Chapter 16: Chapter 15 Tea Stall Assassination
On the official road.
The sound of horse hooves thundered. There were only two horses, but the riders whipped continuously, creating the impression of ten horses.
"Senior Brother Qing Yuan, we've been running for a whole day and night. Let's rest for a bit, the horses are almost done," the person slightly behind called out to the one in front.
In their rush to save time, they hadn't prepared extra horses; continuing like this, the people might not collapse, but the horses certainly would.
Although Senior Brother Qing Yuan was extremely anxious, the situation with the horses was a fact; pushing them further would only be counterproductive, so he reluctantly said, "I remember there's a tea stall around the corner ahead, let's rest there for a bit."
"My Senior Brother Qing Yuan, what's the rush? That useless guy doesn't know martial arts, he won't get far."
"Hmph, what do you know. If we catch him, we might be able to go back to the sect. Haven't you had enough of this godforsaken place?" Senior Brother Qing Yuan replied irritably.
His junior disciple brother, seemingly indifferent, nodded and said, "What's so good about going back to the sect? Here in Qing Province, although the density of primordial energy isn't as high as in the sect, we're not short on resources. With Zhen Shan Army keeping peace, there basically aren't any above the Innate Realm on the entire Qing Province border. We lack medicinal materials or other things, we can fight and rob for them ourselves. What good will catching him do? A simple reward? Don't be foolish, Senior Brother Qing Yuan. We abandoned our posts and ran to the Southern Border Mountain Area, and who knows when the person even escaped; if the sect finds out about this, who knows how they will deal with us?"
Hearing this, Senior Brother Qing Yuan fell silent, not uttering a word. The two brothers, both nearing thirty, could be considered amongst the older ones in this generation of disciples, yet still hovering in the Postnatal Realm, uncertain if they would even reach the Postnatal Ninth Layer.
In ordinary small sects, this might be considered fine, not even qualifying as genius disciples. Not to mention in a great sect like the True Martial Dao Sect. Initially, when assigned this task to monitor Qing Yu, it was essentially a sentence of exile, for both him and Qing Yu. Just that one was overt, the other somewhat covert.
Assigned to Qing Province for three years, apart from the first year when the sect still sent message eagles to inquire about their situation, during the last two years, they had been sending messages but haven't received any replies.
The sect might have long forgotten that fallen disciple; those forgotten along with him were these two mediocre disciples whose potential had been exhausted.
Qing Yuan pulled the reins and stopped the horses, silent. After a long while, he solemnly said, "Even if we don't return, we still have to catch him; otherwise, if the Sect Leader blames us, neither of us will have a good outcome."
The junior brother listened silently.
"Alright, let's rest at the tea stall up ahead. From what I learned in Qingshui Town, Qing Yu, that kid, bought some women's clothing, so he likely won't head into the Southern Border's forests. Instead, he plans to disguise himself and try to blend in at Yang City border to enter the Central Plains."
The women's clothing Qing Yu had previously bought to deal with Lord Wei and Yin Zhiping unexpectedly also served to create confusion; one wonders what he would think if he heard Senior Brother Qing Yuan's words.
Senior Brother Qing Yuan and his junior spurred their horses into a trot and turned the corner, where a small tea stall appeared before them.
At the tea stall, an old man in coarse linen was refilling tea for a customer. The customer in need of a refill was a swordsman wearing a conical bamboo hat, with a bulging bundle placed on the stool beside him, seemingly having reaped quite a bounty in the Southern Border.
A few meters from him, at another table, sat two big men with long swords, who were wolfing down dry food along with their tea.
"Darn, this dry food is awful. This wretched tea stall, just an old man, not even a tea lady to stimulate the appetite," one of the big men forcefully swallowed a bite of dry food, gulping down a mouthful of tea after.
The tea stall owner quickly turned his head, offering a placating smile.
"You better forget it. On the border of Qing and Ling provinces, if there was a tea lady, I can tell you for sure, no matter what she looked like, her son would certainly not know who his dad is," his companion interjected.
"Then just call every man 'dad'." The first big man laughed loudly. His companion also threw his head back in laughter.
The laughter of the two big men was loud but hollow, their eyes glimmering with greed as they stared at the swordsman's bundle. Their own gain this time was meager, and they were worried about not having money for girls after returning to Yang City; now a fat sheep appeared right before them. In the wilderness, anyone could potentially turn into a man-eating beast.
The sound of horse hooves approached, and the two big men slightly withdrew their greedy gazes.
Qing Yuan dismounted first, calling out, "Boss, bring a pot of cool tea, some peanuts, and feed our horses some fodder too." He turned back to his brother still on horseback, "Junior Brother Qingcheng, let's rest here for a bit."
The tea stall owner responded and went to prepare the items.
Qingcheng, still in the saddle, noticed the sneaky looks from the two big men, and pursed his lips as he dismounted.
Qingcheng had just set one foot on the ground, the other still in the stirrup.
A flash of a blade, and the swordsman under the conical hat appeared like a ghost behind him, his long sword stabbing horizontally into the heart from between the ribs at the back.
"Junior Brother Qingcheng!" Qing Yuan shouted angrily, drawing his sword and charging forward.
Qing Yu dodged Qing Yuan's long sword, pressed his hand on the horse's back to leap upward, using the horse as a pivot point to flip over to the other side of the horse, and in the process, drew Qingcheng's sword strapped to the saddle.
After Qing Yuan drove Qing Yu back, he held Qingcheng as he fell. The sword had pierced directly through the heart from the left chest. Qing Yu had recently studied human anatomy from Ping Yizhi's Medical Book, and this stab was accurate; with the heart pierced, Qingcheng had no chance of survival.
Chapter 17: Chapter 15 Tea Stall Assassination_2
"Brother..." Qingcheng clutched Qing Yuan's arm tightly, his eyes filled with a desperate longing for life.
"Opportunity." Seeing this scene, Qing Yu remained impassive, instead finding the opportunity to attack.
"Divine Transformation," his figure shifted, circling around the horse to move behind Qing Yuan.
"Meteor Falling," his sword plunged like a meteor, aiming straight at Qing Yuan's neck.
Qing Yuan felt the sharpness at the back of his neck, the hairs on his neck standing on end, and he hurriedly dodged. However, Qingcheng's intense desire to survive made his fingers clutch Qing Yuan's arm tightly.
In the critical moment, Qing Yuan turned around. The cold long sword pierced through Qingcheng's neck, scraped past the side of Qing Yu's neck who had exchanged positions with Qingcheng, leaving a trace of blood.
As the sword was withdrawn, the blood spraying from the neck splattered onto Qing Yuan's face.
"You..." Qingcheng stared at Qing Yuan in disbelief, his eyes filled with disbelief, hatred, and intense unwillingness.
"Ah..." Qing Yuan shouted frantically, pushing Qingcheng's corpse violently toward Qing Yu, blocking his next move. The right hand that Qingcheng had used to clutch Qing Yuan's arm tore Qing Yuan's sleeve and left five long gashes on his left arm.
Qing Yuan stepped back rapidly, wiping the blood that had splattered into his eyes with his sleeve.
"It was you..."
The figure of the swordman under the bamboo hat was not unfamiliar to Qing Yuan. During countless nights, Qing Yuan cursed the owner of that face, cursing him for causing his own banishment to Qing Province, bearing the name of a True Martial Disciple but possibly having to stay in this remote Qing Province for a lifetime, away from his Sect. He transferred all his resentment and hatred for the Sect's ruthless decision onto this useless person in his eyes.
"You, are, seeking, death..." he spat out each word, his words laced with hatred and a murderous intent that seemed to wish to devour Qing Yu's flesh. Qing Yuan, who had lived with Qingcheng for three years, supporting each other, could not feel unemotional. Now, forced to use Qingcheng's body to block the sword, Qing Yuan's heart could not be but guilty. And this feeling of guilt was transformed into deeper hatred, hating Qing Yu for forcing him to commit such a ruthless act.
"Hmph," Qing Yu chuckled softly, accelerating with the Exorcism Heart Method. "Golden Wild Goose Skill"+"Divine Transformation" created multiple residual images, ghostly figures surrounding Qing Yuan, with cold sharpness appearing intermittently from different directions.
Qing Yuan parried left and right, but still ended up with several sword marks on his body.
"Damn it, what kind of ghost swordsmanship is this—so fast and bizarre." Qing Yuan could see that Qing Yu's realm was only at the Postnatal Sixth Realm, a level lower than his own. Yet, with this bizarrely fast swordsmanship, Qing Yu overwhelmingly suppressed him without giving him any chance to fight back.
After a while, Qing Yu inflicted several more wounds on Qing Yuan. Although the Xuanwu Sea Suppressing Sword of the True Martial Dao Sect was good at defense, Qing Yuan used it to desperately fend off under Qing Yu's rapid sword attacks. However, prolonged defense was bound to fail, and continuing like this, just the blood loss from the wounds would have forced Qing Yuan to admit his fault to his brother Qingcheng.
At that moment, Qing Yuan brandished his long sword, braving the sword light, and charged toward a nearby horse.
"Just waiting for you," Qing Yu thought to himself. The Xuanwu Sea Suppressing Sword was indeed a fine martial art of the True Martial Dao Sect, impermeable in defense. Although Qing Yu had the experience from Lin Pingzhi, this brother had only learned the Exorcism Swordsmanship not long ago and roamed around carelessly, blinding his eyes, and most of his fighting experience was akin to a blind man fighting blind. And as Qing Yu was not blind, what use was that experience to him?
Thus, Qing Yu could only rely on rapid and aggressive attacks, costing him severe exhaustion of his inner strength. If this continued, he would certainly be unable to hold on longer than Qing Yuan. Qing Yuan, impatient and trying to endure a few blows to break out, played right into Qing Yu's hands.
"River Flute," another strike was blocked. This time, however, Qing Yu did not pull back immediately but pressed hard against Qing Yuan, moving his left hand, sliding the Mystic Iron dagger hidden in his sleeve into his hand, replacing the silver needle, and used the Flying Needle technique from the Exorcism Sword Manual to target Qing Yuan's face.
The Mystic Iron dagger, obviously larger than a silver needle, was noticed by Qing Yuan beforehand. Hastily mustering his strength, he repelled Qing Yu and used the flat of his sword to block the incoming dagger.
The Mystic Iron dagger, capable of slicing through iron, achieved another remarkable feat, severing half of the sword's blade and striking Qing Yuan's left eye. Having exhausted its momentum, it was not fatal.
Qing Yuan screamed in agony, and Qing Yu seized the opportunity, circling to his blind left side. After several continuous stabs, he finally thrust the sword through the side of Qing Yuan's neck, piercing his throat, and directly killing him.
Qing Yu stepped forward to pull the Mystic Iron dagger out of the eye socket, stabilizing his breathing.
After a brief recovery, Qing Yu turned and walked toward the tea stall. The previous skirmish had taken place just outside the stall, which had been left undamaged.
However, Qing Yu looked at two big men who, unbeknownst to them, had fallen asleep on the ground, seemingly unaffected by the loud noises of the fight.
"Boss, the tea is pretty good," Qing Yu remarked with a smile that was not quite a smile, looking at the old man cowering under a table nearby.
The tea stall owner showed Qing Yu a bitter smile.
In a flash, a long sword pierced the tabletop, pinning the deceitful old man to the ground.
Qing Yu had sensed something was off earlier; the tea had been laced with a knockout drug, and the black dirt under the fingernails was the remnant of clotted blood. Thanks to Ping Yizhi and his medical skills, navigating the worldly society without some medical knowledge was a prayer to survive before gaining any experience.
After a thorough looting, Qing Yu complained, "Gao Fei, all these novels are deceptive; who actually carries a secret martial arts manual with them?"
Luckily, there were other gains. The two penniless big men weren't worth mentioning with their poor acting, easily overpowered by an old man; they surely had nothing valuable. Qing Yu, knowing the human anatomy well, sent them off to the west without pain. Between the deceitful old man and the two thuggish big men, none deserved mercy for their blood-soaked hands.
After completing the looting, it was time to eliminate the traces. As usual, he threw the bodies into the tea stall and set it aflame, turning them to ashes.
"Ding, congratulations host. Mission: Eliminate Threat, completed. Reward: Two chances for Basic Lottery." The system's notification arrived belatedly.
"Murder and arson, the host's heart is ruthless, and hands are black; rewarded 100 villain points." Please, I'm eradicating evil forces here, those three deserved to die. Still, since there are Villain Points on offer, I'll let it go this time.
"System, use up both Basic Lottery chances," Qing Yu decided.
"Basic Lottery, initiating. Ding, retrieved one-star item Bishui Sword, one-star item Little Li's Flying Knife (Fake)."
"What...what...what is this..." Qing Yu choked on his saliva, coughing repeatedly. "Little Li's Flying Knife?! I can even draw that!" Happiness struck so suddenly that Qing Yu felt he was the luckiest person in the world.
"That's wrong, how is Little Li's Flying Knife only one star?"
"'Little Li's Flying Knife' martial arts definitely deserves more than one star. However, don't get your hopes up, host. The Villain Inheritance System only draws items related to villains. Not even talking about the 'Little Li's Flying Knife' secret manual, even a randomly forged flying knife by Li Xunhuan wouldn't be yours. Please note, it's Little Li's Flying Knife (Fake)."
"What the hell is this fake Little Li's Flying Knife?" Qing Yu couldn't help but feel disappointed. Little Li's Flying Knife was legendary, and even if it wasn't a secret manual, having a flying knife as a souvenir would have been nice, but then there's a "fake" tag at the end.
Item: Little Li's Flying Knife (Fake)
Star Level: One star
Description: Though it looks similar, it's fabricated by Ding Lingzhong to frame Ye Kai. It's fake, totally fake!
Alright, no need to say more, it's junk.
Then there's the Bishui Sword, the personal sword of the junior sister from the story "Smiling, Proud Wanderer", which the straightforward senior brother knocked down to Sin Reflection Cliff within minutes of its appearance.
The sword sheath and handle were exquisitely made. Fortunately, it wasn't femininely decorated, probably because the junior sister had lost it before she had the chance to adorn it. Poor junior sister, not only did she endure widowhood, but she also became a villain because of her dubious nature.
That's enough idle chat. To avoid a second injury, Qing Yu trusted his legs and began his journey back to Yang City. After all, he had walked there, starting before dawn.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
9 Power
stone 
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