Douluo: A Century-old Legend I Am the Second Uncle Chenxin

Chapter 1583 It's for the best! A thousand-mile chase!

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Five more today.

……

“Ming…King?” Jilan’s body stiffened, and her voice lowered.

That legendary Ming King was a towering figure she had admired since childhood, yet her stubbornness remained: "Even if... even if she is the Ming King... Tian Tian has not awakened the Swan Martial Soul, so why should she bother to personally inquire about it?"

Ji Hongming closed his eyes, feeling exhausted as if weighed down by some invisible weight: "...Who knows?"

He had some guesses, but this royal guardian deity, who had always lived in seclusion at "Goddess Lake" in the west of the city, looked down on the Ji family from the imperial city and had no choice but to bow his head.

Ji Xing's icy voice broke the brief silence: "Seventh Brother, how has the Chen family treated Tian Tian? Have they... forced her to change her surname?"

His gaze was sharp as a needle. "You have been gone from Tian Dou for a full month, and you have not yet set foot in your home."

He applied slight pressure with his fingertips, and several fine cracks quietly appeared on the rosewood tabletop beneath the teacup.

“She has never changed her surname,” Jixiang’s voice was deep but clear. “The Chen family has chosen another name for her— ‘Chen Duling,’ so that she can have both names.”

"This can... work?" Gillan exclaimed in astonishment.

The coexistence of two names, four characters in total, is like a stone falling into a deep pool, creating silent ripples in the quiet hall.

Ji An paused at his lips, Ji Ruiyu's fingers froze, and even Ji Xing's cold, hard eyebrows twitched almost imperceptibly.

“That’s true…” Ji Xing paused for a moment before speaking, still indifferent, but with a hint of something unusual in his voice, “The Chen family is very thoughtful.”

"With this arrangement, if Tian Tian soars to great heights in the future, both families can share in her glory."

“That’s good,” Jilan said, her eyes flickering, before finally softening her tone. “From now on, we need to pay extra attention to Tiantian, and make sure that this child… keeps a place in the Ji family in her heart.”

Ji Hongming took a deep breath, the heavy air swirling in his chest, barely suppressing the turbulent thoughts in his mind: "...That's fine too."

He seemed to have used all his strength to squeeze out those four words.

A long silence froze in the air.

Dust motes danced wildly in the beams of light filtering through the window, yet they couldn't bring any warmth to the room.

A full cup of tea's time had passed before Ji Hongming's throat bobbed.
He raised his head, and his deep-set eyes, which had bore witness to the rise and fall of his family, now looked like two dry wells, focusing once again on good fortune.

"Little Seven... Last night at the Chen Manor, that newly emerged titled... Yan Family Douluo, in the end, which member of the Chen family... slew him by sword?"

……

Two days later, in the southeast of the central district, at Monkey Mountain.

Monkey Mountain is a downstream branch of the Tiandou Mountain Range, not far from Shanhaiguan. It is surrounded by lush trees.

There are a large number of ape-like spirit beasts here.

Deep in the old forest, in the shadow of jagged rocks, Luo Derun's hunched body clung to the cold rock wall.

Dust clung to his once-elegant robes, the fine folds spreading across the fabric, much like the bloodshot corners of his eyes.

Luo Ping tossed a wine pot over, its surface covered in mud.

His former noble demeanor was completely gone. His meticulously combed hair was disheveled, with a few strands clinging to his sweat-dampened temples. A tear in the front of his robe revealed the dirty silk lining. "For three whole days and three nights," Luo Ping's voice was hoarse, as if it had been scraped by rough gravel, "that old madman Chen Hong, along with Chen Menglin and Zhuo Qianren, were like rabid dogs that had smelled blood, not letting up for a moment!"

"...It was only by waking up the sleeping old beasts in Sunset Forest that we were able to barely shake off those two plagues."

Luo Derun took the cold wine jug but did not drink from it; instead, he ran his knuckles along the rough surface of the clay.

“After all…we lost Zhu Hongzhen,” he said, a dry, rustling sound coming from his throat, the deep crimson in his eyes dimming considerably, “and even earlier, there was the score you set for plotting against Chen Yu.”

"Anyone in that situation would have to risk their life."

Luo Ping kicked a small stone at his feet, sending it flying with a sharp crack in the dark valley: "I really want to turn around and ambush them!"

He clenched his teeth, and the veins on the side of his neck throbbed.

"Save your energy." Luo Derun slightly raised his eyelids, his turbid gaze sweeping over Luo Ping. "None of the three titles are easy to deal with."

"Zhuo Qianren's Silver Falcon is too fast, and the Seven Kill Sword is also beyond his level... He finally caught his breath, so he shouldn't turn back and hit a brick wall again."

Luo Ping scratched his disheveled hair in frustration and slid down against the cold stone wall: "I wonder if those old guys... escaped or not?... Those lackeys kept by Tiandou City have a really keen sense of smell."

Rhodes swallowed hard, as if swallowing a mouthful of saliva mixed with the taste of rust: "Which member of the Holy Church isn't used to being ganged up on and beaten, and only gets their title by stepping on the corpses of their fellow disciples... They've fought their way up since childhood, and their ability to escape is honed by risking their lives."

His voice was numb and hoarse, yet it carried a strange sense of resignation.

"That's true!" Luo Ping seemed to remember something, and his tone softened slightly. "Especially that kid Li Lingfeng, he's practically a born sly old fox."

"If I had gone with him this time, I wouldn't have been chased like this, looking like a stray dog."

“That kid from the Li family,” Luo Derun’s lips curled into a faint, cold smile, it was hard to tell whether it was mockery or sigh, “He’s taken on no fewer than ten top-tier missions, and each time he’s like an eel disappearing into the sea, dodging countless assassination attempts.”

"His skill of leaving himself an escape route is something we can't learn."

"Besides... with his personality, he always goes alone when he's escaping, he won't come with us."

Luo Ping clicked his tongue: "A freak! After the Li family was uprooted back then, he was like a frightened bird... This time, it's unexpected that he didn't run away early and fought so hard."

He recalled Li Lingfeng's scarlet, ferocious eyes when he broke through the Chen Mansion.

“Enough,” Rodrun closed his eyelids, as if utterly exhausted. “The ‘Dead Soul Legion’ under the ‘Crimson Shadow’, aren’t they all this bloodthirsty and cold-blooded?”

A gust of wind, carrying the smell of decaying vegetation, howled through the narrow mountain pass.

After a moment of silence, Luo Derun's voice was so low it was almost carried away by the wind: "Those...those Soul Douluos and Soul Saints under my command...I'm afraid the situation is not optimistic."

Beneath his robe sleeves, his withered hands clenched unconsciously, his nails digging deep into the cold cracks in the stone.

He had twenty meticulously trained Soul Douluos and eighteen experienced Soul Saints, among whom five Soul Douluos were personally brought by him to maintain the "Dark Net".

Recalling those two sharp, short soul explosions amidst the towering flames of the Dust Mansion, and how the three wounded figures who had frantically tried to break through were torn apart by the pursuing streaks of light.

He couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache; raising them wasn't easy.

The sky was filled with the light and flames of soul skills...

This debt grinded over in my mind, leaving me feeling bloodied and bruised.

His hunched back tightened silently, and the white marks left by his knuckles on the stone wall he leaned against revealed a hint of turbulent emotions.

(End of this chapter)