Chapter Ten: An Unexpected Turn

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“What’s going on?”
“Kid! What happened?”
With a swish, four or five figures instantly appeared before the terrified young man. The red-haired middle-aged man at the front waved his sleeve, and the oppressive aura of a Peak Mountain-Moving cultivator crashed down like a mountain.
Under this terrifying pressure, the young man’s legs gave out and he collapsed onto the ground, his face twisted in fear.
“It… it was an older man, just now! He took my clothes!” the boy stammered, hugging his shoulders in terror.
An older man?
The cultivators exchanged glances.
“What did he look like? Speak!”
“Yes!” The boy’s scalp prickled and he stuttered, “He… he had a sallow, rather pale face. That’s all I remember!”
“It’s him!”
They exchanged elated looks. One of them pressed urgently, “Where is he? Which direction did he go?”
“That way…”
The boy pointed toward Thunder Mountain.
When the group saw the direction he indicated, their expressions changed at once.
“Not good! Could he be heading to the back of Thunder Mountain?”
“After him! We can’t let him enter!”
“Wait!”
Just as they were about to give chase, the red-haired man cut them off with a wave of his hand, then fixed the youth with a cold stare. “Are you certain you’re not lying to us?”
As he spoke, an invisible pressure descended, and a powerful spiritual sense swept over the boy. His face turned pale as a scallion, his legs shaking as he frantically shook his head.
The red-haired man narrowed his eyes, then finally waved his hand.
“Go!”
…
Once they had all left, the boy remained sprawled on the ground for some time. Only after half a cup of tea did he slowly rise, a faint smirk lifting his lips. He wiped his face, and a ripple of light flashed across the Heavenly Dragon Token, revealing his true appearance.
It was none other than Tu Lu.
“I never expected that the combination of the Heavenly Dragon Token and my sister’s Nine-Lock True Spirit Technique would allow such a masterful disguise—even a Peak Mountain-Moving expert couldn’t see through it!”
He was exhilarated. It was one thing to fool everyone in the Heavenly Dragon House, where spiritual senses were suppressed, making even the strongest minds weaker than the weakest Mountain-Moving cultivators. No wonder they hadn’t seen through him.
But now, with the aid of the Heavenly Dragon Token, even outside the House, it worked just as well.
“Hmph, a bunch of fools. Go have fun with that stone beast of yours. I won’t be joining you.”
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With that, he retrieved the bundle containing the Thunder Stones from the Heavenly Dragon Token. Unwrapping it, he revealed a coarse blue-black hemp robe.
After dressing, he was about to leave, but hesitated. Leaving just like this seemed too simple.
“Villains deserve punishment. Even if I can’t defeat them, I’ll drive them mad with rage!”
Nodding to himself, he picked up a twig and scratched two large words into the dirt—“Idiots!”
He tossed the twig aside, clapped his hands in satisfaction, and sneered, “Try to catch me? Hmph! I’ll leave you fuming!”
With that cold smile, he turned and left.
About half a day later, the group of Peak Mountain-Moving cultivators finally returned from the back of the mountain. They were all battered and bruised—not seriously, but certainly disheveled. When they saw the two words left on the ground, they froze, uncomprehending at first. But when the meaning dawned, they nearly spat blood in fury.
“Arrgh! Damn you, Tu! I’ll kill you!!!”
Their furious roars echoed across half of East City. Martial artists and commoners alike looked up, bewildered and anxious, uncertain what had happened.
By this time, Tu Lu had already returned to the slums.
“Strange. Even on quiet days, it’s never been this silent here…”
Tu Lu frowned, a sense of foreboding creeping over him.
As he walked on, the unease grew heavier. His pupils contracted, and finally, unable to stand it, he dashed toward home.
“Sis!”
He shouted, kicking open the courtyard gate from afar and charging in.
But the house was utterly deserted. He searched every corner, but Lin Ru was nowhere to be found.
“Damn it, where did my sister go?!”
He was frantic, but then suddenly remembered something his sister had told him.
He hurried to a corner of the room and lifted a patch of muddy floorboards.
“If she left safely, she would have left a message here. That was our promise!”
“As expected!”
Under the floorboards, he found four delicate characters scratched into the earth with a dead twig: “See you on Xuanling Island.”
He let out a long breath.
Those four words meant that at least she had left safely. The chance that she wrote them and was then captured before leaving was almost nonexistent—so unlikely, he refused to even consider it.
“But Xuanling Island… where is that?”
He frowned. The Divine Continent was vast and boundless, yet he had never heard of any island—he only knew of such things from vague legends.
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“It seems I’ll have to investigate. Sister… you promised we’d leave together…”
A wave of sadness washed over him. He had obeyed her and gone to sell the Thunder Stones, braved so many dangers, and finally returned from the Heavenly Dragon House—only to find her already gone.
As he was lost in thought, a ragged middle-aged man burst in from outside.
“Little Lu!”
“Uncle Zhong?”
Tu Lu’s eyes widened as he sprang to his feet.
The man before him was one of the few decent acquaintances he and his sister had in the slums—Zhong Dahai, an honest man, if a bit henpecked. He was often bullied by his wife, but surely not to this extent.
At this moment, Zhong Dahai’s face was bruised and swollen—if not for his familiar manner, Tu Lu might not have recognized him.
“Little Lu, you must stand up for your Uncle Zhong!” At the sight of Tu Lu, Zhong Dahai’s tears flowed freely. Before Tu Lu could get a word in, he sobbed, “A bunch of strangers came today, looking for you. They asked if we knew where you lived. You know I’d never betray you, not for anything! But… but they really did kill your Aunt Zhong!”
With that, his tears fell like rain.
Even Tu Lu’s face darkened at these words.
Zhong Dahai choked out, “Now those people are living in Wang Xiaoba’s house. They’ve taken many people hostage, and say if you don’t show yourself, they’ll kill everyone. The whole slum is terrified; no one dares go outside.”
“Oh, and Little Lu! You mustn’t go—there are so many of them! Xiao Ru told me especially, if I saw you return, I had to tell you to run, not to try to rescue her, no matter what!”
“Yes, I came to warn you to run, not to send you to your death. Truly!”
By now Zhong Dahai seemed almost deranged, muttering contradictions over and over.
But where Tu Lu’s face had been full of anger, now he grew suddenly calm.
“Uncle Zhong, are you saying… my sister was taken too?” he asked, his expression unreadable.
Zhong Dahai started, nodded unconsciously, then quickly shook his head. “No, Little Lu, your sister wasn’t taken! She really wasn’t! Please, don’t do anything rash!”
Tu Lu glanced at him, then closed his eyes and drew a long, slow breath.
“I understand, Uncle Zhong. Go home, I won’t do anything foolish.” A faint smile touched his lips.
Zhong Dahai hesitated, sensing something different about Tu Lu but unable to say what.
“Well, I’ll be off then. Please, don’t do anything reckless!”
Tu Lu nodded. Only after Zhong Dahai left did he open his eyes, a cold light flickering within them.
“So… this is a trap set for me.”