The First Venerable of the Prosperous Age

"Run!" This thought flashed through Lu Xiaosan's mind first.

In the past, I would have charged forward without hesitation, but now I have many more responsibilities, and I cannot die here.

Lu Xiaosan was halfway there when a man screamed "Ouch!" from behind him.

Turning around, I saw a thug being dragged swiftly into a dark alley by an extremely thin silver thread.

"Ah...!" By the time the other men reacted, his scream echoed through the dark alley. The whole process took only a blink of an eye.

The other thugs all looked astonished and immediately huddled together, cautiously observing their surroundings.

The young man hurriedly hid behind the men, his voice trembling, "Hey, you guys...go...go check the alley..."

The thugs looked at each other, none of them daring to move.

"You damn good-for-nothing!" The young master jumped up and smacked a thug on the head. "Go now!"

"Yes, you should go quickly."

"Yeah, hurry up!" the other thugs urged from the side.

"You guys!?" The beaten thug swallowed hard and cautiously walked into the alley.

He had only taken two steps when he suddenly froze and stopped.

"Sixth brother? Sixth brother!"

"Go take a look!" A daring thug stepped forward and patted Lao Liu on the shoulder. But as soon as he touched him, Lao Liu fell backward.

A cold throwing knife was stuck in his forehead, covered in blood, and he had already died silently.

"Oh my god, it's Lao Liu!" The thug quickly retreated back into the crowd, trembling on the spot along with the others.

A thug, mustering his courage, cried out, "I...I don't know who you are...Ugh...!! Help me!"

He was only halfway through his sentence when the silver thread wrapped around his leg and pulled him up into the darkness above. He let out another scream and then fell silent.

Seeing the other thugs kneeling and begging for mercy, the young master said urgently, "What are you afraid of? Let's fight him!"

"Ugh!" The three thugs groaned as they died from being struck by flying knives in the throat, forehead, and heart.

Before the other two thugs could react, they screamed in agony as the silver thread pulled them into the darkness, thus ending their extraordinary lives.

In the blink of an eye, only the young master was left standing there, stunned.

Upon seeing this, Lu Xiaosan swaggered out.

The young master cursed angrily, "You dog thief, I will definitely... Ugh!" Suddenly, several silver threads were wrapped around the rich young master's body, and he fell to the ground, rolling and struggling like a fish.

A person emerged from the direction of the silk thread; it was Tian Gao.

At this moment, each of her ten fingers was wrapped with an extremely fine silver thread, indicating that what had just happened was all her doing.

Before Lu Xiaosan could speak, Tian Gao coldly asked, "Do you recognize this person?"

"You are... the Sweet Cake Girl from the Immortal Pavilion! Why!" the young master exclaimed in shock.

Sweet Cake remained silent with a cold expression.

Lu Xiaosan stroked his chin, leaned down and stared for a long time, "Hiss... I don't recognize him, how could there be such a deep grudge?"

The young master felt insulted and was furious. He roared, "You stinking, ugly, bald thief, kill me! I'll haunt you even as a ghost!"

Lu Xiaosan laughed and said, "When you become a ghost, remember to come find me right away. I'll provide you with a full range of exorcism services to make you feel comfortable."

"Kill him!" Lu Xiaosan said to Tian Gao.

"Wait, wait..." The young master immediately softened and begged for mercy, "Logically, shouldn't you praise me for being a tough guy and then spare my life if I act tough?"

Lu Xiaosan squatted down again and just kept staring at him.

“He remembers what you look like,” Sweet Cake said coldly.

"Oh dear, sir, I can't see anything! I'm blind! Please let me go! If you let me go, I'll have my father give you more money!"

Lu Xiaosan looked at him for a long time, and finally shook his head and said, "No, I still can't recognize him. It's really annoying that he came looking for trouble for no reason."

The young master was frantic, his voice trembling with tears, "Sir, sir, you can't kill me! Sweet Cake Girl, I beg you, please don't kill me!"

Lu Xiaosan said, "Oh, then you can kill me, right? If it weren't for the fact that you and Sweet Cake Girl are both so powerful, wouldn't I have already died in the street? And then been put into a hearse and thrown into a cesspool the next day? Why can this person be me and not you? Kill me!"

"You damned thief... Ugh!" The young master died instantly with a knife stuck in his head.

Sweet Cake retracted her throwing knife, then angrily said to Lu Xiaosan, "I told you to lead the way, what are you doing wandering around here?"

Lu Xiaosan was shocked and said helplessly, "I... you just disappeared without a word, so I've been looking for you everywhere."

Sweet Cake remained silent, and Lu Xiaosan calmed himself down before speaking loudly, "In any case, I have to thank you. Without you, I'm afraid I would have died here."

After a long while, Sweet Cake finally said, "Actually... you don't need to thank me..." in a soft voice.

"Huh? What...did you say? Why aren't you thanking me?"

Sweetie lowered her head, her face flushing red. She said quickly, rather embarrassed, "I abandoned you before, and I didn't treat you very well. But you repaid evil with kindness, and together with Miss Wen, you saved my life, I..."

Lu Xiaosan rolled her eyes and thought to herself, "Actually, Tian Gao was quite nice to me during that time. I was seriously ill at the time, and it seemed that the only girl who was willing to talk to me was Tian Gao, who was also in the kitchen."

"As for abandoning me, I've almost forgotten about it. And why hold onto unhappy things for so long? Although she was a bit harsh with me, all things considered now, the kindness she showed outweighs the resentment."

"I..." Lu Xiaosan had just opened his mouth when Tian Gao blushed and said urgently, "Hurry up and lead the way." Then she leaped and disappeared into the darkness.

"This guy can actually blush."

"Fine, since she's following me in secret, I won't delay any longer."

Sweet Cake did not appear until he arrived at the cabin outside the city.

Lu Xiaosan could see from afar a lame figure running around the rice paddy; it was He Lai.

"Hero Crane, you're still running? Are you that good?" Lu Xiaosan hurriedly went up to greet him.

Helai wiped the sweat from his forehead and said breathlessly, "Hahaha, this... is nothing. I used to practice my swordplay while running in the training ground."

Lu Xiaosan was deeply moved and said sincerely, "If you don't succeed, who will?"

"They're teammates too, but Ning Konglou is probably hiding somewhere drinking right now," Lu Xiaosan said angrily.

"Hahaha, young brother, you flatter me. You can rest assured about Brother Ning. I already arranged with him to meet at the training ground at 3:00 AM to prepare for the competition!"

Lu Xiaosan was so surprised he couldn't close his mouth. "You want to practice again?"

After thinking for a moment, He Lai said, "I think that if you want to challenge greatness, you must first do something that is on par with greatness."

Lu Xiaosan lowered his head and pondered, "Greatness, is it...? What exactly is greatness?..."

He Lai patted Lu Xiaosan on the shoulder, "Hehe, let's not talk about that anymore. Little brother, do you have any ideas?"

He Lai twitched his ears again before laughing, "Oh, so you've invited Sweet Cake Girl to oversee things. In that case, I can leave with peace of mind."

Lu Xiaosan was so shocked that his mouth remained agape for a long time. He then whispered to He Lai, "You're so amazing. Do you think she can really... stop that kid?"

"Of course! Don't you already believe her?"

"When...did I...?"

"You don't believe I can bring her? Hahaha, in that case, I'll take my leave first."

Helai jogged into the city again, his strong figure slowly disappearing into the darkness.

Before Lu Xiaosan even reached the cabin, he heard two barks from a dog, and then the big golden retriever excitedly came out to greet him.

Upon entering the house, Wen Ying hesitated outside the door.

She was startled when he suddenly came in, and was clearly hesitant about whether to go out and greet him.

"Little Golden Retriever, I'm back!" Lu Xiaosan said happily, opening his arms wide.

Wen Ying hesitated, pouting as she sat down at the table, and said reproachfully, "Why are you only coming back now? Were you having too much fun there?"

Lu Xiaosan hurriedly said, "No, I went to get some help and came back."

Wen Ying's face lit up slightly. "Really? Then where is she?"

Lu Xiaosan scratched his bald head. "She... doesn't seem too willing to come out."

Upon hearing this, Wen Ying came to the front of the house and said with a smile, "Friend, it's too cold outside. Please come in and sit down."

Lu Xiaosan hurriedly grabbed her, "Grandma, please calm down. If she wanted to come, she would have shown up already."

"Woof woof woof!" The golden retriever suddenly started barking incessantly at the wall.

Suddenly, two cold, human eyes appeared on the dog's shadow on the wall, followed by a child's icy voice, "Since you call me that, then I shall respectfully comply."

The childish voice paired with the cold tone sounded eerie and unsettling in the chilly night.