Chapter Fifty-Four: Soaring to Great Heights

  Jin Zhong watched as everyone suddenly became busy and flustered. Su Tang's figure suddenly turned around, bypassing them.

  "He can't escape!" The several guards who were closely chasing after him sneered, the warriors of the Cheng family had already surrounded them from all sides, trapping the murderer on the bell tower.

  Su Tang was running with all his might, but the speed difference between him and those guards was quite significant. If he slowed down by just a second or two, he would be caught on the spot.

  Onlookers smiled with schadenfreude as Su Tang had run into a dead end.

  Su Tang pinched the two flying knives with his fingertips, exerting all his strength to shoot them out. Then he rolled on the ground and coincidentally rolled under that giant bell.

  Clang... Two flying knives emitted a piercing whistling sound, shooting one after the other onto the iron chain suspending the giant bell. The chain, which had already been quietly sawed through more than halfway, could not withstand this impact and snapped with a loud crash, causing the giant bell to fall down.

  Rumble... countless sand and gravel splashed high with sparks, the giant bell had sunk deep into the stone slab, just trapping Su Tang inside.

  The Red Lady's guards and the warriors of the Cheng family finally surrounded them, but they could only stand there with wide eyes.

  "Hurry up and push this golden bell away!" a guard shouted.

  Everyone rushed to surround the giant bell, but in their haste, they made a mistake. They all pushed with all their might from all sides at once. One of the guards heard someone shouting from the opposite side and was puzzled. He quickly jumped onto the top of the bell and saw this scene, almost blowing his nose off. "Are you stupid? Get out of here! All of you get out!"

  The warriors of the Cheng family retreated to one side, and the guard jumped down and struggled to push the giant bell with his companions, but the bell was too heavy, and its lower rim sank several inches into the ground, making it impossible for them to move.

  "Get a crowbar, get a crowbar quickly!" another guard shouted.

  Inside the giant clock, a stone slab suddenly fell off, revealing an opening. Tong Fei appeared in the opening with a torch in his mouth. Su Tang didn't say anything and directly crawled into the opening.

  Tong Fei signaled Su Tang to go first, while he carefully buried several bowl-like objects upside down in the ground, covering them with soil and erasing any traces.

  Su Tang crawled forward along the tunnel, which was very damp and even had muddy water, because Tong Fei had dug it out overnight, without time to repair or need.

  Xiao Wu, Xiao Bu Hui and Tong Fei, apart from being able to kill people, each have their own unique skills. Xiao Bu Hui is extremely skilled with his hands and often creates astonishing small gadgets, the mask Su Tang is currently wearing was made by him; Wen Xiang excels at making medicine and concocting prescriptions, she originally learned these skills as a cover for herself so that others wouldn't discover her cultivation of life and death due to her ability to save lives and cure injuries, but ended up mastering them instead. Tong Fei is skilled at forging iron tools, the underground tunnels beneath the Miao Dao Pavilion and the blacksmith's shop were all dug by him as a precautionary measure, however those are no longer needed now.

  Tong Fei climbed while smashing the bottles and jars on both sides of the tunnel, his movements were extremely careful, as they were filled with oil, and he still had a torch in his mouth, one careless move would be disastrous.

  Su Tang emerged from the tunnel, quickly taking off his dirty clothes and changing into a set of clean clothes he had prepared earlier. He also removed the mask from his face. Then, Tong Fei also came out, picked up the dirty clothes on the ground, as well as Su Tang's discarded mask, and stuffed them all into the fireplace. Afterwards, he also threw his own clothes in.

  In less than three minutes, Su Tang and Tong Fei were ready. They walked quickly to the backyard, where four horses were tied up in front of the railing.

  "What about Xiao Gongfeng?" Su Tang asked.

  "He's gone long ago." Tong Fei handed over the reins of the two horses to Su Tang.

  "That makes me feel better," said Su Tang.

  "Take care of yourself, Mr. Su." A hint of softness appeared in Tong Fei's eyes.

  "You too, take care." Su Tang smiled slightly.

  The two people didn't say another word and walked out of the back door, going their separate ways.

  As it was close to the Golden Bell Temple, Su Tang didn't rush to mount his horse and instead walked slowly forward. As he passed by the temple, he saw that it was bustling with noise inside, so he curiously looked inside a few times, even calling over a somewhat familiar-looking guard from the Cheng family to ask what had happened.

  That Cheng family warrior recognized Su Tang, knew that Su Tang was the master of the Wonderful Path Pavilion and would soon become a great master, so he added oil to the fire and told Su Tang about the shocking changes. Su Tang was shocked and pale, gave some reward money to the Cheng family warrior, and hastily left.

  That Chang family warrior laughed until his eyebrows and eyes were squeezed into a line, but Mr. Su was generous with his help, and the Red Lady being stabbed was a big deal, and such big deals are often handled by those big shots, so he could understand Su Tang's loss of composure.

  Out of the city gate, Su Tang urged his horse on, galloping towards the distance. According to his analysis, it would take at least two hours for the Cheng family to suspect the Miao Dao Pavilion and react. Whether he was safe or not depended on how far he could run within these two hours.

  Every hour or so, Su Tang would change horses, from dawn till dusk, and then from dusk till the stars were sparse at night. Finally, he had to stop, not because his body couldn't take it, but because the horses couldn't. These were fine steeds specially prepared by Mo Xiaobei; ordinary horses would have collapsed long ago.

  Have some dry rations, find a place to take shelter from the wind and sleep for a while. The next day, at dawn, Su Tang set off again towards the distance.

  On the fourth day, Su Tang changed his routine and rested in a secluded place during the day, only traveling at night.

  After rushing for half a month, at dawn one day, Su Tang saw a city in the distance. Calculating carefully, he had run several thousand miles away. The energy of the Xia family couldn't be that vast, which means this place should be safe.

  Moreover, in order to avoid leaving any information behind, he never stayed at an inn, hiding during the day and traveling at night. Whenever he saw a light, he would avoid it from afar. Not only was his physical strength greatly consumed, but his entire body was also filthy and on the verge of stinking.

  Su Tang turned his horse's head and headed towards that city. As he got closer, he saw three big characters on the city gate: Hong Ye City.

  Su Tang had never heard of Red Leaf City, which also meant that he had run far enough.

  After entering the city, he found a relatively clean and spacious inn. However, as he entered the shop, a notice on the roadside caught Su Tang's attention: A certain place is recruiting wandering warriors, no age, gender or rank requirements, with a monthly guaranteed salary of ten gold coins.

  Su Tang is indeed in this line, and he knows a lot of inside information. The extremely high treatment makes him also secretly astonished. In Changshan County, he has never seen such a big handwriting. He has a faint premonition that the mercenary group that posted the notice must be extremely powerful and have a deep foundation.