Chapter 56

The moonlight is dim, casting a silver sheen over the ground like a delicate veil. A few burly guards stand on watch, while five or six others gather around a campfire, seemingly huddling for warmth.

“Grandpa, that big brother is so handsome,” a little girl, about five or six years old with braided pigtails, says sweetly, pointing at a figure sitting inside a carriage.

Following her finger, one can see a boy around sixteen or seventeen, sitting quietly inside the carriage with his eyes closed. His features are refined and handsome, his hair gleaming softly, and under the moonlight, his skin glows with a gentle, jade-like luster, making him seem like a celestial being.

The elderly man, with gray hair, immediately pales when he sees whom she’s pointing at. He quickly pulls down her hand, scolding, “Shuang’er, don’t be rude!”

Then, the elderly man hurriedly bows toward the young man in the carriage, apologizing, “My lord, she’s just a child and doesn’t understand; please forgive her.”

The young man sitting in the luxurious carriage must clearly be someone of high status, and such people are often unpredictable, treating human lives like dirt. The old man anxiously looked at the white-clothed figure in the carriage, silently praying.

Lin Xuan slowly opened his eyes, a gentle smile appearing on his face. Already warm and elegant, his smile added a spring-like warmth to his expression, dissipating his previous coldness and aloofness. “It’s all right,” he said softly.

After leaving Taian City, Lin Xuan had planned to head straight to the capital. However, since he hadn’t left Taian in years, he wasn’t familiar with the routes, and although he had a map, the vast Great Yan Dynasty was as large as all of Asia in his previous life. He thus decided to travel with a passing escort team.

Lin Xuan’s gaze moved from the girl and the elder to a young man with ordinary features standing nearby. The young man seemed to sense his gaze and looked up, meeting Lin Xuan’s eyes.

This man… was no ordinary person.

“So, there are geniuses all over the world,” Lin Xuan thought to himself. “I didn’t expect to encounter someone on par with me so quickly.”

Lin Xuan’s expression remained calm as he withdrew his gaze, yet he could sense that this ordinary-looking young man held a deep secret. Even with Lin Xuan’s strong spiritual perception, there seemed to be layers of mist hiding the young man’s true essence—something extraordinary, even beyond a spirit master’s notice.

The campfire flickered slightly as Lin Xuan let out a small sigh.

His luck… seemed to be quite unfortunate. Just as he was thinking about trouble, it came.

Suddenly, the quiet forest was disturbed by a rustling sound, and three mysterious figures cloaked in blood-red robes appeared.

“Heh heh heh, boy, you killed people from my Blood Kill Hall and thought you could escape?”

The men hovered mid-air, a mark of their Spirit Realm power. A suffocating, murderous aura filled the area, and the three of them surrounded the group, locking down every possible escape route.

Everyone looked around at each other, faces frozen with fear. Though they might not have seen Spirit Realm experts before, they knew these were powerful figures beyond their reach. And from their words, it sounded as if they were here to hunt someone down.

All eyes turned toward Lin Xuan. To them, only this noble young man could have done something to provoke such powerful enemies.

Lin Xuan frowned.

One of the burly guards pointed to Lin Xuan with a sycophantic grin and said, “My lord, this is the person you’re looking for.”

“Honored lords, this has nothing to do with us. We’re with the Cheng’an Escort Agency, please spare us,” he begged.

The others nodded in agreement, voices overlapping in desperate pleas.

Some of the people even glanced at Lin Xuan with hidden resentment or schadenfreude, as if they were relishing the downfall of someone they saw as high and mighty.

Only one young man with a plain appearance stood motionless, emotionless like a puppet, not reacting to the scene around him.

Then a soft, childish voice rang out, “Big brother isn’t a bad person! You’re all lying about him! I always hear you saying bad things about big brother!”

“Be quiet!” The elderly man hastily pulled the little girl behind him, covering her mouth, his face filled with anguish. No matter how she struggled, he wouldn’t let her speak.

Others looked at the old man with malicious expressions.

“Heh, heh, how amusing, truly amusing!” sneered one of the masked Blood Kill Hall experts. “Are you saying that my Blood Kill Hall’s tracking skills are inferior to a bunch of ants’ opinions?”

He raised his hand, and a crimson light shot forth like a long spear, piercing the body of the burly guard who had spoken earlier. In an instant, the man turned to blood mist, the sickly-sweet smell of blood filling the air, leaving everyone frozen in terror.

Lin Xuan watched this scene impassively, not making a move.

“Having seen members of the Blood Kill Hall in action, you think you’ll walk away alive?” sneered the Blood Kill Hall member. “Our organization doesn’t leave survivors.”

Blood-red lights sliced through the air, ruthlessly taking lives without mercy. Soon, the sickening smell of blood filled the forest.

Lin Xuan rose slowly, frowning at the thick smell of blood in the air. It was not something he was used to, as he usually left no remains of those he killed and hadn’t encountered such a stench before.

“Grandpa… grandpa…” Shuang’er whimpered, her eyes brimming with tears. The elderly man shielded her, as a ray of blood-red light closed in on them.

Clang.

The sound of a sword leaving its sheath rang out, as clear as a dragon’s cry. In Shuang’er’s eyes, a figure dressed in white rose into the air, cutting down like a god. He flicked his sword, and a light sliced through the night, shattering the blood-red rays that had been mercilessly taking lives.

Turning around, the grandfather and granddaughter beheld a scene they would never forget.

A terrifying golden sword light surged up like a pillar, reaching toward the heavens. Behind him, everything within a hundred miles was wiped into nothingness, and where three blood-red figures once stood, only two remained.

The two remaining assassins looked on, dumbfounded, at the overwhelmingly young figure before them—completely stunned by what they had just witnessed.

Boom.

The heavens suddenly shifted, and Lin Xuan looked up to see strange symbols spreading across the sky, filled with an aura of destruction that made even him feel a bit unsettled.

“Divine Thunder from the Nine Heavens, descend!”