Chapter 539 Face to Face
Li Mu was indeed in some trouble.
At first, he planned to sneak out while the people on the flying shuttle were not paying attention. However, before the flying shuttle had even gone beyond Mount Shu, a few people onboard suddenly had a crooked idea.
“Hasn’t that brat woken up yet?” Someone suddenly spoke.
“No, he’s still like a dead pig.”
“I’m wondering why Ding Yi abruptly sent this kid out by this means. Any idea?”
“Maybe he’s worried about him.”
“No, I feel that this is a trick to deceive all of us. It’s very likely that Ding Yi has obtained something from the Desktop Peak, so he wants to make use of this kid to deliver the treasure out. But he made it look like a gesture of care.”
“Why bother taking guesses? You can find out with a bit of searching, can’t you?”
“What if this kid wakes up?”
“Well, in for a penny, in for a dollar. We might as well just…” Someone laughed sinisterly.
The others remained silent for a while.
Then, some reached out to grope in Li Mu’s pockets.
Li Mu sighed internally.
“Jianghu is so dangerous!
“These people’s imaginations are so wild that they even followed this line of the story!
“Seems that I’ve become a fat sheep in these people’s eyes. They’re going to kill me for the treasure!
“Well, well, well, Brother Ding, though you did this out of good intentions, it’s a pity that you entrusted the wrong people.
“If I were an ordinary scholar who knew no martial arts, I’m afraid that I would have suffered a wrongful death on this journey.”
Li Mu sighed in his head and decided to take down all these people.
But at this precise moment, someone on the flying shuttle suddenly shouted, “Look, that’s…”
Ahead of the flying shuttle suddenly appeared a large s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p. In an instant, it approached the small flying shuttle and blocked its way.
Though his eyes were closed, Li Mu was still able to sense everything outside. His mind stirred, then, he gave up the thought of fighting and decided to wait and see.
“Oh no, it’s the patrol s.h.i.+p of West Sea Sword Sect!” Someone exclaimed in horror. The person saw the red flag fluttering on the s.h.i.+p, which was the symbol of the West Sea Sword Sect.
“What are you afraid of? We didn’t do anything wrong,” another man said fiercely, but internally, he was scared.
In the midst of their conversation—
“Whoos.h.!.+ Whoos.h.!.+”
Amidst the strange sounds, a long rope with a hook on the end whizzed over and snapped at the deck of the flying boat and pulled it over.
Then, with a flash of sword light, four disciples of the West Sea Sword Sect boarded the flying shuttle.
The man in the lead was about 30 years old, with a fair face and no beard. He was in the Natural Realm. He was tall and brawny, wearing a crimson swordsman suit. His eyes were sharp and fierce. Glancing around, he demanded, “Which one is Duan Shuiliu?”
“Duan Shuiliu?”
“There’s no such a person, right?”
The crowd was temporarily confused.
Then, one of them suddenly remarked, “Oh, right, is it this guy named ‘Xiao Duan’ sent by Ding Yi?”
Everyone pointed their fingers at Li Mu, who was lying on the deck.
“It’s him?” The disciple of West Sea Sword Sect in the Natural Realm looked at the tied-up Li Mu and said, “What’s going on?”
Those on the flying shuttle hurriedly told him what had happened before and after.
“He was tied up and sent on this shuttle?” The disciple of the West Sea Sword Sect in the Natural Realm was a little surprised. But after he checked the picture of Li Mu, he said, “Yes, it’s him. Come on, take him away.”
A disciple of the West Sea Sword Sect came over and directly lifted the tied-up Li Mu from the deck.
“What about these people?” Asked another disciple, pointing at the rogue cultivators on the flying shuttle.
The fair-faced and beardless disciple in the Natural Realm who was in the lead looked cold and detached, as if he had no human feelings at all. He said, “This is a matter of great importance. We can’t risk disclosing any information. Kill them all.” Apparently, they were already accustomed to killing people to keep their mouths shut.
“No! Please spare my life, Your Honor!”
“Don’t kill us. We’ll keep our mouths zipped!”
“I know your Senior Fellow Brother Qi of the West Sea Sword Sect…”
“We don’t know anything.”
“Run! Run for your life!”
The people on the small flying shuttle apparently did not see that things would end up like this. They immediately broke into an uproar. Some of them knelt on the deck and pleaded. Some confronted the other party out loud. Some people directly jumped to the sea of clouds below, trying to escape.
However, in front of the true elites of the West Sea Sword Sect, how could these small potatoes escape?
Several rays of ruthless sword light flashed in the air, slaying all of them one by one. None of them escaped.
Evil would be rewarded with evil.
Li Mu did not sympathize with any of them.
If these people didn’t have any bad intentions and didn’t plan to kill him for money, Li Mu might have taken action to save them. But now…He could only say that they had refused to follow the path leading to heaven but insisted broke into h.e.l.l even though it had no doors.
At last, even the small flying shuttle was bombarded.
Pretending to be unconscious, Li Mu let himself be brought back to the large s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p by several disciples of the West Sea Sword Sect.
The s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p turned around.
It arrived at the sky above the Desktop Peak in less than an hour.
“Guards, send this mortal into the dungeon and detain him,” ordered the fair-faced and beardless Natural Expert.
Li Mu was carried down from the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p and was about to be sent to the dungeon.
All of a sudden, an expert of the West Sea Sword Sect in the Celestial Being Realm flew towards them. He showed them the token in his hand and declared, “The elder has given an order. Just give Duan Shuiliu to me. The elder needs him for some other use.”
“Senior Fellow Apprentice Fan.” The fair-faced and beardless Natural Expert hastily bowed to the man, then yelled, “Quick, bring the man over and hand him to Senior Fellow Apprentice Fan.”
Li Mu was handed over to the two people beside Senior Fellow Apprentice Fan.
“Bring him along.”
Senior Fellow Apprentice Fan and his men boarded a small flying shuttle with Li Mu. They left the Desktop Peak at once and swooped straight to the bottom of the peak.
Li Mu was bewildered by the change.
“What’s happening?”
“Is he going to bury me under the peak as fertilizer?”
“The members of the West Sea Sword Sect can’t have been so bored as to do that, right?”
Li Mu felt that the series of events tonight had quite a lot of turns and twists.
He decided to wait and see what kind of tricks the members of the West Sea Sword Sect were going to play.
Yet, he soon sensed that there were turbulent energy fluctuations at the bottom of the Desktop Peak.
Some top-level experts were battling!
Li Mu noticed it at once.
Moreover, one of them should be Tan Rushuang, the Top Sword of West Sea, also the head of one of the three great sword sects. He was also one of the few contemporary experts in the Void-breaking Realm. And his opponent was a man with an extremely peculiar aura that Li Mu had never met before. For the moment, he was slightly suppressed by Tan Rushuang, but he still had the power to fight back.
“He was able to stand up to Tan Rushuang, the Top Sword of West Sea. Could he be an expert of the Devil Cult?” Li Mu wondered.
Soon, the flying shuttle had arrived at the bottom of the Desktop Peak.
Grabbing at the rope binding Li Mu, Senior Fellow Apprentice Fan made his way to the center of the battlefield.
“Brought him here?” A man asked. It was the voice of Qu Xuening, Young Lord of Cold River City.
“Young Master Qu, he’s here,” Senior Fellow Apprentice Fan answered respectfully. “Junior Fellow Apprentice Zhang and the others intercepted him on the outskirts of Mount Shu. He’s been knocked unconscious and hasn’t woken up yet. I was told by the other people on the shuttle that it was Ding Yi who knocked him out and sent him there, asking them to take him away.”
“Oh, that’s interesting,” said Qu Xuening with a smile. He had already guessed what was going on. Then, he asked, “What about the others on that flying shuttle?”
Senior Fellow Apprentice Fan said, “They’ve been silenced by Junior Fellow Apprentice Zhang and the others.”
“Well done. You did a good job.” Qu Xuening clearly sounded very satisfied. He then said, “Take the man and come with me.”
The experts of the West Sea Sword Sect and the Cold River City who had set up a formation around them parted to make way for them. Qu Xuening walked forward and came to the edge of the battlefield. He remarked, “Haha, Ding Yi, look, who is this?”
Senior Fellow Apprentice Fan thrust Li Mu forward.
“Xiao Qi?” From the battlefield came Ding Yi’s voice. A moment later, Ding Yi bellowed furiously, “You despicable sc.u.mbags. How could you pick on an ignorant scholar with low cultivation? How could you call yourself the Decent Alliance?”
When Li Mu heard the voice, he couldn’t help but be shocked.
“It’s Ding Yi?”
“The famous hero in Jianghu?!”
The shock he received was no trivial matter.
It should be noted that during those days, except for several practices, he spent almost every day with Ding Yi. Yet, Li Mu never found out that Ding Yi was such a brilliant cultivator who had been concealing his strength so perfectly. Li Mu had always considered himself highly observant. Adding that he had also practiced the Xiantian Skill, and had opened the Third Eye, he believed his perceptivity was already incredibly sharp. Nevertheless, during such a long time, he actually failed to spot anything fishy about Ding Yi!
Ding Yi’s strength was definitely not low since he was able to confront Tan Rushuang, the Top Sword of West Sea.
Qu Xuening laughed out loud, then taunted, “To deal with you guys from the Devil Cult, I don’t need to follow rules. What’s more, this little scholar is not innocent at all. Even if he is not a disciple of the Devil Cult, he is still your accomplice. He colludes with you, so he is colluding with the Devil Cult, which means that death will serve him right…Haha, Ding Yi, you are still not surrendering? Don’t you want to keep your accomplice alive?”
“Rumble!”
A violent explosion of energy fluctuations could be heard from the battlefield.
Tan Rushuang, Top Sword of West Sea, rapidly flew backward and got out of the battle circle.
In the midst of rising dust, Ding Yi was as tall and imposing as a demon G.o.d. He was bathed in blood and was covered in wounds left by a sword. Several parts of his body had been pierced through. Still, his fighting intent surged like a vast ocean and he did not show any signs of fatigue. His body was wreathed in dark-black flames. He looked like the G.o.d of death walking in the darkness.
Even though he was in a desperate situation, he would not give up fighting.
The hard reality was that Tan Rushuang’s strength could override his. Nonetheless, despite being seriously injured again and again, it seemed that this man would never fall. He still had a strong combat ability and tenacious will.
“Ding Yi, if you surrender, I will spare the boy’s life. What do you say?” Qu Xuening said with a cold smile.
Ding Yi rested his eyes on Li Mu and sighed.
He had taken precautions by sending Li Mu out in advance. It was just because he was afraid that this simple-minded scholar, who was curious about Jianghu, would be involved in this dirty and cruel Jianghu dispute. However, he did not expect that he had made a poor move and this scholar was implicated all the same.
“Wake him up,” ordered Qu Xuening.
Senior Fellow Apprentice Fan was about to break one of Li Mu’s bones and wake him up in pain. But just then, Li Mu suddenly opened his eyes of his own accord. That gave Senior Fellow Apprentice Fan quite a turn instead. He scolded, “This little b.a.s.t.a.r.d is already up. He’s been feigning his coma for a long time.”
Li Mu ignored him. He swiveled his eyes to the man covered in blood in the battlefield like a G.o.d of War, and yelled, “Brother Ding, what are you playing at?”
With a complex look on his face, Ding Yi finally confessed, “Xiao Duan, I’m sorry. I got you into this. I’ve lied to you about my ident.i.ty. In fact, I’m a member of the Divine Sect on Mount Shu.” He was really tortured by guilt. If he had known this, he would not have brought this boy to Mount Shu. To be honest, he did make use of Li Mu later to cover for himself. For instance, during the several rounds of investigations launched by the West Sea Sword Sect, he and Li Mu testified for each other and so he did not arouse suspicion.