Chapter 156: Entanglement

Wu Xiang Lao Ren heard this, his gaze narrowing slightly.

He had naturally not seen Xu Qingcang and the others during the day; the reason he sought them out was purely because they were unlucky and happened to fall into his hands.

In fact, after traveling continuously for several days in pursuit, he only reached the opposite bank of the Dahe River tonight.

Later, hearing several martial artists on the shore discussing it, he learned of the incident where Li Musheng and his carriage crossed the Dahe River during the day.

Afterwards, he followed the tracks to this Zhanlu Manor.

He had originally planned to capture Li Musheng tonight, but before he could even make a move, he happened to encounter Shen Juesheng suddenly striking out.

Thus, he had no choice but to temporarily extinguish the thought of making a move at Zhanlu Manor tonight.

"Then tell me, how do you intend to help this old man?"

Wu Xiang Lao Ren squinted at Xu Qingcang and asked leisurely.

At the same time, his fingers hooked lightly, and Xu Qingcang found the restriction of the true energy threads on his body loosening slightly.

Seeing this, the pale-faced Xu Qingcang's eyes shifted, and he said:

"Please, senior, inform this junior of what you wish to do; this junior will surely do his utmost to assist the senior."

At a spot on the bank of a tributary of the Dahe River dozens of zhang away from the entire Zhanlu Manor, Shen Liancheng and Ruan Zhenhui and her daughter, who had followed one after another, all stopped their forms.

The three looked at the tributary in front of them where the river water was slowly receding, each showing an unusual expression.

At this moment, the entire riverbank had actually been pierced by a huge hole, and the river water was leaking out through the hole, pouring down towards a forested area at a slightly lower elevation; visible to the naked eye, the water level in the river was continuously dropping.

A shock and horror surfaced in Shen Liancheng's eyes; it was hard to imagine that his father, whose martial arts cultivation was so terrifying, had been punched out of the entire manor by a single fist, and even smashed a hole through the Dahe River outside the manor!

"How could he be so strong!"

Li Musheng's excessively young face inexplicably surfaced in his mind; Shen Liancheng felt only disbelief and an uncontrollable sense of post-fear and terror.

At this time, he recalled what Li Musheng had said before—that killing him would be as easy as turning over one's hand—and thought of how he had previously dared to attempt to draw his blade against him.

If Shen Juesheng had not appeared at the critical moment to stop him, he would probably have already lost his life by now.

After all, he did not possess Shen Juesheng's profound martial arts cultivation and could not possibly block that seemingly ordinary punch from the other party.

"Father!"

Thinking of this, Shen Liancheng immediately leaped down without hesitation, jumping into the surging river below.

Not long after, a shocking blade light slashed out from the river bottom, breaking through the surging water surface and stirring up a wave of towering waves.

Immediately, Shen Liancheng, holding Shen Juesheng who was covered in mud, suddenly burst out, and in a few leaps, he returned to the shore.

Seeing this, Ruan Zhenhui and Shen Anran hurriedly rushed over to check the situation.

At this moment, Shen Liancheng's face looked ugly; he simply sat down immediately and exerted all his strength to circulate his martial arts true energy, striking out two red true energy rainbows to transfer true energy into Shen Juesheng to save him.

However, in the next moment, Shen Liancheng's expression suddenly changed drastically.

He was preparing to withdraw his true energy and retreat, but he was simply too late.

His entire body was violently shaken away by a terrifying power exploding from within Shen Juesheng's body, smashing directly into the river below, and he did not surface for half a day.

Seeing this, Ruan Zhenhui and Shen Anran nearby were both startled.

After reacting, Shen Anran was about to jump into the river to save her father, when at this time, Shen Juesheng finally opened his eyes very weakly.

His eyes were full of shocked disbelief, and he opened his mouth in horror:

"In all my life, I have never seen such a terrifying punch!"

"Father, you are awake?"

Shen Liancheng, covered in a mess, broke through the water surface, leaped up with a pale face, and hurriedly came to Shen Juesheng's side.

Seeing that he had awakened, he finally felt relieved, then suddenly coughed violently several times, actually coughing up several mouthfuls of fresh blood on the spot.

Obviously, he had been counterattacked by the power from within Shen Juesheng's body just now and had also suffered severe injuries.

However, he had clearly been too relieved too early; after coughing a few times, he looked up.

He saw that after Shen Juesheng spoke one sentence, he suddenly rolled his eyes back and lost all sound on the spot.

Shen Liancheng was startled, hurriedly checked Shen Juesheng's condition, and found that he had merely exhausted his internal true energy and fainted due to the severity of his injuries; only then did he barely breathe a sigh of relief.

But at this moment, he dared not rashly transfer true energy into him again, so he could only plan to first take Shen Juesheng back into the manor to heal his injuries.

However, as he was leaving, he suddenly stopped his steps and looked back at Ruan Zhenhui and Shen Anran.

Finally, his gaze fell upon Shen Anran; after remaining silent for a while, he said:

"Anran, you have always said that in this life you only wish to marry the most outstanding man in the entire martial world; you have seen what happened tonight, and I believe you should have a choice."

Having said this, Shen Liancheng sighed, looked at Ruan Zhenhui one last time, but did not say anything more.

From beginning to end, he did not speak to reprimand her for secretly meeting Hu Rui'an, after all, Hu Rui'an was on the same side as Li Musheng.

Then, Shen Liancheng turned around, carrying Shen Juesheng, and headed into the manor, while Ruan Zhenhui and Shen Anran exchanged a glance, but remained silent looking at each other.

Li Musheng and Hu Rui'an walked back to the courtyard where they were temporarily staying; along the way, Hu Rui'an wanted to speak many times but held back, having many questions he wanted to ask Li Musheng.

However, as soon as he thought of that punch with which the other party had sent Shen Juesheng flying, a deep sense of awe inexplicably arose in his heart, so all words were stuck in his throat, and he dared not ask.

Finally, after hesitating for a long time, Hu Rui'an still did not dare to ask Li Musheng anything, so he could only talk about his past with Ruan Zhenhui on his own, which was also a voluntary confession of what he had done tonight, giving Li Musheng an explanation.

Li Musheng was not originally interested in this matter, but after listening idly for a while, he roughly understood the emotional entanglement between the two.

In general, this involved obstacles brought about by family prejudice, such as poor families against poor families, and rich families against rich families.

There were also grudges and vendettas from the martial world that forced the lovers Hu Rui'an and Ruan Zhenhui to separate.

Back then, Hu Rui'an and Ruan Zhenhui had loved each other and pledged their lives to one another, but Ruan Zhenhui's father despised Hu Rui'an's family for falling on hard times and was unwilling to marry his daughter to the other party, who was penniless at the time.

During this period, Shen Liancheng of Zhanlu Manor appeared and inserted himself; although Ruan Zhenhui had no feelings for him, the Ruan family had unfortunately gotten involved with a martial arts enemy at that time.

That enemy had some connection with a very powerful assassin organization in the martial world called the Soul-Chasing Hall, so they hired assassins from the Soul-Chasing Hall in an attempt to destroy the Ruan family.

Regarding this, Ruan Zhenhui was unaware of the situation, and her father, in order to attach himself to Shen Juesheng, the master of Zhanlu Manor who was famous throughout the martial world at the time, to save the Ruan family, secretly found Hu Rui'an, informed him of the matter, and ordered him to leave Ruan Zhenhui.

Hu Rui'an, unwilling to put Ruan Zhenhui in a difficult position, ruthlessly severed ties with her and traveled far to the capital of Great Li to join the Tianjin Guard.

"At that time, I had no choice; the assassin organization of the Soul-Chasing Hall was far too powerful. If my personal feelings for my cousin had caused the Ruan family to be exterminated, or even led to my cousin's death, I could never have done that."

Hu Rui'an sighed; perhaps recalling the past, his emotions were momentarily unsettled, and at this moment, his fear and tension toward Li Musheng had unknowingly diminished slightly.

Then, Hu Rui'an seemed to get carried away and continued:

"After I joined the Tianjin Guard, I held a grudge against the Soul-Chasing Hall because of this matter, so I kept investigating this assassin organization, intending to find an opportunity to destroy it."

"However, over ten years ago, the Soul-Chasing Hall apparently offended a certain power in the Jianghu, and in a single night it nearly collapsed; only in recent years has it seemed to rise again."

Hearing Hu Rui'an's words, Li Musheng made no further comment, but inwardly felt that the separation between Hu Rui'an and Ruan Zhenhui was actually not a bad thing.

After all, marriage between cousins is illegal and easily produces deformed children with genetic defects; such backward, feudal marriages should be stopped in the first place.

One can only say that Ruan Zhenhui's father, though with ill intentions, did a good deed.

Therefore, Li Musheng could not empathize with Hu Rui'an; he was only slightly interested in the assassin organization, the Soul-Chasing Hall, that Hu Rui'an mentioned.

This was because he still possessed a Hidden Kill Token from another Jianghu assassin organization, the Hidden Kill Pavilion.

According to Cang Yin Yue, he had held the Hidden Kill Token for some time, so the Hidden Kill Pavilion should, by all rights, have made a move against him.

But for some reason, the other side's assassins did not seem very professional and had made no move at all.

However, Li Musheng did not think much of this.

After all, since leaving Shangyang City, he had been traveling nonstop; perhaps the other side's assassins were still on the road and had not yet caught up with him.

Not long after, the two of them returned to the courtyard where they were staying.

At this time, Cao Gaoshan and the others, after taking the antidote for Drunken Immortal Death, had almost completely expelled the poison from their bodies and had already recovered their martial arts cultivation, able to move freely.

And upon seeing the two of them return safely, everyone heaved a heavy sigh of relief.

After all, Shen Juesheng's move just now was truly terrifying, and they had clearly been poisoned and ambushed by the Zhanlu Manor, obviously belonging to the opposing side.

At that time, although Cao Gaoshan and Wu Shang and the others had already been detoxified, they all suspected they would inevitably perish at the hands of the Zhanlu Manor and could not possibly escape.

It was only because Hu Rui'an and Li Musheng were not there that they could only stay in the courtyard and wait and see without moving.

"How should we respond to the Zhanlu Manor next? Please give us your instructions, my lord."

Wu Shang immediately came to Hu Rui'an's side and asked in a low voice.

Li Musheng had eliminated several of the manor's stewards at that time; Wu Shang and the others were still unconscious and thus had not seen him act.

And in Wu Shang's eyes, naturally, Hu Rui'an, who possessed the highest martial arts cultivation among the group, should still be the mainstay.

However, to his surprise, Hu Rui'an did not answer his question but instead looked at Li Musheng with extreme respect, clearly seeking the other's opinion.

To this, Li Musheng merely waved his hand, said nothing more, and returned to his own room, as if he simply had no interest in dealing with these matters.

Seeing this, Hu Rui'an felt relieved and said to Wu Shang and the others:

"Rest assured; do not overthink anything. We will continue on the road tomorrow."

With a master like Li Musheng present, even Shen Juesheng had been knocked flying; what else was there to fear?

At this moment, Hu Rui'an felt an unprecedented sense of security, although this security came from the Eighth Imperial Prince, who was unknown how many years younger than himself, making him feel inexplicably ashamed.

But a little shame was nothing; as long as he could cling to such a powerful leg, what did it matter?

Indeed, Hu Rui'an suddenly recalled how Shangguan Qingqing had addressed Li Musheng before, and his heart became inexplicably unsettled, unable to stop overthinking:

"Could the Eighth Imperial Prince truly be the number one under heaven?"

"With a single punch he knocked Shen Juesheng flying; his martial arts cultivation must at least be among the top-tier Heavenly Dao experts in the Jianghu."

"No wonder he resolutely joined the plan to eradicate the Falling God Peak; however... the Falling God Peak has unfathomable foundations and many martial arts experts; can he alone, on this journey, truly turn the situation around?"

Hu Rui'an's mind was filled with a thousand thoughts; originally, for this journey to the Falling God Peak, he had almost accepted the plan to die.

Otherwise, he would not have broken his promise and come to the Zhanlu Manor to secretly see Ruan Zhenhui one last time.

And just now, after witnessing Li Musheng's true strength, a glimmer of hope had undoubtedly ignited in his heart.

But the Falling God Peak, as one of the leaders of the Jianghu, dominating the Jianghu for hundreds of years, was far from comparable to a mere Zhanlu Manor.

At this moment, he could not determine whether just Li Musheng and the Tianjin Guard could destroy it.

For a moment, Hu Rui'an's heart became somewhat anxious about gains and losses; after speaking, he had no mind to talk further with Wu Shang and the others, and weighed down by worries, returned to his own room.

Wu Shang and the others, seeing this scene, all had strange expressions, because Hu Rui'an's attitude toward Li Musheng had obviously changed from before.

They even seemed to sense a hidden fear from Hu Rui'an, a fear toward Li Musheng that was unconsciously revealed.

At this moment, a question floated up in everyone's mind: what exactly had happened while they were poisoned and being detoxified?

The difference was that Cao Gaoshan's expression shifted slightly; looking toward the room where Li Musheng was, he vaguely thought of something, but was not certain.

And Murong Xiaoya's eyes flickered; she seemed to have confirmed a certain thought in her heart, and for a moment was utterly stunned and somewhat incredulous.

She stood there, dazed for a moment, very much wanting to ask Hu Rui'an, but hesitated for quite a while, and finally timidly shrank back her head and returned to her own room.

After all, making a socially anxious person speak up voluntarily requires courage that is simply immeasurable.

The remaining Wu Shang and Cheng Zhong exchanged a glance; both appeared somewhat bewildered, as if they had caught a thread of the clue, but for a moment could not quite sort it out.

Helplessly, the two could only continue to stay in the courtyard to keep watch through the night.

Thus, the night passed; the entire Zhanlu Manor was very calm, and nothing happened anywhere within the manor.

When the sky brightened and the morning sun first rose.

Wu Shang and the others packed their luggage, did not even bother to eat breakfast, and went to the manor to retrieve the stored carriages and horses, preparing to continue on the road.

Hu Rui'an had left early in the morning, no one knew when or where, and only returned just as they were about to depart.

He knew this matter could not be hidden from Li Musheng, so upon returning to the courtyard, he explained proactively:

"This subordinate has settled some private matters; from now on, we can set off without any hindrance."

Li Musheng did not care about this, waved his hand, and then directed his gaze toward the outside of the courtyard.

At this moment, early in the morning, a figure had come outside.

(End of this chapter)