What’s the matter, looking down on small businesses?
Meeting Master Meng is not difficult.
The difficulty lies in the fact that Master Meng has no clothes to wear!
Even Mo Li couldn’t help but show a trace of embarrassment.
“Master, to be honest.”
Mo Li felt that the sand rat in his arms was heavy and said with reluctance, “Earlier, while passing through the nearby county town, something happened, and Brother Meng went to see… investigate the situation.”
Mo Li almost said “watch the commotion.”
Although watching the commotion was more in line with Meng Qi’s nature, Yuan Zhi the monk didn’t know that. In front of others, one had to save face for Meng Qi.
The sand rat clutched Mo Li’s clothes with its small paws, thinking it was really hard for the doctor.
——He was clearly right here, yet the doctor was forced to lie.
Making a doctor who adheres to the principles of a gentleman lie with his eyes open is not easy.
It was only for himself that the doctor would violate his principles. Meng Qi thought happily and smugly.
“Nearby county town?” Monk Yuan Zhi was puzzled, clearly unaware of the mess caused by various martial forces.
Fortunately, Yuan Zhi was old and experienced, seeing that Mo Li did not want to elaborate, he did not press further.
“Amitabha, I wonder when Master Meng will have some free time, this old monk can wait.”
“How about meeting here tomorrow?”
Mo Li actually wanted to say the day after tomorrow, after all, sewing clothes was not easy, but thinking of Monk Yuan Zhi’s visit, backed by the Ning family guarding Xuan Chuan Pass.
In case the Tianshou King in the southwest launched an attack on Xuan Chuan Pass, Yuan Zhi returning early could provide some help, rather than being delayed here for a long time.
“Actually… master, there’s no need to worry, Brother Meng has long withdrawn from the court and has no interest in the struggle for power in the world.” Mo Li explained with some embarrassment.
Yuan Zhi was surprised upon hearing this.
These days, it was often necessary to beat around the bush when speaking, who would directly say “I’m afraid you have ambitions, you want to stir up trouble”? That wouldn’t be a meeting but making an enemy. Testing whether someone has intentions for the world requires skillful metaphor use, one can find excellent examples in history books.
Yuan Zhi, being a monk, did not have the skill to speak pleasantly, he could only honestly say everything he could, such as the current situation of the Ning family and his own identity and background. To avoid misunderstandings, wasting time in testing and beating around the bush.
As a result, Mo Li was even more direct!
Not only did he say what shouldn’t be said, but he also said it on behalf of Meng Qi.
Their relationship must be extraordinary, ordinary people would never meddle in such matters.
Yuan Zhi couldn’t determine if they were intimate friends without any gaps or if they had hidden agendas. Were these words true or false?
The old monk had a troubled expression.
Mo Li paused, realizing he had overstepped.
Others traveled long distances to find Meng Qi for the sake of their country, it was impossible to leave without meeting him just because of one sentence from Mo Li. Others didn’t know the relationship between him and Meng Qi, and even if they did, it would be hard to understand. What is the friendship between dragon veins called? What does it mean to have mutual understanding between dragon veins?
This was a secret between him and Meng Qi, no need for others to understand.
Still, sewing the clothes and letting the Master appear in person was the way to go!
Mo Li nodded to Monk Yuan Zhi, with some apology, “I spoke too much. Master, don’t worry. Tomorrow at noon, I will ask Brother Meng to come here to meet you.”
The monk hurriedly clasped his hands in thanks.
When he looked up again, he felt a cool breeze, and Mo Li had already used his lightness skill to disappear without a trace.
The old monk vaguely felt that he had said something wrong.
***
In front of the dilapidated earth temple, a group of men in black silently appeared.
They identified the traces on the ground and quickly scattered around, only the leading swordsman slowly walked to the offering table and sat down cross-legged.
The swordsman was injured.
There was a narrow wound on his left shoulder, and he tore open his collar, applying wound medicine with one hand.
Even on a hot summer night, with no one around, the swordsman still did not take off the cumbersome hat that covered his face.
Earlier in the rice shop, the swordsman had a chaotic battle with many masters from the Fengxing Pavilion, neither side gaining the upper hand. Many from Fengxing Pavilion were injured, while this mysterious swordsman from Piaoping Pavilion suffered serious internal injuries and had to retreat temporarily.
The swordsman fought alone against many. The assassins from Piaoping Pavilion took the opportunity to dig three feet into the rice shop.
They were even a step ahead of Fengxing Pavilion, finding the earth temple where Meng Qi and others had stayed.
The earth temple only had the corpse of a death warrior left.
The swordsman calmly finished applying medicine, completely ignoring the corpse lying beside him.
Soon, several men in black returned from outside the temple.
“Anyone?”
The swordsman’s voice was hoarse, like branches scraping on sandpaper.
The black-clad assassins shook their heads in unison, their eyes showing some fear.
The swordsman pointed to the corpse and then closed his eyes to meditate.
Only then did the assassins stand up, carefully circling the corpse a few times, then untying its clothes, pressing the wounds and neck area like a coroner examining a body.
They quickly reached a conclusion, exchanged glances, and left the corpse, stepping out of the temple again.
After the time it took to burn a stick of incense, the black-clad assassins returned, dragging a ragged figure.
It was none other than the death warrior released by Meng Qi.
The death warrior had killed his comrade, thinking he could use the secret of the account book to catch a big fish. However, he had waited for no one and, as the third watch approached, had dozed off on a tree. Fate, it seemed, had not finished its cruelty. The assassins from Piaoping Pavilion traced him and caught him in one swoop.
The death warrior, upon waking, cursed inwardly.
He thought his hiding place was very secretive and had left many misleading clues. How did these people find him so accurately in the tree?
“Who are you?”
The death warrior struggled, trying to discern their identity.
But these people were like a group of mutes, silent until they threw him to the ground.
“…”
His eyes met the pale, rigid face of the corpse, and the death warrior shuddered.
In the summer, corpses decompose quickly. In just one night, a foul odor was already emanating, with flies buzzing around.
The black-clad assassins seemed completely oblivious to this, silent and motionless, exuding an eerie sense of oppression.
The death warrior’s heart sank abruptly. He knew he had encountered the worst situation, falling into the hands of Piaoping Pavilion’s people.
The swordsman suddenly reached out and grabbed the death warrior’s neck, lifting him entirely off the ground, saying each word clearly, “Account book.”
In fact, the death warrior was much taller than the swordsman. However, he had been lying on the ground earlier, and now being lifted like this, his legs were bent awkwardly behind him, causing him to scream in pain, followed by the crisp sound of bones breaking.
“The Si family’s account book.” The swordsman repeated hoarsely.
The death warrior cried out in pain, struggling, “It was taken by those people, those two who appeared in the rice shop.”
“Lies!”
The swordsman tightened his grip, and the death warrior’s eyes rolled back, his hands desperately trying to pry the swordsman’s hand off his throat.
“…Really, in the secret compartment of the rice shop… we hadn’t taken it yet, they got there first…”
The death warrior’s voice came out in broken fragments. The swordsman loosened his grip, and the death warrior fell heavily to the ground.
Before he could rejoice at diverting the disaster, feeling he had deceived Piaoping Pavilion’s people, he suddenly felt a cold sensation at his neck, followed by the rapid sensation of flying backward.
——His eyes saw his own back.
The blood-spraying neck, the swaying headless body, and the extra sword in the hat-wearing man’s hand.
“Bang.”
Two sounds in quick succession, the first being the head hitting the wall, the second the body falling to the ground.
The swordsman pressed his hat down and strode out of the temple.
“Burn this temple, lose the Fengxing Pavilion people.”
***
“There’s firelight.”
Mo Li put down the needle and cloth in his hand, looking into the distance, he saw thick smoke rolling.
Although it was far away, it was in the direction they had come from.
Mo Li had been walking deep into the mountains all along, worried that something might dart out in the dark and snatch the chubby rat. He kept the sand rat tightly protected in his arms, not letting it show its head even once. Therefore, Meng Qi was not very clear about where this place was. When he was put down, it was in a cave.
The cave was situated in the middle of a valley, with no path to climb up unless one had top-notch lightness skills like Mo Li, and it was very concealed with trees everywhere.
After reverting to human form, Meng Qi quickly put on the undergarments Mo Li had thrown over.
No, in fact, he only wore pants.
After all, it wouldn’t be proper to sew clothes while naked, would it?
With true qi protecting his body, he was not afraid of mosquitoes.
“Something seems to have happened at the foot of the mountain.”
“Most likely, those guys selling information for a living got into a fight with the assassins from Piaoping Pavilion, or they discovered some clue and didn’t want to leave it for the others.” Meng Qi said without even looking up.
The illustrious Master Meng, wearing only underpants, was diligently sewing clothes.
These days, even sand rats couldn’t be lazy! If he had known, why buy cloth? Wouldn’t it have been better to just buy a ready-made set from a fabric shop?
With a blank expression, Meng Qi looked at his pricked fingers, resembling a sieve, after being poked yet again.
He glanced at the sewn sleeve; two “black centipedes” lay on the fine cloth, and he could only painfully take it apart.
The stitches were uneven and unwearable.
Since he was to appear as the national master, how could he wear clothes with crooked stitches? Even if the doctor agreed, he wouldn’t be pleased.
Knowing how to patch up is completely different from knowing how to make clothes.
How did those embroiderers manage to make the surface of the clothes show no stitches at all?
Meng Qi fell into deep thought.
“Something’s wrong. Why is there firelight in the mountains?” Mo Li was full of doubts.
Didn’t the old shopkeeper of the wild store say this area was rarely visited by people?
Hearing this, Meng Qi pushed aside the bushes and looked at the approaching firelight from all directions in the mountains.
This was clearly a crowd with torches!
In the middle of the night, what was this mountain-searching posture all about?
The two, who had been making clothes in the dark, looked at each other.
As the torches got closer, even Mo Li couldn’t help but reach for the knife handle in his sleeve.
——Was it for the account book of the Si family’s rice shop? Or did they know Meng Qi’s identity?
More and more torches were raised, startling the birds perched on the trees, illuminating the mountainside brightly.
At the same time, Mo Li saw clearly the people with torches.
There were men and women, old and young, in various attires. They cleared away the grass and bushes, fixed the torches in rock crevices, then sat around in groups, spreading out the bundles they brought on the ground like a market, and some even started shouting.
“Yunyin Hall tokens, take them if you like, price is negotiable.”
“Waist badges of novice monks from Hengchang Temple, come if you know the goods.”
“Recommendation letter from King Wu’s mansion, genuine goods. Don’t go, with this you can have an official meal. Don’t look down on official meals, who doesn’t want to retire from the martial world one day—”
“Bloody clothes for sale, disciples’ bloody clothes from Chunshan Sect. Look at this collar, it has the Chunshan Sect’s mark. Just take it to a gang that has a grudge against Chunshan Sect, you can make friends, get free meals and drinks, and if you lie well, you can even get rewards. Senior, want one?”
The fat rat and fish squatting in the mountainside cave: “…”
This is the wrong place to sew clothes!
Is it still possible to find another place now?
Author’s note:
Where in the world is there no business opportunity?
People of the martial world: We just find a deserted mountain, set up a martial arts fair, and do a little business.
