiet recuperation to recover. I’m afraid I won’t be able to serve you for a long time."
Chen Li nodded. "Just focus on healing, Elder Zhan. Don’t worry about these minor things."
Just at the moment when everyone’s Heart Spirit relaxed slightly.
Without any warning, Chen Li’s figure moved like lightning. With a backhand strike of his staff, carrying the force of a thunderbolt, he lunged straight for the male Zhou Family Honored Guest who had been standing silently behind Zhou Qingyi, also a prisoner in exile.
This strike held nothing back, aiming directly for the vital point of his opponent’s heart meridian.
"Patriarch?"
"What are you doing?"
Elder Zhan and Zhou Qingyi cried out in unison, completely baffled as to why Chen Li would suddenly launch a killing blow against one of their own.
However, something even more shocking, even horrifying, happened next.
Faced with this sudden fatal attack, the middle-aged male Honored Guest seemed to have been prepared for it all along.
He suddenly looked up, a sharp glint exploding in his eyes as an aura no weaker than Chen Li’s erupted from him.
His palms crossed, their centers glowing with a jade-like luster. Without dodging or evading, he slapped them directly at the incoming Qiankun Ruyi Staff.
CLANG!
A deafening clang of metal against metal exploded outwards.
A wave of Qi spread out violently from the two of them, kicking up a high cloud of dust from the ground.
A Void Transformation Grandmaster!
Chen Li stood with his staff, his eyes locked on his opponent. He spoke slowly, his voice ice-cold, "Are you the First, or the Ninth?"
The middle-aged man took the blow, his body swaying slightly. His expression was calm, but a flicker of almost imperceptible astonishment flashed deep in his eyes.
He didn’t answer Chen Li’s question, asking instead, "How did you discover me?"
’My disguise was seamless,’ he thought. ’Logically, there’s no way I should have been exposed.’
"I didn’t."
Chen Li answered calmly.
He paused, looking at the man’s stunned expression, and continued, "I just wanted to silence you."
In truth, Chen Li hadn’t actually noticed anything wrong.
He was just acting on intuition.
After the Eight Generals of Wind Gate were defeated, although they were terrified, there seemed to be no real despair deep in their eyes, as if they still had an ace up their sleeve.
Furthermore, while the "Big Sister’s" words and actions were ruthless, her bearing and strategy were not those of a leader. She seemed more like an enforcer taking orders.
This had made him wary.
’If the Big Sister could disguise herself as an escorted Zhou Family Honored Guest, couldn’t the other escorted "Honored Guest" also be an infiltrator?’
This little test had indeed hooked a big fish.
Hearing this, the middle-aged man’s face instantly turned ugly.
He never imagined he would be exposed because of a baseless probe from his opponent.
After a moment of silence, he finally said, "Forget it... Wind Gate admits defeat on this job. We will do our best to find what you want. I ask that you show mercy."
"Words are cheap."
Chen Li smiled faintly. "You should leave me with a show of sincerity."
Before his voice had faded, the Qiankun Ruyi Staff in his hand suddenly erupted with a dazzling black light, enveloping the middle-aged man like a torrential storm.
Although the middle-aged man was also a Void Transformation Grandmaster, his Cultivation was a notch below Chen Li’s. Under Chen Li’s full-blown assault, he was immediately at a disadvantage.
His figure moved like a phantom, dodging and weaving around the small courtyard. His hands, shifting between palms and fingers, were unpredictable as he executed an extremely strange and nimble set of Freehand Martial Arts, repeatedly escaping the shroud of the staff’s shadow by a hair’s breadth.
Chen Li had already grasped the True Intent of the Qiankun Qi Wandering Dragon Staff Technique.
His Staff Intent dominated the field, forcefully breaking through all of the middle-aged man’s exquisite techniques one by one. The man could only barely hold on, his situation growing more perilous by the second.
On the verge of defeat, a trace of ruthlessness and determination flashed in the middle-aged man’s eyes.
He suddenly feinted, retreated several steps, and formed a bizarre and complex Hand Seal in front of his chest.
BUZZ!
A wave of Divine Sense fluctuation spread out from him as the center.
The next moment, a brilliant light shone from his glabella.
A solid, ethereal shadow of a Divine Soul stepped out and floated above his head.
As the Divine Soul shadow waved its hands, it transformed into thousands upon thousands of Divine Soul Threads, as fine as hairs and shimmering with a mesmerizing light, which then wound toward Chen Li like an inescapable net.
Chen Li felt the scene before his eyes change as he fell into a boundless Illusion Realm. The seven emotions and six desires surged toward him like a tide.
Joy, anger, sorrow, greed... all sorts of inner demons sprouted, eroding his consciousness.