Chapter 175: Three Pieces of News
Meng Qi turned his head, looking at the slightly awkward Jing Shao and the foreign youth he was carrying on his back, and said, “If you want to see General Lu and Right Chief Minister, please come with me.”
With these words, he did not wait for their reply and walked down the stone bridge alone, so as to give them the feeling of not being forced.
“Meng, Hero Meng, I trust you!” Jing Shao quickly followed up and rashly said, “I’m Zhangsun Jing, surely famous in the world one day.”
At first, he had intended to call him Predecessor Meng, but Meng Qi was so young that he felt embarra.s.sed to address so, while the t.i.tle of swordsman seemed that it was not suitable for his present status.
With his face twitching a little bit, Meng Qi coldly looked at him, saying nothing.
“He is my best friend, Ba Tu, from the Jiang Tribe, which is one of the 18 allied forces in the West Invaders.” Zhangsun Jing rattled away.
“OK. Please leave your words for General Lu.” Meng Qi maintained his image as a cool and arrogant swordsman. Besides, it was inappropriate to linger and talk here.
Zhangsun Jing held back the excitement of his narrowly escaping and seeing his idol at first sight, vigorously nodded his head and stopped talking.
It was cold and quiet at night. Meng Qi thought back what had just happened and had a panic fear. If he had not seen Sword Emperor before and could not simulate his posture of pulling out the sword, it would difficult to say whether he could scare off Monk Ruyi and Ghost King. However, even so, no one could control others’ mind, if they changed their mind, he would have to recklessly attack with Golden Bell s.h.i.+eld completely open, his muscle in ma.s.ses and his clothes tightened. Furthermore, Monk Ruyi and Ghost King’s strength was so extraordinary that they might beat his wig off… This suppositional “magnificent” scene made him frightened.
In this world, the differences between Earthen Realm, Heavenly Realm, Entering Imperceptibility, and Realizing the Truth were indistinct. Generally speaking, their essence was to cultivate their body and soul, and to sense the combination of the heaven and earth. To make a comparison, Monk Ruyi’s and Ghost King’s strength was nearly equal to the level of Nine Apertures which was similar to that of those pros who had both their Secret Chambers of Vital Qi and Energy opened, but owing to the different qualities of various kinds of Kung Fu, they were much inferior to An Guoxie and You Huanduo, yet maybe the same as Yuan Mengzhi.
Of course, the Kung Fu of the main world also required cultivating souls, sensing the heaven and earth, stressing the compet.i.tion of Qi activities, tussling in their will, and struggling between their souls. However the three Nine Apertured Master who had directly confronted Meng Qi did not display these strategies above.
The first time fighting with An Guoxie, I did not enlighten the Acupores. He might not think of the tussle of the will, just as that night, I carried Hua Lun on my back, nearly killing one every ten steps, it was impossible for me to spend time on the fight of Qi activities. The second time, An Guoxie was totally caught off guard and distressingly died before he came to himself on the spot.
Compared to An Guoxie, Yuan Mengzhi was even worse. Hardly had he pushed his momentum to the peak and intended to employ the momentum suppression when my Ananda Oath-breaking Bladesmans.h.i.+p beat him in a trance, and he was hacked to death by the Sky Thunder.
As for You Huanduo, he looked down upon me for my Kung Fu being “abolished” then, thought there was no need to have a fight of Qi activities with me and wanted to strike me dead only by his bare palm. Unfortunately, he did not get a chance to recover after being hit several times and finally died under Jiang Zhiwei’s sword.
Therefore, even if Monk Ruyi and the Ghost King could be counted as the Nine Apertured Master though having Nine Apertures opened, yet not having a good impartation, either of them could be tied with Meng Qi, who had made much progress in his strength with might and main.
When they started a converging attack, Meng Qi only could protect himself by Golden Bell s.h.i.+eld, run all of his bladesmans.h.i.+p to block them for some time, letting Zhangsun Jing and Ba Tu escape. As a result, the news that that Meng Qi, “G.o.d-petrifying Sword” was a Reckless Monk would spread over the capital city tomorrow.
In fact, Violet Blade was also a pro with Nine Apertures opened but his soul was destroyed by Living Buddha and lost his further belief and confidence to compete with the real superiors. Thus, during the battle, only less than half of his strength could bring into play, perhaps equal to 50% of his fight strength in his day, a little better than that of the real superiors at the level of Eight Apertures.
He was able to fight with Meng Qi who did not operate his blade will, but he was caught in the situation when Meng Qi applied a complete set of Mortal Dust Fall moves through the gist of blade theory he initially learned after he had further developed the cultivation of the Heaven Blade, Meng Qi straight cut his “soul” which was his bane, leaving him crazily escaping.
However, Evil Prince was one of the rare masters having Nine Apertures opened with the Immortal Pressing Art and a variety of supernatural powers which were nearly Half-step Exterior Scenery and could rival Devil Empress, so Meng Qi had to hit him desperately to protect himself in case of fighting with him now unless his bladesmans.h.i.+p, sword art and skills developed a lot or his Golden Bell s.h.i.+eld consummated the sixth pa.s.s.
In the front of the alley, out came a young lady in white traditional Chinese clothing with an ancient organ in her arms, fresh and refined. She naturally followed behind Meng Qi.
It occurred to Meng Qi that he might ask her to do something interesting, so he said to her with the Secret Voice-sending, “Lady Ruan, will you please play a piece of music to build my morale when you do not need to pretend Sword Emperor or others on an occasion like this?”
Haha, if she agrees, I will be the man with the background music in the future. How stylish and glorious I will be!
Just imagine such a scene: “I am standing on the bank with my hands at the back, while she is playing a piece ofcla.s.sic music called ‘The wind is blowing and the water is cold’ for me. It will be very tasteful, isn’t it?”
“Well.” Ruan Yushu answered coldly with an unchanged expression.
Meng Qi was overjoyed but, at the same time, hesitated inside, “Whose background music is better? Is it necessary for me to ask Ruan Yushu to give me a poem t.i.tle?”
Ruan Yushu suddenly fiddled with the strings, making sonorous and fierce sounds, “How about this?”
“No!” “This background music matched the t.i.tle of Reckless Monk or Thunder Blade Furious Monk but not me.”Meng Qi firmly refused.
Ruan Yushu softly touched the strings, making ding-dong sounds, lovesick and sentimental, and asked, “How do you like this music?”
“No!” “Too feminine!”
Meng Qi was about to describe his needs in detail when he suddenly saw the corner of Ruan Yushu’s mouth c.o.c.k up, and he was wide awake. “The two pieces of music she had just played was deliberately chosen! Never did she want to match his style!”
Fortunately, she was not from the earth. Otherwise, while I was throwing myself into a hand-to-hand combat against the enemies with Golden Bell s.h.i.+eld completely open and my wigs falling off… she was playing popular love songs, such as “The boundless horizon is my love… You are my little apple… ” as my background music and “poem t.i.tle” …
Meng Qi shuddered and decided not to provoke Ruan Yushu, “Well, I just talked about it for fun.”
Ruan Yushu noncommittally nodded and was still as cool as cuc.u.mber.
As in danger, they stepped up and soon returned to their Courier Hostel.
After visiting Lu Guan, Zhangsun Jing eagerly said, “General Lu, the so-called peace negotiation is really a fraud. West Invaders actually want to buy time to solve their internal troubles. Once they handle them, no matter where the peace negotiation goes, they will directly march south and change Central Plains into their horse ranch.”
“West Invaders were not lost but stopped the war, which was not their style.” Lu Guan seemed to have thought of it before, nodding his head, “But our court is also going to make the time to reorganize the troops and reroute the line of defense.”
He paused and said, “I do not know what their internal troubles are?”
Ba Tu, injured, and against the back of the chair said, “We consist of relatively independent tribes, of which the Yu Tribe is the strongest with seven or eight tribes attaching themselves to it and threaten us to invade the Central Plains. Yet, quite a few tribes including our Jiang Tribe admire the Central Plains, leaving very deep contradictions with the Yu Tribe.
“After reaching the head waters of the Pei River, several of our tribes eventually decided to go our separate ways to return west. As a result, so many chief leaders were brutally murdered, causing the west region in chaos. Hence, we have to escort our Young Lord to the Central Plains in the south to seek for support.”
Meng Qi was not good at a.n.a.lyzing this situation, quietly listening to them, and Ruan Yushu took the rest of the dim sum, nibbling it.
“Young Lord? How strong is his charisma?” Lu Guan pointed to the core issues.
Ba Tu solemnly said, “Our Young Lord has the blood of the Deity Family. As long as he appears as a commander of the army, most of our Jiang Tribe and other ones will obey him. In fact, they now want to rebel too, but in the Central Plains people’s words, they are no leader in a host of dragons, and will be slowly wiped out by the Yu Tribe. ”
“Is your Young Lord just in the capital?” Lu Guan quietly asked, showing a famous general style.
Ba Tu earnestly nodded, “Yes, our Young Lord is hiding in a safe place. We came out to inquire about the news to see which Imperial Prince we can seek refuge with but unluckily, met Violet Blade on the way. General Lu, both Jing Shao and I believe in you and Hero Meng. Let us lead you to see our Young Lord now.”
“Don’t worry.” Lu Guan was not at all excited or urgent, “Now I do not know how many masters are secretly spying on us, and leading us to see your Young Lord will only do harm to him, so tomorrow let me visit Right Chief Minister and ask him to personally handle it.”
So far, the real decision-making power lay in the unconscious emperor’s hand, but as a country was bound to have a living emperor to govern every day. In another few days, the Right Chief Minister would have to find His Majesty’s testament and beg the new one to succeed to the throne. Of course, the Crown Prince was currently in charge of their country.
Lu Guan’s calm att.i.tude infected Ba Tu and Zhangsun Jing, leaving them suddenly relaxed.
“There are two more pieces of news. The Lord of the Yu Tribe is said to be a disciple of some pro from the Demon School, and there are a lot of martial artists from the Demon School taking part in this east invasion now.” Zhangsun Jing thought of another matter.
“If it were the Demon School’s plot, we should have to rethink about Devil Empress and Evil Prince arriving in the capital city. Maybe they only intend to support the seventh prince… ” Lu Guan mused.
Since only Meng Qi, Ruan Yushu, Lu Guan, Taoist Hu, Zhangsun Jing and Ba Tu were in the room, this matter could be directly spoken out.
“Another piece of news?” Meng Qi calmly asked.
He felt that his facial nerve would disorder if he kept on pretending to be a cool swordsman.
Ba Tu uncertainly said, “Apart from holding off time, the messengers sent by the Yu Tribe for the peace negotiation also seemed to be a.s.sociated with the Demon School, looking for the Demon Venerable’s treasure.”
“The Demon Venerable’s treasure? Did He pa.s.s away in the capital city?” Taoist Hu was shocked.
Since Meng Qi and Ruan Yushu did not at all hear of the Demon Venerable, they might as well listen to Taoist Hu’s explanation.
“Taoist, do you know the Demon Venerable’s treasure? What is it?” Zhangsun Jing was ignorant.
Taoist Hu sighed, “The Demon Venerable was a Great Grandmaster of the Demon School, who reunited the divisive Demon School and had a little more powerful strength than Devil Empress and Royal Advisor. He is said to have nearly reached the realm of nature and man in one, and breaking through s.p.a.ce, making him recognized as the strongest maester of Demon School except for its founder.
“But at the time of the revival of the Demon School in his day, and when we all thought he would breakthrough s.p.a.ce at the most glorious moment of his life, he suddenly saw through the secular world, left the great cause, and suddenly disappeared from Jianghu. Given his age, he was supposed to have pa.s.sed away for years.
“At that time, the Devil Empress was still young and could not suppress the Demon School. As a result the Demon School was again in chaos. Until she became a Great Grandmaster, Evil Prince, Ghost King, Maester Yin and other pros at the peak level appeared in the Demon School, making her ambitions of reuniting the Demon School blocked. Especially she was affected by Evil Prince though chased several times by her, almost equal to a Great Grandmaster.
“As for the Demon Venerable’s treasure, since I am not on the Demon School, I know little of it.”
With his teeth grinding, Meng Qi was particularly sensitive to hear the topics such as seeing through the secular world, or the reason for being a monk.
Ba Tu thought for a moment and said, “My Young Lord seems to know something about the whereabouts of the Demon Venerable… ”
“Don’t talk about more of it until I first pay a visit to the Right Chief Minister.” Lu Guan bewared of eavesdroppers and interrupted the conversation.
Out of the room, the moonlight was cold as frost. Zhangsun Jing rubbed his hands and said, “Hero Meng, your outstanding bladesmans.h.i.+p has shocked me to realize that my bladesmans.h.i.+p is far inferior to yours though I was always proud of it before.”
“You are young, and not famous before. It is not long since you learned martial art, isn’t it?” Taoist Hu said with a smile.
Zhangsun Jing pondered a moment and nodded, “I was a beggar, accidentally got a script and cultivated the superior Vital Spirit, while my bladesmans.h.i.+p was learned by myself.”
“Please show it to us.” Meng Qi suddenly said.