Chapter 75

At midnight, the moon in the sky was full, the moonlight bright and the stars sparse, hanging alone at the edge of the heavens in self-pity, also letting the small town beneath the moon not be completely plunged into darkness where nothing could be seen.

Lingshan Town is a small market town outside Wuxi City, with not much population, facing Taihu and backed by Xiao Lingshan, Green Dragon on the left, White Tiger on the right, an absolute feng shui treasure land.

Placed in later generations, an 88-meter-tall cast bronze Buddha would be erected here, called the Lingshan Sacred Realm.

However, in the Song Dynasty, apart from a dilapidated Xiangfu Chan Temple on the mountain, not many people came here, and Lingshan Town could not really be called prosperous.

By the hour of the Rat, the night watchman who usually patrolled was nowhere to be seen today; apart from a few dog barks, Lingshan Town was terrifyingly quiet.

Chen Xuanfeng held a bundle in his left hand and carried a person in his right, walking alone through the main street at the center of the small town, his strides very large, as if the person in his hand had no weight at all, yet his footsteps were extremely light, barely perceptible.

The person he carried had their head drooping, limbs dragging on the ground, bloodstains on their body, looking only fourteen or fifteen years old, currently unconscious, without the slightest reaction.

Chen Xuanfeng and Mei Chaofeng had been hiding here for half a month already; last time the two committed a major incident in Jinling, originally just looking for a few ordinary people to practice on, who would have thought one of them was actually the nephew of the biggest martial arts hall master in the area, that hall master gathered Jinling martial arts experts to surround and intercept them.

Peach Blossom Island disciples' martial arts are naturally more than a notch higher than ordinary martial artists, but they were truly too few against too many; the two fought desperately, killed over a dozen people, and broke out of the encirclement, yet still suffered heavy injuries; Chen Xuanfeng's external hardening skills were superb, his injuries could still be endured, but Mei Chaofeng nearly became unable to walk.

The two fled to Xiao Lingshan beside Wuxi, found a valley to recuperate; half a month's time, Chen Xuanfeng's body recovered nine-tenths, Mei Chaofeng could also get out of bed and walk without hindrance.

However, the medicine on the two had been used up; Chen Xuanfeng took advantage of the night to break open the door of the only pharmacy in Lingshan Town, not only taking the medicine, but also abducting the runner who watched the shop; having recuperated for many days, cultivation still had to continue, without living human heads to test moves on, Chen Xuanfeng also did not know how to cultivate that Nine Yin White Bone Claw.

In the moonlight, although Chen Xuanfeng maintained a certain vigilance, he completely failed to discover that behind him, at some unknown time, a person had been following, hiding in his shadow, like a maggot in the bone, soundless and breathless.

A masked man dressed in night-walking clothes, hunching his waist and lowering his head, looking as if he were a dwarf, completely shrunk behind Chen Xuanfeng who was about 1.8 meters tall, following unhurriedly, and always maintaining a distance of less than thirty centimeters.

The masked man's attention was not on Chen Xuanfeng, but fully concentrated on watching Chen Xuanfeng's shadow under the moon, walking on tiptoe the whole way, and every step treading on Chen Xuanfeng's shadow.

The masked man was completely predicting Chen Xuanfeng's next move based on his shadow; to achieve such a degree, his lightness skill and agility must have reached an extremely high level, and his five senses astonishing, completely able to anticipate Chen Xuanfeng's every movement.

The wind not yet moved, the cicada senses first; Chen Xuanfeng accelerated, he followed by speeding up; Chen Xuanfeng's pace slowed slightly, he slowed his pace a step ahead; the distance between the two never changed, like a willow leaf falling on the water surface, a gust of wind blows past, the water surface ripples slightly, the willow leaf also gently undulates along with it.

When Chen Xuanfeng was about to reach the town entrance, he suddenly discovered that the large pagoda tree by the road at the town entrance was actually hanging a dead-air lantern at this moment; the pale white lamplight made one's hair stand on end; Chen Xuanfeng also immediately went on full alert; he clearly remembered there had been no such lantern on the road when he came.

He stopped his steps, quickly turned to observe the surroundings; in the dark corners he could not see, it seemed there were countless people's breathing; he could even feel their gazes all fixed on him in unison.

No matter how his body turned, the masked man's figure would also adjust slightly along with it, turning to the other side like a ghost, always keeping himself in Chen Xuanfeng's visual blind spot.

Until this moment Chen Xuanfeng still had not discovered a person following behind him, but he knew his whereabouts had inevitably been exposed and someone had tracked him down; he just did not know which martial arts faction it was again; these few years the two of them had committed many evils, truly enemies everywhere; which Jiangnan martial artist did not want to eliminate them and be done with it.

Just as he decided to ignore the movements around him and prepare to execute lightness skill to quickly leave the small town, he suddenly felt two hands gently placed on his shoulders, and at the same time his neck turned cold; someone actually blew a breath onto the back of his neck.

This feeling was like being possessed by a ghost; Chen Xuanfeng, greatly shocked, immediately let go of the runner he was holding in his right hand, turned and struck with a full-force palm, but completely hit empty air.

Chen Xuanfeng hurriedly retreated one zhang, and when he looked around he discovered that beside the runner thrown on the ground a masked man had suddenly appeared; he only saw that masked man grab the runner and directly throw him backward, and in the darkness another vague figure appeared, caught the runner and immediately disappeared into the darkness.

When facing an enemy one must seize the initiative; Chen Xuanfeng took advantage of the moment the masked man threw the runner, immediately pouncing forward; his legs exerted force, momentum like lightning, the distance of over one zhang reached in a blink; before his hand arrived, the palm force had already attacked the masked man's chest — precisely the Empty Palm Strike that Peach Blossom Island excels at most.

The masked man unhurriedly raised his right hand, his palm drawing an oval in the air; invisible air seemed to form a vortex between his palms at this moment.

Chen Xuanfeng's palm force had just reached here when it was as if encountering an invisible force field; the palm force automatically rotated direction and instead struck back toward Chen Xuanfeng's own head.

Chen Xuanfeng was greatly alarmed; his body pouncing in mid-air could not change position in time; he barely mobilized inner force to raise his hand and block his own palm force; a loud boom, Chen Xuanfeng like a ball was fiercely slapped back; in the haste of forcibly resisting his own palm force, inner forces clashed, and the corner of his mouth immediately flowed with blood.

He staggered to a standstill, face pale and rigid; just from this exchange he knew he had met a strong enemy; after leaving Peach Blossom Island he had encountered many martial artists, never had anyone made him suffer such a big loss in a single encounter.

Most importantly the opponent's methods were truly bizarre; Chen Xuanfeng fundamentally could not figure out how the opponent had actually turned his Empty Palm Strike around and struck it back.

"Chen Xuanfeng, you have committed countless evils, hated by gods and men alike; today I will make you, this Bronze Corpse, turn into a true corpse."

"Who exactly are you, don't play tricks; this old man is not easy to provoke; be careful you may come but not return."

The masked man was of course Wu Chengyu; half a head shorter than the Chen Xuanfeng opposite, his aura completely suppressed Chen Xuanfeng.

He had grown quite a bit taller compared to a year ago; after cultivating the Ox-Horse Stance his frame was robust; Chen Xuanfeng completely could not recognize from his figure that the opponent was actually his former junior fellow disciple.

Wu Chengyu at this moment was like looking at a dead man.

"Today I say let you die, you must die; even if Huang Yaoshi came he could not stop it; that is what I say."

(Chapter End)