Chapter 144: Killing and Rescuing
Meng Qi looked fierce, but actually he mainly chose frail targets who he would like to slaughter. Generally speaking, he would wipe out the horse bandits who were at the Qi-cultivation Stage, trying to exterminate each by only one strike, leaving others no guts to resist.
The vigorous pursuit made the horse bandits scatter in all directions. In addition, the sprawling fire added to the chaos, turning the whole Evil Ridge into a mess. Even those horse bandits who were unaware of the situation followed others to desperately rush about, like ants on a hot pan.
Some of them escaped back to their homes, hurriedly packed their jewelry up and ran away; Some directly rushed out of the camp gate and left in panic; And another small number of them who acted as hoodlums set fire everywhere and extorted the belongings of the camp.
The camp suddenly uttered ghastly cries and screams with the fire soaring into the sky, just like an Asura hell.
Having cut down a horse bandit, Meng Qi slowly stopped chasing and let them run away. At the present, no one other than Ze Luoju would be able to control the situation if he had come back. But it would be impossible for Meng Qi to do away with every horse bandit or most of them through his strength.
A short while later, the entire camp became empty, hundreds of horse bandits concealing themselves all over the mountains.
Meng Qi took the blood boiling Buddhist Commandment Blade and whistled to his junior brother to come over while he was walking back to Kang Zhi’s courtyard to “inherit” the two pro’s property. The reason why Meng Qi did not intend to search for the other horse bandits’ belongings except the two pros at the Seven Acupores level was that he neither wanted nor cared about theirs. But the three courtyards were the spots where the horse bandits began to collapse. No horse bandits had robbed them for Meng Qi, a fiend being there. Therefore the three courtyards were worth searching.
“Senior Brother, you’ll be bound to be well-known for putting the Evil Ridge down on your own.” Zhen Hui jumped out of a corner, excited. He was always interested in this sort of Jianghu matters.
Looking at his smoked and dusty junior brother, Meng Qi loudly laughed, “It is we three that subdued the Evil Ridge, not me alone. Junior Brother, you’ll be famous soon too.”
“Really?” Zhen Hui was more excited. He had no interest in fame but only in fun.
“Of course, you’re a big hero for you set fire to disrupt their camps.” Meng Qi was not stingy to praise his brother.
Zhen Hui happily nodded and fantasized, “What nickname will I gain? Senior Brother, I have heard you are called ‘Thunder Blade Evil Monk’?”
“Ho-ho.” Meng Qi stiffly replied. This was far from his ideal, he was supposed to have some high-end titles such as the “Broken thunder Blade” and the “Secular Monk”.
Over their conversation, they returned to Kang Zhi’s courtyard, seeing Gu Changqing glare at Kang Zhi with his face muscles distorted and crazily give vent to his hatred.
“You are back?” he asked as if he had not come back to his senses.
Meng Qi gently nodded, “The horse bandits have been driven away. Before the news spreads, the camp in the Evil Ridge will be safe. You can do what you want to. I would like to search for booty.”
He knew Gu Changqing had planned to torture Kang Zhi, so he did understand his present mood.
Gu Changqing heavily nodded and turned round to Kang Zhi. “I know your children are in the back of the wing room. I’ll let you suffer the pain that you can do nothing for them while watching them die.”
He seemed to have added a reason to his action, “Uproot evil!”
His face glowing in the fire reflection with light and shadows crisscrossed, he looked like a revenge demon from the hell or a vile visage.
Kang Zhi kept making some woo-woo squawks because his vocal acupoint had been sealed.
Surprised, Meng Qi opened his mouth but did not know what to say.
“Big brother Gu… ” Zhen Hui’s expression changed. He was about to speak when Meng Qi covered his mouth and dragged him out of the courtyard, closing the door and leaving Gu Changqing inside.
“Senior Brother, though Kang Zhi had to pay back what he had done, it was not wise for Gu Changqing to wipe his whole family out because the sins would send him to the 18 levels of torture in hell.” Zhen Hui earnestly said. Compared with Meng Qi, he was more like a monk.
Meng Qi was depressed, sighing, “I know. But I just asked myself what I would do if my whole family were murdered?”
“Senior Brother, What about you?” Zhen Hui’s attention was transferred immediately.
Meng Qi bit his teeth with his face twisted, bitterly saying, “Kill his whole family.”
With his eyes widely open, Zhen Hui was confused with the revenge power.
Meng Qi patted his shoulder, “Well, Junior Brother, leave Changqing to deal with it. Only if he avenged his whole family with his own hands according to his own wishes, he could be freed. Of course, in the future we have to persuade him out of being beclouded by the revenge.”
“Ah.” Zhen Hui sympathetically looked back at Gu Changqing. The breeze was blowing with heat waves in gusts.
Out of sight, out of mind. Meng Qi dragged the two dead bodies a little further away and bent to search for treasures.
Since the battle broke out at midnight, the two pros at Seven Acupores level did not bring any treasures with them except the gemstone rings and jade pendants loved by the Western Regions, and the Horse-cutting Blade seemingly forged by cold iron.
It felt freezing and enhanced each other’s beauty with his Ice Palace Sword.
Meng Qi took down the Red Sun Evil Blade from his back, hung it at his waist and then put the Horse-cutting Blade over his shoulder, walking towards the next yard.
In the room where the two pros of the Seven Acupores had used the Horse-cutting Blades, Meng Qi found three bags of gems, some gold ingots and silver changes, and a handwritten script.
“Cold Breeze Bladesmanship?” Meng Qi casually browsed it and discovered it was a set of bladesmanship developed from the Exterior’s blade skills by that pro at Seven Acupores level. It took him ten years to collect a lot of bladesmanship scripts and combine them with the Exterior’s to create his own unique skills. In fact, it was useful at the enlightenment period so he had intended to compile them into a script, which would be used for impartation in the future and make fame for him.
To his satisfaction, this script could cover the shortage of his Enlighten all the Acupores bladesmanship. He also expressed regret that the blade skills of the Exterior was the impartation of Gist of Trueness and that pro with the Seven Acupores opened had not written it down; Moreover, the bladesmanship script he collected was sent to his close heelers, which perhaps was taken away by others or destroyed in the big fire.
Turning page after page, Meng Qi found a piece of black fur fall out of the script and picked it up. He saw close and numerous symbols on it but did not know what they stood for.
He frowned and read other pieces of paper in the room and finally figured out what it was.
The pro with Seven Acupores opened had strayed into a mysterious mausoleum and obtained the Gist of Trueness impartation of the” Snow and Ice Piercing” but he had no other chance to enter it again. He could not identify what the symbols meant. What he could do was put it in the script and wait for the opportunity to inquire about them.
With a relieved smile, Meng Qi put the script and the piece of black fur away. In regard to others, it was once in a blue moon to “crack” the secrets of the fur. But it would be a piece of cake for him to ask the Dominator of Samsara in Six Realms to appraise it when he took part in the next Samsara task.
“Junior brother, catch!” Meng Qi generously threw a bag of gems, a bag of gold ingots and some silver changes to Zhen Hui who was absorbed in cultivating the Flower-pinching Finger. Therefore, the script was no use for him now.
Zhen Hui had had a penniless experience so he had a profound understanding of the importance of property. He happily stored them away and urged Meng Qi to go to the next courtyard.
Suddenly, puling sobs found their way into their ears.
“Ghost!” Zhen Hui was shocked, the Buddha beads held in his hand glazing peaceful light.
He was excited and scared to hide half behind Meng Qi, looking at the wing room where the voice came from.
Meng Qi’s mouth twitched a bit, “Since you have the Woe-surviving Buddhist Beads to protect your body, faced with the evil ghosts, what do you fear of?”
As he thought of this, he clenched the Red Sun Evil Blade. Evil ghosts could be considered as something wicked too!
Carefully listening for a moment, Meng Qi sighed and angrily stared at Zhen Hui, “Ghosts, where can you find a ghost?”
He pushed the door open, entered the room, saw a thin-dressed woman shrinking in bed, shivering and puling.
“Don’t… don’t kill me, I am not a horse bandit, I was plundered, hum.” She cried in fear.
When Meng Qi saw her without martial arts, he knew that when the bandits robbed, she would be kidnapped and what she said was true. Putting palms together, Meng Qi said, “Amitabha, I’m coming to rescue you.”
“Save, save us?” She looked up and saw two young monks standing by the door. Though they were covered with blood and their clothes were tattered, their looks were not bad.
“Amitabha, my senior brother and I are both Shaolin monks.” Meng Qi kindly replied.
Knowing their identities and hearing the dying-away chaos outside, the woman burst into tears, crying her heart out.
“Don’t cry, Lady. The fire was still spreading. Please pack your belongings up and follow me to leave the Evil Ridge.” Meng Qi reminded her. Judging from her situation, he inferred there were quite a few of kidnapped women like her in the camp. He decided to save them out of the fire.
This kind of thing, if not caught in it, Meng Qi would not be too concerned about, but at the right time, he was caught in this matter and he could not bear it. He was bound to deal with it.
The young lady hurriedly got up and lightly bowed to him, “I come from the Great Jin Dynasty to visit my relatives in the West Regions. Unfortunately I was grabbed by a horse bandit and became his concubine. Thanks for your rescuing!”
When it came to this, she could not hold her sorrow back. Thinking of her polluted virtue of a woman, she felt like having no face to live on in the future.
She was pretty and elegant. Thus it was no wander that the pro at the Seven Acupores level had taken a fancy to her… Meng Qi sighed, “Lady, don’t worry! Try to search something valuable to live on. And only keep touch with the direct relatives but tell others you are a new widow when you return to the Great Jin Dynasty.”
“Aye!” that lady positively nodded with inflexible will. No matter what would happen in the future, her life would be better than in the horse bandits’ camp.
Meng Qi furtively left some gold ingots, silver changes and a bag of gems behind. He walked to the center of the camp and shouted with all his strength, “Shaolin Zheng Ding had pacified the Evil Ridge. Anybody innocent, do come out!”
After Meng Qi’s three resonant calls, some ladies continuously appeared with birdlike voices mingling with the uproar of other sobs.
Meng Qi made the lady their leader. Under his instruction, she organized other poor ladies to search for property in the courtyards of the other pro having opened Seven Acupores and someone else’s which were not been robbed. Then they each obtained the equal division and made the property for their future survival.
Meng Qi only discovered three scripts of Enlighten all the Acupores and five ones of the Qi-cultivation. The other pro at the Seven Acupores level was adept at Eagle Claw Skills so he did not enshrine any refined weapons.
When the ladies were energetic and enthusiastic, Gu Changqing walked out of the courtyard with blood stains all over his body, calm and relieved.
“Thank you for help.” He knelt and bowed with hands folded in front, which was a solemn ceremony.
“Meng Qi lifted him up and said, “You have already revenged. Please take care of yourself and live up to Uncle’s expectations!”
“Ah, I will become a real hero! Wipe out all the wicked!” Gu Changqing softly nodded and restored his eye look. Being a great hero was not only his dream but also his parents’ hope. Never would he give it up!
If only he had not said that he would wipe out all the wicked! Meng Qi secretly sighed, “Changqing, it is dangerous in the Immensity Sea. Please return to the Great Jin Dynasty with me. You can come back to slaughter Ze Luoju and his gang when you reach the Exterior.”
“My mother was born in Great Jin Dynasty, I had intended to escort the memorial tablet to my grandpa’s.” Gu Changqing pathetically said.
The horse bandits fed his family’s bodies to the wolves. As a consequence, he could not find all of them to bury.
“Well, do tell me if you meet with any trouble at any time.” Meng Qi nodded and passionately said, “No matter how far I am, I’ll come to your aid as soon as possible.”