Republic of China Era: Entering the Dao through Divine Strike.

Zhang Yourong stopped crying and started laughing. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve and followed him downstairs.

In the garden outside the Wanghai Tower, a subtle fragrance wafts through the air, and the moonlight is at its brightest.

For the first time since arriving in Guangping, she felt that the wind here smelled pleasant.

……

The lights in the main hall of the Wang family were still on.

Wang Donghai and Wang Zhenshan are both dead, as is Yulong Daoren, but there are still living people in this house.

Wang Jizong was leading several confidants in moving boxes in the backyard. The gold, silver and valuables in the cellar were dug out and filled into three large boxes.

While stuffing silver ingots into the box, he grumbled and said that he would take a ship to Southeast Asia when it got light, and that he would still live a life of luxury there.

Wang Donghai's first wife, Madam Li, sat to the side, holding a string of Buddhist prayer beads in her hand and chanting scriptures.

Several boxes were placed in front of her.

Steward Wang Fu and several guards stood watch in the middle courtyard, their swords drawn, but their hands trembling as they held them.

Li Xin led Zhang Yourong, Wang Jingya, and others in, and the knife in Wang Fu's hand fell to the ground.

His kneeling motion was much faster than his drawing of the sword, and his knees struck the blue bricks with a dull thud.

When the guards saw the steward kneel, they all knelt down as well.

Li Xin walked through them and went to the backyard.

Wang Jizong was bending over and stuffing a blue-and-white porcelain vase into a box when he heard footsteps. He looked up, and the impatience on his face turned ashen the instant he saw who it was.

He opened his mouth as if to say something, perhaps "You can't kill me," or "I can give you money."

But Li Xin didn't give him a chance to say it.

He slashed out with a single stroke.

The corpse fell onto the box, and blood dripped down the gaps in the lid, soaking the gold, silver and valuables that had not yet been packed.

Several of Wang's trusted confidants scattered in fear, but Li Xin went to them one by one, killing them all with a single stroke.

As if she had foreseen her own end, Li stood up expressionlessly, put down her prayer beads.

Her eyes were filled with resentment and malice, and she gripped her sleeves tightly.

As Li Xin walked into the main hall, he suddenly said, "The Wang family's century-old foundation has been ruined by you alone."

"A century-old enterprise?" Li Xin looked at her. "Trafficking in people, colluding with foreigners, and exploiting the common people... does that deserve to be called an enterprise?"

Wang's lips trembled a few times, but she didn't say anything more.

Li Xin slashed down with his sword, then walked to the door and said to Wang Fu, who was kneeling on the ground, "Open the warehouse."

Wang Fu scrambled to his feet and went to open the warehouse.

The Wang family's wealth was greater than he had imagined; they seized over 80,000 taels of silver, 2,000 taels of gold, and three large chests full of jewelry and jade.

The medicinal herb warehouse contained twelve ginseng roots that were over a hundred years old, one of which was said to be over three hundred years old; eight purple lingzhi mushrooms, the largest of which was as big as a washbasin; and piles of he shou wu, huang jing, deer antler, and tiger bone filled half the warehouse.

What surprised Li Xin the most was the Wang family's "blood pearl".

Wang Fu opened a mahogany box, inside which were neatly arranged forty-eight thumb-sized pearls, gleaming with a faint blood-red halo, their surfaces as smooth and warm to the touch.

Wang Jingya leaned over for a look and clicked her tongue: "Wang Donghai has kept this thing for who knows how many years, hiding it in the deepest part of a secret room. Even his son doesn't know about it. You've gotten it all for free this time."

Li Xin picked up a pearl and twirled it between his fingers. The water essence within the pearl seeped into his meridians along his fingertips, nourishing his spirit.

"Adding this to the Nourishing Spirit Soup will double its quality. The speed at which my spiritual power improves will finally no longer be as slow as a snail."

He put the pearls back into the box and told Zhang Yourong to keep them safe so he could take them to the capital later.

He then led his men to the prefectural government office.

Qian Bojun's private treasury was also thoroughly searched.

Fifty thousand taels of silver, three hundred gold bars, and a thick stack of land deeds and house deeds.

There was also a box of letters, which were secret correspondence between Qian Bojun and certain officials in Beijing.

Li Xin flipped through the secret letter, raising an eyebrow...

Although Qian Bojun is dead, these letters may be useful in the future.

He carefully put the letter away, and had Uncle De confiscate all the remaining valuables. Part of the money was distributed to the victims, part to the refugees, and he took most of it with him.

Everything was taken care of, and it was already broad daylight.

When Li Xin walked out of the prefectural government office, Jingning Street was already crowded with people.

The rescued people spontaneously gathered on the street, some kneeling down and kowtowing, others shouting "Your Honor, the Upright Official!"

Someone held the freshly steamed buns above their head and handed them to them.

Li Xin was thinking that this trip to Guangping had now come to a great success.

Suddenly, a thought struck him, and he looked up in the direction of the city gate he had come from.

His brow furrowed slightly.

For a brief moment, he felt a strange sense of being watched.

It felt like someone was pointing a knife at me, a murderous intent surging forth.

"The return journey is dangerous, though not life-threatening, but still quite formidable... They've come for the Mosasaurus Relics."

What a terrible Red Lotus Cult! Is this never going to end?

I wonder who this person is that makes me feel a slight sense of danger; they're definitely not someone as simple as the Fish-Dragon Taoist.

Therefore, the talent of "Avoiding Misfortune" is extremely useful.

As long as the other party has the intention to deal with me, I will sense it in advance.

That's how awesome it is.

He hadn't even decided whether to set off immediately.

A fast horse galloped towards them from afar.

Upon seeing Li Xin, the rider tumbled off his horse, his face covered in dust, yet the dust couldn't hide his panic.

"Master Li, a major event has occurred in the capital. The reform has failed, the emperor has been imprisoned, and a riot is imminent. The situation is on the verge of erupting."

It was Sun Liancheng who arrived.

"Go back to Beijing."

Li Xin said in a deep voice.

……

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Chapter 194 Ambush, Killing Intent (Please Subscribe)

Leaving Guangping, the woods on both sides of the official road became increasingly dense, and the mountains became steeper.

Wang Jingya rode her horse alongside the carriage, barely speaking the entire way.

Her goose-feather saber lay across her lap, a chipped edge on the blade from when she chopped a rock a few days ago. She didn't bother with it, only tightening the hemp rope wrapped around the hilt.

Ali sat in the carriage, holding the basket of dried fish given to her by the old fisherman, her head dozing off little by little.

Zhang Yourong sat next to her, flipping through an account book, occasionally glancing out the window.

There are fewer and fewer villages in the mountains. Occasionally you pass by one or two, which are only about ten households with mud walls and thatched roofs. A few naked children chase each other in the mud at the entrance of the village. When they see a horse-drawn carriage, they stop and stare at it while biting their fingers.

Ali leaned out of the car window and waved to them. The children paused for a moment, then ran off laughing.

"How much longer until we reach the capital?" Ali pulled her head back and looked up at Zhang Yourong.

"Almost there, just one more day's journey."

White mist suddenly surged out from the mountain valley.

Wisps of fog, like a wall, were pushed over in an instant.

It was as if someone had spilled a whole jar of rice porridge into the air.

Wang Jingya was only three steps away from Li Xin. She waved her hand in front of her eyes, but she couldn't even see her own five fingers clearly.

The fog was so thick that even the birdsong couldn't be heard. The mountain road was deathly quiet, with only the sound of horses' hooves pawing the ground and the low neighing of the chestnut horse.

Inside the carriage, Ali poked her head out, but Zhang Yourong pulled her back inside.

"Don't go out." Zhang Yourong's voice was very low, and her knuckles were white as she gripped the carriage curtain.

Li Xin dismounted, holding the dragon-patterned spear in his hand, and took a few steps forward.

The air was filled with a rotten, sweet smell, as if something had been rotting in the soil for a long time and the smell had been released by the sun.

The white mist brushed against the hem of his clothes and hissed as it retreated half an inch.

The true energy of heaven and earth circulates spontaneously, preventing anything in the fog from getting close.

He glanced back at Wang Jingya and said, "Stay close to me and don't step on the red soil by the roadside."

Wang Jingya looked down and saw that a layer of dark red, sticky substance had seeped into the soil on both sides of the road, slowly flowing down the drainage ditch.

It's not water, it's blood.

She drew her goose-feather sword, its blade gleaming with a faint blue light in the mist.

Li Xin walked at the very front.

Turn left, turn right, go around a rock blocking the way, and walk forward another twenty steps or so...

He walked steadily on the center of the official road, as if the thick fog didn't exist in his eyes at all.

It does not actually exist.

Under the reflection of the void, everything within fifty feet could be seen clearly.

He "saw" the road, and he also "saw" the things on the hillside.

Forty-nine corpses, men, women, and children, were arranged in a bizarre circle.

Each corpse had its vital energy drained and its essence collected in a purplish-red gourd at the center of the formation.

The corpse was surrounded by array flags with symbols drawn on them. The flags fluttered gently in the windless fog, and each flutter brought with it a faint cry.

Li Xin stopped in his tracks.

Further ahead is the entrance to the formation...

His gaze fell on the hillside.

There was a little girl, about five or six years old, wearing a floral jacket, curled up next to a rock, with only a straw sandal on her feet.

Beside her lay an old woman with white hair, one hand still outstretched, her five fingers deeply dug into the mud, the fingertips worn and deformed.

Those were tracks left from crawling a long way across the ground.

"Come out."

Li Xin said in a deep voice, his killing intent boiling in his chest.

"This humble Taoist priest has been waiting here for a long time."

The sound came from all directions at the same time, dry and deep.

An old Taoist priest emerged from the mist, wearing a gray robe and a purplish-red gourd hanging from his waist. The robe was embroidered with karmic fire and red lotus.

His face was as withered as old tree bark, his eye sockets were sunken, but his eyes gleamed with a green light.

He walked slowly, each step landing on the ground between the corpses, his cloth shoes covered in dark red mud.

"My Buddhist name is Kuyun, and I am the Right Protector of the Red Lotus Sect. Yulong is my junior brother." Kuyun stopped seven or eight zhang away from Li Xin, his withered fingers gently stroking the gourd at his waist. "Scholar Li, you killed my junior brother in Guangping and stole my Canglong Treasure. Today, I have come to demand its return."

"Hand over everything you've obtained—the Water Scripture, the Mosasaurus Horn, the underwater ruins… and I'll spare the lives of those behind you."

Li Xin did not answer.

His gaze shifted from the hillside to Ku Yun's face.

His gaze was as calm as a lake in winter.