Mu Yi bore Xu Le no malice. He found Xu Le quite decent actually. And a moment before, when Mu Yi"s eyes were filled with murder, it wasn"t because of Xu Le.
"I know that what I"m going to ask could sound like an unreasonable request, an excessive demand… but if you accepted to help when you have time, I wouldn"t be infinitely grateful." said Xu Le standing up and bowing before Mu Yi.
"Just tell me." said Mu Yi indifferently.
"I have a great friend called w.a.n.g Tao, his father was a military attaché, a captain more precisely, in Zhengzhou. He was honest but some evildoer plotted against him and his whole family was executed unto the third generation. My friend escaped by the skin of his teeth. Initially, he hid at mine but someone discovered that and now the enemies keep sending people to kill him, so I have no choice but to try and find another solution…" said Xu Le.
"What? You want me to protect him?" asked Mu Yi. But he instantly had more esteem for Xu Le. Taking the risk to host a friend whose father was a high-official and against whom other people, probably as important as, if not more, plotted, was really brave. As a friend, Xu Le seemed to be a great friend.
"I wouldn"t dare ask you such a thing, but my good friend wants to go to the capital of the country. As a friend, I think it is my duty to help him, but last time, because I didn"t have a proper measure of myself, I ended up injured so I was unable to help him go there. And then, precisely at that moment, I heard that you, Master, were going to Cangzhou… and since Cangzhou is only two hundred li away from the capital city, I thought you could maybe escort him…" said Xu Le slowly.
"Only because you got injured?" said Mu Yi with a smile yet not a smile.
Xu Le"s face stiffened but he said honestly, "I can"t hide anything from you, Master… Apart from the fact that I got injured, my father doesn"t allow me. And my friend doesn"t want me to get in trouble because of him. Therefore, since I couldn"t find any other solution, I decided to ask you for help."
"This boat is yours, you decide who can come aboard or not. Why did you take me? Besides, your friends" motives for going to the capital of the country mustn"t be that pure, right? Or maybe that he has evidence that his father was innocent and that"s why the influential officials keep sending people to chase and kill him. Your father doesn"t allow you to help because he doesn"t want your own family to get in trouble for that, so you look for other people…" said Mu Yi shaking his head.
Xu Le"s face paled when he heard that but he tried to look brave and determined.
"Sometimes, there are things a man must do. My friend is trouble, if I don"t try and help him, that makes me a coward. I don"t want to abandon my friend. If I wasn"t afraid that my family could get in trouble for that, I wouldn"t be afraid to die for my friend."
said Xu Le loudly. Li Qing was staring at him with admiration.
"A man of justice is always ready to die for justice, indeed." said Mu Yi. He admired Xu Le for his perseverance and sense of justice. He hadn"t thought Xu Le would reply something like that. He wasn"t like those young "princes" who were arrogant yet cowards. His words were in line with his actions.
w.a.n.g Tao was lucky to have such a friend.
No wonder that he was the leader of the small group of friends back then when they had gone to the Qu Mortuary. Even the Earth Walker hadn"t said much.
"I may have gone too far by saying those things, please forgive me, Master." said Xu Le. He didn"t act exaggeratedly because of Mu Yi"s reply. He was still modest and humble.
"It"s alright, you"re young." said Mu Yi. He had seemingly forgotten he was very young himself. He was even younger than Xu Le and Li Qing. However, Xu Le and Li Qing didn"t find it strange at all.
"But you forgot something." said Mu Yi after.
"Please explain." asked Xu Le. He didn"t understand.
"I have one of the keys of the Yellow River"s ancient road, I"m a trouble magnet at the moment. How could I protect your friend? If I try to help him, he"ll get in trouble because of me." said Mu Yi.
"You"re too humble. With your strength, you can crush all those evil people of all descriptions, not to mention that you destroyed the Octagon Organization, people are afraid of you now, how could they act recklessly and provoke you?" said Xu Le.
When Xu Le had heard that Mu Yi had destroyed the Octagon Organization, at first he was astonished, but at the same time, he had even more faith in Mu Yi.
"People can act desperately for their own interests, such people are always ready to take a dangerous risk. There are many examples of such people, right? Not to mention that nowadays, people are desperate, people lack money and food. It"s enough for many people to act foolishly." said Mu Yi shaking his head and smiling coldly.
Even though he wanted to inspire awe by crus.h.i.+ng the group of people of the Octagon Organization, after that, some people had still tried to cause trouble, even if they were weak, many people had pestered him beyond endurance. Therefore, thinking that he had managed to get rid of all those pests thanks to that battle during which he had displayed a thunder-like power and wrath was a bit naive.
As he had just said, many idiots didn"t have a proper measure of themselves in that world.
Mu Yi was convinced that he would soon b.u.mp into more evildoers.
Of course, having crushed the Octagon Organization"s members had still scared a lot of them away, but there was an endless number of idiots in that world.
"Whatever you say, Master, I have a blind trust in you." said Xu Le honestly.
"You trust me?" said Mu Yi smiling. Then he added, "You took me on your boat so I accept to help you but I have a condition, when we arrive in Cangzhou, your friend"s life will be in his own hands. Whether he manages to survive and go to the capital of the country has nothing to do with me."
"Thank you very much, Master." said Xu Le happily. Mu Yi had accepted, he would definitely be able to protect w.a.n.g Tao, thought Xu Le. Of course, what would happen after Cangzhou was w.a.n.g Tao"s responsibility. If he failed then, it"d mean it was his destiny. And of course, if he managed to go to the capital of the country, things probably wouldn"t get much easier.
"No need to thank me. I just hope that you won"t regret doing so much for your friend." said Mu Yi.
"I won"t regret it." said Xu Le determinedly.
When Mu Yi saw how determined Xu Le looked, he had an indescribable feeling.
Then, Xu Le took Mu Yi to his friend. He was also a twenty-year old young man. He didn"t look young and immature, he just looked depressed actually, but when he met Mu Yi, he thanked him three times.
There were also two 30-40 year old man on w.a.n.g Tao"s side. They looked scary and bore the marks of war. They had survived during the war. They were probably the bodyguards of the young man, that was probably thanks to them that w.a.n.g Tao had survived the multiple attacks.
w.a.n.g Tao was a second-cla.s.s fighter, he wasn"t very strong.
The two bodyguards knew about Mu Yi"s prowess at Western Ji Hill. The Octagon Organization had been destroyed, they were also amazed.
They admired Mu Yi. Even though he looked young, he was much stronger than them. People like Mu Yi were usually only in books. Now w.a.n.g Tao was lucky to have someone like Mu Yi to protect him, he cherished that possibility.
The giant next to Mu Yi sat down on the floor, he looked intimidating. He made people feel under pressure, especially the two bodyguards. They knew what a giant like Big Slave meant on a battlefield.
They imagined what it"d feel like to die fighting against such a giant.
Both the giant and Mu Yi were the protagonists of the epic battle which had happened on Western Ji Hill, people usually only talked about Mu Yi, but n.o.body dared underestimate the giant.
When Xu Le saw that Mu Yi was nice to w.a.n.g Tao, he was relieved.
When he had started his journey, he was afraid because he had never talked to Mu Yi. He just knew what had happened at the Qu Mortuary, that"s why he had thanked him when he had first met him when Mu Yi had arrived on the boat.
Owing someone who had saved one"s life was different from owing someone something material. It pushed relations.h.i.+ps to the next level.
So Xu Le was convinced he had done something right by thanking Mu Yi for saving his life.
Even though Xu Le really wanted to stay on the boat and do the whole journey with them, he knew it was impossible, so when they finally really left the territory under the jurisdiction of Kaifeng, Xu Le made the boat stop and went down with Li Qing. However, the man in charge stayed on the boat, someone had to take care of the ch.o.r.es, food, cleaning, laundry… and he also had to take care of the staff on board.
Mu Yi couldn"t do those things himself… the captain"s son either… so someone had to do it.
Because it was the beginning of spring, it hadn"t started raining cats and dogs yet, so the current of the river wasn"t extremely fast and the water level wasn"t very high either, so the boat moved slowly.
Even though Mu Yi wanted to arrive in Cangzhou quickly, he had to bear with it.
At the same time, he could also take advantage of the time he had at his disposal to study.
His vital essence had kept transforming into energy unceasingly since his Svādhiṣṭhāna, or sacral chakra, had opened itself. Even though his body then a.s.similated the Qi, Mu Yi could clearly sense that he had become much stronger.
It wasn"t the kind of strength which was visible from outside. It was all happening inside of him. It was a slow process.
Besides, Mu Yi could also use more and more Qi with time. Now, if he used his full strength, he could use his Qi three to five times. It was still too little but in case of emergency, it"d still be useful.
The trip was going smoothly when some evildoers also showed up on the boat. But things didn"t have time to worsen because w.a.n.g Tao"s bodyguards dealt with them. But on that day, Mu Yi was meditating in his room and he sensed something was happening, then it stopped.
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