Shopkeeper Wan’s expression turned grave. “Don’t panic. Get up first and explain what happened.”

He ordered people to help the man to his feet. Li Yan recognized the fellow. He was one of the craftsmen working in the village. Seeing trouble arise, Li Yan naturally could not just leave, so he remained nearby and watched.

Even after the man was helped up, his legs were still trembling weakly and his face had gone deathly pale.

He ignored the blood running down his forehead and said with a shaking voice, “Zhuzi was leading a few children cutting grass near the village entrance. The kids who ran back said a peddler came down the official road, throwing candy everywhere and tricking the children into telling him their names.

“After eating the candy, the children all passed out. Some villagers passing by woke them up, but when they regained consciousness, Zhuzi was already gone. Elder Wan, my family only has this one son! If he’s lost, how can I face my ancestors?!”

As he spoke, he burst into loud sobs. The surrounding carpenters immediately flew into a rage.

“That bastard dares kidnap children from our village?!”

“Come on! They can’t have gotten far yet. Let’s search!”

“When we catch him, we’ll skin him alive!”

The crowd was furious and ready to rush out searching.

“What are you all panicking for?!” One of the elderly carpenters shouted angrily, “Elder Wan hasn’t even spoken yet! Even if it’s traffickers from Xianyang, one word from Elder Wan is enough to make them obediently return the child!”

The villagers were instantly reminded of Shopkeeper Wan’s status.

Shopkeeper Wan nodded. “Ershun, Shuanzi, bring some gifts and take my calling cards. Go separately to the trafficking houses in the city and the beggar dens of the western district. Tell them to help find the child. Be polite. Handle things according to jianghu rules.”

“Yes, Elder!”

Two carpenters immediately prepared to leave.

A voice suddenly sounded from the crowd. “That probably won’t get the child back.”

Everyone turned around and saw Sha Lifei.

He grinned awkwardly, scratching his bald head before cupping his fists. “Shopkeeper Wan is a righteous man, so I can’t keep silent. If what I say is wrong, please forgive me.”

Shopkeeper Wan nodded. “Speak.”

Sha Lifei glanced at the crowd. “I, Old Sha, have wandered the jianghu for years. I’ve seen all kinds of crooked and wicked tricks. Child traffickers exist everywhere, but they usually target smart, good-looking little kids because they fetch higher prices. However, this peddler first asked for the children’s names. That means he came prepared.

“And anyone who mixes around Xianyang should know the reputation of Shangyi Village. So this is probably revenge. Looking for traffickers or beggars won’t help at all!”

Shopkeeper Wan frowned and suddenly stood up. “Brother Sha makes sense!”

After pacing once around the courtyard, his eyes landed on Li Yan.

Instantly delighted, he hurriedly cupped his fists. “I almost forgot about Little Brother Li’s divine ability. I’ll have to trouble you with this matter.”

Li Yan returned the salute. “No problem. I need a fast horse and something belonging to the child.”

“Hurry! Bring a horse!”

“Shuanzi, go fetch his things!”

Very quickly, someone led over a chestnut-red-colored horse and handed Li Yan a small wooden sword. Without wasting words, he grabbed the blade and wooden sword before vaulting onto the horse.

“Hyah!”

With a snap of the reins, the horse shot out of the courtyard. Hoofbeats thundered together with swirling dust, disappearing from everyone’s sight in moments.

Within only a few breaths, Li Yan reached the village entrance. Activating his divine ability and taking a deep sniff, he immediately turned the horse and galloped along the official road. The child’s scent was already faint, likely because he had been stuffed into a sack. However, such tricks could not fool Li Yan’s divine ability.

Following that faint scent, Li Yan rode at full speed. Before long, he could already see Xianyang in the distance. Gritting his teeth, he actually increased his speed further.

Xianyang was an extremely dangerous place for him; however, some things had to be done. Shopkeeper Wan had treated him with sincerity, and Li Yan’s blade had never shied away from blood.

Yet after reaching the crossroads leading toward Xianyang, the scent suddenly shifted direction, turning away along another path. Li Yan immediately wheeled the horse around, though confusion flashed across his face.

This path led toward Menggu Village. The place was infamous, not for scenic mountains or rivers, but because it had once participated in the Maitreya Sect uprising. The entire village had been annihilated by the royal army.

There were several such villages scattered throughout the Guanzhong Plains. More than ten years had passed, yet the scars remained. Absurd ghost stories about vengeful spirits haunting the abandoned village still circulated widely, and no commoners dared move there. Could traffickers really have occupied the place?

Curious, Li Yan spurred the horse onward. Halfway down the road, the scent shifted again, leaving the main road and plunging into the overgrown wilderness. Li Yan immediately turned the horse and charged through the grasslands. Before long, he encountered a narrow river.

The river was shallow, and he rode directly through it. Then, the scent vanished completely.

Li Yan frowned, activated his divine ability again, and inhaled deeply.

He cursed, “Damn. Cunning bastard!”

He immediately turned the horse once more. The trafficker had walked some distance within the river itself before climbing back onto shore farther away. He had then continued toward the abandoned village.

Ordinary tracking methods would have been completely fooled by the trick. But against the divine abilities of a mystic path practitioner, it was utterly useless. Sure enough, after riding several hundred zhang farther and crossing a tiny hill, two figures finally appeared ahead on the road.

The woman was driving a donkey cart piled high with hay. The other was a peddler carrying a wooden display box filled with partitions holding kites, candied hawthorn skewers, clay figurines, and countless colorful trinkets. The peddler also carried a pellet drum while quietly speaking with the woman.

Hearing hoofbeats, both immediately turned around, eyes full of vigilance.

Li Yan thought quickly. Cupping his fists, he shouted loudly, “Please wait, the two of you! I’d like to ask for directions!”

Even as he spoke, he secretly pressed his legs against the horse’s belly, maintaining his speed.

The peddler stopped and turned around. “Of course, sir. Where do you wish to go?”

He looked like an ordinary friendly young man. Though his face remained warm and welcoming, his right hand silently moved toward his waist. Suddenly, his body twisted and his arm snapped forward.

A half-foot iron dart screamed through the air straight toward Li Yan’s forehead.

Throwing Arrow!

There was no more than a few zhang between them at the moment, and the peddler’s hidden weapon carried tremendous force. An ordinary person would certainly have been struck.

However, Li Yan had already activated his divine ability and scented the iron. The instant the dart was thrown, he twisted sideways and rolled directly off the horse.

At first glance, it looked like he had accidentally fallen. Yet while airborne, he flipped like a cat and landed firmly upon the ground, crouching low behind the galloping horse as he rushed forward, holding his blade horizontal.

To the peddler’s eyes, Li Yan had simply vanished, while the horse continued to thunder directly toward him. A panicked horse charged with overwhelming force. The peddler had no choice but to dodge. But the moment the horse passed, a blade flashed toward him with terrifying speed.

The peddler’s heart jolted in alarm as he retreated frantically. Yet the blade clung to him like a maggot attached to a bone, drawing ever closer to his neck.

Just as the peddler fell into despair, the woman atop the donkey cart suddenly leaped into the air. “Take this!”

A Meteor Hammer spun through her hands. She stepped on the flexible middle, and the sharpened spike at its end whistled straight toward Li Yan, who sidestepped while raising his Guanshan blade to block. However, the Meteor Hammer instantly changed direction, wrapping itself tightly around the blade with a whistle.

Changing plans, Li Yan violently yanked backward. “Come here!”

Still airborne, the woman immediately lost her balance and crashed hard to the ground, rolling through the dirt as the Meteor Hammer flew from her hands.

At the same time, the peddler rolled across the ground to evade Li Yan. By the time he regained his feet, several more hidden weapons had appeared in his hands. With rapid flicks of both wrists, half-foot iron darts shot through the air again.

For ordinary people, the difficulty in dodging hidden weapons lay in their sheer speed. Normal people wouldn’t even be able to see before they were hit. But true experts could identify attacks by listening to the wind, or move instinctively with body and weapon united as one. Some could even knock the projectiles away or catch them barehanded before throwing them back.

Li Yan’s enhanced sense of smell meant that every movement within a thirty zhang radius was impossible to hide from him. Dodging became vastly easier. He did not even need to look.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

His Guanshan blade swept left and right, knocking away the incoming darts even as he charged directly toward the peddler.

When he saw Li Yan pursuing him like a relentless demon, the peddler’s scalp went numb. Realizing he had encountered a terrifying opponent, he drew two daggers from behind his waist and shrieked, “This one’s tough! Attack together!”

Then he rolled forward, bent both legs, and lunged low toward Li Yan, thrusting both daggers at his abdomen. Meanwhile, the woman pulled a white-wax spear from beneath the haystack. A violent shake of her arms forced countless spikes to burst forth from the tip of her spear as she thrust toward Li Yan’s head.

Ground Tumbling Daggers. Pear Blossom Spear.

Li Yan recognized their styles immediately. Though neither had cultivated hidden force, their coordination was flawless and their moves utterly ruthless. They were clearly not ordinary traffickers. Most likely, they were freelance criminals, people who made their living through crime.

They belonged to the Ge Sect among the unorthodox sects of the jianghu. Any jianghu assassin, thug, lone bandit, rapist, or even bladesmen like Li Yan himself would belong to the Ge Sect as long as they used martial skill for illegal dealings.

The pair clearly understood how dangerous Li Yan was and showed no mercy. The peddler rolled and scrabbled across the ground with bizarre agility. Dog Bites Dumpling, Backward Sickle, Flying Reverse Scissors, he unleashed one move faster than the last. Combined with his dagger techniques and legwork, he looked like a whirlwind sweeping across the ground, dirt exploding everywhere.

The woman’s martial arts was clearly weaker, but her Pear Blossom Spear spun continuously, exploding into endless blossoms of motion.

Nine parts of her moves were illusions, and only one part was real. Her primary role was interference, but every true thrust synchronized perfectly with the peddler to create killing strikes.

Li Yan blocked and dodged, appearing to retreat step by step. The more he moved, the deeper the coldness in his eyes grew, like a savage beast suppressing its killing intent. Finally, a tiny flaw appeared in the pair’s coordination.

The woman’s spear moved just a fraction too quickly. Li Yan instantly shifted his shoulder sideways and slashed upward while leaping backward.

A flash of blade light streaked past and the woman’s white-wax spear snapped in half.

At the same moment, the peddler rolled sideways and crossed both daggers upward in an attempt to stab Li Yan. However, Li Yan’s backward leap happened to avoid it perfectly. Then he drove off his left leg, hidden force exploding outward as his right foot shot forward in a brutal kick.

“Fuck you!”

Crack!

The peddler’s neck snapped, his head turning at an impossible angle of one hundred eighty degrees. Without even making a sound, he collapsed.

Seeing the fate of her companion, the woman turned deathly pale and tried to beg for mercy. Li Yan answered with a single slap which sent her tumbling across the ground before darkness swallowed her vision and she lost consciousness.

Li Yan strode forward and ripped apart the haystack.

Inside, three children lay hidden. All three had flushed red faces and remained unconscious.