Why did you provoke that old man? He's a reincarnation of a deity!

Xiao Nian sensed that gaze, and his aura was gradually concealed. If it weren't for the exceptional clarity of his mind when he was recovering his soul power, he would hardly have noticed it.

The man had been there for at least half an hour, breathing evenly and remaining motionless.

"True Qi Martial King!" Xiao Nian immediately confirmed the strength of the newcomer.

Xiao Nian did not get up, but flicked her right thumb lightly.

A wisp of condensed spiritual energy silently passed through the roof tiles and shot precisely in the direction from which the gaze originated.

"bass."

The sound of shattering tiles was particularly crisp in the night sky.

"We've been discovered."

A dark figure leaped from the rooftop, flipped onto the courtyard wall, and with a light touch of its toes, was about to disappear into the distance.

Xiao Nian had already pushed open the door.

When he walked out of the courtyard with his cane, the dark figure had already darted fifty feet away, moving at an extremely fast speed, almost leaving a trail of afterimages in the moonlight.

"Your Excellency!" Qian Yukun was startled awake by the sudden voice.

Qian Yukun peeked out from the next room and saw Xiao Nian walking out. He followed her without even putting his shoes on properly: "What happened?"

"Someone is peeping," Xiao Nian replied calmly.

With a light tap of his toes, his hunched figure leaped up in the moonlight, while Qian Yukun desperately followed behind.

The dark figure moved through the streets and alleys, its movements shifting left and right, and it failed several times in trying to shake off its pursuers.

Xiao Nian maintained a distance within sight at all times, neither too fast nor too slow.

"Old man, when did you become so sensitive?" the shadowy figure muttered under his breath.

The two rushed out of the city outskirts one after the other. The dark figure plunged into the dense forest, leaping and weaving among the tree trunks, increasing its speed by another ten percent.

Xiao Nian's footsteps were almost silent as she walked on the fallen leaves, her cane casting grayish-white afterimages in the moonlight.

The dark figure suddenly stopped at an open space ahead.

He stood in the center of the open space, his back to Xiao Nian. Moonlight shone through the gaps in the tree canopy onto him. He was dressed in black, and a mask covered most of his face, revealing only a pair of piercing eyes.

Xiao Nian stopped ten steps away.

"It's you."

This is the mysterious man in black that Xiao Nian saw at the medicinal herb auction!

The man in black did not answer, but slowly turned around.

"You still recognize me? Who are you?"

"Who am I? My name is Meng Chenhai!" Xiao Nian replied.

"You're not Lao Meng, who is the real Meng Chenhai?" the man in black questioned.

An old acquaintance of Meng Chenhai? Xiao Nian came to this conclusion; it seemed that the old man's circle was not as simple as he had imagined.

Who I am is none of your business.

"Hehe." The man in black laughed. He flipped his right hand, and a ball of tangible true energy condensed in his palm. The true energy transformed into a hand blade, which gleamed with a silvery-white luster under the moonlight.

"You fiend! Then don't blame me for being impolite."

With a stomp of his foot, he charged straight at Xiao Nian like a cannonball, enveloped in his inner energy.

"Drink!" He released his true energy, forming a protective aura around his body.

The moment that palm strike was unleashed, the surrounding fallen leaves were swept up by the shockwave and shattered into powder in mid-air, while the ground was plowed with a shallow furrow by the true energy.

Xiao Nian slammed his cane on the ground, and a surge of spiritual energy flowed from the cane, condensing into an invisible barrier in front of him.

The burst of true energy struck the barrier with a muffled roar, and gusts of wind were stirred up at the point where the two forces collided.

"As expected of a demon!" the man in black sneered. "Today I will kill you."

Qian Yukun chased after the tree, panting, and was stunned when he saw the silvery-white true energy light.

True Qi Martial King, when did they provoke such an existence?

He shouted at the top of his lungs, "Your Excellency, run! We can't afford to mess with a True Qi Martial King! You go first, I'll cover your retreat!"

After saying that, Qian Yukun threw out a few poison pills, trying to delay the attack of the men in black.

The man in black simply flicked his hand, and the poison pill turned into powder in his true energy, without even spilling out any poison powder.

Xiao Nian, leaning on his cane, said shakily, "Stand at the back."

Qian Yukun's legs went weak, but he still gritted his teeth and took a step forward, standing a meter behind Xiao Nian, his legs trembling.

The man in black gave Xiao Nian no time to react. He swept his right leg horizontally, and the leg wind wrapped in true qi swept across a tree that was as thick as two people could hug, and the tree snapped in two.

He then slapped his palms together, and three palm prints formed from condensed true energy slammed into Xiao Nian. Each palm could shatter a piece of bluestone into dust.

Xiao Nian did not retreat.

His figure swayed slightly in place, turning into seven afterimages, making it difficult to distinguish the real from the fake. Each of the black-clad man's palms only struck the afterimages.

"Sevenfold Afterimage Flash!" The man in black recognized Xiao Nian's martial arts technique at a glance.

The man in black also recognized his past martial arts skills? This time it was Xiao Nian's turn to be confused. Who could be the person who knew both Xiao Nian from his past life and Old Man Meng?

"You wear a mask, while I show my true face. And now you're asking me who I am?" Xiao Nian mocked.

Seeing that there was no answer, the man in black didn't waste any more words and continued to make moves.

He slowly raised his right hand, his five fingers opening and closing, a wisp of spiritual energy condensing into a blurry phantom in his palm.

The phantom grew larger with the wind, but the man in black did not stop.

After taking three steps back to steady himself, he swung his palm again, and the air between his two palms began to distort and vibrate.

True energy surged from the dantian, rushing upwards along the twelve main meridians, and condensed into a rapidly rotating vortex between the palms.

"A thousand waves piled upon each other."

With the first palm strike, a palm print of true energy slammed into Xiao Nian, its force surging like a giant wave.

Xiao Nian stepped back slightly, and the palm print flew past the edge of the afterimage, slamming into an old locust tree behind him, causing the tree to explode instantly.

It is said that the power of the True Qi Martial King is enough to take on ten thousand people single-handedly.

The palm strike didn't stop; a second one continued flying towards Xiao Nian.

The waves surged one after another, each one stronger than the last, and Xiao Nian no longer held back.

He clasped his hands together forcefully, and a phantom image twenty meters tall rose up from behind him.

"The Law of Heaven and Earth - Simplified Version." This is a body cultivation technique that Xiao Nian had previously collected from other star regions.

"Drink!" The giant palm of the phantom blocked forward, and with a muffled "bang," the true energy collided with the palm of the phantom, and the shockwave exploded, uprooting the small tree. Xiao Nian took three steps back.

The man in black kept striking with both palms, unleashing a series of blows. The third, fourth, and fifth palm strikes, each imprint of true energy overlapping in the air, rose higher and higher like waves, illuminating the entire open space as bright as day with the silvery-white light of true energy.

The soil and stones on the ground were blasted to pieces by the true energy light, and the trees on the ground were twisted to create a vacuum zone thirty meters wide.

"Fold!" the man in black shouted, slamming his palms together.

Xiao Nian did not retreat.

He stood still with both feet planted and raised both hands at the same time.

The illusory image of the Dharma Heaven and Earth around him suddenly doubled in size, growing from twenty meters to fifty meters, like a god statue outside his hunched body.

Qian Yukun had been hiding a hundred meters away before they started fighting. Now he was trembling with fear. He had seen Xiao Nian slap Zhao Dapeng away before, but he didn't expect this old man to be even more ferocious.

The phantom's features were indistinct, yet its imposing aura, as heavy as a mountain, pressed down without reservation.

"Following the laws of heaven and earth, guarding the mountains."

The phantom's hands pushed forward simultaneously.

The shockwave of true energy struck between the illusory figure's palms, producing a muffled bang and exploding into a visible shockwave that spread in all directions.

Qian Yukun was thrown backward by the shockwave, and only managed to stand up after his back hit a tree. He clutched his chest and gasped for breath.

The man in black suddenly stopped moving.

He had never seen anything like it before. The phantom enveloped Xiao Nian, making his thin figure appear as heavy as a mountain.

Xiao Nian struck out with his palm, and the giant hand of the phantom also fell down, wrapped in heavy spiritual energy fluctuations, forcing the man in black back three steps.

The man in black met the attack with another palm strike, and his true energy and spiritual power collided in mid-air, exploding into a blinding white light.

The two of them stepped back at the same time.

The shockwave ripped a corner off the man in black's mask, which fluttered in the night wind.

The moonlight shone on that face.

Xiao Nian stopped moving.

"It's you!" Xiao Nian recognized that incredibly familiar face!