Fairy, you call this repaying a debt of gratitude?

The burly man was dressed in a black, tight-fitting outfit. He was tall and strong but not particularly handsome, and his face had a fierce look on it.

Seeing this, he didn't waste any more words. He gripped the long sword that gleamed coldly in his hand, brandished the blade, and charged towards the two with a sharp gust of wind.

Chen's eyes narrowed, and without thinking, she forcefully pushed Lu Chen to the other side of the boulder, her eyes urgently signaling him to escape the place quickly.

Then, facing the burly man's long sword, she dodged to the side and delivered a powerful palm strike heavily to the man's chest.

The burly man winced in pain, letting out a muffled groan, and involuntarily staggered back several steps, nearly dropping the long sword from his hand.

A hint of surprise flashed in his eyes, clearly not expecting that the seemingly delicate woman in front of him would possess such fierce palm techniques.

Lu Chen, who had been pushed away, naturally could not obey his mother's arrangements and run away on his own. However, the cultivation level of the big man in front of him was far higher than his own.

He's at least in the late Core Formation stage, while I'm only at the Foundation Establishment stage. I could never be his match!

Although my mother is not good at cultivation and focuses more on family matters, her cultivation level is at least at the mid-stage of Core Formation. She should be able to hold him off for a while. I must seize this fleeting opportunity and find a way to break the deadlock.

Thinking this, Lu Chen lowered his body and carefully crept past the side of the stone. The big man saw this and was about to stop him when Chen interrupted him with a palm strike.

Lu Chen seized the opportunity to quicken his pace, running wildly without daring to stop for even a moment. However, after running only a few meters, he heard the burly man's angry roar behind him, his voice booming and echoing throughout the East Garden:

"That kid is the eldest young master of the Lu family! Capture him, and there will be a hefty reward!"

The men in coarse clothes who were searching around the East Garden instantly lit up upon hearing this, and rushed towards Lu Chen as if they had been injected with chicken blood. Everyone wants a huge reward.

Lu Chen thought to himself that this was bad. Although these people were all only at the Foundation Establishment stage, which was comparable to his own, he could not fight against so many people with his bare hands.

In a moment of desperation, Lu Chen quickly suppressed his Foundation Establishment stage aura, deliberately restrained his spiritual power, and pretended to be weak with only Qi Refining stage cultivation. He also slowed his pace and feigned panic on his face, looking like he was easily defeated.

The group quickly approached, and upon realizing that Lu Chen's aura was only at the Qi Refining stage, they immediately relaxed their guard.

But the next second, the group seemed to realize something, and a hint of greed flashed in their eyes. They all looked at the person closest to Lu Chen and secretly thought that something was wrong.

"Hahaha, we got it!" The man closest to Lu Chen was overjoyed. He quickly stepped forward and reached out to grab Lu Chen's collar.

But just as he approached Lu Chen, a long knife suddenly flew towards him and pierced through his body.

In an instant, blood gushed out, staining the surrounding grass red.

The man's eyes were filled with disbelief. He looked down at the long knife in his chest, then turned to look at his companion who had ambushed him from behind. His body went limp, and he fell heavily to the ground, lifeless.

Seeing this, the remaining four men also pointed their long swords at their companions, each wanting to claim all the credit for capturing Lu Chen. In an instant, they began to fight each other.

The burly man struggled to his feet, and upon seeing this, his eyes turned red with rage, and he cursed:

"A bunch of idiots!"

He was about to speak angrily and stop his men from killing each other.

Chen had already closed in again, her palm strikes fierce and deadly, forcing him to retreat repeatedly, leaving him powerless to attend to anything else.

Seeing that the others were fighting and had no time to pay attention to him, Lu Chen quickly bent down and picked up a short knife that had fallen in front of him. Although the knife was small, it was very sharp and the blade gleamed with a cold light.

A resolute glint flashed in his eyes. With a furious roar, he unleashed all the spiritual power of his Foundation Establishment stage, charging forward like an arrow. With a powerful slash, he felled the two men who were still able to stand.

The remaining two people immediately looked terrified, their eyes filled with disbelief.

They never expected that this seemingly only Qi Refining stage kid was actually a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator!

Before they could even beg for mercy, Lu Chen's short knife fell again, delivering several more heavy blows. After that, the men completely lost their life force and collapsed heavily into pools of blood.

"That brat!" The burly man in the distance caught a glimpse of this scene and gritted his teeth in anger, but he was held back by Chen Shi and powerless to do anything about it.

After dealing with these people, Lu Chen didn't dare to delay for a moment. He quickly turned to look in the direction where his mother was fighting the big man, and his heart tightened.

The mother, who had initially been in the lead, was now at a disadvantage. Since she had no suitable sword and was fighting bare-handed, she was unable to withstand the opponent's fierce attacks and gradually became exhausted.

Seeing this, Lu Chen became anxious and quickly raised his short sword, channeling his spiritual energy to its maximum, and charged straight at the big man, shouting angrily as he tried to help his mother.

"Damn it, these bunch of good-for-nothings! Five of them can't even handle one brat!"

For some reason, the big man felt a little flustered when he saw Lu Chen charging straight at him.

In that moment of distraction, a fierce palm strike came down hard, and with a crisp "bang," the spiritual energy shield around the big man shattered instantly.

At the same time, Lu Chen did not slow down. Taking advantage of the moment when the big man was distracted, he made a big leap to a high place, crossed over his mother, and landed lightly behind the big man in a perfect arc.

"Pfft!"

The short knife pierced straight through the burly man's body, and blood gushed out instantly, staining Lu Chen's sleeves and hands red. With a thud, the burly man fell to the ground with an incredulous expression.

After finishing all this, Lu Chen saw that his mother was still standing there, not yet recovered from her shock. He quickly reached out his little hand and tightly grabbed her sleeve, his voice urgent:

"Mother, come with me, we can't stay here any longer!"

"good!"

Chen came to her senses and nodded vigorously. This was where Lu Chen lived, and he should be more familiar with it than she was. So she let Lu Chen pull her along, and they ran all the way to another corner of the East Garden.

At that moment, a lot of chaotic footsteps could be heard from outside the wall in the distance, accompanied by faint conversations. Clearly, there were also many enemies lying in ambush outside.

But there's no other way now. Their location has already been exposed, and more and more people will come after them. The only chance of survival is to escape the Lu residence as soon as possible.

Lu Chen circulated his remaining spiritual energy, lightly tapped his foot, and landed on the wall. He looked down at his surroundings, cautiously observing the activity around him. There seemed to be no one here.

"Mother!"

Lu Chen turned around and called out urgently to Chen Shi.

After saying that, seeing that it was still safe around him, he jumped straight down without hesitation and landed steadily in the grass outside the wall.

Seeing this, Lu Chenniang also lightly leaped onto the wall, but just as she was about to jump down, her eyes suddenly widened in shock, revealing a look of horror.

She stretched out her hand and shouted:

"Xiao Chen!"

Lu Chen's heart skipped a beat, and just as he was about to turn his head to look, he saw a man with a gloomy face standing to his side.

He held his longsword high in his hand, the blade already not far from Lu Chen's head, about to fall, with no way to avoid it.

Almost instinctively, the mother lunged straight at Lu Chen, shielding him tightly beneath her and using her own body to block the fatal blow for him.

"Ugh... Ah."

A heavy force slammed into him, and Lu Chen's mind went blank for a moment.

Then, something warm and damp seemed to soak through his clothes. He felt a sudden tightness in his chest, as if he had realized something, and he hurriedly opened his eyes.

"Mother!"

What came into view was her mother's face, as pale as paper. Her eyes were half-closed, and though her breath was weak, she still managed a feeble smile: "Xiao Chen... run... you must live..."

But Lu Chen suddenly didn't want to move. He stood frozen in place, watching his mother's eyes slowly close, feeling the warmth in her body gradually disappear, and a feeling he couldn't describe welled up in his heart.

Is it sadness? No.

Is it painful? No.

Is it resentment? No, it isn't.

He felt he should be crying, but his eyes were so dry that no tears would come out.

This is his mother who raised him for ten years, the mother who always cared for him and spoiled him like a child, the mother who was willing to give her own life to protect him...

A thought suddenly popped into his mind:

Perhaps it would be better to die here with my mother.

But this thought only lasted a moment, and suddenly he found a suitable name for the indescribable feeling in his heart—

That was the fury of revenge!

He cannot die; he must live. He must avenge his mother and his father, and make the murderer before him pay for his crimes in blood!

Lu Chen suddenly stood up and stared intently at the man not far away who was slowly wiping the bloodstains off the sword with a silk ribbon.

That's him! He's the man I saw in the main hall today, my father's honored guest, and also the murderer who killed my mother! My father is most likely already dead at his hands!

He stared intently at the man's face, as if trying to etch that cruel, smiling face deep into his memory, making it an indelible mark!

"Oh dear, you seem to have a mother who loves you very much." After wiping the sword, the man slowly raised his eyes to look at Lu Chen, a sinister and disgusting smile curling at the corner of his mouth. "How enviable."

Lu Chen suddenly came to his senses, and he used reason to suppress the nausea and anger surging in his heart.

He knew perfectly well that the man in front of him was someone who could easily kill his father and mother, and he could never be his match. Fighting him head-on would only be a pointless death!

Whether it's cowardice or fear, whatever the reason, as long as he can survive today, as long as he can escape from here alive, there is hope for revenge and the possibility of finding out the truth!

As long as I can survive, that's enough!

With this unwavering belief, Lu Chen turned around and, with all his might, fled into the distance.

Everything before him was no longer important. The houses, trees, and sounds of fighting along the way all became blurred. He had only one thought in his mind: run, run for his life!

After wiping his sword, the man didn't immediately give chase. Instead, he watched Lu Chen flee in disarray with a cold smile.

"A game of cat and mouse... I like it."

Lu Chen dared not look back, and ran wildly through the familiar path he had walked countless times. The grass and trees along the roadside rushed past. When he passed the gate of the Qin Mansion, he could even vaguely hear the cheerful laughter of Qin Yunshang's father teasing Qin Yunshang in the courtyard.

But he didn't stop for a moment, or even look up once; his mind was only focused on escaping.

He just kept running, until he was in a daze, until his legs went weak, until he had no idea where he was, and all he could hear was his heavy breathing and his hurried footsteps.

When he could no longer run, he would hold onto the trees by the roadside and walk forward step by step with difficulty until he had no strength left to take another step forward.

With a thud, he fell heavily onto the cold ground, completely drained of strength.

"Oh dear, are you out of energy?"

The man's voice drifted over slowly. Even though he had been running for so long, it seemed that the person caught up to him in just a moment.

A sense of powerlessness filled my entire body.

The man walked step by step to Lu Chen, looking down at him with a cruel smile. "But young master Lu, aren't you a renowned genius in the capital? Is this all the strength you've got?"

Lu Chen could barely open his eyes. Looking at the man with a cruel smile, he used all the strength he had left to raise his fist and swing it fiercely in the man's direction.

But his fist lost its strength halfway through the air and fell heavily back down, not even managing to touch the hem of the other person's clothes.

The man seemed to have witnessed the funniest thing in the world, laughing uncontrollably, his movements exaggerated, laughing so hard he was doubled over, until tears streamed down his face, before he slowly stopped laughing.

"So, even geniuses can be this pathetic when faced with a reality they can't change."

He crouched down and gently lifted Lu Chen's chin with the tip of his sword, his eyes filled with malice.

"Nothing is more exciting than witnessing the fall of a genius. It's a pity that I'm the only one who can see such an interesting scene."

Just then, Lu Chen's lips moved as if he were saying something, but his voice was so faint that it was almost inaudible.

The man frowned, not having heard what he said.

"Is he begging for mercy, Young Master Lu?"

He leaned closer, his tone slightly mocking, wanting to hear Lu Chen's pleas for mercy clearly, which would excite him greatly.

But as soon as he leaned in, he heard Lu Chen utter a cold, forceful sentence:

"Your parents abandoned you because of this, didn't they?"

These words seemed to have touched a nerve; the smile on his face vanished instantly, and his eyes turned icy cold.

Then he suddenly stood up, drew his longsword again, raised it high above his head, and aimed the tip at Lu Chen. This time, he did not hesitate at all and was about to end Lu Chen's life.

"Go to hell, you scum."

Just as the sword tip was about to strike, a surge of powerful and pure spiritual energy suddenly swept over, and the longsword in the man's hand was instantly flung several meters away.

It fell to the ground with a "clang," making a crisp sound.

A figure in pure white suddenly landed in front of Lu Chen.

In an instant, it was as if the dark clouds had dispersed, golden light had shone everywhere, and the gates of heaven had opened wide!

Lu Chen struggled to lift his head, his blurred vision clearing for a moment. In the darkness, the first thing that caught his eye was a pure white dress, the light gauze hem fluttering in the wind, and a head of long, black hair flying wildly, her figure elegant and graceful.

Is he an immortal?

This was Lu Chen's last thought before he lost consciousness. Then, everything went black, and he completely lost awareness.