Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 388 - 382 Shasha (Part 1)

Chapter 388: Chapter 382 Shasha (Part 1)

Upon hearing this voice, Shasha’s face changed immediately, first to nervousness, but then to sheer panic, eliciting pity.

"Godfather... when did you come back? Why didn’t you let me know, so I could have come to greet you?"

She timidly stood up from her seat, looking toward the entrance.

The doors of the Peacock Hall were suddenly forced open by an external power.

A burly man with a full beard and side whiskers walked in with his men.

As soon as he saw Shasha, the burly man’s eyes shot fire.

"My dear daughter, I thought you truly wanted to live a good life with me... but I never expected that you would secretly take my treasure and flee this far on your own."

"Fossil Mountain’s Dongfu!?" On seeing the burly man, Chief Affairs Officer Su Mu stood up in shock.

"Oh? The Su Family youngster? What a coincidence to meet you here. It seems we’re fated." Dongfu laughed with a heh heh, but his gaze quickly returned to Shasha.

At this moment, there was still no sound from the guards outside, evidently, they had been silently taken down by this man and his subordinates.

"Alright, girl, come home with daddy nicely, and we can live together in the cave, undisturbed by anyone."

Dongfu sneered a few times and strode directly towards Shasha, completely ignoring everyone else present.

Shasha’s complexion shifted slightly.

"Godfather, are you intending to take me back to do those things?" she cried out in a tone filled with pity, misery, and despair.

"I admit I took your treasure, but that was only because I wanted to borrow its power to escape..."

"What nonsense are you talking about?!" Dongfu felt something was off as he listened. "Come on, let’s go back!"

He quickly approached Shasha and reached out to grab her.

"Stop!"

Suddenly, Rongyan, who was next to Wang Peng, spoke up in protest.

"With such vile intentions, do you not feel any shame?"

Wang Peng, nudged by his wife, also stood up helplessly.

"Alright, alright, can we all just calm down and sit down to talk this over?"

"Talk? Shasha is mine! What right do you have to talk to me?" Dongfu’s expression changed as he spoke coldly. "Out of respect for the Su Family, I’ll consider sparing all of you if each one of you offers me a right leg to accompany my drink. Otherwise... heh heh, I’ll make you wish you were dead!"

"Dongfu... aren’t you being a bit too disrespectful to me? These people are distinguished guests on my boat!" Su Mu saw the atmosphere freeze instantly and quickly stepped forward, raising his voice.

"I’ve already shown enough respect to the Su Family..." Dongfu laughed coldly with a heh heh.

Lin Xin, witnessing the scene, and recalling what had happened on the deck earlier, had also roughly understood who Shasha truly was.

The bearded burly man in front of him was evidently a famous figure within the nearby Demon Path.

Hearing the man’s boastful claims, he wasn’t angry but merely smiled and inquired.

"May I ask, good sir, what did she steal from you?"

"Who the hell are you calling ’good sir’?!" The bearded man kicked furiously at Lin Xin, his boot even bringing up a gust of yellow demonic wind.

Whack!

Unsurprisingly, his boot was met squarely by Lin Xin’s leg.

Boom!!

A terrifying force burst forth instantaneously.

Embodying his full demonic power, the man was kicked by Lin Xin and sent flying backwards, smashing through the wooden planks of the Peacock Hall and thrown far into the river.

Faint sounds of him coughing up blood could be heard from mid-air.

Then... there was no follow-up, as the men he brought with him turned tail and ran, as if they had seen a ghost.

The entire Peacock Hall fell silent.

Su Mu was stunned for a moment, looked at Dongfu and his men who had fallen into the river, quickly recovered, and gave Lin Xin a wry smile.

"I’m sorry... Mr. Lin."

Wang Peng and the others were also secretly impressed; they had never seen Lin Xin make a move against someone before, but this time with a simple display of brute force, he sent the man flying. It was just not on the same level.

Perhaps the one sent flying wasn’t a person, but a demon.

Shasha witnessed it all, her eyes shook, and she felt secretly relieved, knowing she had latched onto a big fish. Her delicate and lovely face immediately wore a pitiful expression.

"Lucky that the gentleman stepped in to help, otherwise Shasha would have really been miserable this time..."

"It was merely a reflex action." Lin Xin said with a smile.

At his current realm, aside from the old monsters like Yuan Jing and those above, there was not much that could catch his eye.

Just now, all he did was a light kick, and though to him it felt very light, the result was the opposite; the man floated away like a balloon with a single bump, with no power to resist.

The outcome was both unexpected and reasonable.

Afterwards, the man didn’t come back anymore, clearly frightened by that kick.

The group continued their breakfast in the Peacock Hall, which they had not finished earlier. Under the persistent questioning from everyone, Shasha tearfully recounted her ordeals.

It turned out she possessed an extremely unique physique. This physique attracted the covetousness of her own clan, who wanted to use her as a Cauldron for their cultivation. Her parents had died because of such a physique, and she had secretly fled alone to escape her fate. Though she stumbled along the way, she was never able to shake off the shadow of her pursuers.

During her journey, she encountered many people with ill intentions towards her and was repeatedly tricked, barely escaping with her life.

After such a harrowing experience, she was eventually taken in by Su Mu, the kind-hearted Chief Affairs Officer, who agreed to give her a lift on his boat.

But to her dismay, the people pursuing her still managed to catch up.

Her almost seamless and genuine story of survival touched everyone deeply, even Wang Peng, the chubby one, couldn’t help but look sideways.

Lin Xin shook his head slightly and decided not to delve further into the girl’s problems. After all, enemies of that caliber were nothing more than an easy task for him to handle.

Days passed by.

Five days quickly went by.

The second group, claiming to be from the Beichen Villa and led by the villa’s eldest son, flew onto the ship, also in search of Shasha.

Seeing the lustful and menacing look in the eldest son’s eyes, Lin Xin had Wang Peng send them away.

Little did he know, this was just the beginning.

The Net Fiend Gang, the Southern Martial Quentin Sect, the Zhao Xuan Sect, the Boundless Star Sword Sect... a whole mess of various forces came knocking on their door one after another, all looking for Shasha.

It was unclear whether it was due to the message initially spread by Black Beard Dongfu, but the number of pursuers kept increasing, with many of them being Foundation Establishment Cultivators.

Lin Xin and his party were already on a journey to comprehend Taoist Intent, so the arrival of one wave after another of intent-level Foundation Establishment Cultivators was conveniently serving their purpose. Despite the variation in their cultivation levels, they all came in groups, which was advantageous.

Lin Xin, having ensnared batches of them for slow practice, found the process rather relaxing.

He simply stopped caring about the reason Shasha brought so much trouble with her, treating her as a magnet for attracting hatred instead.

While all attention was focused on the events at the Sand Time Divine Palace, with no news from the many experts who had entered, the outside world was lacking leadership, quietly waiting.

Yuan Jing experts were congregated around the Demonic Canon and the Taoist canons, either in the Outer Regions or at headquarters, not lingering in the outside world. Thus, Lin Xin feared nothing.

Within just five short days, they dealt with more than twenty groups of people from various factions, mostly from small forces and some mid-scale force experts, but they only had cultivation close to that of Alchemy Dao.

They were at a stage not much different from Fei Pengzi.

Eventually, after the fleet’s slow drift, they arrived at Liaocheng.

**********************

Blue sky, white clouds, and the splash of water against the hull of the boat marked their arrival at the docks, where vessels of various sizes were either moored or moving slowly.

Lin Xin and his group had just walked down the boarding plank to stand on the stone surface of the dock, stretching their bodies after so long on the ship.

After so many continuous days aboard, even their bones felt loose.

Surrounded by members of the Su Family, Su Mu stood to one side.

"Mr. Lin, why not come and visit the Su family estate? The Family Head has long admired your reputation and has prepared a feast just waiting for you to take your seat," Su Mu said.

"Chief Affairs Officer, you are too kind," Lin Xin replied with a smile. "However, we have other plans and are pressed for time. Once we have a moment to spare, we will be sure to visit the Su estate."

Su Mu felt regretful, knowing that Lin Xin was just making an excuse. The formality of a future visit, if taken seriously in these times, would prove him a fool.

"Well then, since Mr. Lin has other matters, we shall meet another time. This is a special token from the Su Family; possessing it allows you to enjoy a 30% discount in Liaocheng or the surrounding cities on any merchandise. Please accept it as a token of the Family Head’s goodwill." Since the invitation was declined, he quickly presented the prepared token.

It was a small token shaped like a flying bird with a large ’Su’ character engraved in the center.

Without much fuss, Lin Xin accepted the token and thanked him.

The recent events apparently revealed to Su Mu the formidable strength of Lin Xin’s group.

In these times, Foundation Establishment Cultivators could almost be considered as pillars within smaller sects.

His small squad contained several members at the Foundation Establishment, or Intent Level, which made them a force worth befriending even without considering their background.

After amicably saying farewell to each other, Lin Xin was about to leave.

Wang Peng, however, came up to him looking embarrassed.

"Your Highness, that girl Shasha has disappeared, and along with her, our supply packs..."

Those packs contained not only his and his wife Qiuling’s entire fortune but also a bunch of loot they had acquired in the previous days, including several Third Grade weapon artifacts. There was also his most treasured Ice-Fire Taiji Diagram, an item of critical importance that he believed to be a Fourth Grade or higher magic artifact!

"I told you all to be careful," said the woman with the tall headwear, who was also disembarking. The young boy with her seemed to understand something and couldn’t help but speak out sarcastically.

"That girl is a thief! She tried to steal from us, if not for..."

"Alright, Ollie," the woman interrupted her apprentice, giving Lin Xin a look before aloofly departing.

Lin Xin’s expression, however, remained unchanged.

"When did she disappear?" he asked nonchalantly.

"Just now. I checked the luggage and found that everything has been switched out, except for the weight..." Wang Peng whispered.

The chubby one and Fei Pengzi both had reddened faces, embarrassed that so many Foundation Establishment experts couldn’t keep an eye on a young girl, allowing her to stealthily take their possessions right under their noses. If this were to get out, they would lose all face.

"I see," Lin Xin replied, simply smiling without further comment, as if the loss was none of his business.

That was the Ice-Fire Taiji Diagram, an exceptional magical artifact that he once assessed to be of Fourth Grade or higher! Regardless, one wouldn’t expect him to be so indifferent about its loss.