Chapter 398: Developments in Ying City
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Qi Zhengyan had altered his appearance to make his face appear like the bottom of a pot. His back was slightly arched and he was supporting himself on crutches with both hands. He resembled an ordinary Jianghu member who made special weapons. Had Meng Qi not been very familiar with him, he would probably have completely missed him.
Gu Xiaosang’s power in this aspect was really praiseworthy!
She was wearing a red coat, had two pigtails tied, and had very delicate features, very much unlike the style of the Goddess of Grand Luo.
“Don’t answer. Directly use Secret Voice-sending instead. Although we might still be heard if Exterior-level masters pay attention, I can’t care less anymore. Right now it’s noisy all around us and there are people using Secret Voice-sending everywhere. Who would think that the ‘Killing Blade’ Su Meng, who’s sitting in the middle, is communicating with a few unassuming persons nearby?” Gu Xiaosang’s voice would have been much crisper if she had not intentionally concealed her charm. Even though she said so much in a single breath, her words were still very clear.
Meng Qi looked at the front and observed Chang Hui’s demonstration of his bladesmanship. He ignored Gu Xiao Sang and directly told Qi Zhengyan using Secret Voice-sending,”What kind of danger did you run into, Senior Brother Qi? How’re your injuries?”
Qi Zhengyan looked straight ahead at the center of the practicing field as well. In a low voice, he replied, “I’m being targeted by ‘The Myths’.”
“They’ve discovered our identities?” Meng Qi was not particularly surprised. Before Bluecloud Progenitor’s pearls and after they had finished their task, the four of them had guessed as much.
Although he had not used his sword when dealing with the Matriarch of the West, Jiang Zhiwei’s “Anatta Sword” was too iconic. There also had not been other Dharmakaya movements used to interfere with their judgment, so it was likely that she had been recognized. Out of the people she knew, many used a knife, but few had such strength. Thus, since he was familiar with her, his identity was also suspected.
Even though there could be Samsara travelers who kept themselves anonymous and did not ask to be famous in the main world, Meng Qi could not free himself from others’ suspicions. Following that line of thought, Qi Zhengyan who had the title of “World-subduing Heavenly Demon” would seem similar to someone at that time, and it was even more so for Ruan Yushu, who had been born with the Heart of Zither.
Only Zhao Heng, who had never entered Jianghu and had never contacted them in the real world, left no tracks for “The Myths” to trace.
It seemed that they had been a little rash when they had made friends with one another in the main world. However, at that time they would not have known that after the death mission, they would encounter other Samsara travelers even if they were not on a confrontational mission.
“Probably,” answered Qi Zhengyan with certainty. “I wasn’t in time for the Dongyang Villa matter and have no grudges with ‘The Myths’, and the ‘Blessing-endowed Heavenly Official’ deals merciless fatal strikes. Evidently, they aren’t after the Divine Skill impartation I’m rumored to have.”
“They’ve directly taken action? Senior Brother Qi, how’re your injuries? How’s the ‘Blessing-endowed Heavenly Official’s’ strength?” Meng Qi asked in one breath.
Ruan Yushu lived deep in Langya and had not yet entered Jianghu, while Jiang Zhiwei had a very deep background, what with her Master being ranked first on the Celestial Rankings. He had once killed one of The Myths’ strongest members, “Patriarch of the East”, and emerged unscathed. Hence, “The Myths” would not choose to exact revenge on them. After all, “The Immortals” had already gotten into trouble for obtaining The Buddha’s Palm. “The Myths” was simply venting its anger on himself and the others. They did not derive any benefit from doing so, and would thus not take any risks.
Therefore, they seemed to have locked on to Senior Brother Qi, who was but an ordinary Huanhua Swords Sect disciple, and himself, a former Shaolin Temple disciple.
“Yeah. When I was traveling in River East, I heard about the Party of Happycloud. I thought that you and Junior Sister Jiang would definitely be invited and so I came to take a look. Who knew, along the way I got ambushed by someone who was wearing a special mask from ‘The Myths’. It was ‘Blessing-endowed Heavenly Official’ and he has the strength of an ordinary Half-step Exterior Scenery-level master. I fought hard with him and suffered injuries in other to escape, and was chased for more than a hundred miles.”
“Just as my injuries were acting up, Miss Xiaosang intervened and managed to scare away ‘Blessing-endowed Heavenly Official’.” Qi Zhengyan described what had happened in great detail. “I got hit by his palm and used Rosy Afterglow Swing in defense, so I’ve only sustained heavy damage and have already recovered a lot.”
Qi Zhengyan had almost reached Eight Aperture s, but he had yet to practice the “Purple Star River” and the realm of his moves was not high enough. He was slightly worse than Meng Qi. Faced with an ordinary Half-step Exterior Scenery-level master, his Book of the Chaos would lose its edge in long-range attacks and he would definitely be at a disadvantage. He would have no choice but to try and escape.
“Senior Brother Qi, you’re already done a pretty good job, escaping from a Half-step Exterior Scenery-level master.” Meng Qi gave his sincere praise.
Even though he was ranked sixth on the Ranking List of Young Masters and could kill an ordinary Half-step if he went all out, his realm was still not good enough. If he encountered that Half-step and swallowed his pride and tried a direct assassination, he could still easily lose his life. The fact that Senior Brother Qi had been able to survive was proof of his strength, and he was even stronger than Meng Qi had expected.
He grit his teeth and continued, “No matter what, I have Demoness Gu to thank this time round. Even if she had other intentions, she did save your life.”
In Meng Qi’s eyes, Demoness Gu did not do things unless they benefitted her.
“Hubby, we’re family, there’s no need to thank me.” All of a sudden, Gu Xiaosang’s sweet and clear voice rang in their heads while they were in the middle of their secret conversation.
Meng Qi had to control his facial expression. “You, you can hear us?”
Qi Zhengyan seemed to be in a trance as well.
Gu Xiaosang giggled and replied, “Just now I said that Exterior-level masters could hear you if they paid attention, but I didn’t say that those below the Exterior level couldn’t.”
“…” Meng Qi was speechless.
Gu Xiaosang smiled. “To deal with Senior Brother Qi, a member of a Half-step Exterior Scenery-level preparation team would probably have been enough. However, for you, who was able to counter-kill Green Cultivator, Flame-scorching Devilman and Soul-losing Flute, I would certainly propose sending at least one Exterior-level official member if I were from The Myths. Even if it’s just to vent our anger and there’re no interests involved, I’d want a neat and clean job to avoid any complications.”
“No wonder they wanted me to go to Happycloud Heights as soon as possible.” Meng Qi arrived at a sudden realization. Happycloud Heights was a compound in Eastsea Sword Village and there were often Exterior-level Elders stationed there to guard the place. Now that Heightslord He Jiu was no longer there, they were even less likely to neglect their defenses. As for those like Wolf King, obviously they were feigning ignorance and trying to relieve the heightslord’s boredom. “Wait a minute, why are you calling him ‘Senior Brother Qi’ too?”
He had only realized that Gu Xiaosang had addressed Qi Zhengyan in a strange way.
“Hubby, as your wife and the mother of our child, shouldn’t I address him the same way as you do? Or should I directly call him Uncle instead?” Gu Xiaosang said it like it made perfect sense.
“I shouldn’t have asked about this kind of thing…” Meng Qi’s face was twitching. There had thankfully not been others around when Gu Xiaosang had addressed him as such before, but now Senior Brother Qi was listening to their conversation! How was he going to face his friends in the future? They would mock him till the day they died! The little glutton would never let such an opportunity pass!
“Haha. I killed Green Cultivator, but it seems like you don’t care at all?” Meng Qi quickly changed the topic.
Gu Xiaosang giggled again. “He colluded with outsiders on his own, so it serves him right! You’re my husband and the future Sanskrit Dharmaraja anyway, so what’s a dead Cultivator to me?”
Meng Qi decided to stop talking nonsense to the demoness, and turned to look at Qi Zhengyan instead.
Since Qi Zhengyan’s face was currently like the bottom of a pot, his emotions were even more imperceivable. “I’m a disciple of ‘Huanhua Swords Sect’ after all, so I’ve reported the matter to the elders in River East, saying that they’re after the impartation I obtained from my adventure. If it’s about ‘The Myths’, they’ll surely be very interested.”
“Tch, so you’re gonna play it up huh…” Meng Qi’s eyes shone. He too could find an opportunity to report the matter to Six Fan School using his nark identity. There were Slivery-badge Arresters in Ying City, and they were not too far away from Guangling City.
He could still leave secret signs on the wall near the city gate entrance to see if any other members from “The Immortals” were around.
Of course, he could not directly meet and contact members of “The Immortals”. After all, in the previous Samsara task, he had imitated the aura of Skythrowing Palm. Although no one in The Myths practiced Eight Nine Mysteries and did not know about its mystical abilities, a majority of them would think that it was a special item and believe that he and the others had just happened to be there at that time and were temporarily working with “The Immortals”. However, if he continued to appear to have any connections with The Immortals, The Myths would be able to figure out that he was “Heavenly Primogenitor” no matter how stupid they were.
“Luo Denomination also has Cultivators in Ying City,” Gu Xiaosang interrupted. She sounded lively as she added, “I entered the first level of Ninth Heaven’s ruins and realized that someone else had arrived first. That caused me to reap much fewer gains and pissed me off. For now, I suspect it’s ‘The Myths’, so since I have this chance, I’m definitely going to take my revenge on them. Plus Luo Denomination’s Sanskrit Dharmaraja, Oracles and Cultivators are very ‘interested’ in this mysterious organization.”
The demoness’ words seemed both true and false at the same time and thus could not be fully trusted… Meng Qi believed that Gu Xiaosang was not the kind of person who would go all out purely for the sake of revenge. Unless there was some kind of benefit to it, she would not care less.
What exactly was her goal?
“Junior Brother Meng, you should be careful these few days. I’ll hide at Huanhua Swords Sect’s Ying City stronghold to wait for the elders and secretly watch out for anyone who might be targeting you at the same time,” warned Qi Zhengyan. He did not want to hide at Luo Denomination’s place because Gu Xiaosang was a dangerous person.
“Based on what you’ve said, ‘The Myths’ are only concerned with venting their anger and this has nothing to do with any benefit they might be coveting. As an organization, such actions won’t last very long, because once you’ve fought them once and didn’t cause them great losses, they’ll usually give up after that.” Gu Xiaosang comforted her “hubby”, all smiles.
After discussing for a while, the two of them slightly stepped back and did not rejoin the sea of people.
Just then, Gu Xiaosang secretly stole a glance at Qi Zhengyan with amusement.
Chang Hui finished demonstrating his bladesmanship. He was panting and extremely emotional as he fell to his knees and bowed. “Thank you so much for demonstrating your bladesmanship, Young Master Su! This has been a wish of the entire Chang family for years!”
Meng Qi’s giving advice from before was partially considered the grace of a teacher. In a world where masters were extremely dignified, Chang Hui’s actions were not considered flattery at all.
Meng Qi had not even had the chance to answer when he heard Wang Zai exclaim, “You could follow the bladesmanship variations from beginning to end and fill in the gaps in between! Such a realm of Knife Dao is truly admirable. Brother Su, I didn’t know you were already at this level.”
He did not say much, but the Jianghu crowd was enlightened all of a sudden. They cast looks of surprise and shock and glee at Meng Qi. It was almost to the extent of a grandmaster opening his own school, and one that had created its own impartation moves at that!
Of course, it would only be a small sect.
“As expected of Brother Wang Zai, making it difficult for me to escape his flattery with just his comments…” Meng Qi felt a bit like tears were stinging his eyes. He gave Chang Hui a restrained smile. “There’s no need to be so polite. I just happened to arrive at some insights from your bladesmanship.”
Back when he had first seen the “Yama’s Invitation” that Jiang Zhiwei had created herself, he had also been awestruck. Now, he too had reached such a level.
Yan Chong had deeply gazed at Meng Qi. His evaluation of him had been raised higher yet again.
Chang Hui returned to the raised platform after profusely thanking Meng Qi, and numerous others immediately leaped out. However, one of them was faster than the rest, zipping past them like a breeze and arriving at the center of the practicing field first.
He was wearing the robes of a Yuehua Sect disciple and appeared fairly normal, but he had a determined air to him that made him seem to have the bearing of a master.
Several of the Yuehua Sect disciples let out gasps of surprise as if they had not expected to see the man there. It was a gathering for young masters, and while he was young, he was most definitely not a master! Hastily entering the arena would disgrace their sect!
However, in Meng Qi and Yan Chong’s eyes, that ordinary disciple had attained the Eight Aperture s level, an Eight Aperture s level where his flow of genuine Qi was as smooth as drifting clouds or flowing water!
“I am Yuehua Sect’s disciple Ying Shaozhuo. Please instruct me, Young Masters.” The disciple cupped one hand in the other before his chest and said.
He was directly challenging Meng Qi and the others!
Jianghu was huge– it was not that some people were not strong, it was just that they had not had the chance to make it big!