The others did not notice these small interactions between Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen. Everyone was completely preoccupied by the thoughts of that “madman”, wondering which imposter had the audacity to feign his ident.i.ty and tarnish the good name of Dawn Sect.
Most members of reputable sects would take pride in their sect’s reputation regardless of what tier their respective sects were in. Naturally, these disciples of Dawn Sect couldn’t believe that a “madman” would have come from their Sect – this would not only gravely tarnish their reputation, it might even attract the mockery of other sects!
As they grimly brooded over this matter, the whole group of them quickly left their own inn and headed in the direction of the other large inn. This other inn was incidentally also the inn that Jun Xiaomo had booked a room in.
Soon after, they arrived at their destination and the saw a crowd surrounding the inn’s entrance. At the same time, there were several people who were conspicuously carrying their belongings and leaving the inn hastily.
“What are you guys doing here?” One of the sect’s disciples asked one of the onlookers curiously.
“I hear there’s a madman on the fifth room on the second floor. This madman’s saying crazy things like how he killed someone, and even saying that if he could kill that person once, he could kill that person twice. It’s vicious! Everyone here is curious to see what’s going on right now.”
The group of disciples from Dawn Sect were speechless. Who knew that an entire circle of people had all come to be busybodies.
Just this moment, several waiters from that inn walked out and started dispersing the crowd and chasing people away, hollering, “Don’t block the entrance, don’t block the entrance! There’s nothing to see here! It’s just a madman with his crazy antics. You’ll get bored watching him. How are we going to run a business if you guys all block our entrance?”
“Pfft!” One of the onlookers burst out laughing, retorting immediately, “It seems like people who stay at your inn go crazy overnight huh? Who would still dare to stay at your inn?”
The innkeeper was standing just behind the waiter dispersing the crowd. As soon as he heard this onlooker’s retort, his face immediately turned sickly green and pale – he didn’t understand what he had done wrong to deserve his dumb luck to attract that madman to his inn, who had in turn singlehandedly ruined his business overnight.
Furthermore, the mess on the inside was far worse than what the rumours had said – the table, chairs, cupboards and other furniture had all been ground to fine sawdust. He did not know where this guest had come from, but his destructive abilities were simply too fearsome. In fact, some guests did not leave immediately, but they tried getting as close as they could to the madman to see what exactly was going on. However, none of them could enter the room. The room seemed to be obstructed by an invisible wall, and everyone could only stand and watch from the outside.
Therefore, they all witnessed how this madman had been shouting to himself, saying things like “I’m not afraid of you! Bring it on!” and “if I can kill you once, I can kill you twice!”
In fact, it was pretty hilarious to hear about these things. It was as though a person had a frightening encounter but put on a pretense and acted as though he were fearless. However, no one managed to bring themselves to laugh about it once they saw the state of the room he was in.
This madman wielded an immense destructive force! How easy would it be for this madman to kill someone? If a person accidently got one step too close to that madman, there was a very real likelihood that he would immediately be shredded to minced meat!
As they thought about these things, several guests instantly got gooseb.u.mps, and s.h.i.+vers went down their backs.
At the same time, the innkeeper was extremely perplexed because he did not know where this madman had come from. Most residents of this town were mere mortals without any form of cultivation, so they had never seen such immense destructive powers on a single person. On the other hand, the innkeeper could tell from his experience that this man was a cultivator of a considerable cultivation level, and if he wanted to chase this person away, he would need to enlist the help of a person at an equal level of higher.
But the problem was that this town was a small town after all – where was he going to find such a formidable cultivator?
In this world, mortals and cultivators were not separated by strict boundaries. If the child of two mere mortals had talent in cultivation and was scouted by a sect, then he would be able to step on the path of cultivation. At the same time, if a person were unsuitable for cultivation, then unless he encountered a stroke of luck which changed his fate, he would be destined to live the rest of his life as a mere mortal with a simple career.
Therefore, the “mortal world” and the “cultivation world” were more of a vague concept of two different realms; but in reality, there was hardly any distinction between the two in the physical world.
Because of this, those who walked along any particular road, street or path, could be a cultivator; or they could equally be a mere mortal. Those of a higher cultivation level could identify a person’s cultivation level as long as it was lower than his own. However, those of a lower cultivation level would be unable to tell a person’s cultivation level if it were higher than his own. As such, given that this innkeeper was a mere mortal, he was completely unable to tell which of the guests before him were cultivators.
As the innkeeper grew more anxious and frustrated, some of the more learned guests recognized the ident.i.ty token which the “madman” had dropped in the room.
“It’s from Dawn Sect!” One guest exclaimed when he recognized the emblem on the ident.i.ty token. Every sect had a unique emblem on their ident.i.ty tokens, and these emblems served to identify the sect which they came from.
Pleasantly surprised, the innkeeper immediately requested the aid of that guest to chase this “madman” away. To his dismay, that guest only shook his head, saying, “I’ve only seen this emblem before. Unfortunately, I’m a rogue cultivator, and my cultivation level isn’t even at the third level of Qi Mastery. I can’t identify the cultivation level of the man in the room, so I’m quite certain I won’t be able to beat him.”
The innkeeper’s hope immediately dwindled as he heard this. He looked on this madman in the room in vexation as he instructed his waiters to disperse the crowd of onlookers at the entrance of his inn.
He was already feeling immense vexation in his heart; and all these onlookers blocking the entrance of his inn absolutely did not help the situation at all!
The disciples from Dawn Sect had also vaguely learnt of the situation at the inn as they made their way over. When they finally arrived and saw the waiters dispersing the crowd, a few of the disciples who were more hot-tempered even thought of barging in.
The waiter grew even more agitated. As he chased people away, he thought in his heart – These people look so well dressed and refined; who knew they could be such busybodies as well!
Qin Lingyu furrowed his eyebrows before taking two steps forward and speaking directly to the innkeeper, “Innkeeper sir, don’t chase us away just yet. We might be able to help you.”
The innkeeper initially thought that this was a hopeless situation. Yet, just as he was about to despair in his hopeless situation, someone actually stood up and offered to help.
As for whether this group of young men could subdue that “madman”, the innkeeper felt that only people who were relatively confident in their abilities would step up and offer to help given how far news had spread of this madman’s formidable destruction. Furthermore, the innkeeper sized up this group of youngsters and noticed that they carried a dignified air about them, especially the two young men in front, one with a cold and suave gaze, and the other cool and composed. Both look like they were not busybodies who were anxious to court death. Therefore, his hopes for help were once again rekindled.
The innkeeper kept his crumpled face that looked like a distressed bitter gourd and replaced it with a radiant smile as he spoke to Qin Lingyu and the others politely, “Please come in, distinguished guests. I was still fretting over where I would find help for this madman…”
Qin Lingyu nodded as he led the Dawn Sect disciples and followed the innkeeper to the second floor of the inn.
The Dawn Sect disciples heaved a sigh of relief. They were rather fortunate that the innkeeper had not inquired of their background – seeing how the incident was caused by a “madman” from Dawn Sect, it would be awkward and embarra.s.sing if these disciples now identified themselves from the same sect.
But it was precisely because of this that these disciples were so enraged by this imposter that they wanted to sever him to pieces to warn the world that those who dared to use their name in vain should beware of the consequences that ensued!
“Ah…that’s right.” As the innkeeper walked on, he paused and turned around, asking abashedly, “These…these few distinguished guests, could I ask what you would ask of me to help make this problem go away?”
After all, these guests were people whom he had just met, and the innkeeper was not hopeful that these people would be doing this for free out of the kindness of their heart. At the same time, this inn largely dealt with mortals, and rarely had guests who were cultivators. Therefore, the innkeeper did not have many things of value to those in the cultivation world, and he was afraid that he would not be able to afford the services of the sect’s disciples.
“This won’t be a problem. Let’s take a look first.” Qin Lingyu said plainly. The innkeeper immediately nodded his head, thinking in his heart – Perhaps I might have encountered some good Samaritans after all…
He naturally did not know that these people had come to deal with the imposter and preserve the name of their Sect.
Jun Xiaomo followed quietly behind them. Once they arrived at the second floor, she b.u.mped into the attendant who had served her and Ye Xiuwen. This attendant had been hard at work calming down the other distressed guests who were extremely distressed and upset at the lack of security in this inn.
“Eh! De--…Dear guest, it’s actually you! Hurry on over! There’s big trouble in the room that you booked yesterday!” The attendant anxiously said to Jun Xiaomo and Ye Xiuwen. Even though he did not really remember Jun Xiaomo, the way Ye Xiuwen carried himself left an indelible impression on the attendant – after all, not only did Ye Xiuwen look extremely dignified, the way he had interacted with the attendant was extremely polite. Additionally, the veiled conical hat worn by Ye Xiuwen was highly unusual, and the attendant immediately recognized it.
As she heard this, Jun Xiaomo’s lips twitched. She had thought that apart from Ye Xiuwen and Ke Xinwen who had followed her, the other members of Dawn Sect would not have known that the room with this incident was the very same room that she had booked.
But now, the attendant had let the cat out of the bag.
Hearing this, everyone’s gazes fell upon Jun Xiaomo, antic.i.p.ating an explanation from her.
“Attendant, the room you mentioned…is that the same room with the madman?” One of the other disciples clarified with the attendant.
“That’s right! The fifth room on the second floor was booked by this guest and his friend. Yet who knew that a madman would appear in the room overnight! No one knows where this madman had come from! Sigh…dear guests you’ve arrived just at the right time. Please go take a look for yourselves.” The attendant spoke directly towards Ye Xiuwen.
Ye Xiuwen calmly nodded his head, and he did not reveal any peculiar looks on his face as he walked ahead. At the same time, Jun Xiaomo secretly stuck out her tongue when no one was looking.
Everyone around was uncertain whether this incident had anything to do with Ye Xiuwen or Yao Mo. They only thought to themselves – Perhaps it’s all a coincidence.
Even at this point, no one had contemplated the possibility that this “madman” would in fact be one of their fellow disciples in Dawn Sect.
But just this moment, those who were following more closely behind the innkeeper suddenly gasped in shock and exclaimed in horror, “Martial brother Ke, what happened to you?!”
Immediately, the other disciples who were walking behind them picked up their pace and sped to the front of the room door as they peered in in shock – as expected, the person madly flailing his arms about and hollering at the top of his voice was the very same Ke Xinwen who had vanished since the morning!
“What’s going on?!” One of the disciples turned around and demanded an explanation from Jun Xiaomo with fury and indignation in his eyes.
This room was booked by Yao Mo, and Ke Xinwen’s current predicament was naturally related to this Yao Mo.
It was not only this one disciple who thought that. Everyone else slowly turned around and fixed their gaze towards Yao Mo, awaiting his explanation.