Chapter 60

"Don't rush, get up and tell me what happened."

Shopkeeper Wan's expression was solemn, and he ordered someone to help the man up.

Li Yan had seen this person before; he was a craftsman working in the village. Seeing that something had happened, he couldn't leave, so he stood by and watched.

After the man was helped up, his legs were still weak, his face was pale, and he didn't care about the blood flowing from his forehead, trembling:

"Zhuzi was leading a few children to cut grass at the edge of the village. According to the children who ran back, a peddler came from the official road, scattering candy everywhere, tricking the children into saying their names."

"After the children ate the candy, they fell into a coma. It was the villagers passing by who woke them up, but after waking up, Zhuzi had already been abducted."

"Uncle Wan, my family has only this one seedling. If he's lost, how can I answer to the ancestors?"

As he spoke, he wailed loudly.

The carpenters around were furious upon hearing this.

"The damn thief, daring to abduct people in the village!"

"Go, he shouldn't have gone far, let's search!"

"If we find him, we'll definitely peel his skin!"

Everyone was angry and wanted to go out to search.

"What are you panicking about?!"

One of the old carpenters scolded, "Uncle Wan hasn't spoken yet. Even if it's a human trafficker from Xianyang City, with one word from Uncle Wan, he can make them obediently send the person back!"

Everyone was reminded, and only then did they remember Shopkeeper Wan's identity.

Shopkeeper Wan nodded. "Ershun, Shuanzi, you take some gifts, take my visiting card, and go to the employment agency in the city and the beggar's nest in the west, and have them find the person."

"Speak politely, follow the rules of the martial world."

"Yes, Master!"

Two carpenters immediately stepped out and prepared to leave.

"Doing this, I fear we won't be able to find the person."

Suddenly, a voice came from the crowd.

Everyone turned to look; it was Sha Lifei.

Sha Lifei laughed, scratched his bald head, and arched his hands. "Shopkeeper Wan is righteous, so I have something to say and can't hold it back. If I say it wrong, please forgive me."

Shopkeeper Wan nodded. "Speak."

Sha Lifei looked at everyone. "Old Sha has wandered the martial world and seen quite a few evil ways."

"This kind of flower-snatching and child-abducting happens everywhere, but they usually pick the clever and sharp ones, the young ones, so they can sell them for a good price."

"But this peddler asked for names first, clearly prepared."

"Moreover, mixing in the roads of Xianyang, how could he not know the reputation of Shangyi Village? So it's mostly revenge. Looking for human traffickers and beggars is useless!"

"Brother Sha's words are reasonable!"

Shopkeeper Wan frowned, stood up abruptly, turned around, and suddenly saw Li Yan beside him. He was overjoyed and hurriedly arched his hands. "Almost forgot Little Brother Li's supernatural ability. This matter still needs to trouble you."

Li Yan arched his hands. "Easy to say, I need a fast horse, and something the child carried with him!"

"Quick, lead the horse!"

"Shuanzi, go get the item."

Soon, someone led over a date-red horse and handed over a small wooden sword.

He didn't waste words, grabbed his blade and the small wooden sword, and leaped onto the horse.

"Giddyup!"

With a shake of the reins, the date-red horse ran out of the courtyard.

The sound of hooves accompanied by dust soon disappeared from everyone's sight...

…………

Within a few breaths, Li Yan arrived at the edge of the village, pinched the Yang Seal to sniff, immediately turned the horse's head, and galloped along the official road.

The scent left by the child was very faint, perhaps he had already been stuffed into a bag.

But this still couldn't escape his Nose Supernatural Ability.

Following that faint scent, Li Yan galloped on the horse and, before long, saw Xianyang City in the distance.

He gritted his teeth and accelerated instead.

The current Xianyang City was very dangerous for him, but some things that had to be done must be done.

Shopkeeper Wan treated him with sincerity, and his blade was never afraid of killing!

However, after arriving at the fork in the road leading to Xianyang City, that scent turned and headed in another direction.

Li Yan directly turned the horse's head, but a flash of doubt crossed his brow.

This direction led to Menggu Village.

That place was quite famous, not because of any mountain or river scenery, but because it participated in the Maitreya Sect uprising back then, and the entire village was razed by the imperial army.

There were several such villages in Guanzhong.

More than ten years of time had not smoothed over the scars, and even various absurd stories of ghost villages and vengeful spirits had spread, and no villagers dared to move into the village.

Could it be that it had been occupied by human traffickers?

Li Yan was curious and urged the horse to accelerate.

And halfway there, that scent turned again, deviating from the main road and deep into the wild grass.

Li Yan directly turned the horse's head and rushed into the grass. Not long after, he encountered a small river.

The small river was not deep. He rode the horse across, and that scent disappeared completely.

Li Yan frowned, activated the Yang Seal, and took a deep breath.

"Damn, cunning beast!"

He cursed, turned the horse's head again, and galloped. It was that the human trafficker had walked a stretch in the river and returned to the shore from another direction, continuing toward the deserted village.

If it were an ordinary tracking method, I fear they would have been deceived by this little trick, but for the supernatural ability of a Mystic Sect member, it was completely useless.

Sure enough, after traveling another few hundred meters and crossing a yellow dirt slope, two figures appeared on the road ahead.

A woman was driving a donkey cart, the cart piled high with hay.

There was also a peddler carrying a wooden box on his back, which had many compartments, inserted with kites, candied haws, clay figurines, and other items, dazzling to the eyes.

The peddler was also holding a rattle-drum, whispering to the woman.

Hearing the sound of hooves, the two immediately turned their heads, their eyes full of vigilance.

Li Yan's heart stirred. He arched his hands and shouted, "You two, please stay, I want to ask for directions."

As he spoke, he secretly pressed the horse's belly, his speed not decreasing.

"Easy to say, where does the gentleman want to go?"

!.

The peddler stopped and turned around; he was a kind-looking young man.

Although his face was full of fawning, his right hand reached toward his waist. Suddenly, his body twisted, his right arm swung, and an iron arrow half a foot long whistled out, straight toward Li Yan's brow.

Flicking Arrow!

At this moment, the distance between the two sides had already closed to less than ten meters.

The force of this peddler's hidden weapon was not small. If it were an ordinary person, I fear they would have been hit.

However, Li Yan had activated his supernatural ability and had long since smelled the scent of iron. At the moment the arrow was flicked, he leaned to the side and tumbled off the horse's back.

It looked like he had fallen off the horse by accident, but with a cat-like flip in the air, he had already landed steadily on the ground, keeping his body low, his blade horizontal, and charged out from behind the horse.

And in the peddler's eyes, Li Yan had suddenly disappeared, and then the date-red horse came galloping toward him.

The startled horse had the force of a thousand *jun*. The peddler had no choice but to dodge.

But the horse had just passed when a blade light whistled toward him.

Damn!

The peddler was shocked and hurriedly retreated.

However, that blade light was like a maggot on a bone, getting closer and closer to his neck.

"Take this!"

Just as the peddler was terrified, the woman on the donkey cart suddenly jumped up, a meteor hammer spinning in her hand. She pressed down with her left leg, and the sharp cone in front whistled toward Li Yan.

Li Yan dodged, and at the same time, framed it with his Guanshan Dao. The meteor hammer changed direction and wrapped around the blade edge with a *whoosh*.

"Come here!"

Li Yan exerted his strength and pulled backward.

The woman was still in mid-air and immediately lost her balance, falling to the ground with a *plop*, covered in dust, and the meteor hammer in her hand also flew out of her grasp.

On the other side, the peddler had dodged the fatal blade, rolled on the ground, and after getting up, he already had several flicking arrows in his hands. He waved both hands, and the iron arrows whistled over.

For ordinary people dodging hidden weapons, the difficulty undoubtedly lay in the body not being able to keep up with the eyes.

Powerful experts could listen to the wind to distinguish positions, or even have their heart and hands act as one, their body moving with their intent, using weapons to block, or simply catching them and throwing them back.

And Li Yan, relying on his powerful sense of smell, could not be deceived by any movement within a hundred meters, so naturally, he was even more relaxed and could dodge them without even looking.

*Ding, ding, ding! *

His Guanshan Dao blocked left and right, immediately knocking away all the flicking arrows, and at the same time, his speed did not decrease as he charged toward the peddler.

Seeing Li Yan entangling him like a malevolent ghost, the peddler felt his scalp go numb, knowing he had encountered a hard nut to crack. He pulled two daggers from his back waist and shrieked, "The target is hard, fight together!"

Having said that, he rolled forward, his legs bent, and pounced forward, the daggers stabbing toward Li Yan's abdomen.

And the woman pulled a white wax spear from the hay, shook her arms, and spear flowers bloomed, shining toward Li Yan's head.

Ground-Lying Blade, Pear Blossom Spear!

Li Yan immediately identified their styles.

Although these two hadn't practiced dark energy, they cooperated tacitly and their methods were sinister. They were clearly not ordinary human traffickers, but mostly "Ge-door" practitioners who worked alone.

To put it plainly, they were the "Ge-door" of the Eight Dark Sects.

Whether they were martial arts assassins, thugs, lone thieves, or lecherous thieves, as long as they were engaged in illegal activities relying on martial arts, they were all Ge-door.

These two clearly knew Li Yan was difficult to deal with and did not show any mercy in their attacks.

The peddler rolled left and right on the ground, his movement style strange and nimble. "Dog Biting Zongzi," "Back-Carrying Sickle," "Mid-Air Reverse Shear"—every move was faster than the last. The daggers coordinated with his leg techniques, like a whirlwind rising from the ground, dust flying everywhere.

And the woman, whose martial arts were clearly a notch lower, had her Pear Blossom Spear rolling up and down, spear flowers exploding. Nine parts were fake, one part was real, mainly for interference, but every time she thrust the spear, it was solid, inevitably coordinating with the peddler to form a killing move.

Li Yan blocked left and dodged right, seemingly retreating step by step, but his eyes became colder and colder, like a beast suppressing its momentum.

Finally, a flaw appeared in the coordination of the two.

The woman's long spear was a step too fast.

Li Yan immediately changed shoulders with a side turn, and while raising his blade to slash, he jumped backward.

*Clang! *

The blade light flashed, and the woman's white wax spear was immediately chopped in two.

At the same time, the peddler also rolled, his daggers intersecting and thrusting upward, performing a "Horse-Stabbing Thrust."

Li Yan retreated, just dodging it. Immediately after, his left leg exerted force, dark energy erupted, and his right leg kicked forward.

"Go to your mother's!"

*Crack! *

The peddler's head was kicked directly back to his spine. He didn't even make a sound, fell to the ground, and stopped moving.

*Slap! *

Seeing this, the woman's face turned pale. Just as she was about to beg for mercy, she was slapped by Li Yan, rolled to the ground, and fainted with darkness before her eyes.

Li Yan stepped forward and pushed aside the hay.

Inside, the three children were all flushed and fast asleep...

(End of chapter)