Chapter 147: The Hunt

After An Ziyang stepped into the secret passage, he smelled a thick, heavy scent of blood.

He crouched down and wiped the ground, feeling a thin layer stuck to the floor with his fingertips. It crumbled at a touch, the skin sticking to his fingers, with a gelatinous layer underneath that smeared across his fingertips.

His heart sank.

An Ziyang naturally knew this was dried blood.

Just looking at the amount of blood on the ground, it was no less than the total blood of three or four people. And this was just the corridor, far from the place where they were actually being held and interrogated.

It seemed that most of the people in the house who had been replaced were in grave danger. The decisiveness and ruthlessness of the Ming Sect's actions were evident.

Fortunately, after seeing Li Miao today, An Ziyang had already made plans to run, and he carried all his life-saving gear on him. As long as he didn't face more than three first-rate experts at once, he still had the power to protect himself.

An Ziyang moved forward carefully.

A moment later, he reached a secret chamber.

He pressed his ear against the door panel and heard intermittent cries for help from inside; it should be the An family members held there.

*Boom! *

A loud noise came from overhead, and dust fell from the ceiling of the secret passage.

An Ziyang cursed inwardly: "Is that even a sound a human can make?"

This sound was exactly the noise of Li Miao knocking the woman down and then stomping on the ground.

The secret chamber suddenly went quiet, clearly startled, and then it became noisy again, with several people speaking at once, their tones filled with excitement. Clearly, for the An family members held there, any movement meant change, and any change was better than waiting here to be tortured to death.

Before An Ziyang could distinguish whether his father's voice was among them, a scream suddenly came from inside.

"Ah!"

*Ssh—*

An Ziyang's expression darkened.

That was the sound of blood spraying from an artery; with that volume, the injured person definitely wouldn't survive.

"Something happened above; listening to that sound, it doesn't sound like artillery, it's a Heaven-Man battle."

"Shaolin isn't far from here; that person just appeared at Shaolin a few days ago, I guess he found his way here."

A calm voice said.

"The people are no longer useful, kill them all. Pour oil on everything, light it before we leave."

"That person is like a god; it's only a matter of time before he finds this place. We have at most a cup of tea's time, hurry!"

He heard them all agree, at least ten people's voices.

An Ziyang sucked his teeth and gave a bitter smile.

He didn't have time to figure out the situation and act again. If he waited any longer, he was afraid the An family members inside would be killed.

*Slap! *

An Ziyang kicked the door open and said loudly:

"Embroidered Uniform Guard on duty! Anyone who doesn't want to die, kneel!"

Taking advantage of this moment, he saw the situation in the secret chamber.

Several small wooden cages were built along the walls of the secret chamber, with a dozen people huddled inside, looking at him with hopeful eyes. The ground was stained with blood, and some torture tools, paper, pens, utensils, and sundries were placed on several wooden tables. Several bags were piled in the corner, oozing dark red liquid; they should contain corpses.

On a shelf in the corner, An Ziyang saw An Wenjie, who was hanging his head and seemed to have passed out.

And all around, a dozen people wearing swords and simple clothes were looking at him defensively.

The situation went quiet for a moment.

An Ziyang had just casually mentioned the Embroidered Uniform Guard because it was the only thing the Ming Sect feared in this Jianghu. But he had accidentally scared these Ming Sect members.

Nothing else, Li Miao was the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

They were already scared by Li Miao and were about to run; hearing these three words suddenly, their legs were shaking.

Like a pole hitting a wolf, both sides were afraid, and neither side made a move for a while.

But, there were no fools among the people present, and this situation only lasted for two or three breaths.

"He is An Ziyang."

That calm voice said.

"He is not an Embroidered Uniform Guard, he is the dead ghost of the An family, here to save people, only second-rate."

"Kill him!"

"Fuck!"

In an instant, blades flashed!

An Ziyang did the same thing, smashing a small pouch on the ground, and smoke filled the air in an instant.

"Close your eyes, cover your mouths and noses, protect your bodies, use true energy to dispel it!"

That calm voice said again.

In an instant, the Ming Sect members with poorer martial arts consciously retreated to the wall, brandishing weapons to protect themselves. Several first-rate Ming Sect members waved their true energy together, sweeping away the dust in just a few moves.

"Damn, really hard to deal with!"

"Not on the same level as the four outside!"

An Ziyang cursed inwardly.

This stuff is not easy to preserve, and it will lose its toxicity after being exposed to the air for a while. These Ming Sect members' operations had already neutralized this killer move.

However, all his things were in sets; if one didn't work, there was the next one.

He took the opportunity to slip to the side of An Wenjie's cage, threw something in, and then tiptoed behind an expert who was dispelling the dust.

With a wave of his hand, a patch of blue-glowing cow-hair needles was sprinkled out.

"Ah!"

"Hidden weapon! Poisonous!"

"There! He's over there!"

"It's me! Stop hitting!"

Several angry roars sounded at the same time.

An Ziyang's lime powder obscured their vision, and now everyone could only judge the position by sound. He sprinkled hidden weapons at several people, and after several were hit, they attacked the direction from which the hidden weapons were fired, but they were blocked by the Ming Sect expert An Ziyang used as a meat shield.

"It's me! That little brat fired the hidden weapon from my direction!"

That expert blocked his own people's offensive and was about to continue to distinguish.

But he felt a slight pain behind him.

"Behind me!?"

He turned around and hit, but missed.

"Already escaped!? This kid is second-rate, his light-body technique and internal energy attainments are so deep that even I can't hear the sound?"

He was about to think, but suddenly felt a numbness and itch behind him.

Following that was a violent pain that instantly destroyed his sanity.

"Ah!!!"

The expert screamed, hit out wildly at the surroundings, and instantly knocked the Ming Sect disciple who had mistakenly hit him just now, who fell to the ground and lost his voice.

*Ssh—*

*Thud. *

A fountain of blood erupted from the expert's throat, and he fell to the ground.

That calm voice said again: "He was hit by the Tang Men's 'Divine Madness,' he is beyond saving."

Beside the expert's corpse, the masked man turned to look at An Ziyang, who was huddled in the corner.

"Tang Men's poison, Divine Thief Sect's light-body technique, Divine Machine Sect's hidden weapons. And a sword user."

"Many methods, ruthless enough, smart enough."

"Unfortunately, you are only a second-rate goods after all; once the means of obscuring vision are gone, you have no room to struggle."

At this time, the smoke and dust in the secret chamber had been dispelled, and the Ming Sect members looked coldly at An Ziyang, slowly surrounding him.

There were ten Ming Sect members left, including four first-rate ones.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 148 =====