Chapter 156: Momentum
In the chilly moonlight, the building group of Talent-accruing School, without any shelter from the trees, was wrapped by a layer of silver yarn.
Having recovered greater physical strength, Hua Lun jumped off Meng Qi and walked to the gate. Holding the copper rings of the gate, he kept knocking, making the sound of bang bang bang.
He cannot wait to move out since he was far too confident for s.n.a.t.c.hing the rare stone after having appreciated Meng Qi’s amazing and inscrutable sword art.
The wicket beside the copper-nail decorated gate creaked and opened. A disciple of Talent-accruing School headed out and said with pleasant surprise, “Young faction master, you return?”
Hua Lun didn’t want anyone to learn of his return allowing Huang Yun to prepare for a surprise attack, so he waved the disciple to be quiet and asked,”Where is my father? And other elders?”
With a lowered voice, the disciple answered,” Young faction master, the strange stone has been robbed. The faction master together with the elders had chased to the mountain Bei and was just searching by blocking thoroughfares with Mount Qin Sword sect and heroes. Only three elders stayed here.”
Whatever the circ.u.mstances were, as a sect, there must be elders within the house in case of coveting from thieves and rascals.
Still blocking, Meng Qi laughed and shook his head. Outsky Strange Stone was robbed at noon, but it was already late night. This area was surrounded by mountains and rivers with densely covered miasma. If the stone was not found in daylight, it would be left in G.o.d’s hand at night. Tomorrow the chance would be drastically worse unless the robbers were all seriously wounded and hard to move forward.
Hua Lun took a gentle breath and asked,” The elders stayed, who are they?”
Early in the deserted temple, he talked with Meng Qi about the possibility of such a situation, which was almost bound to happen under the circ.u.mstance of his father’s absence from home. He felt no surprise at all.
“They are elder Li, elder Fang, and hall master Bai.” Noticing the young master kept asking questions on this issue, the disciples of the Talent-accruing School realized there must be something wrong.
Hua Lun nodded, “Take me to hall master Bai.”
As with the other Schools, Talent-accruing School had divided factions inside. Even if Zhen Yi School was there behind Hua Tiange and Hua Lun, with strong strength and power, there were still many elders who were not convinced and not willing to accept the fact that the heir of Zhen Yi School would take over the Talent-accruing School.
Hall master Bai was with Hua Tiange and the most trustworthy one among the three stayed elders. There were also eight Acupores in the realm, who was the hall master of Yanwu Hall. Between elder Li and elder Fang, one was of the centrist faction and the other was a person unwilling to see Hua Lun take over the Talent-accruing School.
The disciple became very grim-faced and, daring not to ask too much, just quietly brought Hua Lun and Meng Qi across two courtyards to the yard of the Hall Master Bai.
“My dear nephew, finally, you are back!” after hearing the good news, Hall master Bai appeared, saying brightly.
He was actually older than Hua Tiange, while the remains of some black hair and a healthy body made him look much younger.
After cupping one hand in the other before his chest and saluting, Hua Lun said directly,”Uncle Bai, I know where the Outsky Strange Stone is!”
“Pardon?” The hall Master Bai was astounded. He never expected that Hua Lun would blurt out such words at their first meeting because he wasn’t even there at that moment!
Hua Lun shared his experiences and plans very briefly. In the end, pointing to Meng Qi, he said, “Thanks to the timely help of Childe Meng, I could escape safely and bring this message to you. Uncle should send people to mountains immediately to report secretly to my father so that we can get the Strange Stone back!”
Although Ning Jidao, Huang Yun, and Zhang Zhifan must have stayed in the mountain for their own sake, the strength of the man of Luo Denomination must be strong enough seeing that they could loot the strange stone on the spot. Consequently, it would be better to have Nine Apertures’ father here.
“We will definitely pay you back, childe Meng, for your great kindness.” The hall master Bai thanked Meng Qi out of courtesy even though the hearing of Luo Denomination made him fear much and then asked immediately, “Where is the Outsky Strange Stone?”
“The foot of Mountain Bei belongs to the Mount Qin Sword Sect,” Hua Lun ground his teeth and said.
He told Meng Qi before that Ning Jidao, Huang Yun, and Zhang Zhifan would secretly open a road for the man of Luo Denomination who escaped to the mountain Bei to go downhill. While considering that the heroes who liked getting together in Jianghu were too much and distributed everywhere, and with a little bit unawareness, they would be caught. They exhorted the man of Luo Denomination to stay calm and hide in the village of Mount Qin Sword Sect until the next day when the dust had settled. By then, they could sneak into those servants who would go to the town for purchasing and get away.
The reason why they didn’t choose to flee at midnight was that the more people there were, the more chances to be seen. There were many with ulterior motives would try to slip into the village of Mount Qin Sword Sect and make a fortune. In this case, leaving in the quiet of the night would be obvious, and they would inevitably be seen and suspected.
Hall master Bai meditated in silence and looked at Meng Qi, “Have you got any idea, childe Meng?”
According to Hua Lun’s words, this child had stronger strength than that of the daylight, sort of the main force tonight, so his opinion could never be ignored.
“What good proposals could I make? Nothing else than that we stay outside that village in case they escape and make a huge noise until the arrival of Hua Men master to draw the snake from his nest,” Meng Qi said with a smile.
That was exactly what Hall master Bai had been thinking, so he nodded gently and said, “Good, do as what childe Meng said.”
Hall Master Bai secretly found a few strong and trustworthy disciples. They left Talent-accruing School together quietly, away towards the mountain Bei. Their initial plan was that Hall master Bai would take two disciples with him to go to the mountains to find Hua Tiange and make him leave on the excuse that something happened inside the School, while Hua Lun, Meng Qi, and other two disciples would stay to monitor Zhuangzi, just in case.
Leaving for a while, there was suddenly a ray of light in the sky. Meng Qi and the others looked back and discovered that there was a signal from the mountain ridge where Hua Lun used to hide!
“Suck!” Hua Lun blurted out. This was obvious from the follower of Luo Denomination, who blocked the peak to inform the looter of the news that he had already come out, and the secret had been made public and let the looter leave quickly.
Now, it was impossible to get there!
“Easy.” Meng Qi waved his hand.
He had expected such a situation, so when he encountered Emissary vacation of Luo Denomination, he would fight with full strength without even giving him time to respond or escape so as to try to delay the process of their notifying the looter.
The result was not ideal. In the case that Emissary Vacation was killed, the followers of Luo Denomination, who blocked the peak would have no leader and would be caught into chaos for a while. The signal sent until now, however, was still worse than the best time point.
What Meng Qi expected was that he, Hua Lun, and the rest would have arrived at the outside of the village and would be supervising when Hua Tiange would almost arrive there. It would be around this time that the signal would be sent, and the looter in the village would feel frightened and flee away. At that moment, he would be a bird in the cage, while the best plan could only be imagined.
“Do you have any good counterplan, childe Meng?” Hall Master Bai looked at Meng Qi with expectation.
Meng Qi chuckled and said, “We can at least guess where the looter would flee away to.”
“There is no way for him to flee away to the direction of mountain Bei because there will be heroes in the Jianghu or people of our School or even ordinary disciples of Mount Qin Sword Sect who have no idea about this secret.” Hua Lun excluded a direction first.
Meng Qi smiled and answered, “Talent-accruing School would never be the choice unless he wants to bite the hook.”
Hall master Bai muttered and said, “It’s not the case for where the signal came from since there must be so many heroes there checking out what exactly happened. The Strange Stone has the power of G.o.ds, which once is touched will be doomed to find out.”
“So now only two directions are left, one is the city wall and the other, the city pier.” Hua Lun looked at Meng Qi with the same expectation.
Meng Qi smiled and said, “We need to find out why people of Luo Denomination came here if it’s possible. Did he simply want to leave with that Stone or play hide-and-seek near mountain Qin?”
“The pier!” Hua Lun said without thinking.
Meng Qi nodded his head. “Please inform Hua Men master that we only need a few disciples, and please continue with your supervision outside the village in case that looter just stays here until we leave. Hall master Bai, and childe Hua, and I will go to the pier to block him.”
“OK.” Hall Master Bai decided without hesitation.
After acting separately, Hua Lun asked with a little bit worry, “Childe Meng, will he really flee away to the pier?”
“I am not a fortune teller, nor do I know him. One thing I can say is that the pier will be the most likely place. We must do our utmost,” Meng Qi frankly answered.
This was actually the case. When encountering those who were into challenges, maybe they would have to return to mountain Bei and search the mountains directly based on the searching direction of Huang Yun and the others.
Hua Lun nodded thoughtfully, no longer feeling anxious.
At the pier, the moon was chilly, and all was still as night with only the s.h.i.+p gently bobbing up and down.
Because of the close distance, Meng Qi did not worry that the looter would arrive there earlier. After a glance at Hua Lun, he said, “We can find a boat to wait for him.”
“Why a boat?” Hua Lun asked puzzledly.
Meng Qi smiled and answered,” When he comes, our small boat will sail slowly behind the larger boat. I will stand straight and say ‘Been a while’. How terrific!”
Hua Lun stunned hardly believing that was the reason.
Meng Qi coughed and said, “Actually, it is to create the momentum and to make him feel from his heart that everything is under my control. In this way, he will unconsciously fear and will not develop even 70% of his power.”
Master confrontation, the fight between power and mentality, the part whose soul or spirit flawed, he would hardly develop his own strength and be doomed to failure, which for no matter Enlighten the Apertures, or the Exterior, was all the same!
In this regard, Kungfu that appeared in Huang Yi’s works focused much more, and the main world was similar as well.
Hua Lun gently nodded, “My master and my father stressed stuff as confidence. The momentum that I felt puzzled about before, I understand today.”
He paused and blurted with slight suspicion, “But childe Meng, I always feel that the real reason is the one you said at the very beginning!”
Meng Qi looked at him, and at that moment he was speechless.
…
After a short while, a shadow appeared in the pier looking around for a boat to leave.
Suddenly, his eyes gazed, seeing a Junk s.h.i.+p slowly sailing out of a junk. The misted moonlight sprinkled on the boat and on the river. The water rippled with waves like a dream.
There stood a handsome man in a T-s.h.i.+rt and official’s cap, standing straight up in the boat, with his clothes brushed by the river breeze, nothing but endlessly casual and elegant.
With a smile in his eyes, he said with an indifferent, confident tone,
“I have been waiting for so long. How is Little Sang?”