Chapter 128: Shen Zui’s Heritage
“Yes, as the ancient saying goes: ‘The man who can recognize the facts of a situation is a paragon of men’. You, Big Dangzi, set up a troop of horse bandits alone in a foreign land, so in all these respects, you are really somebody, eh.” Meng Qi took his eyes back and smiled at Shen Zui.
Shen Zui said in a vaguely worried voice, “You must keep your word.”
“I swear to Buddha.” Meng Qi used to casually make oaths, but when he was faced with a world full of Taoist Primogenitor and Buddha, he was more cautious. Fortunately, it was easy for him to deal with this matter.
Shen Zui took a light breath and said, “Yesterday, word came from a whitehead bird that ‘Skythrowing Hou’ Yuan Mengzhi had caught your Junior Brother at a leading path called ‘Che Li’, which extended to ‘Bo Mi’. He intended to send your brother to ‘Evil Ridge’ as bait.”
“Sky-throwing Hou”, who was a subordinate of Ze Luoju, was a well-known leader of the horse bandits with hundreds of people. He and Ze Luoju were top martial experts with Nine Apertures opened. In other words, both of them were like the king in Che Li, so they could do whatever they wanted. While Zhen Hui was acute, he was a green hand in Jianghu and knew nothing of the Evil Sword Hunting Order, hence it was normal for him to be seized.
The “Evil Ridge”, formerly called “Kuerzha Hill”, lay in the southeast of the Immensity Sea, which was Ze Luoju’s hometown and it was renamed because of him. It was very close to the oasis where Meng Qi slaughtered An Guoxie. At the beginning, the reason why An Guoxie chose this path was that he could hide in Evil Ridge when necessary.
“Ready to send my Junior Brother to Evil Ridge?” Meng Qi frowned. Shen Zui could not have lied because if Yuan Mengzhi did want to use his junior brother as bait, everyone would know it soon as news quickly spread.
Gu Changqing gasped and tried his best to forget the sickness, thinking, “It is much closer from here to Evil Ridge than to Che Li. Maybe we can intercept them halfway. But what if Yuan Mengzhi’s act of sending bait was actually a trap in itself to lure us to intercept them?”
Meng Qi nodded. “I think so. The Evil Sword Hunting Order is aimed at me. He couldn’t exchange my Junior Brother for Ze Luoju’s promise anyway, so if he wants to maximize the benefits, Yuan Mengzhi certainly hoped to catch me through my Junior Brother. How long will it take from Che Li to Evil Ridge?”
He asked Shen Zui about it. Since he had never been there, Gu Changqing could only estimate the time.
“It will take 14 or 15 days from Che Li to Evil Ridge at an average speed. After all, there are a lot of dangers in the Immensity Sea. Along the three routes, each of them has two or three places they must pa.s.s. As long as you find out which path to take, you have enough time to hold them up halfway.” Shen Zui was eager to let it all out. For him, the sooner he would die, the better.
Meng Qi said hesitatingly, “If he wants me to intercept them midway, Yuan Mengzhi can’t deliberately cover up their course information. Otherwise, we only can block them in front of Evil Ridge.”
Because Evil Ridge was Ze Luoju’s nest, Meng Qi and Gu Changqing dared not barge in. If they would love to rescue his Junior Brother, the best chance was at the oasis in front of Evil Ridge. On the other hand, as a Nine Apertured Master, if he walked fast, maybe Yuan Mengzhi would travel across the wilderness instead of taking Zhen Hui to the oasis.
“Yuan Mengzhi has always been arrogant. Because time is limited, he will certainly choose to send Zhen Hui off with great fanfare, which is designed to tempt you to fall into his trap.” Shen Zui weirdly grinned.
Mengqi wondered, “Time is limited?”
It is our time that is limited, isn’t it?
Shen Zui seemed to have found some comfort. Thus, he laughed. “Little master, you don’t look like a disciple of a big sect.”
“Eh?” Meng Qi was even more confused.
Shen Zui smiled. “Shaolin had not expected that the Crying Elder would appear in Jianghu again, which put you and your Master in trouble. But if they knew, how could they not come to help you? Since it is far away from the West Regions where your power can’t reach, they can’t get the news instantly. But there must be some caravans and desert tramps who are on intimate terms with Shaolin, they will let the news out.”
“According to the situation, the news will reach Shaolin in 10 days at most. By then, there will be some monks who have achieved the top of the Exterior coming to a.s.sist you. Maybe a monk of the ‘Kong’ generation will come to your aid too. They will arrive at the Immensity Sea in less than 10 days if they march day and night.”
The reason why it took Xuan Bei half a year to come to the edge of the Immensity Sea was that he was waiting for the other monks to inform the main martial sects of this matter. At that time he took Meng Qi and Zhen Hui, two stumbling blocks with him. If it was only Xuan Bei himself, it would have taken no more than half a month. Like the present, he had been tussling with the Crying Elder all the way and they spent less than 10 days in covering thousands of miles deep in the Immensity Sea.
Meng Qi gently nodded. “They are really in a hurry. Nevertheless, Yuan Mengzhi is so brave that he dares to act in this way when he knows well that Shaolin will do us a favor.”
“Yuan Mengzhi should regard a Shaolin disciple as a decoy, which would definitely be discovered by the monks coming to our aid. And this might cause the top Exterior, or even the Half-step to Dharmakaya monks to approach to them. What a big joke then!
“What does he fear? Only if he could not manage to lure you in 15 or 16 days, he would wipe the little monk out and hide in Bo Mi or different perilous places in the Immensity Sea. At that time, no monks could find him! He would be able to reappear in Jianghu and buy off his troop. Again, another hero will be born sooner or later!” Shen Zui said with a big laugh.
Gu Changqing explained it to Meng Qi. “For one thing, the Immensity Sea is so vast that there are many hiding places. For another, the superior monks in your temple can’t stay here too long. Only if the land immortal of the Dharmakaya level hunts him down, he may be chased. But Da A Asura Meng Nan can’t stand other top Dharmakayas entering the West Regions.”
“Hmm.” Meng Qi slowly nodded. That was why the horse bandits were reluctant to offend the big native sects like the Snow Mountain Sect. But they had less scruples about the big sects in the Central Plains, such as Shaolin and others. “Thus, we are urgent to rescue my Junior Brother before they do away with him or send him to Evil Ridge.”
Yuan Mengzhi’s plan was not so much a strategy as bait. As a matter of fact, he only wanted to see whether Meng Qi and his team cared about Zhen Hui or not.
After he finished talking, Meng Qi glared at Shen Zui. “You explained it in great detail. What is your purpose?”
Shen Zui smilingly said, “I am soon dying. What purpose can I have? I would like nothing else than to quickly die! If you go to save him, you will be killed by Yuan Mengzhi and the other horse bandits at his disposal. If not, you’ll wait to see the little monk murdered and you will certainly regret it and feel guilty all of your life.
“When I think about you ending badly, I can’t help laughing. Hahaha!”
His laughter obviously revealed his endless hatred.
Meng Qi calmly waited for him to finish laughing and placidly said, “Which route do you think Yuan Mengzhi will choose?”
“Do you really want to go?” Shen Zui eagerly looked forward to seeing Meng Qi die. Therefore, he frankly said, “The Crying Elder was so engaged in fierce battles in the deep desert that he couldn’t spare any time to deal with other things. Now that there is something abnormal in ‘Hahler’ and Yan s.h.i.+che is struggling to cope with it, Big brother Ze Luo has already dashed to give him a hand.”
Yan s.h.i.+che was not the only pro of the Exterior in Hahler, because there were even four or five such experts among the horse bandits in the Gobi Desert, let alone in Hahler, a big country in the West Regions.
He looked at Meng Qi’s expressionless face and continued. “Since he has intended to lead you to rescue your Junior Brother, Yuan Mengzhi certainly will choose the route that is not convenient for you to flee. Hence his route must be ‘Guan Yue’—’Boda’—’Baishan’—’Fish Sea’—’Tan Han’. Among them, Fish Sea, is a prosperous land of the Immensity Sea with complex interpersonal relations. So such a place will facilitate you to hide and attack. Of course, Yuan Mengzhi is sure to think so too.”
After he asked a few other things, Meng Qi was satisfied with his reply. He gently nodded and said, “Big Dangzi, I will send you to heaven in no time.”
With his eyes full of hatred, Shen Zui mournfully said,
“I’ll wait for you in the nether world!”
With the light of Meng Qi’s dark red blade flas.h.i.+ng, a spot of blood sprang up from Shen Zui’s throat. His blood slowly spilled over and his eyes were wide open in anger, as if he would like to see how Meng Qi would die.
Meng Qi picked up his Ice Palace Sword and turned to look at Gu Changqing. “Changqing, although it is dangerous, I am bound to have a try, or my heart will be knotted with concerns and I will blame myself for the rest of my life. But it is none of your business, you’d better stay away from it.”
Once there would be a knot growing in Kung Fu men’s heart, their martial skills would not develop any more or they would go astray and eventually become a demon.
Gu Changqing clenched his teeth and obstinately said, “Though I will be a burden to you if I am involved in fighting with my insufficient strength, I’d like to go with you. Since I am familiar with Fish Sea, I still can do something for you, such as arranging a shelter or a route for you to escape, and inquiring about information. Moreover, because they don’t know me, I won’t be noticed and I’ll be fine.”
Meng Qi looked into his eyes, saw a pair of stubborn eyes firmly filled with hope, and pondered for a moment. “Well, in short, except for the auxiliary things, do remember that you are completely irrelevant to the other things, including failure or success. You are only a spectator. OK?”
As a result, they would not get Gu Changqing in trouble.
Gu Changqing nodded hard. “I get it, Pleas be careful. As long as you are alive, there is a chance of revenge.”
With a blade in his right hand and a sword in the other one, Meng Qi smiled and said,
“Saving people and killing people are different, so they require a different strength. I believe I still have an opportunity.”
After that, Meng Qi and Gu Changqing searched for the tents of Shen Zui and several Enlightened Master Pros. Much to his delight, Meng Qi found that Shen Zui seemed to have brought most of his property with him!
“There are three t.i.tle deeds for Jiangdong land and two house leases in Luo Yang. Big Dangzi seemingly had planned to give up the old business and to live out his life in retirement in the Central Plains, eh.” Meng Qi looked at the papers in his hand and smirked.
In fact, there was n.o.body who wanted to be a lifetime horse bandit. Their main purposes were wealth, women, and martial arts. If they gained what they sought, they would no longer be a horse bandit and just live a well-off life. As a boss of the horse bandits, he had a lot of restrictions on such things. For example, if a chivalrous boss was rich, he could never abandon his poor understrappers.
That was why Shen Zui quietly exchanged most of his stolen wealth for these five papers, which meant that he could live in ease and comfort for the rest of his life with vast land and splendid houses.
Besides, the horse bandits all had a common practice that they never believed their peers. Therefore, Shen Zui had his remaining part of wealth turned into portable precious jewels, which gave Meng Qi a great fortune. Meng Qi and Gu Changqing cooperated very well—Meng Qi made Shen Zui’s property his personal capital and Gu Changqing pocketed the other four horse bandits’ “legacy” as a reward of their chivalrous deeds.
Meng Qi put the house leases and the land deeds away, yearning for the future life he would have after he had broken away from Shaolin. And then he picked up Shen Zui’s sword, wiped the sword body and sensed the restrained Sword Qi. That sword, which seemed to be made of common iron, hid some light blood stains and faintly p.r.i.c.ked his fingers. Recalling the special sense of his blood being sucked away after he was stung, Meng Qi was certain that this was a Refined Weapon nearly as good as his Ice Palace Sword.
“Bloodsucking… ” Meng Qi read the seal characters on the sword with a very pleasant mood. “Ah, it can be exchanged for Karma points!”
Inspired and delighted, Meng Qi entered Shen Zui’s tent, seeing the scripts which he had been reading but had no time to put away.
“Heng Qu Swordsmans.h.i.+p… Two Bearings Wave Sword… Fast Sword of the Zhao Family… ‘Sunlight Three Folded Waves’… Clear Heart Sutras… ” Meng Qi was overjoyed and glanced over the t.i.tles of the scripts one by one. Browsing through them, he discovered that they all belonged to the enlightenment period’s skills and sword art. There were four full copies and the Sunlight Three Folded Waves was a set of sword art which Shen Zui used as his desperate hit.
This made him unable to restrain his laughter. “Haha, the chivalrous act is indeed a good reward!
“No wonder that the heroes took off from wiping out the robbers, and the ancients never deceive me!”