Xia He's hand, which was about to touch Daniel's cheek, froze mid-air. When she heard him mention Zhang Lingyu, her expression shifted dramatically. She quickly withdrew several steps, her face full of wariness.
"How do you know that? Who exactly are you?" she asked, her voice sharp and defensive. The relationship between her and Zhang Lingyu was a closely guarded secret, something even the other members of the Four Madmen were unaware of. Xia He had gone to great lengths to protect Zhang Lingyu, fearing that if their connection was revealed, it could tarnish his reputation in the yi ren world, or worse, get him expelled from Longhu Mountain.
Although she wasn't entirely sure of Old Heavenly Master's leniency on such matters, she couldn't take the risk.
"Why do people keep asking me that?" Daniel thought to himself, feeling somewhat exasperated. He had been asked the same question several times already. However, he couldn't blame them—after all, in the yi ren world, it was rare for a powerful individual to emerge without building up a reputation over time. It was impossible for someone to remain unknown and suddenly appear as a formidable force.
Daniel's alias, Gai Nie, had already drawn attention from many, including the Company. No one had ever heard of the name before the Luo Tian Da Jiao tournament, and this mysterious emergence naturally raised suspicions.
"The whole yi ren world has been curious about the one who caused Zhang Lingyu's infamous moment of hesitation," Daniel said, smirking slightly. "But I bet none of them expected that the person behind it would be none other than Xia He of the Four Madmen."
Daniel's repeated mention of "a moment of hesitation" made Xia He's face blush. Meanwhile, the severely injured and pinned-down Shen Chong, Gao Ning, and the others froze upon hearing the revelation.
"Why do people never learn?" Daniel murmured. As he spoke, several green bamboo sticks materialized around him and shot toward Shen Chong and Gao Ning, who, despite their crippled state, were still attempting to crawl away.
For a normal person, the pain of having their legs severed would render them immobile, but not for powerful yi ren like Shen Chong and Gao Ning. They had already applied pressure to their wounds to stop the bleeding and were using their hands to escape toward the nearby woods. This time, they were clever enough to split up, hoping that dispersing would increase their chances of survival.
Unfortunately for them, their movements were all within Daniel's Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki) range. The moment he noticed their actions, his green bamboo sticks shot out and pierced their shoulders, pinning them to the ground.
"It's a shame I haven't mastered the Kunsianfu (Immortal Binding Talisman) yet," Daniel muttered. There was a talisman within the Tongtianlu that could imprison people by creating an energy cage. Lu Jin was well-versed in this technique.
Bang!
Just as Daniel was dealing with Shen Chong and the others, Xia He suddenly struck him with her palm, aiming for his chest. Despite sensing her attack, Daniel didn't dodge and allowed her strike to land.
"So this is the infamous Bone Scraping Blade? Not much to it," Daniel remarked calmly. He had deliberately let Xia He hit him to see what her innate ability felt like. However, perhaps because of his own overwhelming strength, her qi had no effect on him, stirring no lustful desires within him at all.
"If you truly want to be with Zhang Lingyu, it's best you leave Quanxing for good. Although Old Heavenly Master might not care about your past, others surely will."
Daniel said this as he walked past Xia He without sparing her a second glance. He held no ill will toward her, as despite her association with Quanxing, she hadn't committed any heinous acts. Xia He still had a chance for redemption.
"What do you mean by that?" Xia He asked, trailing after Daniel after a brief moment of silence. She wasn't leaving yet; she wanted answers.
"Didn't you understand? I'm saying you could go to Old Heavenly Master right now, tell him that Zhang Lingyu mistreated you, and he'd take your side."
Longhu Mountain didn't prohibit relationships or marriages for its Daoists. In fact, even some Buddhist monks married in modern times.
"Time to send the Four Madmen on their way," Daniel said as he approached Shen Chong and the others who were now pinned to the ground. He smiled, greeting them almost casually.
"Xia He, help us!" Shen Chong, Gao Ning, and the others pleaded, their eyes turning to Xia He as they hoped she might intervene and beg for their lives.
"Don't count on her saving you. Do you really think I'm sparing her because of her relationship with Zhang Lingyu?" Daniel scoffed. "The reason I'm letting her go is because she hasn't committed any major atrocities. You three, however, are a different story. Gao Ning, Dou Mei, and Shen Chong, you're all as guilty as they come."
Before they could beg any further, Daniel summoned a bamboo rod in his hand and instantly thrust it through Gao Ning's throat, killing him instantly. "Twelve Emotional Traps? You've already tried that on me—it doesn't work."
"Spare me!" Shen Chong had barely opened his mouth to beg when Daniel used the same method to finish him off. Dou Mei suffered the same fate, leaving the last survivor, Yuan Tao, trembling in fear.
Yuan Tao was terrified, staring at Daniel with wide, frantic eyes. His companions had been dispatched so effortlessly—he had no chance. However, unlike the others, Daniel had no immediate intention of killing him.
Despite being a wicked figure, Yuan Tao was a craftsman. While his skills paled compared to Ma Xianhong, he had still created the Jiulongzi and trained Dummy to be a fellow artisan. Yuan Tao's knowledge of crafting could prove useful to Daniel.
If Daniel later obtained Ma Xianhong's Xiushen Furnace, he could mass-produce Jiulongzi or other artifacts that Yuan Tao had only ever made one of. Even if the artifacts weren't particularly useful to Daniel himself, they could still be valuable to others.
After knocking Yuan Tao unconscious and stashing him in his Sinnang (Devouring Pouch), Daniel emerged from the forest. When he returned, he saw Xia He standing over the corpses of the other Madmen, her expression solemn. Despite not being fond of her companions, witnessing their deaths in front of her stirred complicated emotions.
"I guess it's time to heal him," Daniel muttered, ignoring Xia He as he knelt beside the unconscious Lu Jin. After checking Lu Jin's condition, Daniel realized the old man's injuries were quite severe, especially since Daniel had knocked him out without the finesse of someone like Old Heavenly Master, who had the skill to carefully manage such things.
"I'll have to use this," Daniel decided, pulling out a Seraph's Breath. While Daniel didn't have Old Heavenly Master's ability to heal someone with precision, he had other methods.
"Could you turn around and close your eyes? I need to treat Lu Jin, and I'd prefer no one see my technique," Daniel said, addressing Xia He.
Without argument, Xia He turned her back and closed her eyes. She was smart enough to understand that sometimes it was better not to know too much. While Daniel wasn't particularly concerned about her seeing his healing method, he still asked for privacy. If it had really been a problem, he would've simply knocked her out.
In truth, Daniel didn't mind if Xia He saw him use the Seraph's Breath. After all, he didn't plan to use the alias "Gai Nie" for much longer. Like his other persona, "Wei Zhuang," which would soon be retired after dealing with Ma Xianhong, Gai Nie was just another temporary identity.
After administering the healing technique, Lu Jin quickly regained consciousness. The moment he opened his eyes, he sprang to his feet, immediately searching for Yuan Tao and the others.
"What is this?" Lu Jin muttered as he spotted the three corpses on the ground, his gaze shifting between them and Daniel, who stood nearby.
"I never expected to misjudge you so badly," Lu Jin said solemnly, realizing that Daniel had been far more powerful and decisive than he had anticipated. The bamboo spears piercing the dead Madmen were the same as those Daniel had used during the Luo Tian Da Jiao tournament.
"You're being too kind, Lu Jin," Daniel replied with a smile.
"I didn't expect you to fall for such a common temptation," Lu Jin said, his tone shifting as he looked toward Xia He. His eyes filled with disdain, and his killing intent became palpable. After all, three of the Four Madmen were dead, but Xia He remained unscathed by Daniel's side. Lu Jin's mind quickly assumed the worst.
"It's not me who's been swayed by temptation, old man. She may be beautiful, but she's already spoken for. Zhang Lingyu's Yin Five Thunder—do you know who that was for, Lu Jin?"
"What?" Lu Jin's eyes widened in shock. Like many others, he had been curious about Zhang Lingyu's story. However, as an elder, he couldn't openly pry like the younger generation did.
Unlike the nosy Zhuge Qing, Lu Jin's curiosity stemmed from a sense of regret. Zhang Lingyu had been on the verge of mastering Yang Five Thunder, only to stumble at the final hurdle due to that f
ateful moment of hesitation.
"Believe it or not, that's the truth. What you do with her is up to you. As for Yuan Tao—he's already dead. Goodbye, Lu Jin. Until we meet again." With those parting words, Daniel's figure disappeared in a flash. Lu Jin, though tempted to pursue him, stopped when he remembered Xia He standing nearby. Letting out a heavy sigh, he halted in his tracks.
"Are you going to kill me, Lu Jin?" Xia He asked calmly, her voice devoid of fear. Now that everything had been exposed, she no longer cared about her fate.
"We'll talk about that after I speak with Lingyu. That boy…" Lu Jin muttered, rubbing his temples in frustration as the full weight of the situation sank in.
"Spare me! Please! I'll never do it again!" As Daniel continued his journey through Longhu Mountain's forests, a woman's desperate screams reached his ears.
After a moment of contemplation, Daniel changed his course. Soon, he arrived at a massive pine tree, witnessing a gruesome scene unfold beneath its branches. A seemingly kind, unassuming middle-aged man was torturing a woman, surrounded by an array of specialized tools.
"Dacibei Xiaozizai," Daniel muttered under his breath. The torturer was none other than one of the Company's top seven enforcers, a man infamous for his sadistic tendencies and his need to satisfy a bloodlust as if it were hunger. Once a Shaolin disciple, Xiaozizai had turned his dark impulses against the very people who deserved them most—other criminals.
Anyone who knew of his work would know he reserved his cruelty for those who truly deserved it. Even in the yi ren world, where power often granted impunity, some evils had to be dealt with. Figures like Zhao Guizhen of the New Sect, with his twisted ways, were prime examples of those deserving of Xiaozizai's "care."
"Looks like this woman must've done something to earn a visit from Xiaozizai," Daniel thought to himself, having no interest in watching the spectacle any further. Without hesitation, he turned and left the scene.
As Daniel disappeared, Xiaozizai briefly glanced around, sensing that someone had been watching him. However, seeing no one and unbothered by the interruption, he returned to his grim task, his expression devoid of emotion.
Though Xiaozizai lacked the raw power to detect someone like Daniel, his dark nature gave him an uncanny ability to sense when something was amiss. He knew someone had been nearby, but since they hadn't interfered, he didn't dwell on it.
"Is that… Corpse Demon Tu Junfang?" Xu San, Xu Si, and several other temporary workers had gathered around a body in Longhu Mountain's backwoods. Seeing the corpse, they gasped in disbelief.
Longhu Mountain had been turned into a veritable fortress, with Xu San and the Company's other operatives locking down the mountain's paths. Even with their forces, however, some of Quanxing's elites had managed to slip through.
Yet here was the body of Tu Junfang, one of Quanxing's high-ranking members, lying dead before them.
"We've finally found you." Far away in another secluded part of the mountain, Daniel continued his pursuit. His Kenbunshoku Haki had guided him here, allowing him to locate Feng Baobao and the true target of his search. He had sensed the situation with Feng Baobao earlier and left Lu Jin behind to intervene.
"Aren't you going to fight?" Daniel heard a young Western man with pale skin ask his elderly companion as they watched Feng Baobao dart between the trees like a monkey.
"I'm just testing her out. No need to fight yet," the young man replied with a relaxed grin before turning to leave. The old man followed suit, both seemingly uninterested in further confrontation.
As they walked away, a figure in Company uniform approached them, running at full speed.
Sensing the approach, the young man and the old man stopped in their tracks, waiting for the person to arrive.
"Mr. Xia, there's been an emergency!" the figure said breathlessly as he came within ten meters of the duo. As soon as he got close, however, his appearance and clothing shifted entirely, revealing a completely different person underneath. It was none other than Quanxing's Thousand-Faced Man, Yu Huadu.
Yu Huadu's unique shapeshifting ability made him one of the Company's top priority targets, but he had always eluded capture. For years, the Company had tried and failed to bring him in.
In the yi ren world, many dangerous criminals had large bounties on their heads. Capturing or reporting such individuals was a lucrative business, and even some yi ren had begun hunting down normal criminals to make a living. It was safer, after all.
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