Chu Qing's guess was spot on. Not long after he left, just a stick of incense's time, two figures sprinted over.
"The bodies are here!"
Chu Fan was the first to arrive, scanning all around as if looking for someone.
That junior sister Wen said nothing, just stood to the side, holding a piece of cloth.
Faintly visible, the characters 'Night Emperor' fluttered in the wind.
After a long while, Chu Fan found nothing and then focused on the two charred bodies,
"Again, it was the Night Emperor's doing... Who exactly is this person?"
Junior sister Wen didn't respond, merely stared at the writing on the cloth.
Seeing this, Chu Fan waited a moment before asking,
"Junior sister, did you notice anything unusual?"
Junior sister Wen pondered slightly, then seriously replied,
"This person's handwriting... is really ugly."
"..."
Chu Fan seemed stunned for a moment, then chuckled wryly.
He was already used to his junior sister's personality and wasn't bothered by it.
Thinking back to just before, he couldn't help but frown,
"I also don't know where those two crazy women came from, truly detestable! Luckily the Night Emperor intervened, exterminating the Iron Horse Seven Bandits, or if they had escaped, who knows how many more innocents would suffer at their hands."
Upon hearing this, junior sister Wen thought for a moment and said,
"They were deceived."
Chu Fan nodded. After those two Iron Horse Seven Bandits left, they fought for a while, and only then did Chu Fan find an opportunity to explain.
Through a series of questions and answers, Chu Fan quickly clarified his background and origins.
Those two women immediately stopped fighting, feeling ashamed yet furious, saying those bandits dared to deceive them and deserved to be killed ten thousand times.
For now, they would seek out those two bandits, kill them, and then come back to apologize to Chu Fan.
After saying this, they leaped away and vanished in an instant.
It almost made Chu Fan jump on the spot out of frustration... just because they chased in a direction completely opposite from where the Iron Horse Seven Bandits had left!
Who knew if those two were genuinely that stupid or had ulterior motives?
Afterward, he and junior sister Wen tracked them, but halfway through, they saw those two horses carrying human heads.
"No matter how you look at it, the demise of the Iron Horse Seven Bandits is ultimately a good thing."
Upon saying this, Chu Fan suddenly thought of something and asked,
"By the way, junior sister, when we were chasing them earlier, how did you disappear as soon as I turned my head? Where did you go?"
Junior sister Wen still showed no emotion on her face and replied solemnly,
"I saw a flower between the mountain and stream. It was blooming beautifully, so I went to pick it."
"... I shouldn't have asked you!"
Chu Fan was so upset that his teeth gnashed; if someone else had said this, it would've certainly been a lie.
But junior sister Wen... never lied.
She truly was the kind of person capable of doing such things.
Unreliable!
Unreliable to the extreme!
But Chu Fan was genuinely accustomed to it.
In the Taiyi Sect under Cui Bunu's Angerless Divine Fist, junior sister Wen wasn't the only unreliable one.
If the senior disciple was here...
Thinking of this, Chu Fan suddenly felt a toothache.
He sighed,
"No wonder Master calls himself Angerless but gets worked up by you all every day..."
...
...
[A Martial Arts Treasure Chest is unopened, would you like to open it?]
In a cave within the desolate mountain, Chu Qing roasted meat over a fire while opening the system interface.
This line of text immediately popped up.
"Open it."
Without hesitation, Chu Qing immediately chose to open it.
He eagerly anticipated what kind of items might come out of this second treasure chest.
The notification followed.
[Opening successful, gained lightweight technique: Golden Swan Skill!]
Streams of information poured into his mind like water, while the meridians and corresponding parts of his body slightly heated up.
After a while, everything settled down.
After sorting the information, Chu Qing smacked his lips, feeling a bit disappointed,
"... it's not an inner power skill."
What he anticipated most now was to obtain a powerful inner power skill from the treasure chest.
Then he could soar into the sky, fearing no one.
With Ah Fei's Swift Sword at his side, he believed that in a one-on-one situation, even if the opponent's inner power surpassed his, he could still kill them with one strike.
But if he were caught in a siege, or if the opponent's inner strength was vastly superior, he would be in danger.
"Inner power is still the shortcoming... Nevertheless, the Golden Swan Skill is no ordinary lightweight technique.
"After achieving great success, one can walk through the air for thirty-seven steps. I just wonder how far I can go with my current inner strength?"
With a thought, he leaped into the air, diving out of the cave like a swallow returning to the forest.
When he landed, he tapped with his foot and soared up again, stepping through the air, covering about three lengths before exhausting his strength.
But at this moment, his inner breath shifted, and he leaped nearly a further length into the air, landing on a tree.
"[Golden Swan Skill] does not excel in travel and speed, but the air-stepping and energy-raising method is indeed extraordinary.
"With this lightweight technique, many difficult-to-traverse places can be easily skipped.
"It complements my family's [Chasing Star and Moon Step] quite well!"
With a turn of his foot, he descended, returning to the cave,
"If used well, this lightweight technique can save lives at crucial moments.
"As for inner power... let's see if we can draw it next time."
Thinking this, he continued roasting meat, and after a hearty meal, sat cross-legged to begin practicing the Ruo Xu Scripture.
In the past half-month, the more he practiced the Ruo Xu Scripture, the more he felt its intricacies.
And whether it was due to his time-traveling, his body seemed somewhat affected, as his practice speed in the past half month was much faster than in the original owner's memory.
By now, he was hovering at the edge of the fourth layer, and tonight he might just enter into the fourth layer's realm.
The night passed without incident, and in the morning Chu Qing opened his eyes, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes.
"The Ruo Xu Scripture has already progressed into the fourth layer, and the inner breath has become more substantial.
"This inner power's breath is steady and continuous, in simple terms, it's durable.
"If someone else's inner power is comparable to mine, after an hour of fighting their strength would be exhausted, but I could last three hours and still have energy left."
With inner power advancing another level, Chu Qing felt quite pleased.
Breakfast was simple, just a few chicken-hearted fruits and some leftover meat from last night to suffice.
After carefully erasing all traces of his presence, he continued heading towards Celestial Dance City.
Now, he was already within the range of Celestial Dance City, and with his pace, he could arrive in at most seven days.
And this journey had been peaceful enough.
The City Lord of Celestial Dance City, Wu Ganqi, was chivalrous and governed well, making it rare to see martial world feuds in his jurisdiction.
However, just on the sixth day of his disguised journey, a small accident occurred.
With less than a day's journey left to Celestial Dance City, Chu Qing was using lightweight technique to rush through the forest, and upon landing and taking a breath, just as he was about to leap again, he suddenly noticed something unusual.
Less than three feet beneath him lay a corpse.
"Celestial Dance Guard?"
In an instant, Chu Qing recognized the clothing as that of the Celestial Dance Guard.
"How could a Celestial Dance Guard die here?"
Curious, he moved closer to inspect, but unexpectedly, the corpse's eyes suddenly opened!