Chapter 71: With a single strike, he beheaded the leader of the evil cultivators and rescued the governor's daughter from her prison cell!

Dark green mist covered everything.

The suction field's coverage was several times larger than the previous three black-robed ones combined, and the air in the entire secret chamber was flowing towards that web.

Lin Chen did not retreat.

He took a step forward with his right foot, his Xuanyue Shield thickening instantly on his body, the dark golden halo forcing that cold suction three inches away.

The black-robed leader's pupils shrank.

"Your protective True Qi... actually can resist my Blood-Thirsting Divine Art!"

Before his exclamation could even finish, Lin Chen had already moved.

black abyss slashed horizontally, the Blade Intent following the third form of the Shadowless Thunder Blade, Space-Rending.

The blade edge tore through the dark green mist web, and the moment True Qi collided with the evil Qi, a sizzling corrosive sound rang out in the secret chamber.

The dark golden blade light tore the mist web in half, and without losing momentum, it headed straight for the black-robed leader's chest.

The black-robed leader retreated rapidly, his back hitting the altar's frame, breaking two leg bone pillars, and the skull-shaped stones rolled off the corners of the altar, spinning a few times on the floor tiles.

He steadied himself and flicked his fingers repeatedly.

Ten dark green Qi blades shot from his fingertips, fanning out towards Lin Chen's face and chest.

Lin Chen turned his blade, switching from a horizontal slash to a vertical block, the flat of black abyss standing steadily in front of him.

The ten Qi blades smashed into the black iron blade, exploding into a splatter of dark green, but the blade did not move at all.

The black-robed leader's breathing became two points faster.

"Who exactly are you?"

Lin Chen lowered black abyss from in front of him, the blade pointing at the ground.

"Patrol Division Flag Officer, Lin Chen."

The muscles at the corner of the black-robed leader's mouth twitched, and he pulled his hands into his sleeves.

Dark green mist condensed around him again, thicker and denser than before, almost swallowing him whole.

His voice came from deep within the mist, hoarse and harsh.

"A mere Flag Officer dares to hurt me."

His hood slipped, revealing a gaunt face with grey-green skin covered in spiderweb-like dark markings, deep-set eye sockets, and high cheekbones.

"Go to hell."

He pulled his palms out of his sleeves, palms facing up, his ten fingers curled into claws.

The dark green mist around him shrank inward, all pouring into his palms.

Both palms instantly swelled to a black-green color, the veins on the backs of his hands bulging high and writhing.

Soul-Devouring Life-Locking Palm.

As he spoke the four words, he lunged at Lin Chen.

His speed was a notch faster than before, all the True Qi of the Early Stage Tongmai Realm pressed into this one strike, carrying a desperate madness.

Two black-green palms, one high and one low, clamped towards Lin Chen's head, neck, and chest.

Lin Chen's gaze had no fluctuation.

This was the moment he had been waiting for.

Fury Thunder Strike.

The momentum he had been building since before entering the secret chamber poured out the moment black abyss left its sheath!

Dark golden blade light exploded on the black iron body of the blade, thunder patterns jumping densely on the edge, the crackling sound bouncing between the stone walls of the secret chamber.

One slash, from bottom to top.

The blade edge tore through the black-robed leader's left palm, crushed the wrist bone, broke through the forearm, and sliced into his shoulder like bamboo!

Dark golden thunder intent poured madly into his Meridians along the wound.

The black-green evil Qi and the dark golden thunder intent twisted together in his body, tearing at each other.

The black-robed leader's body froze in mid-air.

He looked down, watching his left arm being slashed diagonally, looking at the terrifying blade mark on his chest extending from his left shoulder to his right waist.

Thick dark green liquid gushed from the blade mark, carrying a nauseating stench of decay.

"The Nether Sect... will... avenge me."

His throat gurgled twice, the rest of his words blocked by blood foam.

He fell backward, the back of his head hitting the remains of the altar with a dull thud.

His dark green eyeballs rolled one last time in their sockets, then the light went out completely.

The secret chamber quieted down.

Dark green phosphorous stones flickered on the walls, illuminating the scattered bones and dark bloodstains on the floor.

Lin Chen wiped the dark green liquid from black abyss on the hem of the black robe and sheathed the blade.

At the edge of his vision, a faint blue light spread out.

**[First time eliminating an evil cult organization, maintaining law and order in the Prefecture, behavior assessment: Excellent! Triggering instant settlement, points +2000!]**

**[Current System accumulated total points: 3600 points.]**

Lin Chen withdrew his gaze from the panel.

Three thousand six hundred.

He didn't dwell on this number, turning to scan the secret chamber.

The altar had collapsed for the most part, the bone frame scattered on the ground, and that circle of dark red patterns had completely dimmed following the death of the evil cult leader.

The third black-robed one he had knocked out was still lying at the base of the wall, unconscious.

The one whose right arm had been severed had lost all signs of life, dying in the corner.

He had already scanned the layout of the secret chamber: four stone walls, one altar, one archway.

But his gaze paused for two breaths on the north wall of the secret chamber.

In the gaps between the stones of that wall, there was an extremely fine crack, extending from the ground to the middle of the wall.

The crack was not formed naturally; the edges were too neat.

Lin Chen walked over, placing his palm against the crack. True Qi of the Middle Stage Tongmai Realm seeped in; it was hollow behind the crack.

He hooked his fingers around the edge of the stone brick, poured True Qi into his fingertips, and pulled.

The entire stone brick was pulled out, revealing a secret passage less than two feet wide behind it.

The air in the secret passage was colder, abnormally cold.

It wasn't the coldness of evil cultivators, but the icy chill of metal and stone having been soaked in a low-temperature environment for a long time.

Lin Chen stepped sideways into the secret passage, walking about ten steps along the narrow path.

At the end of the secret passage was another secret chamber. It was much smaller than the one outside, four steps square, with no light source.

Lin Chen condensed True Qi in his palm, and the dark golden glimmer illuminated the full view of this small secret chamber.

His footsteps stopped.

In the very center of the small secret chamber stood a cage forged from fine iron.

The iron bars of the cage were as thick as an adult's thumb, with dense True Qi runes carved all over the surface. The runes glowed with a dim blue light, flickering on and off, maintaining some kind of Restriction.

Inside the cage sat a person.

A young woman.

She was leaning in the corner of the cage, her hands shackled to iron rings on the cage wall by fine iron chains, the length of the chains only enough for her to lift her arms to the height of her chest.

Her face was pale, her breath so weak it was almost imperceptible.

Her hair was scattered over her shoulders, stained with dust and dried blood.

But even in this state, her features were still so exquisite that one could not look away—brows like distant mountains, a straight nose bridge, and a clear, clean jawline, carrying a stubbornness that refused to bow even while imprisoned.

The moment the light from Lin Chen's palm shone over, the woman opened her eyes.

Those eyes were very bright, bright in a way that completely contradicted her listless aura.

Her first reaction upon seeing Lin Chen was full of vigilance.

Her gaze swept across Lin Chen's face, moved to the black long blade at his waist, and finally landed on the half-exposed grey uniform collar at his chest.

That was the uniform collar of a ninth-rank Flag Officer of the Patrol Division.

The woman's voice was hoarse, as if she hadn't drunk water for days.

"Someone from the Patrol Division?"

Lin Chen squatted down to look at her at eye level, his gaze sweeping over the runes on the cage bars and the fine iron chains on her wrists.

"Patrol Division Flag Officer, Lin Chen."

The woman's pupils shrank imperceptibly.

"Lin Chen?"

She rolled the two words around in her throat, her tone carrying something different.

"The Lin Chen who was transferred from Qingxi County?"

Lin Chen rested his thumb on the sheath of black abyss.

"You know me?"

The corners of the woman's mouth moved slightly, as if pulling a bitter smile, but her lips were too dry, making her frown.

"You can thank me for your transfer to the Prefecture Patrol Division as a Flag Officer."

"My name is Nangong Yao."

"My father is Nangong Xiong."

When she said this, her tone was unadorned, as if stating a very ordinary matter.

But the weight of these three words smashing into Lin Chen's ears was not ordinary at all.

Prefecture Governor Nangong Xiong.

"You are the Prefecture Governor's daughter."

Lin Chen's gaze swept across her face.

"That's right, you being able to come to the Prefecture to serve as a Patrol Division Flag Officer was something I begged my father for."

She raised her head, meeting Lin Chen's gaze.

"I am good friends with Magistrate Pei Qingxue."

Her voice carried a hint of warmth.

"What you did in Qingxi County shocked the entire Prefecture. At that time, many people demanded that my father punish you severely."

She paused, her tone revealing a bit of weak helplessness:

"Qingxue wrote a letter, asking me to make sure to persuade my father to treat you leniently, and combined with the opinions from the capital, you were only transferred to the Patrol Division as a Flag Officer."

Lin Chen's gaze lingered on her face for two breaths.

"In that case, I should thank Young Miss Nangong for her intercession."

"I hadn't heard Magistrate Pei mention it."

"Let me help you break this cage first."

Nangong Yao replied.

"Okay."

Lin Chen carefully examined the material and runes of the chains on her wrists.

The fine iron chains were of extremely high quality, and the runes were carved with precision and regularity; it was not the work of a sloppy hand.

A wisp of his True Qi probed out from his palm, sweeping along the outer wall of the cage bars.

The rune Restriction on the iron bars reacted immediately, the blue light flashing twice, bouncing his True Qi wisp back.

His brow furrowed slightly.

"The Restriction of these runes can actually suppress True Qi."

Lin Chen stood up, his gaze moving from Nangong Yao's face to the rune Restriction on the cage bars, then to the fine iron chains on her wrists, his thumb resting back on the sheath of black abyss.

"Do you know how to solve these rune Restrictions?"

Nangong Yao shook her head.

"These runes are not the methods of the Righteous Path; they should have been personally set up by a high-level evil cultivator."

Lin Chen squatted down again, his right hand gripping the bars of the cage.

"Let me try again."

After speaking, his Middle Stage Tongmai Realm True Qi poured into his palm, seeping along the surface of the bars.

The repulsive force of the runes pushed his fingers outward, but this time he didn't withdraw his hand.

The True Qi of the Middle Stage Tongmai Realm seeped from his fingertips into the textures of the bars, moving inward along the direction of the runes.

One circle.

Two circles.

Three circles.

The nested structure of the runes gradually became clear in his True Qi perception.

Three layers of runes, interlocked layer by layer.

The first layer was imprisonment, locking the movements of the person inside the cage.

The second layer was suppression, continuously weakening the concentration of True Qi in the body of the trapped person.

The third layer was backlash; any external force forcibly destroying the runes would trigger it, pouring the accumulated Restriction power into the Meridians of the trapped person.

The three layers superimposed together, forming a dead loop.

It couldn't be left unbroken, and breaking it forcefully would mean death.

Nangong Yao watched his actions through the bars, the light in her eyes dimming by half again.

"Don't waste your effort; I'm afraid that cultivation below the Ningdan Realm cannot break this rune array."

Lin Chen didn't answer her.

He closed his eyes, concentrating all his energy on the tactile feedback returned by his True Qi wisps.

The structure of the three layers of runes was dismantled, reconstructed, and dismantled again in his consciousness.

A line of pale blue light floated up in the depths of his vision.

**[Detected Ningdan Realm True Qi rune array, structure under analysis...]**

**[Rune array core nodes located, total of seventeen.]**

**[Cracking path deduction in progress... Points consumed: 800 points.]**

**[Deduction complete. Optimal path: Disarm nodes 3, 7, 11, and 15 in order. After cutting off the rune power supply circuit, the first and second layers of runes will collapse on their own. The third-layer backlash rune will lose its energy source and decay to a harmless level within three breaths.]**

**[Current System accumulated total points: 2800 points.]**

Eight hundred points.

Lin Chen opened his eyes.

"Don't move for a moment."

The woman's lips parted slightly.

"What are you going to do?"

Lin Chen didn't answer. His right index finger touched the location of the third rune node on the bar.

His Middle Stage Tongmai Realm True Qi condensed into a needle and pierced into the texture of the rune.

The rune lit up, the repulsive force increased sharply, pushing his fingertip outward.

Lin Chen's finger didn't move a millimeter.

The True Qi needle rotated half a circle along the path given by the System, wedging into the gap of the rune circuit.

Then he twisted it in the opposite direction.

Click.

The cyan glimmer on the third node went out.

The woman's eyes widened a little.

Lin Chen's finger moved to the seventh node.

Same technique, same precision.

The True Qi needle pierced in, rotated, and twisted back.

The light of the seventh node went out.

The eleventh.

The moment his finger touched it, the repulsive force of the rune was twice as strong as the previous two.

The True Qi needle was pushed out by half an inch; a layer of fine sweat beads seeped from his forehead, and he only managed to press it back after increasing his fingertip True Qi output to seventy percent.

Click.

It went out.

The fifteenth.

The rune of the last node flickered violently three times when his True Qi needle pierced in, and the two adjacent circles of runes on the bar lit up, as if the entire rune array was instinctively resisting.

Lin Chen gritted his teeth two points harder.

The consumption of True Qi was twenty percent higher than he had estimated; the dark golden True Qi core in his Dantian accelerated by half a beat, desperately pouring into his fingers.

After three breaths.

Click.

The last node extinguished.

All the runes on the entire cage trembled at the same time.

Then, starting from both ends of the bars, they dimmed circle by circle like a receding tide.

The first layer went out.

The second layer went out.

The third-layer backlash rune struggled and lit up twice, like a dying flame blown by the wind, and then it also extinguished completely.

The cyan glimmer on the bars dissipated, and the cage turned back into an ordinary fine iron cage.

The woman looked down at the iron chains on her wrists.

The chains were still there, but the Restriction power attached to them was gone.

Her hands clenched slightly, and she flipped her wrists.

A surge of True Qi that had been silent for who knows how long welled up from the depths of her Dantian, spreading throughout her body along her Meridians.

Under the impact of this True Qi, the chains cracked with several lines from the inside.

Then they broke.

Two sections of iron chains slid off her wrists, hitting the iron plate at the bottom of the cage with two dull thuds.

The woman's wrists were finally free.

She flipped her hands to look; the two deep purple welts on her wrists were still there, and the edges of the wounds were still oozing blood.

But she didn't tend to the wounds.

She raised her head, looking at Lin Chen squatting outside the cage through the bars that had lost their rune protection.

The things in her gaze were very complex.

There was surprise, scrutiny, re-evaluation, and a faint, deeply suppressed thread of gratitude.

"How did you do it?"