The middle-aged Taoist's sudden kneel and cry surprised Taoist Qingyun, Wang Xiaoqiang, and Liu Juyi, leaving them clueless about what was happening.

Wang Xiaoqiang's gaze fixed on the middle-aged Taoist, and he was startled to find out that he was none other than Chen Daonian, the Feng Shui Master who had helped Pig Bristle Face deal with his own farm two years ago.

Having witnessed Wang Xiaoqiang's formidable methods back then, Chen Daonian was so scared that he fled the area. He came to River City, realized the deep sins he carried, and became a minor Taoist here. Part of this was to atone for his sins. Additionally, having heard of Taoist Qingyun's profound divination skills, he wanted to seek guidance, which is why he stayed in Green Clouds Temple for a long time. However, during the festivals each year, he would secretly sneak back to Bluestone Town to inquire about the person who had dealt with him. Soon, he heard about Wang Xiaoqiang. Not knowing was better, as upon hearing, he was shocked to find out that Wang Xiaoqiang's business had expanded all the way to the United States, making him a major vegetable tycoon there, and of course, he recognized Wang Xiaoqiang's appearance.

Imagine how terrifying a person who could drain a pond of water with a spell technique could be!?

Therefore, upon seeing Wang Xiaoqiang, Chen Daonian immediately knelt.

"You're Chen Daonian, right..." Wang Xiaoqiang naturally recognized Chen Daonian, so he asked him.

"Yes, yes, it's indeed me," Chen Daonian replied with sincere trepidation.

"Stand up, since I spared you then, I will not take action now," Wang Xiaoqiang said.

Taoist Qingyun did not understand how formidable Wang Xiaoqiang was, so he was puzzled by Chen Daonian's expressions and actions.

What could make a young man so daunting?

"Taoist Qingyun, we will not dine here after all, farewell..." Wang Xiaoqiang said goodbye and then went down the mountain with Liu Juyi.

Chen Daonian bowed with his hands clasped, paying his respects to the retreating figure of Wang Xiaoqiang.

Taoist Qingyun felt displeased inside and thought to himself that since he was his master, it was disrespectful for his disciple to behave this way in front of him. Thus, he sneered and said, "Chen Daonian, cultivation is about the mental state, not nurturing timidity. You have practiced Taoism for two years and yet have shrunk your courage; how could you be so frightened by such a young man?"

Shhh...

Worried that Wang Xiaoqiang might hear, Chen Daonian immediately raised his finger to his lips and blew on it, "Master, you don't know, this Wang Xiaoqiang, he's a highly skilled person..."

"How skilled?"

"He can drain a pond of its water with a spell technique,"

"He has such a skill?"

"I saw it with my own eyes. There's no falsehood in it."

"Hmm," Taoist Qingyun looked slightly dazed.

Meanwhile, Wang Xiaoqiang, taking Liu Juyi with him down the mountain, chose another path that passed through a cave known as the Water Moon Cave.

"Let's go to the Water Moon Cave," Liu Juyi cleared her confusion and suggested to Wang Xiaoqiang: "I've always wanted to see the legendary Water Moon Stone there."

There are two holy sites on Yunfu Mountain, one is Green Clouds Temple, bustling and never lacking tourists, and the other is Water Moon Cave, desolate and serene, its path perilous and hard to traverse.

Legend has it, deep inside Water Moon Cave is a spherical stone, shiny like mercury and as round as a full moon, a stone of great ornamental value, its type unknown. Embedded deep in the cave walls, it cannot be pried out by external forces. Miraculously, this stone emits multicolored lights at night...

However, these are just legends, unconfirmed by anyone, as Water Moon Cave sits atop a cliff. Those who are faint-hearted or physically weak cannot climb it, and even those strong and robust rarely do, for the cave is perched on a mountaintop cliff, subjected to strong winds that could easily blow one off the peak, resulting in a fatal fall.

"Aren't you afraid?" Wang Xiaoqiang asked, "People have died from falls there."

"What's there to fear," Liu Juyi lifted her chin, "I'd even play dead. Twenty years later, I'll still be a beauty."

Wang Xiaoqiang laughed.

"Then let's go, let's take a look inside..."

With a blooming smile, Liu Juyi grabbed Wang Xiaoqiang's hand and pulled him towards the direction of Water Moon Cave.

As the two headed towards the cliff of Water Moon Cave, a man dressed in casual business attire, accompanied by three men in black sports outfits and sneakers, quietly followed them from a distance. Just as these two approached near the Water Moon Cave, Wang Xiaoqiang and Liu Juyi had already started climbing the cliff towards the cave.

One of them said, "So these two are going to visit the Water Moon Cave, good, very good. As long as they enter the cave, just guarding this one exit will ensure they can't escape even if they grow wings. Young Master Yao, should we inform Pete?"

"No need. After we take down Wang Xiaoqiang, we'll just bring his head to Pete for the reward," another spoke.

The one referred to as Young Master Yao sneered nefariously.

Upon reaching the cave entrance, Wang and Liu were thrilled and couldn't help shouting for joy.

There was nothing extraordinary about this cave entrance; it was slightly oval but cleaner and smoother than ordinary caves, mainly because the entrance was facing the sun and angled upwards, allowing sunlight to fully illuminate the interior. Sadly, today's sunlight was not strong, thus the inside of the cave was dimly lit.

Hearing Wang Xiaoqiang and Liu Juyi's cheers, the corners of Young Master Yao's mouth curled into a sly smirk while his eyes transformed as if a hunter who has seen prey walk into a trap.

Liu and Wang peeked inside the Water Moon Cave, and seeing that the light inside was still adequate, they crouched and crawled in.

Seeing the two people enter the cave, Young Master Yao suddenly stood up and said, "Biaozi, you go. See if you can finish them off in the cave."

Upon hearing this, the thirty-something man in sportswear beside him responded and, without any hesitation, walked out of the forest towards the cliff face of the Water Moon Cave entrance.

Water Moon Cave had nothing special about it. It was cleaner and drier than a desolate cave, and the space inside was quite large. On the ground inside, there could be seen scattered cigarette butts, snack wrappers, mineral water bottles, beer bottles, and clumps of toilet paper, suggesting that people had been there before, but these wastes were not numerous.

The cave looked very deep. The further they went in, the larger the space and the darker it got. Fortunately, the ground grew increasingly cleaner.

The two continued walking deeper into the cave. Liu Juyi gradually grew fearful, involuntarily wrapping her arms around Wang Xiaoqiang's waist, her chest occasionally rubbing against Wang Xiaoqiang's front.

In search of excitement and the legendary gemstone, yet unwilling to retreat...

When they reached a distance of thirty meters from the cave entrance, they could no longer perceive any light, and both stopped in their tracks.

The reason they stopped was not the darkness, but because they discovered a round stone embedded in the wall ahead, as big as the mouth of a pot, emitting a faint glow.

Both of them looked up at the round stone in surprise.

In fact, it was just a decorative stone, but being embedded in the wall made it seem unusual.

"Hey, there really is such a stone! Finally, we see it," Liu Juyi exclaimed with relief, "Today was not a waste!"

"That's right. Need to take a picture." Wang Xiaoqiang took out his phone, and said somewhat unexpectedly, "Huh, no signal."

Liu Juyi scornfully said, "Pfft, you don't need a signal to take photos." Saying so, she took out her oversized Apple phone and snapped a photo of the glowing stone.

Click!

The flash lit up the cave brightly.

In the moment the light disappeared, Wang Xiaoqiang heard a hurried footstep coming from the direction of the entrance.

Wang Xiaoqiang turned to look back, seeing only a round light at the entrance, the rest was pitch black, revealing nothing.

Wang Xiaoqiang oriented his phone's camera towards the entrance and snapped a photo.

Click!

The flash shone brightly, capturing a photo.

As Wang Xiaoqiang brought the phone closer to his eyes, he vaguely saw a figure sticking near the wall at the entrance.

Seeing this, Wang Xiaoqiang's heart sank.

Almost instinctively, Wang Xiaoqiang embraced Liu Juyi's body and deployed the Spiritual Energy Protective Shield. Bang!

A gunshot rang out.

In the darkness, a bullet whizzed over their heads, striking the cave wall and chipping off a few stone fragments.

Liu Juyi, who had never seen such a scene before, was terrified and clung tightly to Wang Xiaoqiang, breathing rapidly, her heart feeling like it would leap out.

"Don't be scared, he can't see us," Wang Xiaoqiang whispered comfortingly in her ear and reminded, "Don't make any noise, and don't let your phone light up."

Upon hearing this, Liu Juyi felt slightly more secure and immediately clamped her left hand over her phone screen.

"What do we do?"

"No worries!" Wang Xiaoqiang said as he unleashed a Spiritual Energy Sword, which struck down the gunman's shoulder to the ground.

The man screamed in pain, writhing on the ground like a worm. Wang Xiaoqiang walked over, stepped on him, and demanded, "Speak up, who sent you? If you don't tell me, I'll execute you by lingchi." This man named Abiao surely knew what being executed by lingchi entailed, and upon hearing this, he quickly spilled everything. It was simple, Wang Xiaoqiang was helping Li Chunmei against Pete, and Pete, who had narrowly escaped death, employed River City's second-generation underworld tycoon, Yao Qinghu, to deal with Wang Xiaoqiang.

Yao Qinghu had sent his son, Yao Zhihao, to investigate Wang Xiaoqiang, while Yao Xiaotian wanted to monopolize Pete's bounty and took unauthorized action.

After hearing everything, Wang Xiaoqiang gritted his teeth and then walked to the cave entrance.

Seeing Wang Xiaoqiang standing unharmed at the cave entrance, Yao Zhihao realized Abiao had been killed, his heart sank, and he immediately fled.

Wang Xiaoqiang locked onto him with Divine Sense, then took Liu Juyi and flew directly out of the cave.

Following Yao Zhihao down the mountain, Wang Xiaoqiang told Liu Juyi to go back by car alone, then followed Yao Zhihao, waiting for an opportunity to find out about Yao Qinghu and seek revenge.

After Yao Qinghu had become the underworld boss of River City, Yao Zhihao effectively became the Crown Prince of River City.

As someone accustomed to having beauties warm his bed every night, Yao Zhihao naturally sought women the same evening, but due to the day's events, he was somewhat scared and didn't dare to seek women at entertainment venues. Instead, he improvised and, in a villa, embraced one of his father's women—that is, his stepmother, Wu Zhishao, and got down to business with her. Yao Qinghu loved women and had many wives and concubines who bore him numerous children. Apart from Miyazaki Megumi, a woman from Japan who had died, the other six women, after giving birth, were like concubines who had lost favor in a harem and were immediately discarded. With so many women, Yao Qinghu couldn't keep track of them all. As a result, these women eventually acted out of infidelity, but with so many women, he didn't care to monitor them anymore; as long as he didn't see and as long as rumors didn't spread, he would turn a blind eye. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, we welcome you to vote for it at qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)

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