CH 22

Although they entered Lingshan and entered a competition, the participants were reluctant to reveal their strength prematurely. The first day was just basically sweeping the weak, and driving out some unreliable cultivators and lone disciples with too weak aptitudes. Experienced competitors would find someone to form an alliance and go up the mountain together until the final trial.

Therefore, there was usually not much conflict the night before, and everyone strives for time to rest. Especially for the team that formed an alliance, there was no risk at all. Therefore, when Mu Xiyun and his party saw a village, not only were they not nervous, but they felt relaxed. Who would want to sleep in the wilderness if they could spend the night in a village? However, the four of them still approached the village slowly with a little bit of vigilance.

The village was not big, and there were dozens of houses scattered along a stream that flows down from the mountains. The lights were already lit in every house, and it was especially tempting for young people who were nervous when going out.

In front of the door of a family, two figures, one big and one small, were standing. The older one looks about thirty years old, with an ordinary face but a gentle expression, which makes people feel good. The youngest was only about four or five years old. He was not tall, with a small round face and big watery eyes as he watched the four approaching curiously.

Judging by their similar appearance, they should be father and son. Mu Xiyun stepped forward and said, “This big brother, my party and I had just gone up the mountain and passed this place, I wonder if it would be convenient for us to stay overnight at your house?”

The father returned the salute neatly, and said with a loud laugh, “No problem, no problem. This child was curious and said that he wanted to come out to see the immortals, it was fate that you’ve come to our place and met you.”

After speaking, he opened the door and invited everyone in. There was no woman at home, but the inside was clean and well organized.

The owner introduced himself. “Zhu Li, and this child is Zhu Qi, nicknamed Hu Zi.” After that, he patted Hu Zi’s head and said, “Let’s go, let’s prepare some food for the immortals.”

Hu Zi didn’t see the four guests as outsiders and walked around the four of them with a smile and ignored his father’s words. In the end, as if he had made up his mind, he ran to Xiyun, hugged his leg, and looked up with a big smile.

Mu Xiyun was a little overwhelmed by his embrace. In his previous life, he had a cold temperament. Although he often helped orphanages and had dealings with children, the children mostly respected and feared him, therefore he had no experience in getting close to children. He didn’t expect to wake up 50 years later and be liked by a child.

“This kid is funny,” Zhu Yicheng laughed and said, “What are you doing holding Senior Brother Mu?” 

Hu Zi didn’t speak, but stuck out his tongue at him. He then ran to his room, dragged out a wooden box from under the bed, picked out a tortoiseshell-colored flat stone, and ran back to Mu Xiyun to present it to him.

When Zhu Li saw the stone, he glanced at Huzi in surprise, and then laughed, “Ah!, this is his most precious thing!”

Mu Xiyun looked at the stone carefully, the size was just right, enough to be held in the child’s hand. The stone flickered a crystal clear light, and it was warm and gentle, but he didn’t know this stone’s origin.

Zhu Yicheng came over and looked at it, and said strangely “This seems to be a “Chan Yin”.”

The so-called “Chan Yin” was a small spiritual tool in the market. If it was injected with spiritual power and held in the hand, it can make people hide their breath for a certain period of time and not be detected by the people around them. Because refining it was not easy, it was rare in the market.

Hu Zi grabbed the stone and stuffed it into Mu Xiyun’s hand. 

“This is… for me?”

Hu Zi nodded.

“How can this be?” 

Mu Xiyun was afraid that because he was still a child, he couldn’t recognize the preciousness of Chan Yin. So he smiled and said to him, “This is a very precious thing, I can’t accept it. Hu Zi should keep it for himself.” After that, he wanted to return Chan Yin to Zhu Li.

Zhu Li smiled and said, “It doesn’t matter, Hu Zi only regards it as a beautiful stone. This precious stone, we ordinary people can’t use it, so just keep it.”

Gu Qingqiao next to him took out his Qiankun bag and took out a bright red warm jade. “We’ll give you this as an exchange!” This jade had its own spiritual energy, and when it was cold, it would warm up slightly, which could warm up the body and the quilt.

As Hu Zi touched this beautiful and warm stone in surprise, he took it happily, and put it inside his precious box.

Looking at Hu Zi’s innocent expression, Xiyun’s heart moved, and he suddenly thought of Xiao Liu. The kidnapping case was resolved that day, but he heard that Xiao Liu had been taken away by his family, and he also left the city on his own the next day. He wondered what happened to that child now.

Just as he was thinking about it, another hand stretched out beside him. Gu Qingqiao held a few pieces of maltose in his hand and held it out to Hu Zi with a smile. When Hu Zi saw the candy, he not only let go of Mu Xiyun, he also grinningly squeezed the candy and fed it into his mouth, and went to his father.

They originally wanted to give the father and son some silver taels, but Zhu Li refused to accept it. The four of them discussed that they would go to the creek to catch a few fish, which could be used for dinner, and the extra ones could be sun dried.

The stream was clear and swimming fish were clearly visible. Xiyun’s sword qi went down, and the water splashed up, and it flew to the shore along with a big fish. 

“Brother Mu, what’s the fun in catching fish like this!”

Zhu Yicheng shouted. After that, he pushed Mu Xiyun directly to Gu Qingqiao to let them go back first. He then pulled Qin Le, took off his shoes and rolled up his pants, and went into the water.

The two laughed and stepped on the stream acting to lively. After a while, two strings of fresh fish were caught. Then suddenly, they heard a voice. “What are you doing?”

The two of them turned back, and a tall young man stood not far away, looking at them menacingly. The visitor was wearing a moon-white long gown, with intricate peony patterns embroidered with gold thread on the hem, layered wide sleeves, looking quite like an immortal, but his expression was arrogant and impatient.

Seeing them looking over, the man continued, “This stream is not yours! I was downstream with my fellow disciples, and you are making such a fuss, where can there be fish for us to catch?”

Zhu Yicheng stepped ashore from the stream, scratched his temples, and said calmly, “Ah, we were just merely playing, We didn’t expect to disturb you. We’re really sorry.” After speaking, he took out a basket full of fish and handed it to the man with a smile. 

“This basket of fish is our sign of apology.”

Although they really disturbed the people downstream, Zhu Yicheng was so frank that most people would not care about it anymore. The young man, however, only raised his head arrogantly, and squinted his eyes at them. “You guys, bring me all the fish, and then kowtow to me to make amends, Only then would I ignore what happened today.”

Zhu Yicheng almost laughed in anger. Does he think we’re easy to bully? He raised his head and said, “Why would we?”

Qin Le also went ashore at this time, but before he could even roll down his trouser legs, there was a sudden flash of light, and a sword’s edge appeared in front of him. He hurriedly leaned back, slipped on his feet in a panic, and directly sat down on the ground, narrowly avoiding the sharp edge, but the bun on the top of his head was broken, and a few strands of hair floated down.

Unexpectedly, the other party actually took the lead, Zhu Yicheng was furious, pulled out the folding fan and rushed out. The young man whistled, and four more people rushed up from the lower stream. Several people dressed the same, obviously disciples of the same family.

Mu Xiyun and Gu Qingqiao were helping out in the kitchen, and the big fish had turned into a pot of thick white fish soup. The aroma was tempting, and Hu Zi’s eyes were glued to the pot as he looked at the constant bubbles inside it.

But when they heard a whistle, the two looked at each other and flew out immediately. 

Zhu Yicheng was already in a difficult situation at this time.

The five youths who fought against him surrounded him. Their footsteps were the same, and every sword strike handed out filled the gap between Zhu Yicheng’s movements. After a while, Zhu Yicheng was in danger.

Mu Xiyun squinted and said in a low voice, “It seems to be a Hundred Flowers Sword Formation, but there are not enough people. It’s simpler than a regular big formation.”

Baihua Valley’s Hundred Flowers Sword Formation was famous for its mysterious footwork. It may not be possible for each person to pull out to fight alone, but the sword formation’s footwork changes a lot, and the rhythm of sword moves was strange, making those who entered the formation to feel that there were sword edges in all directions, and if they were not careful, they would be heavily injured.

Mu Xiyun had been in Moyun Mountain for many years and had studied all kinds of Taoist formations. If he encountered a Hundred Flowers Formation, of course, he had to go all out to observe it carefully before daring to break it. However the sword formation in front of him was only performed by a few foundation-building disciples and the footwork was also greatly simplified because of their small number. Breaking the formation should not be difficult.

He was about to step forward, but was gently pulled back by Gu Qingqiao. 

“This trivial matter, you don’t need to do anything, I’ll do it.” 

After speaking, he leaped up and jumped into the sword formation. When Zhu Yicheng saw him, he was in high spirits. They were back to back, so that they had less scruples about their actions.

After stabilizing his position, Gu Qingqiao released his divine sense to probe, and immediately noticed that one of the five disciples seemed to be slightly weaker in skill, and his footsteps were slightly slower due to the pressure.

With saber in hand, Gu Qingqiao rushed towards the disciple. The man was startled, his footsteps became disorderly, and he could no longer cooperate with others. The battle formation collapsed. Gu Qingqiao pressed the saber against the opponent’s throat in one hand, and grabbed his shoulder with the other. As soon as he grabbed him, he noticed that although the opponent’s shoulders and backs were thin, the feeling of his shoulder under his hand was very soft, as if they were boneless.

This is a woman!

Gu Qingqiao looked into the other’s eyes, but saw her blinking lightly. Zhu Yicheng also rushed over at this time, and he was shocked when he saw it. Gu Qingqiao quickly let go, and the other party immediately turned its body, got out from under the saber, and flew towards the people of Baihua Valley. Gu Qingqiao grabbed Zhu Yicheng’s wrist and gave him a look.

Young Master Zhu didn’t even get to say “Miss Luo”, yet his face was already flushed.

Gu Qingqiao raised his eyebrows. “I have heard the name of the Baihua Valley’s Hundred Flower Sword Formation for a long time, and when I saw it today, it really lives up to its reputation. I wonder if Your Excellency is Luo Ziqi, the young master of Baihua Valley?” 

The man was indeed Luo Ziqi, the son of the leader of Baihua Valley. The last time he went up to Lingshan Mountain, it was not very good, so this time he brought more than a dozen disciples above the foundation building to the mountain. Hearing this, he didn’t know whether the other party was being polite or sarcastic. Just as he was about to get angry, Gu Qingqiao opened his mouth and continued, “Today we occupied the upstream and bothered you. Sorry. You’d better take this fish.”

Luo Ziqi understood that it would be senseless if he continued to fight them. Since the opponent gave way, naturally, it’s right to go back down stream. Immediately, with a cold snort, one of the disciples took the fish, turned his head and went down.

In the distance, they could still hear the scolding of the young master. “Useless, none of you can fight, you won’t be allowed to eat tonight!” 

Hearing this, Zhu Yicheng became worried again. He wanted to rush over again, but was immediately dragged back by Mu Xiyun.

********

Dinner was fish soup and pancakes. Everyone ate happily, except for Zhu Yicheng.

This was already the third time they saw him almost poking pancakes into his nostrils. Gu Qingqiao stretched his arms around Zhu Yicheng’s neck and said softly, “Don’t worry, you can see your Miss Luo tomorrow at the latest.”

“Really?” Zhu Yicheng’s eyes lit up, but then dimmed. “Don’t lie to me, how is this possible?” 

Gu Qingqiao didn’t know whether to laugh or cry and said, “If you don’t believe me, forget it, why don’t you ask your Senior Brother Mu?”

Along the way, although Mu Xiyun doesn’t express his opinions often,  he always said the right thing every time, which virtually won the trust of his fellow travelers.

Glancing at Gu Qingqiao, he turned to Zhu Yicheng and said, “Based on Young Master Luo’s behavior, he wanted to take revenge. You and Brother Gu broke his sword formation just now. As they left, he kept looking back at Brother Zhu’s house several times. It’s very likely that he will come to seek revenge tonight.”

“Miss Luo…” 

“Miss Luo deliberately showed her flaws today and didn’t want to let the two sides continue to fight. If Young Master Luo is coming to seek revenge, she will naturally follow.” 

Zhu Yicheng was also a smart person, but because he was flustered, he lost his propriety for a while. With this sense of proportion, now that Xiyun had made the words clear, he also became clear at one point, and immediately put his mind at ease.

When he let go of the worries in his heart, he immediately felt hungry. Zhu Yicheng first glanced at the pot and saw that there was no fish soup left inside, and there was only a little bit of crumbs on the pan on which the pancakes were placed.

Zhu Yicheng: “…”

He looked up at everyone, wanting to cry without tears.

Everyone burst into laughter, Qin Le shrugged his shoulders while laughing, and made a trick. A pale golden barrier ball appeared in the air and slowly floated in front of Zhu Yicheng. Inside was a large bowl of steaming fish soup and a stack of pancakes.

Zhu Yicheng’s eyes were full of tears.

Junior Brother Qin is really reliable!

The author has something to say: 

Small Theater: 

Gu Qingqiao: That child is really annoying, it’s enough for Ah Yun to have Xiao Liu!

Author: Then, will you change into  Xiao Liu? 

Gu Qingqiao: Stop and don’t run!