A teahouse located two streets away from the Chenghuang Temple.
The teahouse was not open today, the doors and windows on the second floor were tightly closed, and the chairs were all turned upside down and placed on the Eight Immortals table.
In the corner sat a tall, thin middle-aged man with a bamboo hat.
——He was sitting directly on the floor, with a porcelain cup full of tea in front of him.
The cup was made of coarse porcelain, with leaf stems and fragments floating in the tea.
It was difficult to spot this strange man staring at the porcelain cup at first glance, whether from the window or the staircase entrance.
The noise outside gradually grew louder, as if many people were running.
“They started fighting… the blacksmith shop… the bandits…”
Vague words passed through the window, the roof tiles creaked, and there were loud exclamations downstairs, chaos everywhere.
Someone jumped onto the roof of the second floor of the teahouse, causing the tiles to slip, as if they landed heavily. They quickly circled the roof, observing the surroundings, as if they had lost someone and were trying to find their trail again.
A scream came from afar.
The person on the roof stomped angrily, leaped up, and left the teahouse.
Throughout this, the man with the bamboo hat sitting on the floor did not move, only coldly raising his head to gaze at the beam when the tiles shifted.
Gradually, the noise in the distance also subsided, and the porcelain cup in front of the man with the bamboo hat did not waver at all.
“Lady Liu missed.”
There was no vibration, and the prepared thunder firecrackers did not explode.
The man with the bamboo hat half-closed his eyes and let out a sigh.
He slowly stood up, no longer glancing at the porcelain cup, and stepped downstairs.
The light shining through the cracks in the window gradually illuminated his face. First, his firm and angular chin, a layer of green stubble, and then his straight, emotionless lips.
He did not look like a swordsman, and there was a veil under the bamboo hat. A normal bamboo hat could only cover half of the face.
At the staircase entrance stood two waiters dressed as teahouse attendants, their backs bent. When they saw someone coming down, they immediately called out softly, “Master.”
Their attitude was extremely respectful as they spoke, not daring to look up.
“Where is Sun Xi?” The bamboo hat man’s voice was very soft, like a breeze gently brushing the earlobe.
The two waiters’ shoulders trembled slightly, cold sweat dripping from their foreheads.
The sweat was so heavy that it even dripped onto the floor in front of them.
At this moment, a respectful call saved the two waiters.
“Master, please forgive me. I didn’t know you had arrived; it was my negligence.”
Shopkeeper Sun happened to step into the teahouse, his face extremely ugly, with a rare hint of unease.
Shopkeeper Sun quickly walked up to the bamboo hat man, bowed deeply, and said apologetically, “I was careless and missed important information, leading to constant setbacks and ruining the foundation in Run County and the best opportunity to eliminate Fengxing Pavilion.”
The bamboo hat man first waved his hand and then said, “Fengxing Pavilion is just a bunch of rabble; it doesn’t matter when they’re eliminated. You’ve managed Run County for many years, with no merit, but you did work hard. Even if it was destroyed, I wouldn’t blame you. Dewei, do you know what the real mistake was?”
Shopkeeper Sun felt a chill quickly run down his spine, knowing that if he didn’t answer this question well, he was finished.
“Reporting to the master, I… I lost a peerless good blade.”
“Ah, I know you and Li Song look down on him.”
The bamboo hat man’s tone was still calm. Shopkeeper Sun closed his eyes, not daring to hide anything, and said in a low voice, “After your blade fell into Fengxing Pavilion’s hands, I didn’t rescue it but instead launched an attack directly. That was my mistake.”
Blowing up the opium factory, abandoning Run County… all these could be justified from the perspective of the greater good, but not this one.
Even giving the swordsman a hint from the spy planted in Fengxing Pavilion, or pointing out an escape route, none of that happened.
The swordsman’s true alienation began with the burning of Sweet Spring Bathhouse.
The bamboo hat man let out a long sigh: “I know you think he’s dull and stupid, and you’ve always withheld the supply of Forget-Worry Pills to the assassins in Piaoping Pavilion, keeping those assassins tightly locked underground so you can’t use them…”
“Master!”
Shopkeeper Sun couldn’t help but interrupt the bamboo hat man’s words when he heard this. Cold sweat broke out on his forehead as he desperately tried to defend himself, “He turned Piaoping Pavilion into that mess; this person is indeed incompetent and wasted all your efforts.”
Piaoping Pavilion could have caused an even bigger storm in the martial arts world, and Shopkeeper Sun could have used this assassin organization to do more things, but unfortunately, he ran into that foolish swordsman! The man stayed in a tomb and wouldn’t come out, spending all his time either practicing his swordsmanship or practicing his swordsmanship, not caring about anything else. Shopkeeper Sun couldn’t “befriend” him, nor could he “use” him.
It was clearly one of the master’s forces, yet he couldn’t gain any advantage from it. He had to painstakingly deliver pills on schedule, and send captured martial arts experts to be his thugs, working tirelessly like a servant. Yet, the swordsman didn’t even know his name, let alone appreciate his efforts. Shopkeeper Sun was not one to silently endure hardships; how could he not resent this?
The bamboo hat man looked at Shopkeeper Sun steadily.
The latter straightened his back, respectfully saying, “Master, there are many fine blades in this world. It may be difficult to find one sharper than this, but there are surely many that are more suitable! I will definitely find a blade to your satisfaction!”
“Very well.”
The bamboo hat man turned and walked out.
Shopkeeper Sun hurried to follow, carefully reporting, “The identity of the person who kidnapped Li Song has been confirmed…”
“Oh? Was it because of the spy you planted in Fengxing Pavilion, or the failed attempt by Lady Liu?” The bamboo hat man asked softly.
Shopkeeper Sun’s face turned pale and then flushed. He gritted his teeth and said, “That Chu Dynasty national teacher, if he is still alive, would be nearly ninety years old. Although this person’s identity has been confirmed by Fengxing Pavilion, there are also some rumors in the martial arts world, and even the recent incident in Taijing several months ago is related to this person. But there are many martial artists in this world who pass down the names of their teachers through generations, like the thief Li Kongkong. I just want to know if he is… really Meng Qi himself.”
“Now you know.”
The atmosphere in the teahouse became exceptionally heavy, and the two waiters could hardly breathe, their faces turning blue.
The bamboo hat man slowly turned around, his tone filled with anger for the first time: “Lady Liu and the others practiced the Empty Flower Formation for a full twenty years. They painstakingly found people suitable to practice this martial art, and they had perfect coordination. Now they’re gone, twenty years of effort wasted! Sun Xi, Sun Dewei! I’ve always relied on you, and this is how you repay me?”
Shopkeeper Sun dropped to his knees with a thud, unable to voice his grievances.
Lady Liu lived near the Chenghuang Temple, not to monitor Blacksmith Wang; Wang’s status wasn’t that high. Today’s events were also a coincidence.
Meng Qi and his two companions carried a corpse to the blacksmith shop. Subsequently, Meng Qi swaggered through the streets in his examination robe, making it hard for Lady Liu to ignore him, especially with his striking appearance. The area around the Chenghuang Temple was a mix of all sorts of people, with many outsiders. They had already placed their people in the vicinity, so when they saw Meng Qi entering a pastry shop and then loitering near the county office, suspicion arose. Moreover, with the gates of Run County still sealed, this sudden appearance of someone who went to a blacksmith shop “related to the swordsman” made his identity almost obvious.
He was the one who disrupted the events last night and abducted Li Zhubo!
Shopkeeper Sun received this information and was immediately troubled.
He didn’t know that Li Zhubo was already dead.
But he could deduce what the other party’s next move would be.
——Because if it were him, he would do the same.
On the surface, Shopkeeper Sun abandoned and destroyed all the clues that could expose them, even disguising the Sun family as one of the wealthy households that fled last night. However, there were still many things he couldn’t take away, such as the people embedded in the government offices, the problematic soldiers in the barracks, and forces like Lady Liu’s that were hidden on the streets.
These people might not know as much as Li Zhubo, but it would still take effort to capture them. Meng Qi was determined to cut off the problem at its root. The Sun family had accused Fengxing Pavilion of colluding with bandits to attack the county, and this accusation could be turned back on them, depending on how they used Li Zhubo.
A living Li Zhubo could argue back, but a dead one would be more useful. They could cut off his head or throw his corpse into the county magistrate’s bedroom, making it look like he was a bandit leader. They could claim that Li Zhubo was doing business with the bandits, but when he went back on his word, they killed him. Then, they could demand money from the frightened magistrate before escaping when the county soldiers surrounded them.
If they then caused a ruckus in the barracks, it wouldn’t just be the county magistrate who would start suspecting. Even the county captain would question how a tightly guarded barracks could be so easily infiltrated. Was no one inside colluding with the bandits?
No evidence was needed; just a thorough investigation would render the people they had planted in the barracks useless for the time being. If Meng Qi was truly skilled and targeted the usual embezzlement practices in the barracks, even if their plans were meticulously carried out, there was a chance they could be uncovered. On the other hand, pulling everyone out would be akin to admitting guilt, attracting Qi Dynasty’s attention.
That would be bad enough, but the main problem was that Shopkeeper Sun, based on reports from their spies in Fengxing Pavilion, discovered that the person causing the disruption was most likely the Chu Dynasty’s national teacher.
In today’s world, whether in Qi Dynasty, the remnants of Chu, or the Holy Lotus Altar, no one feared this name more than the people of Western Liang.
Historical records don’t mention it, and there are no rumors in the martial world.
Therefore, no one knew that Western Liang’s state religion, the Mojie Temple, which gathered enough experts to rival the sects of the martial world, was destroyed by a single person.
“Master, may I report…” Shopkeeper Sun forced himself to stay focused and concisely recounted his difficulties and the situation at the time. “At first, I didn’t believe it. But when I was in the barracks and saw the opponent treat the Xuanwu Killing Formation as nothing and abduct Li Song, I knew something was wrong and directly used the backup plan, which I thought I would never use, to blow up the underground workshop. When Lady Liu came to report, I thought I couldn’t let Li Song reveal more information, so I made a decisive move. I didn’t just send out Lady Liu; I also prepared many thunder firecrackers. Master must have heard about it. Actually, my intention was to have them test the waters, fight if they could, and retreat if things went south…”
Shopkeeper Sun was trembling; the gunpowder hadn’t exploded, and everyone could hear it.
But he was truly wronged. He looked down on the swordsman, looked down on Li Song, but he never intended to send Lady Liu and the others to their deaths.
“Meng Qi broke into the Mojie Temple back then and was trapped by the Empty Flower Formation for three days. Even so, it took him half an hour to break the formation. Although Lady Liu’s martial arts are not as good as the temple’s guardian monks from back then, it was only for a short time, and there were thunder firecrackers to help. The blacksmith shop was narrow, making it difficult to perform lightness skills… Even so, they shouldn’t have… been completely wiped out…”
If it were truly Meng Qi, a man nearly ninety years old, his internal strength would be more refined, but his muscles and bones couldn’t compare to when he was young, and no matter how sharp his eyesight, his hands and feet couldn’t keep up.
If it was Meng Qi’s disciple, even if he had learned the method to break the formation, it wasn’t the same as Qi Men Dun Jia; it wasn’t a military formation that required a master to train for many years. Could Meng Qi have found someone proficient in the Empty Flower Formation to spar with his disciple?
***
The blacksmith shop was a mess.
Lady Liu struggled to her feet, her expression twisted as she realized Shopkeeper Sun was hiding something from her.
“Who exactly are you? How do you know the name of the Empty Flower Formation, and when… did you visit the Mojie Temple?”
The other Western Liang experts also showed horrified expressions.
Because the Mojie Temple had been gone for more than forty years.
Along with the capital of Western Liang, it had turned to ashes.
The martial arts they practiced were preserved in underground texts through special means, discovered only ten years after the fall of the kingdom.
Yet this person claimed to have seen the Empty Flower Formation formed by the temple’s guardian monks with his own eyes?
Mojie, derived from Sanskrit, means a place without troubles. Western Liang’s state religion was a branch of Vajrayana Buddhism, evolving into a unique sect, drawing from the Thirteen Demon Aspects of the Shurangama Sutra, even surpassing the martial arts of the renowned Hengchang Temple in the Central Plains. Although it was mostly unknown in the Central Plains due to its location beyond the frontier, true experts knew of the Mojie Temple monks’ formidable martial arts.
The Empty Flower Formation was Mojie Temple’s signature technique, and from beginning to end, only one person had ever broken it.
“Could it be that you are the Chu Dynasty’s national teacher, Meng Qi…”
Someone showed a hint of pride, smiled while holding a sword.
“…his disciple?”
Meng Qi’s smile disappeared.
Then he vaguely heard a snicker. He turned around in anger, only to see Mo Li continue clapping, nodding as he said, “Indeed, this is an old grudge, and it just happened to cross paths.”
Lady Liu thought of Shopkeeper Sun’s order to test the martial arts, destroy the cellar, and immediately escape regardless of life or death, and became more convinced that Shopkeeper Sun knew Meng Qi’s identity, making her even more resentful.
“I never thought that even today, there are still people from Western Liang planning to restore their kingdom. It seems you’re doing quite well?” Meng Qi decided not to hold a grudge against these foolish Western Liang experts. When he entered Mojie Temple alone years ago, he didn’t bring anyone with him, so how could he have had a disciple?
However, seeing the terror on the faces of Lady Liu and the others, as if they had encountered their nemesis, was indeed amusing.
Mo Li suddenly turned his head.
One wall of the blacksmith shop had completely collapsed, with the side facing the street now open, while the other two sides remained intact.
Mo Li sensed it first, followed by Meng Qi.
A deep, powerful aura stood silently outside the wall, as if an unparalleled expert was watching them from behind the wall.
Meng Qi raised his hand, signaling Mo Li to retreat. Mo Li refused, sensing a hidden aura of death from the presence.
That kind of feeling could only be compared to stepping into a plague-ridden village. The killing intent on the swordsman was a mere joke in comparison.
Lady Liu and the others were first overjoyed, but then began to tremble—they had botched the mission, lost face, and now had to have their master intervene personally.
Author’s Note:
Empty Flower Formation.
This term comes from the Shurangama Sutra.
“In the void, there is nothing but the appearance of crazed flowers.” When you stare at a spot without blinking, over time, your eyes become tired, and shadows start to flit around. These shadows are called crazed flowers, which in Buddhist texts are considered illusory, meaning that form, appearance, and essence are all falsehoods, not to be attached to. They are created by staring for too long, born out of attachment. No matter how you try to grasp or pursue them, they are illusory.
The Empty Flower Formation here refers to the Mojie Temple, creating a formation that dazzles the eyes, becoming more confusing the more you look at it, the more you try to distinguish, the more mistakes you make. Only by seeing through the empty and crazed flowers can the formation be broken.
——————
Meng Qi in the past at level 89, carrying a book for reference: “??? Let me study this first.”
Meng Qi today at level 99, having memorized the book: “No need to decipher, just fight.”
