Faced with the three men blocking his path, Lin Mo Chen maintained a calm expression, although inwardly he was desperately searching for a way out.
Against two cultivators at the fifth level of Ling Qi and another at the sixth, even if he had already condensed his fifth fragment, confronting them directly would still be a particularly stupid way to die.
The main avenue stretched only a few hundred steps away. He merely had to reach it; in front of so many witnesses, his pursuers would be forced to retreat.
Unfortunately, the scarred man was still blocking the way toward the avenue.
"Boy, we don't want to hurt you," the man said without lowering his hand. "Hand over the merchandise along with the pendant, and afterward you'll be free to leave peacefully."
Lin Mo Chen nearly burst out laughing.
"Of course. I could also hand over my clothes before lying down on the ground, just to save you the trouble of knocking me over."
For an instant, surprise appeared on the faces of all three men.
Lin Mo Chen had no idea where he had found the confidence to speak to them like that. Perhaps, after spending the entire morning pretending to be an arrogant young master, part of the character had finally begun to take over.
From within the pendant, Huo Can let out an amused snort.
"Not bad, brat. At least you'll die with some dignity."
"Master, your words of encouragement always manage to touch my heart."
Without taking his eyes off his opponents, Lin Mo Chen quickly examined the surroundings. Wooden stalls stretched along both sides of the street, nearly all abandoned by their owners after they sensed the danger. Colored fabrics hung above the road from several ropes, while baskets and boxes were piled beside the walls among a few barrels.
"Master, can you detect any weaknesses?" Lin Mo Chen asked inside his mind.
"The scarred man is affected by an old injury in his right knee, while the one behind you recently suffered damage to the Huan Qi channels in his left shoulder. As for the one from the rooftop, his cultivation is unstable; he probably forced his way into the sixth level using pills."
Without showing any reaction, Lin Mo Chen quickly processed all the information before continuing:
"And which of those weaknesses will allow me to defeat them?"
"None. They're still stronger than you."
The corner of his lips twitched slightly.
"Then why are you telling me?"
"You asked about their weaknesses, not whether you were capable of exploiting them."
That old red-haired man had to be enjoying the situation far too much.
Faced with Lin Mo Chen's silence, the scarred man began to lose patience. Little by little, he lowered his hand toward the hilt of a short dagger hidden beneath his belt.
"It seems you don't understand your position, boy."
"I think I understand it better than you do."
After saying that, Lin Mo Chen calmly swept his gaze across the three men before pointing at the cultivator who had descended from the rooftop.
"Sixth level of Ling Qi, although your Huan Qi circulates unstably. You must have forced your breakthrough less than two months ago."
The smile immediately vanished from the man's face.
Without giving them time to react, Lin Mo Chen shifted his gaze toward the gray-robed man.
"Fifth level of Ling Qi, with a recent injury to the channels in your left shoulder. Whenever you try to raise your arm too high, energy gathers near your collarbone and causes you to lose strength."
The second attacker immediately turned pale. Finally, Lin Mo Chen fixed his gaze upon the leader.
"You're also at the fifth level, but your right knee never fully recovered from an old fracture. Although you walk normally, you place more weight on your left leg."
Disbelief and fear appeared in the eyes of the three attackers.
With his chin raised, Lin Mo Chen pretended that revealing their secrets had been completely trivial. Inwardly, his heart was pounding against his ribs hard enough to break them.
"I'll ask you again," he continued. "Are you certain you want to find out who taught me how to recognize all of that?"
For several moments, no one moved. Taking advantage of the silence, Lin Mo Chen stepped forward.
With the next step, he reduced the distance between himself and the scarred man even further, whose expression was beginning to reveal obvious hesitation. An unknown threat was always more terrifying than visible strength.
Perhaps it would truly work; after all, he might still be able to leave peacefully.
"Don't believe him," the sixth-level cultivator suddenly interrupted. "That brat is only at the fourth level of Ling Qi. If he had an expert protecting him, he wouldn't be wandering alone through the outskirts of the Lin Family market."
Shit. Lin Mo Chen had to suppress the urge to turn around and ask why the man could not simply behave like a stupid villain like all the others.
Upon hearing him, the scarred man regained some of his confidence before drawing his dagger.
"You almost fooled us, you damned brat."
With a cruel smile, the scarred man spun the dagger between his fingers before pointing it toward Lin Mo Chen.
"I wasn't trying to deceive you."
"Then hand over the pendant and prove it."
Without rushing, the three began to surround him.
Seeing the possibility of resolving the matter with words disappear, Lin Mo Chen took a step back and studied the street once again. To his right stood a stall covered in ceramic containers; to his left, a cart loaded with baskets and rolls of fabric remained beside the wall.
"Master, this would be an excellent moment to demonstrate the greatness of an ancient expert," he called inside his mind.
"I already helped you with the negotiation."
"That was before they tried to kill me!"
"I cannot control your body or fight for you, brat. Besides, I need to conserve my energy."
Fantastic. He had managed to obtain the only master who refused to intervene when trouble began.
Without giving him time to think of another strategy, the gray-robed man charged toward him and closed the distance in an instant.
"To the right!" Huo Can warned.
Lin Mo Chen tilted his body just as a fist swept past his cheek. The current of air created by the strike made his skin burn.
Turning on one foot, he accidentally drove his elbow into his attacker's left shoulder. A cry of pain echoed throughout the street.
Taking advantage of the surprise, he shoved the man backward with both hands until he crashed into one of the stalls. Several containers fell to the ground and shattered.
Any satisfaction vanished when a hand grabbed the back of his robe.
Suddenly, a brutal pull lifted him from the ground before throwing him against the nearby cart. Wood and baskets creaked beneath his back as sharp pain coursed through his entire body.
With a dark expression, the strongest of the three advanced toward him while cracking his knuckles.
"It seems you really do know a few things. Let's see how much you remember after I break a few of your bones."
Still unable to breathe properly, Lin Mo Chen placed one hand against the cart and struggled to rise.
On paper, a difference of two levels did not seem like much. After receiving the blow, however, the distance felt as enormous as the one separating a child from an enraged bull.
From the left, the scarred man approached with his dagger ready. Behind him, the second attacker had already recovered and was clutching his shoulder with a furious expression.
If he allowed them to surround him again, everything would end there.
"Brat, the rope above your head," Huo Can said.
He raised his gaze and spotted a thick rope holding several rolls of fabric above the street.
Without wasting any time, he tore one of the broken poles from the cart and threw it upward. The tip struck the rope but failed to break it.
"Put Huan Qi into your arm!" Huo Can's furious roar nearly deafened Lin Mo Chen.
Gritting his teeth, Lin Mo Chen gathered as much energy as he could before picking up another pole. This time, a faint current of Huan Qi flowed through his muscles as he threw it with all his strength.
A sharp snap echoed through the air as the pole tore through the rope.
Dozens of meters of fabric collapsed onto the street, trapping the scarred man before he could move away. Although his dagger managed to cut through part of it, the weight of the rolls eventually knocked him down.
Without waiting to see how long it would take him to escape, Lin Mo Chen leaped over the shattered baskets and ran toward the end of the street.
"Catch him!" someone roared behind him.
A rapid succession of footsteps immediately began closing in.
Huan Qi flowed into his legs, causing the four fragments of his pseudo-ring to vibrate as he accelerated as much as possible. A familiar pain pierced his core from the strain, but even that failed to make him slow down.
He only needed to reach the main avenue. The distance shrank to one hundred and fifty steps, then one hundred; when barely fifty remained, a shadow passed over his head.
Before he could react, the sixth-level cultivator landed in front of him and launched a kick directly at his chest.
He barely managed to cross his arms before a dull impact sent him flying several meters backward. He rolled across the ground until he crashed into the wall of a building, forcing all the air from his lungs.
"Did you really think you could escape?" the man asked as he approached without haste. "Hand over the items, and perhaps we'll settle for breaking one of your legs."
Coughing violently, Lin Mo Chen tried to stand. A metallic taste filled his mouth, and his left arm barely responded after blocking the kick.
The other two appeared behind the sixth-level cultivator. Several strips of fabric still hung from the scarred man's shoulders, and his expression promised an especially painful death.
"Master," Lin Mo Chen murmured, "tell me you have an idea."
"You could hand them the pendant."
Lin Mo Chen gritted his teeth.
"Very funny."
"Then you'll have to resort to something else."
Unable to find another way out, Lin Mo Chen felt the package hidden beneath his robe. Both vials of blood were still intact; beside them rested the red core of the Blazing-Scaled Lizard.
Although it was cracked and had lost much of its energy, it was still the core of a spiritual beast. Suddenly, an idea crossed his mind.
"Master, what would happen if I injected Huan Qi into this core?"
For the first time since the ambush began, Huo Can sounded alarmed.
"Don't do anything stupid. Its structure is damaged; if you introduce more energy, it could become unstable."
"How unstable?"
"Unstable enough to explode."
Slowly, a crooked smile appeared on Lin Mo Chen's face. Upon seeing it, the three men slowed their steps.
"Why are you smiling?" the scarred man asked.
"Because I just thought of something dangerous."
After pulling the red core from his robe, Lin Mo Chen held it between two fingers. A faint reddish light pulsed through the cracks.
The scarred man immediately recognized the object.
"A beast core!"
At that revelation, greed displaced every trace of anger within the three cultivators.
"Hand that over as well," the sixth-level cultivator ordered. "If you cooperate, we'll forget everything that happened."
"It seems you still don't understand."
Lin Mo Chen began slowly injecting Huan Qi into the core. A scarlet glow seeped through the cracks with increasing intensity, while waves of heat wrapped around his hand and the object emitted an unsettling hum.
"Brat," Huo Can warned, "stop before you lose your fingers."
Ignoring him, Lin Mo Chen smiled at the three men.
"One of you is at the sixth level and the other two are at the fifth. Perhaps you can withstand the explosion."
At those words, every trace of greed vanished from their faces, replaced by growing fear.
"But I'm much closer."
For an instant, all three appeared confused. Lin Mo Chen let out a low laugh while continuing to feed the core with his Huan Qi.
"You had better decide. Do you want to leave empty-handed, or would you rather find out whether I'm insane enough to detonate this while we're all still here?"
For a brief moment, only the humming of the core could be heard, accompanied by the cracking of new fractures spreading across its surface.
"He's bluffing," the scarred man said, although his voice no longer sounded so certain. "He wouldn't dare die over a few coins."
"Perhaps you're right."
As he introduced a little more Huan Qi, a small tongue of flame burst from one of the cracks.
The three men immediately stepped back. Lin Mo Chen also felt the urge to do so, but any movement would have ruined the scene he had just created.
"You're insane!" shouted the gray-robed man.
"After spending two months being as cautious as possible, I decided to enter a place where any cliché scenario could happen. What part of me made you think I was a reasonable person?"
None of them fully understood his words, but his tone was enough to convey the idea.
"Brat, you can no longer stabilize it," Huo Can warned.
Lin Mo Chen's smile immediately turned into confusion.
"What?"
"I warned you to stop."
Between his fingers, the core began trembling violently.
"Master, I thought it would calm down if I simply stopped feeding it energy."
"Who told you that?"
A scarlet glow illuminated the entire street.
Without thinking twice, Lin Mo Chen threw the core toward his opponents before diving behind a pile of boxes.
"Run!" roared the sixth-level cultivator.
A deafening explosion immediately shook the street.
From the center of the blast, a scorching wave filled with dust and debris swept through the street. Nearby windows shattered in its wake; several fabrics were engulfed in flames. Moments later, the shockwave struck Lin Mo Chen from behind, throwing him against the ground.
For several seconds, all he could hear was a sharp ringing.
With his head protected between his arms, he remained still until the debris stopped falling. The intense smell of smoke filled the air; every part of his body felt as though it had been beaten.
"Brat," Huo Can said, "check whether you still have all your limbs."
With cautious movements, Lin Mo Chen flexed his fingers before testing his feet.
"It seems so."
"What a pity. Perhaps losing an arm would have taught you to listen."
After pushing aside the broken boxes, Lin Mo Chen raised his head.
A small crater smoked in the center of the street. The scarred man lay against a wall, covered in dust and with several burns across his robe. A short distance away, his companion was trying to stand while clutching his injured shoulder.
Neither was dead, although neither seemed capable of pursuing him immediately.
Farther back, the sixth-level cultivator had managed to move far enough away to avoid the worst of the explosion. Blood ran from a wound on his forehead, but he was still standing.
Upon discovering that Lin Mo Chen was still conscious, his face hardened with killing intent.
"You little bastard…"
Damn it. Why did villains never stay on the ground?
Without waiting for him to finish the threat, Lin Mo Chen sprang to his feet and ran toward the main avenue; this time, no one managed to block his path.
Cries of alarm emerged from the nearby buildings. Several people leaned out of the windows, while hurried footsteps echoed from the main street.
"Stop!" the cultivator roared behind him.
Ignoring him completely, Lin Mo Chen continued running while thinking, Only an idiot would stand still in a situation like this.
Every breath sent sharp pain through his ribs, but the entrance to the avenue was already only a few steps away. Beyond it walked several guards dressed in dark blue robes, with the emblem of the Lin Family embroidered over their chests.
Never in either of his two lives had he felt so much joy upon seeing a group of men.
"Guards!" he shouted without caring about his dignity. "They're trying to murder a member of the Lin Family!"
At the shout, several heads turned toward him. Two guards recognized his clothing, drew their weapons, and ran to meet him, while the rest entered the side street.
When Lin Mo Chen looked over his shoulder, his pursuers had already disappeared.
Only several furious merchants remained, staring at the damage caused by the explosion of his precious beast core.
"Are you injured?" one of the guards asked while holding him by the arm.
"Nothing serious…" he answered between ragged breaths, suppressing the urge to curse every generation of the thieves' families. "They only tried to rob me."
Several gazes moved from his torn robe to the thread of blood running from the corner of his lips.
"Were you able to recognize them?"
Shaking his head, Lin Mo Chen explained that he had seen no emblems and heard no names. Accusing the wrong person without evidence could only bring him more trouble.
"They looked ordinary. Two were at the fifth level of Ling Qi, while the third had reached the sixth. They seemed interested in my belongings."
After observing the Lin Family symbol embroidered on his sleeve, one of the guards nodded.
"We'll inform the captain and search the surrounding area."
With two guards still investigating, Lin Mo Chen began the journey back toward the Lin Family residence. Along the way, several people observed his miserable condition with curiosity, although he no longer had the energy to care about them.
Only one thought occupied his mind: he had spent thirty-five gold coins to obtain two vials of blood and a beast core; less than an hour later, the core had exploded. Without a doubt, that had to be some kind of record.
"Master," he murmured, "was the explosion at least impressive?"
"You lost a beast core capable of increasing your cultivation speed."
"I'll take that as a yes. Besides, I'm still alive."
For several moments, Huo Can remained silent.
"That last part is true," he finally admitted. "You recognized that you could not win, used the environment, and sacrificed a resource to survive. It wasn't elegant, but it wasn't completely stupid either."
Despite his exhaustion, Lin Mo Chen could not help but smile. Coming from Huo Can, that could almost be considered praise.