Book 1 - Chapter 17: Conspiracy 2

Chapter 17: Conspiracy (2)

Northface City, Southern district.

The Lin Clan’s main courtyard.

The courtyard was several hectares wide and held many hundreds of houses, particularly in the middle of the courtyard. There were also ten or so landscape gardens. The entire courtyard was very richly ornamented and quite dazzling to behold.

The ancestor of the Lin Clan was a hunter by origin. On one of his hunts, he inadvertently stumbled upon the cub of a rare Demonic Beast. From that moment on, his rise was meteoric, and he established his own household.

In reality, the other three clans were very similar in this regard.

Su Changche was originally a merchant selling red dates, but because he gave some red dates1 to an old man who was about to starve to death, he obtained the Raging Flame Heart Technique. The He Clan’s ancestor had mistakenly ingested a red fruit and fortunately didn’t perish. Rather, he successfully reached the Qi Drawing stage and established his own household. Only the Li Clan’s ancestor had forged his abilities on the battlefield, having originally been a soldier.

Regardless of the fortune they had received, they were all similar in that they held strength and power.

Perhaps there had been others in this world who had obtained other good fortune before, but without powerful martial strength their accomplishments were fated to be limited.

The current head of the Lin Clan was Lin Yuanshan. He had three sons and two daughters.

Like the majority of clans, the Lin Clan also owned many different businesses. However, their most important businesses was still the Beast Garden. Members of the Lin Clan were experts in training and breeding wild beasts and even Vicious Beasts for their own use.

If one was to survey the entire human race, there were not many who had the ability to do this.

Vicious Beasts, as their name implied, were innately fierce and uncontrollable. They were prone to bouts of violence and irascibility, and were extremely difficult to tame. However, the members of the Lin Clan relied on the abandoned Demonic Beast that they had obtained to tame a portion of Vicious Beasts and then sold them to various major aristocrats. Thus, they were able to establish a footing for themselves.

The beast garden was located in the back of the Lin Clan’s large courtyard. Coincidentally, this was also the direction in which Su Chen was heading.

Naturally, he was not coveting the Vicious Beasts of the Lin Clan. Rather, Gu Qingluo lived in a small building next to a small lake located near the beast garden.

It was a very scenic lake. Large swathes of white reeds grew near the lake, and occasionally it would be possible to see black swans playing there. When Su Chen was young and just wanted to have fun, he had once gone there. In the end he had been caught by members of the Lin Clan and sent back to the Su Clan, where what awaited for him was a beating from his parents. At that time, holding onto the wounds on his butt, Su Chen vowed never to return to this place. Who could have expected that he would once again charge over to the small building by the lake?

However, Su Chen was not worried about the consequences this time.

He was a blind man. Even if he were to be discovered, he could just say that he had taken a wrong turn.

It was precisely because he could rely on this excuse that Su Chen could forge ahead without worry.

By following the road in the quiet and secluded forest, Su Chen very quickly walked out of the forest.

A blurry waterfront appeared in front of his eyes.

He had arrived at the small lake.

Although Su Chen was no longer able to see the small lake’s beauty as he could in the past, he followed the path in his memory, walking towards the small house step by step with careful steps. This area was thick with Lin Clan patrols. Luckily, his hearing was exceptional, and he was on a small trail in the forest. Vision was heavily restricted, and the two patrol squads were easily detected and evaded.

Just as he was about to arrive at the small building near the lake, Su Chen suddenly heard the sounds of footsteps on fallen leaves in front of him.

Although the sound was not loud, it was still loud to Su Chen’s sensitive ears, and he hurriedly hid behind a large tree.

The distant footsteps slowly drew near. From the sounds of the footsteps, it seemed like two people were walking.

Unfortunately, these two people seemed to be headed in Su Chen’s direction, and they seemed to be moving quickly. Su Chen hesitated for a second and lost the opportunity to leave. Even if he wanted to leave, he could no longer do so. He could only continue to hide behind the tree, motionless.

Thankfully, those two people finally stopped somewhere not far from the tree.

A low and hoarse voice began to speak, “Okay, there’s nobody else here. You can speak here.”

Next, a jerky-sounding voice replied, “We ran into some difficulties. Yue Wuti seems to know something and is currently investigating the Cloud River Society.”

“How much has he discovered?” The hoarse voice asked.

“That’s still unclear. We only know that he found a vice president and had a meal with him. That evening, the vice president committed suicide. His death was too quick; we didn’t even have time to ask him any questions.”

“Dammit!” The low voice suddenly increased in volume, “That bastard definitely leaked some of our secrets. How much does he know?”

“Not much. However, he presided over the purchase of amethysts and stone powder. He even carried out special procurements for us three times. Based on these and considering Yue Wuti’s shrewdness, it’s very likely that he would discover that…..”

“It’s not just very likely, it’s definitely! The Spirit Burying Terrace needs at least a year before it can open. This period of time is more than enough for Yue Wuti to uncover all of our backgrounds. You definitely cannot allow him to continue investigating!” The low voice came out between gritted teeth, laced with anger.

After briefly pausing for a moment, the low voice then added, “Tell Night Thorn to make a move and finish him!”

“Yes!”

Upon hearing these words, Su Chen couldn’t control the frantic beating of his heart.

In the end, he was only fifteen years old. This was his first time hearing about matters that involved killing people. He inevitably felt flustered and couldn’t help but take a step back. Although the sound of his foot landing on the leaves was quiet, it still made a small noise.

Although the sound was not loud, it was like the sound of thunder in the ears of the two people discussing matters.

“Who is it?” That low voice let out a short shout.

Su Chen knew that the situation wasn’t good, and he turned around to escape. However, wind from the palm strike had already reached him, slamming down on the ground behind him. The force of the impact sent Su Chen flying.

Su Chen flipped a few times in midair before landing on the ground in a heap. There were already two people standing in front of him.

One was extremely old and dressed in all black. The other was a young man, wearing an azure robe.

Upon seeing Su Chen’s face, that azure-robed young man let out a surprised exclamation, “Su Chen? How is it you?”

“You recognize him?” the old man asked.

“Answering Elder Sang, he is the Fourth Young Master Su Chen of the Su Clan. He is blind.” The young man who replied was called Lin Xie. He had seen Su Chen a few times before, which was why he was able to immediately recognize him.

“Blind?” The old man looked at Su Chen, only to see that his eyes remained as straight as ever as he furiously backed up, still on the ground. He did not look at the path at all. Even if he ran into the tree, he would not have much of a reaction, instead changing direction and continuing to back up. However, how could he outrun a healthy person like this?

He truly was blind.

The old man let out a breath, then said, “Go kill him.”

“Yes,” the young man replied, already walking towards Su Chen.

Su Chen seemed to have sensed danger, exploding into motion as he leapt to his feet and took off. His speed was not slow either.

Thankfully, the path that he had chosen to sprint along actually was not blocked by a single tree, so he was actually able to stumble his way out.

Just as that old man was about to give chase, the young man said, “Elder Sang, leave this brat to me. There are Lin Clan guards up ahead. It’s best for you to avoid running into them and having to put up with the trouble of them seeing you.”

Upon hearing this, Elder Sang stopped his steps and said, “Then…… I’ll leave him to you.”

As he spoke, he no longer paid any attention to Su Chen, taking his leave. To leave an official Origin Qi scholar to deal with a Body Tempering blind man, he truly had no reason to not feel at ease.

Upon seeing the bolting Su Chen, Lin Xie viciously laughed, chasing Su Chen with large strides.

1. Referring to the fruit.