Chapter 721: Forbidden Heavenly Materials, Infinite Marvelous Uses

“Thousand Man Commander, should we continue the pursuit?”

“Yes, your squad first escort those two back and report tonight’s news truthfully, the rest follow me in pursuit of the villain, we must resolve the situation with the Commander from the villain’s hands!”

Outside the ruins of the deserted temple, several moments of silence passed before the guards of the commandery cavalry came to their senses, one hesitantly spoke up.

Upon hearing this, Thousand Man Commander Zhou Tao’s eyes flashed with shock, dark delight, and panic. The shock was due to the fact that the person trading with Lin Qi, this unlucky fool tonight, unexpectedly had such formidable strength.

The opponent not only silently escaped from the iron-wall encirclement formed by hundreds of garrison troops but also directly severely injured the Chen brothers in one move, and took Yang Yunwen away right under their eyes!

This formidable individual probably could be considered powerful among Half-Step Grandmasters, how could they pursue such a person?

Usually, to surround and kill a Half-Step Great Cultivator of this level, a thousand cavalry need to be mobilized, fully armed, and a certain price must be paid to eliminate them.

Tonight they had less than three hundred cavalry, and because Yang Yunwen privately deployed soldiers, the horses were not armored.

Are they eager enough to die so quickly?

The dark delight was because Yang Yunwen, usually arrogant and domineering, was a Commander promoted through the Yang Family connections, and everyone was somewhat dissatisfied with him. Moreover, earlier Yang Yunwen humiliated Zhou Tao in front of everyone.

Zhou Tao detected something odd about tonight’s events. Although Lin Qi was caught with irrefutable evidence, his crime wasn’t worthy of death; upon careful thinking, the scheme behind it was obviously orchestrated by Yang Yunwen. Now, Yang Yunwen himself being held hostage and taken away was indeed delighting.

Including Zhou Tao, many of the garrison troops were secretly happy to see Yang Yunwen being captured.

The panic came from the fact that Yang Yunwen was captured; if they didn’t remedy this promptly and act convincingly, they wouldn’t be able to withstand the Yang Family’s anger afterward.

To truly pursue Su Mu? Zhou Tao wasn’t that foolish.

But the show for the Yang Family needed to be convincing, the act had to be done thoroughly.

At once, Zhou Tao, with a face full of ‘urgency’, led a group of garrison troops in a grand pursuit in the direction Su Mu departed.

…

“Who exactly are you?”

“Did the Wu Family send you to capture me? Or the Prefectural Governor’s residence, perhaps my good cousins instructed you… how much did they pay you? I’ll give you double!”

Seeing his trusted Chen brothers couldn’t even last a round against the one holding him hostage, Yang Yunwen’s heart sank and panicked at last. He stopped shouting and started doubting who was behind Su Mu, willing to offer a greater bounty in hopes of being freed.

Su Mu remained silent, continuing on his way.

The woods on either side flew by swiftly, the wind howling angrily. Su Mu’s silence further fueled the fear spreading in Yang Yunwen’s heart, while Su Mu was intentionally observing whether Yang Yunwen had any backups.

“Where exactly are you taking me?”

“You—you want Sparrow Blood Iron, don’t you? As long as you let me go, I’ll get you as much as you want, I even have better things than Sparrow Blood Iron!”

Just as Su Mu’s brow furrowed at Yang Yunwen’s noise, considering knocking him out, Yang Yunwen’s words caught his attention. Tonight, his Sparrow Blood Iron deal with Lin Qi fell through, Lin Qi along with thirty-five thousand taels turned to ruins with that deserted temple.

His loss needed to be compensated by someone.

“Speak up then.”

Seeing Su Mu finally relent, Yang Yunwen’s heart rejoiced. As long as the benefits appealed to Su Mu, everything had potential to be negotiated.

Although Yang Yunwen reckoned Su Mu wouldn’t dare act directly against him; after all, he was a Junior Sixth Grade Commander of Sanshan County’s garrison, an official of the Great Yan.

Nowadays, the Great Yan has long lost its past glory, its national fortune likewise. The earlier rule of needing Third Grade or higher to kill officials had become needing Second Grade to do the same.

Like him, being of Junior Sixth Grade rank, in the days of Great Yan’s peak only a Third Grade Great Cultivator of three grades higher could kill him directly, and even that required a certain price to be paid.

Now it’s degraded to requiring a Fourth-Grade Martial Artist to pay the price to assassinate Sixth Grade officials, but ordinary Fourth-Grade Cultivators couldn’t harm him in front of the Chen brothers.

Even an ordinary Half-Step Great Cultivator could hardly accomplish this, and even if capable, a Half-Step Great Cultivator is after all just Half-Step, killing him would incur a backlash from the national fortune that ordinary people couldn’t withstand.

Moreover, he was from the Yang Family, betting Su Mu wouldn’t dare seriously act against him, but fearing whether Su Mu’s backers had means to deal with him, he had to delay and sway with benefits.

A fierce gleam flashed in Yang Yunwen’s eyes, he just had to wait for news to reach the Commandery City and the Yang Family.

By then, his family ancestor would surely intervene for the family’s prestige, then he wanted to see how Su Mu could endure the Yang Family’s wrath.

Afterward, he swore to have Su Mu skinned alive, tendons drawn, with a decoction keeping him alive to torture for half a year.

That’s the price for crossing Yang Yunwen!

In fact, Yang Yunwen, in some aspect, did bet correctly, Su Mu at present only had Fifth Grade Cultivation, under normal circumstances he wouldn’t withstand the backlash of Great Yan’s national fortune to take his life.

Yet exceptions always exist, Su Mu was confident that if he acted, Yang Yunwen wouldn’t survive, but he was unwilling to bear the backlash of Great Yan’s national fortune lightly, so he temporarily spared Yang Yunwen’s life aiming for abduction.

Su Mu sealed Yang Yunwen’s cultivation using the Silver Needle method combined with Profound Demon Gang, confiscated everything from his person, took a detour to discard all potential tracking items along the way, and did not forget to place the small Heavenly Strategy Talisman Qingyunzi gave him directly on Yang Yunwen.