Chapter 72: Sect Mission
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At dusk, Mei Sanniang returned with a calm expression, showing no ripples of emotion. She appeared carefree to everyone, but only Xu Yan noticed the several scratch marks on Third Sister’s neck.
Those should be the handiwork of Mei Sanniang’s two sisters-in-law. It seemed this trip to the Mei family had been fruitless.
They say a married daughter is like spilled water. Not only had Mei Sanniang been hastily married off by her family, but she herself had opened a brothel despite gossip and criticism. When Mei Xingjiu learned that Mei Sanniang had opened a brothel, he was so angry he smashed over a dozen precious flower pots, roaring in his home that he was severing father-daughter ties with Mei Sanniang—from now on, they were strangers.
The Mei family was a wealthy household, and wealthy families valued family reputation and honor above all.
Seeing the scratch marks on Mei Sanniang’s neck, Xu Yan became even more determined to prepare several good horses early. Since he’d heard that going to Horse King Town to find horses would be much cheaper, Xu Yan planned to make the trip when he had a chance.
After all, he was just an idle person at Plum Fragrance Tower—someone who ate when full and slept when fed. After a year of good food and drink, it was time to exercise his bones.
Three hundred li wasn’t far—it would take less than two days. The only problem was insufficient money.
Mei Sanniang was already troubled enough. Xu Yan didn’t plan to bother Third Sister further. After dinner, he strolled to the street gambling house. Under Zhuang Laosi’s smile that welcomed him like a father, Xu Yan immediately announced he wouldn’t come next year.
Hearing that Xu Yan wouldn’t come to the gambling house next year, Zhuang Laosi was so happy he couldn’t find north. If this King of Hell didn’t come, he’d save at least twenty taels of silver daily. Twenty taels a day, six hundred taels a month—over seven thousand taels a year!
Just as Zhuang Laosi was about to cry tears of gratitude, Xu Yan said, “Give me next year’s candy money in advance.”
Zhuang Laosi rolled his eyes and nearly fainted from anger.
Great, this “dear father” didn’t want the trouble—he wanted to take a whole year’s candy money at once.
Under Zhuang Laosi’s mournful farewell, Xu Yan finally left the gambling house with a full five thousand taels in banknotes. Zhuang Laosi didn’t want to give it, but couldn’t resist someone who gambled with two copper coins and won every single round. In the end, Zhuang Laosi had no choice. After calling him “uncle” and “grandfather” for ages, he managed to reduce it by two thousand taels, giving Xu Yan only five thousand taels in exchange for his promise not to enter the gambling house next year.
With money, things became easier. Xu Yan didn’t plan to actually buy several thousand-li horses—he couldn’t afford them anyway. He just needed to reach medium-grade fine horses. After all, there wasn’t much difference between running a thousand li a day and seven or eight hundred li.
When returning to Plum Fragrance Tower, Xu Yan paused slightly at the entrance.
It was already very late, yet two people were still drinking tea at the tea stall across the street. Both were obviously martial artists with swords and blades stuck beside them. They occasionally glanced at Plum Fragrance Tower, while the tea stall owner’s face showed helplessness—yawning but not daring to chase them away.
Still drinking tea at midnight—those two obviously didn’t want to sleep.
After a glance, Xu Yan entered Plum Fragrance Tower. Anyway, those martial artists all acted strangely—maybe they had a habit of drinking tea in the middle of the night.
It was already late, but someone was practicing staff techniques in Plum Fragrance Tower’s courtyard. The wind sounds were impressive, sounding majestic.
The only person practicing staff was Eight Fingers Wang. Xu Yan passed by Eight Fingers Wang, who was happily practicing, without paying attention and headed to his own courtyard.
“Brother Yan!”
Eight Fingers Wang saw Xu Yan and stopped his long staff. Since it was the middle of the night with no one around, he wore only a red belly band. Wiping sweat, he asked: “How do you think my Seven Star Staff Technique looks? Does it have some imposing presence?”
Originally the Seven Star Sword Technique, this guy thought swords were expensive and insisted on practicing with a blade. Now that the blade was lost, he’d switched to practicing with a staff.
“Not bad, not bad. It would be even better if you didn’t hit yourself in the face.” Xu Yan laughed: “Brother Wang’s belly band is indeed unique.”
Eight Fingers Wang’s forehead clearly had a staff mark from hitting himself while practicing. Moreover, besides women, only little boys wore belly bands, yet this guy in his thirties was still wearing one—a bright red one at that.
“Hehe, Brother Yan has sharp eyes—you can see I hit myself with the staff even in this darkness. This is called red brocade clothing, made of silk, for warding off evil, hehe.” Eight Fingers Wang didn’t mind—after all, he’d hit himself, not been beaten by others, so it wasn’t embarrassing.
“It’s so dark, yet you’re still practicing staff.” Xu Yan said casually without stopping. He had no interest in whether it was red brocade clothing or a red belly band.
“I need to work harder these days, or I’ll really be swallowed by the snake demon. Brother Yan, you won’t see me, Eight Fingers Wang, anymore.”
“Snake demon?” Hearing about a snake demon, Xu Yan stopped and asked curiously: “Where’s this snake demon from? Are you going to eliminate demons and uphold justice?”
“Not just me—everyone from Green Wood Hall has to go, plus people from seven other halls. This time we’re mobilizing a full eight halls, and I heard all Eighteen Guardians will take action.”
Eight Fingers Wang looked around to make sure no one was there, then pulled Xu Yan to a corner and said mysteriously: “This is our sect’s secret—an operation in two days. This is called a sect mission. I have to go too, and when I return, I won’t need to pay this year’s interest.”
“To Horse King Town?” Xu Yan blinked and asked.
“Shh! Keep it down.” Eight Fingers Wang was startled and asked: “How do you know we’re going to Horse King Town?”
“When serving wine, I heard the Grand Guardian and General Yan say a few things.”
“Don’t spread this around. If those righteous sect spies hear about it, we’ll return empty-handed.”
Hearing that Xu Yan had overheard fragments in the private room, Eight Fingers Wang stopped being curious and instead warned Xu Yan not to spread the news. Afraid of others talking, he himself spoke first, immediately passing the information to Xu Yan—clearly someone who couldn’t keep secrets.
“What does this have to do with righteous sects?” Xu Yan was puzzled: “Aren’t you going to eliminate demons? Are you joining forces with righteous sects against the snake demon?”
“Eliminating demons is righteous sects’ business—we don’t care about snake demons or whatever.” Eight Fingers Wang raised his chin to the sky, saying proudly: “Eliminating the snake demon is the righteous sects’ duty. We’re going to eliminate the righteous sects! Haha, while they’re busy with demon elimination, we’ll be the mantis stalking the cicada and catch them all in one net!”
Ruthless enough.
Xu Yan nodded approvingly—now this was what an evil sect should be like.
“Brother Wang, didn’t you not want to participate in sect missions? A couple days ago I heard you muttering that this year’s interest was enough to pay. Why are you going too?”
Xu Yan asked puzzledly. This Eight Fingers Wang had been at Plum Fragrance Tower for almost half a year. His share money plus tips from wealthy guests added up to enough for fifty taels. With money to pay, why follow the hall to ambush righteous sects? Wasn’t that just looking for trouble?
At the mention of money, Eight Fingers Wang’s face immediately fell, sighing that he’d lent it out.
“Lent it out? To whom?” Xu Yan asked curiously.
“Sigh, who else could it be? To Zhuang Laosi.”
Now Xu Yan understood—it wasn’t lending, this guy had gambled it all away.
In Qi Nation’s martial world, evil sects were powerful, but that didn’t mean there were no righteous sects. Just as Pu Nation was dominated by righteous sects yet still had some hidden evil sects, the same applied here.
Eliminating demons was indeed the righteous sects’ responsibility—otherwise, why call them righteous? But Xu Yan didn’t believe that if demons were truly causing trouble, Ghost King Gate, with influence spanning half of Qi Nation, would sit idly by. Their own territory needed protection regardless of righteous or evil—otherwise, what kind of sect would they be? They might as well call themselves bandits or criminals.
In Xu Yan’s view, Ghost King Gate’s operation was perhaps taking advantage of the snake demon’s rampage to conveniently eliminate some righteous sect martial artists. But that snake demon should also be something Ghost King Gate valued—otherwise, they wouldn’t mobilize eight halls and all eighteen guardians.
Since he was planning to visit Horse King Town anyway, when Xu Yan returned to his quarters, he wondered whether to travel with Ghost King Gate’s people. He had a Ghost King Gate waist token, after all. This was a righteous-evil battle—Xu Yan had heard Eight Fingers Wang mention such things, but he’d never seen one himself.
Such great excitement—if he didn’t witness it personally, it wouldn’t suit a young person’s nature. Especially demon-slaying—Xu Yan wanted to see with his own eyes the real combat between demons and martial artists.
