Chapter 39

"How could he be gone..."

Liu Liu Yiyi's heart sank violently, as if gripped tightly by an invisible hand.

An old man of seventy, frail and decrepit, suddenly disappearing after the chaotic battle ended...

An ominous thought, like a poisonous snake, crawled out from the bottom of her heart, making her whole body cold.

"Could it be that Old Uncle Jiang was..."

After hesitating for a moment, Liu Liu Yiyi could only take a deep breath and walk to Liu Liu Qingshi's side with slightly heavy steps.

Liu Liu Qingshi was squatting beside Guo Wei, his hands covered in blood, using the torn lapel to wrap the wound at the severed arm tightly.

Guo Wei's face was as pale as paper, and he had already fallen into a semi-conscious state.

Liu Liu Qingshi's brows were locked, fine beads of sweat seeping from his temples, but the movements of his hands remained steady.

"Father." Liu Liu Yiyi's voice was very light, yet it carried an oppressive heaviness, "Old Uncle Jiang... is gone."

Liu Liu Qingshi's hands, which were wrapping the cloth, paused abruptly.

"What did you say?"

He raised his head abruptly, and in those eyes that were always as steady as a mountain, a rare look of mental confusion and disbelief appeared.

Even when he was fighting the ugly man from the Qisha Sect to the death not long ago, his expression had never fluctuated so violently.

"Old Jiang... is gone?!"

He stood up abruptly, not caring that his hands were still dripping blood, and turned to rush into the crowd.

His gaze was as sharp as a hawk's, sweeping over every face, every corner, and every shadow that might hide a person.

"Old Uncle Jiang is gone?!"

Su Yan also heard the news.

She had just experienced a bloody battle, her gentle face still carrying some disarray, her hair scattered, and a few spots of blood on her lapel.

Hearing Liu Liu Yiyi's words, she was slightly startled, and then she also helped Liu Liu Qingshi search all around.

But the result was the same as Liu Liu Yiyi's—nothing.

After several people searched repeatedly, it was finally confirmed that Jiang Ye had indeed disappeared.

"Father, I'm sorry, it's my fault for not protecting Old Uncle Jiang well."

Liu Liu Yiyi was full of self-reproach.

Liu Liu Qingshi shook his head silently.

He knew the situation just now was too chaotic, with hundreds of refugees rushing up together; it was already quite difficult for Liu Liu Yiyi to protect her mother Huang Huang Xiyu from harm.

"Sigh, those refugees are like beasts that have seen blood, killing whoever they see and robbing whoever they see."

Su Chen walked to the silent Liu Liu Qingshi and said in a deep voice: "In the short while just now, several of our Su family's servants were robbed in the chaos; Old Uncle Jiang is old and has difficulty walking, he might have been accidentally abducted by those thieves."

Hearing this, Liu Liu Qingshi's eyes narrowed, and he tapped his feet abruptly, his whole body like an arrow released from a bow, chasing wildly in the direction the refugees had fled.

"Hey—Brother Liu!!!"

Su Chen was stunned.

His intention in saying those words was to tell Liu Liu Qingshi that the old gatekeeper Jiang Ye was more likely than not doomed, to let him grieve and not delay the journey anymore.

He didn't expect Liu Liu Qingshi to chase after the refugees without hesitation.

This was not good.

Now that Guo Wei had lost an arm and was seriously injured, the person with the most combat power in the team was Liu Liu Qingshi.

He ran off to chase the refugees; wasn't this nonsense!

What if they ran into the demons of the Qisha Sect again!

"Brother Liu!!!"

Su Chen shouted sternly, wanting to call Liu Liu Qingshi back.

However, Liu Liu Qingshi's speed was truly too fast; in a few breaths, his figure gradually blurred in everyone's eyes.

"Hero... hero, spare my life!!!"

A disheveled refugee was lifted up by Liu Liu Qingshi with one hand, his face full of despair, begging tearfully:

"I haven't seen a seventy-year-old man from beginning to end!!!"

"And, when we rob people, we only rob women!!!"

Liu Liu Qingshi, who was always kind, looked coldly at the tearful refugee, only cold killing intent remaining in his eyes.

He slapped the refugee's head directly with his palm.

Bang!

A muffled sound.

The thick and domineering force directly blasted the refugee's body into meat paste.

Liu Liu Qingshi continued to chase forward unwillingly.

However, after catching more than a dozen fleeing refugees in succession, the answers he got from them were almost all the same.

No one had seen that seventy-year-old man, and no one had robbed him.

"Hero, spare my life... ah—!!!"

Accompanied by a piercing wail, another refugee was blasted into meat paste by Liu Liu Qingshi.

The pale blue clothes on Liu Liu Qingshi's body had already been splashed red by crimson blood, but the anger in his heart did not diminish in the slightest.

He stood silently in place for a long time, a look of guilt and pain appearing on his face, and he muttered in a deep voice:

"Old Jiang, you saved my life back then, but I..."

He really wanted to continue chasing.

However, the remaining reason told him he could not chase anymore.

Otherwise, without his protection, Liu Liu Yiyi and his wife, as well as the Su family's team, would be in danger.

"AH!!!!!!!!"

Finally, the guilt and pain on his face turned into a roar of unwillingness.

At the same time.

Under the cover of the night, Jiang Ye followed the direction the Qisha Sect demon had fled, neither slow nor fast.

His figure was like a spirit deer traveling through the mountain forest, every step as light as if treading on clouds, landing without sound, not even disturbing the withered grass.

His aura was completely restrained, as if he had merged with heaven and earth; this was the deer-form true intent he had realized not long ago—Startled Deer Leaves No Trace.

Just at the moment the chaotic battle broke out, he had taken advantage of the chaos to quietly break away from the team and hide in the darkness.

This was not a spur-of-the-moment decision, but a retreat he had planned in his heart as early as when Liu Liu Qingshi said he would go to the prefecture city with the Su family.

The reason was simple: on the surface, he was just a frail, seventy-year-old gatekeeper.

He had the strength of a Transformation of Force martial artist but could not display it in front of others.

He couldn't tell Liu Liu Qingshi that he had become a Transformation of Force expert half a month after getting the Five Animals Fist manual from him.

Such an unbelievable progress could not be explained by common sense, and the secret of the Ladder to Divinity was his greatest reliance for surviving in this chaotic world; it must never be exposed to anyone.

Therefore, hiding in the chaos and moving from the light to the dark was the best choice.

In this way, he could lurk in the dark, both protecting Liu Liu Qingshi's family from afar and deciding whether to strike based on the situation.

Advancing to attack and retreating to defend, it was countless times more flexible than following the team openly.

In the fierce battle just now, he had seen it clearly from the dark.

The ugly man from the Qisha Sect had been seriously injured by Liu Liu Qingshi's punch and fled while vomiting blood.

Jiang Ye knew this was prey that absolutely could not be let go.

If he were allowed to escape and report back, he would definitely bring more Qisha Sect demons.

Moreover, this guy had been doing evil all the way, and he must have accumulated quite a bit of ill-gotten wealth.

In this chaotic world, silver and elixirs were strength; how could one not take resources delivered to one's door?

Regardless of the considerations, this person had to die by his hand!

Deep in the wilderness, in a sparse small mountain forest.

Moonlight spilled through the gaps in the branches and leaves, casting mottled light and shadows on the ground.

The man with the short stature and a face as ugly as a night owl stumbled into the forest and collapsed in a dense patch of wild grass, gasping for air.

The depression on his back from Liu Liu Qingshi's punch was shocking, and every breath tugged at the wound, bringing out a mouthful of filthy blood mixed with blood foam.

"Damn it, I really misjudged today; there was actually a ruthless character among this flock of fat sheep."

He gritted his teeth and caught his breath, spitting out another mouthful of blood foam.

If he hadn't practiced hard-body training and had a physical strength far exceeding ordinary people, Liu Liu Qingshi's punch could have broken his spine directly.

"It's all the fault of that damn Black Old Five for not coming to meet me; otherwise, if the two of us joined forces, what fat sheep couldn't we eat!"

The ugly man cursed with an ugly expression, "That lecherous glutton, he must be playing with women somewhere right now."

"I'd better wait until my injuries are better before going to find him... as for those fat sheep, don't even think about running away!"

The ugly man carefully took out a jade porcelain bottle from his bosom and poured out a red elixir.

As soon as this elixir appeared, a foul, bloody stench permeated the surrounding air.

The ugly man brought the elixir to his nose and took a deep breath of the foul scent; a look of intoxication actually appeared on his face, as if it were not a foul stench but the most beautiful fragrance in the world.

Even the pain in his back seemed to have eased a bit in that one breath.

"This is the taste..."

He muttered, opened his mouth, swallowed the elixir, and was about to gulp it down.

Suddenly.

BOOM!

A sharp sound of breaking air that almost tore the air apart suddenly exploded behind his head.

The ugly man didn't even have time to look back before a withered, thin fist smashed fiercely into the back of his head.

Bang!

A muffled sound.

His head was unusually hard, and this fierce punch failed to blast it open directly.

However, sometimes, being tough meant suffering greater torture.

Two bloody eyeballs were shaken out of their sockets by that force, rolling onto the ground with blood threads and broken tendons, covered in withered leaves and mud.

This scene was eerie and chilling.

"AH!!!"

A piercing scream that didn't sound human tore through the silence of the night.

The ugly man covered his empty eye sockets with both hands, his whole body falling forward as if his bones had been pulled out, rolling crazily on the ground.

That blood elixir, which he hadn't had time to swallow, rolled out of his wide-open mouth, covered in blood and filth, and rolled deep into the grass.

At this moment, besides unimaginable pain and rage, what he felt most was overwhelming fear and despair.

He had practiced hard-body training for many years, and his five senses were far sharper than ordinary people's; even a top expert at the peak of the Transformation of Force could not have approached within three zhang behind him without being detected.

He instinctively wanted to look back, wanting to see that face clearly.

But he no longer had eyes, destined to never know what the person who killed him looked like.

"Oh? His head is actually this hard!"

Seeing that the opponent's head could withstand his punch, a strange look flashed in Jiang Ye's aged eyes, and then he swung two more punches without hesitation.

Bang! Bang!

Two muffled thunder-like sounds.

The ugly man's incomparably hard head finally could no longer support itself and exploded with a bang.

That ugly shell twitched a few times and finally returned to silence.

After killing the person, Jiang Ye began to loot the corpse cleanly and efficiently.

"Huh, this is..."

Jiang Ye reached out and pulled two manuals hidden close to the ugly man's heart.

One was "Blood Moon Blade," the strokes sharp and carrying a bloody aura.

One was "Diamond Body-Refining Technique," the handwriting ancient and heavy.

A flash of brilliance immediately appeared in Jiang Ye's aged eyes.