My cultivation disguise has been exposed by Xiao Sizi.

"boom--!"

There was no blinding magical light.

There was no earth-shattering explosion of spiritual energy.

With Li Chen's gentle downward press.

A terrifying pressure belonging to a Nascent Soul stage expert, as substantial as a hundred thousand mountains, descended without reservation upon this abandoned mansion!

For an instant.

The air seemed to have been completely sucked out.

The howling night wind was abruptly silenced.

The colorful magical lights, upon contact with this oppressive force, dissipated with a "poof" sound, like candles extinguished by a gale.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

A series of dull, cracking sounds rang out.

The dozens of thugs who were shouting just a second ago that they would sever Li Chen's tendons in his hands and feet.

At this moment, there was not even a sliver of room for resistance.

They couldn't even scream before being pressed down onto the dusty bluestone slab by a force as powerful as the might of heaven.

The ground cracked with countless fine spiderweb-like patterns centered on them.

The one-eyed leader, who was in the late stage of the Golden Core realm, had his entire face deeply embedded in the soil.

The golden core within his body trembled violently, emitting a mournful cry of unbearable strain.

It was as if if the other party increased even the slightest bit of force, his proud cultivation would instantly vanish into thin air.

"Please...please spare my life, senior..."

The one-eyed leader managed to squeeze out a few words through gritted teeth, blood gushing from the corner of his mouth.

His only remaining eye was now filled with endless fear and despair.

We've hit a brick wall!

This is not some noble young master out for a stroll at all.

This is an absolutely extraordinary master who has returned to simplicity!

Li Chen stood with his hands behind his back, looking down at the thugs who were like a lump of mud.

"Can we speak properly now?"

Li Chen spoke calmly, as if he had only done a trivial matter.

"Speak up, what kind of business do you run? What are you doing hiding in this abandoned house?"

The one-eyed leader dared not hide anything further.

"In response to your question, senior."

"We...we specialize in making a living by kidnapping scions of powerful families and extorting ransoms."

"I just pulled off a heist and was hiding here to lay low, but I never expected to disturb your presence, esteemed sir..."

His voice trembled as he confessed everything.

"Kidnapping?"

Li Chen hadn't spoken yet.

Sizi, who had been hiding behind him and peeked out with half her head, suddenly lit up.

In her lifetime in the palace, the little girl played hide-and-seek, cricket fighting, and even commanded monsters to fight.

But she had never heard of a game like "kidnapping," which sounded so exciting.

"Sixteenth Brother, what kind of game is kidnapping?"

Sizi excitedly tugged at Li Chen's clothes and called out in a childish voice.

"That sounds like so much fun! I want to play too! I want to play kidnapping too!"

These words were spoken.

The group of thugs lying on the ground all gasped in shock.

How could this beautiful little girl have a heart even darker than theirs?

Li Chen was even more speechless.

He turned around helplessly, squatted down, and placed his hands on his sister's small shoulders.

"Little ancestor, this is not for playing around with."

Li Chen patiently and earnestly began the educational process.

"Look, they've kidnapped other people's girls and locked them up in this dark, filthy, dilapidated house."

"Besides, the kidnapped people not only don't get snacks, but they also go hungry and cold. This kind of game isn't fun at all, right?"

"When their parents can't find their children, they hide at home and cry every day, they are very sad."

"what?"

When Sizi heard that he wouldn't get any candied hawthorns and that his parents would cry, he immediately shrank back in fear.

The little girl shook her head repeatedly, like a rattle-drum.

"Then I'm not playing anymore! It's the bad kids who make people cry, but Sizi is a good kid."

Seeing that his sister had given up on the dangerous idea, Li Chen finally breathed a sigh of relief.

He stood up and his gaze returned to the group of kidnappers.

His eyes instantly turned icy cold.

"Since you're doing such heinous things, keeping you around will only bring trouble."

Li Chen snapped his fingers casually.

"Smack."

Dozens of purple-gold true essences, like serpents, burrowed into the bodies of those thugs.

A muffled explosion was heard.

Everyone's dantian shattered instantly, and decades of arduous cultivation vanished in an instant.

"ah--!"

Screams echoed throughout the room.

With a flick of his sleeve, Li Chen swept these dozens of thugs, whose cultivation had been crippled and who had fainted from the pain, into a corner of the abandoned house like garbage, and tied them up tightly with true essence ropes.

"Let's go in and take a look."

Li Chen took Si Zi's little hand and walked deeper into the abandoned mansion.

Since they just finished a job, there should still be hostages hidden inside.

Push open a dilapidated wooden door that looks like it's about to collapse.

A colder, damper atmosphere swept over us.

By the dim moonlight.

The brother and sister finally saw the scene in the inner room.

"Wow! She's a beautiful lady!"

Sizi pointed to the corner of the wall and exclaimed in surprise.

In the deepest part of the inner room, a girl dressed in a blue dress was tightly bound to a stone pillar with a thick chain.

The girl lowered her head, her long hair falling messily on both sides of her face.

The dress she was wearing should have been made of the finest material, but now it was covered in mud.

What was most alarming was that the girl's face was deathly pale, and her breathing was so weak that it seemed she might stop breathing at any moment.

"Let's go take a look."

Li Chen led Si Zi forward quickly.

Sizi, being kind-hearted, quickly reached out her two small hands and hurriedly helped the girl untie the heavy chains.

"Big sister, wake up!"

Si Zi supported the girl and gently shook her shoulders.

"The bad guys have all been chased away by Brother Sixteen, you're safe now."

The girl's eyelashes trembled slightly at Sizi's call.

She struggled to open her eyes a crack, revealing a pair of dull, lifeless eyes.

Her lips moved a few times, as if she wanted to say something.

But his body was too weak, and he could only utter a faint murmur, which was completely inaudible.

"She is too weak, and it seems that some kind of hidden illness is acting up inside her."

Li Chen frowned slightly as he scanned the girl with his divine sense.

"Sizi, you stay here with her and take care of her."

Li Chen patted his younger sister's head.

"Since we're new here, Brother Sixteen, let's fly into the air first and observe the terrain around here, and see if there are any other dangers."

"I'll be right back."

"Yes, yes! Don't worry, Sixteenth Brother, Sizi will take good care of Big Sister!"

The little girl nodded obediently.

Li Chen's figure flashed, transforming into a streak of light, directly breaking through the roof of the abandoned house and arriving high in the sky.

Silence fell once again inside the abandoned house.

Si Zi took out a clean handkerchief from her spatial bag, preparing to wipe the dirt off the girl's face.

Just then.

"Buzz—Buzz—"

A series of rapid, slight vibrations suddenly rang out in the quiet room.

Sizi was stunned for a moment.

She followed the sound and discovered that it was coming from the sleeve of the girl in green.

A soft white light flickered in the darkness through the fabric.

It was a jade slip containing a sound transmission device that was extremely well hidden.

At this moment, it is emanating anxious spiritual energy fluctuations.