The sky was dim and bright, and the early morning mist still shrouded the town by the river. Suddenly, a burst of rapid horse hooves quickly broke the tranquility of the town.
I saw a horseman coming from the north, arriving at the entrance of the town along the straight and spacious official road, and stopped in front of a tea shed.
This kind of tea shed beside the official road and in front of the market usually also serves breakfast. There are already early risers sitting in it, eating hot tofu puffs and freshly baked steamed buns.
Seeing the horse parked in front of the tea shed, they all cast surprised glances.
Wang Chen jumped off the horse, took the reins and tied it to the horse post next to him, and then said to the tea shed owner: "Shop, bring me a cage of steamed buns and two bowls of tofu. The tofu must be salty, and the tofu must be salty."
Then feed my horse hay and water, and remember to add more soybean meal and eggs."
The owner of the tea shed greeted him with a smile: "Okay, you can sit down first. The steamed buns and tofu will be served soon."
As a person like him who travels north and south doing small business, he has seen too many different kinds of people, and has long since developed a pair of sharp eyes that can see people indistinguishably.
Although Wang Chen was dressed in an ordinary way, this horse was definitely not something ordinary people could own.
Moreover, the horses have obviously run a long way, panting and sweating profusely, but they still retain their true character as a sacred horse!
The owner of the tea shed did not dare to show any slightness, so he called his wife to take care of the horse, and he gave Wang Chen a basket of steamed buns and tofu noodles.
Wang Chen picked up a bun with his chopsticks and swallowed it in two or three bites.
A familiar taste originating from Ling Zhiyuan’s memory!
Since Ling Zhiyuan's martial arts enlightenment, Ling Hongyun would take him hunting in the wild every once in a while to cultivate Ling Zhiyuan's martial spirit.
Every time he goes hunting, he has to get up very early, and then Ling Hongyun will first go to the tea shed in Qianhe Town to have breakfast.
The head of the Ling family likes the steamed buns and tofu puffs here very much.
However, for the young Ling Zhiyuan at the time, getting up early to go hunting was quite a painful experience.
But the buns still taste very good.
After finishing the breakfast and feeding his mount, Wang Chen threw down a few taels of silver and walked away.
Qianhe Town is only ten miles away from Anyang City, and it doesn't take much time to ride a horse. However, after passing through the town, he did not go straight to the distant city, but turned into another trail.
Not long after, a cemetery nestled among green mountains and green waters appeared in front of Wang Chen.
This cemetery is the Ling family cemetery, where the bones of clan members from past generations are buried.
Wang Chen first tied his mount in a secluded place, and then quietly sneaked into the Ling family cemetery without disturbing the tombkeepers.
The arrangement of the tombs in the cemetery is very particular. Ling Zhiyuan follows his father here every year to worship his ancestors, so he is very familiar with the situation inside.
He soon found a newly built tomb.
The name on the tombstone is Ling Hongyun!
Wang Chen stood quietly in front of the grave for a moment, then took out the prepared sacrifices from the storage space and placed them on the grave.
After lighting the incense candle, he knelt in front of the monument with three incense sticks in his hand and paid a great tribute to his father.
Wang Chen silently muttered in his heart: "Blood debt must be paid with blood. I will definitely avenge you and let the messengers get the punishment they deserve. If you violate this oath, you will be punished by heaven and earth!"
Making a blood oath, Wang Chen knelt down and kowtowed again.
When he stood up again, suddenly the life energy in his body surged, as if he had broken through some kind of barrier, and there was no longer any obstacle to the world around him, and his spiritual consciousness became particularly sharp.
Wang Chen's eyes flashed, and he vaguely grasped something.
As an explorer from the upper world, he obviously took a unique way to enter the world.
Wang Chen believed that other monks from the Haotian Realm would never be as down-to-earth as him after they arrived.
Apart from anything else, if another Jindan cultivator penetrated Ling Zhiyuan's body, would he, like Wang Chen, come to pay homage to the original body's father and kneel down to kowtow?
The pride of the Golden elixir monk won’t allow it!
But Wang Chen has no such mental baggage at all. He is truly integrating into this body and this world.
And the facts proved that Wang Chen's approach was correct.
He lit the paper money on the ground and left quietly.
Wang Chen was not worried that this would expose himself.
When the tombkeeper noticed something strange here and came to take a look, he would just think that it was some old friend of Ling Hongyun who didn't want to cause trouble and came to pay his respects.
After leaving the cemetery, Wang Chen found his mount and rushed to Anyang City.
This time when he "went home", of course, he did not use his original appearance to avoid being recognized before entering the city.
Although Wang Chen is now a third-level peak martial artist and has the identity of a blood-clothed guard, he doesn't think he can fight against the current head of the Ling family and the mastermind behind the scenes.
You must know that Ling Hongyun, who was brutally plotted against, was a fourth-level military general!
Wang Chen put on the mask originally given by Wei Zhengxiong and made a careful disguise.
Compared with the first time he used the human skin mask, after three months of learning, his level of disguise has improved by leaps and bounds, enough to deceive most people.
And Wang Chen doesn't plan to meet the Ling family either.
After entering the city, he stayed at an inn not far from Ling's Mansion, and did not come out quietly until the middle of the night when everyone was quiet.
At this time, there was no one on the street. Wang Chen, who was wearing black night clothes and a hood, used the cover of night to sneak quickly in the shadows in front and behind the houses.
Not long after, he arrived at the Ling Family Ancestral Hall.
The Ling Family Ancestral Hall is adjacent to the Ling Mansion, but the memorial tablets of the Ling family's ancestors are enshrined inside. Apart from a guard, there is no defensive force.
After all, little thieves have nothing to steal here.
Therefore, Wang Chen easily climbed over the wall and sneaked into the ancestral hall.
The Ling's Ancestral Hall is quite large in scale, with a large ancestral hall in the front and a courtyard and wing rooms in the back.
Most of the rooms in the backyard are empty, and at most there are only some sundries for sacrifices.
By the moonlight, Wang Chen found one of the rooms.
Although the door was locked, Wang Chen easily opened it with only a piece of wire.
After opening the door and entering the room, his eyes fell on the ground on the right side of the room, counting silently in his mind: "One, two, three..."
While counting, Wang Chen jumped and stepped on the wooden board.
When he stepped on the seventh board, he heard a soft "click" sound, and the five floors on the left sank simultaneously, revealing a dark hole in the blink of an eye.
Done!
Wang Chen felt happy and jumped down.
Underneath the mechanism is a cave, surrounded by hard stone walls, with four bronze lamps hanging above.
Wang Chen stretched out his hands, grabbed the bronze lamps on the left and in front, and twisted them in different directions.
The rock wall in front of him suddenly shook, and countless dust fell.