Mu Yi went back to the village but Chong Jiayi hadn’t gone back yet. Big Slave was there. He had listened to Mu Yi, he was still in the house.
Chong Jiayi came back at noon, he looked extremely worried, when he saw Mu Yi, he rushed over and said: “Master, I have important things to tell you.”
“Qu Yang is telling everyone I have a key which can be used to open the Yellow River’s ancient road?” asked Mu Yi.
“Indeed. How do you know?” asked Chong Jiayi. He didn’t understand. After all, when Qu Yang had told him, they were alone. How did Mu Yi know?
“A Master told me. Qu Yang has no doubts about you?” asked Mu Yi.
“No. I stayed with him. He trusts me.” said Chong Jiayi immediately.
“Good. Since you came back. I should leave.” said Mu Yi straightforwardly. He just wanted to wait for Chong Jiayi to come back, otherwise he would have already left with Big Slave.
“You already want to leave, Master? But…” said Chong Jiayi. He seemed worried.
“If I stay here, the village might face a disaster. You don’t want to the village to suffer a disaster, right? I’m done here. I need to go to Cangzhou. You stay here, I’ll contact you. Wait for me to contact you, if you have news from Li the Cripple, then try to contact me as quickly as possible.” said Mu Yi.
“Don’t worry. I will continue watching Qu Yang, I will also use my contacts to find Li the Cripple.” said Chong Jiayi determined.
“Alright. Be careful. By the way, is Bei Ming dead?” asked Mu Yi.
“No but you injured her badly with your incredible prowesses. said Chong Jiayi.
Even though Mu Yi hadn’t seen how Bei Ming was when he left, he was convinced that she hadn’t died.
“Shi Gu? Alright.” said Mu Yi nodding. Next time, Mu Yi wouldn’t only kill Qu Yang, he would also take Shi Gu and finish feeding the Bamboo Tree of Life with it.
After that, Mu Yi left with Big Slave. He had to leave before his enemies had time to react.
Of course, for Mu Yi, the best solution was to part with Big Slave because the latter was too big and drew people’s attention easily. To describe Mu Yi, Qu Yang probably said he was a Taoist priest, but most especially, he probably said he had a Bamboo Tree of Life, a copper lamp and a big friend, Big Slave.
Because of Big Slave, Mu Yi could easily be noticed.
Therefore, the best was for Mu Yi to part with Big Slave. Besides, Mu Yi had a precious and real human face he could use as a mask. That way, he could disguise himself even better.
But that was just the best option in the best circumstances, because Mu Yi couldn’t possibly part with Big Slave. If Mu Yi parted with Big Slave, how would Big Slave eat? He needed a lot of food. Besides, Big Slave was also Nian Nuer’s friend, they liked to play together.
Besides, Mu Yi was now used to having Big Slave around, he was a bit attached, he considered Big Slave as one of his people. Therefore, he couldn’t part with him.
When they started walking, Big Slave didn’t look happy, not because Mu Yi hadn’t taken him with him on the previous evening, but because he wanted to see Nian Nuer, he could only wait for her to wake up though. And Mu Yi couldn’t tap his shoulders to cheer him up.
Initially, Mu Yi didn’t intend to go to Luoyang, going to Cangzhou with Big Slave was enough. But Mu Yi had no choice but to change his plans. The road to Cangzhou was long and if he walked with Big Slave, many people would notice them on the way and attack them..
The only way for Mu Yi to go to Cangzhou that way was to hide during the day and travel at night but Mu Yi wasn’t familiar with the way, it would be easy for him to get lost, he’d waste lots of time and energy.
That’s not how Mu Yi worked anyway.
Therefore, the best solution was to find a carriage. That way, Big Slave would be able to hide inside, and their chances of getting uncovered would be significantly reduced.
When the Far Ink Professional Organization had left, Uncle Cai had asked Mu Yi if he wanted to keep a carriage but Mu Yi had refused because he didn’t know how to ride a carriage and having one was inconvenient anyway. Now, Mu Yi was thinking he had made a mistake by refusing.
Even though the Far Ink Professional Organization was maybe still in town, Luoyang was a big city, and Mu Yi would feel awkward asking anyway. Therefore, the best thing to do was find a place where they sold and bought carriages and hire a driver. Many people rented carriages to travel. Only rich people, like businesspeople or government officials, raised horses and knew how to ride them.
Ordinary people already found it difficult to earn money to eat. Horses were really expensive. Feeding a family of five people was much less expensive than buying a horse.
In order to avoid getting noticed in town, Mu Yi made Big Slave hide outside of town and wait there. And he also left the Bamboo Tree of Life with him, otherwise, with Big Slave’s temper, maybe that he wouldn’t have waited again.
Mu Yi told him a few things and then walked towards the town. He didn’t put the human skin mask but he changed his clothes, he didn’t put his Taoist robe on, it was too obvious. On the way, he also bought a plaited bamboo hat. Then he paid the entrance fees to town, he didn’t go through any security check and walked in town.
There were two places to buy and rent carriages in Luoyang. Mu Yi asked some people where he could find them. After asking, he quickly decided to go to one which was specialized in traveling to the North, including Beijing, Tianjin, most of Hebei and Henan and part of Shandong, he was precisely traveling in that direction.
When he arrived, in less than an hour, Mu Yi was seated in a carriage driven by a well-behaved and honest man. People who entered the city were checked, people who left weren’t.
After leaving the town, the carriage moved in Big Slave’s direction. That carriage wasn’t as precious as the carriage the Su Clan had made for Mu Yi before, it was also less luxurious than the carriages of the Far Ink Professional Organization, but it was functional and the ceiling was high which was good for Big Slave, he wouldn’t feel too squeezed.
“Quick, capture him!”
“Don’t let him escape!”
“Everybody, be careful!”
As the carriage approached Big Slave’s hideout, Mu Yi suddenly heard some voices. When Mu Yi heard that he was furious.
When he had left, he had told Big Slave not to offend anyone and not to fight, he hadn’t thought some people would bully him though: “Please wait here, chauffeur, I’ll be right back.”
Mu Yi’s silhouette flickered and he disappeared from there. Mu Yi rushed over to Big Slave. The chauffeur was astonished, Mu Yi had suddenly disappeared.
When Mu Yi disappeared, the driver turned his head around and rubbed his eyes. He couldn’t believe what had just happened.
But he didn’t leave. The journey to Cangzhou would take half a month but Mu Yi had paid more than for a journey which would have last for a few months. He seemed wealthy and high-ranking. Besides, Mu Yi didn’t seem to be a bad person so he decided to wait.
“You want to die!”
Mu Yi arrived in a few seconds but when he saw what was going on, he was even more furious.
Big Slave was encircled, maybe that because of what Mu Yi had told him, he had decided not to fight. He was just holding the Bamboo Tree of Life firmly in his arms. He wanted to escape but there were a dozen people around him. Most of them were riding horses. They were also wearing gleaming broadswords.
Of course, if Mu Yi hadn’t told him anything and if he didn’t have the Bamboo Tree of Life, even if more people had come, it wouldn’t have been enough to deal with him.
The leader of the group was a prince in white clothes. There was a young page in black clothes on his side. They had bows and arrows too and some hanging game at the back of their horses. Since it was the beginning of spring, they had probably gone hunting and on their way back, they had bumped into Big Slave.
Big Slave was a giant so he drew people’s attention, and the prince loved hunting so he had probably thought Big Slave’s head would be a nice trophy.
Unfortunately, it was a mistake. If Mu Yi hadn’t gone to town, the prince would already be dead, he wouldn’tact arrogantly like that.
“If anyone captures him, I’ll give you a very generous reward.”
said that prince. They were many people and they could only encircled Big Slave so far, they tried to lasso him but Big Slave broke the rope so the prince was starting to get impatient and angry.
Mu Yi heard him.
He hadn’t taken Big Slave to town because he didn’t want him to get in trouble, he wasn’t really scared though, especially of that prince who dared provoke someone far superior in power, he was really careless.
Big Slave raised his head, he sensed that Mu Yi was close, Mu Yi noticed sadness in Big Slave’s eyes.
Unfortunately for them, the people around didn’t notice anything and continued acting arrogantly.
“Big Slave, kill them.”
said Mu Yi. He didn’t talk loudly but everybody heard him.
Many people looked at Mu Yi. The prince raised his hand, he wanted to say something.
But at that moment, Big Slave started running towards someone. He looked ferocious.
He was holding the Bamboo Tree of Life in one hand and he raised the other. He slapped one of them, that man didn’t have time to react, he was blown away off the horseback.
Big Slave’s attack astonished everybody around. The reason why they had dared encircled big slave was that they had noticed he didn’t attack initially, he just looked like a scared child, but now things had changed.
Everybody looked at him in an cold way.