Chapter 167 Lin Chen cripples the Sheng family steward with two strikes, establishing his authority on the spot.

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai moved.

His steps were small; he slid his right foot half a step to the side, his entire center of gravity shifting forward.

The wind from his palm arrived first. A gloomy, hidden force surged from his palm, avoiding a direct collision. It skimmed along the ground, silently lunging toward the right wrist where Lin Chen held his blade.

Lin Chen held his black abyss blade horizontally before him, the blade meeting the attack.

Clang.

The two streams of True Qi collided. The candlesticks in the secret chamber toppled over, wax splashing everywhere. The map of Nanyang Prefecture on the wall was torn down by the shockwave, shattering into pieces in mid-air.

Lin Chen felt a numbness in the web between his thumb and index finger.

The opponent's hidden force did not resist head-on but drilled around the blade. True Qi seeped from the palm wind, specifically targeting the gaps in his wrist and elbow joints.

The True Qi reserves of a Late stage of Condensing Dan were at least thirty percent thicker than his.

Lin Chen retreated half a step, his Blade Intent unbroken.

He unleashed the second form of the Shadowless Thunder Blade, the dark gold True Qi on the blade's surface drawing a line of light in the darkness.

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai did not dodge.

He flipped his right palm over, palm facing upward, to catch the blade.

It was that same soft, insidious force again.

The True Qi slid along the blade toward the hilt, while the edge of his palm slashed toward Lin Chen's elbow joint.

Clang.

The blade vibrated.

Lin Chen tensed the muscles in his arm, forcing that power down to the soles of his feet.

A stone tile shattered beneath his boot.

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai's lips curled up again.

"Mid-stage Core Condensation against Late stage of Condensing Dan—your blade is not bad."

His left palm followed, the wind from it even more insidious than the right.

The hidden force did not move in a straight line; it circled in an arc from below his left ribs, targeting Lin Chen's elbow again.

The third move.

Lin Chen unleashed the fourth form of the Shadowless Thunder Blade, a sweep. The Blade Intent was fierce, his True Qi driving the blade toward Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai's left ribs.

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai lowered his stance, his palm wind catching the belly of the blade from below.

The collision erupted again.

This time, Lin Chen's right arm trembled from shoulder to fingertip.

Every palm strike from his opponent consumed less True Qi than his own, yet the insidious force seeping into his joints was constantly accumulating.

After three moves, his right elbow had already begun to ache.

If he continued to clash like this, he would be exhausted within ten moves.

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai clearly realized this as well.

His steps did not quicken; instead, they slowed. His palm wind transitioned from rapid to gradual, grinding against Lin Chen's wrist, strike after strike.

Grinding.

It was more ruthless than a slash.

Lin Chen's footwork suddenly changed.

Divine Movement Step.

He shifted half a step sideways, pressing against the left wall of the secret chamber, a blind spot for Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai's left palm.

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai's palm strike hit empty air.

In the same beat, the black abyss blade slashed downward in a backhand strike.

This strike had no dark gold Qi blade.

There was only standard Core Formation True Qi circulating on the blade's surface. It looked ordinary, even a few degrees weaker than the previous three strikes.

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai's right palm met it.

He didn't think twice.

Late stage of Condensing Dan against Mid-stage Core Condensation—this was an obviously weakened, standard slash. He should be able to suppress it.

His palm wind, carrying hidden force, struck the side of the blade.

At the very instant the two forces collided, Lin Chen's left hand moved.

His index and middle fingers pressed together and tapped against the spine of the black abyss blade.

Golden Core, rotate.

The fine dark gold ring on the outer layer was forcibly activated. True Qi was pushed out from the core, not through the edge, but along the spine.

Lieyuan Art.

Second strike.

The dark gold Qi blade sliced horizontally from the side of the blade.

The direction was not from top to bottom, nor from front to back.

It was from the side.

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai's palm wind was hitting the blade face; his right arm was fully extended, and the entire outer length from his elbow to his wrist was exposed to the cutting path of the Qi blade.

His pupils constricted.

It was too late to dodge.

His palm strike had just been launched and could not be retracted.

The Qi blade sliced into the outside of his right elbow, carving all the way to his wrist.

The sound wasn't the crisp ring of metal striking metal, but the dull thud of flesh being sliced open by a sharp blade.

It was deep enough to see bone.

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai groaned, stumbling back three steps.

The sleeve on his right arm between his elbow and wrist was sliced open, the muscles beneath rolled outward, and a section of white bone was exposed in the dim light.

Blood gushed from the wound, dripping down his fingertips and hitting the broken bricks.

Zhao Gang gasped at the doorway.

Zhou Tie's spear inched forward half an inch.

The layer of composure on Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai's face finally shattered.

He looked down at his right arm.

Blood was still gushing.

Three tendons had been severed by the Qi blade, and he could no longer clench his five fingers.

"Good blade."

He squeezed these two words through his teeth, his voice raspy, twisted by pain.

Lin Chen did not give him time to recover.

He stepped forward, the black abyss blade sweeping upward from below, the tip aimed directly at Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai's throat.

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai's left hand flipped that copper talisman from his sleeve.

It shattered.

With a forceful grip of his fingers, the copper talisman burst into four pieces in his palm.

The moment the fragments split, a plume of gray smoke surged from the copper shards. It was unnaturally fast, as if driven by True Qi, lunging straight for Lin Chen's face.

The smoke carried a pungent, fishy odor, and a slight burning sensation came when it touched his skin.

Lin Chen did not retreat.

He drew the scabbard from his waist with his left hand and held it horizontally before him, the copper mouth facing outward, the scabbard blocking the first wave of smoke.

The gray smoke was split into two streams by the scabbard, swirling past both sides of his body and hitting the wall behind him.

The brick surface was corroded, forming shallow pits.

Zhao Gang stepped back two paces.

"What is this thing?"

Lin Chen ignored him.

His right hand thrust the black abyss blade straight forward from below the smoke.

The tip pierced through the lingering gray mist, driving forward with Core Formation True Qi.

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai's left palm met it.

But a single palm against a full-force thrust—the power was simply not equal.

His right arm was already mostly disabled; his left palm struck the blade, deflecting it by only half an inch.

The tip of the blade pierced into his left shoulder.

True Qi poured in along the blade edge, and Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai's body was pushed backward by the momentum of the blade.

Bang.

His back slammed into the stone wall.

The blade tip passed through his left shoulder and embedded itself into the wall bricks behind him.

He was pinned to the wall.

His robes hung between the blade tip and the stone wall, his feet three inches off the ground.

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai's face turned white instantly.

It was the pallor of someone whose entire flow of True Qi had been interrupted after being pinned by a sharp blade.

Blood seeped from the corners of his mouth, a line of red flowing from between his lips and dripping onto the blue shirt on his chest.

The secret chamber fell silent.

Outside in the backyard, sounds of fighting continued.

The crisp sound of Zhou Tie's spear striking ironware, Zhao Gang's cursing, the dull thuds of employees hitting the ground—all could still be heard in waves.

But in the secret chamber, there was only the heavy, labored breathing squeezed from the depths of Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai's throat.

Lin Chen's right hand gripped the hilt, his fingers not loosening.

He stared at Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai's face.

"People of the Sheng Family."

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai gritted his back teeth, the muscles in his neck bulging, his voice emerging from the very bottom of his chest.

"If you kill me, ten more people will come after."

Lin Chen's hand pushed the blade half an inch deeper.

The tip embedded itself a little further into the stone wall, and stone debris fell from around the shoulder wound.

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai's body twitched, his feet kicking twice in mid-air.

"Then I will prepare twenty blades."

Lin Chen's voice had no inflection at all.

A complex look flashed in Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai's eyes; there wasn't much fear, but rather the look of someone who had confirmed something.

His lips moved.

"You don't know what you are provoking."

Lin Chen retracted his scabbard to his waist with his left hand and fastened the copper rim.

"I know."

He looked at Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai's blue shirt soaked in blood, looking at the wound on his left shoulder pierced by the blade tip.

"The Sheng Family engages in human trafficking in Jiangnan, on a scale three times larger than the Wang Family."

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai's pupils constricted again.

Lin Chen continued.

"You take the waterway to the ferry thirty miles outside Nanyang Prefecture to unload, then switch to land routes to enter the city and go into the back warehouse of the Tongbao Firm."

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai's lips pressed tight.

"The line for leaving the city splits into two routes: one goes into the mountains, and the other heads toward the capital."

Lin Chen loosened his grip on the hilt by half, then gripped it again.

"The iron chains and embroidered cloth shoes in the withered well south of the city—are they yours?"

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai did not speak.

His gaze shifted from Lin Chen's face to the hilt, and then to the right hand gripping the blade.

Lin Chen's right hand did not tremble.

At least, it couldn't be seen from the outside.

But the backlash from the second eruption of his Golden Core was already surging from the depths of his Meridians.

The soreness in his right arm was turning into a dull ache, burning from his shoulder all the way to his fingertips.

The meridian-protecting thread caught most of the impact, but the residual force still seeped through the gaps, grinding against the walls of his Meridians.

He Jian vaulted in through a window on the side of the secret chamber.

He landed silently, a narrow, short blade held in his right hand, the blood still not wiped off.

"The backyard is cleared."

He glanced at Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai pinned to the wall, then looked at Lin Chen's right hand.

His gaze lingered there for only a breath, not looking any further.

Zhou Tie's voice came in from the backyard.

"The three who ran were all captured; one had his leg broken, and the other two have quieted down."

Zhao Gang squeezed into the secret chamber from the doorway, his waist blade carried on his shoulder, his canine tooth visible at the corner of his mouth.

"The dozen or so in the main hall are all down. We didn't have enough hemp rope, so I used their own belts to tie them up."

He saw Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai pinned to the wall, the corners of his mouth curling upward.

"Yo, Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai, is it comfortable hanging there?"

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai did not look at him.

Lin Chen released the hilt.

The moment his right hand moved away from the blade, his five fingers curled at his side, then relaxed.

The movement was fast and small, and only He Jian noticed it.

"He Jian, the iron chains."

He Jian took out the prepared iron chains from behind his waist and walked to the wall.

Lin Chen pulled the black abyss blade out of Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai's shoulder.

The tip of the blade flicked a line of blood onto the ground, leaving a streak of dark red on the stone bricks.

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai slid down from the wall, his knees hitting the ground first, his body pitching forward halfway before being caught by He Jian.

The iron chains were locked onto his wrists.

The locking rings clinked together, the metallic sound ringing twice in the secret chamber.

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai knelt on the ground, his head bowed, blood still seeping from his left shoulder and dripping onto the broken bricks.

Lin Chen sheathed the black abyss blade.

The sound of the copper mouth closing was short and crisp.

His right arm hung at his side.

From the outside, his posture was the same as usual.

But the dull ache in his Meridians was spreading inch by inch, moving from his fingertips toward his shoulder.

The rotation speed of his Golden Core was slowly falling back, each rotation carrying a sense of friction.

The second strike had been used.

Only one remained.

"Take him back to the Main Courtyard, keep him in separate confinement."

Lin Chen's voice was pressed steady.

Zhao Gang acknowledged, carrying his blade as he walked to the backyard to arrange personnel.

He Jian lifted Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai from the ground, gripping the iron chains in his hand with a force that was neither heavy nor light.

Lin Chen spoke again.

"For this manager, give him a clean room separately."

He Jian looked at him.

"A clean one?"

Lin Chen's gaze landed on Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai.

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai raised his head, the blood on his face having drained to below his ears, the line of blood at the corner of his mouth half-dried into a dark color.

His eyes were still bright, and when he looked at Lin Chen, there was no pleading, nor anger.

Only the calm scrutiny of someone trapped in a chess game.

"He still has things to say later."

Lin Chen turned and walked out.

When he passed the spot where the table had been split in two, his gaze swept to the account book in the corner that had been pushed over by the Qi force.

Shen Yue was already crouching there, wrapping the account book and silver banknotes in oil paper and tucking them into her bosom, her movements crisp and efficient.

"Shen Yue."

"Yes."

"Go through the account book tonight, and extract the key figures for me before dawn."

Shen Yue stood up and patted the dust off her knees.

"Understood."

Lin Chen stepped out of the secret chamber, treading over broken iron and brick dust, and walked into the backyard.

Moonlight fell from the top of the wall, illuminating the captured people of the Tongbao Firm.

A dozen or so employees were lying on the ground, some tied with hemp rope, others bound with belts.

That manager at the Meridian Opening Realm Perfection was held in the corner by Zhao Gang's brothers, the wound on his wrist still seeping blood, his face pressed against the ground, not daring to move.

Zhou Tie walked over carrying his iron spear, two new bloodstains on the cloth bandage on his left arm, not knowing if they were his own or someone else's.

"Inspector, the backyard is cleared. There is a side room next to the secret chamber; the door wasn't locked. It was empty inside, but there were drag marks on the floor."

Lin Chen stopped.

"What kind of marks?"

Zhou Tie's voice lowered.

"Wooden crates were dragged away; there are scratch marks on the floor tiles, new ones."

Lin Chen looked at the door of the side room on the east side of the backyard.

The door was half-open, and it was pitch black inside.

"Moved before tonight."

Zhou Tie nodded.

"Probably happened a few hours before we made our move."

Lin Chen's hand rested on the scabbard at his waist, his thumb resting against the copper rim, motionless.

The withered well south of the city was being cleared out.

The Tongbao Firm secret chamber was also being moved.

They had come fast enough tonight.

But the Sheng Family people were faster.

Zhao Gang ran over from the main hall, his boot soles slapping loudly on the ground.

"Inspector, there was a hidden compartment under the counter in the main hall. It had been pried open and was empty inside."

Lin Chen grunted.

"It being empty is correct."

Zhao Gang scratched the back of his head.

"What do you mean?"

Lin Chen walked toward the courtyard gate.

"It means Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai stayed here not because he couldn't leave."

Zhao Gang followed, the confusion on his face not fading.

Zhou Tie added from behind.

"He was waiting on purpose."

Zhao Gang turned to look at Zhou Tie.

"Waiting for us to come and arrest him? Is his brain sick?"

Lin Chen's footsteps passed over the threshold of the backyard and landed on the bluestone slabs of the alley.

Moonlight spilled down from overhead, pressing the shadows of the few people in front of their feet.

"He wasn't waiting for us to come and arrest him."

Lin Chen's voice came back from the front.

"He was waiting to meet me."

Zhao Gang opened his mouth, then closed it.

He Jian escorted Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai out from behind, the iron chains clinking together.

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai's steps were unsteady; the blood on his left shoulder had been temporarily stemmed by He Jian with a cloth strip, but his face was white without a hint of vitality.

When passing by Lin Chen, his lips moved.

The voice was soft, enough only for the two of them to hear.

"Lin Chen, the Sheng Family is not the Wang Family."

Lin Chen did not turn his head.

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai was pushed forward a step by He Jian, the iron chains dragging a sound across the bluestone slabs.

The second half of his sentence was squeezed from his throat, carrying the smell of blood.

"The Wang Family died, but it was just breaking one line."

"If the Sheng Family dies, the entire web will move."

Lin Chen's boot soles trod on the stone slabs, his footsteps not stopping.

The night wind poured in from the end of the alley, blowing the hems of their robes to one side.

In the distance, in the direction of the Main Courtyard, the torches of the night watch flickered.

Zhao Gang cursed in a low voice behind them.

"He's about to die and still has a stiff mouth."

He Jian pulled the iron chains tighter.

"Move."

Third Manager Sheng Xuanbai did not speak again.

Lin Chen walked at the very front, his right hand hanging at his side, his five fingers naturally relaxed.

No one saw his fingertips trembling slightly inside his sleeve.

The dull ache in his Meridians was still moving.

The rotation speed of his Golden Core had returned to normal, but on that newly carved fine dark gold ring, there was a fine crack that was slowly healing.

One hour.

It would take at least one hour to recover.

Before that, the third strike of the Lieyuan Art could not be used.

The moonlight stretched their shadows long.

At the end of the alley, the outline of the Main Courtyard floated in the night.

The torches on the wall reflected the rivets on the iron gate, one by one, shining coldly.

The first drop of the Sheng Family's blood had fallen in Nanyang Prefecture.

And this was just the beginning.