SWDnovel Chapter 65 The Heavenly Secrets Pavilion's Guide
Chapter 65 The Heavenly Secrets Pavilion's Guide
"Don't cry, what happened?"
Lu Yuan bent down and wiped away the tears on the child's face with his hand.
The child answered tremblingly, "Big brother, my family are hunters from the nearby mountains. We came to town today to sell some mountain goods... but who knew... sob sob."
"We were just about to go home when Father and Mother were cornered in an alley by some thugs. Father's leg was broken, and Mother was pinned to the ground..."
"Luckily, I ran fast and managed to escape."
"I knocked on the doors of several shops along the street but no one answered. The guests in the inn's lobby also pretended not to hear me. I had no other choice but to run upstairs."
"Big brother, please... please, can you save Father and Mother!"
"Any later...any later and they'll be gone...sob sob..."
After saying that, the child raised his sleeve to wipe his tears. His sleeve was dirty and wet, and he was trembling from crying.
Lu Yuan leaned against the door frame and looked the child up and down.
Although the clothes were dirty, the fabric was not bad... It was coarse cloth, but upon closer inspection, the quality was a grade higher than the linen worn by ordinary farmers.
His face was covered in mud, but his fingers were clean, without the calluses from years of farm work.
What's most strange is that a child of about ten years old was knocking on doors in an unfamiliar inn in the middle of the night, asking for help, but instead of knocking on the other rooms with their lights on, he specifically knocked on his own.
This... seems a bit too deliberate.
"Big brother, please!" the child grabbed his clothes and added.
"Those thugs are still in the alley; Dad's about to be beaten to death."
"lead the way."
Lu Yuan answered readily, wanting to see what this kid was really up to.
If he encounters danger, at worst he still has the Lingbo Weibu (a martial arts technique) as a safety net.
That should be enough to escape.
The child in front of him was stunned for a moment when he heard Lu Yuan's answer, seemingly not expecting Lu Yuan to agree so readily.
He quickly wiped his face, turned around, and ran downstairs.
Lu Yuan carried Lele and followed him out of the inn, glancing around as they passed through the lobby.
Downstairs, several guests were drinking around a fireplace, and no one paid them any attention.
The two walked through the night streets of the county town, one after the other.
There were hardly any people on the street anymore; the shops on both sides were closed, and only a few dim lights swayed in the night wind.
The child led the way quickly, glancing back every now and then to see if Lu Yuan was following.
His steps were slow, but steady.
Lu Yuan followed behind him, his gaze sweeping over his steps before shifting to the increasingly secluded alleyway ahead.
The further we went, the more remote and quiet it became.
The earthen walls on both sides grew higher and higher, and the eaves overhead cut the moonlight into a narrow silver line.
At the end of the alley was an abandoned brick kiln, deserted except for a few stray cats crouching on the wall.
Lu Yuan stopped in his tracks.
"That's about it," he said.
"Tell me, what's the purpose of calling me out... Your lie is too clumsy. What kind of kid cries for help in the middle of the night, rushing straight to a room on the second floor of the inn, knocking on the door as if they'd scouted the place beforehand?"
The child stopped.
Then he straightened up and wiped the tears from his face with his sleeve.
This time, I wiped very slowly and calmly.
When he rolled up his sleeves, the expression on his face was completely different from before.
A slight upturn at the corners of his mouth carried a hint of scrutiny.
His demeanor was very mature, which seemed out of place compared to his youthful appearance.
"You're smart," he said.
"You are from the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion." Lu Yuan boldly voiced his guess.
The Heavenly Mystery Pavilion has set up guides in various prefectures and cities, specifically to recruit promising young martial artists. The temperament of this person with a child's face could not be found anywhere else but in the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion.
The child stood in the middle of the alley with his hands behind his back, looking at Lu Yuan with a playful expression.
"Very clever, Chen Dagou. I am Jia Chunqiu, the guide of the Wuyun County City of the Tianji Pavilion."
"You want to recruit me into the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion? There's no need to pull this stunt."
Lu Yuan's tone remained calm, but he had subtly adjusted his center of gravity, silently stepping onto the broken bricks with the starting stance of the Lingbo Weibu (a martial arts technique).
Seeing his little gesture, Jia Chunqiu's smile deepened.
That laugh was the strong looking at the weak, a mockery of someone who overestimates their own abilities.
"You truly are the most talented person I've ever met!"
Calling him a martial arts genius wouldn't be an exaggeration!
"I did want to recruit you into the organization after seeing your winning streak on the Yellow Ranking Arena. But..."
He tilted his head and glanced at Lu Yuan from head to toe.
"You possess the bloodline of the Qilin and also know the Six Meridians of the Duan Clan, enabling you to defeat several opponents stronger than you in succession."
"These things can't be done by mere genius, nor can they be explained simply by having strong talent."
"So now I'm even more curious to know... are you the person the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion has been looking for?"
Before he finished speaking, Jia Chunqiu made his move.
There were no preemptive actions, nor any preparations.
Just a little bit of air between my right index finger and the ground.
His inner strength condensed at his fingertips, and a pale golden finger force pierced through the air, so fast that Lu Yuan didn't even have time to blink.
The protective aura of the Seven Star Technique is passively triggered.
The golden aura that had just been cultivated was easily pierced through by that finger force as soon as it emerged from the surface of the body.
The next moment, Jia Chunqiu rushed in front of Lu Yuan.
"Since you know the Six Meridians Technique, you must recognize this, right...?"
"One-Finger Divine Skill!"
He raised his hand and aimed it straight at Lu Yuan's face.
The force of his finger strikes pierced through the protective aura, leaving a lingering impact. Lu Yuan hastily activated his Rock-Shattering Palm technique to block.
The scorching palm wind and finger force collide head-on.
However, there is more than one major realm separating the Acquired Realm from the mid-stage of Blood Condensation.
The scorching heat wave from the Rock-Shattering Palm was pierced through the center by the finger force, causing him to stagger backward, his back slamming against the earthen wall again, and a trickle of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
"One-Finger Divine Skill?"
Lu Yuan uttered these three words in a low voice.
Lu Yuan had heard of the One-Finger Divine Skill.
This Finger Divine Skill and the Six Meridian Divine Sword follow completely opposite paths.
It also originated from the Duan family, but unlike the Six Meridians, it does not have the requirement of bloodline.
The Six Meridian Divine Sword is light and sharp, using sword energy to pierce the air; the One Yang Finger is extremely strong and yang, each finger is like lifting a heavy hammer to crack a walnut, mostly used for close combat, but at a higher level it can be used to exert finger force in the air over short distances.
The sheer depth of the man's inner strength reminded him of his previous encounter with Tie Qianshan.
The Realm of the Acquired.
Lu Yuan had no intention of getting entangled with him.
Internal energy circulates rapidly.
Lingbo Weibu!
As a unique footwork technique, Lingbo Weibu is naturally not comparable to Qingfengbu.
The Yongquan acupoint on the sole of the foot is activated by internal force.
The ankle deflects at an extremely slight angle the moment of landing, and the forward momentum is transformed into a lateral drift, causing the whole person to draw an unbelievable arc in the narrow alley.
He gathered his strength and dashed toward the alley entrance.
But Jia Chunqiu's voice still drifted into my ears, neither too close nor too far.
There was also a hint of undisguised surprise in his eyes.
"Wow... isn't that the Lingbo Weibu (a martial arts technique)?! Chen Dagou, you really know how to surprise me!"
He wasn't chasing very fast.
It's not that I can't catch up, it's that I don't want to catch up too fast.
Like a cat catching a mouse.
He was toying with Lu Yuan.
Although Lu Yuan had pushed the Lingbo Weibu technique to its limit, his footsteps were so fast that they left several afterimages.
But the difference in cultivation level is undeniable.
Jia Chunqiu's figure remained unhurriedly trailing behind him, three or four steps behind, neither too close nor too far, just enough to keep him from escaping, yet also just enough to prevent him from widening the gap.
"If you don't use your real skills soon, I'll catch you."