Da Xuan Martial Saint

Chapter 107: Chapter 103: 50 Steps

"Hmm?"

Chen Mu slightly narrowed his eyes as he looked towards the courtyard entrance.

When a martial artist advanced to the Tendon Changing Perfection, it wasn't merely about cultivating a strength strong enough to twist steel. The abundant Qi-blood also rendered their senses, especially hearing and sight, much keener than an ordinary person's. They might not be able to hear a mosquito flapping its wings, but they could detect nearby rustling in the grass with relative ease.

The strange noise was coming from the direction of the Yu family's residence.

If it were during the day, Chen Mu might not have cared, but at this point in time, it was deep into the night. He had been in his bedroom comprehending the Thunderclap Diagram and hadn't rested until now. He had come out to the courtyard merely because he was a bit fatigued from the intense focus and wanted to look at the moonlight to relax, planning to rest afterward.

A glint of light flashed in Chen Mu's eyes, and without any signal, he effortlessly leaped several meters in a single bound and landed outside the courtyard, then vanished into the darkness.

...

Under the dim moonlight.

A figure swiftly moved through the darkness, stealthily avoiding a patrol team from the Yu Family. Heading north, it wasn't long before he reached the outermost area of the Yu residence.

He wore a black headband and donned pitch-black nightwear. Seeing he had reached the outer edge of the Yu family's area, he glanced back with a sneer in his eyes before quickening his pace to swiftly exit the Yu family's territory.

But.

Just as he was about to step over the last alley surrounding the Yu residence.

A figure suddenly appeared in the darkness ahead, standing silently as if they had been waiting for him for a long time.

"Hmm?"

The black-clothed man's gaze shifted slightly.

His first instinct was to avoid them immediately, but at that moment, the clouds obscuring the moonlight parted slightly, brightening the moon's glow, which illuminated the figure in the darkness.

The person was dressed in a thin sleeping robe, appearing to have just woken up, and looked quite young, in his early twenties at most, with an odd and perplexed expression as he looked on.

The black-clothed man's heart settled.

It's handled.

He had thought it was some skilled expert from the Yu family that had appeared, which had given him a fright, but it turned out to be, seemingly, just a younger member of the Yu family who had gotten up in the middle of the night.

Although he wondered why someone would wander about in such flimsy attire at this late hour, whether for romance or other reasons, it clearly seemed like an accident, not a threat.

Once past this street, it would no longer be Yu territory. He could then hide with ease, and by the time the Yus realized what had happened and turned their residence upside down, they would not find him. Moreover, the person he had kidnapped was merely an infant girl from a collateral branch of the Yu family.

It was unlikely that they would muster all their forces, facing pressure from other families, to conduct a widespread search throughout the Inner City.

Right then.

The black-clothed man stopped avoiding confrontation and confronted the young man head-on. As he reached the young man, he suddenly lashed out with a palm strike, accompanied by a fierce gust of wind, intending to kill his opponent with a single blow.

However, his sudden attack only caused a sharp gleam to flash through the young man's perplexed eyes, and his face instantly turned icy cold.

In the moonlight.

The young man counterattacked with a palm strike of his own.

Bang!

The palms collided in midair, producing a dull, resonant buzz.

The black-clothed man's expression changed drastically.

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He felt an unstoppable formidable force rush through the point of contact, numbing his hand instantly. The force continued to travel and radiate, cracking the bones in his entire arm. Instead of sending his whole body flying back, the force exploded inside his arm only.

In the blink of an eye, the black-clothed man's arm twisted grotesquely, going limp.

"You..."

He looked at Chen Mu in shock, hastily leaping back, attempting to flee.

In his heart, disbelief surged.

Bone Tempering!

Such a terrifying force undoubtedly belonged to someone in the Bone Tempering Realm. His own level of Tendon Changing Major Achievement couldn't withstand even one strike, but how was it that the man looked so unfamiliar, someone he had never seen before, and clearly under thirty?

Where did the Yu family get such a young Bone Tempering Realm character?!

In his frantic escape.

But before he could get far, Chen Mu's figure once again appeared before him. Chen Mu looked at him coldly and said, "Speak. Who are you, and what have you come to the Yu family for?"

Chen Mu had followed him the whole way. Previously unsure of the black-clothed man's intentions or actions, he had refrained from making a move, driven more by curiosity. But since the man attacked without a word, his malicious intent was clear.

"Hehehe..."

With his left arm twisted and dangling uselessly, the black-clothed man maintained a composed face and let out a chilling laugh, resting his right hand at his bosom as he said viciously, "Don't move, or I'll kill her!"

Chen Mu's brow furrowed.

Then he saw the black-clothed man open his bulging nightwear, revealing the small infant girl hidden within.

Now quite close, and with the moon providing sufficient light, Chen Mu immediately recognized the baby's face, and the familiar birthmark below the eye. It was indeed Yu Zhen's daughter, who had just turned one month old, Yu Yao.

Although he didn't know why the man would want to kidnap an infant girl, the malice no longer required discerning.

"Who is she?"

Chen Mu saw the black-clothed figure holding the infant girl in his right hand, slowly retreating into the darkness, so he calmly took steps to follow.

The black-clothed figure let out a cold laugh, "There's no need to play innocent with me. You can't possibly not recognize her, and even if you truly don't know, you can guess that she is of the Yu Family's bloodline. If you don't want her to die, stay back."

As he spoke, he continued to retreat into the darkness.

However, Chen Mu did not stop, but continued to follow, and said indifferently, "Put her down, and I'll let you go. Otherwise, you won't be able to leave."

At such a time, hesitating because of worry was the most foolish act. The black-clothed figure before him was an unknown factor, and if out of concern for Yu Yao's life he simply let the figure go, the likelihood that the Yu Family would be able to find Yu Yao later was slim.

After all, the fact that the other party dared to do such a thing meant that they had certainly planned it in advance and it might even be someone from the He Family giving instructions from the shadows.

"Stop!"

The black-clothed figure repeatedly shouted coldly, but was unable to scare Chen Mu. Seeing that Chen Mu was not trying to pursue him quickly, but just keeping a distance, the expression beneath the mask suddenly turned extremely ugly.

The man before them was not only young in appearance but also astonishing in strength, and he handled himself in such a shrewd manner. He neither acted rashly, forcing the figure into a corner, nor allowed him to escape, just continually blocking his path.

Just then.

In the distance, a faint light of fire appeared; it was the Yu Family's night patrol arriving nearby.

Seeing the situation growing increasingly dire, once surrounded by the Yu Family's forces, there would be utterly no chance to escape. The black-clothed figure's gaze sank, and through gritted teeth, he said, "Thirty steps! Give me thirty steps, and I'll put her down. Otherwise, she and I will die together!"

"...Fine."

Chen Mu glanced at the firelight not far away.

The black-clothed figure's judgment was indeed shrewd. From the palm strike a moment ago, he determined that Chen Mu had nearly the strength of a Martial Artist in the Bone Tempering Realm, and the thirty steps he requested were a delicate distance—just inside the range that he could pursue.

As expected.

The black-clothed figure first retreated slowly backward, stopping at a position approximately thirty steps away, then slowly placed the infant girl down. He picked up a pebble and looked coldly at Chen Mu while continuing to retreat.

Thirty steps—Chen Mu would definitely be able to catch up to him. But by putting the girl thirty steps away from Chen Mu and holding onto a tiny pebble, within fifteen steps, his pebble would undoubtedly be faster.

Therefore, before he continued to retreat to a distance about fifteen steps away, Chen Mu would certainly not dare to chase.

And like this.

Adding another fifteen steps to the distance, making it a total of forty-five steps, even if Chen Mu was a Martial Artist in the Bone Tempering Realm, it would be difficult for him to catch up in the dark of night, let alone take his life from a distance beyond forty-five steps.

Indeed, observing this, Chen Mu narrowed his eyes slightly and stood still.

Meanwhile, the black-clothed figure's heart grew certain. Clutching the pebble in his right hand, he aimed it at Yu Yao and kept retreating step by step, until he was about fifteen steps away from Yu Yao—that is, forty-five steps away from Chen Mu.

Swish!

He suddenly hurled the pebble at Yu Yao and, at the same time, his entire body swiftly turned and bolted into the darkness.

"Hmph!"

Chen Mu let out a cold snort, having already grasped a pebble in his hand. He now hurled it fiercely, and the stone emitted a sharp whizzing sound as it sailed through the air, traveling thirty paces to strike the black-clothed figure's thrown pebble first, despite being released later.

The two stones collided in midair and exploded with a crack, like the pop of a firecracker.

"Waaaah!!!"

A cry sounded out under the night sky.

It was unclear whether the little stones flying about had scratched her, or if the loud noise had finally woken Yu Yao.

Hearing Yu Yao's cry, Chen Mu breathed a sigh of relief. Originally intending to check on Yu Yao first, he suddenly spun around, his right hand flipping to produce a second pebble.

Following that.

A flash of murderous intent in his eyes, he looked towards the black-clothed figure who had managed to flee fifty paces away, almost invisible in the darkness. With the pebble positioned between his index and middle fingers, he suddenly threw it with a backhanded flick.

This time, the stone did not emit a loud, piercing sound as it was launched, but rather an eerily silent one. It was like a streak of light cutting through the night, and in the blink of an eye, it vanished into the darkness, with only a slight 'pfft' sound heard faintly in the distance.

Afar.

The black-clothed figure was running for his life, inwardly rejoicing at his desperate wit that had allowed him to see another day, the pain in his left arm seemingly lessened.

But as he sprinted, a feeble 'swoosh' from behind sent a chill through his heart, hinting at a sense of immense danger approaching - as if the terror of life and death was descending upon him.

Almost without looking back, and without any thought, his body instinctively twisted, strenuously shifting slightly to the left. But right after, he saw a spray of blood suddenly appear before his eyes, along with a bloodstained pebble tracing a crimson arc before penetrating a bluestone wall dozens of steps ahead of him.

The black-clothed figure's pace slowed down.

He slowly looked down at his chest, only to see a hole, clean through from front to back, that had completely pierced his right chest, with blood continuously gushing out.

He came to a complete stop, coughing up blood that spilled from the corner of his mouth. Feeling the life and strength gradually draining from his body, his eyes revealed despair and incredulity.

"How..."

Using the last of his strength, the black-clothed figure laboriously turned his head to look behind him, but Chen Mu was too far to make out his features, barely discerning a faint outline in the night.

Thump.

He finally fell to the ground, his eyes growing dim.

A small pebble, a Martial Artist with Tendon Changing Major Achievement... struck dead from fifty steps away!