Yun Qingyao’s people created chaos at the restaurant, and a group of thugs trapped Lin Fan, allowing Yun Qingyao to seize the opportunity to escape.

She exited through the back door of the restaurant, where a road lay outside. By the roadside, a car was waiting for her. Yun Qingyao quickly got into the car, and it sped away.

The driver was a man with a crew cut, quite skilled at driving. He glanced at Yun Qingyao in the rearview mirror and asked, "Miss Yun, where are we headed?"

Yun Qingyao replied, "Let’s go find your boss first."

She didn’t want to return to her family yet, as the matter was unresolved, and she couldn’t explain herself to them. Luckily, she had managed to shake off Lin Fan. Her next step was to plan a counterattack; she had sworn to reclaim everything.

She was not convinced of Lin Fan’s superiority and believed she could defeat him.

Her major issue now was her cultivation. Her Dantian was still pierced with the Silver Needle, and she dared not remove it hastily. Without the restoration of her cultivation, her actions moving forward would be greatly inconvenienced.

Lin Fan was truly despicable, to have control over her Dantian. She must quickly find a way to restore her cultivation.

Two hours later.

Kun City.

This is a big city in the Southern Yunnan region.

Even near midnight, Kun City remained brightly lit, a bustling metropolis with a thriving tourism industry.

The Yun Sect’s operations were mainly centered in Kun City, managed by a local underground syndicate. On the surface, the businesses seemed to belong to this syndicate, but in reality, they were the Yun Sect’s enterprises, with most profits needing to be handed over to the sect.

The leader of this underground syndicate was named Li Xiangshui, known in the Jianghu as Brother Xiangshui, a prominent figure in Kun City and throughout Southern Yunnan. To outsiders, Brother Xiangshui appeared as a business mogul, with numerous enterprises under his name. Due to the Yun Sect’s secretive nature, few knew that Brother Xiangshui was merely a worker for the sect.

This operation to rescue Yun Qingyao was personally strategized by Brother Xiangshui. To ensure its success, he had several plans ready, with informants and personnel already positioned in Feng County, waiting for Lin Fan to step foot into Southern Yunnan to act.

While Lin Fan was formidable, he was after all an outsider, unfamiliar with the area. With the resources that Brother Xiangshui could mobilize, rescuing Yun Qingyao from Lin Fan wasn’t particularly difficult; after all, no matter how powerful Lin Fan was, he was just one man.

Indeed, by creating chaos to trap Lin Fan and providing Yun Qingyao with time to escape during the confusion, the plan ultimately succeeded.

Upon entering Kun City, the man with the crew cut made a phone call, frowning, and said, "Sorry, Miss Yun, we still can’t reach the boss."

On their way, they had tried to contact Brother Xiangshui so he could prepare.

But oddly, they couldn’t get through to Brother Xiangshui, and when the crew-cut man tried reaching other Company members, there was also no response.

Yun Qingyao sensed that something might have happened to Brother Xiangshui and said, "Head straight to the headquarters."

The headquarters Yun Qingyao referred to was the stronghold of Brother Xiangshui’s syndicate. This location was kept secret from the public, known only to insiders, and typically hosted distinguished guests from the Yun Sect.

An unremarkable building located in the old part of the city, surrounded by walls, accessed through a large red door into an inner courtyard—this was the stronghold.

The building’s lights were on, and the red door was open, evidently indicating someone’s presence, but the entire structure was eerily quiet, excessively so.

The crew-cut man drove the car through the red door. As they entered, they immediately saw several bodies lying on the ground, blood staining the floor, with the scent of gore permeating the air.

"Stop the car!" Yun Qingyao exclaimed quickly.

The car came to a halt, and Yun Qingyao hurried out, heading toward the building, with the crew-cut man following closely.

Along the way, they passed numerous bodies lying in pools of blood, a chaotic and disorderly sight. These people belonged to Brother Xiangshui’s syndicate.

It was a massacre, an outright massacre!

The crew-cut man turned pale with fright, trembling: "Oh my God, what happened here?"

Though Yun Qingyao ordinarily remained calm, the scene still startled her, especially considering her current limited cultivation.

"Do you have a weapon?" Yun Qingyao asked the crew-cut man.

The crew-cut man nodded, pulling a gun from his waist, his hands shaking slightly.

They reached the staircase and climbed to the top floor, arriving at a door—inside was Brother Xiangshui’s office.

The door had been broken and stood ajar. Yun Qingyao proceeded cautiously, gently pushing it open.

Inside the office, bodies were strewn everywhere, the pungent smell of blood was overpowering. Behind a desk sat a middle-aged man, a knife embedded in his forehead, eyes wide open, dead and unconciliated.

"Boss!" the crew-cut man cried out upon seeing the middle-aged man.

This middle-aged man was none other than his boss, Li Xiangshui.

After confirming there were no living souls in the room, Yun Qingyao approached Li Xiangshui.

"What on earth happened, who did this!" the crew-cut man shouted hoarsely, on the brink of insanity. No wonder they couldn’t reach Brother Xiangshui or anyone else earlier—they were all dead!

Yun Qingyao had been observing along the way and said, "They were probably killed about an hour ago, all with a single deadly blow. The one who killed them is a master!"

The crew-cut man exclaimed, "Who could it be? Could it be the person who captured you, who arrived ahead of us and killed everyone?"

Was it Lin Fan?

Yun Qingyao shook her head, saying, "I don’t think he did it. Firstly, I never disclosed this location to him, so he couldn’t have found it so quickly. Secondly, we departed before him, so there’s no way he could be here over an hour earlier."

And most importantly, she didn’t believe Lin Fan was such a brutal person. If he were, he wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of bringing her to Southern Yunnan; he’d have disposed of her back in Yun City.

Yun Qingyao spotted a camera in the room and said, "Let’s see who it was."

So they retrieved the surveillance footage.

Rewinding to over an hour ago, a man in Tang suit burst into the building. Around fifty years old, he was robust and began the slaughter the moment he entered.

Yun Qingyao paused the footage, revealing the man’s face on the screen—a square face, dark-skinned, with a stern expression.

"Who on earth are you?" Yun Qingyao glared at the face and asked, "Has your boss offended anyone recently?"

The crew-cut man replied, "As far as I know, no. Our competition is typically with Chen Datou. Miss Yun is familiar with him, right?"

Yun Qingyao said, "I’ve heard of him. Would Chen Datou go to such extremes?"

"Hmm, but I can’t know everything about the boss’s affairs. It’s possible he unwittingly offended someone and got retribution—wiped out!" the crew-cut man said, trembling. If it weren’t for picking up Yun Qingyao, he might be dead, too.

In the current circumstances, Yun Qingyao was at a loss to investigate. With Lin Fan still pursuing, she was in no state to delve into it.

"Take me back to the Yun Sect," Yun Qingyao decided after some consideration.

The two descended back to the car.

Just as the car drove out of the red door, suddenly, two bright lights beamed from the side.

Yun Qingyao turned her head and saw a Hummer parked nearby, and in the driver’s seat was none other than Lin Fan!