Meng Qi: Are you acknowledging each other as father and son?
The dragon vein of Feihe Mountain was very confused. He felt that the swordsman looked very familiar.
It wasn’t that his appearance was familiar, but rather he resembled a table at home, a screen… No, it was more like a tree at home, or a rock, that kind of familiarity.
Bringing this person home wouldn’t feel out of place at all.
“…”
What’s the deal with meeting a human on the road who looks like furniture?
The mountain sparrow couldn’t figure it out no matter how hard it tried. It turned its head to the left to scrutinize the swordsman, and then to the right.
When Su Li saw the sparrow, he also felt a strange stirring, like a person who hadn’t eaten for three days suddenly seeing a bowl of stir-fried pork, or like a wanderer returning home after years, finally seeing their mother.
His nose stung, his vision blurred, and his limbs went weak.
The swordsman was dumbfounded, almost raising his hand to feel his forehead to check if he had a fever.
Being trapped in a sinkhole for two hours wasn’t long. Back when he was an assassin, it was common to go a whole day and night without food or water. So why was he now inexplicably drawn to this chubby sparrow, even thinking about meat? Thinking about meat was one thing, but why couldn’t he take his eyes off it?
Instinctively, Su Li closed his eyes and shook his head, as if trying to shake the water out of his brain.
So the sparrow shook its head, and the swordsman also shook his head.
Mo Li: “…”
Meng Qi: “…”
There’s no need to ask. The one who saved Su Li back then was the dragon vein of Feihe Mountain!
This person and the dragon vein were just too straightforward. If Ayanpuka were here, the sparrow’s disguise would have been useless, and it would have been exposed immediately.
Meng Qi pondered. Could it be that Su Li was so easy to deceive because of the influence of the dragon vein from Feihe Mountain? The spiritual energy that entered the womb and accompanied the child’s birth might have affected Su Li’s intelligence.
Meng Qi looked at the sparrow in shock and accusation.
The sparrow was very confused, not knowing what had happened.
Mo Li cleared his throat.
The swordsman suddenly came back to his senses. Feeling embarrassed, he remembered that there was still a badger behind him.
He quickly turned around and began to untie the rope.
The badger was tied up with a belt. Jianghu people are different from ordinary folk. They don’t just rely on one rope. Instead, their robes are often tied with additional cords inside, much like the robes of scholars from noble families.
Otherwise, what would they do if the belt snapped during a fight? Hold up their pants with both hands?
Veteran Jianghu people often used their weapons to sever their opponent’s belt to gain the upper hand. Some even used more underhanded tactics, such as ‘Monkey Steals the Peach’ or tearing clothes and belts to distract their opponents. As an assassin, Su Li was very cautious and prepared for every eventuality. Sometimes, the belt could serve other purposes, like today.
“Alright, let’s go…”
Su Li hadn’t even finished his sentence when the freed badger suddenly lunged toward the bamboo basket.
Mo Li was quick to snatch the basket away, and the badger, dizzy from hunger, tumbled to the ground.
The badger made pitiful whining sounds, drooling as it stared hungrily at the sparrow, which had a lot of meat.
Swordsman: “…”
So, is this sparrow really that delicious?
But why did his heart almost jump out of his throat when the badger lunged at it?
On the other side, the sparrow was furious. This badger was stepping on Feihe Mountain’s territory, and it actually wanted to eat it?
“Chirp chirp chirp!” The sparrow let out an angry cry. If it could fly, it would definitely peck this badger bald.
Mo Li sighed, and even Meng Qi, through the fabric, also sighed.
As the saying goes, a phoenix without feathers is worse than a chicken, and a tiger fallen to the plains is bullied by dogs. The dragon vein of Feihe Mountain is really—too fragile. It’s better to send it back as soon as possible!
But before that, let’s “take over” the swordsman who has come knocking on the door.
Mo Li was a bit unsure. He felt like his luck had improved. Otherwise, why did someone appear just after thinking about it? Or perhaps the swordsman had also stumbled upon this place while investigating the case of Ayanpuka?
Mo Li glanced at the sparrow, wanting to ask if the dragon vein of Feihe Mountain had recognized the swordsman.
However, with Su Li nearby, Mo Li couldn’t speak to the sparrow and could only shoulder his medicine basket.
The badger twitched its nose, glanced at Su Li, and then stumbled forward, crashing clumsily toward Mo Li, raising its head and extending its paw, begging for food with one pitiful sound after another.
The swordsman had thought the little creature was smart back in the cave, but he didn’t expect it could… Wait, was it abandoning him already?
“Could this be someone’s pet?”
Su Li thought the badger’s begging motions resembled the monkeys that street performers carried with them in Jianghu.
The badger was far from being a monkey. Not that badgers are dumb; on the contrary, this creature was annoyingly clever. It could hear sounds from far away, remember the scent of prey, and it had a pair of paws good at digging holes. It ate everything from frogs, rats, and insects in the fields to eels and loaches in the water, even gnawing on crops. It was the bane of mountain villagers.
And its wild nature was hard to tame. It couldn’t be kept as a pet. Hunters caught badgers mainly for their fur and the fat that could be rendered into oil.
Although the badger in front of them was so thin that its skin hung loosely on its body, its intact sharp claws made it clear that it wasn’t domesticated.
Instinctively, Mo Li tucked Meng Qi a little deeper into his chest because both field mice and mountain mice were the badger’s main food.
—Upon further thought, there were far too many beasts that wanted to eat Meng Qi—those that flew in the sky, those that ran on the ground. You could bump into them anytime.
The badger lowered its head. It was too weak, so weak that it might not be able to forage. While foraging, it also had to avoid other beasts to prevent itself from becoming their meal.
Although the person who saved it had a comforting aura, the one above seemed to have a stronger aura. Or maybe… it was too hungry and dizzy to tell the difference. In any case, the person above seemed more likely to have food, while the one who saved it seemed poor.
Looking at the trembling badger in front of him, Mo Li suddenly seemed to see the white fox from Mount Qimao.
“It’s not domesticated, just highly intelligent.” Mo Li pulled out an ear of corn from the bundle in his basket and tossed it over.
The badger’s eyes lit up, and it clumsily caught the corn before burying its head in eating.
Su Li stared at it for a long time, and the badger immediately turned around, guarding its food tightly as if saying, “Use and discard.”
From the bamboo basket came the dissatisfied cries of the sparrow. Mo Li didn’t need to listen closely to know it was protesting—the corn was the sparrow’s food. The so-called ‘eat your fill, drink to your heart’s content, and take some home for the road’ was exactly the dragon vein of Feihe Mountain.
Meng Qi gloated, guessing why the badger had the audacity to beg for food. Wasn’t it because of the spiritual energy? However, in the badger’s eyes, only humans mattered. It liked Su Li and was willing to trust him. It also liked Mo Li, but it completely overlooked the sparrow, who was just as filled with spiritual energy.
Who told the dragon vein of Feihe Mountain to be so small? And who told it to be so close to Mo Li!
Now it had gone from being a dragon vein to being food.
The badger quickly finished gnawing on the corn, patted its belly, and without looking back, scurried into the forest.
Swordsman: “…”
That familiar feeling of being used.
He could accept being used by Ayanpuka, but why did even a badger treat him like this?
Su Li looked at Mo Li with mixed emotions, thinking Mo Li would be angry about wasting a corn. To his surprise, Doctor Mo casually picked up his basket and called out to him, “This way.”
“Doctor Mo, that badger…”
“It’s better that it left; how many more corns would we have had to feed it if it stayed?” Mo Li said, turning his head.
The swordsman realized it was indeed better to encounter a freeloading badger on the road than have it follow him all the way home.
“Doctor, I hurried here because…”
Su Li recounted everything he had encountered in Yuzhou and Jingzhou, not forgetting the tragic beating of Master Ying.
Meng Qi stroked its chin, listening carefully to the news about the notorious bandit Meng Qixing.
No one in Jianghu had ever heard of this name, and they didn’t understand why Meng Qixing would rob a cargo escorted by an Imperial Guard-disguised caravan.
Since no one knew, naturally people would inquire, leading to some pretending to know and making things up. The more the rumor spread, the more twisted it became. Now, this bandit Meng Qixing was said to be a madman determined to steal the most powerful items in the world. The caravan had been transporting a rare warm jade collected on the orders of Emperor Yongchen. It was also said that Meng Qixing had set his sights on King Jing’s favorite snuff bottle, King Wu’s treasured sword, King Ning’s concubine’s pearl robe, and the mask of King Tianshou.
Meng Qi: “…”
The warm jade is fine, but the snuff bottle and sword? And what about the mask and pearl robe?
Why was King Tianshou’s treasure a mask?
“It is said that King Tianshou always wears a golden-purple mask. Some say it’s to ward off demons and evil spirits, while others claim he is the reincarnation of a celestial star, and mortals must not gaze upon him.” The swordsman was also puzzled as to why the common people believed so deeply in this mystical figure. Could it be the work of the Holy Lotus Sect?
Mo Li was equally perplexed. If King Tianshou always wore a mask, wouldn’t that mean no one knew what he looked like?
Su Li shook his head and said, “Not exactly. It’s said that King Tianshou’s generals and high officials don’t need to avoid looking at him. King Tianshou only wears the mask when he leaves the palace.”
“Hmm?”
“The Holy Lotus Sect claims that King Tianshou is the incarnation of the Ziwei Emperor, and his subordinates are celestial officers from the Heavenly Court, which is why they can look at his face.” Su Li couldn’t help but think of Ayanpuka, who had not shown his face for many years. After all, Ayanpuka was an assassin and a highly unconventional figure in Jianghu, but for a rebel leader to play this kind of game was very strange.
“What about the maids and servants in the palace?” Mo Li had similar thoughts to Su Li.
King Tianshou’s ministers and concubines could all claim illustrious origins, but surely the maids who swept the floors and served tea couldn’t also be brought down from the Heavenly Court?
Wouldn’t that be a reincarnation? This was more like moving house!
“They say they were chosen because they had celestial fates and accumulated good deeds in their past lives.”
The swordsman sighed, and Mo Li frowned as he asked, “There’s something I don’t understand. Has King Tianshou always behaved this way, or did it start after the Holy Lotus Sect came along?”
Su Li shook his head and said, “That, I don’t know. News from the southwest rarely reaches here. Those rumors I just mentioned are treated as a joke in Jianghu, which is how we’ve heard about it.”
After that, Su Li began discussing the situation outside, including what happened after the incident in Jingzhou.
When he mentioned that Qiu Jing from Fengxing Pavilion had passed along a message saying that someone from King Ning’s side had gotten involved, Mo Li instinctively glanced down at Meng Qi.
—The real identity of Qiu Jing would probably only become clear after entering King Ning’s territory.
Regarding Qiu Si, who seemed to be Qiu Jing’s father, Ayanpuka had actually mentioned this surname before, and Meng Qi had recalled encountering the branch leader Liang from the Holy Lotus Sect in Yuzhou, as well as Master Yin and the unlucky Young Master Qiu who recognized Master Yin.
Meng Qi’s impression of Young Master Qiu was probably when Mo Li stuffed the golden armor over, and he casually sent that annoying horse over… under the pretense of letting the innocent Young Master Qiu, who had been dragged into the Holy Lotus Sect’s mess, escape with his life. In reality, it was just to get rid of the horse that always tried to please Mo Li.
Young Master Qiu did mention that he had an uncle in the family who was good friends with Master Yin. Later, they went their separate ways, and his uncle headed south across the river and never returned.
Although there are many people with the surname Qiu who have great ambitions, the coincidence seemed too striking. Could this uncle, once a close friend of Master Yin, be Qiu Si?
Meng Qi wasn’t certain.
Because the strategist who incited the conflict in Jingzhou was highly skilled, while Master Yin was quite mediocre. If these two were once friends, Qiu Si had a questionable taste in companions.
Mo Li stopped at the edge of a cliff; he needed to go down to gather herbs.
The swordsman immediately reminded him that the people of Xiliang might be nearby, and that it was very dangerous here.
“…Actually, you’ve said so much but haven’t yet explained how you entered the mountain and stepped into the trap.” Mo Li looked at the swordsman, whose expression stiffened.
After years as an assassin, having things go wrong once was bad enough, but having them keep going wrong was even worse.
Su Li felt like the constant failures were making him dizzy and frustrated.
He gripped his sword tightly, feeling a bit embarrassed in front of Mo Li, the first person to outmaneuver him.
And just then, he noticed the sand rat peeking out from Mo Li’s robe, staring at him with great interest.
“…”
Su Li took a deep breath and began recounting his unlucky experience.
Yesterday, as he hurried toward Feihe Mountain, he hadn’t found Meng Qi or Mo Li, but the further he walked, the more something felt off.
The comfort he felt from head to toe—at first, Su Li thought it was just because it was hot outside, and Feihe Mountain was cooler and had better feng shui.
However, gradually, an unusual feeling crept up. He began to desire everything in this place, as if something was urging him to venture deeper into the mountain.
“I felt I could break through my sword skills here. It’s a good place.” Su Li tightened his grip on his sword and said earnestly, “Maybe it was my sword reminding me.”
Mo Li hesitated.
Meng Qi squinted, smiling and yawning.
The sparrow in the bamboo basket was still trying hard to climb upward.
“…So I followed my instincts, and suddenly, I encountered the people of Xiliang. They said they knew my background.” Su Li frowned deeply. He didn’t know that this was a trap set by Ayanpuka, originally meant to deal with him and Meng Qi who were traveling together.
Mo Li was a bit helpless. A well-set trap would never go to waste—if they didn’t fall into it, the swordsman did instead.
“Actually, I remember my background. My parents died early, and I was sold to Jingzhou. But I don’t know where my parents were from.” Su Li was troubled. He didn’t know whether to pursue this lead, so he simply revealed everything. “Ayanpuka once mentioned that there was a skilled doctor in Jianghu who saved a pregnant woman in the mountains, and that woman was my mother. Because of this, my meridians are different from others. He also said that the doctor was old, reclusive, and indifferent to fame and fortune. He had once done Ayanpuka a favor and talked about those past events. I want to meet this doctor, but Ayanpuka said there would be a chance…”
When the swordsman mentioned the first half, the sparrow in the bamboo basket was startled. Then it suddenly understood—so this was the child of the woman it had inadvertently helped back then!
But the more it listened, the more wrong it seemed. Ayanpuka didn’t sound like he was talking about the dragon vein of Feihe Mountain, but rather about Mount Anahduo.
Was this an attempt to impersonate?
—To deceive, to kill, and to trick this child into becoming a pawn for Mount Anahduo?
The sparrow was furious. For some reason, it had taken a liking to Su Li, and now it let out a protective, angry cry, flapping its wings so hard that the bamboo basket shook.
Mo Li rubbed his temples, feeling exhausted.
Author’s Note:
Meng Qi was deep in thought, wondering if Su Li’s gullibility had something to do with the dragon vein of Feihe Mountain.
