Chapter 156: We Cannot Let Him Off So Easily

Boom!

Another towering inferno lit up the sky!

Most of those buildings were traditional-style structures built of wood and earth. A casual spark thrown onto them would easily ignite, let alone Chutianfeng's true divine fire!

"You little bastard! Have the guts not to run!" Yu Zuhui snatched a tile from the ground and hurled it at Chutianfeng.

Chutianfeng laughed heartily and flew toward another building.

One had to admit that the Celestial Master Sect was truly wealthy, boasting some twenty or thirty different halls and pavilions!

Chutianfeng set them ablaze one by one, from east to west, from south to north, tossing a fireball into every single house without exception.

Suddenly, when his divine sense swept across a building at the back of the mountain, he froze in astonishment!

From the outside, that structure looked completely ordinary—neither large nor small, and entirely unremarkable.

However, the interior of this building held a profound secret. Its rear hall contained a very ordinary side room, stacked with numerous wooden boxes filled with all sorts of items!

Furthermore, there was a hidden door inside the room. Behind the hidden door was a stairwell with dark stone steps leading straight down for over a hundred steps, terminating in what appeared to be a subterranean culvert.

The culvert was extremely long, leading to an unknown destination. It was cold and damp inside, with the faint sound of flowing water echoing through the passage.

The Spirit-Nourishing Spring! The culvert was actually completely filled with the Spirit-Nourishing Spring!

Although the culvert was not large—only about two meters high and two meters wide, with a water depth of roughly one meter—its length far exceeded Chutianfeng's divine sense, stretching for at least over a thousand meters!

Chutianfeng was overjoyed and wanted to charge right in, but upon catching sight of the formidable tail pursuing him from behind, he reluctantly dismissed the idea.

However, Chutianfeng was not one to pass by a mountain of treasures and return empty-handed; that was simply not his style!

While he could not take the Spirit-Nourishing Spring away, the materials in the side room could not be left behind.

By this time, almost all the disciples of the Celestial Master Sect had rushed out. Chutianfeng made a rough count, estimating there were over two hundred people, and that punk Peng Yongliang was conspicuously among them.

Most of these people were at the External Force or Internal Force stages, with very few at the Transformation Force stage—only one or two!

This differed greatly from the intelligence he had gathered previously, and remarkably, Yu Shigui was nowhere to be seen!

Naturally, he had no way of knowing that Yu Shigui was currently leading the elite members of the Celestial Master Sect toward the valley where Chutianfeng had once resided, preparing to extensively develop the Fengming "secret realm" he had left behind.

Chutianfeng had no time to ponder the reason for Yu Shigui's disappearance, nor did he care to attend to classmate Peng Yongliang. He deliberately circled a wide berth, drawing Yu Zuhui far away, before diving straight into the grand hall and plunging headfirst into the side room.

Inside those stacks of boxes, the majority were weapons: sabers, spears, swords, halberds, axes, hooks, forks—all eighteen traditional martial weapons were fully represented.

There were also some raw materials. To Chutianfeng's surprise, these materials were predominantly array-forming supplies, with only a very small fraction intended for weapon forging!

Geng iron and starry stones were stacked in huge boxes!

There was actually more here than what he had obtained in the secret realm!

Without the slightest hesitation, Chutianfeng swept all the materials into his storage ring!

Thank you, classmate Yu Shigui, for not being home today!

And thank you, classmate Yu Zuhui, for defending the homestead so diligently!

"You little bastard!" Just as Chutianfeng rushed out of the side room, Yu Zuhui happened to arrive. Without a word, a mighty surge of true essence came whistling toward him.

Chutianfeng laughed loudly, employing his wind-riding technique, and with a single leap, he burst through the roof tiles with a loud crash!

Landing on the rooftop, his hands danced rapidly through the air, sending a massive fireball hurtling back toward Yu Zuhui.

Yu Zuhui flickered to the side, dodging out of the way.

Boom!

The building beneath their feet suffered the brunt of the attack, and flames instantly surged into the sky!

"You little bastard! You'll come to a bad end!" Yu Zuhui unleashed another blast of true essence.

Chutianfeng ignored him entirely and drifted away toward another structure.

"Bye-bye! No need to see me out!" When the final building also transformed into a roaring inferno, Chutianfeng waved cheerfully at Yu Zuhui, his form dissolving into a wisp of light smoke as he vanished swiftly into the night sky.

As for where the remaining disciples of the Celestial Master Sect had gone to frolic, or whether Yu Zuhui and the others could extinguish the fire, he cared not at all.

His sole concern was the speed of his flying sword and his sustained flight duration.

After all, casting dozens of large fireballs had consumed a considerable amount of true essence.

Sure enough, after flying for less than an hour, by the time he reached Ning City, his true essence was nearly depleted. He had no choice but to find a random spot to cultivate, resuming his flight to Tianhai half an hour later.

He did not dare to seek out Xu Yan, choosing instead to simply give her a call.

To his surprise, he learned that Xu Yan was not in Tianhai at all, but rather at the Hengdian World Studios.

Finding an ordinary guesthouse, he meditated there for the entire night.

Early the next morning, he located an isolated spot, retrieved his Mercedes G-Wagon, and drove swaggeringly toward Elder Xu's farmhouse courtyard.

The courtyard remained unchanged—with its quiet gate and tranquil walls.

Chutianfeng once again assumed the pseudonym Liu Feng, claiming to be a friend of Qian Ling.

Hearing that Chutianfeng intended to pay Qian Ling's rent, Elder Xu and Granny Liu were naturally overjoyed. Granny Liu, in particular, pulled Chutianfeng aside and showered him with endless questions.

As the three of them were chatting and laughing, a series of pattering footsteps sounded from inside the house.

"Are you a friend of Qian Ling?" A sleep-dusked face appeared at the doorway.

It was none other than Tong Yu, wearing pajamas with her long, beautiful hair draped casually across her chest.

"Hello!" Chutianfeng stepped forward to greet her. "My name is Liu Feng."

Tong Yu extended her right hand to him with an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, I haven't changed my clothes yet."

The two shared a light handshake before each finding a small stool to sit on.

"Tong Yu, you're expecting a child, why didn't you sleep a bit longer?" Granny Liu chided gently.

"Heh, I heard the car engine upstairs and wanted to come down and take a look." Tong Yu forced a smile, turning her attention to Chutianfeng. "By the way, where did Qian Ling go? He didn't even make a phone call."

"Uh......" Chutianfeng shrugged his shoulders and said, "I heard he fled abroad."

Qian Ling's identity had long since been exposed, so he saw no need to keep it a secret.

"I really can't imagine that Qian Ling is actually a man." Tong Yu covered her mouth with her hand and yawned. "When did you two meet?"

"The last couple of years, I suppose." Fearing that saying too much would lead to a slip of the tongue, Chutianfeng hurriedly changed the subject. "So Miss Tong is pregnant, congratulations!"

He was somewhat surprised that Tong Yu had gotten pregnant so quickly.

He clearly remembered that before the Double Ninth Festival last year, Tong Yu did not even have a boyfriend. To think that in just half a year, she was already expecting.

"Thank you!" Tong Yu glanced at the Mercedes parked nearby and sighed. "Are you from the Liu family of Tianhai, or......"

"I am not from the Liu family." Chutianfeng frowned slightly, a faint sense of foreboding stirring in his heart.

"Of course he isn't," Granny Liu chimed in. "The people of the Liu family are cold and heartless. If he were one of them, he wouldn't have gone out of his way to come here and pay Qian Ling's rent."

Chutianfeng pondered for a moment before speaking. "Miss Tong, although I am not a member of the Liu family, I do have some clout with them. If necessary, I can help you seek justice from the Liu family."

He suspected that Tong Yu's pregnancy might be connected to the Liu family.

Tong Yu and Chen Zhili had treated him quite well in the past, and both logically and morally, he could not simply stand by and watch.

Besides, if the matter truly involved the Liu family, with his current abilities, he believed he could easily bring them to heel.

A flash of joy crossed Tong Yu's eyes upon hearing this, but it quickly faded into a look of grievance. "Forget it, I've already lost all hope in the Liu family."

"How can we just forget about it?" Another pajama-clad figure walked out from the house, plumping down heavily beside Tong Yu. "That bastard Liu Zijie must not be let off easily!"

Chutianfeng felt a jolt in his heart, thinking to himself that it was indeed as he suspected.

Last year, when Tong Yu mentioned that Liu Zijie had invited her to be the spokesperson for the Liu family's leather factory, he had suspected that Liu Zijie harbored ulterior motives.

Liu Zijie was a well-known playboy in Tianhai; how could he possibly offer an annual salary of three hundred thousand to hire a completely unknown model like Tong Yu as a spokesperson?

"Was it really Liu Zijie who did this?" Chutianfeng asked Tong Yu.

"Hmph! Who else could it be?" The other figure answered first.

Tong Yu bit her lip and gestured toward the newcomer. "This is my friend, Chen Zhili!" Then she pointed at Chutianfeng. "Liu Feng, a friend of Qian Ling."

Chutianfeng once again feigned the demeanor of a first-time acquaintance and exchanged pleasantries with Chen Zhili.

"Liu Feng?" Chen Zhili seemed rather dissatisfied with the surname Chutianfeng had fabricated. "Why do you share the surname Liu as well?"

"Pure coincidence." Chutianfeng gave an innocent shrug.

Up to this point, he had accumulated far too many pseudonyms.

Lin Feng, Liu Feng, Qian Ling, and so forth—these names were relatively easy to remember. If he adopted any more, he worried he wouldn't even be able to keep track of them himself.

"Is it true what you said earlier about being able to seek justice from the Liu family?" Chen Zhili asked again.

"Of course." Chutianfeng looked at Tong Yu. "If I tell the Liu family to go east, they wouldn't dare to go west; if I order the Liu family to beat a dog, they certainly wouldn't dare to scold a chicken."

To be frank, he had never harbored much fondness for the Liu family to begin with. While he had wanted to teach them a lesson, he had lacked a suitable pretext. Now that such an opportunity had presented itself, he certainly wasn't going to let it slip away.

"Good, then let's go straight to the Liu family and demand an explanation!" Chen Zhili stood up abruptly, grabbing Tong Yu by the hand.

A look of hesitation crossed Tong Yu's face. "Th-this......"

It wasn't that she distrusted Chutianfeng, but they had only just met, and she felt somewhat embarrassed to have a stranger fight her battles for her.

Grasping her train of thought, Chutianfeng smiled and said, "Miss Tong, rest assured. Qian...... Chutianfeng and I are like brothers. He once told me how wonderfully you and Miss Chen treated him. For me to help you out a little on his behalf is really no trouble at all."

"Go ahead, Tong Yu," Granny Liu advised from the side. "Go and talk things over properly with the Liu family. You are already over three months pregnant; you can't drag this out any longer."

"Let's go." Chen Zhili continued to hold Tong Yu's hand, turning her head to call out to Chutianfeng. "Pardon us a moment while we go change our clothes downstairs."

"Very well!" Chutianfeng nodded.

Before long, Tong Yu and Chen Zhili emerged in different attire, hurrying down the stairs.

Tong Yu wore a cyan long dress paired with towering high heels, while Chen Zhili was dressed in a slightly more casual outfit consisting of a earth-yellow long-sleeved T-shirt and a skirt that fell past her knees.

Chutianfeng bid farewell to Elder Xu and Granny Liu, hopped into the driver's seat, tapped the accelerator lightly, and the vehicle roared out of the courtyard, heading straight toward the Liu residence.