66: Chapter 66: The ambush at Chapo captures the enemy, securing the marriage alliance with King Li in one battle.

When the carriage reached the fork in the road outside the town, it was already completely dark.

Wang Qingluan suddenly sat up straight. Through the carriage curtain, she whispered to Li Chengyue, who was driving outside, "Stop."

She tilted her head to listen, then said to Li Qingfeng, "They've followed us. Three of them, hiding in the woods."

There wasn't a trace of surprise on Li Qingfeng's face. He glanced at the pitch-black alleyway outside and replied softly, "Perfect. Let's clean up this last bit of trouble before the marriage contract is delivered."

He didn't have the convoy return directly to Qingshi Town, but instead signaled the driver to turn into a disused path leading to the Old Tea Slope.

Wang Qingluan sat opposite him. The carriage interior was dim, revealing only her bright, clear eyes. Her hand rested on the hilt of her sword as she asked, "Are you sure they will make a move here?"

"Young Master Chen Huaili lost face at the business banquet, failed to get the formula, and was publicly undermined by you. If he doesn't try something tonight, he won't be able to answer to the Chen Family when he returns." Li Qingfeng's tone was calm, as if he were discussing something already written in an account book. "On the business route, reputation is also a cost. Since he lost that cost tonight, he has to find a way to make it back elsewhere."

Listening to his words, Wang Qingluan was silent for a moment before whispering, "You truly calculate whether others will fly into a rage out of humiliation with such precision."

Li Qingfeng smiled. "When dealing with the Chen Family, if you don't calculate clearly, you'll suffer."

The carriage stopped outside a patch of abandoned tea trees on the Old Tea Slope.

Almost the moment the carriage came to a halt, three dark shadows lunged from the woods. The leader immediately crushed a smoke Talisman, and acrid, thick smoke rapidly enveloped the entire convoy.

Their goal was clear: not to kill, but to seize goods during the chaos. Two of them charged straight at the carriage, while the third went to cut off the driver's retreat.

Meanwhile, on the top of the slope in the distance, a steady Qi Refining Stage 9 Early Stage retainer was staring at the carriage, while Young Master Chen Huaili stood behind him with a gloomy expression.

Just as the hands of those two Loose Cultivators were about to touch the carriage door, an account book flew out from within.

One of the Loose Cultivators was overjoyed, thinking he had succeeded, and reached out to grab it.

But the moment he grabbed the account book, a Talisman paper tucked between the pages ignited without fire.

"Boom!"

With a muffled sound, a weak but extremely precise wood-attribute spiritual power instantly triggered the old roots under the abandoned tea trees in the surrounding forest.

"Swish! Swish! Swish!"

Dozens of tough wooden vines shot out from the soil like living vipers, precisely binding the ankles of the two Loose Cultivators and dragging them heavily to the ground!

This was the fake Wood Binding Talisman Li Qingfeng had drawn. The Talisman path was incomplete, so its power wasn't great, but it was just right for ambushing people.

The next moment, Wang Qingluan's figure flashed out from the carriage like a bolt of green lightning.

Without the slightest hesitation, she flicked the long sword in her hand. The sword light was cold and clear. It took only three moves for her to knock away the third Loose Cultivator's long blade and press her sword tip steadily against his throat.

Her movement technique was faster than Li Qingfeng had expected. The sword stance wasn't heavy, yet every move blocked the opponent's most awkward retreat path.

Li Qingfeng nodded inwardly, though he teased aloud, "It seems Miss Wang doesn't have to fight often on these transport routes."

While suppressing the Loose Cultivator beneath her, Wang Qingluan retorted, "If a manager on the business route only knew how to look at account books, the grass on their grave would already be half a zhang high."

Li Qingfeng smiled and raised his hand to cast two more Wood Binding Talisman blanks, completely binding the two Loose Cultivators tangled in the wooden vines.

On the top of the slope, the Chen Family's Qi Refining Stage 9 retainer's expression changed. Realizing the plan had been exposed, he immediately said in a deep voice, "Young Lord, go first! I will cover the retreat!"

Before his voice even faded, he lunged down from the heights like a giant roc spreading its wings, a powerful true essence of a Qi Refining Stage 9 Early Stage cultivator pressing straight down upon Wang Qingluan.

Wang Qingluan immediately felt immense pressure bearing down on her. Her sword stance faltered, and she was forced back half a step by that true essence, her face turning slightly pale.

Just then, Li Qingfeng's figure blocked her path.

"Can you hold him off?" Wang Qingluan asked in a low voice.

"For a while." Li Qingfeng replied with two words. The Evergreen Spirit Transformation Art within him circulated frantically as he took the opponent's first strike head-on.

He felt his Qi Sea churning, but relying on his Qi Refining Stage 9 Mid-Stage Perfection cultivation, he actually managed to steady his stance.

Wang Qingluan understood immediately. She shifted her position, moved to the retainer's flank, and her long sword struck like a viper emerging from its hole, specifically targeting the opponent's wrists and ribs—vital areas that were hard to defend.

Although it was their first time cooperating on the battlefield, they were unexpectedly in sync.

Li Qingfeng took the brunt of the frontal assault while Wang Qingluan fought from the flank, and for a moment, they were evenly matched against the Qi Refining Stage 9 retainer.

"Courting death!" The retainer, entangled by the two, roared in anger. His true essence surged again, and he slammed a palm toward Li Qingfeng's chest.

Li Qingfeng advanced instead of retreating, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes. He reversed the activation of the Talisman path of the simplified Child-Protecting Soul-Calming Talisman, and a weak, unsettling wave of spiritual power silently entered the opponent's Qi Sea.

The retainer felt his true essence suddenly stagnate within him, and his movements slowed by half a beat.

That half-beat pause cost him his life.

Wang Qingluan's sword light precisely severed the spiritual power line he was using to drive his Magical Artifact, and Li Qingfeng's Wood Binding Talisman fully formed at that moment, instantly binding him with several wooden vines.

Almost the moment the Talisman formed, the incomplete Talisman path diagram in Li Qingfeng's mind suddenly cleared.

The System's notification chime rang out crisply:

[Ding! Host has successfully completed Talisman interconnection and variation application in actual combat!]

[Current Talisman Mastery Breakthrough: Tier 1 Talisman Master Early Stage!]

[Reward: Moderate amount of cultivation infusion; [Tier 1 Wood Binding Talisman] complete Talisman diagram; [Business Route Escort Talisman Array] simplified diagram.]

A pure surge of true essence flowed into his Qi Sea, and the barrier at the Qi Refining Stage 9 Mid-Stage Perfection was instantly broken, his aura steadily advancing toward the late stage.

On the other side, Young Master Chen Huaili, seeing the retainer captured, turned to flee, but was firmly pinned to the ground by hidden agents the Wang Family had long since set in ambush.

The battle ended. Wang Qingluan adjusted her breathing on the spot, feeling that the wind-wood spiritual power she had suppressed for so long had, with the exhilaration of that battle, burst through the Bottleneck.

Qi Refining Stage 8 Mid-Stage, achieved!

She opened her eyes and looked at Li Qingfeng, a faint smile curling at the corners of her lips: "Does this battle count as making my dowry a bit more valuable?"

Li Qingfeng put away the Talisman paper and smiled, "A lot more valuable."

The aftermath of this incident was handled quickly.

Young Master Chen Huaili was escorted back to Qingshi Town. Steward Xu Wenshan personally stepped forward and sternly warned the Chen Family Trading Firm not to use the methods of Loose Cultivators to disrupt the order of families supplying the Qingyun Sect.

To appease the matter, the Chen Family had to concede a portion of their procurement quota for low-tier young beasts, which happened to fill the gap in the Li Family's Spirit Beast Garden.

Inside the Li Family Council Hall, the Grand Elder finished reviewing the battle results and the business route profit ledgers sent over by the Wang Family, and finally made the definitive decision.

"This marriage with Wang Qingluan can be finalized."

Li Qingfeng did not object, only saying, "It can be finalized. But the arrangements after she enters the Family must be handled according to what Qingyue and Qingluan have already discussed."

The wedding date was quickly set for two months later.

Su Qingyue personally drafted the various regulations for Wang Qingluan after she joined the Family, from courtyard management to business route handover, down to every minute detail. On her side, Wang Qingluan also decisively sent the rosters for two old business routes, the Spirit Beast procurement quota, and three core managers to the Li Family's accounting office.

Everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion.

That night, just as Li Qingfeng returned to the New Courtyard, the System's notification lit up in his mind:

[Detection of high-value Dao Companion binding prerequisites completed.]

[If you officially marry Wang Qingluan, you can unlock the "Business Route Feedback" module and the "Spirit Beast Side Industry" acceleration function.]

Li Qingfeng looked at the words on the panel, knowing clearly that the next major System settlement would definitely not be small. Another rise for the Li Family was already right before his eyes.