Le Yu's first suspect was White Night, since Qin Leyin's bright red hair was just too recognizable; even if Le Yu could use the Formless Battle Technique to change his face, there was absolutely no way to turn his hair into another color.
A few days had gone by, so the news from Xuanzhu County should have already reached White Night in Yanjing. As long as they knew "the Shi and Qin families successfully escaped Xuanzhu," "Qin Leyin is closely connected with Jing Zhengwei," and "the Linhai Army's military funds got hijacked," they'd naturally start suspecting Qin Leyin.
The worst possible scenario would be if someone from the Shi family betrayed them and exposed the fact that the Shi and Qin families had intercepted the military funds.
Although the law clearly stated that only Lanyan could be held accountable, it was obvious that the law couldn't be Qin Leyin's human shield—White Night had every reason to suspect that it was the Shi and Qin families who stirred up the chaos in Xuanzhu County, hijacked the military funds, and caused White Night's "dear friend of the people," Jing Zhengwei, to go missing to this day.
So Le Yu had been ultra cautious these days, basically never going out at night, and making sure Qin Yueyang and Qin Yueshi both got home before dark.
He totally didn't expect White Night to actually dare stir up trouble in broad daylight—wasn't White Night the "legitimate power in all Yanjing" or something?
He could feel his body getting colder, which meant the killer intent from the other side had reached the point of striking, so Le Yu decisively quit out of Ranked, darting out of the Perfect Battle Arena in one clean move.
Out on the street, Le Yu secretly gave himself a thumbs-up for his quick reflexes.
Because right then, there were two groups of people approaching the entrance from both sides of the street, about to pincer him in.
But you think just a few of you can assassinate me? That's way too naive, just watch me tear you all to shreds with my Blood-Drinker Qidao Style—
Right at that moment, Le Yu saw both groups reach into their coats, pull out pitch-black pistols, and flick off the safeties in one smooth motion.
Yeah, I'm out, I'm out.
Le Yu dove into the crowd, slipping through a side alley—who the hell wanted to pick a fight with armed martial artists, and against more than one at that? All it'd take was one wrong step and he'd be a corpse in the gutter.
Seeing the red-haired "Snow White" take off fast, the pursuers exchanged a glance, instantly took up the chase, and launched a firework right where they were standing.
Bang~!
Le Yu glanced back at the firework flower bursting in the sky, and his eyes nearly popped out—are you freaking kidding me, White Night has the balls to set off fireworks in broad daylight? Where are the rules, where's the justice?
At the next three-way fork, Le Yu saw someone coming from the main road, gun raised and aimed right at him!
Bang!
Le Yu easily dodged the shot, but the chasers were right on him!
He immediately used the Lingxu Step to dart along the walls in a blur, trying to get to the rooftops and open up some vertical space, but a storm of bullets wildly pressed down on him, stalling his climb. Glancing back, he realized some of the pursuers were Lingxu martial artists, racing up to steal the high ground first!
At best, he could only use the Lingxu Step's spatial movement ability to dodge shots as much as possible, but completely escaping pursuit was impossible—especially with the way the chasers were driving him deeper into the twisting alleys!
"Le Yu's heart pounded harder and harder, realizing that the crowd noises were getting fainter—the farther he went, the farther he got from the busy market. Every side street he passed had pursuers waiting in ambush—meaning this was a meticulously planned ambush!"
"White Night hadn't just launched a probing attack, but had deployed every advantage he had—territorial control, manpower—absolutely determined to squash Le Yu for good this time!"
"I mean, sure, I got Jing Zhengwei killed, hijacked the army's funds, wrecked Dongyang's first ever workers' alliance, but did they really have to go this hard?"
"And it's not even like I did any of that…"
"It's always Leyin who causes trouble, and Le Yu takes the fall…"
"Le Yu griped internally. He finally slipped out of the alleys, but found that both sides of the street were packed with enemies. The moment he appeared, they all raised their guns!"
"But because Le Yu popped up so suddenly, their reaction—automatically raising their weapons—was about as quick as humanly possible, but the internal 'should-we-fire?' second-guessing gave Le Yu a whole extra second!"
Taking full advantage of that split second, Le Yu shot across almost ten meters of street in a blur, diving into the alley straight ahead!
"Chase him! That's a dead end!"
It actually was a dead end, but there were no hidden pursuers at the end of the alley!
Le Yu immediately used Lingxu Step to vault over the blue-brick, green-tiled wall, landing as lightly as a feather in the courtyard on the other side.
Ahead of Le Yu stretched a beautifully manicured garden in full bloom. Nearby stood several elegant decorative screens; shimmering mist swirled in the air, sunlight streaming in and melting into a golden river amidst laughter like wind chimes and cheerful splashes from a pool.
"He's inside! Blockade the exits. Shoot any enemies on sight! The inspectors already went to search the house!"
"Barricade the doors? Raiding the mansion? Has White Night's power in Yanjing really gotten this insane? Even back when Qian Yuliu was captain of the Statistical Department, it wasn't this extreme…"
"Wait, inspectors?"
"Le Yu paused, going back over all the ambushes and blockades he'd run into along the way, suddenly realizing he'd been set up all over again."
At that moment, several sweet voices came from behind the screens:
"It's so noisy outside, what's going on?"
"No idea… sounds like someone's hunting a criminal?"
"How'd they end up here? Don't you have enough guards, sis? Want me to lend you some?"
"That'd be perfect! Yan-mei, can I borrow your awesome big brother~"
"I'd lend him if I could, but I genuinely don't have one…"
"Damn it, I should've risked taking a couple bullets and busted out of the street when I had the chance!"
"Xianchan Chencheng, you win this round!"
"All I did was pat your little head, did you really have to go nuclear?"
"Le Yu blinked, the Ice Blood Physique surging through his veins. His mind was racing, hundreds of thoughts whirling by in an instant, hundreds of ideas shot down in a snap."
"Bust out? There's a line of gunmen waiting out there."
"Hide? Xianchan Chencheng was bound to search the place top to bottom—if he got caught, things would end way worse."
"What do I do, what do I do, what do I do? Jing Zhengwei, Qian Yuliu, Yinyin Yin, Qin Leyin—lend me your strength and wisdom, lend me your experience and winning records!"
"Le Yu wasn't fighting alone, he wasn't alone!"
"After only a few seconds' thought, Le Yu snapped his eyes open. He kicked off his boots and hid them, tore off the bottom of his pants, then ran his hands up and down his legs, yanking off every last leg hair."
"He ripped off his shirt sleeves, scrubbed off all his armpit hair too, fished the drawstring from the sleeves, and tied up his red hair into a tiny ponytail."
"Then he bit his thumb to draw blood, smeared it across his lips, licked them lightly, dug up some dirt to smear over his cheeks."
"He blinked, did a quick touch-up of his face, squeezed out some tears, used the Formless Battle Technique to hide his Adam's apple, and roughed up his clothes until they were in tatters."
"Le Yu took a deep breath, used the Combat Technique to adjust his voice, then burst out of the flower bushes."
All they saw was a barefoot, ragged, but tall and charming red-haired Snow White dashing up to the girls splashing around at the pool, face full of grief and voice trembling, saying,
"Please, sisters, save your little sister's life!"