Under one person: I, Zhang Zhiwei, the arrogant Zhang.

"Cang! Cang!"

Yu Hai was enveloped in a thick golden light and fought fiercely with Lü Ci. Every collision produced a piercing metallic clang, and the two were like two vicious dragons tearing at each other.

Each time they exchanged blows, tiny golden sparks would explode in the air—the marks left by Lü Ci scattering Yu Hai's golden light.

Facing Yu Hai, who knew the Golden Light Mantra, Lü Ci did not use the Lü family's signature "Ruyi Jin".

Firstly, the characteristics of the Ruyi Jin are too obvious; it is unique in the world, and using it would easily expose one's identity.

Secondly, the opponent is protected by the Golden Light Mantra, so the Ruyi Force is very likely to be unable to penetrate it.

The Ruyi Jin technique relies on skillful application of force, but it damages internal organs, meridians, and acupoints; its destructive power alone is not particularly prominent.

If it's just physical defensive skills like external training, as long as the skills aren't applied to the internal organs, the Ruyi Jin (a type of internal energy technique) can still attack them.

However, the Golden Light Mantra is different from traditional protective techniques. As long as the golden light is covered thick enough, it cannot be broken through due to the characteristics of the Ruyi Jin (a type of internal energy).

However, Lü Ci was different from ordinary members of the Lü family. He specialized in Ruyi Zhenjin, and ordinary Ruyi Jin was just a means for him to cut grass.

The power of Ruyi Zhenjin was far greater than that of Ruyi Jin. In just ten or so moves, Yu Hai's possessed golden light was shattered.

"Dang Dang Dang..."

Yu Hai's heart tightened as he watched helplessly as the opponent's palm, wreathed in purple light, shattered his protective golden aura. The force of the palm strike remained undiminished, heading straight for his chest!

"Zizzizi!"

As Yu Hai was about to use his lightning magic to dodge, several steel needles suddenly pierced through the air, aiming straight for his throat.

Yu Hai was shocked and thought to himself that things were not going well. He was being pursued by a fierce palm strike in front of him and blocked by steel needles behind him. No matter which option he chose, it would be a difficult problem.

In the heat of the moment, without time to weigh the pros and cons, he made the most instinctive reaction, grabbing the incoming steel needles with one hand and meeting Lü Ci's palm strike with the other.

He caught the steel needle, but he couldn't win the palm strike against Lü Ci. He was sent flying backward, and pinkish blood mist gushed from his mouth and nose.

Having landed a successful blow, Lü Ci pressed his advantage relentlessly, grabbing Yu Hai's legs and pulling him back from his flying position. He then braced his foot against Yu Hai's groin, forcefully pushing off while simultaneously pulling him backward with both hands.

"Pfft!"

The sound of flesh tearing and bones separating was chilling.

Blood mist splattered everywhere. Yu Hai's genitals were kicked to pieces, and his legs were torn off by Lü Ci.

"boom!"

Yu Hai landed on the ground, his half-body rolling around and letting out heart-wrenching screams.

"Clap, clap!"

Xu Xin walked over, a steel needle between his fingers, and swiftly struck out, piercing into Yu Hai's spirit and giving him a quick death.

Lu Ci looked at Xu Xin with some dissatisfaction. He had just gotten into the zone and hadn't even gotten serious yet when he was interrupted.

"Brother Xu is really spoiling people's enjoyment!" Lu Ci said. He wasn't someone who couldn't tell the situation from the occasion, and he wouldn't get angry with Xu Xin over such a small matter.

"Young Master Lü, haven't you had enough?" Xu Xin said confidently, "After this mission is over, I'll fight with you."

Lu Ci grinned: "I'll keep those words in mind."

……

……

The battle came quickly and ended quickly.

Although the manor had many guards, with the capture of several bunkers and the loss of high ground, they went from defense to offense and became at a disadvantage.

Most importantly, during this process, they killed many of the invading enemies, only to find out afterward that they were just paper figures.

Paper figures... are a significant element in Chinese horror, and enemies made of paper figures are far more terrifying than enemies made of zombies.

Therefore, the well-equipped guards did not put up any fierce resistance and scattered like birds and beasts.

With such a big thing happening outside, Liu Cai, that old fox, naturally sensed that something was wrong.

"Fifth Master, something's up. This time, the enemy seems to be quite unusual."

His bodyguard whispered.

"I know!" Liu Cai nodded and said, "We can't stay here any longer. Let's go, let's take the tunnel out first and avoid the storm!"

When the manor was first built, he had considered the possibility of it being affected by war, so there was a tunnel beneath the manor that led directly to the outside world.

However, this tunnel is located near the Liu Clan Ancestral Hall, which is some distance from the restaurant, so they have to go through it.

Liu Cai, along with her family and guards, rushed through the fire line towards the ancestral hall.

At this moment, he regretted why he had built such a large manor.
Unbeknownst to him, at that moment, an old man was hiding above the roof, watching them with a kind expression.

Before they took action, they investigated the location of Liu Cai's assets.

Previously, Liu Cai's money was mostly kept in money shops, but recently, the Chairman has been forcibly promoting the legal tender. A shrewd person like Liu Cai could not possibly be unaware of this.

To avoid being exploited by Chiang Kai-shek, he withdrew a large amount of silver dollars from the bank and stored them on his own estate. Because there were so many, he even exchanged a significant portion of the silver dollars for gold bars.

As for the storage location...

In the past few days, Lü Ci, under the guise of Zhang Mazi, has been robbing Liu Cai's goods everywhere. Meanwhile, he led several skilled members of the Tang Clan to infiltrate the Liu family manor, thoroughly investigating its layout and even finding several locations where Liu Cai stored gold and silver treasures. The total value of the money inside is estimated to be several million silver dollars.

This was an astonishing fortune, but the master felt something was amiss. The valuation given by Liu Mang was far off. Where did the other ten million silver dollars go?

He searched the entire manor but couldn't find it. The master suspected that the money was either underground in the manor or somewhere else.

But time was limited, and they couldn't dig up the entire manor, so they came up with an idea: to have Liu Cai lead them there.

Therefore, even though the fighting had been going on for a long time, they had not yet beheaded Liu Cai, waiting for him to escape.

The old man stood on the rooftop, silently watching Liu Cai and his group. When assassins are lying in ambush, it is taboo for them to stare at people, as some people with keen senses might notice.

However, the master was highly skilled and daring, and did not care about these things. His illusion barrier was at a very high level. Back in the Northeast, even the ninja leader of Bihe Mountain could not detect him without activating his ninja technique, let alone Liu Cai and his guards.

His gaze was fixed on Liu Cai like a nail, but just then, he noticed that Lü Ci and Xu Xinchao were coming over.

"This young man from the Lü family is really quite similar to Tang Mingyi!" he thought to himself, then took out the Yin-Yang Paper and sent a message to Xu Xin, instructing him to stop Lü Ci from coming this way.

Wang Ai provided the Yin-Yang paper for the Tang Clan, and Lü Ci also received a share. Wang Ai even thoughtfully created a link between their Yin-Yang paper, turning their one-way communication into a group chat.

Lu Ci could see the message that the master sent to Xu Xin, and he stopped in his tracks before Xu Xin could speak.

"What's wrong, Young Master Lü?" Xu Xin asked.

Lu Ci showed the Yin-Yang paper to Xu Xin, having seen the message before Xu Xin. Xu Xin was stunned; he wasn't used to this thing yet. He had been so focused on the information on the "Observation Circle" that he hadn't noticed the Yin-Yang paper's hints.

The master told me to stop Lü Ci from moving forward... Xu Xin glanced again at the "Guanyuan" that looked like a pocket watch. The master's light was right in front of him and it was still moving.

"It seems that landlord Liu Cai has already fled," Xu Xin said.

"The operation is about to enter its final stage!" Lü Ci nodded.

……

……

The old man stepped on the roof tiles without making a sound, following Liu Cai and his entourage all the way to the Liu Clan Ancestral Hall.

The Liu Clan Ancestral Hall was built with an exceptionally solemn atmosphere. Looking down from above, the hall's wide-open gate resembled a gaping, pitch-black mouth.

"So it was in the ancestral hall!" Tang Jiaren suddenly realized. He followed with a smile and entered the ancestral hall.

The entrance to the secret passage is under the prayer cushions in the ancestral hall. Just walk over and turn the ancestral tablets, and the door to the secret passage will open with a click-clack sound. Judging from the sound, it's an iron door.

To avoid Liu Cai suddenly closing the door, Tang Jiaren practically clung to their backs as they went downstairs together.

There were no lights in the secret passage, but there was a flashlight at the entrance. Liu Cai turned on the flashlight to illuminate the surroundings, then pressed the mechanism to close the secret passage door.

The old man crouched in a dark corner of the secret passage, watching silently.

After closing the door, Liu Cai and her group walked forward.

After a few steps, someone suddenly realized something was wrong because they were too close.

The noise outside had helped the master conceal himself, but now that he was underground, the environment was quieter and the distance was closer, naturally increasing the risk of being exposed.

Suddenly, a tall guard took a deep breath, swung his fist behind him, and unleashed a powerful white shockwave that seemed to engulf the entire tunnel.

In this confined space, with nowhere to retreat, the old man had no choice but to use his poisonous miasma to resist, his entire body enveloped in a green aura.

Ultimately, the poisonous miasma is a method used by the Tang Clan to refine Qi poison, and its protective effect is very limited. Even the patriarch was forced back several steps by this punch, and the floor tiles under his feet were shattered beyond recognition.

However, the lord did not remain idle; the moment his figure was exposed, he unleashed his own methods.

The green light... The guard had a rough idea of ​​Tang Jiaren's background and was about to warn him when he heard the sound of heavy objects hitting the ground one after another.

He glanced quickly and saw that the other guards behind him had all been turned into plugs, their bodies riddled with gaping holes in blood. They hadn't even had time to scream before they were dead.

Just now, when the guard made his move, the master delivered a thousand-shot attack from behind him.

This is an advanced version of Instant Strike; in short, it means launching a thousand hidden weapons in a single strike.

At such close range, Liu Cai's guards were almost completely wiped out by this attack.

"This……"

The guard who had just attacked was somewhat frightened. Just as he turned around, a person wearing a mahjong tile mask appeared in front of him.

In a place where almost everyone plays mahjong, he is very fond of the game, especially the "One of Bamboo" tile.

Because you don't even need to look at it, you can tell just by touching it, but at this moment, he felt that the pattern on the tube was more ferocious and terrifying than ever before.
The next second, a hand clutching a dagger appeared in front of him, growing larger and larger until, with a "plop," it pierced deep into his brain.

The lord pulled out his dagger. In this environment, with his strength, killing these guards was no different than killing chickens.

The old man looked ahead. When he made his move earlier, he didn't harm Liu Cai and his family. Now, only Liu Cai and his family remained in the tunnel.

"Run, run!"

Liu Cai was terrified and had no intention of resisting. She ignored her family and just kept running forward.

His sons, on the other hand, were shooting wildly with pistols, screaming, but they missed every shot and were seriously injured by bullets that bounced off the wall.

The old man glanced at them. He had promised Liu Mang that he wouldn't kill his family, but they had brought it upon themselves. They were killed by stray bullets from his own gun, so it wasn't the Tang Clan's fault. He looked away and turned to Liu Cai.

Liu Cai was fleeing for his life when he suddenly felt a cold hand grip the back of his neck, followed by an unstoppable force that flung him away.

The old man strolled over leisurely and stepped on Liu Cai's chest: "I came here for money, not for my life. Hand over the money and I'll spare your life."

"Tang Clan? Who...who invited you here? I'll pay double, no, I'll pay ten times!" Liu Cai said urgently. He was knowledgeable and had guessed the master's background from the hidden weapon just now.

"Ten times?!" The old man didn't waste any more words with him. With a flick of his wrist, he plunged a dagger into Liu Cai's heart.

Liu Cai let out a bloodcurdling scream like a pig being slaughtered.

“This spot isn’t fatal, but if…” the master gently pressed down on the dagger, “it would be hard to say if it went down another half a centimeter.”

The feeling of suffocation and death brought Liu Cai to her senses: "Does your Tang Clan also engage in robbery?"

"What's wrong with robbing ill-gotten gains?" the master said.

"Ill-gotten gains..." Liu Cai said, "You bunch of assassins who make money by selling your lives, do you even deserve to talk about ill-gotten gains? Those who do many evil deeds will surely perish. If you are dealt with by some reputable sect, I will accept it wholeheartedly."

"But you surnamed Tang, don't you know why my Liu family has such a fortune today? Over the years, how many warlords and officials have been just like us? Their ill-gotten gains are no less than mine. From top to bottom, who dares to say their hands are clean?"

"If you're so capable, why rob me, Liu Cai? Although I, Liu Cai, am known as the best in Sichuan, this is just a poor, remote place. Do you know how many powerful figures across the country own tens or hundreds of thousands of acres of land, and have soldiers and authority? If you Tang Clan are so capable, then rob them all! Rob them all!"

Liu Cai's eyes widened in anger, and his voice grew louder, but the only response he received was a steel needle.

The old man held an extremely long steel needle in his right hand, most of which was stuck into Liu Cai's neck.

Liu Cai's mouth was wide open in pain, and she could barely breathe.

"This needle hurts terribly. No matter how strong-willed a person is, after three needles, they're just a broken-backed dog on the street. Where's the money?"

After asking the question, without waiting for Liu Cai's reply, the old man inserted two more needles.

"Uh……"

Liu Cai was in so much pain that she could only twitch, her eyeballs almost popping out of their sockets, and blood foam was coming out of her mouth and nose.

"you you……"

What Liu Cai wanted to say was, "You haven't given me a chance to answer yet!" Seeing the old man raise the needle again, Liu Cai quickly swallowed the blood and stammered out the location.

"I see."

The old man could naturally tell whether Liu Cai was telling the truth or not. He nodded and inserted the needle again.

"Ho ho ho..."

Liu Cai trembled violently, his face was covered with varicose veins like earthworms, and blood was oozing from his seven orifices.

"What you just said was quite objective, but I don't like it. I only promised Liu Mang I wouldn't kill you, not that I wouldn't cripple or drive you insane!" (End of Chapter)