Ying Chen watched Ashiya Douman's corpse disappear underwater and said lightly, "Everyone dies, without exception."
"Why wouldn't you die?"
With that, Ying Chen tapped the water surface with his toe.
Like a gliding mayfly, he instantly left a long ripple on the water's surface and headed towards the shore.
Before long, he vanished into the distant night.
At this moment, a gentle breeze blew away the smell of blood that permeated the lake.
The small boat Ashiya Douman had been in floated gently towards the depths of the lake like a willow leaf, drifting further and further until it was hidden in the shimmering waves.
The Hu family.
Old Hu, with a worried expression, finally let out a sigh of relief after seeing Ying Chen return.
"Good, good…"
"Looking at Mr. Ying's complexion, did Mr. Ying drive off the enemy?"
Seeing Ying Chen's relaxed demeanor, Old Hu couldn't help but ask tentatively.
Unexpectedly, Ying Chen shook his head.
Old Hu was stunned.
"So it was a draw, Mr. Ying couldn't keep him, and he couldn't keep Mr. Ying?" Old Hu asked again.
Ying Chen shook his head again.
Old Hu was completely bewildered.
It wasn't that Ying Chen had driven the other party away, nor was it a draw.
Could it be…
Old Hu looked at Ying Chen with disbelief: "Could it be that Mr. Ying was superior and directly killed the opponent?"
After all, Old Hu had been worried that Ying Chen would not be Ashiya Douman's match before.
Now that he suddenly realized that Ying Chen seemed to have killed Ashiya Douman, he was naturally filled with shock and disbelief.
"Killed?" Ying Chen's eyes flickered. "Strictly speaking, it doesn't count!"
"..."
This time, Old Hu was completely confused.
Ying Chen had negated almost all of his guesses.
He suddenly didn't know how to ask.
He also had no idea what the situation was between Ying Chen and Ashiya Douman.
Could it be that their battle had become Schrödinger's cat, and until the box was opened, the cat's life or death inside would never be known?
This was why Ying Chen negated all of Old Hu's guesses?
Old Hu felt a bit absurd.
But he didn't dare to say anything to Ying Chen.
He could only murmur, "No matter what, it's good that Mr. Ying is back…"
"How about I request the higher authorities to send some elite soldiers to protect us?"
Before retiring, Old Hu was a powerful figure. What he called a request was actually just a word.
But unexpectedly, Ying Chen sneered, "Soldiers? Forget it! Not to mention it's unnecessary, even if it were, it would be a futile sacrifice of lives. The methods of the Xuanmen are traceless, and they are insidious and vicious. I'm afraid the soldiers would be silently dealt with before they even find the opponent."
"If you really want to counter the assassination of Xuanmen masters, you can only deploy hundreds or thousands of troops. The vigorous vitality emanating from each soldier can form a natural barrier, greatly reducing the effect of Xuanmen masters' sorcery or making it ineffective."
"A mere dozen soldiers would only be cannon fodder."
Hearing Ying Chen's explanation, Old Hu suddenly understood.
No wonder there were so few instances of Xuanmen masters directly confronting armies in this world.
So, when the army gathered, it had such an effect!
Not to mention that some of the military's weapons of mass destruction were even more terrifying than Xuanmen sorcery.
If the military was really provoked, a missile would be fired directly.
How could Xuanmen masters dodge or escape?
They would be vaporized into gas!
Even Ying Chen couldn't help but sigh at the terrifying nature of modern technology after seeing the effects of some great weapons.
However, Ying Chen had long since reached the realm of "feeling the autumn wind before it blows, and the cicada anticipating it."
This meant that before the great weapons were fired, Ying Chen could sense the enemy's killing intent and the arrival of danger, thus evading them in advance.
Or, Ying Chen could simply enter a city and walk on the street openly. This would be equivalent to binding himself to the city's civilians. Under the enemy's fear of harming the innocent, they would not dare to rashly use great weapons.
They would be forced into a small-scale confrontation with Ying Chen.
And at that time, the scales of victory would only tip towards Ying Chen.
"Hmm? Finally couldn't resist?"
Suddenly, Ying Chen looked in the direction he came from, a mocking smile on his lips, and muttered to himself.
Old Hu asked in surprise, "Mr. Ying, what are you talking about?"
Ying Chen didn't answer, but instead, with a flash of his body, he said, "You can rest now, I'll be back soon."
"Mr. Ying…"
Old Hu wanted to say something but stopped.
And in that moment of hesitation, Ying Chen was already gone.
Old Hu looked in the direction Ying Chen had gone and sighed deeply.
He had wanted to persuade Ying Chen not to fall into a stratagem of luring the tiger away from its mountain, but doing so would make him seem cowardly and wanting Ying Chen to stay as his bodyguard.
"Forget it, I survived the battlefield back then. In my old age, I've started to fear death."
"When a person dies, their roots return to the earth; when they don't, they live forever! What's there to fear!"
"Sleep!"
Old Hu, however, had regained his former demeanor and strode towards his bedroom.
…
Gurgle, gurgle.
Bubbles kept rising from the area where Ashiya Douman had died. Those who didn't know would think a large fish was blowing bubbles below.
Ashiya Douman's eyes, which had been burst, surprisingly opened, emitting a strange bloody light!
His eyeballs seemed to have come alive, spinning in the water.
The bubbles at the bottom of the water were caused by these two eyeballs spinning!
As the eyeballs spun, the surrounding water formed a strange hexagram pattern.
Bang!
The two eyeballs burst with a loud noise, and the scattered blood splattered onto the hexagram pattern.
The next second, the hexagram pattern blazed with blood-red light, and the entire lake surface trembled.
A strong yin energy was drawn to the center of the hexagram pattern, and an egg-shaped bubble the size of a human head slowly emerged.
It seemed as if something was about to emerge from the bubble!
Pop!
The bubble made a popping sound, and a small, infant-like phantom rolled out.
The phantom first scanned its surroundings, then let out a sinister and eerie cold laugh.
"I said, how could I possibly die!"
"I'll remember this debt for now. Once I recover, I'll come back for revenge!"
"You'd better preserve that body of yours well for me, I'll need it!"
"If you break it, I'll make you wish you were dead more than alive!"
After the phantom finished speaking, it suddenly rose into the air, drifting away under the moonlight.
It vaguely resembled a ghost roaming in the night!
As soon as the phantom left, Ying Chen emerged from the darkness.
Ying Chen looked in the direction the phantom had gone and sneered, "A crow lands on a pig and can't see its own blackness!"
"You, who have lived for two hundred years, find it unreasonable that I, who have lived for two thousand years."
"Heh, I am at least genuinely alive, while you can only be like a homeless stray dog, constantly searching for a place to stay again and again!"