"Don't panic. Get up and tell us what happened."
His expression grave, Shopkeeper Wan ordered his men to help the fellow up.
Li Yan recognized the man as one of the village craftsmen. Seeing that trouble had struck, he couldn't very well walk away, so he lingered nearby to watch.
Once helped to his feet, the man's legs remained like jelly, his face ashen. Paying no heed to the blood trickling down his forehead, he said in a trembling voice, "Zhuzi was leading a few kids cutting grass at the edge of the village. According to the ones who ran back, a peddler came along the official highway, scattering sweets and coaxing the children into saying their names.
"After eating the sweets, the children fell unconscious. It was only when fellow villagers passed by that they were woken up, but by the time they came to, Zhuzi had already been snatched away!
"Old Uncle Wan, he's the only sprout in our family! If he's lost, how can I ever face our ancestors?"
As he spoke, he broke into a loud wail.
Hearing this, the surrounding carpenters erupted in fury.
"The bastards! How dare they abduct someone right out of our village!"
"Come on, they can't have gotten far. Let's search!"
"When we catch him, we'll flay his hide!"
Boiling with anger, the crowd prepared to surge out.
"What are you all flustered about?!"
One of the elder carpenters barked at them, "Uncle Wan hasn't spoken yet! Even if it's the traffickers in Xianyang City, a single word from Uncle Wan would make them hand the boy right back!"
Jolted back to their senses, the crowd remembered Shopkeeper Wan's standing.
Shopkeeper Wan nodded. "Ershun, Shuanzi, take some gifts and my calling cards. Go to the city's broker agency and the Western Guild beggar den, and tell them to look for the boy.
"Mind your manners and follow the rules of the Jianghu."
"Yes, Master!"
Two carpenters stepped forward immediately, preparing to depart.
"Doing that probably won't get the boy back."
Suddenly, a voice spoke up from the crowd.
Everyone turned to look; it was Sha Lifei.
Sha Lifei gave a chuckle, scratched his bald head, and cupped his hands. "Shopkeeper Wan is a righteous man, so I can't hold my tongue. If I say anything out of line, please forgive me."
Shopkeeper Wan nodded. "Speak."
Sha Lifei glanced around at the onlookers. "Old Sha here has roamed the Jianghu long enough to have seen all manner of crooked tricks.
"Child snatchers are everywhere, but they usually pick young, clever-looking kids because they fetch a higher price.
"Yet this peddler asked for their names first. He clearly came prepared.
"Besides, anyone operating in the Xianyang area knows the reputation of Shangyi Village. This is almost certainly an act of vengeance. Looking to human traffickers or beggars won't do a bit of good!"
"Brother Sha speaks sense!"
Shopkeeper Wan's brow furrowed. He stood up abruptly and paced back and forth. Catching sight of Li Yan standing nearby, his face brightened with delight, and he quickly cupped his hands. "I nearly forgot Little Brother Li's divine powers! I must trouble you with this matter."
Li Yan cupped his hands in return. "Consider it done. I'll need a fast horse, and something belonging to that child!"
"Quick, bring a horse!"
"Shuanzi, go fetch something of his!"
Before long, someone led out a bay horse and handed over a small wooden sword.
Li Yan wasted no words. Gripping his blade and the wooden sword, he vaulted onto the saddle.
"Yah!"
With a flick of the reins, the bay horse bolted out of the courtyard.
Hoofbeats and churned-up dust quickly vanished from everyone's sight...
……
Within mere breaths, Li Yan reached the village entrance. Forming the Yang hand seal, he took a sniff, instantly wheeled the horse around, and galloped down the official highway.
The scent left by the child was faint—the boy might have already been stuffed into a sack.
Even so, that could not elude his divine nose power.
Following that faint trace, Li Yan galloped at full tilt. Before long, Xianyang City appeared in the distance.
He gritted his teeth and spurred the horse even faster.
Xianyang was perilous for him right now, but some things had to be done.
Shopkeeper Wan had treated him with genuine sincerity, and Li Yan's blade had never feared taking lives!
However, upon reaching the fork leading toward Xianyang, the scent suddenly veered off in another direction.
Li Yan swung the horse around, a flicker of doubt crossing his brow.
This direction led to Menggu Village.
That place was fairly well known—not for scenic mountains or rivers, but because it had taken part in the Maitreya Sect uprising years ago, and the imperial army had razed the entire village to the ground.
There were several villages like it in Guanzhong.
Over ten years had passed, yet the scars had not healed. Absurd rumors of a ghost village haunted by vengeful spirits even circulated, and no commoners dared settle there.
Could it have been taken over by human traffickers?
His curiosity piqued, Li Yan urged the horse onward.
Partway there, the scent veered once again, breaking off the main road and cutting deep into wild, overgrown brush.
Li Yan reined his horse into the tall grass, and soon came upon a small river.
The river was not deep. As he rode across, the scent vanished completely.
Frowning, Li Yan channeled the Yang hand seal and inhaled deeply.
"Damn clever bastard!"
He cursed and wheeled his horse around at a gallop. The trafficker had waded along the riverbed for a stretch before clambering back onto the bank further down, continuing toward the deserted village.
Ordinary tracking methods might have been fooled by such a trick, but against the divine power of someone from the Xuanmen, it was utterly useless.
Sure enough, after advancing another few hundred meters and cresting a yellow loess slope, two figures appeared on the road ahead.
A woman was driving a donkey cart piled high with hay.
Beside her was a peddler carrying a wooden display box divided into compartments, stuck full of kites, candied haws, clay figurines, and other knickknacks—a dazzling assortment.
Dangling a pellet drum in his hand, the peddler was whispering to the woman.
Hearing the thud of hooves, both immediately turned their heads, their eyes brimming with vigilance.
Li Yan's thoughts stirred. Cupping his hands, he called out loudly, "Hold on, friends! Might I ask for directions?"
Even as he spoke, he squeezed his calves against the horse's flanks, not slowing in the slightest.
"Certainly! Where does the gentleman wish to go?"
The peddler stopped and turned around. He was a pleasant-looking young fellow.
Though his face was plastered with an ingratiating smile, his right hand slipped toward his waist. Suddenly twisting his torso, he whipped his right arm out, sending a six-inch iron dart whistling straight toward the space between Li Yan's brows!
A hand-flung arrow!
The distance between them had closed to less than ten meters.
The peddler's hidden projectile packed considerable force; an ordinary person would likely have been struck dead.
Yet Li Yan had his divine power activated and had already caught the scent of iron. The instant the peddler flicked his arm, Li Yan leaned sideways and rolled off the horse's back.
It looked like a clumsy fall from the saddle, but with a feline twist mid-air, he landed soundly on his feet. Staying low, blade held horizontal, he charged forward right behind the horse.
In the peddler's eyes, Li Yan had vanished into thin air, replaced by a raging bay stallion barreling straight at him.
With the panicked horse bearing down like a falling mountain, the peddler could only leap aside.
Yet no sooner had the horse swept past than a gleaming blade whistled before his eyes.
Trouble!
Panic seized the peddler, and he scrambled backward.
Yet that blade light clung like maggots to bone, drawing closer and closer to his neck.
"Take this!"
Just as the peddler was gripped by sheer terror, the woman on the donkey cart leaped into the air. Spinning a meteor awl in her hand, she pressed her left leg forward and whipped the weapon, sending the sharp spike screaming straight at Li Yan.
Li Yan dodged aside while simultaneously bringing up his Guanshan blade to parry. The meteor awl was deflected, wrapping round and round the steel blade with a sharp hiss.
"Come over here!"
Channeling his full strength, Li Yan gave a hard backward yank.
Still airborne, the woman instantly lost her balance. She crashed to the ground with a dull thud, battered and covered in dust, the meteor awl ripped cleanly from her grip.
Meanwhile, having escaped the lethal slash, the peddler performed a clumsy roll across the dirt. Rising to his feet, he had several more hand-flung arrows in his grasp. With both hands blurring into motion, the six-inch iron darts whistled through the air in rapid succession.
When ordinary people tried to dodge projectiles, the difficulty was invariably that their bodies could not keep up with their eyes.
Formidable masters could discern positions by the sound of the wind, or achieve unity of mind and hand, moving on instinct to parry with weapons—or even catch the missiles barehanded and hurl them back.
Li Yan, however, relied on his extraordinary sense of smell. Within a hundred meters, not a single movement could escape him. Evading was even easier for him; he didn't even need to look.
Clang, clang, clang!
His Guanshan blade parried left and deflected right, knocking all the iron darts away in a flurry of sparks. Without losing a shred of momentum, he surged toward the peddler.
Seeing Li Yan dogging him like a relentless fiend, the peddler's scalp tingled with dread. Knowing he had run into a tough customer, he drew a pair of daggers from behind his waist and screeched, "Tough mark! Take him together!"
With that, he rolled forward, bent his knees, and pounced, driving the daggers toward Li Yan's belly.
The woman pulled a white waxwood spear from the hay. With a flick of her arms, blossoms of spear points burst forth, thrusting toward Li Yan's head.
Ditang bladesmanship and the Pear Blossom spear!
Li Yan recognized their martial styles at once.
Neither of them had cultivated hidden jin, but their coordination was seamless and their methods vicious. They were clearly no ordinary human traffickers, but rather independent rogues who "practiced the Ge trade."
To put it plainly, they belonged to the "Ge Sect" of the Hidden Eight Sects: Hua, Lan, Rong, and Ge.
Whether assassins, enforcers, lone bandits, flower-plucking rapists, or even bladesmen like himself—anyone who relied on martial skill to commit illicit deeds belonged to the Ge Sect.
Both evidently knew Li Yan was a dangerous opponent, and they held nothing back.
The peddler rolled and tumbled across the dirt, his footwork bizarre and nimble—Dog Biting the Rice Dumpling, Reaping Hook Behind the Back, Flying Scissor Kick—each technique faster than the last. Daggers paired with kicking maneuvers whipped up dust like a whirlwind along the ground.
The woman's kung fu was noticeably inferior, but her Pear Blossom spear whirled high and low, blooming into bursts of thrusts. Nine parts feint and one part real, her attacks were meant primarily to distract, yet whenever she struck in earnest, it coincided with the peddler's moves to create a killing strike.
Li Yan parried and dodged, seemingly forced back step by step. Yet his eyes grew colder by the second, like a predator coiling its fury.
Finally, a crack appeared in their coordination.
The woman's spear thrust a beat too early.
Instantly shifting his shoulders sideways, Li Yan leaped back while slashing upward with his blade.
Clang!
A flash of cold light severed the woman's white waxwood spear cleanly in two.
Simultaneously, the peddler executed a side roll and thrust upward with crossed daggers in an Under-Horse Thrust.
Li Yan's backward leap cleared it by a hair. Immediately driving power into his left leg, his hidden jin surged, and he launched a front kick with his right foot.
"Fuck off!"
Crack!
The peddler's head was snapped clear around to his back. Without uttering a sound, he collapsed to the ground, dead.
Smack!
Seeing this, the woman turned deathly pale. Just as she opened her mouth to beg for mercy, Li Yan slapped her so hard she tumbled across the ground, blacked out, and went limp.
Li Yan stepped up to the donkey cart and pushed aside the hay.
Inside, three young boys lay with flushed faces, fast asleep and unresponsive...
Chapter 60