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"Enemy attack! Thieves!"

The angry shouts of the pharmacy guards followed immediately, accompanied by the clanging of weapons being drawn and the sound of hurried footsteps. Clearly, the guards on night duty had noticed something amiss.

"Clang! Clang clang!"

"Pfft—!"

"Ugh!"

A short, sharp clang of metal clashing, followed by a agonizing scream, erupted almost instantly. Just then, hurried footsteps approached the small courtyard where he was in the alchemy room.

"Bang!"

The not-so-sturdy wooden door to Chen Yue's room was kicked open with great force, the bolt broke, and wood chips flew everywhere.

Two figures dressed in black and wielding short knives rushed in. Their eyes instantly locked onto the swollen human shape on the bed. Without the slightest hesitation, two gleaming blades, accompanied by the sound of wind cutting through the air, slashed fiercely down at the bed from the left and right.

"Sizzle!"

The sound of cotton and fabric being easily torn rang out.

The two men in black froze instantly. Something was wrong; it was too light! There was no satisfying, viscous feeling of striking flesh and bone!

"It's fake!" one of them exclaimed, his voice filled with shock and anger.

The two reacted with lightning speed, immediately drawing their swords and turning around. However, in the instant they turned, a blurry shadow, moving with incredible speed and accompanied by a heavy gust of wind, instantly pressed close to the back of the man in black behind them.

Chen Yue's right arm was bent like iron, and his elbow was like an iron hammer, pressing against the black-clad man's vital point in the back.

"puff!"

The man in black shuddered violently, and a mouthful of scalding blood mist mixed with fragments of internal organs suddenly spurted out from under his mask, splattering his companion in front of him.

Before he could even let out a complete scream, he was struck as if by a battering ram, his feet leaving the ground, and he slammed heavily against the earthen wall with a loud thud, as if his bones were shattering.

Then it slid slowly to the ground like mud, twitched twice, and then fell silent.

"Seventh Brother!"

The man in black in front had bloodshot eyes, watching helplessly as his companion was killed with a single blow, his heart filled with dread.

What the hell is this monster?

Didn't the intelligence report say that this newly promoted alchemist, Chen Yue, was at most a Skin Refining Realm cultivator who had just broken through? Could someone at the Skin Refining Realm possess such power? Such speed? Such ruthlessness in a single, fatal strike?

Overwhelming fear gripped him instantly, but his survival instinct kicked in and he reacted.

He let out a strange cry, and in a fit of shock and anger, swung his knife backhand at Chen Yue, who was lunging at him. The blade flashed fiercely, aiming straight for Chen Yue's neck.

Facing the incoming blade, Chen Yue seemingly casually shifted his feet, his body narrowly avoiding the blade, and his entire body instantly nestled into the black-clad man's arms like a swimming fish.

The man in black's pupils contracted sharply as he saw a fist rapidly enlarging before his eyes, carrying a suffocating sense of power.

"Snap!"

A crisp cracking sound rang out as Chen Yue's fist slammed solidly into his Adam's apple.

The man in black's eyes suddenly bulged out, and his eyeballs instantly became bloodshot.

He let out a hissing sound from his throat, his neck twisted at an eerie angle, and his whole body was thrown backward by the force, crashing into the only wooden table and two chairs in the room, falling to the ground with a clatter.

His body was convulsing violently and uncontrollably, and bloody foam was oozing from his mouth and nose. It was clear that he was exhaling more than he was inhaling.

Chen Yue slowly withdrew his fist, straightened up, and looked at the two men in black on the ground.

The difference between the Flesh Refining Realm and the Skin Refining Realm, and even the Great Perfection of the Mountain Collapse Technique, is so vast.

In close combat, the outcome was a foregone conclusion.

Chen Yue bent down and quickly searched the two men. Apart from a few taels of loose silver and two ordinary short knives, there was nothing else.

"Who are you?!"

Just then, Lin Quan's aged voice, filled with shock and anger, came from the courtyard not far away. This was followed by short exclamations from other alchemists, but they vanished abruptly, like candle flames being extinguished, leaving only a few muffled thuds and the sound of heavy objects falling to the ground.

Chen Yue's eyes sharpened. After hesitating for a moment, he picked up the short knife on the ground, then grabbed the two men in black, one in each hand, and threw them out of the house.

Then, with a flash, he headed straight for the small courtyard where Lin Quan lived.

As they approached the courtyard gate, they saw a tall man in black carrying the unconscious Lin Quan out of the house. Lin Quan appeared to have been knocked unconscious, slumped limply on the man's shoulder.

"Get out of here!"

The man in black saw Chen Yue rushing towards him, his pupils contracted, and he shouted sharply.

Chen Yue seemed not to hear, and with a burst of speed, he increased his speed by three points. The short knife in his hand sliced ​​through the air with a heavy force, and slashed down at the man in black.

"You're asking for death!" The man in black was both shocked and furious, not expecting the other party to be so decisive.

He threw the unconscious Lin Quan toward Chen Yue in an attempt to block him, while at the same time he drew his long sword with lightning speed and slashed at Chen Yue's wrist holding the sword.

Chen Yue's eyes were icy. He reached out with his left hand, precisely grabbed Lin Quan's collar, and smoothly pulled him to the ground. At the same time, the trajectory of his downward slashing short sword remained unchanged.

"clang!"

The two swords clashed, bursting into a blinding shower of sparks.

The man in black felt an overwhelming, terrifying force emanating from the blade. His hand instantly split open, blood gushing out, and the long sword flew out of his grasp, spinning as it stuck into the mud several feet away.

The man in black was terrified. He was at the peak of the Skin Refining Realm and his strength was not weak, yet his weapon was knocked away in a single exchange.

Before his horrified thoughts could even finish processing, Chen Yue flicked his right wrist, which had knocked away his longsword, and the blade struck him squarely on the left temple.

At the same time, Chen Yue's left fist, which had been pressing forward, struck him hard in the chest.

"Bang! Pfft!"

The man in black's head snapped to one side, blood gushing from his ears, and a muffled thud of bones cracking echoed from his chest. His eyes instantly lost their light, his tall body swayed as if his spine had been ripped out, and he collapsed limply to the ground, lifeless.

Chen Yue didn't even glance at the man in black; he immediately squatted down to examine Lin Quan.

He was just knocked unconscious, but his breathing was still relatively steady.

Chen Yue brought Lin Quan back to the courtyard, took out the blood-activating and stasis-removing powder he always carried from his pocket, and checked Lin Quan's breath a few times.

After doing all this, he got up and looked inside the room.

The young apprentice who usually took care of Lin Quan's daily life was lying in a pool of blood, with a gruesome knife wound on his chest, blood still gushing out. He was unconscious, his face as pale as paper.

Chen Yue stepped forward, tore off the hem of his own clothes, and used the medical skills he had learned in the front hall to bandage the young apprentice and stop the bleeding. That was all he could do.

Whether he survives or not truly depends on fate and his own will to live.

Outside the courtyard, the sounds of commotion, fighting, shouting, and screams still lingered sporadically. Suddenly, a piercing whistle rang out from an unknown direction.

As if receiving some kind of signal, all the men in black who were still rummaging through the pharmacy stopped in their tracks, then abandoned their target without hesitation and retreated in different directions like a receding tide.

In the blink of an eye, they disappeared into the layers of buildings and darkness.

Almost simultaneously, hurried footsteps and shouts came from the direction of the pharmacy's main entrance, and the light of torches illuminated the front yard.