It’s just like how many animals can sense an earthquake coming.
It’s just like how certain seabirds can feel a hurricane approaching.
It’s just like how many women walking down the street can suddenly sense eyes watching them out of nowhere.
Since six years ago, a certain painting appeared in Lu Yu’s mind.
By carefully following the image and visualizing it, condensing his soul’s spiritual light, he gained a kind of “spiritual sense” that ordinary people don’t have—or rather, that had long since faded away over the endless passage of time.
It helped him avoid disasters and foresee fortune and misfortune.
Before this, it was this very “spiritual sense” that guided him to find those two coffin shops.
But most of the time, this “spiritual sense” was vague, only a faint feeling, like looking through frosted crystal glass, barely able to make out the red flowers and green grass in a garden—a blurry vision.
But at this moment...
When Lu Yu saw that red phoenix sedan chair, every pore in his body seemed to explode open, each hair standing straight like needles.
He felt an extremely terrifying malice and a deadly, sinister evil intent.
As the red sedan chair blocked his way, the curtain lifted, revealing a pair of blood-red embroidered shoes.
Cold sweat broke out on the back of Lu Yu’s neck.
His “spiritual sense” for the first time in his life unmistakably sensed imminent danger.
A bone-chilling cold invaded his body.
Everything felt the same as the danger he sensed years ago in the back courtyard of the tavern.
“Run!”
Lu Yu gave a loud shout and immediately leapt into the air, aiming to jump onto the rooftop of a nearby shop to escape.
A mournful, eerie laugh echoed from inside the sedan chair—“giggling” in a haunting manner.
Then, a figure dressed in a bright red palace gown, hair white as snow, face beautiful as a flower, wearing a phoenix crown in the imperial style, looked like a newlywed bride.
This ghostly figure suddenly flashed out of the sedan chair and appeared right in front of Lu Yu and old He.
Lu Yu had just jumped about three feet high.
The white-haired woman lightly waved her left hand.
Before Lu Yu’s eyes blurred, she had already grabbed his belt with one hand.
A tremendous force surged; Lu Yu let out a startled yell and was thrown to the ground with great force.
With a dull thud, he landed hard.
Just as his body hit the ground, he rebounded like a bouncing ball, skimming just three inches above the ground, rolling rapidly like a “lazy donkey rolling” — a clumsy but surprisingly agile move.
In a flash, he rolled backward seven or eight yards.
“Tight wind, pull the rope!”
Lu Yu was pretty loyal-hearted after all.
The strength in the woman’s hand just now, when she grabbed his belt and threw him down, was at least two or three times his current limit.
In the midst of the chaos, he didn’t forget to shout loudly to old He, warning him to run for his life.
Old He, who always looked naive and honest, had his face distorted into something fiercely grim.
He saw Lu Yu thrown to the ground, then rolling so quickly and nimbly, fleeing backward.
Old He finally understood what Lu Yu meant when he said “I run fast” back at the prison.
Such quick and nimble footwork was far beyond just running fast.
Old He felt that even if you put seven or eight of himself together, they still wouldn’t be as fast as Lu Yu!
With a loud roar, old He’s hands suddenly turned pitch black, his palms swollen and fierce.
A gust of malicious wind surged as his palms slammed heavily toward the strange white-haired woman.
Lu Yu had already rolled seven or eight yards away and stood upright.
Like a blade of grass blown by the wind, he shot straight into the air.
Old He’s palms struck like thunder, bringing with them a heavy rushing sound as they slammed forward.
Lu Yu’s eye twitched slightly.
Old He was using the so-called “Black Sand Palm,” a notorious hitting technique common in the Dayin Jianghu.
This was a common poison palm technique — basic and crude, with limited potential.
It was nothing compared to the clan martial skills of the powerful noble families.
Only the lower-level people and the struggling underworld folks would use this kind of side path.
But the Black Sand Palm used various poisons to aid training, so its palms contained deadly toxins, making its attacks extremely lethal.
Old He’s palms, suffused with a faint bloody smell, slammed heavily into the white-haired woman.
With two muffled “pfft pfft” sounds, old He’s hands actually pierced right through the woman’s body.
Light and shadow flickered; the woman’s body rippled like water waves.
Her beautiful face twisted suddenly, a fierce bloody glow shimmering atop her fair skin.
Old He let out a miserable howl and swiftly pulled back his hands that had broken through her body.
But he saw both his hands quickly covered by a thin layer of ice crystals.
Chilling cold rapidly crawled up from his hands along his arms and toward his shoulders.
His palms had clearly pierced through the white-haired woman’s body, but when he retracted his hands, the woman’s body shimmered with a bloody glow yet showed no injuries— not even a tear on her clothes.
“Hiss!”
Lu Yu had already soared three meters high.
His body bent and twisted as he prepared to leap onto the rooftop of a roadside shop.
Suddenly, several sinister cold laughs echoed from above.
In the faint mist, two figures wearing red skirts appeared out of thin air, floating three inches above Lu Yu’s head.
They shook their sleeves, sending out four white silk ribbons that sliced through the air with a sharp whistle, like four giant serpents, winding around Lu Yu.
Lu Yu screamed in alarm.
His hands were enveloped in a faint watery glow, accompanied by the sound of rushing waves.
He slammed his palms one after the other, striking the white silk ribbons attacking from above.
“Bang! Bang!” The loud sounds echoed.
In an instant, Lu Yu struck dozens of hits on the four white silk ribbons.
The Lai family’s secret heritage, the “Surging Wave Hand,” was mighty and overwhelming.
One palm strike emitted immense force, and as it accumulated with successive strikes, it multiplied his power many times over—capable of destroying cities, uprooting mountains, and diverting rivers.
Lu Yu’s dozens of consecutive palm strikes packed power like tsunamis swirling and converging.
Each palm faster and stronger than the last.
At first, Lu Yu could easily control it.
After twelve strikes, the force had built up to an alarming degree.
His arms swelled under the immense energy, his palms as large as fans.
The fierce counterforce made his entire body tremble violently, as if waves were battering and flipping him.
The four white silk ribbons shook fiercely, emitting loud “shi shi” slashing sounds.
The silk ribbons held an extremely sinister coldness.
This invisible, intangible chill seeped through Lu Yu’s palm strikes, straight into his body.
After dozens of continuous strikes, Lu Yu’s palms were covered in a thin layer of frost.
His hands gradually numb and cold, even both arms seemed no longer under his control, slowly losing all feeling.
What made Lu Yu even more uncomfortable was that these white silk ribbons drifted like watery illusions, shifting and flickering.
No matter how much force he struck with, only less than ten percent actually impacted the ribbons.
The rest of his power dissipated into thin air.
The stronger his strikes, the more counterforce he suffered.
His arms struggled under the heavy strain, and he could hear the weary groan of his joints under unbearable pressure.
Dozens of strikes happened in the blink of an eye.
Lu Yu could no longer control his power or his body.
He let out a wild scream, borrowing momentum to dash sharply to the side.
The vast force accumulated on the white silk ribbons suddenly exploded.
With a thunderous boom and a flash of blue spectral light, the two red-skirted figures were knocked as if by a great force, flying several yards high.
Lu Yu glared unwillingly at those two figures.
With his palm power, any ordinary person would be thrown that far by a single strike.
These two had taken dozens of hits, and this was all the damage achieved?
What’s more, he could sense that the two figures had not sustained any real injuries at all!
This was Lai Guogong Mansion’s clan martial art—its killing power was extremely limited against these strange figures!
“Thud!”
Lu Yu landed heavily.
The two red-skirted figures fluttered in the air like paper, their four white silk ribbons waving wildly.
Old He’s palms were frozen solid under a half-inch thick layer of ice crystals.
When he breathed, white breath sprayed from his mouth.
Staggering back, his body swaying unsteadily, he looked at Lu Yu.
His eyes suddenly widened in astonishment, and he shouted hoarsely:
“Behind you!”
A bone-piercing cold surged from behind.
Before old He even spoke, Lu Yu had already sensed the intense malice and terrible crisis coming from behind.
Without looking back, he launched himself forward with a powerful leap, soaring out five or six yards in a flash.
With a “shi shi” slicing wind sound, dozens of white silk ribbons nearly grazed his neck as they flew past.
The howling wind roared, the chilling cold ran rampant.
Lu Yu looked back and couldn’t help but shudder all over.
Thin mist swirled, revealing a shocking sight—seven or eight women in red skirts, holding white silk ribbons, floating mysteriously three inches above the ground.
“Bang!”
Lu Yu and old He collided heavily, back to back, covering each other as they faced the strange figures in the mist.
The white-haired woman who had come out of the sedan chair laughed coldly.
Her gaze was ice-cold as she swept over Lu Yu and old He:
“Husband, shall we have a little fun together?”
Old He’s right hand twisted at his belt.
His hands were frozen stiff by the ice crystals; struggling fiercely, only two fingers managed to move slightly.
He pulled out an egg-sized pellet from his belt and hurled it skyward with a snap.
“Shh... boom!”
A burst of red fireworks exploded about ten yards above the ground.
On Jiangtanzi Street, Youlouzi Street, and Zhenglong Alley—multiple tall buildings housed the guards of the Royal Bureau of Surveillance, all of whom simultaneously looked toward this place.
In the next instant, hundreds of figures leapt into the air from courtyards along the two streets and alley.
Piercing whistles blared, shouts echoed everywhere:
“The Royal Bureau is on duty! Outsiders, stand back!”
Several dozen yards away, from a few pavilions, two blue-robed captains emerged with crowds of tough men and prison guards.
One blue-robed captain widened his eyes in shock as he looked at the mist enveloping the large streets:
“What’s with this fog? It’s deep winter—where did this fog come from?”
Though not far away, his voice sounded distorted and distant, as if separated by several miles.
From this, it seemed the mist accompanying these strange women was somewhat similar to the watery mist Lu Yu used to cover his tracks.
But Lu Yu’s mist never had this kind of bone-chilling, deeply unsettling cold.
The white-haired woman slowly turned around, surveying the Royal Bureau members rushing in from all directions.
She sighed faintly:
“Too many husbands, not enough to entertain—hiss, hiss, next time we’ll play with you all.”
Amid flickering shadows, the white-haired woman and the dozen or so red-skirted figures simultaneously rushed into the phoenix sedan chair.
How so many people squeezed into that small single-person sedan chair was anyone’s guess.
The mist rose as the phoenix sedan chair floated three feet above the ground, silently speeding fiercely along the street, heading straight toward the two captains and their large group.
Lu Yu leapt into the air sharply, rising seven or eight yards high, out of the mist’s cover, and shouted toward them:
“Your Honors, be careful! That sedan chair is haunted!”
The captains, strongmen, and guards heard Lu Yu’s warning and slowed their pace.
Behind them, dozens of fierce underground ghosts clad in armor and armed with long spears and halberds marched in tight formation.
Spears and halberds like a forest slammed fiercely toward the speeding sedan chair.
As the sedan chair’s curtain was lifted, dozens of white silk ribbons flew out, and sharp “pa pa pa” sounds rang.
The ribbons whipped across the faces of those underground ghosts, striking them one by one.
Scores of figures were blasted into the air.
When they rose, they were burly, strong men.
Upon landing, they turned into shriveled, dehydrated corpses.
All who witnessed this from the Royal Bureau burst into uproar, and chaos erupted in every direction.
(The End of This Chapter)