Chapter 195: The Shameless Noble Family
“Haha, let’s send them off together, so they’ll have company on the road to the underworld!”
“We are truly kind-hearted! We’re so considerate of them!”
These people burst into laughter, making way for Chu Liang without resistance, allowing the Senior Martial Brother and Junior Martial Brother to reunite, as if they were truly a group of benevolent people.
Chu Liang’s expression was cold as he swept past the crowd, glancing at the numerous corpses of martial arts hall apprentices on the ground, and arrived before Li Feng.
Li Feng’s body swayed slightly.
His face was pale, and upon seeing Chu Liang, his tightly wound nerves relaxed.
“Senior Martial Brother Chu…”
He opened his mouth, but before he could finish, his entire body swayed again. He couldn’t hold on any longer, as if he had exhausted his last breath, and fell backward.
Chu Liang frowned, immediately stepping forward, supporting Li Feng’s body with one hand and retrieving healing pills with the other.
After taking a few pills, Li Feng’s breathing stabilized slightly.
However, he had exerted himself too much before, his body covered in wounds, blood flowing profusely. He was practically on the verge of death, one foot already in the underworld, and he still hadn’t pulled it out. His life hung by a thread, in imminent danger.
Chu Liang’s frown deepened. He took out topical medicine and quickly applied it to Li Feng’s wounds, stopping the bleeding.
He then gave Li Feng some medicine to restore his Qi and Blood, which finally brought some color back to Li Feng’s face.
“Cough… cough cough…”
Li Feng trembled, suddenly coughing a few times, coughing up a few brown blood clots, and painfully woke up.
Chu Liang’s brows finally relaxed.
As long as he could hold onto this breath, it would be difficult for him to die!
“Senior Martial Brother Chu… you finally came. I knew you would come,” Li Feng’s voice was hoarse, his breath weak.
“Don’t rush, speak slowly. First, swallow these pills,”
Chu Liang took out another bottle of pills, uncorked it, and a strong medicinal fragrance immediately filled the air.
Smelling this, the eyes of the surrounding martial artists lit up.
They stared at the small bottle in Chu Liang’s hand, then at Chu Liang’s bag, their eyes flickering, their faces filled with greed.
“I say, Chu Liang, since you and your Senior Martial Brother are going to the underworld together anyway, why waste the pills?” someone said with a strange laugh.
“Yeah, what a waste. It would be better to leave them for us.”
“If you give me a bottle, I can guarantee I won’t attack you later.”
“Hehe, I can guarantee it too!”
These people’s tone sounded sincere, but their eyes were full of mockery.
Their attitude towards Chu Liang was exactly the same as it had been towards Li Feng earlier. They were clearly treating Chu Liang as prey to be toyed with.
Moreover, because of Chu Liang’s reputation as a “genius,” they wanted to subject him to even more cruel humiliation, planning to make him completely break down before death, plunging him into despair and madness.
If they were in the prefectural city, these people wouldn’t dare to treat a genius like this.
But here, it was different. They could act without restraint!
A burly man said, “I hate so-called geniuses the most. When I was training at the martial arts hall, the Hall Master and the Masters only paid attention to those few geniuses, never once giving me a proper look.”
“That’s right! We’re all learning martial arts, why should those geniuses get the best resources?”
Even though they had no grudges against each other, they wanted to destroy Chu Liang, the number one genius of the county town, to satisfy their long-held twisted desires.
Hearing this, Li Feng gripped his saber tightly, his eyes filled with hatred, and said, “Senior Martial Brother Chu, these people are all from the Golden Stone Escort Agency of the prefectural city. Many of our Junior Martial Brothers and Sisters died at their hands. You must avenge them!”
“Golden Stone Escort Agency?” Chu Liang looked back, “What’s their relationship with Clearwater Count Manor?”
“Oh? This kid knows about Clearwater Count?”
“Look at him, could he be scared by the Count Manor’s reputation?”
“Hahaha…”
A burst of laughter erupted. These people thought Chu Liang was afraid of the Count Manor, and they all stared at Chu Liang’s face, wanting to see panic and unease on it.
But they were disappointed. Chu Liang’s expression remained largely unchanged.
“Senior Martial Brother Chu, these people are all running dogs of Clearwater Count Manor!”
Li Feng explained, making Chu Liang understand what had happened.
After entering the mountains, the Autumn Blade Martial Arts Hall had stayed together as a group. Led by Hall Master Li Ren and the three Masters, they gradually explored and ventured deeper into this area.
During this time, they encountered more than ten demon beasts, but they managed to defeat them by working together.
There were also forces from the prefectural city who tried to attack them.
Fortunately, Hall Master Li Ren had a trump card, a powerful weapon that deterred the various prefectural city forces from making a rash move.
Thus, they had a relatively safe journey with considerable gains.
Until today.
An hour ago, while scouting ahead, Hall Master Li Ren suddenly discovered a cave.
“Master entered the cave and found a decaying skeleton. Beside the skeleton was a slightly damaged high-rank treasure saber. We were all very happy at the time…”
Li Feng recounted the situation.
That treasure saber was their biggest gain since entering the mountains.
Low-rank treasure sabers were worth several thousand taels of silver, mid-rank treasure sabers were worth tens of thousands of taels, and high-rank treasure sabers were worth hundreds of thousands of taels.
The high-rank treasure saber Li Ren found, although slightly damaged, could still be sold for at least one hundred thousand taels of silver!
This was a huge stroke of luck!
However, after the stroke of luck came a crisis of slaughter.
The martial artists of the Golden Stone Escort Agency happened to pass by. This escort agency was an influential faction with four Skin Tempering Realm experts, their overall strength similar to Azure Water Manor.
For this demon extermination mission, the Golden Stone Escort Agency had sent a Skin Tempering Realm expert who had already entered the deep mountains in advance.
The remaining martial artists didn’t dare to venture too deep and were searching for opportunities in this area. Seeing the treasure saber, they were filled with greed and immediately threatened Li Ren, demanding that he hand over the saber.
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“If Master was alone, holding the weapon, he could attack or retreat, and naturally wouldn’t fear their threats. But he was worried about our safety, so he handed over the treasure saber,”
A treasure saber worth more than one hundred thousand taels of silver was handed over to the Golden Stone Escort Agency just like that.
They thought this would be the end of it.
But they underestimated the greed of the Golden Stone Escort Agency.
They believed that Li Ren must have other gains and demanded that Li Ren and all the disciples of the Autumn Blade Martial Arts Hall hand over all the treasures on their bodies. Otherwise, they would attack immediately.
Even though Li Ren revealed his trump card weapon, the people of the Golden Stone Escort Agency refused to back down. Instead, they became greedy for that weapon.
The two sides were at a stalemate for a long time.
Li Ren wanted to protect the disciples and didn’t dare to act rashly.
The Golden Stone Escort Agency was also afraid of the weapon in his hand and didn’t dare to start a fight directly.
After a stalemate of nearly half an hour, a third party suddenly arrived.
“At that time, the people from Clearwater Count Manor arrived,”
Speaking of this, Li Feng gritted his teeth, his face filled with even more hatred, and said, “If it weren’t for those people from Clearwater Count Manor, we wouldn’t have ended up in this situation!”
Noble families were known for their arrogance and tyranny.
As one of the four great noble families in the prefectural city, even a lowly servant from Clearwater Count Manor was extremely arrogant outside.
It was also bad luck. There were only four noble families, spread out in the vast mountains. The probability of encountering them was extremely low.
But they just happened to run into them!
The people from Clearwater Count Manor were originally just passing by, but when they discovered the standoff between the two sides, they became interested, guessing that one side must have obtained a great opportunity, and forcibly intervened.
“The people from the Count Manor ordered both sides to put down their weapons and hand over their treasures,”
The people from the Golden Stone Escort Agency didn’t dare to disobey and obediently presented the high-rank treasure saber.
Li Ren also had no choice but to hand over a large number of treasures.
They thought this would be the end of it, but the people from Clearwater Count Manor suddenly declared, “The opportunities in the mountains are reserved for the prefectural city. These lowly county town martial artists have no right to obtain them.”
As soon as these words were spoken, the numerous martial artists of Clearwater Count Manor acted without any warning.
They unleashed their killing intent and charged towards the Autumn Blade Martial Arts Hall.
The dignified Count Manor was so shameless, launching a near-sneak attack while the Autumn Blade Martial Arts Hall was unprepared!
The formation of the Autumn Blade Martial Arts Hall disciples was instantly scattered. They had no time to react, not even enough time to pick up their weapons.
“Despicable!” Speaking of this, Li Feng’s heart was filled with hatred, both for the shamelessness of Clearwater Count Manor and for his own incompetence in being unable to turn the tide.
After the Autumn Blade Martial Arts Hall was scattered, they fled in all directions.
The people from Clearwater Count Manor went to chase after Hall Master Li Ren and the three Masters.
And the people from the Golden Stone Escort Agency, in order to curry favor with the Count Manor, took the initiative to pursue the remaining ordinary martial arts hall disciples.
Now, the fate of the other fleeing disciples was unknown.
Li Feng was the only one left from his group. If Chu Liang hadn’t arrived in time, he would have died here with endless hatred and sorrow.
“Cough… cough cough…”
As he spoke, Li Feng coughed painfully again, and his face, which had regained some color, turned pale once more.
Chu Liang asked him, “Where’s your right arm?”
Li Feng’s appearance was extremely miserable. His entire right arm was gone, even worse than Ye Long’s condition when he was besieged by the lake.
Ye Long’s arm was still there, just with shattered bones. He could recover after a few months of rest.
But with Li Feng in this state, if he couldn’t find his right arm, he could only be a one-armed swordsman in the future.
Li Feng endured the pain, looked at his empty, tattered sleeve, and said hoarsely, “I… my right arm…”
“I fed his right arm to my dog!”
Suddenly, a woman’s voice came.
Hearing this, Chu Liang’s face suddenly turned cold.
He followed the sound and looked over.
He saw a cold and arrogant woman walking out, holding a golden halberd, her aura powerful, leading a massive black dog that was as big as a bull.
“Woof! Woof!”
The giant dog barked wildly, baring its teeth at Chu Liang, its expression ferocious, blood dripping from its fangs.
If it weren’t for the rope, it would probably have pounced on Chu Liang immediately!
“Chu Liang, I am Jin Yu,” the woman said arrogantly, “I just cut off your Senior Martial Brother’s arm and fed it to my guard dog!”
As she spoke, she reached out her fair hand and gently stroked the black dog’s head.
The surrounding martial artists bowed, their expressions respectful.
Jin Yu, the daughter of the Chief Escort of the Golden Stone Escort Agency, was not weak. Her strength was comparable to Nangong Ruofeng and Hong Wu, but her reputation was even greater than theirs, all because she raised a demon dog.
Although she was beautiful, she was extremely cruel, having killed countless people. She often threw living people into the dog cage, enjoying the bloody scene of them being torn apart.
Such actions were outrageous, but few in the prefectural city dared to openly criticize her.
“Chu Liang, my guard dog likes your aura very much,”
Jin Yu was cold and elegant, tall, wearing close-fitting armor, and pointed the golden halberd in her hand directly at Chu Liang.
“I can spare your life. Bind your hands, come back to the prefectural city with me, and I will feed you well, letting you keep my guard dog company,”
