Chapter 676: Method of Rescue (8/10, Autumn Subscription)

Hearing Fang Yue bring this up, Dou Hongyi's heart gave an involuntary thump.

A Rain-rank powerhouse—he had only ever heard of them, and they were said to be utterly unpredictable in temperament.

Sometimes hating evil as fiercely as a sworn enemy, sometimes acting in strange and secretive ways, ruthless and vicious.

He truly feared that one wrong word from him would earn him his head, sliced off by Fang Yue's blade.

Cold sweat seeped from his forehead, sliding down his cheek, as Dou Hongyi drew in a deep breath.

"This... we don't really know much about what the Heavenly Merchant Alliance has been doing."

Pass the buck—he had to pass the buck, clear himself of responsibility first before anything else!

But Fang Yue immediately let out a cold snort.

"Truly unaware? Or just pretending to be unaware? Don't be foolish—I'm only asking, I won't interfere too much, but in my life I hate being lied to most of all!"

His expression shifting, Dou Hongyi hurriedly bowed and said respectfully, "I wouldn't dare deceive a Rain-rank sir! It's simply that what I know is very limited. The only thing I'm clear on is that the top prize the Heavenly Merchant Alliance has been publicly advertising for this Martial Decision is indeed a young girl. Her name is An Dong'er, a native of the Heiqing Mountain Range. To save a relative, she volunteered herself into servitude, which complies with Qing Guo's laws, so we didn't pursue it further..."

As Dou Hongyi spoke, his voice gradually trailed off.

Because he noticed that the Rain-rank sir before him seemed to have a terrifyingly dark expression, quite furious about the matter?

At that instant, his mind instantly spun up an entire tear-jerking rags-to-riches epic: a Rain-rank sir who had been a slave since childhood, then cultivated step by step to throw off the slave status and rise above all others.

But before he could open his mouth, the Rain-rank sir before him left behind the name of an inn and hurried off.

Stunned, Dou Hongyi heard the sound of rapid, continuous hoofbeats coming from behind.

He turned to look, and sure enough saw the person he had no wish to see.

It was none other than Yang Diandian, who had rushed over in haste.

A third-rank Blue Guard of Blue Coral, the big boss of Blue Coral in Chunuan City.

Watching Yang Diandian ride up with a group of Blue Guards, Dou Hongyi's face darkened.

Presumably, the Rain-rank sir had left because these people had arrived, unwilling to continue his conversation with Dou Hongyi.

A Rain-rank encounter was a matter of chance, not to be sought; if he could pick up even a single move or half a technique from the Rain-rank sir, a Human-rank nobody like himself would surely benefit enormously!

"Oh my, isn't this the Red Clothes sir of the Green Division? What? Lost your way? Standing here in a daze?" The moment Yang Diandian arrived, she launched into a string of sharp, caustic remarks that grated on Dou Hongyi's ears.

He kept a straight face and said coldly, "Just passing by. I happened to see someone causing trouble and stepped in to handle it."

The Rain-rank sir had avoided these people, clearly not wanting to be entangled with them, and Dou Hongyi was more than happy to go along with that!

"What a kind deed then—doing Blue Coral's work for us. Tell me, next time anomalies go causing trouble in the city, can our Blue Coral step in too?"

Watching Yang Diandian remain oblivious to the tremendous opportunity she had just missed, Dou Hongyi couldn't help but feel a bit like laughing.

He and Yang Diandian were both mid Human-rank, evenly matched in strength, neck and neck.

Though both were held down a notch by the Heavenly Merchant Alliance, their covert rivalry had never stopped.

Now that there was a chance to climb another step and return Chunuan City to the Green Division's control, naturally he was very keen.

Even if after seizing the opportunity his own strength didn't reach the level of crushing the Heavenly Merchant Alliance, it would still be enough to pull ahead of Blue Coral.

When that happened, the current "one dominant, two strong" situation would become "one dominant, one strong, one weak"—a clearly stratified layout! For himself, and for the Green Division, it was naturally excellent.

He cast a cold smirk at the foolish Yang Diandian.

"No need for more talk, I have no interest in tangling with you. If you've got the ability, go ahead and step in when anomalies appear. Martial Techniques meant for people landing on anomalies—why, that's nothing more than a tickle!"

As his words fell, he was already walking away, with no intention of sharing the Rain-rank sir's information with anyone.

This was his own opportunity. Perhaps a single word from the Rain-rank sir could help him break through the mid Human-rank shackles in one stroke and reach the wondrous realm of high Human-rank—there was simply no need to share anything with others.

"Wait! Don't go! Explain clearly what happened here first!"

"Send someone to the Green Division, and someone there will brief you."

In a few shifting steps, Dou Hongyi had already vanished from Yang Diandian's sight.

The Blue Guards exchanged uncertain glances. Yang Diandian, face dark, rubbed her fingers over the sword at her waist, but in the end slowly lowered her hand.

"Hmph! Spread out and keep patrolling. The Green Division won't be smug for long! Once word comes back from Jingcheng, whether the Green Division can even keep its name in Qing Guo will be the question!"

Yang Diandian's words were rather reckless, but fortunately everyone around her was her own trusted confidant; no one spoke up, and they silently dispersed to get on with their work.

This little episode amounted to nothing at all in the increasingly chaotic Chunuan City.

Only Dou Hongyi, who had just laid eyes on a Rain-rank powerhouse, was in a surging tide of emotion, unable to contain his excitement.

And the Rain-rank powerhouse he couldn't get out of his mind had, at this very moment, already returned to the inn.

Fang Yue clenched his fist and slammed it heavily onto the table.

With a bang, the table split apart, breaking into two pieces that crashed to the ground, dust flying.

"An Dong'er... was actually treated as a slave, made the prize of the Martial Decision!"

"How dare they do such a thing! And they even fabricated that kind of background for her!"

Fang Yue's heart burned with fury, yet the black ring atop his head kept dripping raindrops down on him, popping up '-1' '-1' numbers.

After quite a while, Fang Yue gradually calmed down.

To rescue An Dong'er, there were two paths.

The first path was to charge straight into the Heavenly Merchant Alliance and pull her out.

It was a very direct and crude, violent method—and also the most effective.

But there was only one problem: Fang Yue might not have that kind of strength.

Just like last night's reconnaissance of the Old Eagle Caravan estate, during this special period every faction's garrison had greatly reinforced its guard forces.

The scale of the reinforcement varied according to the faction's strength.

If the Old Eagle Caravan had already been that hard to deal with, then charging straight at the Heavenly Merchant Alliance's garrison would likely mean being torn apart before he even reached the Heavenly Merchant Alliance's dungeon.

Fang Yue remembered clearly that the Heavenly Merchant Alliance's Alliance Master—that Heavenly Merchant Caravan Regimental Commander—possessed genuine high Human-rank strength!

Just that one person alone was already more than Fang Yue could handle, let alone the fact that the Heavenly Merchant Alliance was in practice a joint garrison, with many caravans all housed together inside it. All kinds of strong cultivators gathered in one place—either Guests invited from elsewhere, or their own experts—all staying together in the Heavenly Merchant Alliance garrison, waiting for the Martial Decision to begin.

At such a gathering of heroes, sneaking over alone to cause trouble would be the same as facing the entire Heavenly Merchant Alliance's strength by himself—like an egg striking a rock, with no chance of victory.

If Fang Yue could reach the Human rank... no, even with Human rank strength, he might be able to charge into the Heavenly Merchant Alliance's station and find the person, but safely rescuing them would still be immensely difficult.

2 more chapters left, posted tonight, these all count as yesterday's.

Today is 5 chapters, so in total there are still 7 more chapters, all posted together tonight.

(End of this chapter)