Wayfarer

Chapter 24: Retrieving the Gold

"Now, you won't even be able to die if you want to! Unless you want me to torture you, reveal your identity immediately!"

Xiao Nanfeng looked down at the paralyzed Tang.

Suddenly, Xiao Nanfeng felt a premonition of danger. He quickly rolled to the side, but even so, a stone tossed from behind him scraped by his shoulder.

The stone struck the ground with such force that it smashed a far larger rock into powder.

Xiao Nanfeng turned around in shock to see a hulking man step forward. It was he who had tossed the stone.

Xiao Nanfeng's shoulder burned with pain, and his robes had turned tattered where the stone had scraped him. If he hadn't dodged in time and had been fully struck by the projectile, he would have suffered a serious internal injury, perhaps even a fractured bone or two.

"Who are you?" Xiao Nanfeng asked, his face dark.

"Chen Hai, what took you so long?!" Tang cried out.

The hulking man, Chen Hai, frowned slightly and looked toward Tang with displeasure. "You set off too quickly without informing the rest of us. If I hadn't come to check up on the disturbance out of curiosity, I'd likely have ended up cleaning your corpse later."

"I was intending to entice him with the offer and slowly lure him into the trap, but he requested that we head to the harbor immediately! I didn't have time to inform you," Tang lamented.

"And how did you end up poisoning yourself with your own alcohol?" Chen Hai's frown deepened.

"I-I was careless. Quick, catch him and don't let him run!" Tang cried out weakly.

"A cultivator at the sixth stage of Acquisition? You think someone like him can outrun me?" Chen Hai asked confidently.

"Don't get complacent!" Tang urged. That was how he had fallen prey to Xiao Nanfeng's wiles.

"You're really growing more and more cowardly. I'm two stages above him. Anything pales in comparison to absolute strength." Chen Hai dashed forward and appeared right before Xiao Nanfeng in the blink of an eye, like a loosed arrow. He slammed a palm strike forward with incredible strength, but, forewarned, Xiao Nanfeng easily dodged.

Chen Hai struck nothing but air.

Meanwhile, Xiao Nanfeng executed his own punch at the stumbling Chen Hai, so strong it caused the air to rumble.

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Chen Hai seemed to have expected the strike. He barked in laughter, then met Xiao Nanfeng's fist with his elbow in a dull thump.

Both combatants reeled back.

Xiao Nanfeng took a few steps back before he regained his footing, his hand numb. Chen Hai only took a half-step back, but his body likewise trembled.

"What incredible strength! Is this lad really only at the sixth stage of Acquisition?" Chen Hai gasped.

"His cultivation technique is Rites of Dawn, and his qi is pure yang. Its quality is surely above yours, so be careful!" Tang cried out.

"Qi of pure yang? No wonder he feels so strong. But all he knows is Marching Fist—he's no match for me!" Chen Hai prepared to strike again.

Both the men knew that Xiao Nanfeng had begun studying Hegemon's Fist, but it had only been a month since he started. They wrote it off—how could Xiao Nanfeng have gotten anywhere with such an advanced technique in such a short time?

With a malevolent aura, Chen Hai leapt into the air like a ferocious tiger, landing straight by Xiao Nanfeng's side. His fists and legs shot unerringly at him.

This time, however, Xiao Nanfeng didn't avoid the attack. His previous confrontation made him aware of Chen Hai's limits. Although Chen Hai was somewhat stronger than he was, the difference between them wasn't an unassailable one.

Two fists clashed against each other with a sound like rumbling thunder. Shockingly, neither seemed to be at an advantage.

Rather than retreat, Xiao Nanfeng advanced. He launched another punch straight at Chen Hai. Mockingly, Chen Hai met his punch with one of his own. He had been conserving his strength and waiting for Xiao Nanfeng to try to attack.

However, just before the fists were about to collide with each other, Chen Hai's palm passed through Xiao Nanfeng's. Xiao Nanfeng had rendered his attack an illusion via a secret technique—Hegemon's Fist, assassin form.

"What?!" Chen Hai widened his eyes in panic as a fist appeared by his face. "No!"

Struck squarely in the face, Chen Hai fell to the ground, stirring up a cloud of dust and rubble.

Xiao Nanfeng stepped forward. He had broken Chen Hai's nose with that punch. Blood was now dripping profusely down Chen Hai's face, giving him a sinister appearance. However, Xiao Nanfeng didn't stop there. He launched a kick toward Chen Hai's head.

Woozy though he was, Chen Hai instinctively sensed the impending danger. He rolled blindly, causing Xiao Nanfeng's kick to miss his head, but his arm wasn't quite so lucky. Chen Hai groaned in pain as he was kicked away, his arm clearly fractured and bent out of shape.

He landed with another scream, but his nightmare didn't end there. Xiao Nanfeng ran after him,

attempting to get rid of his opponent while he was down.

After being battered by a flurry of punches and kicks, Chen Hai was no longer able to fight. Even so, for the sake of caution, Xiao Nanfeng broke all four of Chen Hai's limbs and crippled his ability to move. Only then did he stop, panting as he looked down at Chen Hai's body.

Not far away, Tang gaped in astonishment at Chen Hai, who was barely clinging onto life. Chen Hai was in the eighth stage of Acquisition! Even if he had been careless, even if Xiao Nanfeng possessed qi of pure yang, the fight shouldn't have gone so poorly.

"This can't be Marching Fist. Were you hiding a technique all along?" Tang asked in shock.

"Don't you know? This is Hegemon's Fist."

"That's impossible! You've only been studying it for a month. There's no way you could have built such a strong foundation already!" Tang shouted. The repeated surprises that Xiao Nanfeng had displayed left him almost hysterical.

Xiao Nanfeng himself felt as though he had survived an incredible ordeal. It was lucky that Chen Hai had only been in the eighth stage of Acquisition, and was careless besides. Otherwise, he could very well have fallen prey to the trap.

He retrieved the poison pill from Chen Hai's mouth, then force-fed both cultivators more of Tang's paralytic wine.

"What are you doing? Nanfeng, do you know who we are? Are you aware of the consequences of offending our organization?" Tang cried out.

Xiao Nanfeng seemed far too practiced at this. Was his mentality and skills something a sixteen-year-old youth and nascent cultivator could possess?

Before Tang could say anything more, Xiao Nanfeng knocked him unconscious with a punch.

It wouldn't do to remain here. Who knew if Tang and Chen Hai had any other accomplices? Xiao Nanfeng dragged both men toward the harbor.

He didn't dare ask for assistance from anyone, worried that they too were part of the subterfuge.

Following the map he had ingrained in his memory, Xiao Nanfeng quickly found the harbor. He saw from afar the ship that he had been on during the voyage.

After he stowed the two unconscious disciples in a nearby forest, he took a deep breath, dove into the sea, and swam toward the ship.

Not long later, he found the "tutoring fee" he had hidden in the hull of the ship—banknotes worth a total of 10,000 taels of gold.

There was no one on the ship, so he climbed up, found a big piece of sailcloth, then swam back toward the harbor. Quickly, he returned to the forest.

"You're criminals, aren't you? Why don't you have more money?" Xiao Nanfeng searched both men's bodies, but only found five hundred taels of gold, and no additional clue as to their identities.

Almost regretfully, he kept the gold, then wrapped the two men in the sailcloth along with a bundle of sticks. He wasn't interested in interrogating them; better to bring them back to Elder Ku instead.

There were protective arrays all around Taiqing Island that he didn't know how to pass through, but the main route through the harbor was clear. He dragged the unwieldy sack to the populated harborfront, where he encountered a few disciples serving as guards in front of a huge valley.

"Senior Brother Nanfeng? What are you doing here? Are those spiritbeast carcasses in your sack?" a nominal disciple standing guard asked Xiao Nanfeng curiously.

Xiao Nanfeng didn't recognize this disciple, but many recognized him for his outstanding performance during last month's recruitment selection.

"Yes, I came to do a few errands," Xiao Nanfeng replied, smiling.

No one stopped him as he walked straight into the island from the harbor.

After heading through the main gates, however, he followed his mental map and took a few side routes to his destination rather than the main path. He encountered few disciples along the way, and when he saw them in advance with his spiritual perception, he dove into the trees to avoid them.

To his surprise, his careful behavior let him overhear something he shouldn't have.

"Have you found him?"

"No!"

"Keep searching. We've been instructed to catch them at any cost, especially Nanfeng. Make a move immediately upon finding him—don't listen to what he says."

"Understood!"

The disciples headed off in search of Xiao Nanfeng. Xiao Nanfeng's eyelids twitched.

To seize me the moment they encounter me, in broad daylight? Is this the might of the organization behind Tang and Chen Hai?

Although he didn't know exactly what had happened, Xiao Nanfeng was aware that the situation was clearly unfavorable for him. He couldn't trust anyone at the moment; he had to find his master as quickly as possible.

He continued making his way toward the vault while avoiding anyone he saw along the way. After two hours, he finally arrived at the vicinity of the vault. By then, those disciples responsible for tailing his activity around the vault had disappeared.

Not all the disciples were in search of him; many Taiqing disciples weren't aware of the matter at all. He spoke to no one as he rushed straight to the hall where his master had secluded himself.

Frowning anxiously at the closed doors, he remembered that Elder Ku had warned him sternly that he wasn't to be disturbed.

"Master! Your disciple Nanfeng requests a meeting!" Xiao Nanfeng called out.

However, no one responded. Xiao Nanfeng didn't know what to do. Was he to continue waiting?

"I found him! Inform everyone immediately! Nanfeng's right here!" a disciple called out from behind.

Xiao Nanfeng blanched. Without Elder Ku protecting him, things would go very badly for him if he were caught.

"I apologize for the intrusion, Master!" Xiao Nanfeng pushed open the doors with a burst of strength. To his surprise and relief, the doors hadn't been locked.

Xiao Nanfeng stepped into the hall, but the moment he did so, the doors swung shut behind him with a huge bang.