Hundreds of troops had surrounded the Long estate, forming a tight encirclement. An armored middle-aged man on top of a horse was arrogantly looking down on Mrs. Long.
Mrs. Long was pale as she spoke to that man, while Bao-er and the other members of the household were all terrified as they cowered from the troops.
When Long Chen appeared, that man's eyes brightened and he coldly shouted, "Long Chen, you needlessly injured the noble heir Zhou Yaoyang extremely heavily. We've received orders to capture you. Will you go willingly?"
These troops were all elites that had heavy bloody auras. How could Mrs. Long have ever seen such a display of killing intent? She was as pale as a sheet of paper as she tottered, about to collapse. She would have really collapsed if Bao-er didn't go to support her.
Long Chen completely ignored all the troops as he walked to his mother. His heart hurt to see how afraid she was.
"Mom, don't worry. This is just a dream. Once you are awake, all of this will be gone," said Long Chen gently as he took her hand.
A gentle Spiritual Strength came out with his words. Mrs. Long's eyelids felt heavy, and she fell into a deep slumber.
"Bao-er, Zhang Ma, can you help me bring my mother in?"
Long Chen couldn't bear to see his mother so frightened, so he had used his Spiritual Strength to directly force her to sleep. Otherwise, as a normal mortal, it would be easy for her to fall ill from experiencing such a fright.
Bao-er and Zhang Ma carried Mrs. Long back inside, while Long Chen told everyone else to close the doors.
Looking at the person seated on the horse and sensing the faint Blood Qi from him, a ridiculing smile appeared on Long Chen's face. "So it's just half-step Blood Condensation."
Seeing Long Chen act high and mighty without the slightest intention of leaving quietly, the man rolled his eyes.
"Long Chen, you've committed a grave crime, a crime so severe that no one can protect you. Are you waiting for me to personally capture you?" he coldly shouted.
"Huh? You're just a sergeant. A dog like you wants to personally capture me? Don't make me laugh," ridiculed Long Chen.
Sergeant was the lowest commanding rank within the Phoenix Cry Empire. Someone like that had no past accomplishments or true power; it was just a small team-leader role.
But this particular fellow had become so excited about reaching that rank that he couldn't shut up about it. As soon as he had risen to sergeant, he had become accustomed to his role.
Long Chen's words now were like poisonous arrows that shot into his heart. His face immediately became unsightly.
He came from a low origin and had suffered for over ten years in the army camp before an opportunity finally came for him to break through to the Blood Condensation realm, and only after that was he promoted to sergeant.
His current greatest achievement was now being viciously insulted, causing his killing intent to soar.
"Long Chen, don't force me to kill you." The man ground his teeth and his hand went to the sword on his belt.
"If you dare to draw your blade, I will let your head fall to the ground."
Long Chen clasped his hands behind his back. His tone was extremely serious. It wasn't loud and lacked the slightest anger, sounding just like a strong expert with endless confidence.
"You're asking for death!" The man roared and shot forward off the horse, sending his fist punching at Long Chen.
Blood Qi circulated throughout his body, and a red glow appeared on his body, clearly showing that he had used a trace of the Blood Condensation realm's power.
Long Chen's gaze was electric, and his face cold. He took a step forward while also unleashing a fist.
BOOM!
Gale winds surged when the two fists met. Both parties were sent several steps back from the explosion.
"You're actually so insolent with just this little ability?" Long Chen coldly mocked.
The man's expression changed. To be ridiculed by someone called a cripple caused him enough fury to explode.
"Go die!"
He unsheathed his sword and sent it slashing at Long Chen's neck. A whistling wind pierced people's ears, causing them to feel a chilliness inside.
As if waiting for this exact moment, Long Chen's foot tapped the ground and retreated several feet in a ghostly manner, completely avoiding the attack.
This retreat had used the newly learned Windchasing Steps. Although he was still at the initial training level of it, with Long Chen's fused Pill God memories came an incomparable understanding of the human body's meridians. With such an understanding, it was as if he had already been practicing it for tens of years.
With a single step, he arrived in front of a soldier and reached out. That soldier was extremely surprised and hastily raised his blade to block.
But unexpectedly, his hand shook and the blade disappeared. The next moment he could see Long Chen, he was viciously slashing his sword at the sergeant.
The sergeant was still off-balance from his swing and had still yet to ready himself. Long Chen's retreat, seizing of a blade, and attack had all happened in just a breath. The whistle of the blade slashing towards him shocked him and he quickly used all of his strength to block it.
BOOM!
After the explosion, the sergeant felt some kind of energy he couldn't contend with, and he was knocked back several meters
As soon as he managed to stabilize his body, his stomach dropped. With his years of experience of life and death battles, he unconsciously raised his blade.
With another huge explosion, sparks flew everywhere as a cold light flew dozens of meters away into a tree.
Previously, that sergeant had used his surprising intuition to block one of Long Chen's slashes. But he had been unable to resist Long Chen's terrifying strength. The web between his thumb and forefinger split and his sword was sent flying.
Now the sergeant no longer had his previous arrogance. He was completely stunned and despaired as a cold light flashed in front of his eyes, appearing like the scythe of the Grim Reaper.
"NO!"
That terrified scream hung in the air as the sergeant's head flew through the air, his face twisted in an expression of shock and unwillingness.
Just as his consciousness was fading, he suddenly remembered what Long Chen had said before. If you dare to draw your blade, I will let your head fall to the ground…
He now finally believed that Long Chen hadn't been trying to intimidate him, but had just spoken the truth. Unfortunately, his realization came too late.
His headless corpse collapsed to the ground. The head tumbled through the air a long time before finally falling to the ground and rolling further away.
As for all the soldiers, they were all dumbstruck. The weapons in their hands felt much heavier at this moment.
They were all people who had seen blood before, but never such a ruthless scene as today. Long Chen had had a completely expressionless face from start to finish, completing the kill without even batting an eye. It was even more frightening than if he had been seething with anger.
"Long Chen, you dare to kill my trusted lieutenant. Do you believe me when I say I'll destroy the entire Long estate?"
An angry cry suddenly came from afar, as a dignified middle-aged man walked over with dozens of experts.
"Have you finally come out?" Long Chen coldly laughed inside. As soon as he had arrived, he had used his divine sense to scout the surroundings and noticed those people hiding and watching from a distance.
"Savage Marquis, you really are worthy of your name. An unreasonable assault like this is just what I'd expect from someone of your reputation," said Long Chen lazily as he leaned against a stone lion in front of his house gate.
"Today at the literature hall you committed a crime against the seventh prince, heavily injured my son, and now you've killed my trusted lieutenant. Hmph, no matter how you try to spin it, I'd like to see how you'd get out of this one. Let's see who will come to save you now!" shouted the Savage Marquis angrily.
Looking at this person who was as famous as his father, a ridiculing smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. Someone with such weak methods was also as famous as his father? What crap!
"Zhou Weiqing, did you get stupider the older you lived? Do you really think that I, Long Chen, am someone who needs rescuing? You really are an idiot."
Taking out the jade tablet from his robes, he said to him, "Open your dog eyes. Can you see what this is?"
When Zhou Weiqing who was also known as the Savage Marquis saw the pill furnace diagram carved into the jade tablet, his expression changed to one of complete shock.
"How is that possible?! How can you have the tablet of a Pill Apprentice? Is it a fake?" demanded Zhou Weiqing angrily.
"Idiot, you really have gotten senile. Fine, for someone as stupid as you, I'll give you an extra close look." Long Chen directly threw the jade tablet to Zhou Weiqing
When he carefully examined it, his expression grew even more shocked. As a powerful nobleman, how could he possibly not be able to tell the veracity of the alchemist guild's status tablets?
And it was precisely because he recognized it that his expression was so shocked. The person who had signed this tablet was actually Yun Qi! Everyone in the Phoenix Cry Empire with a brain knew of that grandmaster's name!
Even the successive generations of the royal family had to be respectful to alchemists. The alchemist guild held an extremely high level of influence in the empire.
"Do you see now Zhou Weiqing? Can you hand my tablet back to me?" laughed Long Chen coldly as he looked at the dazed Zhou Weiqing.
The Savage Marquis's expression was extremely ugly. He wanted to crush the jade tablet in his hands and capture Long Chen, but he didn't dare do so.
He didn't know how Long Chen had obtained this tablet, but having it meant Long Chen was one of the alchemist guild's people. Those were people above the empire's laws, and he didn't have the power to butt in.
Zhou Weiqing was at a complete loss. He returned the tablet to Long Chen, but at that moment, Long Chen's expression suddenly changed and he coldly shouted, "Zhou Weiqing, today you surrounded a Pill Apprentice's home with blades, a vicious crime. If you don't give me some recompense, I will go to the alchemist guild tomorrow and fill out an application for the Phoenix Cry Empire to punish you."
Zhou Weiqing's expression immediately changed. The alchemist guild's punishments were definitely something to be afraid of. They would cut off the empire from medicinal pills, which was the same as choking the lifeline of the empire.
"It seems that I don't have a clear understanding of what went on today. I'll immediately go back and investigate to give you proper compensation." With Long Chen's current status, Zhou Weiqing could only swallow his anger.
This was the first time Long Chen had ever admired this Savage Marquis. His ability to swallow his own crap was quite amazing.
No wonder despite the passing of over ten years, he still remained in the Blood Condensation realm. He must have spent all of his time training how to swallow crap.
"No matter how or what you investigate, before I am awake tomorrow, my estate had better be completely cleaned up. Otherwise… well, you know what will happen."
Long Chen coldly snorted and no longer bothered with this treacherous fox. He directly went inside his estate and slammed the doors shut.
He was extremely irritated from today's affairs. In the morning at the literature hall, in the afternoon at Sunset Mountain, and in the evening at his estate gate… fighting three times in one day was definitely enough to irritate someone. But at least what had happened during the afternoon had been a bit more alluring.
After Long Chen left, the Savage Marquis's expression became ashen. He hadn't achieved the slightest bit of his goal in coming here but instead incited great trouble for himself.
"Master, what should we do?"
"What should we do? Hurry and start cleaning up this crap. Even if you have to lick off the bloodstains on the ground to get them off, hurry up and do it."
With a stomach full of anger and nowhere to release it, the Savage Marquis took it out on his soldiers, cursing and raging. In the end, he left alone.
"Crap, how did that little brat get into the alchemist guild? Now it'll be troublesome."
The Savage Marquis muttered inside darkly. Seeing no one around him, he started walking towards the imperial palace.