章 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.
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