Chapter 1 “We’re leaving the day after tomorrow. Have you packed everything?” Wang Yiheng asked.

Li Cheng颐 opened the door and saw Wang Yiheng holding a gray cloth bag.

“All packed. Once I make a name for myself in the county and buy a house, I’ll bring you all over. I’ll find you a good family in the county,” he joked.

“I want to take the Shen Wu Si exam too! Stop with the marriage talk!” Wang Yiheng rolled her eyes. “I’m here to remind you to be careful on the road. Dad was just packing when he received a message from the yamen. Hu Yanshan, the great philanthropist of the town, Master Hu, has gone missing.”

“Master Hu of the Hu family? Are you talking about Thunderbolt Hand Hu Yuntai?” Li Cheng颐 frowned.

“Exactly. He’s a top expert in town, almost as good as Dad. He just disappeared inexplicably.” Wang Yiheng was a little worried.

“Maybe he went outside the city.”

“No, he’s in the city. The guards at the city gate haven’t seen Hu Yuntai leave at all,” Wang Yiheng said, holding up the cloth bag and handing it to Li Cheng颐.

“I made this safety charm for you. Wear it; it might help in a pinch.”

“Thank you,” Li Cheng颐 said, taking the bag.

After his second sister left, he felt a vague sense of unease.

A martial artist disappearing in the city, and a master on the same level as Wang Yifeng…

After pondering for a moment, he opened the bag and saw a square safety charm sewn with red thread, stitch by stitch. He tied it to his wrist.

‘I hope nothing happens when we set off.’

Compared to ordinary people, his five senses were far superior, and he could vaguely sense a dangerous aura lingering in the town.

Walking to the window, he looked at Wang Yiheng, who was diligently practicing in the garden again, and fell into deep thought.

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

Wang Yifeng specifically asked for leave from the town garrison and personally took his third son, Wang Yichen, to Cangshi County to register for the Shen Wu Si, carrying a letter of recommendation.

Early in the morning, Wang Linshi got up to cook egg and vegetable noodles for the two of them, then handed over the packed luggage containing clothes and money.

“Don’t worry, it’s only a half-hour journey. We’ll be back soon,” Wang Yifeng said with a smile.

“After all, it’s outside the city, and there are dangers everywhere… You must not leave the official road,” Wang Linshi cautioned, her face showing a hint of worry.

“Ah Chen and I are both experts. Don’t worry, don’t worry; we’ll be fine.” Wang Yifeng had been to the county town more than once or twice, and wild beasts and bandits on the road couldn’t do anything to him.

Moreover, the town general regularly eliminated the red-eye disease monsters, making it impossible for them to get close.

As long as they didn’t leave the official road, there was actually no danger at all.

Li Cheng颐, dressed in a new white short coat, with silk-wrapped protective gear on his hands and feet to tighten his sleeves and trouser legs to reduce resistance when running, stood to the side.

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect Chief Wang,” he joked with a smile.

“Bullshit, does your old man need your protection?” Wang Yifeng retorted.

“You can’t beat me now. If I don’t protect you, who will?” Li Cheng颐 laughed.

“I was just letting you win because I was afraid you’d cry if you lost. Your old man still has some hidden ultimate moves! Once I use them, I can take you down in a few moves!” Wang Yifeng wouldn’t admit defeat.

Being suppressed by his son in front of his daughter and wife made his old face unable to hold on.

Wang Yiheng and Wang Linshi both laughed.

The family packed their things and saw the two of them off all the way to the city gate.

“I’ll bring you back gifts when I return!” Wang Yifeng waved as he walked ahead, shouting loudly.

“You must pass the exam!” Wang Yiheng said to Li Cheng颐.

Li Cheng颐 nodded, stepped forward, hugged her and Wang Linshi, then carried his luggage and quickly followed Wang Yifeng.

“Go back. You can come to the county to see me when you have time.”

The two figures blended together and disappeared quickly into the ox cart.

Wang Yiheng’s nose was a little sour, and she turned back to hold her mother’s hand, comforting her softly.

However, neither of them noticed that on the city gate, a young woman in a gray robe and jade hairpin was watching the departing Li Cheng颐 and Wang Yifeng, then quietly turned and hurried toward the town general’s mansion.

By the edge of a small lake, Town General Song Juidao was lazily half-reclined on a small boat, holding a fishing rod as if fishing.

“Father, the two from the Wang family have left,” the gray-robed young woman appeared on the boat behind him, reporting in a low voice.

“Same as always, cripple them and lock them up in the old place. I’ll go over and consume them when I need to,” Song Juidao said lazily.

“Understood,” the gray-robed woman replied.

“Once this job is done, come back and take care of the Guo family. I’ll take care of the town garrison a little later. Once we’ve plundered everything, we’ll leave together,” Song Juidao said.

“Yes, Father,” the gray-robed woman said respectfully. She was Song Juidao’s adopted daughter, Song He, and had been infected into the red-eye stage long ago. She was only one step away from becoming a blood-body.

Dealing with two ordinary martial artists who could only be ambushed in the latent stage was naturally easy.

Before long, a figure rushed out of the back door of the town general’s mansion in the blink of an eye and disappeared at the city gate.

*

*

*

On the vast black earth plain, the morning sun slowly rose from the horizon.

Wang Yifeng and Li Cheng颐 traveled one in front of the other along the official road towards Cangshi County.

Both of them were martial artists who cultivated true qi, with long qi meridians and extremely fast speed, steadily moving forward at a speed of dozens of meters per second.

In the eyes of ordinary people, they were two afterimages that flashed past.

After about a quarter of an hour, the two stopped by the road to rest briefly. Wang Yifeng was old, after all, and had many hidden injuries. Continuous sprinting for a quarter of an hour was a significant burden for him.

So the two simply drank some water by the roadside and stretched their muscles.

On the vast black earth plain, there was nothing but withered trees and crows.

To cultivate farmland here, the imperial court needed to issue fertile soil medicine; otherwise, no matter what plants, they would quickly wither and die in the blood-contaminated black earth.

“When you get to the county, remember to build good relationships with your superiors… Give gifts when you need to, don’t be afraid of not having enough money,” Wang Yifeng nagged, always worried that Li Cheng颐 wouldn’t know how to deal with people and would suffer losses.

Li Cheng颐 listened attentively, and for a moment, he thought of his own father from his previous life.

It was the same when he went to college back then.

But in the end, he wasn’t the original Wang Yichen. He had come here only to find materials.

And to climb to a high position as quickly as possible, he was destined not to take the path of earning merit and rising through the ranks like the original body.

After all, in this world, where would an ordinary newcomer just starting out find so much merit to earn?

So, he was determined that if there was merit, he would seize it; if there was no merit, he would create it.

Increasing his status and martial arts at the fastest speed was the right path to finding the iridescent dragon heart. And as for bribing superiors…

Listening to Wang Yifeng’s constant nagging, Li Cheng颐 suddenly moved his eyes.

“Dad, rest for a while. I need to take a leak, I’ll go nearby to take care of it first, I’ll be back in a bit.”

He got up and instructed.

“Okay, don’t go too far. It’s dangerous if you go too far around here,” Wang Yifeng nodded. He was more confident in his third son’s strength than he was in his own, so he wasn’t worried about him encountering danger.

Li Cheng颐 nodded and got up.

He planned to take advantage of this time to bring Liu Mingyang over and go to the county town together.

By the way, he had also stored some of the gold and silver he had hidden in Jingwei Village there, so he naturally had to bring it all with him on this trip to the county town.

Whoosh!

In the blink of an eye, he disappeared from the spot and sprinted away into the distance.

Wang Yifeng sat by the road, not caring, picked up his water bottle and took another sip, waiting quietly.

*

*

*

On the black earth plain behind, a gray-robed woman with blood-red eyes suddenly stopped her frantic sprint and carefully sniffed.

“They separated?”

After considering it for a moment, she hurried towards Li Cheng颐’s direction. After all, Wang Yifeng would eventually return to the town, but Wang Yichen wouldn’t return once he went to the county town. So, she prioritized catching Wang Yichen first.

She turned sharply and chased in the direction Li Cheng颐 had left.

Moving at full speed, her speed silently broke twice the speed of sound, and she soon discovered movement ahead.

On the black earth, there lay a dilapidated old man’s corpse, his body riddled with blood holes.

The old man’s eyes were red, but not to the point of being blood-red. Obviously, he had been killed in the latent stage.

She frowned, not thinking too much about it. There were many such infected people in the wild.

Infected people could survive by eating black earth, and they wandered around in the wild all day long, so it was normal for some to die.

Immediately, she continued to chase in the direction of the scent.

After running for a few more kilometers, another patch of corpses appeared ahead.

They were a dozen or so ragged robbers, looking quite miserable.

Looking at the two latent-stage leaders with reddened eyes among them, Song He felt a little goosebumps.

“…” This situation was a little different from what she had imagined.

She noticed that the pockets of these people were empty, and all the money bags had been turned inside out and cleaned.

Taking a deep breath, Song He continued forward.

Bang!

This time, she braked sharply, seemingly having finally caught up to the scene.

Three corpses lay around, blood slowly seeping into the black earth below. Their eyes were all blood-red, and they died with lingering resentment.

A burly strong man, with blood-red eyes and his whole body as if he had no skin, was constantly dripping large amounts of poisonous blood. He was crouching on the ground in horror, staring at a man in white in front of him, as if in fear and dread.

The strong man’s hands had lost their strength, obviously his bones or tendons had been cut. There was a large bloody hole in the middle of one of his thighs, as if it had been nailed to the ground by something invisible, unable to move.

“This is…!?” Song He’s heart trembled, recognizing that the strong man was a red-eye stage infected person like herself!

Even a red-eye stage was…

She hurriedly looked at the man in white.

“Finally know fear?” The man stood tall and straight with his hands behind his back, his voice leisurely.

“Only by knowing fear can one survive longer in this world. They simply didn’t understand, so I killed them.”

He turned around, revealing a face that sent a shockwave through Song He’s mind.

Wang Yichen!!

He was actually the Wang Yichen she had been chasing all along, preparing to attack?!

The Wang family’s third son!?

What… what’s going on with this guy!?

“The weak submit because of fear, and survive in this world because of submission… This is the way of the mayfly.”

Li Cheng颐 was very happy.

After killing so many infected people, he had finally found a good material that could provide evil thoughts.

In this way, his three great Flower God Seats could continue to evolve.

Especially the purple magnolia, the final fifth form, was the ultimate form of the purple magnolia.

Generally, the ultimate form would give a second floral language.

He was looking forward to it.

Slightly turning his body, his light golden dragon eye vertical pupils landed on Song He beside him.

Chī!

A feeling of electric shock-like terror and paralysis instantly surged through Song He’s body.

Danger!!!

(End of chapter)