“Ye Chu! The Thirty-Six Caves have always acted with reckless brutality and savagery. We…” White Leopard saw that Ye Chu was not hiding anything at all and was heading straight towards their location with Bai Xuan in tow. He could not help frowning and reminding him.
He knew Ye Chu could fight against an Innate Realm expert, but Yao Yao was still in their hands. If such a direct approach provoked them and they harmed Yao Yao in anger, what then?
“Uncle Bai, trust me! Nothing will happen!” Ye Chu shook his head at White Leopard. A smile played on his face, and his tone was calm, as though he were discussing something perfectly ordinary.
“But…”
“Trust me! They won’t dare touch Yao Yao. She will be perfectly safe!”
Ye Chu cut White Leopard off. Since the Thirty-Six Caves had forgotten him, he would make them remember once more.
He strode straight into the somewhat dilapidated Taoist temple before them. The group White Leopard had mentioned was inside. As soon as White Leopard and Bai Xuan entered, they immediately alerted those within. Seeing White Leopard walk in, the leader stepped forward and shouted, “Have you brought what we asked for?”
Before White Leopard could reply, Ye Chu stepped forward. “Cave Eleven, your actions are growing more and more unrestrained. To think you would even use a four-year-old child as leverage!”
The Thirty-Six Caves’ leaders were named after their caves. Cave Eleven frowned when someone recognised him at a glance. In his memory, he had never seen Ye Chu before. That was understandable. Although Ye Chu and his group had once wreaked havoc across the Thirty-Six Caves, not every cave master had personally encountered them. Yet Ye Chu was very familiar with the cave masters’ details and recognised this one instantly as Cave Eleven, the one most notorious for raiding and plundering villages.
“Who are you?” Cave Eleven and the others all turned their gazes towards Ye Chu. They did not know where this young man had come from, but since he knew Cave Eleven’s name, they did not dare ignore him.
Ye Chu did not answer. His gaze fell on Yao Yao in the centre. She appeared unharmed and was sleeping quite soundly, which finally allowed him to breathe a sigh of relief.
“Let her go!” Ye Chu said to Cave Eleven.
“Where did this brat come from? You think you can just say let her go and we will? Do you even know who this great one is?” Cave Eleven found it laughable. No longer caring who Ye Chu was, he began cursing loudly.
“You will let her go!” Ye Chu stared at Cave Eleven. “As long as you don’t want the Thirty-Six Caves to be wiped out!”
Cave Eleven was stunned by those words, but he quickly burst into laughter, thinking the young man before him must have lost his mind. The Thirty-Six Caves were stronger than most small kingdoms. In Yao Kingdom, they feared no one. This fellow actually dared to threaten to destroy them. Who did he think he was?
“Who are you trying to scare?” Cave Eleven turned to White Leopard. “Hand over the item. You wouldn’t just watch such an adorable little girl die here, would you?”
“You wouldn’t dare!” Ye Chu stared at Cave Eleven. “Last time, it was only Cave Eighteen’s pressed-wife who was taken. If you dare touch her this time, then the Thirty-Six Caves will have no reason to exist anymore.”
Those words caused the faces of Cave Eleven and his men to change dramatically. They stared fixedly at Ye Chu, their expressions filled with shock and fear. “Who exactly are you?”
Cave Eleven could not help feeling terrified. The incident of Cave Eighteen’s pressed-wife being taken had been tightly sealed. Even within the Thirty-Six Caves, very few knew about it. Yet this outsider of a young man actually knew. How could they not be alarmed?
Back then, when the Thirty-Six Caves had been ravaged by a group of young people, they had considered revenge. But later they learned that the identities of those youths were terrifyingly formidable. Among them were not only heirs of ancient imperial clans but even the shadow of the Saintess herself.
Any one of those identities was enough to crush the Thirty-Six Caves flat. At the time, they had all believed those great powers intended to eliminate them, leaving them in constant fear.
Yet after worrying for so long with no one coming to trouble the Thirty-Six Caves, they gradually relaxed. They thought it had merely been a group of young heirs acting on a whim to stir up trouble for excitement, and that the great powers behind them had no real intention of acting against them.
But now, more than a year later, someone was bringing up that incident again. Cave Eleven already suspected Ye Chu was connected to that group from back then.
“I’ll say it again. Let her go. Otherwise, die!” Ye Chu looked at the other party. “I believe the Pang family would be more than happy to flatten the Thirty-Six Caves.”
Cave Eleven’s face drained of all colour. Cave Eighteen’s woman had indeed been taken to the Pang family.
Though he did not know Ye Chu’s exact background, those words alone were enough to terrify him. Seeing Ye Chu staring intently at him, Cave Eleven gritted his teeth. “Let her go!”
Cave Eleven had no choice but to fear. If he provoked those ancient clans, wiping out the Thirty-Six Caves would be a simple matter.
Bai Xuan dazedly took Yao Yao from Ye Chu’s hands. She had come fully prepared for a fierce battle. Who would have thought that after just a few words from Ye Chu, the other side would really release Yao Yao?
“Who exactly are you, sir?” Cave Eleven stared at Ye Chu and asked. Although he had handed Yao Yao over, his men still surrounded the three and did not step aside.
“You are not qualified to know who I am!” Ye Chu replied. “Wait until your Grand Cave Master arrives. Then you can ask me.”
“You…” Cave Eleven’s face flushed red with rage at being so openly scorned.
Ye Chu paid him no mind. He swept a glance over the crowd encircling them. “Get out of the way!”
The people of the Thirty-Six Caves all looked towards Cave Eleven. Unable to gauge Ye Chu’s true background, Cave Eleven could only nod with a dark expression, signalling his men to open a path.
“You two go first!” Ye Chu said to Bai Xuan and White Leopard.
White Leopard nodded and led Bai Xuan outside. Only after watching them reach the doorway did Ye Chu turn to leave as well.
But just as Ye Chu was about to step through the door, a furious roar rang out behind him. “Die!”
Cave Eleven wielded a long axe and swung it viciously towards Ye Chu’s back. He thought to himself: no matter who this person is, as long as I can kill him with a sneak attack, then send men to surround White Leopard and kill him too, who would ever know it was us? Even if his identity is exalted, he would have no way to retaliate!
Cave Eleven’s strength was not weak; he had reached the peak of the Intent Transformation Realm. With a sneak attack at his level, even an Innate Realm expert might not be able to block it. His face twisted with savage bloodlust and excitement.
“I knew you lot wouldn’t behave!” Ye Chu had anticipated this. Just as the axe was about to strike him, he sidestepped, perfectly avoiding the blow.
Cave Eleven’s heart jolted. He had not expected the young man to be so vigilant. But having already committed to the attack, there was no turning back. He could only press forward and kill him.
“Last time, the number of people I killed in your Thirty-Six Caves wasn’t enough to make you fear. Since that’s the case, let me give you something to remember even in the underworld.”
“You’re Ye Chu?” Cave Eleven suddenly realised. He finally recognised the person, and his face turned deathly pale.
“You finally figured it out!” Ye Chu said. “I’m sorry, but today, all of you are going to die!”
As he spoke, Ye Chu’s figure shot forward like an arrow. He landed a single kick on a nearby martial artist. The sound of the man’s throat shattering was clearly audible. Without pausing, Ye Chu’s next kick struck another martial artist.
His strikes were ruthless and decisive, a ferocity Ye Chu had never displayed before. Each move was extremely simple, yet every single one was brutal and lethal, designed purely for killing, without the slightest flourish or waste.