14: Chapter 14 Night Raid on the Desolate Courtyard

The night wind swept up the withered leaves in the corner of the courtyard, making a "rustling" sound that felt remarkably like an ominous omen.

Lin Chen did not hesitate in the slightest, turning to Old Zhou and A-Tu, who were looking at him nervously, and said, "Mr. Zhou, take A-Tu to Huichun Hall and find Pharmacist Wang. Tell him I sent you to stay the night. Do not return until dawn."

"Boss, this..." Old Zhou adjusted his glasses, his face turning pale.

"Listen to me, go quickly." Lin Chen's tone was unquestionable.

He bent down and patted A-Tu's head, "Protect Mr. Zhou well; you are a man."

A-Tu nodded vigorously, his small face filled with a determination that belied his age. He tightly gripped Old Zhou's hand without saying another word, and the two quickly disappeared into the pitch-black alleyway through an inconspicuous hole in the back courtyard.

Only Lin Chen and Su Qingyao remained in the courtyard.

The air seemed to have frozen.

Su Qingyao did not ask any unnecessary questions. She quickly returned to the house and took out all the remaining "Anshen Powder."

She took a deep breath, pressing her fingertips firmly against her lips until a white mark appeared, forcing herself to calm down. Then, following Lin Chen's previous instructions, she carefully sprinkled half of the powder in several spots at the base of the courtyard wall that faced the wind.

She wrapped the rest in a clean cloth and clenched it tightly in her palm.

Lin Chen gripped the short blade that had been with him for a long time and began to dig rapidly on the inner side of the courtyard gate and at several spots along the wall he predicted were most likely to be breached.

His movements were swift and precise; with Qi infused into the tip of the blade, the soil was quickly overturned.

He dug several pits that were deeper and more concealed than the ones in the wasteland during the day, then picked up the sharp stone shards he had prepared beforehand from the wall corner, carefully placed them at the bottom of the pits, and finally covered them with a thin layer of loose soil and withered grass.

After finishing all this, the sky had turned completely dark.

The moon was obscured by thick clouds, and the entire Black Stone Town was plunged into a silent darkness.

In the distance, a chaotic, deliberately lowered yet still arrogant sound of footsteps could be faintly heard, accompanied by the slight clinking of metal, approaching from afar with a clear target.

They are here.

Lin Chen took a deep breath and stood in the center of the courtyard, his left hand unconsciously rubbing the rough stone ring on his thumb.

The cold sensation helped settle his chaotic thoughts.

"Bang!"

With a loud bang, the already rickety courtyard gate was kicked open by a great force from the outside, sending wood fragments flying.

Nearly ten figures, illuminated by torches, surged into the small courtyard like a tide.

The flickering torchlight stretched everyone's shadows into twisted and ferocious shapes, and also illuminated the bear-like, burly figure of the man leading them, his face covered in rolls of fat.

It was Hong Biao.

His gaze rudely swept over the simple earthen house and the newly turned soil in the courtyard, finally fixing onto Lin Chen, who stood holding his blade, like two poisoned daggers.

"Kid, you've got guts." Hong Biao grinned, his voice raspy. The Qi Refining Stage 7 pressure radiating from him caused the air in the courtyard to stagnate. "Scarface said you have good skills, so Master Hong will give you a chance."

He threw a crumpled contract paper with a blood-red handprint from his bosom, and it fluttered down in front of Lin Chen's feet.

"The land belongs to me; you, sign this slave contract and mine for my Black Stone Gang for three years; your woman," his gaze turned to the doorway, landing greedily on Su Qingyao, who was pale and holding onto the door frame, "come back to the gang with me to 'enjoy life.' I guarantee you won't die."

Lin Chen didn't even look down at the contract paper.

His gaze passed over Hong Biao and met Su Qingyao's at the doorway for a fleeting moment, then calmly retracted. He looked at Hong Biao and said, word by word, "The land was cleared by me. The person is someone I must protect. Master Hong, please leave."

The smile on Hong Biao's face vanished instantly, replaced by the gloom of someone who had been offended.

"You refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit!"

He let out a low roar, and the Qi around his body exploded!

The Qi Refining Stage 7 pressure, like a tangible wave, swept across the entire courtyard.

Su Qingyao felt a tightness in her chest, as if grabbed by an invisible giant hand, and breathing became difficult. She gripped the door frame tightly, barely managing to stand, her face as white as paper.

Lin Chen bore the brunt of it, feeling like a tiny boat in a storm.

The veins on his hand holding the blade bulged, his knuckles turning white from excessive force, and his feet seemed nailed to the ground, yet he did not retreat a single step.

"Attack!" Hong Biao waved his hand impatiently.

Two of his subordinates, most eager to show off, grinned and rushed toward Lin Chen from left and right.

Just as they charged past the center of the courtyard, their feet suddenly lost ground!

"Ah—!"

Amidst the exclamation, the two fell unexpectedly into the pits Lin Chen had dug.

The sharp stone shards at the bottom of the pits instantly sliced through their calves, drawing blood. Although the injuries were not fatal, the intense pain and loss of balance caused them to instantly lose their combat capability, and they could only struggle and wail in the pits.

Hong Biao's eyes grew colder: "Child's play!"

He no longer let his subordinates test him and stepped forward himself.

His burly body displayed agility inconsistent with his size at this moment. He tapped his toes on the ground repeatedly, easily bypassing the pit area, and his massive fist, carrying a whistling wind, struck straight at Lin Chen's face!

Lin Chen's pupils contracted; he dared not take it head-on.

He pushed his "Wind-Riding Steps" to the limit, retreating rapidly, while simultaneously grabbing a handful of wet mud he had been holding, and flung it violently at Hong Biao's eyes.

Hong Biao just tilted his head slightly and dodged this childish trick, his attack only pausing for a split second.

Now is the time!

Su Qingyao, at the base of the wall, gauged the direction of the night wind and threw the bag of "Anshen Powder" in her hand directly at the fray!

The colorless and odorless powder was almost invisible under the torchlight, carried by the night wind, drifting silently toward the crowd.

Hong Biao's combat intuition was extremely sharp; almost the instant the powder drifted, he sensed a faint anomaly in the air that didn't belong to the smell of soil or blood.

Without hesitation, he immediately held his breath and took a step back.

But the henchmen behind him, whose cultivation was only at Qi Refining Stage 2 or 3, did not have such alertness and inhaled a little, caught off guard.

Almost instantly, their movements became visibly sluggish, their eyes began to unfocus, and they swayed as if they were drunk.

"You're courting death!"

Seeing his men hit, Hong Biao was furious.

He no longer held anything back, his Qi Refining Stage 7 energy exploding completely. His movement suddenly accelerated, and he turned into a blurry black shadow, instantly closing in on Lin Chen!

Too fast!

Lin Chen only had time to cross his left arm in front of his chest to block.

"Crack!"

A teeth-gritting sound rang out, and an irresistible force slammed into his left arm.

A piercing pain followed, and he clearly felt that his arm bone had most likely fractured.

Using that force, he flew backward like a kite with a broken string, slamming heavily against the wall of the earthen house with a dull thud.

"Pfft—"

A sweetness rose in his throat, and he couldn't stop a mouthful of blood from spraying out.

However, while he was flying backward, he used his last ounce of strength to violently fling the short blade he had been tightly gripping in his right hand at an extremely tricky angle!

The target of the blade was not Hong Biao, but a subordinate behind him who was shaking his head, trying to sober up from the drug's effect!

"Pfft!"

A cold light flashed, and the short blade accurately sank into the man's thigh, bringing up a spray of blood.

A shrill scream rang out, throwing the formation, already chaotic from the Anshen Powder, into complete disarray.

"You little bastard!" Hong Biao's hair stood on end, his eyes bloodshot, and he was about to step forward to finish off this stubborn kid with one punch.

But just as he took a step, he stopped dead in his tracks.

Lin Chen, leaning against the earthen wall with a face as pale as a ghost, held a small white porcelain bottle—the same one that had contained the Anshen Powder—with its opening pointed directly at him.

What else was in there?!

Hong Biao felt a shiver in his heart; his wariness of this unknown drug made him instinctively stop.

It was just this momentary pause!

Lin Chen took the opportunity to swallow the last bit of the Qi-restoring medicinal powder prepared by Su Qingyao that he had hidden between his teeth.

A weak warm current dissolved in his Dantian. He forced his almost exhausted Qi to circulate, supporting his body so he wouldn't collapse, and glared at Hong Biao with bloodshot eyes, adopting a posture of a desperate, final fight.

Hong Biao's gaze swept over Lin Chen's pale face and his obviously broken, limp left arm, then glanced at the three subordinates who had already fallen in the courtyard—two wailing in the pits, one with a knife stuck in his thigh—as well as the others who were dazed and currently useless.

He quickly weighed his options.

This kid is fearless, like a mad dog. That woman also has some wicked tricks.

Continuing the assault, taking them down was inevitable.

But looking at this kid's suicidal stance, he might end up getting injured himself.

It wasn't worth it for a poor wretch at Qi Refining Stage 4 and a piece of broken land that wasn't even fully cleared yet.

His goal was the land and the woman, not to risk his life here fighting a desperate outlaw.

Thinking of this, the killing intent in Hong Biao's eyes slowly receded, replaced by a condescending coldness.

"Hmph, you've got a tough spine." He snorted coldly, finding an excuse for his retreat. "You're lucky today, Master Hong has other matters to attend to. However, this isn't over! I'm determined to have this broken courtyard and that land! Let's go!"

He glared fiercely at Lin Chen, as if wanting to carve his image into his heart, then waved his hand. Taking the remaining subordinates and helping up the injured companions, they retreated rapidly like an ebbing tide, quickly disappearing into the deep night.

In the courtyard, silence returned.

The heavy smell of blood mixed with the scent of soil, and the devastation scattered across the ground was shocking under the lingering light of the torches.

"Lin Chen!"

Su Qingyao stumbled to Lin Chen's side. Looking at his limp left arm and the blood at the corner of his mouth, the tears she had been suppressing finally slid silently down from her cold, clear eyes.

She frantically tried to find something to bandage him with, but was too panicked to know what to do.

Lin Chen sat down against the cold earthen wall and coughed violently a few times; the saliva he coughed up was stained with blood.

Yet he managed to pull a smile at Su Qingyao that was uglier than crying: "It's okay... he retreated."

His gaze struggled to pass over her shoulder to look at her abdomen, his voice raspy and urgent: "Is the... child okay?"

Su Qingyao shook her head vigorously, her tears breaking like a dam, unable to speak through her sobs.

Lin Chen struggled to lift his uninjured right hand, covering her cold, trembling hand, and squeezed it tightly.

Just at this moment, in his mind, that long-silent System notification tone rang out clearly and without warning:

[Detected that the host protected their Dao Companion and unborn offspring in a desperate situation; will conforms to the "Family Guardian" core...]

["Cultivation Feedback Acceleration" module temporarily activated...]

[Combined with the host's current severely injured state and the characteristics of meridian recovery after Qi exhaustion, it is recommended that the host immediately enter deep meditation... There is a very high probability of using this opportunity to break through the Bottleneck and advance to Qi Refining Stage 5!]

Almost at the same time, Lin Chen clearly felt that deep within his Dantian, that weak life aura belonging to his offspring—which had always been present due to Su Qingyao's pregnancy—seemed to sense his near-death state and determination at this moment. It actively transmitted a trace of extremely warm, extremely pure power, like a trickling stream, and began to slowly nourish those Meridians of his that had been damaged and torn from forcibly circulating his Qi.

Hope, right above this ruin and blood, quietly sprouted.