Chapter 34: Soaring Dragon, Treading Rain
Yang Lu cackled ferociously,
“Naive! After the Lu Jing incident, how could Zhao Guangxi let you lackeys breakthrough? Why not defect to the Pounding House? I’ll introduce you and grant you the true inheritance diagram!”
Lin Shou Zhuo, upon hearing this, showed struggle in his eyes.
Meanwhile, Tang Jie, Sun Xiao, and the others’ faces changed abruptly.
Sun Xiao suddenly inhaled sharply, his sleeves billowing, about to scatter invisible and odorless mysterious poison from afar.
“Hah!”
However, just as he moved, Yang Lu bellowed violently, like thunder exploding, drowning out the continuous undulating rain.
Everyone’s faces paled, and Yang Lu had already appeared before Sun Xiao, striking out with a palm straight at Sun Xiao’s vital point.
“I’m a dog…”
Suddenly, a hoarse voice rang out.
Lin Shou Zhuo’s body moved like an ape, blocking in front of Sun Xiao, clashing head-on with Yang Lu in three palms!
After three palms, Yang Lu stood firm, his breathing steady.
While Lin Shou Zhuo retreated three steps, crashing heavily into Sun Xiao.
The two rolled out together, spitting up blood.
Lin Shou Zhuo flipped up, smiling miserably, and said,
“You who borrowed Capital City debt and owe martial loans, even your corpse belongs to the Pounding House after death… what are you?”
“Seeking death!”
Yang Lu, having his sore spot exposed, flew into a rage, lunging low, arms outstretched like a hungry tiger pouncing, covering the two men’s crown of the head to seize them!
Wind whipped rain threads through the pitch-black woods, howling.
In the distance, pale lightning occasionally flashed, illuminating the rice barn inside and out, those faces of terror, ferocity, or anger.
A drop of rainwater slid down Yang Lu’s nape, icy and piercing.
In an instant,
Yang Lu’s senses suddenly bristled, as if receiving some intense stimulus, wildly alerting.
His glabella throbbed with numb pain, qi and blood surging to his brain.
Time at this moment seemed to slow abruptly.
Those raindrops streaking past his eyes, forming streaks like silver needles;
Lin Shou Zhuo’s coarse and ugly face, eyes gleaming with savage ferocity;
The echoing roars and curses in his ears;
And…
A ghostly figure appearing silently behind him.
Yang Lu ‘couldn’t see’ that figure, but he vaguely sensed its presence.
“It’s… who…”
His thoughts turned.
Yang Lu desperately twisted his neck, eyes rolling down.
I want to see!
I want to see!!
Who is it, who is behind!!
Yang Lu roared hysterically in his heart.
His pupils sank slowly and reluctantly at an extremely minute angle.
Finally, he saw it.
A hand whose skin texture was unclear lightly scooped at his waist…
Right in front of him, taking away the warehouse key.
Finally, it considerately smoothed his clothing hem.
Splash!!
The next Moment, the world’s scenery began to accelerate.
Continuous heavy rain smashed onto Yang Lu’s face.
He whirled around, seeing high walls towering, fish scale tiles covering, Pounding House men and Water Carrier fighting fiercely.
Behind him, where was there any figure?
It seemed everything just now was his illusion.
And Yang Lu patted his waist, but it was empty.
Yang Lu’s face suddenly turned deathly pale.
“Light as a jade cloud, soaring away… such movement technique, is it Chasing Cloud Divine Assistance from the Five Monsters, Four Uniques, Three Leaders, or some martial dao grandmaster specializing in lightness skill?!”
Yang Lu felt chilled to the bone, his back covered in goosebumps.
If just now, that figure had shown even a hint of killing intent, crushing his throat or striking his fatal point…
Seeing Yang Lu’s dazed state, Lin Shou Zhuo looked suspicious.
Just now amid the lightning and rain, he vaguely saw a strange shadow flash by, but it merged with the shadows of falling branches.
He just vaguely felt something was off.
But didn’t know why.
The next moment, Yang Lu seemed to think of something, his face changing drastically.
“Warehouse, to the warehouse!”
Yang Lu’s eyes bloodshot red, he roared fiercely, like a beast in desperation, charging madly toward the warehouse.
Immediately, fireworks shot skyward, arrows flew, exploding.
All Pounding House men rushed toward the backyard granary.
“Where do you think you’re going?!”
Whatever the enemy didn’t want was what he should strive for!
Lin Shou Zhuo stepped forward, dashing several steps, arms punching out, aiming straight for Yang Lu’s occiput!
And the other Water Carrier, seeing this, desperately entangled their opponents.
Sounds of fighting rang endlessly.
Whoosh!!
It was then that Huo Yue finally loosed his arrow.
The whistling through the air tore the rain curtain along the way, forming a visible white wave, arriving in a blink!
Lin Shou Zhuo and Huo Yue, one overt and one covert, sealed off Yang Lu’s path.
At this moment, Yang Lu had nearly lost all reason and composure, his voice hysterical,
“Seeking death!!”
……
“This was taken by Chen Mou in plain sight, so it doesn’t count as stealing.”
Chen Shun’an wall-crawled swiftly, heading to the warehouse.
Key inserted into the lock, mechanism turning, the heavy iron door sealed tight cracked open slightly.
Chen Shun’an lightly tapped his toe, landing inside the warehouse.
At first sight, dozens of underground brick kilns, and many sacks not yet loaded, polished rice spilled white everywhere!
Pine wooden boards floored, mats with chaff, moisture-proof and dehumidifying.
Chen Shun’an just glanced with peripheral vision and rushed to the nearest brick kilns.
Just now, Yang Lu and Zhuang Kun hadn’t been in the warehouse long; the stored items were likely not far from the door.
After a search, sure enough, inside one brick kiln, Chen Shun’an found two boxes.
One large box contained densely packed tin boxes, tied with notes, stamped uniformly—
Made by Nanhai Twelve Guilds Paste Fire Temple!!
Seeing this, a shadow passed through Chen Shun’an’s eyes.
What Chen Shun’an least wanted to see had finally happened.
In the Hibiscus Paste Fire Incident, the Pounding House wasn’t a ‘consumer’, but a pusher.
And finding one cockroach in the room proved the unseen corners were already infested.
How much Hibiscus Paste Fire did the Pounding House have?
In all of Wuqing County, even the Capital City, how many had already smoked it?
How much interest had the Pounding House reaped from it?
Thinking this, Chen Shun’an felt it necessary to use Instructor Lin to pass this news to Landlord Zhao and the Capital Water Merchants Association.
He reached out and flipped, spilling the tin boxes to the ground.
Then grabbed the slightly smaller other box.
This box was square, arm-deep.
Weighing about thirty or forty pounds, a slight shake produced a sound extremely familiar and pleasing to Chen Shun’an!
Gold ingots clashing with silver fish!
Chen Shun’an’s eyes lit up; without a word, he shouldered the box and ran!
The iron door slammed shut, clicking locked again.
Outside, wind and rain battered.
Several anxious footsteps approached the eaves corridor’s corner.
Even the rooftop had the creaking of roof tiles being stepped on.
This place seemed enmeshed like a dragnet.
The Pounding House hands gathered in the backyard all rushed over.
Chen Shun’an looked up, seeing in the courtyard a twelve-zhang flagpole standing amid wind and rain.
A flag painted with granary god and five grains bountiful patterns fluttered loudly, snapping in the wind.
Chen Shun’an immediately shouldered the box with one hand, climbed the pole to the dragon head, and hung the string of warehouse keys on the flagpole.
Then leaped down, like drifting clouds, treading rain away, landing straight in the wild woods nearly a hundred zhang distant.
On the eaves, someone held a repeating crossbow, looking up at that rain-treading figure, mouth agape, mind blank.
Damn, is this lightness skill?!
