Volume 2: Breaking into Fengdu Chapter 85: Green Mountains Never Change

First the snake demon broke out of the trap and launched a surprise attack, then the righteous faction took the opportunity to break through, followed by Paper Fan Gate taking advantage of the chaos, and finally even that masked person was rescued and escaped. Ghost King Gate’s Grand Guardian was truly furious.

If not for obtaining the silver crown, Zhuo Shaoyu would very much like to kill those two useless fools playing dead to vent his anger.

Ghost King Gate and Paper Fan Gate’s people had already chased to the foot of the mountain. Thousands of people spread throughout the bamboo forest, continuously searching for the person who had rescued the masked individual, but there were no clues.

Kicking Eight Fingers Wang in the leg, Zhuo Shaoyu angrily demanded, “Did you see anyone pass through here!”

“No—no one!” Eight Fingers Wang stopped playing dead, crawled up, and said submissively, “Reporting to Guardian Lord, there were only us two keeping watch here. We didn’t see any outsiders.”

“Keeping watch my ass!”

Before the Grand Guardian could explode, Second Guardian Yang Ge beside him slapped Eight Fingers Wang across the face and kicked Xu Yan, cursing, “Nearly ten thousand people surrounding and killing the righteous faction—what need is there for keeping watch? I came here to kill people, not to be a thief! Two useless fools! Which hall do you belong to?”

Eight Fingers Wang was slapped until his nose bled profusely, but he didn’t dare wipe it. Trembling, he pulled out his waist token and replied, “I—I’m from Green Wood Hall.”

Glancing at Eight Fingers Wang’s waist token, Yang Ge stared at Xu Yan with cold eyes and demanded, “What about you!”

After escaping to the foot of the mountain, Xu Yan had immediately gone to where Eight Fingers Wang was playing dead, found a corpse, smeared some blood on his face randomly, then lay face-up on the ground playing dead. If he hadn’t just been kicked, he wouldn’t have wanted to get up.

With hands trembling even more than Eight Fingers Wang’s, Xu Yan fumbled for a long time before pulling out his waist token from his chest, his teeth chattering as he said, “Green—Green—Green—Green—Green…”

Two genuine good-for-nothings weren’t worth the eighteen guardians’ attention. Zhuo Shaoyu had already walked toward the distance. Such small fry weren’t worth his concern. With a snort, Yang Ge also chased after him, no longer bothering with the two.

Fleeing wasn’t a wise choice. Xu Yan’s method was quite clever. Since he carried Ghost King Gate’s waist token in his chest, rather than running around in the forest, it was easier to play dead without arousing suspicion. With his face covered in blood, others couldn’t even recognize what he looked like.

Watching countless Ghost King Gate disciples rush past nearby, Xu Yan finally breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, then followed at the back of the crowd together with Eight Fingers Wang.

“Green mountains never change, flowing waters run long…”

At the rear of the crowd, Xu Yan continued in a whisper only he could hear the phrase he hadn’t finished earlier: “Second Guardian, is it? Kick me once, and wait for me to return you a hundred kicks!”

A trace of coldness flashed in his eyes, then returned to a simple, foolish expression.

Actually, being kicked once wasn’t much. Xu Yan wasn’t that petty. As a grown young man, being hit a few times wasn’t a big deal. But Second Guardian Yang Ge’s kick just now had been aimed at his heart. If he hadn’t protected himself with both hands, he could have been kicked until he vomited blood.

A kick from a four-meridian innate master, even without full force, hitting the heart would cause serious injury. Even now, Xu Yan felt his chest was stuffy and his breathing wasn’t smooth.

He remembered this grudge. If there was an opportunity, Xu Yan would definitely repay it double.

Venting his anger at failing to capture the masked person on two Ghost King Gate lackeys, Yang Ge relied on his status as Second Guardian and acted without restraint. Although he didn’t catch the mysterious person who had deflected his twin arrows along the way, he did beat up more than ten Ghost King Gate lackeys who were playing dead and slacking off.

They chased all the way out of the eastern suburbs bamboo forest before Zhuo Shaoyu finally stopped. Not far from him, Paper Fan Gate’s young sect master simultaneously looked over.

“Losing four guardians in one go—Ghost King Gate will have to select new guardians again.” Xiao Meng fanned his paper fan and chuckled, “Who knows how many will die in a year. It seems Ghost King Gate’s guardians are cheaper than chickens, ducks, geese, and dogs.”

“Young Sect Master flatters us.” Zhuo Shaoyu’s expression darkened. “Our Ghost King Gate has many guardians. Losing a few doesn’t matter. Unlike your Paper Fan Gate, which only has one young sect master.”

Zhuo Shaoyu’s implication was that if you, the only young sect master, died, the Xiao family would have no heir.

“Likewise, likewise.” Xiao Meng sneered and left with his subordinates, fanning his paper fan gracefully like a wealthy young master out for leisure.

In Qi Nation, probably only this hypocrite could speak to Ghost King Gate’s Grand Guardian like this. Among the young generation martial artists of Qi Nation’s evil factions, only these two had comparable cultivation levels and similar status.

Ghost King Gate wouldn’t truly become enemies with Paper Fan Gate. After exchanging some sarcasm, Zhuo Shaoyu led his subordinates away from Horse King Town, returning to Fengshan City. As for the corpses of the hundreds of dead sect members, they could serve as fertilizer for that bamboo forest—evil faction people wouldn’t care about such things.

Eight Fingers Wang, having been slapped, sheepishly followed the main force back. Xu Yan gradually separated from the group, cleaned the bloodstains from his clothes alone in the wilderness, and returned to Horse King Town.

He still hadn’t paid for his horse—he had only left a deposit earlier.

The show hadn’t been watched in vain. Although he’d been kicked, he had caught a strange little snake. As for casually saving that masked girl’s life, Xu Yan had long forgotten about it.

When bestowing kindness on others, don’t seek reward.

It was like casually pouring a cup of clear water to nourish a small blade of grass. As for the scenery of grass growing and orioles flying, he could see it, and others could see it too. Giving with the expectation of return wasn’t called bestowing kindness—it was called speculation.

As a Taoist, although he wore fine clothes and ate rich food, Xu Yan hadn’t forgotten any of the principles his master had taught him.

After eating heartily in Horse King Town, Xu Yan led away two good horses from the horse seller. The silver in his possession was almost completely spent.

The horses had been well-trained and were very obedient. Xu Yan rode comfortably on horseback, with the two horses tied together. Leaving Horse King Town, he headed straight for Fengshan City.

They were indeed fast horses. In less than half a day, the two healthy steeds had entered Fengdu, drawing admiration from horse connoisseurs who pointed and discussed the price of the two fine horses.

When Xu Yan returned to Fengshan City, thousands of li away from Horse King Town, a pure white eagle soared above a plain. On the grassland below the white eagle, the girl who had discarded her veil sat cross-legged, using true qi to expel the poison from her body.

This poison wouldn’t be fatal, but it was very troublesome—a poison Paper Fan Gate specifically used against innate martial artists. If not expelled early, Pang Hongyue would become increasingly weak.

Fortunately, she had brought many antidote medicines from home before departing. After suppressing the poison’s effects, the girl took out a small pouch, found several detoxifying pills, and swallowed them in one gulp. After a while, her complexion improved considerably.

“That was so dangerous…”

Recalling the scene of leaping from the mountaintop, Pang Hongyue still felt lingering fear.

If someone hadn’t helped her deflect those twin arrows, her current situation would probably be a matter of life and death.

At sixteen years old, in the flower of youth, at an age when emotions were hazy and uncertain, being saved between life and death—if she were an ordinary girl, she might develop thoughts of pledging herself in marriage. Even though this Miss Pang had noble status, thinking of the mysterious master who had saved her, her heart couldn’t help but tremble slightly, as if her entire being was wrapped in some inexplicable emotion.

It was a kind of green and unfamiliar feeling of gratitude.

Her pale, slender hand reached into the pouch and pulled out a stone slightly larger than a bird’s egg. The girl’s beautiful large eyes blinked as she carefully felt the fingerprint that had been pressed into the stone.

It was this stone that had saved her life. Although there had been two stones total, Pang Hongyue could only bite down on one with her teeth.

The handprint on the stone had been forcibly pressed in. One could imagine that a stone thrown with such force would have power almost comparable to a heavy crossbow. Looking at it, the young girl’s pretty face flushed slightly red, and she hurriedly put the stone back in her pouch.

She planned to treasure this stone that had saved her life forever, to treasure this feeling of longing from her maiden years.