At Li Daoyi's instruction, the vermilion gate of the escort agency slowly opened.
As soon as the door opened, a dozen or so people on horseback were seen outside. They had white cloths wrapped around their heads, were barefoot, and wore straw sandals. They were clearly dressed in Sichuan attire.
Under the lanterns, you could see these people glaring menacingly at the bodyguards who had come out of the Lin family.
Lin Zhennan came out and saw this scene. His face darkened, and he believed Li Daoyi's words even more. In the previous letter, the other party only said that he would send four disciples to return the greetings, but now there were more than a dozen people in front of him. The two places were more than a thousand miles apart. Even if the other party learned of the death immediately, it was impossible for them to come in such a short time.
It can only be said that these people arrived a long time ago, but they were hiding.
"Are you that one?"
A man on horseback asked.
"My name is Lin Zhennan."
"You old tortoise, your son killed someone, why don't you hurry up and make him come out and admit his guilt?"
"Hand over Lin Pingzhi."
The crowd started cursing again.
By this time, a crowd of people had already gathered nearby. The commotion attracted the attention of the yamen officials, but upon seeing that they were martial arts practitioners, the yamen runners took on the role of maintaining order among the crowd and dared not approach the entrance of the escort agency.
"The death of Young Master Yu was a misunderstanding. I, Lin, will naturally give an explanation to your Qingcheng Sect. Please go back and tell Sect Leader Yu that I will personally visit him to apologize in a few days," Lin Zhennan said, cupping his hands in greeting.
"Misunderstanding? Misunderstanding my foot! Old tortoise, it seems you don't take my Qingcheng Sect seriously. Brothers, let's go!"
After saying that, half of the Qingcheng disciples leaped off their horses, brandishing their weapons and charging towards Lin Zhennan.
"Protect the chief镖头 (chief镖头 is a term used in Chinese martial arts to refer to a bodyguard or镖师).
Soon, people from the escort agency also rushed out, and the two sides instantly clashed.
"Tsk tsk, as expected of a martial arts world, even low-level fights are so exciting," Li Daoyi thought to himself, standing at the door. These people were basically fighting based on skill and physical ability; their internal energy hadn't been fully developed yet. Of course, even so, they were still much stronger than ordinary people.
"superior."
The man on horseback shouted and drew his sword, charging down.
"Buzz..."
"Third-rate? Be careful." Lin Zhennan was startled and quickly drew his sword, rushing towards the man. He knew that the bodyguards present were all second-rate. They might be able to hold their own against ordinary Qingcheng disciples, but against third-rate experts, they were like ants.
Seeing Lin Zhennan rushing over, the man paused for a moment as if he was somewhat wary, but quickly gritted his teeth and went to meet him.
"Clang..."
"Ta-da..."
The two exchanged several blows in an instant. Lin Zhennan's internal strength wasn't great, but his swordsmanship was quite good. Although he hadn't learned the essence of the Evil-Repelling Sword Technique, he had learned all the moves and quickly gained the upper hand.
"Speed..." Li Daoyi thought after seeing Lin Zhennan's sword moves. Although he did not study martial arts, he could see Lin Zhennan's weakness at a glance: he was not fast enough. The Evil-Repelling Sword Technique was exquisite and, combined with internal energy, it was extremely fast. It could injure people in the blink of an eye. It was not a sword technique for endurance. Now, Lin Zhennan's sword technique always gave people an indescribable sense of strangeness.
There was another person who shared the same idea as Li Daoyi, namely the man in black hiding on the rooftop not far away.
Although his face was covered, his furrowed brows showed that he was also puzzled.
"Strange, is this the Evil-Repelling Sword Technique? Something feels off," the man in black thought to himself.
Soon, several more people rushed out of the escort agency, and the battle continued.
It's unclear whether Li Daoyi's arrival caused a butterfly effect, but in the original story, the Qingcheng Sect carried out assassinations for several days, causing heavy losses to the escort agency, before finally confronting Lin Zhennan. But now, they've come knocking directly on our door.
"You son of a bitch, your Fuwei Escort Agency is ganging up on us!" The man who fought Lin Zhennan feinted an attack and then quickly took a few steps back.
He hadn't expected the people from Fuwei Escort Agency to be so courageous. He originally thought that by bringing up the name of the Qingcheng Sect, the other party would definitely not dare to make a move, but he didn't expect them to choose to confront them head-on.
The man looked behind him, as if searching for something.
Just then, a man in black flew in from afar like a roc.
Lin Zhennan's pupils contracted.
"Such superb lightness skill! He's a first-rate master."
The man in black charged directly at Lin Zhennan, his sword gleaming coldly.
This was the top-tier expert who had just been hiding, and the reason he made a move was to personally test whether Lin Zhennan was hiding his true abilities.
"Father, be careful!" Lin Pingzhi exclaimed in alarm.
Lin Zhennan quickly raised his sword and used the "Meteor Fall" move from the Evil-Repelling Sword Technique to meet the approaching person.
"when…"
However, a powerful force knocked his sword away, and then, with a flash of cold light, the opponent's sword stabbed towards Lin Zhennan's neck.
At this critical moment.
"bite…"
The man in black's sword seemed to have been attacked by something, breaking in two mid-air, and the man in black stopped in his tracks.
"How could this be?" Looking at the broken sword on the ground, the man in black looked around in disbelief.
He then turned around and leaped away into the distance, without saying a word the entire time.
"Brothers, let's retreat."
Someone from the Qingcheng Sect shouted, and everyone quickly retreated, while the people from the escort agency tried to stop them.
"Stop it, all of you!" Lin Zhennan shouted immediately.
"Giddy up...giddy up..." The group mounted their horses and rode away without saying a word of politeness.
"Whoosh..."
"Wow, Fuwei Escort Agency won!"
The people were immediately in an uproar.
"Dad, are you alright?" Lin Pingzhi rushed out immediately.
"I'm fine. How are the brothers?" Lin Zhennan asked.
“Some superficial injuries,” Chief Escort Shi replied.
"Quickly, go back and apply medicine to the brothers."
Lin Zhennan then picked up the broken half of the sword from the ground and walked towards Li Daoyi.
"Thank you, Daoist Master."
He knew that someone else must have made the move, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to dodge that sword strike. Now, Lin Zhennan felt no joy of victory; having narrowly escaped death, he was utterly disheartened.
Li Dao nodded and turned to return to the escort agency.
"Second Brother, did you see clearly?"
Inside the inn, Yue Lingshan asked in shock.
"No, it was too fast." Laudenau also looked surprised. From the moment the man in black made his move to the moment the broken sword was defeated, only a few breaths had passed.
"I wonder why Father sent us to keep an eye on the Lin family?" Yue Lingshan frowned. She was starting to feel scared. Although no one had died in this battle, the final scene was too bizarre.
Laudenau remained silent, his head bowed, seemingly lost in thought.
After settling the injured bodyguards, Lin Zhennan led Lin Pingzhi to the courtyard where Li Daoyi was staying.
"Is it all taken care of?" Li Daoyi was drinking tea.
"Well, thankfully they're all superficial injuries." Lin Zhennan nodded.
"Taoist Master, look." At this moment, Lin Zhennan handed over the broken sword in his hand.
Li Daoyi took it, pretended to examine it for a moment, and then tossed it away lightly.
"call out…"
"Pfft..."
The broken sword instantly sank into a large tree ten feet away.
"It's just an ordinary sword, nothing special. The opponent is hiding and definitely won't use their own weapon."
Lin Zhennan nodded; he had noticed it just now as well.
"Master, do you think he might be Yu Canghai?"
"not necessarily."
"What?" Lin Zhennan was immediately shocked. So there were other top-tier experts eyeing the Lin family?
"As I have said, a common man is innocent, but possessing a treasure is a crime."
“Your Lin family’s Evil-Repelling Sword Technique is no secret in the martial arts world. It’s just that others haven’t made a move yet, perhaps because of the prestige left by your father. But money can move people’s hearts, especially when it’s a peerless sword technique. There will always be people who can’t resist.” Li Daoyi said slowly.
"Father, since that sword technique is useless, let's just give it to them and let them fight for it themselves," Lin Pingzhi suddenly said.
"Smack..."
A resounding slap landed on Lin Pingzhi's face.
"Shut up."
Lin Pingzhi covered his face and looked at his father in disbelief.
"Father, I..."
"The sword manual was left by your grandfather. How could you easily hand it over to someone else, let alone someone with wicked intentions?"
Upon hearing this, Lin Pingzhi lowered his head, looking aggrieved.
Seemingly realizing he had gone a bit too far, Lin Zhennan softened his tone and said.
"Ping'er, do you know what your grandfather said to me before he died?"
"On his deathbed, the old man only said one thing: he told me that I must never let the sword manual be passed on."
"I'm sorry, Father." Lin Pingzhi nodded.
The father and son then got up to say goodbye.
"Master, it's so late, you should get some rest."
"Okay, don't worry, nothing will happen tonight." Li Daoyi nodded.
After the two left, Li Daoyi, who had been looking like a wise man, jumped up with joy.
"So beautiful, so beautiful."
"The system panel has been opened."
"Whoosh..."
The panel appeared instantly.
"Host: Li Daoyi".
"..."
"Surprise value: 410".
"That's four hundred. Two hundred was given to the man in black alone, and fifty each to the two people in the inn. Adding the Qingcheng disciples' contributions, it's exactly four hundred."
"It seems the higher the strength, the higher the score," Li Daoyi thought.
Li Dao then opened the shop and selected the cultivation techniques section.
"Minor Cloud-Soaring Technique, 300 points." Li Daoyi chose the cheapest lightness skill.
"It's been changed."
"Ding, redemption successful."
Soon, I only had 110 points left. I exchanged for another Qi Refining Pill. I also exchanged some spiritual herbs for the Green Ox, and then my points were cleared.
"Minor Cloud Soaring Technique, learning requirements: Qi Refining Stage 3." Li Daoyi looked at a white card in his hand, on which was written a prompt.
"Perfect."
He then quickly swallowed the pill.
The familiar feeling returned, and I had successfully reached the third level of Qi Refining.
"use."
Li Daoyi couldn't wait to tap the card, and the card flashed white light and instantly disappeared into his forehead.
Li Daoyi closed his eyes and meditated for a moment.
Then his body floated up gently and quickly flew to a height of ten zhang.
"It's really powerful. This is even cooler than the built-in Minor Five Elements spell," Li Daoyi couldn't help but think.
He then channeled his inner energy to continue flying higher, quickly reaching a height of twenty zhang (approximately 33 meters), where he had a panoramic view of the entire city of Fuzhou.
"Uh... I feel a little dizzy." Before he could finish his thought, he suddenly felt dizzy and then quickly flew downwards.
"Damn, I'm actually afraid of heights?" Li Daoyi was completely dumbfounded after landing.
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