Chapter 68

"Isn't that kid very impulsive? How could he hold back and not make a move?"

In a separate courtyard of the Luo Huang City, Zhang Chulong paced back and forth, muttering to himself, extremely anxious.

"This time we really miscalculated. I didn't expect that kid to be so patient. He didn't even attack Li Kunfeng when he saw their heads. It seems we all underestimated Li Chen!"

Qiu Qianyi's handsome face was dark, seemingly finding it unbelievable, his eyes flashing with a cold light, as if he was harboring some sinister thoughts.

"Master Qiu, if that kid finds the Thirteen Thieves of Tianyun, won't our plans be exposed? What then?"

Zhang Chulong said in a panic.

Since the day Li Chen easily dealt with Yang Haotian, Zhang Chulong knew that one day he would definitely fall into Li Chen's hands.

That little monkey, which he used to break through with monkey wine, was captured when he and Qiu Qianyi jointly organized a large-scale hunt, exterminating the Iron Arm Monkey clan, as a gift to pursue Chu Ziyun.

As the saying goes, 'An innocent man is not guilty, but a man with a treasure is.' If the Iron Arm Monkey clan didn't have the monkey wine, they probably wouldn't have attracted such a disaster.

"What are you afraid of? It would be better if he can't find the Thirteen Thieves. If he does, he'll only be heading for a dead end!"

Qiu Qianyi shot him a glare, inwardly cursing him as a useless piece of mud. If it weren't for his decent talent, he wouldn't have agreed to let his younger sister marry him.

"What if—what if Li Chen asks the sect for help?"

Zhang Chulong said uneasily.

"Heh, if he seeks help from the sect, it will take at least two days for them to come and go. By then, the Thirteen Thieves will be long gone. How could he find any trace of them?"

Qiu Qianyi sneered, completely unconcerned.

"That's good, as long as he doesn't know it was us—"

Zhang Chulong let out a sigh of relief.

"Shut up! This has nothing to do with us. It was that old man Li Kunfeng who hired the Thirteen Thieves to kill the escaped slaves!"

Qiu Qianyi shouted sternly.

"Yes, yes, yes, it was Li Kunfeng who did it!"

Zhang Chulong wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

But in his panic, he didn't notice the flash of cunning and malice in Qiu Qianyi's eyes.

Whoosh!

A gust of wind blew, and the sound of rustling clothes filled the air. A blue-clad figure, like an arrow released from a bow, shot off into the distance.

The heavy atmosphere, the tense expression, and the bloodshot eyes made Li Chen seem as cold as ice. But if one looked closely, they would sense the barely suppressed rage and savagery within him, waiting for the right moment to erupt.

"The Thirteen Thieves of Tianyun have roamed the outer regions of the Ancient Cang Mountains for nearly twenty years. They are elusive, with a total of thirteen members, all of whom were experts at the Seventh Layer of Inner Breath when they first appeared.

In the past decade, they have committed numerous bloody crimes, causing the Xuan Yun Sect to send out powerful forces to hunt them down multiple times. However, the Thirteen Thieves are familiar with the terrain of the Ancient Cang Mountains and always manage to escape.

In their most recent operation, it is rumored that most of the Thirteen Thieves are True Forging Realm warriors, with their leader, Yun Zhonglong, being a late-stage True Forging Realm warrior."

Recalling the information compiled by the major families of Luo Huang City just half an hour ago, Li Chen's killing intent surged.

A month ago, on this very road, he had bid farewell to Uncle Niu and Aunt Liu's families, their laughter and joy still vivid in his mind.

He remembered planning to bring his little brothers to the Xuan Yun Sect to teach them martial arts once he had a foothold there, so they wouldn't suffer the same fate as him, being looked down upon.

But he never imagined that that farewell would be their final one!

All of this, like a knife twisting in his heart, caused Li Chen's eyes to be filled with bloodshot veins, and he no longer hid his strength.

With his Second Stage Early Martial Body and Early True Forging Realm cultivation, he unleashed his full power.

Covering a distance of several hundred miles, he arrived in just a few hours, seeing a small village in the distance.

Whoosh!

In the sky, the thunder falcon's figure flashed and instantly plunged into the village.

Silence!

Apart from a few faint insect chirps, there was only a bone-chilling silence.

Squawk!

The golden bird on his shoulder suddenly cried out, warning Li Chen that it had smelled blood.

The heavy scent of blood, even without the mountain breeze, was already detected by Li Chen's keen sense of smell. He leaped into the village path with a few quick steps.

Stunned, he gazed at the village he had only seen from a distance before, having left the village outskirts to avoid the pain of parting.

At that time, he could still hear the lively chatter and children's laughter from the village. Now, there were only a few faint insect chirps and the occasional crows flying from the withered tree branches.

Li Chen's body trembled as he stepped into the village, his eyes unwilling to look at the wide-open courtyard gates.

Because he knew that each silent courtyard was a testament to the countless souls, silently accusing him.

But to find the bodies of Uncle Niu and Aunt Liu's families, he had to look, at the bodies lying in pools of blood.

Finally, in the northeast corner of the village, in a newly built house, he saw six brutally mutilated bodies.

Seeing the unrecognizable masses of flesh, Li Chen fell to his knees, tears of blood streaming down his face, his nails digging deep into his palms.

How similar was this scene to the one in the Monkey Valley?

"Blood debt, blood repayment!"

In the ghostly silent village, a mournful roar suddenly echoed, startling the birds into flight.

Squawk!

In the dim night sky, a faint cry echoed, as if suppressing its voice.

In the pile of rubble, the golden bird's small hands gestured, its eyes flashing with golden light in the darkness.

"Only two of them?"

Li Chen's eyebrows raised, his right hand unconsciously rubbing his nose, his eyes cold.

After a day and a night of thorough searching, the man and the two beasts, all experts in tracking, finally found the faint traces left by the enemy.

This time, the enemy they were tracking was different from the warriors who attacked the Monkey Valley.

That group of people, after hunting the Iron Arm Monkey clan, directly withdrew from the Ancient Cang Mountains and disappeared on the main road, making it impossible to track them.

But the Thirteen Thieves of Tianyun, who had massacred the entire village, were always solitary, leaving very few traces, but they were still traceable to the man and the two beasts.

From the wounds on the bodies in the village, Li Chen determined that the attackers' cultivation could not be at the True Forging Realm.

This situation was different from what he knew about the Thirteen Thieves of Tianyun.

After a moment's thought, Li Chen flew up, his figure hidden in the shadows of the trees under the moonlight, moving silently forward.

Soon, he arrived at a ravine with a fire, crouching behind a large rock and peering out.

In the firelight, two young men were roasting meat over the fire, the crackling of the firewood illuminating their flushed faces.

They shouted loudly, occasionally grabbing the wine flasks by their sides and drinking deeply. This was just at the outer edge of the Ancient Cang Mountains, and the wild beasts that usually roamed here had been hunted to extinction by the nearby villagers, so they didn't have to worry about being attacked by beasts after getting drunk.