บท 111: Burning Message
"It's here..." Chen Wei thinks as he sees, several meters ahead, the clearing that is quite distinct in these mountains due to the beautiful hollow-trunked tree with white bark and blue leaves right at its center.
It's such a memorable and easy-to-find place that Chen Wei chose it as the location for the girls to hide while he ambushed the Gu Masters of the Huo clan.
"Easy... slow down, boy..." Chen Wei calmly says as he uses both hands on the reins to stop the lizard, which was running desperately.
But as if not understanding Chen Wei's clear and simple command, the lizard begins to run even more frantically, almost leaping forward, ready to crash headfirst into the tree.
"Hey, stop now!!" Chen Wei shouts loudly as he pulls the reins with all the strength he can muster. "Stupid blind lizard!!"
The lizard, running through the narrow mountain passages toward the flat area, nearly trips and crashes into several trees along the way, then almost collides head-on with the tree.
"Honestly, whoever taught you to run like this must have been the worst rider ever..." Chen Wei says helplessly as he looks back at the Gu Masters of the Huo clan. If it weren't for the blood bindings, they would have fallen off the lizard many times along the way or even right now.
In fact, if he asked, he believes there isn't a single one of them who isn't cursing the lizard fiercely in their hearts more than him because, out of all the Gu Masters of the Huo clan on its back, none of them hadn't vomited everything in their stomachs on the way here.
"Next time, I'll make sure to catch one of those who tried to escape..." Chen Wei sighs while hitting the lizard's head after dismounting it.
And in the same instant, he begins to walk toward the white tree without lowering his guard, paying attention to every slightest movement or sound.
"...?"
The lizard turns its head sideways and looks at Chen Wei with its cross-eyed gaze, perplexed, seemingly not understanding why it was unjustly hit.
Oblivious to the lizard's confusion, Chen Wei reaches the hollow trunk of the tree and knocks on it with three light taps, one strong tap, and four long taps with small one-second pauses in between.
"The wine in the spring is truly refreshing, right?" Chen Wei says calmly as he sees a glint from the corner of his eye coming from a nearby ledge.
Of course, he knew they would be hiding there, but even so, he made sure to use the Heat Vision Gu to check that the three girls and three hairy women were all in the ledge and appeared to be safe.
In fact, the only reason he didn't go directly to them was because they had agreed that he would knock on the tree and say these words to confirm it was really him and that they were safe to come out.
This was to prevent the possibility of someone appearing here using a rare skin-changing Gu to deceive them.
But Chen Wei clearly knows that if this were to happen, there wouldn't be much this precaution could do since if another Gu Master arrived here, it wouldn't be hard for them to find them all using an investigation Gu.
So the only reason he agreed with the idea was because it came from Wang Mei, who was very nervous about the whole situation, and he wanted to calm her down, especially since too much stress could be dangerous during pregnancy.
"Ah! I was so worried!!" Wang Mei lowers her hand with a bright light ready to strike at any moment and runs lightly towards Chen Wei.
Before Chen Wei could even calm her nerves, she was already in front of him, wrapping her arms around his neck, standing on tiptoe to kiss him.
"Are you hurt anywhere? Do you need to rest? Why do you smell so bad...?" Wang Mei asks while still hugging him around the neck.
"I'm fine, don't worry, and besides, I don't have time to rest now," Chen Wei holds Wang Mei carefully because of her protruding belly. "...and I was in a swamp."
He purposely leaves out the part about animal excrement as he turns his head to look at the other girls who were approaching.
"Hmm? Where did you find him?" Yu Lian tilts her head in doubt as she looks at the large red lizard still staring at the tree.
"From one of those Gu Masters," Chen Wei points with his chin to the lizard's back.
"They all seem to be Rank 2 based on their auras..." Feng Hua says, frowning.
"Probably an elite search team organized by the Huo clan..."
Feng Hua had discussed this with Chen Wei before, so she isn't too surprised, but still, the fact that he defeated an entire Rank 2 "elite" team in just under three hours while having only four Gu with him is impressive.
'He must have picked up a bunch of new Gu from those Gu Masters...' Feng Hua looks at Chen Wei, who seems to have an even brighter aura in her eyes now.
"Oh yes... he seems dumb..." Yu Lian approaches the lizard, which is now staring blankly at both her and Feng Hua, even though they are on opposite sides of him. "Hehe, he's cute for a lizard, actually."
"What's his name?" She asks as she gets closer to the lizard.
"I don't know... you can ask them when they regain consciousness," Chen Wei points again to the unconscious Gu Masters on its back.
"Hey, good boy, what's your name~?" Yu Lian starts to stroke the side of the lizard's neck, which just keeps looking around blankly with its cross-eyed gaze.
"Don't get too attached; I'll soon get rid of this blind bastard for one that isn't too dumb!" Chen Wei walks toward Yu Lian, who seems to have an indignant expression upon hearing this, followed by Wang Mei.
"Why? He seems pretty dedicated to obeying you!" Wang Mei speaks with a light smile on her face, making Yu Lian nod in agreement.
"...and he's cute too," Wang Mei murmurs softly, just for herself to hear.
"Ah... anyway, we need to get the horses and continue on our way," Chen Wei looks helplessly at the two girls, who already seem to be getting attached to the silly-looking lizard, and shakes his head.
"Horses? Now that you've found this lizard, even with little space left, I think we can all ride on its back," Feng Hua says while trying to ignore the lizard that looks blankly at her with just one eye. "Why do we need to go by horse?"
"Did you see how this beast runs? It's not safe for a pregnant lady to ride on its back..." Chen Wei notices from the corner of his eye that Wang Mei's smile becomes brighter as he speaks. "So we'll need the horses from before..."
"Either way, it's just a few hundred meters' walk, so it's not a big problem..." Chen Wei says as he grabs the lizard by the reins to guide it without riding on it. "But let's move quickly since we don't have time to waste!"
All the girls nod in agreement with his words and begin to walk quickly.
-----
*POV Huo Xi*
Huo Xi stared with a vacant and expressionless look at a flame shaped like a letter that burned quickly, heating the entire luxurious hall as if a great furnace had taken its place.
But to his eyes, these flames created by the Rank 2 Burning Letter Gu, which he had personally given to Huo Tie before he left on the mission, now showed a different image than just meaningless flames.
In fact, even though he kept an expressionless gaze on the flames to avoid revealing his emotions to his subordinates, his heart felt heavy as he quickly sank into deep thought.
The reason for this was that the moving image shown by the Burning Letter Gu depicted a battle between the team he had personally organized and sent on behalf of the Huo clan and the supposed demonic Gu Master they were investigating.
But his despair did not stem from the fact that a battle had taken place but from the fact that the fight, which seemed to have started favorably for the Gu Masters of the Huo clan, quickly turned into a pathetic, one-sided defeat to them.
'How could this have happened? None of them even managed to escape... Was Huo Tie and I too negligent with this mission?'Huo Xi thought quietly as he watched the moving image cease to exist when the letter burned completely, leaving not even ash behind.
'This Gu Master must be at least peak Rank 3... possibly early-stage Rank 4!'
He frowned with dissatisfaction and a bit of anger and melancholy'Unfortunately, I couldn't see what happened after Huo Tie was defeated...'
Not at Huo Tie, of course, because even though he was defeated, it wasn't his fault, as he was completely outmatched by the demonic Gu Master, both in cultivation by a large margin and in Gu usage skills by an even greater margin.
In fact, just the fact that he prioritized sending information about what had happened during the fight already made it so that, even in defeat, he couldn't be openly criticized in the clan for incompetence or betrayal.
'But that raises the question of why he was allowed to do so?' Huo Xi thought, still staring straight blankly, not even noticing the cold sweat dripping from his forehead.
The reason for his thoughts was something that Huo Tie, due to the desperate situation of losing a life-or-death fight, along with many other factors he had to pay attention to, did not notice.
But for Huo Xi, who was observing this from the outside without any of the stress of face-to-face combat and who had decades of experience in battles, it was easy to see with his cold eyes.
And that is, the demonic Gu Master had clearly seen him sending the Burning Letter Gu and deliberately held back, diverting his attacks so they wouldn't destroy the Gu and would allow it to reach Huo Xi with information about the defeat of the Huo clan's Gu Masters.
'He wants us to know about the defeat of our Gu Master team... but why? To intimidate us into not seeking trouble with him?' Huo Xi lightly shook his head as thoughts began to emerge and collide in his mind. 'I would say it could be extortion...'
'And considering that he didn't even use a Rank 3 Gu in the fight, he might be in need of resources and Gu,' he thought, his eyes scanning the hall full of servants who had been giving reports to him but were now dead silent, not daring to make any noise to distract him.
'But it could also be that he simply doesn't want to expose his trump cards, since he wanted this fight to be seen by the elders and the clan leader,' Huo Xi thought, causing him to chuckle lightly, contemplating the irony.
For these subordinate Gu Masters tend to act arrogantly in front of mortals and often intimidate them, but now they are kneeling helplessly before him to show their respect and loyalty, almost forgetting their dignity, while they don't dare to make the slightest noise for fear of offending him.
And he himself had always acted in the same arrogant way with these subordinates, not even bothering to look them in the eyes, but now he felt as helpless as, if not more than, they did because he knew the clan was close to facing great danger, and there wasn't much he could do about it.
'Well... unless I!' Huo Xi thought quickly, his old fox eyes shining intensely.
"Elder sir, should I act to inform the other elders and the clan leader about this?" asked an old mortal with a white beard who stood to his right, speaking respectfully.
For someone who didn't know them, it might be shocking to see how a mere mortal dared to interrupt the thoughts of a Rank 3 Gu Master.
But for those who knew them, it was known that the old man was Huo Xi's closest and most trusted subordinate, with both of them being close since before Huo Xi became a Gu Master because the old man had been one of his stewards when he was still young.
"Ah! That's right, I got lost in my thoughts... thank you, old Bai, for bringing me back to my priorities," Huo Xi said to the old man, who simply bowed slightly upon hearing this and said nothing more.
Zhang Bai felt no curiosity to inquire about what Huo Xi was thinking or what was in the letter, with the only thing he needed to know being that the letter was given to Huo Tie by Huo Xi, as the latter had told him long before he did so.
"Alright... convene an urgent meeting immediately and request the attendance of all the elders and the clan leader!" Huo Xi commanded, his gaze shifting from empty to determined as his heart dispelled the helplessness from before.
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