CH 13

Gu Qingqiao wanted to sneak out before nightfall, but he underestimated the patience of the caster. Although no one came to visit, the small courtyard was still tightly covered with a barrier. What’s even more unfortunate was that the person driving the cart for transport with people inside happened to stop near the room where he was in. Let alone going out, even if just opened the window, he would probably be seen immediately.

There was a sound of footsteps, the door opened, and several big men walked in. A horse-faced man glanced at Gu Qingqiao, pointed at him and said, “It’s rare that there is one who was not unconscious. Take this to the master and the others go to the cart.” Immediately, one person stepped forward, grasped his back collar, picked him up and went out of the room.

This was really stepping through the iron shoes, there is nowhere to find it, and it takes no effort to get it. Gu Qingqiao pretended to struggle twice and the man scolded him. Holding his collar with one hand and his arms with the other, he was half dragged into the room he had eavesdropped on the night before.

(t/n Stepping through the iron shoes, there is nowhere to find it, and it takes no effort to get it is a Chinese term. It is a metaphor for something urgently needed that took a lot of effort to find, but got it inadvertently.)

There was no light in the room, and it was divided into an inner and outer room separated by a bamboo curtain. One person sits cross-legged on the futon on the inside, holding a gourd bottle that was glowing red. Behind the bamboo curtains, the faint flickering light can be seen.

The seated man raised his face. He looked to be in his forties, with gray hair and a pale face, with a high collar clipped around up to the neck. He waved his hand, and Gu Qingqiao’s body was immediately surrounded by a white light. He floated and immediately flew towards the old man’s side.

The gray-haired man grabbed Gu Qingqiao’s shoulder with one hand, and stuck the glowing gourd on his forehead with the other, muttering an incantation. Gu Qingqiao only felt a sharp pain in his heart and his mind suddenly became blurred. He felt that his soul was like being caught by a big hand and was about to be pulled out of the body. During the struggle, he bit the tip of his tongue, with the sharp pain, his sanity somewhat regained, albeit only a little.

“Huh?” There was a hint of surprise on the gray-haired old man’s pale face, “Why is this child’s……how can your soul be incomplete?

Enduring the dizziness, Gu Qingqiao secretly scolded in his heart, “Isn’t stealing souls disgusting? You care a lot about my soul, did I say I would give it to you?”

Gu Qingqiao secretly gathered spiritual energy in his hand covered by his sleeve. It was condensed into a small light ball and was ready to go.

The door of the small courtyard was suddenly pushed open, and Mu Xiyun came in.

The barrier fluctuated for a moment, and the red light on the gourd suddenly dimmed.

Now! 

The ball of light in Gu Qingqiao’s hand shot out instantly and hit the gourd. The gray-haired old man was caught off guard and screamed.

Mu Xiyun only came to this small courtyard based on his intuition. Yet no one would have imagined that the gang of murderers who cut off Wang Ping’s group and robbed the children, actually used a carbine and hid it in the Yangxing, which eventually led him here.

Because of Mu Xiyun’s appearance, the distribution of the old man’s spiritual energy wavered and under Gu Qingqiao’s full-strength blow, the barrier was broken from the inside.

Under Mu Xiyun’s eyes, the empty courtyard suddenly became brightly lit.

A dozen people in the courtyard were stunned and no one moved for a while.

Mu Xiyun glanced around and noticed a wide flat cart with a wooden fence parked in the center of the yard. There were more than a dozen children sitting or lying on it, all of them seemingly listless and unconscious. Mu Xiyun immediately understood.

He swiftly raised his left arm, fired Moyun Mountain’s alarm signal above the sky and it shone with a brilliant golden light. With his right, he drew out his sword, and his sword Qi came out like a surging tide. The three people who were close had no time to block it, and immediately fell down.

Only then did everyone in the courtyard come to their senses. Because they were already exposed, they hurriedly pulled out their weapons and rushed towards Mu Xiyun.

Under the blow of Gu Qingqiao, the two strands of spiritual energy collided. He was thrown back due to the impact and his back hit the door frame. His mouth instantly was filled with fishy sweetness. He cursed Zhang Jinjin in his heart, “Why is this fucking Huaxing water lasts this long?”

(t/n Huaxing- a Chinese word, pinyin is huà xíng, which means to change shape)

He lifted his sleeve and wiped the blood that was spilling from his mouth, turned sideways to the door, pushed the door and rolled out. As he came to a stop and inadvertently looked up, he met Mu Xiyun’s gaze as he was also attracted by the noise inside the room where Gu Qingqiao came from. Both of them became suddenly stunned.  Mu Xiyun was shocked at how a child could be in such a danger, however Gu Qingqiao didn’t expect to meet him again but in such an embarrassing state.

As Mu Xiyun watched the child get out of the house, his heart inexplicably tightened, and the movements of his hands became faster. The three swordsmen in the courtyard were already approaching and their long knives gleaming. As far as weapons were concerned, an attack of a long knife should be inherently stronger than that of a sword, and the three individuals used this advantage and cooperated tacitly. The three knives were like a whirlwind, giving the other party no chance to breathe.

Mu Xiyun fought fast. He flickered his sword and moved in the slightest gap he created between the long knives. His sword light gradually converged, and when it was suppressed to the extreme by the opponent’s sword light, it would burst out again. The three long knives suddenly fell to the ground, and the three swordsmen groaned, holding their wrists. Blood was dripping and all three had suffered a serious sword injury making them unable to hold the long knife again.

Gu Qingqiao had already rushed into the yard at this time, and Mu Xiyun immediately took him behind him. 

The signal had been sent, and it wouldn’t be long before Su Yanjun, Moyun Mountain disciples, officers from Ping County, and even garrisons from the capital to encircle the courtyard. Mu Xiyun was holding Gu Qingqiao and was planning on taking the child to a safe place. As for the children lying in the cart, they couldn’t be taken away in one go, he could only wait for the others to arrive to rescue them.

As Xiyun took Qingqiao and leapt above, ready to take him away, unexpectedly, before he could even reach the top of the wall, there was a sound of breaking wind, and an arrow came towards him with a whistling sound. The angle of the arrow was very accurate, forcing Xiyun to wave his sword to meet it, making him fall back to the ground.

Immediately afterwards, the sound of releasing arrows came one after another, and there were seven or eight big men aiming at the two people in the courtyard.

Gu Qingqiao felt extremely regretful, but at this time the effect of the Huaxing water was not over, therefore he couldn’t help at all and could only glanced up at Xiyun. When Mu Xiyun saw the child’s big eyes and concerned face, he lowered his head and asked with a smile, “Are you afraid?” Gu Qingqiao looked into his eyes and only shook his head childishly.

Dense arrows immediately flew towards the two, and Mu Xiyun’s long sword burst into a bright sword light. The sword qi overflowed, he waved his sword and deflected the incoming rain of arrows.

After that round, another one followed immediately. Mu Xiyun draws more spiritual energy from his dantian, surging his sword qi to disperse the swirling rain of arrows again. Gu Qingqiao had already exhausted his spiritual energy due to that blow a while back, and was now only constantly adjusting his position away from the attack range so as not to make Mu Xiyun worry.

The horse-faced man who took the lead suddenly showed a wretched smile. Silently, two flying knives were shot at Xiyun just after he deflected the arrows just now. He immediately noticed the incoming knives and hurriedly stopped it with two moves, however he suddenly noticed that another small knife was closely approaching towards the back of Gu Qingqiao’s head. In desperation, he stretched out his hand and pulled Gu Qingqiao urgently, narrowly avoiding the third knife, but the back of his hand was grazed instead.

There was a burst of numbness in his left hand, simultaneously, the third round of arrows rained down. Mu Xiyun ignored the injury of his left hand and forcibly transferred spiritual energy into the sword again, and the Chixia Sword emitted a blinding light. Under the impact of huge spiritual energy, the sword’s body cracked as he waved it to stop the incoming arrows and afterwards, was broken into tiny pieces.

This action accelerated the heartbeat violently, the numbness on the back of the left hand spread rapidly into the body through the blood vessels, and just within a few breaths, the whole body went numb. Mu Xiyun staggered forward, knelt on one knee while gasping for breath and his vision becoming blurry.

Gu Qingqiao was startled. He immediately took his hand, examined it and noticed that black blood was flowing out of the wound. That knife was actually smeared with poison!

The hidden dagger in Gu Qingqiao’s sleeve quickly slid down into his palm, he made a cut on his fat little palm and dark qi mixed with blood immediately poured out. He pulled the other over, pressed the wound of his hand to the other’s lips and whispered in his ear, “Drink this!”

The rust-smelling liquid poured into his mouth, and before Mu Xiyun could react, it had already entered his throat. There was even a hint of sweetness in it. The amazing thing was that the numb feeling of his body slowly went away, his vision gradually became clearer, and most of the poison inside had been eliminated in an instant. He pushed away Gu Qingqiao’s palm, and he felt a familiar and vague feeling in his heart, but he couldn’t be sure…

However, the fourth round of arrows came flying abruptly. Mu Xiyun was caught off guard and could only hug the child’s small body into his arms and protect it tightly.

Yet, the imaginary pain did not come, and a light blue barrier suddenly descended, encasing the two of them. The arrows fell one by one as it hit the barrier. The “Gentleman” sword swept from the sky, several people on the wall screamed, and the archers fell to the ground one after another. 

The reinforcements finally arrived. 

Gu Mingshun jumped off the wall, followed by Su Yanjun and Liang Zheng. Ping County Yamen officers rushed in and the situation was immediately reversed.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the horse-faced man immediately ordered the remaining few people to escape through the monk’s room. Before the remaining people of the courtyard could follow, the room suddenly exploded and a huge fire shot up to the sky, illuminating half of Ping County like daytime.

Everyone in the courtyard was thrown backwards due to the explosion. Liang Zheng only got to create half of a protective barrier in a hurry and could only protect a few people in the courtyard before it was torn to shreds.

After a long while, each and everyone started to regain consciousness. The houses in the small courtyard had been razed to the ground, the trees had fallen, and everywhere was a mess.

The disciples of Moyun Mountain got up first and checked the situation. Nothing was left of the place where the explosion occurred, and it was unknown whether the monk and the horse-faced man had escaped. Fortunately, the children on the cart were blocked by a barrier on time, and most of them were still lying on the cart and were not hurt. 

After Liang Zheng checked the pulse of those who were wounded, he hurriedly sent someone to Ping County Medicie Hall, and prescribed a prescription for nourishing blood and qi. Most of the officers who came here were also wounded, but they were nonetheless fine after waking up.

Gu Qingqiao wanted to take advantage of the chaos to leave, but the effect of the Huaxing water was still there, and he sighed gloomily in his heart. Then he looked up at Xiyun standing in the courtyard. A plan came to his mind.

Mu Xiyun’s sleeve was abruptly tugged. He looked down only to see a shivering child, grasping his sleeve and refusing to let go. Mu Xiyun squatted down and asked, “What’s your name? Where do you live?”

“My name is Xiao Liu and I live in Yiyun Town.” The six-year-old replied softly, and then whispered in his ear and asked, “Brother, I don’t want to go to the medicine hall, can I stay together with you tonight?”

The author has something to say: 

Small Theater:

Author: Hey, hey, what are you doing? What are you doing tonight? What are you doing together? 

Gu Qingqiao: I’m just six years old, can’t I?

Author: Huh?…