Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The setting sun was hanging near the horizon. As the twilight shone upon the Guna River, it created a streak of deep-red glittering lights across the surface of the water. It looked like a river of blood that was constantly flowing.
The tents that used to scatter around the Grassland up to a hundred miles were either disassembled, destroyed, or stolen. It had already become a deserted place.
The dung of cow, goat, and horse, was hidden within the weeds, the ominous twittering of birds was echoing around, the corpses were lying down everywhere, and some damaged items in the tents were left behind by their owners. Covered in twilight, this place gave a feeling of bleak emptiness.
Holding the scabbard in his left hand, Meng Qi was standing quietly in the ruins of the Golden Tents. While activating his senses to seek for the suspicious traces in his surrounding, he could feel the fertile soil under his feet and the overgrown weeds that were scattering around. He was guessing that the missing of the people of Exterior Realm might be caused by Hasula and his alliance.
All of a sudden, Meng Qi had made a move. Shrinking the distance to inches, his body blinked as he dashed toward a broken tent beside the Guna River. He then lifted the door curtain with his right hand.
Sou sou sou. A series of hidden weapons such as flying needles, iron nails and Plum Blossom Darts were shooting toward him.
Meng Qi did a grabbing gesture in the air with his right hand. All the hidden weapons vanished at once and fell into his palm.
Inside the tent, there were two male warriors and one female warrior that were dressed in Jianghu costumes of the Central Plains. They were all in their twenties. Looking sad and terrified, each of them was holding a longsword. However, none of them dared to launch another attack as they were stunned by how Meng Qi defended himself against their previous attacks.
Meng Qi noticed a corpse behind them. The dead person was an old man with white hair. Although his body still contained powerful forces, the internal organs and acupuncture points were all destroyed. Although the body looked good on the outside, the inside of it was completely damaged.
“Were you assaulted?” asked Meng Qi after examining the corpse.
The three warriors looked at each other in surprise. They felt relieved as the young man who had a charming appearance and a powerful aura did not attack them.
He was not an enemy!
“It’s nice to meet a young hero… no, a senior like you…” said one of the warriors who was dressed in a blue robe that seemed to be the most mature one. He cupped his hands together and said, “And yes, we were assaulted by someone five minutes ago. Our master… our master tried his best to protect us. But… but unfortunately, he was killed by the enemies.”
The blue-robed man was grieving for the death of his master. At first, judging from the appearance of Meng Qi, he wanted to address him as a young hero. But then he changed his mind as he thought Meng Qi might actually be a senior that wore a disguise. Hence, to express respect, he had decided to address Meng Qi as a senior.
Before he had hardly finished speaking, he heard his junior martial sister’s voice stuttering in a surprised tone, “Are you the F-F-Frenzied Blade, Su Meng?”
The Frenzied Blade, Su Meng? The blue-robed man immediately looked at Meng Qi with a fixed gaze. Judging from the scar-shaped long blade and the young man’s masculine appearance that corresponded to the rumors, stories, and drama from Jianghu… he was most probably the well-known Su Meng!
Meng Qi nodded slightly. “I happened to be at the Grassland when I heard of the rumors regarding the injuries and death of the people of Exterior Realm around the Golden Tents. Therefore I’m here to investigate it.”
He really was Su Meng! Although the warriors were still grieving for their master’s death, they felt so lucky and delighted to have met him. Their feelings of fear and terror had dissipated. They felt safe to have Su Meng by their sides.
The young hero Su had been widely-known as a brave hero who always fought for justice. He had the Righteous spirit for lending a helping hand to those in needs. Therefore, he would never remain silence to see his fellow friends from Wulin being tortured and killed.
Recently, he was ranked twenty-fourth on the Ground List even though he had not realized Dharmakaya yet. He was capable of fighting against the powerful people of the Zuo Dao and the other people who had higher realm than him. Apparently, he had shown his ability to deal with any difficult situation and problem. At the very least, even if he was not capable to defeat the opponents, he was able to stay alive and escape from the battle.
It was true that the heaven would always leave a door open. At a difficult moment like this, they had met a savior… The warriors were feeling extremely lucky.
Calming down a little, the pretty lady with a green dress cupped her hands together and said, “Young hero Su, something odd is happening here. Moments ago, we came across an enemy that couldn’t be seen. He had neither a shadow nor a form, just like a ghost. We could only take his attacks without knowing where he really was. Please beware of him.”
Without a shadow and a form? Meng Qi had met quite a lot of opponents with that characteristic. However, he did not let his guard down. He asked in a calm voice, “Could you please tell me more details?”
The blue-robed, mature-looking man replied in an instant, “We are the people of Jianghu coming from Changle. Our master, Mo Zhaotian, was quite popular with the nickname – Iron-Backed Black Dragon. As he heard that many sects and families were assigning powerful disciples to hunt down the people at the Grassland, he had decided to bring us along. The main reason of us coming here was to seek revenge for the last Southern Invasion. On top of that, he wanted us to be exposed to the outside world and gain some battle experience.”
From the look of the corpse, Mo Zhaotian was a fairly good warrior… Meng Qi gave a slight nod to hint the man to continue his talking.
“Along the way, our master had taught us to act according to our abilities. He didn’t want us to fight against the people at the Tip-Top Domain and higher. Slowly, we’ve made our way to the Golden Tents after defeating a few enemies.” The blue-robed man hesitated for a while before he admitted the truth with clenched teeth, “We actually came to the Golden Tents for the treasures that were buried deep under the ground. The rumors were saying that the Golden Tent Warriors and the Shaman from the Longevity Sect had left behind a lot of treasures due to their urgent retreat. Therefore, the treasures were not dug out yet. We couldn’t help but be greedy for them.”
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“It’s not wrong to be greedy for treasures. But we really need to act according to our abilities.” Meng Qi did not look down upon them.
From what he knew, Qu Jiuniang had turned sadness into motivation. Along with Ye Yuqi, she was one of the first batches of people who had robbed a great deal of treasures from the Golden Tents.
Nevertheless, Meng Qi had been occupied by his personal matters and the important events that happened in Jianghu; therefore, he had been travelling to different places to resolve the issues. It wasn’t until then that he had time to come to the Golden Tents. However, since a lot of people had already came and taken away the great treasures, the remaining ones would not be as valuable.
After the death of Da Man and the missing of Gu Erduo, the Golden Tent Warriors and the Shaman from the Longevity Sect were supposed to keep this place safe from the invaders. However, after they evaluated the strength of the formation, they found out that it could only intercept an Earth Fairy like Mister Luda for a while, not including the Dharmakaya such as Gao Lan, He Qi and Su Wu Ming. Therefore, they had made a quick decision to retreat by distributing themselves into several batches. They had brought along some of the treasures and the Heavenly Weapon, the Sun-Shooting Bow when they retreated into the rural areas of the Grassland. No one was left to guard against the invaders.
Due to the urgency of the retreat, they were leaving in a rush. Hence, they actually left behind a lot of items that were hard to bring along and the less-valuable treasures.
One would need to search for the places where the Golden Tent Warriors and the Shaman were hiding in order to obtain the truly valuable treasures.
The blue-robed man was appreciative of Meng Qi’s understanding and advice. He nodded to him and continued in saying, “When we arrived to the Golden Tents, we heard people saying that it had been a few days in a row that the people from the Exterior Realm had gone missing or died tragically. After hearing this, my master had decided to pass through the Golden Tents and leave this place. Who knows… who knows we would be assaulted at this tent by the horrifying enemy who had no shadow and form…”
Suddenly, he saw Meng Qi lift his right hand and did a gesture of pressing something downward – a gesture of pause. He immediately stopped talking. There was a total silence in the ruins of Golden Tent – even the ominous twittering of birds had stopped abruptly. The signs of life and vitality at this place were all gone at once. As the chilly winds brushed past the ruins, the warriors were shivering. They felt a chill running up their spines.
“A friend who is skilled in the Earth-Conveyance technique is coming near to us.” Meng Qi held the blade in his left hand and put it behind his back while his right hand hung down naturally beside his body. He was calm when he said that, as though it was not a big deal at all.
Everything around the area was quiet and still. Surprisingly, Meng Qi could not trace the exact location of the enemy even after he activated the senses. The enemy seemed to be very skillful in the Earth-Conveyance technique that made him hard to be tracked. However, Meng Qi had been sensitive to the slightest change of the Earth element ever since he practiced the Seal of the Fifth and Sixth of the Ten Heavenly Stems. Although the enemy’s use of the Earth element was barely noticeable to the point that it seemed like an illusion, Meng Qi was confident with his sense.
Meng Qi strolled toward the corner of the tent and said in a clear voice, “Let’s see who has made a visit to us. Please come out.”
As his voice echoed around the surrounding, everything still remained as it was.
Does he really think I can’t find him out? Meng Qi thought while he took a step forward with his right foot.
Instantaneously, the blue-robed man and the other warriors felt the ground shaking. With Meng Qi’s right foot as the center of the circle, earth waves were spreading in all directions. The surface of ground looked like a yellow dragon that was rising and falling. Three hundred feet ahead of them, the grassland split apart and a person was shooting out of the ground.
The person’s body was blinking while he threw himself on the ground. He wanted to use the Earth-Conveyance technique again to distance himself from Meng Qi.
Just then, he saw Meng Qi taking another step forward. The ground had suddenly turned as hard as a steel!
Dang!
He banged his head on the steel ground. Feeling dizzy, he quickly rolled to the side.
In the next moment, the well-known long blade had came into his sight.
“I’m not someone who likes to kill. Why are you hiding from me?” With his long blade pointing downward, Meng Qi said in a calm voice.
In front of Meng Qi, an old beggar – carrying nine gunny sacks on his back – was giving Meng Qi a fierce stare. Almost his whole body was covered in soil. He was a guru from the Beggar Gang, Lan Jingtian, who was known as the Earth Dragon.
The old beggar took a few steps backward. “Hiding under the ground is my habit. I’m used to it.”
Before his voice had died away, he suddenly looked at the side as he felt a strong killing intent.
At the next second, he saw Meng Qi burning in golden flames. The light of the flames was so bright that made Meng Qi look like a sun. Somewhere far away, a formless figure had turned into an ordinary-looking old man who had only nine fingers.
“It’s you.” Meng Qi turned his head and looked at the nine-fingered old man.
He was the blue-blooded man, Gao Qianyuan, who was related to the Donghai Sword Village!
Gao Qianyuan looked at Meng Qi coldly. “What a surprise. You’re on the same footing with me now!”
As he talked, he looked deep into the ruins of Golden Tents as something seemed to be hiding there.