"I know a little, but whether it's what I think it is, I'll need to see that person before I can be sure." Tan Luoxing gripped the wooden token in his hand tightly, then looked up and asked, "Where are those two now?"
Fan Wuxin replied, "The woman is gravely injured and unconscious. The man had Spirit-Locking Pins driven into him by my hand. Both are currently locked in the dungeon."
"I'll go take a look." Tan Luoxing turned and walked off without another word.
In the end, he still hadn't explained what the wooden token actually was. Fan Wuxin felt helpless but had no way to press the matter. After thinking it over for a moment, he rose and followed.
In the dungeon, Yang Kai, who had been circulating his Qi to recover, suddenly opened his eyes and sent a voice transmission to Qu Huashang: "Senior Sister, be careful—someone's coming."
Qu Huashang hurriedly sat up upon hearing this, her clear eyes fixed warily on the dungeon entrance. She suddenly felt Yang Kai's aura plummet, and instantly grasped his meaning. She suppressed her own presence as well, putting on the appearance of someone on the verge of succumbing to mortal injuries, her face deathly pale.
The two had barely finished feigning their conditions when a voice came from beyond the door: "Greetings, Elder Tan!"
"Mm." Another voice responded coolly. "Are the two people that Steward Fan brought back in here?"
"Yes."
"Open the door. I'm going in for a look."
"Yes, sir!"
The dungeon door was quickly unlocked, and a pale, clean-shaven middle-aged man walked in. His expression was somewhat gloomy, carrying a trace of unease. He looked up and saw Yang Kai, freezing abruptly in the doorway. A flicker of surprise passed through his eyes before he murmured, "It's you?"
"Hmm?" Yang Kai regarded him with suspicion. What did that mean? Since when do we know each other?
"After all these years, why did you come back?" the middle-aged man hissed.
Yang Kai was completely baffled, having no idea what the man was talking about. He was about to ask, but the man's face suddenly twisted into a vicious snarl, and he let out a cold, low laugh: "Fine then—since you've come back, you can leave your life behind!"
As he spoke, he raised his palm and struck down toward Yang Kai. The five elemental forces swirled within his palm, radiating tremendous power.
From the momentum of his strike, the force this man had condensed was unmistakably Fifth-Order Open Heaven, and he had clearly been cultivating at this level for many years—the five elemental forces were incredibly potent and extraordinarily refined. Of all the half-step Open Heaven cultivators Yang Kai had encountered so far, none surpassed him in this regard.
The strike came with overwhelming ferocity and killing intent—there was no question the man intended to take Yang Kai's life.
Yang Kai was furious. He had never met this man before in his life, and the fellow was trying to kill him on sight? What kind of logic was that? Had he truly still been bound by the Spirit-Locking Pins, he would have had no way to defend against this blow at all. Fortunately, Yang Kai had long since freed himself from their restriction.
He raised his palm to meet the attack head-on, channeling the power of his Dao Seal. His robes whipped about without any wind, snapping and fluttering wildly.
BOOM—! Yang Kai's figure swayed ever so slightly, and the small bed beneath him instantly shattered into splinters and dust. The middle-aged man, on the other hand, was struck with an expression of shock, hurtling backward through the air, spraying blood from his mouth.
The violent force from their clash swept outward in every direction. The dungeon was wholly incapable of withstanding it, and with a deafening roar, it collapsed.
"Move!" Yang Kai wrapped one arm around Qu Huashang's waist and shot upward.
Fan Wuxin had been rushing toward the dungeon. Before he could even get close to the entrance, a violent tremor erupted from below, followed immediately by the unmistakable sounds of combat.
Fan Wuxin was horrified. Before he could even begin to process what had happened, the ground suddenly fractured, and two figures burst from the rubble, landing not far beside him.
He turned to look, and his jaw dropped in disbelief.
These two—a man and a woman—weren't they the very same outsiders he had just captured? When he'd brought them in, the woman had been unconscious from her injuries, and the man had had Spirit-Locking Pins driven into him. By all rights, he shouldn't have been able to use any power at all. Yet here he was, radiating a fierce aura, his Emperor Yuan surging with vicious intensity—there was not the slightest hint of weakness.
BOOM BOOM BOOM—
Several more figures shot up from the collapsed dungeon below, all of them covered in dust and grime. One among them was deathly pale, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
Fan Wuxin cried out in alarm: "Elder Tan!"
The one who appeared injured was none other than Tan Luoxing, who had parted ways with him only moments ago. Seeing his state, Fan Wuxin knew at once that the outsider had injured him.
A chill ran down his spine. He knew perfectly well how powerful Elder Tan was—in all of Dingfeng City, fewer than five people could claim to surpass him. How long had they been separated? How had he been wounded so quickly?
To accomplish something like that in such a short time—just how strong were these outsiders?
"Cough, cough, cough!" Tan Luoxing coughed several times, expelling the blood that had pooled in his mouth. He stared at Yang Kai with a mixture of shock and horror, then bellowed, "This man is no outsider—he's a spy from Cang Lei City! Don't let him escape!"
At his command, a crowd of people converged from every direction.
Fan Wuxin was stunned. How had these two gotten tangled up with Cang Lei City? Had he been wrong this whole time—they weren't outsiders at all, but actual spies? There was no time to dwell on it. If Elder Tan said so, there had to be a reason. He quickly summoned a longsword and joined the encirclement.