Heaven rewards diligence, but there are always fairies plotting against me.

"Yes, dead."

Chu Chang remained calm, holding a wooden stick and casually poking at the fire in front of him: "Gu Tianyi brought Li Feiqiang to ambush us, and they even secretly used a sleeping potion. I used some poison to send them on their way."

"Gulp..." Zhao Dayong swallowed hard, cold sweat instantly soaking his back.

He looked at Chu Chang, his heart pounding wildly!

This kid looks so young and harmless, yet he actually killed all three of them!

This boy is unfathomable.

"What...what should we do..." Zhao Dayong asked hesitantly.

"Brother Zhao, now that we're in this desolate wilderness, only the two of us have survived. In a way, we're accomplices, already tied to the same rope." Chu Chang turned his head, looking at him with a half-smile.

Having spent years living on the edge, Zhao Dayong was no fool; he understood the warning in Chu Chang's words.

He shuddered and quickly declared, "Ah Chang! Don't worry, I'll keep this to myself! I'm absolutely in this with you, we'll live and die together!!"

"I believe Brother Zhao is a smart man." Chu Chang nodded slightly. "You and I were originally Miss's people. Now that the young master is dead, if Gu Bahu finds out about me, he will definitely not let us go."

"Alas, we can't go back to the Gu family!" Zhao Dayong sighed with a worried expression, then gritted his teeth as if making a huge decision. "Ah Chang, I do have a connection! I have a brother who's a close friend of mine, running a security escort business in the neighboring city of Qingzhou. He's quite famous. How about... we go and seek refuge with him?"

"Escort agencies are ultimately just ordinary forces; their potential is too limited." Chu Chang shook his head, his gaze fixed intently on the fire. "I want to join a sect, for example... the Divine Sword Sect."

"What?! The Divine Sword Sect?" Zhao Dayong waved his hands repeatedly. "Ah Chang, recruiting for the Divine Sword Sect is as difficult as ascending to heaven!"

"I can give it a try."

"Oh dear, Ah Chang, do you know what the first ironclad rule of the Divine Sword Sect is? Those who join must be under twenty years old! I heard you mention it before; you're already twenty-one, aren't you?"

"Yes, twenty-one." Chu Chang frowned slightly.

"So, no matter how talented or strong you are, if you're over this age, you'll absolutely not be able to enter the Divine Sword Sect openly!" Zhao Dayong sighed helplessly.

Chu Chang fell silent.

A one-year age difference is an insurmountable gap in the eyes of those top sects.

"Then... what about the other sects?" Chu Chang asked in a deep voice.

"Other sects don't have such strict age restrictions, but those second- or third-rate sects require a huge amount of money to get in!" Zhao Dayong held up two fingers and smacked his lips. "For example, the Iron Fist Sect in Qingzhou City requires two hundred taels of silver to join! And the White Water Sect requires one hundred and fifty taels of silver..."

"That's fine, but the key issue is that there's no guarantee you'll actually learn anything!"

Chu Chang raised an eyebrow, "With so much money paving the way, is there still no guarantee how much you'll actually learn?"

"Yes, that's why I said it's not that easy to get."

"Okay, I understand. We'll talk about it later. I need to go back to the city now!"

He still had a lot of silver stored in his residence, which he planned to take away.

When I returned to my humble little hut, it was already the next morning.

Chu Chang avoided the others and quickly dug out all the silver he had previously buried.

He had just wrapped up the mud-covered silver coins and put them into his bag when he suddenly heard familiar footsteps outside the door.

Those footsteps... it's Miss Gu Ling Shuang!

"Squeak..."

The wooden door was pushed open, and a graceful, aloof figure stepped in.

Gu Ling Shuang glanced around the room and got straight to the point: "Ah Chang, I need to talk to you about something..."

Before she could finish speaking, her gaze fell on the bulging bag on the table, and her eyebrows furrowed slightly: "Hmm? You're leaving?"

Gu Ling Shuang's heart sank; she was deeply saddened!

She treated Chu Chang very well!

This kid is actually leaving?

"Young Miss".

Seeing that he had been caught red-handed, Chu Chang simply stopped trying to hide it.

"I killed Gu Tianyi."

He then gave a brief explanation.

"Oh! I thought it was something serious." Gu Ling Shuang's expression remained completely calm; instead, she gave a disdainful sneer.

Chu Chang frowned deeply and said in a deep voice, "Miss, that's Gu Tianyi. If Gu Bahu finds out, I'm doomed! Even if you insist on protecting me, I'm afraid you won't be able to withstand his wrath!"

"Heh, can't stop it?"

Gu Ling Shuang chuckled, a glint of ruthlessness flashing in her eyes: "What if I told you that Gu Ba Hu himself doesn't have much time left to live?"

"What?" Chu Chang was shocked and wondered if Gu Ling Shuang was just bragging.

I didn't expect her to like bragging too...

"Ah Chang, put down your luggage and stay here. I'll guarantee your safety." Gu Ling Shuang put her hands behind her back, her expression revealing utter arrogance. "When I left the city a few days ago, I wasn't going sightseeing; I was going to invite someone. Now, Lin Ruoxue, the inner sect senior sister of the Divine Sword Sect, has returned to the Gu family with me! With her help, she will surely help me completely eliminate that old bastard Gu Ba Hu."

Chu Chang's mind raced, and he asked incredulously, "Why would she help? When does she plan to make her move?"

"Today!" Gu Ling Shuang sneered. "Otherwise, why do you think Gu Tianyi has been missing for a full day and night, and given Gu Ba Hu's usual protective nature, he hasn't sent anyone to search frantically? Because he's currently being closely watched by Senior Sister Lin Ruoxue and is too busy to care about anything else!"

At this point, Gu Ling Shuang paused, her gaze falling on Chu Chang's handsome and resolute face, a playful smile curving her lips: "However, the help from the senior sister of the Divine Sword Sect is certainly not for nothing."

"I want you to serve her well! If you can win her favor, not only me, but you will also benefit greatly..."

"You want me to serve her?" Chu Chang was dumbfounded.

He felt like he had been sold out.

What if the other person is like Ru Hua?

What if the other person has any unusual fetishes?

"Ah Chang, you've hit the jackpot! You know that? Senior Sister Lin Ruoxue is top-notch in both figure and looks, no less than me! If she hadn't suffered from a cold poison in her early years and needed you to heal her, this good fortune wouldn't have fallen into your lap!"

Gu Ling Shuang patted Chu Chang on the shoulder: "This is a good opportunity for you, seize it."

Chu Chang frowned deeply.

As long as the other person is good-looking, he's not necessarily a no-go...

Yes, that's how ordinary and unpretentious he is!

However, he was still worried about how to deal with Gu Bahu.

If Lin Ruoxue were to deal with Gu Bahu, would the other members of the Gu family stand by and do nothing?

It should be noted that Gu Bahu's power within the Gu family is no less than that of Gu Batian's lineage!

Chu Chang expressed his concerns.

Seeing Chu Chang's surprised and uncertain expression, Gu Ling Shuang's smile deepened as she leisurely explained, "Gu Ba Hu has been operating within the Gu family for many years and has many trusted confidants. If we were to kill him and his son without any evidence, the Gu family would surely rise up against us, causing the Gu family to fall apart, and my father would lose his position as family head. But..."

She then changed the subject: "But what if an evil object from the forbidden zone is found in Gu Bahu and Gu Tianyi's house? What if they are caught red-handed, proving that Gu Bahu, in order to break through his cultivation level, did not hesitate to collude with the forbidden zone and willingly allowed himself to be contaminated by its poisonous mist?"

"This..." Chu Chang's eyes suddenly lit up, and he instantly understood Gu Ling Shuang's vicious plan.

Brilliant! That's a brilliant two-birds-with-one-stone strategy!

Inside the forbidden zone, there is a terrifying poisonous fog that can corrode the mind and distort the body.

Many martial arts practitioners with mediocre talent or those who are eager for quick success and instant benefits, when under great stimulation or when their time is coming to an end, often take risks to cultivate evil arts in order to gain great power.

The so-called evil technique is essentially to actively accept the poisonous fog of the forbidden zone and use the polluted violent power to forcibly break through the realm.

While this method can allow one's cultivation to advance rapidly in a short period of time, the price is the gradual loss of one's mind, turning one into a monster who only knows how to kill.

Therefore, the Great Yuan Dynasty had an iron-fisted law against this: anyone who practices forbidden arts or becomes tainted by them shall be punished by everyone in the land!

Once Gu Bahu's crimes of colluding with forbidden areas and practicing evil arts are confirmed, not only will Senior Sister Lin Ruoxue of the Divine Sword Sect have a legitimate reason to take action, but the elders and confidants of the Gu family will also avoid him like the plague.

In order to protect themselves, they might even take the initiative to help Gu Ling Shuang clean up her own house!

"Gu Bahu has been stuck at his current level for a full ten years. He's desperate to break through," Gu Ling Shuang sneered. "Everyone in the city will believe that reason. All we need to do is put the evidence in his house, and then have Senior Sister Chu from the Divine Sword Sect happen to stumble upon it."

Chu Chang looked at the scheming woman in front of him and became secretly wary.

Gu Ling Shuang's ruthlessness and decisiveness truly make her a person capable of great things.

"Chu Chang, you have abundant blood and strong yang energy. Serve me well, and after this is done, I might even consider letting you join... the Divine Sword Sect!"

Chu Changhu's body trembled: "Divine Sword Sect..."