Chapter 52

The long night has already arrived; he descended upon Dao Li State, bringing people tranquility and profundity, slowly leading them into dreamland.

But those two could not sleep at all; that was their trial, and also the first open clash in their struggle to seize the kingdom's treasure.

Wang You did not want to stay in this temporary palace; the last time Feng Yan returned, he was already covered in wounds, his heart clearly pierced, yet miraculously no scar remained. After they disappeared that night, they had no wounds at all! They could not see that they were seriously injured people; they still had vitality, at least in their view, their adventurer was a messenger sent by the gods, they would not die! But why? Since that time they stopped disappearing, Wang You has felt worried, but she does not know how to express it, as if she had lost her former memories!

Wang You couldn't sleep; she opened the door and saw Feng Yan leaning on the pillar outside, head raised gazing at the sky. Hearing the door creak open, Feng Yan knew it was Wang You and directly said to her: 'I know you want to come with me, but I cannot let a girl like you go on an adventure.'

Wang You then sat hugging her knees; the wind blew past the hair on both sides of her head, she swept the wind-blown hair behind her ears, nodded, and replied: 'I know, Adventurer Sir, but I truly want to be with the two of you, to contribute my modest strength and help you.'

'Hahaha, I know.' Feng Yan laughed, then turned his head and said, 'I remember you are a dance girl, right?'

'Yes.' the dance girl replied.

'That's enough; just wait honestly for our return, then offer a victory dance, and that will suffice.' Feng Yan stood up, then bowed his waist toward Wang You, extended his right hand, and said: 'Let's go outside the Wanggong to have a look at those so-called wealthy families.'

Wang You took hold of Feng Yan's outstretched hand, and he pulled her up; then they went out together.

'Sigh, this guy, you're just going out to play like that? Really, I even prepared a plan for you, but forget it—with our abilities, taking it down would still take some effort, though the problem probably isn't big; so I'll give you a vacation, go out and have fun properly!' Chen Hao stood on the roof, looking at their departure with one eye open and one closed, speaking teasingly.

'However!' Chen Hao opened the closed eye, looked around, seeing that it was nothing but the Prince's spies monitoring them, and continued: 'Just in case, I'd better follow up!'

After Chen Hao left, a soldier ran straight into the Prince's palace and reported to the Prince: 'Your Highness Prince, those two have indeed come out of the temporary palace, just as Lord Yang Xin predicted!'

The Prince had several women attending him; he embraced left and right, looking extremely content, but his heart had long harbored hatred toward the adventurer, the Prince of the Giant State, the humiliation of that day's Prince Consort selection, and even more outrageous was that he actually let a proper prince of a state wash his feet! He had long held this resentment; the bounty hunters he initially hired were all skilled assassins, yet when they encountered Feng Yan and Chen Hao, they all suffered crushing defeats. This time he directly hired four; upon hearing the soldier's report, the Prince excitedly stood up, then slapped the head of one of the women, her head striking the chair with a thud; the woman wanted to speak, but seeing the Prince's expression, the words she wanted to say were swallowed hard into her stomach.

Only seeing the Prince's eyes light up, as if he had received some major news, he quickly gathered the soldiers and said: 'Go inform the top four of the bounty hunter chiefs to encircle and exterminate the adventurer Feng Yan for me!'

Although it was night, the crowd of Li State people was still huge; Feng Yan pulled Wang You over to a food stall, Wang You stared intently at something, Feng Yan saw it was a skewer of mutton, the skewer was cooked to medium-well, giving off a tempting aroma; the stall owner looked at the two of them, broke into an enthusiastic smile, and asked: 'You two, would you like to try my mutton skewers?'

Feng Yan nodded and smiled: 'Yeah, boss, how much for this?'

'This one, just three silver coins will do,' the owner said enthusiastically.

Now Feng Yan was in a bind—he only had gold ingots and gold bricks, no silver coins at hand, and he didn't know what to do for a moment; the owner rubbed his hands, smiling, and asked: 'You two, do you have some trouble?'

Feng Yan felt a bit embarrassed, took out a small piece of gold, and said: 'I only have gold, no silver coins. How about this: I give you the gold, and you see how many mutton skewers you can sell for it.'

Saying that, he took out a piece of gold from his pocket and handed it to the owner; the owner bit the gold to verify it was genuine, then smiled and said: 'Sirs, tell me what you want to eat, and if our stall can make it, I'll whip it up for you.'

'All right,' Feng Yan replied, then took all the mutton skewers from the stall and handed them to Wang You, continuing: 'Eat.'

Wang You took the big handful of mutton skewers from Feng Yan's hand and ate them bite by bite; Feng Yan tore into them with big mouthfuls, and soon only a few skewer sticks remained in his hand. Seeing that there was nothing left, they prepared to return to the stall, but before he could get there, a flying dart shot straight at Feng Yan's face!

Feng Yan was first startled, then the Black Sword knocked the dart to the ground; Feng Yan gripped the sword with his right hand, knowing trouble had arisen at the stall. He looked around—since they were in a bustling market area, the lighting was still enough to see things—then Feng Yan saw four black-clad masked figures leap out from above!

'Wang You!' Feng Yan shouted, then shoved Wang You aside; the masked men drew their weapons, and Feng Yan knew he could not dodge this time. He grabbed the Black Sword and thrust it at one of them; the sword pierced the black-clad masked man's body and did not stop, then he turned and slashed at the other three, wounding them all so they fell to the ground. Feng Yan landed, grabbed one man's clothing, and demanded: 'Speak—who sent you?'

The man in black said, "It is…," but before he could finish, an arrow flew straight into his heart; the man in black spat blood and died.

Feng Yan followed the arrow's direction, he recognized who it was, placed the corpses of the black‑clothed masked men on the ground, and said, "Yang Xin, then let's have some fun tomorrow!"

In the darkness, Chen Hao watched Feng Yan and Wang You; he saw Feng Yan eliminate all the small fry and laughed, "Looks like you don't need me, those few people of each rank won't dare to come out, since they know deep down they'll be killed outright if they appear. Then I'll head back first." After speaking, he prepared to return to the palace.

Wang You glanced at the corpses on the ground, then said, "Let's go back." After speaking, turned and walked away, and Feng Yan followed behind.

On the other side, the top four bounty hunters. They saw several bounty hunters killed in an instant, their eyes widened, and one of them said, "This way we're just sending ourselves to death; that Feng Yan is too terrifying!"

"No, we must kill him, but only after he obtains the treasure!" the third bounty hunter said, "Then… let's go, everyone, for the highest bounty!"