Chapter 143: Visiting the mountain gate
“Pa, pa……”
An ash gray bird flew outside the window. Jin San Pang slowly placed a piece of paper under a book when a heavy knock came from the door.
“Come in.”
Jin Xiao Tang came in with a happy look on her face, “Father, I heard the sound of a bird flying earlier, did someone send you a letter?”
“Aha……”
Jin San Pang waved his hand over the tea as he said with a smile, “No, it’s just a letter from a normal friend. Xiao Tang, what did Lin Mu Yu find you for?”
Jin Xiao Tang looked over and suddenly saw a piece of paper under a pile that had a crossed sword logo on it. This was the symbol that Swordsman Hall used, and this blood red colour meant that this was written by at least a touring envoy level member. Not to mention that the tea in Jin San Pang’s hand was already warm and no longer needed to be cooled anymore.
“It’s no problem, he was just here to ask me when we will be stocking up on Seven Colour Lotus. Big brother Ah Yu is lacking in money right now!” Jin Xiao Tang said with a smile.
Jin San Pang narrowed his eyes and said, “Lin Mu Yu is an Imperial Guard, but it seems like he was sent to the Falcon’s Nest. The Falcon’s Nest is poor, so he should be short on money. That’s right, has the shipment from the Yun Zhong Province come yet?”
“It has not. Father, is it urgent?”
“Oh, it’s not that urgent. Xiao Tang, go to Orchid Goose City and hire a group of first cla.s.s blacksmiths, I want to forge some weapons.”
“Oh?” Jin Xiao Tang was stunned, “Then should we have big brother Ah Yu make them?”
“No, Lin Mu Yu is a top cla.s.s blacksmith, we won’t trouble him for something like this. After all, it isn’t easy for our Imperial Capital Store to hug a large tree, so we can’t bother him that easily.”
“That’s right, father has considered everything. Your daughter will do this!”
“Un.”
Jin Xiao Tang walked out the door with a trace of worry on her face.
“Du, du, du……”
With the hoofbeat sound, Lin Mu Yu ascended the Falcon’s Mountain. He found Wei Chou to have him set a routine for his group for the next few days. Everything had to follow a routine, he could not let anyone know that he was away from the Falcon’s Nest. After that he descended the mountain.
This time, Lin Mu Yu changed into a light green warrior’s outfit with a mercenary’s badge on his chest and the prairie sword was wrapped in a black cloth on his back. Even the horse under him was newly bought from the market. The horses the Imperial Guards and the temple rode were specially bred horses. There were marks on their b.u.t.t and their horseshoes, making them easily recognizable, so he had to buy another horse for now.
“Hua……”
Opening the scroll, he looked for the direction of the Xiao Lin branch of Swordsman Hall. He urged his horse forward since it was getting dark, so he had to reach the Xiao Lin branch before it was dark.
Going along the edge of the Dragon Seeking Forest, there were some villages on the path, but he met no cultivators. When he was ten miles away from the Xiao Lin branch, he saw a group of Swordsman Hall members who all had swords and badges of Swordsman Hall on their chests. There were green, white, iron, and copper coloured badges. Lin Mu Yu did not understand the hierarchy of Swordsman Hall, so he did not think much about it and went around them.
Before the sun set, he arrived at a nameless mountain. There was a long winding road to the top and there was a large tree cut down at the base of the mountain. It had been stripped of all bark and there were blood red characters carved into it – Swordsman Hall, Xiao Lin branch. He was here!
Pulling on the reins, Lin Mu Yun slowly moved forward. There were eight members guarding the mountain gate with faces filled with hostility. Although they claimed to be knights, Lin Mu Yu knew a bit about them. The only difference between them and mercenaries was that they had a lot of people. Other than that……there was no difference at all.
They even dared to attack the country’s princess and the Seven Seas City’s princess, this group of people had more guts than normal mercenaries.
“Who are you?!”
One of them pointed a sword at Lin Mu Yu and said, “What are you here for?”
Lin Mu Yu cupped his hand and repeated what Jin Xiao Tang taught him to say, “Walking through Jianghu in a righteous manner. The world is cold and this one is looking for shelter. This one is Lin Yan, a mercenary of Orchid Goose City, seeking to join Swordsman Hall.”
“You wish to join Swordsman Hall?” The man asked.
“Yes.”
“Ha, ha,ha……” The man’s face was filled with hostility as he drew his sword from its sheath. He then roared out, “If you want to join Swordsman Hall, then you have to beat a member of Swordsman Hall. What does young master want to do?”
This man was only in the first tier Human Realm, not even reaching level ten. He was nothing more than a brave man placed here to guard the door.
Lin Mu Yu did not place this person in his eyes. He raised his palm and released his strength, sending out a gentle palm wind!
“Peng!”
This man was pushed back, feeling his blood and energy surging forth, not even being able to see his enemy make a move. Although he wanted to release his true qi and fight, he could not raise any strength at all. With a red face, he said, “You….You have won. Go up!”
Lin Mu Yu raised his hand to give him a greeting and then urged his horse up the mountain with a smile on his face.
The other seven members did not even look at him as if someone going up the mountain did not matter to them at all.
The horse gave a whiner as it slowly moved up the mountain. Lin Mu Yu could not help looking around himself. There were many white walled and black tiled houses on the road, all prepared for members to use. With how many residences here, it could be imagined just how many people lived here. There were roars coming from within the dense forest, clearly coming from people practicing, or hunting, or doing who knows what.
At the end of the road, there was a large group of buildings together. This was the Xiao Lin branch’s headquarters.
Outside the headquarters, there were quite a few members training there. Some of them were practicing on dummies, and the rest were practicing their horse riding technique. When Lin Mu Yu’s horse slowly came up, several people stopped their practicing. They watched Lin Mu Yu walk over, as if they were watching a monkey in the zoo.
“Look at this brat, actually wearing a mercenary’s badge while walking into Swordsman Hall. This is simply seeking death!”
“You idiot, don’t you know that mercenaries and Swordsman Hall have a falling out?”
“Get off your horse already!”
“Stinky brat, if you dare look at father again, do you believe that father’s axe won’t slice off the root of your descendants!”
Lin Mu Yu knit his brows. It seemed like the members of Swordsman Hall were even rougher than mercenaries, even Hawkeye was not as bad as this.
This group of people all had Swordsman Hall badges on their chests. There were bronze, silver, gold, and even some white coloured ones. It seemed like their categorization was like the temple’s, but once Lin Mu Yu released his Spiritual Pulse Technique and surrounded the gold badged members, he found that they were only at the level forty-fifty Battle Venerate realm. They were far inferior to the Imperial Guards and the gold badged temple members. It was no wonder that the Swordsman Hall could not compare with the Imperial Capital.
Thinking of this, he couldn’t help revealing a smile. If these people wanted to kill Qin Yin, then it was simply a dream.
However, Lin Mu Yu’s smile was like a form of ridicule to them. A group of people were immediately filled with anger and a gold badged member raised a large axe as he walked forward. With a face filled with rage, he roared, “Stinky brat, what are you smiling for! Don’t you know that your smiling face is quite ugly? Stop smiling or father will chop your head off!”
This man’s face was very aggressive, but his face was also very ugly, being covered in knife scars all over. Hearing an ugly person calling a beautiful person ugly, this was very disproportional sense of aesthetics. This person’s words did not make Lin Mu Yu angry at all.
“I am here to join the hall.” Lin Mu Yu put his hand into his chest and took out Jin Xiao Tang’s introduction. Dismounting his horse, he held the introduction letter in both hands and respectfully said, “This sir, this is my introduction letter. Can you please report this for me?”
Lin Mu Yu had a prominent background. As a young master of the Long Xin Group, he had received a good education from a young age. The biggest advantage that he had was that he did not look down on anyone, being respectful to everyone.
The axe raising uncle gave a grin, feeling awkward flying into a rage after seeing this brat be so respectful. He grabbed the introduction letter and said, “Don’t call me sir, I am not one of the officials from Orchid Goose City. I am called Long Yan, you can just call me sir Long Yan!”
“……”
Lin Mu Yu had nothing to say in response.
Long Yan took the introductory letter and turned around. It was a while before he turned around and said, “You’re called Lin Yan? Come, follow me. The leader, sir Yi Shi wants to see you!”
“Oh, alright!” Lin Mu Yu tied his horse onto a stake and then walked up the stairs, following Long Yan into the headquarters.
There were quite a few guards in the headquarters who all had decent armour and pretty good weapons, looking straight ahead. Lin Mu Yu felt quite a bit of killing intent as he walked through the main hall. The members outside did not seem all that special, but the guards in the headquarters seemed very professional, just like soldiers. Their teamwork in a fight would be very terrifying. He had already experienced this back when he was being chased in Silver Fir City. Cavalry were very effective in killing people. A group of level ten cavalry soldiers could kill a level thirty cultivator with ease. This was just like a game, a group fight and an individual fight could not be compared.
The bricks on the ground was completely blood red. When Lin Mu Yu entered the headquarters, he found that the tiles under the ground changed into glazed bricks and the lamp bowls turned into colour glazed lamps. There was even a coloured “war map” of the kingdom on the roof itself. The luxuries of this headquarters was comparable to the Ze Tian Palace, not being inferior to it at all.
“You are Lin Yan? Raise your head.”
A cold voice came from in front of him.