Seeking good fortune and avoiding misfortune: Starting with death row inmates

The footsteps grew closer.

Shen Chen peeked out and his pupils contracted.

There were at least twenty people, all dressed in the uniforms of the Divine Eagle Constables.

"Oh no!" Li Ru's face turned pale. "It's Yuan Ying's men."

Shen Chen glanced at the terrain outside the cave entrance. This cave was too shallow to hide anyone. If someone were trapped inside, they would have no chance of escape.

"Walk."

He pulled Li Ru and rushed outside.

But as soon as they emerged from the cave, they saw torches flickering in the woods ahead.

That's too late.

Shen Chen's mind raced, and suddenly he thought of something. He grabbed Li Ru and ran back, heading straight for the place where the battle had taken place.

There were seven or eight corpses lying on the ground.

"Take off your clothes." Shen Chen began to remove the outer garments from the nearest corpse.

Li Ru was stunned for a moment, then immediately understood. She gritted her teeth and began to act as well.

The two moved quickly. Shen Chen put on the Divine Eagle Constable's coat, wiped the blood off the ground, and smeared it on his face and body.

"Lie down and don't move."

He found a spot among the corpses and lay down on his side. Li Ru followed suit and lay down beside him.

The torchlight grew brighter and brighter.

"It's just ahead!"

A rough voice rang out.

Shen Chen closed his eyes and controlled his breathing. He suppressed his breath to the lowest level, as if he were truly dead.

The footsteps stopped not far away.

"Are they all dead?"

"It seems so."

"Strange, where's that bitch Li Ru?"

"They might have run away."

"Impossible." The owner of the gruff voice moved closer. "She was so badly injured, she couldn't have gone far. She must still be nearby."

Shen Chen realized that the speaker was a minor leader.

"You few, search the surrounding area," the foreman ordered. "The rest of you, collect the bodies and take them back to report."

The footsteps dispersed.

Shen Chen's heart tightened.

If someone comes to move the body, it will definitely give us away.

He gripped the short knife hidden beneath him.

"Boss, these people died horribly," a young voice rang out. "Their throats were all slit."

"Nonsense, that bitch Li Ru is the daughter of the Blackwater Stronghold chief, and her skills are not weak." The leader spat. "If she hadn't been injured, we wouldn't have been enough for her to kill."

"Should we continue chasing?"

"Chase! We must chase!" The leader's voice turned sinister. "Lord Yuan said that if we capture Li Ru, we can negotiate with Li Heishui. This is an excellent bargaining chip to make Heishui Village collapse without a fight."

As Shen Chen listened to their conversation, his mind raced.

Of the twenty men, about ten went out to search. The remaining ten stayed to collect the bodies.

If we take action, we must act swiftly and decisively.

"Alright, enough nonsense," the squad leader said impatiently. "Hurry up and move the body away; we still have to keep chasing."

Footsteps approached.

Shen Chen sensed someone squatting next to him.

"This is quite heavy."

A hand grabbed his shoulder.

It's now!

Shen Chen suddenly opened his eyes, pulled the short knife from under his body, and plunged it directly into the man's heart.

"ah--"

The scream had barely begun when Shen Chen rolled over and got up. He kicked the corpse aside, and the short knife drew an arc in the air.

Before the two constables could react, their throats were slit.

"It's a trap!"

The leader reacted quickly and immediately drew his knife.

But Li Ru also moved. She leaped up from the ground, her longsword aimed straight for the leader's back.

The junior leader dodged to the side and parried with his sword.

"clang!"

Swords clashed, sparks flew.

Shen Chen ignored them and targeted the other constables. These people were all ordinary Internal Organ Realm cultivators, no match for him at all.

Wherever the dagger passes, someone will fall.

In less than ten breaths, four more constables lost their lives.

"Retreat! Retreat now!"

The henchman finally panicked. He forced Li Ru back with a single slash and turned to run.

"Trying to run away?"

Shen Chen raised his hand, and the short knife flew out of his hand.

Hearing the whooshing sound, the squad leader rolled sharply. The dagger grazed his scalp and embedded itself in the tree trunk in front of him.

"Oh shit!"

The leader scrambled to his feet and ran desperately into the woods.

Shen Chen had no intention of giving chase.

The goal wasn't to kill; to escape was.

He only looked away after watching the constable disappear into the woods in a panic.

"I'm gone." Shen Chen uttered two words, his voice unusually calm amidst the stench of blood.

Li Ru leaned on her sword, her chest heaving violently, beads of sweat mixed with blood sliding down her forehead, but her eyes shone with an astonishing light.

That brief exchange had almost exhausted all her strength.

Shen Chen didn't even glance at the corpses on the ground, and walked straight to the tree with the short knife nailed to it.

The petty thug rolled around in a sorry state as he fled, which saved him the trouble of climbing a tree. He reached out and grabbed the hilt of the knife, pulled hard, and the short knife flew out with a snap.

"You messed up." Li Ru followed, her voice hoarse with a hint of relief and a touch of barely perceptible teasing.

Shen Chen wiped the tree sap off the knife without turning his head.

"Leave one alive so he can go back and report."

Li Ru was taken aback.

Shen Chen sheathed the dagger back into his waistband, glanced at her, and gave a rare, slight twitch at the corner of his mouth—it looked like a smile, but not quite.

"Otherwise, which way should we run? Aren't we just going to be completely lost?"

Li Ru then realized that this guy had deliberately let the leader escape so that he could gather his accomplices and thus expose the location of the other search teams.

How does this brain even work?

"Let's go, don't just stand there, are you really going to wait for them to come back and make dumplings?" Shen Chen urged.

Without another word, the two men, using their constable uniforms as cover, plunged into the dense forest in the opposite direction from where the minor leader had fled.

The night was deep and the forest was silent, save for the rustling of two people's hurried footsteps on the fallen leaves.

The woods were dark, and the wind was cold.

The two walked one after the other through the pathless woodland, their feet crunching and rustling over the thick layer of dead branches and leaves.

Li Ru's breathing became heavier and heavier, and waves of dizziness from blood loss assaulted her head.

"Are you sure this is the way?" she finally couldn't help but ask, her voice hoarse.

She could figure out the terrain of Blackwater Mountain with her eyes closed, but the path Shen Chen led was getting more and more remote, heading straight into the deep mountains and forests.

"Unsure." Shen Chen replied without turning his head.

"You're still leaving if you're not sure?" Li Ru was so angry that her chest ached.

"You have to choose one side."

What kind of answer is that? Li Ru almost choked.

Just then, Shen Chen abruptly stopped and turned to the left without warning toward a steep rock face.

"Over here."

"Are you crazy? There's a dead end ahead!" Li Ru followed, growling in a low voice, suppressing her anger.

Shen Chen ignored her and walked straight to the stone wall, reaching out to feel around behind a patch of inconspicuous vines.

A line of pale gold writing had just appeared in his mind.

[Good fortune: Turn left 300 steps ahead, and you will discover a secret passage. Auspicious.]

Seeing him groping around like a headless fly, Li Ru was about to lash out when she heard a soft "click" sound. The stone wall caved inward, revealing a dark opening just wide enough for one person to pass through.

A cold, damp wind blew out of the cave.

Li Ru's eyes widened instantly.

Even she didn't know about this secret passage!

"How could you...?"

"Let's go." Shen Chen had already crouched down and crawled inside. His voice came from inside the cave, muffled.

Li Ru gritted her teeth and had no choice but to follow.

The cave was pitch black, and the ground was slippery. It took about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn before a faint light appeared ahead.

Emerging from the cave, a bright and open space suddenly appeared before me.

A crescent moon hung in the sky, its cool light spilling onto the mountain ridge. The distant, continuous mountain silhouettes pointed in the direction of Blackwater Mountain.

They actually made it straight through the most difficult mountain pass!

Li Ru stared at Shen Chen's retreating figure with a complicated expression. Was this guy a human or a ghost?

How did you know there was a secret passage?

"I've been here before," Shen Chen casually made up.

"Bullshit!" Li Ru blurted out. "That road looks like it's been abandoned for decades. How old are you?"

Shen Chen continued walking, casually saying, "I came here to scout things out when I was three years old."

"you!"

Li Ru was speechless, so she could only follow him in silence.

For the rest of the journey, Li Ru didn't ask any more questions.

Because she realized that asking was pointless.

This guy is like an old fox in the mountains; he always makes the right choice at the most crucial moment.

Once, he suddenly pulled her into a ditch, and moments later, a search party carrying torches roared past where they had just been standing.

On another occasion, he insisted on taking a long detour up a scree slope. Li Ru thought he was just bored and had nothing better to do. As soon as they got there, the sound of dogs barking came from the path they were originally going to take.

Li Ru was already numb.

She began to suspect that Shen Chen had planted some kind of spy device on her to track enemies.

As dawn broke, the two finally crossed the last mountain peak.

The familiar Blackwater Mountain Village stands atop the mountain in front of us.

The towering stockade walls and fluttering black flags—everything remained exactly as it was when we left.

Li Ru's nerves, which had been tense all night, finally relaxed, and her legs went weak, almost causing her to kneel down.

"We've arrived..." Her voice trembled, and she felt an urge to cry.