Daoist Qianhe: Have I Ever Offended Him?

"......" × 4 + 15 Hiss—. This Daoist's words were really unpleasant! Setting aside what Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei thought, even Vice Minister Wu, sharp-tongued as he always was, felt Daoist Qianhe had gone a bit too far. He meant nothing else by it. It was just that Daoist Qianhe's words were far too unpleasant to hear—especially since this ghost who was not a ghost was still so handsome. Liu Xiu did not speak. Expressionless, he only watched Daoist Qianhe, the space between Qianhe's brows black and bearing a mildewed air—in short, a face with death written all over it. Sure enough. Your death was not without cause! Daoist Qianhe blanked for a moment. Aware he had said the wrong thing, he gave an awkward smile. "Ahem, ahem. What Martial Uncle means is... how did you get yourself into this state? Just now I actually thought you were a ghost!" To tell the truth, it was not only just now that he had thought Liu Xiu was a ghost. Even now, he still thought Liu Xiu was a ghost. Leave the rest aside. Just take Liu Xiu's present deathly pale skin and green-glowing eyes. Who wouldn't shout "ghost" at the sight of that! Liu Xiu, feeling that Daoist Qianhe was also rather dim, was just about to speak when Vice Minister Wu's shrill voice cut him off. Perhaps it was because he knew Liu Xiu was human, and because he remembered that Liu Xiu was escorting the prince back to the capital together with Daoist Qianhe. No longer afraid, Vice Minister Wu held the Seventy-First Prince and, his face full of displeasure, pointed at Liu Xiu with a handkerchief. "How dare you! Do you know you just affronted the Seventy-First Prince..." Vice Minister Wu said no more. He shut his mouth. He saw the muzzle of the pistol in Liu Xiu's hand aimed straight at him, and he shut his mouth at once. The reason was simple. He thought Liu Xiu would really fire. The scene at this moment was as follows! (■.■)︻┳(ﾟ∀ﾟﾉ) With the gun pointed at him, Vice Minister Wu clearly felt that Liu Xiu was not so easy to bully as the five of Daoist Qianhe's group, and that he really would kill him. He instinctively turned a pleading gaze toward the three big "side-pieces" beside the sedan. Before they could make a move, those same three—scared into standing frozen where they were by the earlier gunshot—declared there were only three imperial palace experts here, and then pretended not to see. They only gripped their own weapons tight, watched Liu Xiu with wary faces, and stood ready to take the Seventy-First Prince and run at any moment. No help for it. Knowing full well they had never trained in the Golden Bell Cover or any other external arts, they could not stop a bullet from the pistol in Liu Xiu's hand! "Ahem, martial nephew, this is Vice Minister Wu. He is the one escorting this prince back to the capital on this journey..." Daoist Qianhe coughed, smoothing things over. "I don't care if he's a wolf or a dog. My task is to escort this zombie to the capital!" Liu Xiu cut him off outright. Still pointing the second Colt pistol he had bought at Vice Minister Wu, he grinned as he spoke. "Also, don't any of you forget—the Great Qing has already fallen..." He meant nothing else by it. He purely just couldn't stand this bunch! Just as he never treated cotton machines as people, and in his previous life had specially opened a cotton plantation. Oh, and it was worth mentioning that, perhaps because cotton machines possessed hereditary skills, the yield of his cotton plantation far surpassed his peers', and he had very nearly become the king of the cotton plantations. "You, you, you..." Vice Minister Wu shook all over with rage. He you-you-you'd for a long while and never got out what came next. The Seventy-First Prince in his arms frowned slightly, glanced at Liu Xiu, and said to Vice Minister Wu: "Enough. It's getting late. Find a place to rest!" "Yes, Seventy-First Prince!" The three imperial palace experts and the crowd of soldiers answered at once, and each felt a breath of relief. Only Vice Minister Wu shot Liu Xiu a vicious glare. After setting the Seventy-First Prince back into the sedan, he turned away with a cold snort. "Set forth!" "Urk—" Liu Xiu dry-heaved a few times. He meant nothing else by it. He just felt a little sick. Watching him, Daoist Qianhe only felt that the disciple newly taken in by his senior martial brother seemed rather hard to get along with! Still, very satisfying! This was excellent! "Hm? Four senior martial brothers, what are you doing? Does our task include pushing a coffin?" Liu Xiu looked in surprise at Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei, who had gone to push the bronze-cornered golden coffin. "Ah, this..." × 4 The four, who looked very easy to bully, exchanged a glance and instinctively looked toward their own master, Daoist Qianhe. Daoist Qianhe at first instinctively looked toward Vice Minister Wu. Sensing that was improper, he hurriedly drew his gaze back and coughed. "Ahem, martial nephew, we're helping!" "Oh, so that's it. And here I thought they'd been bullying you, Martial Uncle..." Liu Xiu let out an oh, and said. He deliberately swept the pistol he had not put away across the soldiers. The soldiers' faces went white, and they immediately put on awkward smiles. "Yes, yes, yes, just helping..." "That's right, that's right, just helping..." "R-right, helping, helping..." The soldiers all spoke up. Aside from those carrying the sedan, who did not go to push the bronze-cornered golden coffin, the rest at once ran of their own accord to push it. No help for it. This Daoist Lord really would shoot! Vice Minister Wu had nearly been shot dead—let alone a bunch of soldiers like them. At this sight, Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei, squeezed out of pushing the coffin, stared at one another in shock. No. Why had these soldiers become so easy to deal with? Were these soldiers still the same soldiers as before? Shocked though they were, the four, knowing the soldiers' attitude had changed because of Liu Xiu, looked toward him with gratitude on their faces. Liu Xiu gave a slight nod. Then he looked toward Daoist Qianhe with a faint frown. He meant nothing else by it. He simply felt the other man ought to know what this meaning of his, of meaning nothing, was supposed to mean. Daoist Qianhe, who knew what the meaning of meaning nothing meant, smiled awkwardly. "Ahem. A good deed a day accumulates great virtue, after all..." I do two good deeds a day! Muttering inwardly to show that he was piling up heaps and heaps of great virtue, Liu Xiu put on a look of sudden understanding and said to Daoist Qianhe: "Oh, so that's how it is. And here I thought all of you had been bullied by them the whole way, Martial Uncle. I nearly thought that if they told you to go east, you wouldn't dare go west. Who would have thought it was your martial nephew who misunderstood you..." "......" Enough, enough. Stop the berating! And where in the world did I offend you! Daoist Qianhe watched this very hard-to-get-along-with Liu Xiu, eyelids twitching, and only felt he was worthy indeed of being his senior martial brother's disciple. When he spoke, he was even more senior martial brother than the senior martial brother! It was only that Liu Xiu did not know what Daoist Qianhe was thinking. If he had known, he would certainly have said the man was overthinking it. He was not a man to hold a grudge. Just as he had already forgotten that, three minutes ago, Daoist Qianhe had first called him a fiend and then said he did not seem human. He had forgotten it all! As everyone knew, he, Liu Xiu, had the broadest heart of all! Just as he did not remember that, fifty-five seconds ago, that Vice Minister Wu had given him a vicious glare. He had forgotten! "Martial Uncle's benevolence and righteousness—your martial nephew admires it, admires it!" Seeing that Daoist Qianhe said nothing, Liu Xiu spoke with a face full of reverence. The corner of Daoist Qianhe's mouth twitched; he did not want to speak. Even so, he still forced a smile and said: "Martial nephew overpraises me..." Honestly, he wanted to give the somewhat snide Liu Xiu a beating. But he was afraid that afterward he would be beaten by his senior martial brother. And besides, where exactly had he offended Liu Xiu? A little angry, Daoist Qianhe worked to keep the smile on his face. His disciples, Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei, did not think that far. They only felt this junior martial brother Liu Xiu was truly a good junior brother, pleasant in his speech and decent as a person. The moment he arrived, he had spared them from pushing the coffin. It was just their master... Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei looked at their master's somewhat complicated expression, then at Vice Minister Wu and the others ahead. They thought it over, and they understood. Master must have been angered by Vice Minister Wu! After all, Vice Minister Wu had just made their master lose face right in front of his own martial nephew. How could their master not be angry? Yes. Right. That was it. It had to be so. It could not be wrong! Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei exchanged a glance and thought. At that thought, the four, no longer pushing the coffin, came warmly up beside their good junior brother Liu Xiu and fussed over him. They said such things as whether junior brother had eaten, that there were dry rations here, that junior brother had had a hard journey, and so on. Liu Xiu was greatly moved. No comparison, no injury. With a comparison at hand, Liu Xiu suddenly felt that a certain Daoist up ahead—one who liked to smile, and who wore a Daoist robe in colors a bit too bright—was slightly lacking as a person. Mm. Don't misunderstand. He was not talking about Daoist Qianhe! He, Liu · Fiend · Xiu, was not that kind of person! ...... A dozen minutes later, Anfu Inn. Generally speaking, an inn would not accept an ill-omened object like a coffin onto the premises, unless it was a corpse-driving inn opened by people of the cultivation world. A pity that escort's "lingering might" was still there. Even though the timeline was already in the first year of the Republic, the lingering might remained. Looking thoroughly aggrieved, the innkeeper could only force a smile as he watched the soldiers shove the bronze-cornered golden coffin into the inn hall. Frankly, he felt this inn would be very lively tonight! The soldiers began clearing the place, as usual. Of course, because the times had changed, this clearing did not mean killing or anything of that sort. It only meant driving people out. The guests staying at the inn were unwilling at first, and cursed. But after they saw those soldiers' attire and the blades they had drawn, they were even less willing. Cursing in their hearts, they packed their things and prepared to leave! "Tsk, tsk, tsk. Truly arrogant. Driving people off, and not even giving them back the money for their stay. No wonder you've been on the road no more than five days, and nearly a hundred of your men have been killed by the Heaven and Earth Society until only ten are left!" Liu Xiu, who had learned from Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei that the original party numbered nearly a hundred, muttered the line. His voice was not loud, yet the ten soldiers who were driving people out heard it perfectly clearly.