Chapter 47: Another Mountain Villa

"I don't know!" Zhang Pu spread his hands as if feigning innocence in response to the pale young man's question.

"Hmph! Playing dumb!" The pale young man was clearly becoming irritated. "What's your name?"

"What's your name?" Zhang Pu didn't answer, but shot back with a question of his own.

The pale-faced youth's face twitched. "Chen Wenfa—"

He nearly shouted the name.

Zhang Pu realized this guy was about to lose his patience with him. But then, he thought, he wasn't exactly overflowing with patience himself. Fortunately, Chen Wenfa merely stated his name, without adding any grandiose titles; otherwise, Zhang Pu mused, he might have slapped him then and there.

This pale-faced Chen Wenfa; Zhang Pu felt increasingly that he deserved a beating.

"If you won't tell me, I don't need to know your name. Hand over your things! Then kneel and kowtow three times to me—because you've offended me, I'll give you a chance to redeem yourself. Otherwise, I'll take you away by force!"

Zhang Pu was already itching to hit someone, and Chen Wenfa only stoked his anger further, demanding a humiliating kowtow for forgiveness. Zhang Pu's gaze turned cold.

Chen Wenfa watched Zhang Pu as he spoke and noticed the change in his expression.

"Well? Still not convinced, are you?" Chen Wenfa pressed.

Zhang Pu laughed. "Do you think I can be convinced?"

"If you won't submit, you'll have to be made to. Since you refuse a toast, you'll drink the penalty wine..."

Before Chen Wenfa finished speaking, he slipped back two steps like a phantom and suddenly shouted at two of his men.

His two subordinates rushed at Zhang Pu, intent on using brute force.

Zhang Pu let out a cold laugh, and his Shadowless Hand came into play instantly.

Chen Wenfa's eyes lit up: He'd expected this student would not be simple, but hadn't guessed he was a master. However...

While Chen Wenfa was still thinking, his two subordinates had already been knocked down by Zhang Pu.

The remaining two, seeing this, didn't wait for instructions and hurriedly attacked Zhang Pu themselves. They were astonished that the student could fight so well.

But even if Chen Wenfa's men were somewhat capable, compared to Zhang Pu's Shadowless Hand, they were simply asking for trouble. Zhang Pu's mastery was now so practiced that it became second nature.

Chen Wenfa moved from shock to composure...

As Zhang Pu felled the last two of Chen Wenfa's men, he suddenly caught a whiff of something strange in the air, and saw a faint white mist beginning to spread through the woods.

This is...

Immediately, Zhang Pu saw Chen Wenfa sitting cross-legged, muttering incantations.

"Is Chen Wenfa practicing witchcraft... or some ghostly art?" Zhang Pu wondered.

And this... it seemed like poison. His head was growing increasingly dizzy.

In the clearing, Chen Wenfa's face grew paler and paler, almost ghostlike.

Zhang Pu couldn't use his Shadowless Hand anymore, and after a while, under the combined effects of the toxic mist and Chen Wenfa's sorcery, he collapsed, unable to hold on.

At that moment, Chen Wenfa's face, now fully white as a ghost, broke into a smile. Yet in the moonlit woods, that smile was terrifying; fortunately there were no spectators, or they'd surely be scared into nightmares.

Sweat poured from Chen Wenfa's face in large beads, soaking him through.

He'd always known Zhang Pu wasn't ordinary, but he still targeted him, confident that even if his men failed, he still had a final ace. And now, hadn't he finally brought Zhang Pu down?

Chen Wenfa stood, nudged his fallen men, and fed each a pill; soon after, they were able to stand.

"This student—I meant to leave him here forever, but now, I suddenly want to take him away. I sense there's something special about him, though I can't say what. Better bring him back for Master to examine; Master will surely know the answer."

After a few glances at the unconscious Zhang Pu, Chen Wenfa muttered to himself and ordered his men to carry Zhang Pu to the car.

He also instructed someone to feed a pill to the Didi driver.

Chen Wenfa explained: Once the driver swallowed the pill, he'd forget everything that happened tonight.

Soon, everything was dealt with.

The two vehicles departed quickly, but instead of heading toward the city, they drove to a district even more remote than Moonlight Manor.

Their destination was a mountain in the outskirts.

Here, there was an estate akin to Moonlight Manor, but far more sinister and forbidding.

Outside the compound, vicious dogs were kept; if strangers approached, the dogs would bark madly from a distance, deterring ordinary folk from venturing near.

Anyone seeking the owner had to make arrangements in advance; then the master would send someone out to escort them, so they wouldn't be attacked by the dogs.

This was, in fact, the place where Chen Wenfa's so-called master resided.

Chen Wenfa was a regular here, and naturally had his own ways to prevent the dogs from attacking his group.

Once the vehicles stopped outside the estate, Chen Wenfa quickly directed his men to carry the unconscious Zhang Pu inside.

By now, dawn was approaching.

Within the manor, Chen Wenfa found a young Taoist keeping vigil outside his master's quarters.

He asked, "Has Master risen yet?"

Chen Wenfa expected his master to be up early for morning practice, but the Taoist replied that the master was in seclusion.

Seclusion? Was Master about to break through to some new realm?

Chen Wenfa was about to arrange for Zhang Pu to be placed in a room, to await his master's emergence, when suddenly, with a loud clang, the door to his master's retreat swung open.

"Master—" Chen Wenfa cried out in delight.

"What are you doing here at this hour?"

Chen Wenfa's master was dressed as a Taoist priest, yet his appearance was neither fully human nor ghost.

Their lineage cultivated a kind of sorcery close to the supernatural—distinct from the orthodox Maoshan Taoists. It was once a Maoshan branch, but a certain ancestor fell into demonic ways, and over generations, the practice grew increasingly twisted. By the time of Chen Wenfa's master, they were half-ghost, half-sorcerer.

His master's face was as pale as Chen Wenfa's, always ghostly white; only Chen Wenfa lacked the Taoist attire of his master.