Chapter 52: Dangerous Situation IV

After everything was arranged, it was just a matter of waiting. Lin Shunhe checked on Xiaohu to make sure he was okay, then followed Yu Ying and the others to move chairs and stools into the training ground, sitting down to rest and wait.

Time ticked by, and in the blink of an eye, more than half an hour had passed.

The two who had rushed off hadn’t returned yet, and the impatience in Yu Ying’s eyes grew increasingly obvious.

The atmosphere in the entire training ground became more and more oppressive. The elderly folks, seeing the situation was bad, had quietly slipped away long ago.

Only the group of white-robed people, Lin Shunhe, Xiaohu, and Little Fatty who had rushed over remained.

The handymen served tea to everyone, but the hot tea couldn’t suppress the chilling coldness spreading among the group.

Time passed again; the one-hour deadline was approaching.

Sitting in his seat, Lin Shunhe’s forehead beaded with sweat. His gaze was fixed on the gate, and his hands gripping the armrests tightened unconsciously, veins popping.

“Time’s up,” a bald, sturdy man beside Yu Ying said in a deep voice.

“The person hasn’t arrived.” Yu Ying looked at Lin Shunhe and slowly raised her hand.

Just as she was about to strike, her finger suddenly trembled, seemingly sensing something. She pointed lightly at Lin Shunhe.

Whoosh.

A purple-red jade pendant flew out from Lin Shunhe’s waist, landing precisely in her large hand.

“Why is Big Brother’s protective jade pendant in your hands?” The killing intent in her eyes faded rapidly, replaced by confusion.

“So Lord Yu’s younger sister is here in person!?” Lin Shunhe, who had been terrified and covered in goosebumps, was stunned by this scene. “Misunderstanding! It’s a misunderstanding!!”

He was overjoyed and shouted loudly.

His mind instantly connected the “big shot” he had contacted using the supermarket profits with the network and background behind that person, instantly identifying the identity of the lord before him.

“…Since you are Big Brother’s person, then you are one of us.” Yu Ying flicked her finger, sending the jade pendant precisely back into Lin Shunhe’s hand.

Then she turned to look at the sturdy man who had grabbed Xiaohu earlier.

Right hand, one palm strike.

Whoosh!

In an instant, a massive invisible and transparent force field solidified the space around the sturdy man for several meters.

This force field made the sturdy man like a bug in amber, unable to move, unable even to change his expression.

BOOM!

Yu Ying smashed her palm down from above. With a loud bang, the entire training ground seemed to shake.

The man was smashed into the ground from head to toe, creating a bloody, circular crater.

In the crater, the sturdy man’s entire body was smashed into a pulp of flesh and blood; it was impossible to tell where the head was or where the feet were.

This palm strike scared everyone around into trembling.

Lin Shunhe also turned pale. But he saw Yu Ying smile gently at him.

“Don’t be afraid. You are Big Brother’s person, so you are my person. I said I would kill someone, so I must keep my word. Since I’m not killing you, I have to find someone to count. He found the wrong person, almost got you involved, and almost made me beat you to death. This is his fault, so he deserves to die.”

“…Yes.” Lin Shunhe felt a chill in his heart but suppressed his horror, nodded, and forced a smile. “What the Lord says makes sense.”

At this moment, outside the training ground gate, the two guards galloped in on horseback, followed by two others also on horseback.

The four dismounted and rushed into the training ground.

“Zhao Dongmu, Shopkeeper of Zhao Kee Dried Goods, pays respects to Lord Yu Ying!”

One of them, an old man in a black hat, walked quickly to the front and bowed deeply.

And at this moment, the time had truly just arrived…

The bald man beside Yu Ying whispered something to her.

“Not bad.” Yu Ying looked at Lin Shunhe with an even warmer gaze.

“I like capable people like you.” She extended an index finger and tapped lightly on Lin Shunhe’s forehead.

Puff.

A black mark flashed on his skin like a pattern for an instant and then disappeared.

“I’ll give you one of my marks. The protective jade pendant breaks after one use, but this mark can be used repeatedly. If any high-level Summoner sees you and tries to attack you, they will definitely encounter the mark I left to protect you first,” Yu Ying said calmly.

“Thank you, my Lord!” Lin Shunhe was overjoyed and quickly bowed in thanks.

“You may leave.” Yu Ying nodded, shifting her gaze to the old man in the black hat.

“Take the person; let’s go.”

She stood up, her tall body tapping lightly on the ground, actually leaping up as light as a bird. In the blink of an eye, she crossed the wall and disappeared outside the training ground.

The other white-robed people hurriedly took Shopkeeper Zhao and chased after her.

In just two seconds, only a bloody deep pit remained on the spot.

Lin Shunhe, Xiaohu, and the others looked at this scene, unable to recover from the intense aura of Yu Ying who had just left.

After a full ten seconds, Lin Shunhe touched the space between his eyebrows.

The expression on his face gradually became excited, mixed with an inexplicable meaning.

“Thank you, Lord Lin, for saving my life!” At this moment, Xiaohu knelt down to Lin Shunhe and knocked his head three times loudly on the ground. Bang, bang, bang.

He was honest, but not stupid. He knew that if Uncle Lin’s father hadn’t risked death to speak up, he would probably be gone right then and there.

Little Fatty beside him was stunned for a moment, then foolishly followed suit, kneeling and kowtowing three times.

“It’s fine, don’t be afraid.” Lin Shunhe stepped forward to help them up. He wasn’t stupid either; he didn’t truly sacrifice himself to save people. It was because he had the protective jade pendant on him that he had enough courage to speak up and save them.

And he had three more such protective jade pendants, all given by the big shots behind him who were waiting for him to make money and send resources, not wanting him to get into trouble.

The joint supermarket had now developed branches in over a dozen towns; it wasn’t just the two he told his son about—that was just an excuse to avoid scaring his family back then.

In reality, with the backing of big shots, capital and manpower were no longer issues. For the creation of this new model, expanding market share as much as possible at the first opportunity was an important lesson he had summarized over many years.

How could he possibly wait slowly, opening branches one by one?

“Go back and rest well, calm your nerves. When your master comes, tell him about the situation today. Pause the classes for a while; don’t open them,” Lin Shunhe instructed.

“Mh-hm!” Xiaohu nodded vigorously. Uncle Lin Hui had actually told him about this, but he thought he was just a child, and with only old people left in the Sword Sect, there shouldn’t be any danger.

He never expected the big shot from the Inner City to be so brutal…

---

Early morning on the third day.

As soon as Lin Hui returned to the Sword Sect, he was stunned by the bloody mess on the ground.

Xiaohu and Little Fatty were struggling to clean up the flesh and blood with two helping aunts.

The sturdy man had no family to collect his corpse, so the flesh could only be put into leather bags and thrown into the Mist Zone for monsters to dispose of completely.

As for the half-meter-deep, bowl-shaped circular pit left on the ground, Vivi had already hired a professional mason who was mixing special stone sand for the training ground floor.

Seeing Lin Hui return, Vivi felt somewhat relieved and walked over quickly.

This incident had startled her greatly. Learning that it was Lin Hui’s father who ultimately acted to resolve the trouble gave her an indescribably mysterious feeling about Lin Shunhe, whom she had originally thought was just an ordinary person.

If Xiaohu had really died—if someone had died in the already declining Clear Wind Sword Sect—it would likely have collapsed on the spot.

Those elderly people were only paying money to exercise casually. Once they encountered such a dangerous event, they would definitely run faster than anyone else.

After all, anyone who could live to such an old age in the Outer City these days wasn’t a simple character; every one of them was shrewd.

Listening to Vivi describe the whole process, Lin Hui’s expression also changed slightly.

He hadn’t expected that the Inner City team would really come to the Sword Sect, nor did he expect his father to actively run over with medicine. In the past, his father wouldn’t have come over suddenly.

“The medicine Uncle Lin brought is still stored with me. He said he found another channel and prepared fifteen packs of the medicine you wanted,” Vivi whispered.

“Fifteen packs…” Lin Hui originally thought that missing the main ingredient meant he wouldn’t get Total Essence Powder for a short while. He hadn’t expected his father’s connections to be so wild, actually managing to get fifteen packs.

This way, combined with the scorpion tail he hunted himself, the evolution time of the Clear Wind Sword would definitely be significantly shortened!

Internal force!

Thinking of the danger his father faced, how Xiaohu was nearly strangled to death, and that unkillable Tree Scorpion, Lin Hui’s desire for the next step in strength reached its peak.

If he achieved internal force and developed a strong enough force around him, perhaps he wouldn’t encounter such things.

“Where is Master?” he came back to his senses and asked.

“Dad knows about this. He drank with your dad; they talked all night yesterday and are sleeping now. Your dad also went back,” Vivi replied.

“I’ll go back and take a look first.” Lin Hui nodded.

He hadn’t expected his father to be so impressive. It seemed his father’s business development was far from as simple as he had said.

Immediately, he took the medicine and quickly returned to his new home.

Just in time to see his father drinking and eating meat with an old man he didn’t know, bragging about how calm he was in front of Lord Yu Ying earlier—even with someone beaten to death in front of him, his face didn’t change, and his courage remained.

Both were quite drunk. The old man treated his father’s words as bragging and also boasted about how he once led hundreds of clansmen to stand up against a high-ranking Summoner, eventually forcing them to retreat.

Shoulder to shoulder, acting uninhibitedly, they made Lin Hui stop even though he had reached the door of the small hall.

He stood at the door watching for a long time, watching his father completely let go, singing loudly and shouting with the old man.

After a good while, he turned around, choosing not to disturb them.

After experiencing such danger, he understood that his father was also human and needed to vent psychological pressure. Drinking, bragging, singing, and shouting with friends was a way to regulate psychological stress.

And the Yu Ying incident also made Lin Hui alert.

‘Many things cannot be avoided by hiding… Why must I avoid trouble, instead of trouble avoiding me?‘

Returning to his small courtyard, he looked at the bright mist in the sky and didn’t move for a long time.

His family was nearly endangered by the Yu Ying incident. He avoided it himself, but he couldn’t control those around him; accidents would always happen. The best way was to solve such matters thoroughly.

At this moment, Ding Ning walked into the courtyard carrying a boiled medicinal soup.

“Young Master, the medicinal soup is ready. Drink it while it’s hot.”

“Mm.” Lin Hui reached out and took it, looking at the gray-black soup, and drank it in one gulp.

There was still the Hundred Flowers Gate nearby. Letting them wander around was ultimately a hidden danger.

‘Didn’t just two people die? So many people go missing in the Outer City every year. Other forces would just deal with it casually if someone died. But this Hundred Flowers Gate, for just two people, has been searching for so long without giving up. Truly annoying.‘

His heart hardened. He decided that after relying on the medicinal soup to complete the evolution of the Clear Wind Sword and stepping into the Internal Force Realm, he would try to solve the problem once and for all—completely eliminating the Hundred Flowers Gate to avoid endless future troubles.

(End of Chapter)