“How did my Young Master order before?” asked Qing Feng.
Feng Yuanxing said, “He ordered me to a.s.sign people to observe them in secret.”
Qing Feng nodded thoughtfully and said, “Do not do that anymore. Let our people wear official uniforms, and show up for surveillance without hiding their traces.”
“Why?” Feng Yuanxing asked in surprise.
Qing Feng habitually rubbed one of his temples again and grinned bitterly. “The fire at the gate of the city can kill the fish in the near pond. I am afraid the fight between Huya Faction and Sky Dragon Faction in our city is not so simple. In addition, there were so many Jianghu people coming to our city during this period. With so many people from different factions in Wulin, we cannot know how many people have exactly died because they must fight secretly. Besides, due to a limit number of masters of martial arts of our office, we are not so powerful to spy on those desperados. Once they mistake our man for spies from other factions, I fear there is a great chance that our man will lose their lives. At that time, we can’t find out the truth due to a lack of actual proofs of death, so we just show our ident.i.ties clearly to them to let them fear.”
Feng Yuanxing was stunned after hearing what Qing Feng had said.
Because he could not consider that much.
He had to admit that what this little boy had said was right.
He was so thoughtful and wise at such a young age.
Feng Yuanxing did not dare to look down on Qing Feng anymore, and he nodded, saying, “Sure. I am going to do it.”
After a while, he asked, “Did your honor have other instructions?”
The seemingly mature Qing Feng shook his head.
The adorkable Ming Yue blurted out and said with a smile, “My Young Master has just said let you discuss the government affairs with my younger brother Qing Feng. Haha, you flatter, you should ask the opinions of my younger brother more. Don’t be arbitrary when you deal with government affairs.”
Feng Yuanxing felt uncomfortable when he heard the word “flatter”.
However, Feng Yuanxing could tell Ming Yue was actually very violent and dumb although she looked cute and adorkable after so many days of communicating. It seemed she was born to be so silly and would make anyone uncomfortable whoever she talked with, and there was no exception even when she was with Li Mu.
“That will be the best. Please order me to do anything. Mr. Qing Feng.”
Feng Yuanxing made obeisance to Qing Feng and turned around to leave without showing any unhappy look.
In his heart, there was no disappointment or discontent, because Feng Yuanxing knew very well that he betrayed Zhou Wu halfway to Li Mu after all, and he could not be regarded as Li Mu’s true confidant. He was not close to Li Mu than Ma Junwu who called a sick leave now in terms of closeness, so Li Mu could not really trust him. Sooner or later, Li Mu would delegate his loyal servant to share his power, but Feng Yuanxing could not believe it was Qing Feng, the young servant of Li Mu.
“It seems that I have to get along well with this little boy in the future, and I can’t have a bad relations.h.i.+p with him.”
On the way out of the county, Feng Yuanxing secretly pondered.
…
…
In a blink of an eye, four or five days pa.s.sed by.
Taibai County was quite busy with a strange and stressful atmosphere.
On the street, it was very common to hear Jianghu people speak different dialects with swords and sharp weapons hanging around their waists, and they shouted loudly.
The large and small inns in the county were already overcrowded.
Even some of the inn’s backyard firewood rooms had been vacated and was opened to let people reside.
Jianghu people seemed to have a kind of a bizarre enthusiasm for watching the battles or fights among famous great masters. It seemed that since ancient times, Jianghu people got the stereotype of always looking for troubles.
Yuelai Inn, one of the largest inns in the city, with its three-story attics and backyard garden, had been rented by Huya Faction. Apart from the masters from Huya Faction, there were also various martial arts masters from other major factions who came here to a.s.sist Huya Faction, who seemed to be so powerful and top-notch.
The leader of Huya Faction was the famous Sky-upholding Iron Hands Tie Zhendong on the Northwest Wulin World. Thirty years ago, Tie Zhendong became famous for his amazing kung fu practice, and he claimed that his pair of iron hands could tear the fine iron and shake the mountains. He was a quite famous master among the older generation. Other famous masters including Judge of Iron Pen Sun Xin, Great Tablet Smas.h.i.+ng Hand Yue Yang, Golden Snake Magic Whip Li Zheng and so on, were also coming to help them.
On the opposite side of Yuelai Inn, less than 20 meters away from the same street, people of Sky Dragon Faction lived in Jiuan Inn, another large inn, which was far opposite away from Yuelai Inn. Its leader was the Right Guardian of Rules Dongfang Jian.
Sky Dragon Sword Dongfang Jian was a rising star of Sky Dragon Faction in recent ten years, who was famous for his excellent swordsmans.h.i.+p. His eighty-one moves of Black Dragon Sword were so exquisite that always helped him defeat powerful enemies in succession. The news came that he once defeated twenty-one famous masters on Northwest Wulin World within ten days, which won him a great reputation and thus he became a famous strong warrior in Sky Dragon Faction at such a young age.
It was rumored that its conflict with Huya Faction in Taibai County was caused by Dongfang Jian.
Sky Dragon Faction also invited many great masters to help them too.
Except its Tang Masters, many outside masters including Cold Mountain Sword Qiu Zihan, Cloud-dragon Sword Mu Yunlong, Mind-clearing Sword Gao Shengpeng, who were the rising stars emerging in recent years on the Northwest Wulin World and also Dongfang Jian’s sworn brothers. Therefore, although they were not members of the Sky Dragon Faction, they appeared at the Jiuan Inn to help Dongfang Jian due to their brotherhood.
Those well-known masters in the Northwest Wulin World had increasingly attracted Jianghu people from all walks of life to Taibai County.
This situation was somewhat similar to the phenomenon of being a groupie of famous people on the earth.
The difference was that Jianghu people were groupies of great masters of martial arts but not movie stars or famous singers.
That previous fight caused both Sky Dragon Faction and Huya Faction great damage, so they both stopped fighting and saved their strength to prepare another fight.
“Did you hear that? Something big will happen soon. Finally. Those two factions agreed to hold the final fight with each other five days later at the stone forest ruins of Shennong Faction. This is a big event.”
“Hasn’t that place been banned by the county government?”
“Still. Although it was banned, how can a small county government manage those two giant factions?”
“But there is a ruthless man in Taibai County government.”
“You mean the county magistrate of Taibai County. Haha, his legend is spreading all over the world, but does it help? They are not small factions like that useless Shennong Faction. How can they be frightened by a humble county magistrate?”
“But even the cruelest b.l.o.o.d.y-moon Evil Master had challenged the Taibai county magistrate.”
“Haha, it seems you don’t know the reason why. It is said that the real reason why b.l.o.o.d.y-moon Evil Master had challenged the humble county magistrate is that he secretly attacked and killed the Dians.h.i.+ janitor in the county government, who was also a Xiang Master of b.l.o.o.d.y-moon faction. So, the b.l.o.o.d.y-moon faction wanted him to pay the price and then the b.l.o.o.d.y-moon Evil Master challenged that humble county magistrate according to the tradition of the Imperial clan and the empire. It is all because b.l.o.o.d.y-moon faction wanted to raise its rank, so b.l.o.o.d.y-moon Evil Master would choose to slaughter that young county magistrate.”
“In that case, that young county magistrate is on his way to death.”
“Oh, yes, an almost dying person is nothing to be afraid of.”
“No wonder these days, heroes from all walks of life gathered here, but none of them have seen that young county magistrate. He must have been really frightened and are s.h.i.+vering in his county government.”
Jianghu people gathered in twos and threes everywhere in the county, and they were talking current affairs at big tea houses, restaurants or pubs, however, the fight between Huya Faction and Sky Dragon Faction was the most frequently discussed topic. Although Li Mu, as the “landlord” of the whole Taibai County, was naturally mentioned a lot of times, it was obvious that most of Jianghu people did not think much of Li Mu judging from the comments of all parties.
At noon.
At a tea stall on the street, dozens of Jianghu people gathered to drink tea and chat with each other.
“Have you heard that Sky Dragon Sword Dongfang Jian claimed, this time, he would let Sky-upholding Iron Hands Tie Zhendong leave his pair of iron palms forever in Taibai Mountain.”
“No one dies, no one stops fighting. If Tie Zhendong’s hands are cut off, what’s the difference between that and killing him?”
“Well. How naive are you. Sky-upholding Iron Hands Tie Zhendong has become famous for decades. Do you know how many martial arts masters’ tops of skulls were smashed by him? It is almost impossible for Sky Dragon Sword Dongfang Jian to kill Sky-upholding Iron Hands Tie Zhendong although Sky Dragon Sword really wants to.”
“Well, in that case, bro, are you a favor of those senior masters of Huya Faction?”
“Of course. After all, a senior is better.”
The person who was optimistic about Huya Faction was a beard young man in his early twenties, and he was energetic and really confident, so he talked really loudly with a high spirit. However, the people who sat with him suddenly changed their looks and stopped talking when he still talked incessantly. He did not notice people around him behaved weirdly until they bowed their heads and dared not speak anymore with an awed look as if they had seen something horrible.
Only then did the bearded young perceive something was wrong.
But before he could respond, he had a heavy kick in the back.
Bang!
Tea splashed and the whole tea stall was smashed.
The bearded young man plunged five or six meters away and was badly injured. A blood arrow was sprayed from his mouth.
Here came an arrogant and cold sound behind him, “Favor of Huya Faction? Are you a shameless flatterer of those old dogs of Huya Faction? How dare are you to speak ill of Sky Dragon Faction here? Today, if I don’t give you, a n.o.body, a lesson, those fools who gossip around us behind our backs, will really think they can push our Sky Dragon Faction around.”
The young man, full of fear, turned around and saw more than a dozen masters of Sky Dragon Faction, who appeared behind him.
The person who said that was also a young man in his early twenties. He had worn a red dragon soft armor, with a broad blade behind his shoulder and a lifelike silver dragon embroidered on his cuffs, which indicated he was a core disciple in Sky Dragon Faction, and other people, who were more than a dozen, also worn the same style of dragon soft armors with bronze dragon embroidered on their cuffs, which showed they had a low status compared with that young person who talked before. But they got the qualities of great masters with arrogant looks, who should also be elites of Sky Dragon Faction.
“I…” The young man was obviously panicked with blood all over his mouth. He opened his mouth again and wanted to explain something.
…