"Junior Brother, what does that have to do with anything?"
Of Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei, Xi could not quite see what the soldiers' arrogant attitude had to do with being attacked by the Heaven and Earth Society.
"You said it yourself. Every time we set out, we're either robbed by people from the Heaven and Earth Society or waylaid by people from the Kuangming Society. Isn't it plain as day that someone is committing the crimes while posing as the Heaven and Earth Society and the Kuangming Society? For all we know, it's the guests these people drove off, in disguise..." Liu Xiu answered.
This world had organizations such as the Heaven and Earth Society. He did not know where the Main Altar was, but he knew these organizations were more like scapegoats.
Anyone at all could claim to belong to such-and-such a society. It was just like a certain neighbor of Liu Xiu's original body, who, whenever he did wrong with his face covered, always liked to shout, "I'm from the Heaven and Earth Society."
What surprised Liu Xiu more was that dozens of people had died in only five days. But on second thought, that was normal too. After all, this coffin was far too conspicuous.
The main body of the bronze-cornered golden coffin was bronze, but according to Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei, this was two parts bronze and eight parts gold!
Liu Xiu's words set the eyes of the guests who were packing spinning. After they saw the bronze-cornered golden coffin in the hall, their eyes spun even harder, and at the same time the soldiers' attitudes turned friendly.
They meant nothing else by it.
They were just a little afraid!
Seeing the soldiers' attitude, Vice Minister Wu glared in displeasure at Liu Xiu, who did not look like a person. The faces of the three imperial palace experts looked no better.
Nothing to be done.
Who told Liu Xiu to say what was true!
"Huh? No way. You're this down and out? You're not even planning to pay for their lodging?"
Astonishment on his face—three parts sighing, three parts mockery, and another ninety-four parts scorn—Liu Xiu felt at his pocket.
"How about I pay it for you, then..."
"Go. Give them the money for their stay!"
He meant nothing else by it.
It was just that they had not fallen into decline!!
Certain the Great Qing would endure for ten thousand years upon ten thousand years, Vice Minister Wu gnashed his teeth and glared furiously at Liu Xiu. He drew out a silver note and spoke.
Before long the guests, who not only had lost nothing but had made a good deal extra, left with happy faces after casting Liu Xiu grateful looks.
The innkeeper, who had seized the chance to earn a bit of money, also cast Liu Xiu a grateful look. Only the gazes of Vice Minister Wu and the others grew ever more venomous.
This martial nephew of mine is a decent sort after all!
Except that the way he talks is even more Senior Martial Brother than Senior Martial Brother!
Daoist Qianhe watched from the side and thought so in his heart. He only felt that Senior Martial Brother had taken in a fine disciple. Then he saw Liu Xiu glance at him with a slight frown and say nothing more.
"???"
Stunned by that look, Daoist Qianhe next showed embarrassment and shame and lowered his head a little. He knew Liu Xiu was asking why he had not stopped Vice Minister Wu from acting this way.
Liu Xiu swept his eyes over Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei again. Once he was sure that everyone bowed their heads wherever his gaze passed, he looked toward the bronze-cornered golden coffin halted in the hall.
At the same time,
the narration cheat's voice rang out.
【Heh heh heh. You look at the bronze-cornered golden coffin before you, eight parts bronze and two parts gold, then sweep your eyes once over these fifteen remnants of the Great Qing who harbor ill intent toward you. You suddenly calculate that the zi hour tonight is precisely when the Demon Realm rift opens. Benevolent thoughts at once welled up in your heart. You immediately resolve to take these fifteen before you as the array eyes, borrow the fortune upon their bodies, and use the living beings of the seventy-two small towns all around as sacrificial offerings to lay the Heaven-Burial Earth-Destruction Great Array. After that, borrowing the power of thousands upon thousands of living souls, you reincarnate into the Demon Realm and condense a Heavenly Demon True Body. When your fleshly body is accomplished, you will lead the Demon Realm's hundreds of millions of heavenly demons to sweep every great Daoist sect of the Mortal Realm, and only then come to dominate the cultivation world!】
"......"
This is all the ambition you've got!
But I know how to lay the Heaven-Burial Earth-Destruction Great Array? How is it I never knew that? Liu Xiu wondered, and simply took it that the narration cheat's old trouble was acting up again.
Or perhaps it had deduced the future again?!
So Liu Xiu guessed in his heart. Still, as for these fifteen fellows before him who had conceived ill intent toward him, he decided to find a chance to bestow a little benevolence.
"But are these guys sick in the head? They've already conceived ill intent toward me? What, are your tempers this domineering?"
Liu Xiu looked at Vice Minister Wu and the others with a slight frown. Putting it plainly, he did not understand how these people's minds worked.
But it was no great problem.
Anyway, these fifteen would not live much longer!
He would just count it as being bitten by a dog!
Liu Xiu silently touched the Crimson Firmament Sword in his pocket, wrapped in the simplified lead sword sheath, and decided to find a chance to let the other side enjoy a little blessing.
The thought lasted only an instant. Liu Xiu could not be bothered to look again at fifteen fellows who were not long for this world. He went to the counter and asked the innkeeper what the signature dishes were.
He got his answer about the dishes, but he also heard news that made him even more uncomfortable. Brow slightly furrowed, Liu Xiu said,
"Master, no way. We even have to pay for our own meal? Are you sure we're doing a job for someone else, and not a job for ourselves?"
"This... Martial Uncle will treat you!"
Ever the nice guy, Daoist Qianhe spoke with an awkward smile. The sight made Liu Xiu feel only that this honest martial uncle of his had been bullied far too miserably.
When you hire someone to do a job—especially a corpse-driving job like this—what sense is there in their paying for their own meal? Isn't it always the paying side that foots the bill!
"All right then, Martial Uncle. Let's pack up and head back. We might as well not take this job!" Liu Xiu said outright.
At these words, Vice Minister Wu, who was off to one side attending the Seventy-First Prince as he rinsed his mouth, sprang up and said in a rage, "Stinking Daoist, I've put up with you long enough. If you've got the guts, then leave. You'd better think clearly about the consequences of walking off and being done with it!"
"The consequence is that if you say one more word, I'll cut you down with one sword. I don't believe your master would offend my master, and offend my Maoshan Sect, over a mere slave like you. As for me, at worst I'll just go up the mountain, shut the door, and reflect on my faults!"
Liu Xiu spoke with a smile, sweeping his gaze over Vice Minister Wu and the others. The finger-length Crimson Firmament Sword, already gripped in his right hand, stirred with his will and in an instant grew to three chi and three cun long.
Wisps of blood light wreathed the blade, and silt-like black-and-red lightning began to surface upon it. In an instant, a soul-devouring ferocious might wrapped in domineering intent appeared.
The three imperial palace experts saw their own weapons give a wail, as if of fear and submission. The soldiers fell straight back. They meant nothing else by it. They simply could not afford to provoke him, and wanted to hide.
Seeing the soldiers' attitude, Vice Minister Wu, both furious and afraid, widened his eyes and opened his mouth, yet did not get a single word out.
"S-Sir, aren't you going a bit too far..."
An imperial palace expert who wielded twin axes took one step forward and, stammering, tried to smooth things over for Vice Minister Wu, with whom he had been close for many years.
But before the words were finished, Liu Xiu's step forward frightened him into retreating without another sound, weapons raised. In his heart he began to hate that stinking meddler Vice Minister Wu. Why provoke this guy when nothing was even happening!
Now this was just perfect.
He felt he was about to go keep the prince company!
"Martial Nephew, don't be impulsive!"
Daoist Qianhe pulled his attention back from the two characters for Crimson Firmament, written in large seal script on the Crimson Firmament Sword, and quickly blocked Liu Xiu.
"I'm not being impulsive. They're bullying people too far!"
"......" × 5
To be honest,
all I saw was you bullying...
A few minutes later, Dong, Nan, Xi, and Bei sat at the table ready to eat, happily counting the meal money for these past few days in their hands.
They looked gratefully at their good junior brother Liu Xiu, and only felt that good junior brother Liu Xiu had been right. The other side really had bullied people too far!
"We truly must thank you this time, Martial Nephew!"
Daoist Qianhe's expression was incomparably complicated as he looked at the meal money for these past few days in his hand, and his gaze was even more incomparably complicated as he looked at this good martial nephew of his, Liu Xiu, who talked so very much like Senior Martial Brother.
"You're too kind, Martial Uncle. But, Martial Uncle, don't blame me if the words are unpleasant. You are at least a man of my Maoshan Sect, and of my martial uncle's generation besides. How could you let them bully you into this state? If word of this got out, you would not only be losing your own face. You would be losing our Maoshan's face as well..."
Liu Xiu spoke with weighty earnestness. Aside from that, he felt that if an honest man like Daoist Qianhe had played at finance with him in his previous life, that colleague of his, Soldier Boy, would probably have had him wearing knee pads to and from work every day.
As for why—those who understand, understand!
The stray thought lasted only an instant. Liu Xiu began to speak with weighty earnestness. Not much. He only went on from before the meal until after the meal.
Daoist Qianhe's expression went from guilt to pent-up grievance as he hung his head. Putting it plainly, he was starting to miss his senior martial brother!
At least that senior martial brother of few words had never talked to him like this. And besides, when on earth had he offended Liu Xiu!
It was not that Daoist Qianhe did not want to lose his temper. The crux was that he could not find a reason to lose it, because what Liu Xiu said was reasonable!
Reasonable in a way from which he could not pick a single fault!
It made him feel that he had truly lived all these years in vain. He could not even find a place to look for his martial nephew's mistakes.
"Martial Uncle, I have said all I mean to say. Please think more, and take more care, in what you do from now on. After all, what you represent is the face of the sect!"
Liu Xiu spoke with a wholly solemn face. Watching Daoist Qianhe say "Yes," grievance written all over his face, he somehow felt his mood greatly improved, rose, and left the table.
He provoked Vice Minister Wu and the others for a while. Seeing that Vice Minister Wu and the others gave him no opening at all to blow up, he glanced at the Seventy-First Prince.
He came to the counter, asked the innkeeper where his room was, and, led by a waiter, arrived at a guest room on the second floor.
"It's time to contact my girl. Pah. It's time to contact my fated opportunity!" Once in the room, Liu Xiu shut the door, took out the White Jade Cicada shell, coughed once to clear his throat, and said,
"Ahem, ahem. Is anyone there?"
"Senior Sister, quick, quick, quick—he's appeared! Hurry over and help me scold him!" Caiyi's voice rang out from the White Jade Cicada shell.
"???"
Fuck. How are you holding a grudge even harder than I am!!
And besides, isn't two against one a bit much? Isn't this bullying an honest man? So Honest Liu thought.
Chapter 34